How do I Recover a Dead BlackBerry?

How do I Recover a Dead BlackBerry?
When your device fails to start, it show one of these symptoms:

1. Totally dead.

2. Trying to restart, LED activity only.

3. Failed to start, a white screen with an error message.

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1. Physical damage, water is the worst enemy of delicate electronic device. Try drying it with a desiccant and replacing the battery. If there is no activity, you can still try the last ditch technique, nothing to loose anyway.

2. Your device is not able to start, something has gone wrong and the OS is corrupt.

Failed Upgrade suggestions.
Link failed, Post #384 of this thread.

3. Geeks call this an "Uncaught exception error". That is a polite way of saying, the last thread has terminated, the OS has halted because it is corrupt.

In many cases, the Application Loader can be used from Desktop Manager or Windows, see Ref #1 for the CrackBerry 101 discussion.

If that fails to connect, there is one final solution. Go Old Skool ...

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The good news, starting from scratch, you will be back in service in a couple of hours.

1. ...

2. You need to install a BlackBerry OS file that is specific to your device. The original version, as supplied by the carrier, is the safe choice, but you can use any model specific version. This is not supplied on your BlackBerry CD, Ref: 3 links to BlackBerry's download pages.

3. Once the OS has been installed, you have to prepare it for the device.

Select Start / Computer and select the Drive C: Icon.

Open Program Files / Common Files / Research in Motion / AppLoader.

Navigate to the bottom and delete the file Vendor.XML file.

4. You are now ready to restore your device. Verify that BlackBerry Desktop Manager is NOT running. Plug the device directly into the computer's USB port.

We are about to venture into the bowls of the beast. Windows is not suitable for this job, we are going to invoke the Command line interface with an option switch. This was the way all 'puters worked prior to Mcintosh and Windows.

Windows XP: Start / Run... / Command

Windows Vista: Start / Command (type this into 'start search')



You will see a black window similar to this. I have used UPPERCASE to highlight the typed commands.

Windows Vista

Quote:

CD \ CD PROGRAM FILES CD COMMON FILES CD RESEARCH IN MOTION CD APPLOADER LOADER /NOJVM

Windows XP

Quote:

CD \ CD PROGRA~1 CD COMMON~1 CD RESEAR~1 CD APPLOA~1 LOADER /NOJVM

When using Vista 64 bit operating systems the command should look like this...

Quote:

CD \ CD PROGRAM FILES (x86) CD COMMON FILES CD RESEARCH IN MOTION CD APPLOADER LOADER /NOJVM

When you hit enter at the last command a forced rebuild will start. No data or setting will be saved, however, they can be recovered from a previous backup.

5. Wait for it to finish.Thirty minutes is typical, do not interrupt it.

Once it has recovered, you can use Desktop Manager's Application Loader to customize it and restore from your backup files, if you have saved them previously.

Update: Members have reported success after numerous failures with the following technique:

Remove the Battery, then run the Loader program. It works.

Ref:
BlackBerry 101: How to Reload the Operating System on a Nuked BlackBerry | CrackBerry.com
Current BlackBerry Desktop Manager
BlackBerry Desk Top Manager
BlackBerry OS Source list

Version 1.1 Corrected EXE file name.
Version 1.2 Expanded troubleshooting and installation instructions.
Version 1.3 Detail command line instructions.
Version 1.4 XP specific command line.
Version 1.5 Vista 64 command line.
Version 1.6 Remove battery prior to running loader.

Thanks to acnst @ BlackBerry Forums
Credit to cmedeir for the XP command line.
Credit to Afterfreeze for the Vista 64 command line.
Credit to jamesyouwish for the no battery technique.