I have shared in a previous post published in another blog how the 6 metal legs holding in SIM in my Blackberry phone were broken after a stuck SIM card was forcibly pulled out. Afterwhich, I made the decision to buy myself a Samsung Note 2..
Anyway back to the topic….if the metal legs holding the SIM card gets broken, it would no longer be able to read your SIM card and the phone would be more or less rendered useless….unless it happened to come with Wifi enabled which you can still use to surf the net.
Anyway, this month I decided to try getting my Blackberry fixed. I managed to find a shop located inside Digital Mall Petaling Jaya that offered to repair mobile phones. I explained my situation to the staff…and she asked me to leave the phone for them to check.
She said if it can be fixed, it would cost me RM150 to fix all 6 metal holder. If it cannot be fixed, she would let me know and would not charge me. They require about 1 day and I took my phone there on a Saturday evening.
About 1.5hours later, she called me and told me my Blackberry had been fixed 🙂 I was so happy. When I went to the store, she helped me put on my SIM and media card and tested the phone. It could read the SIM!
I then asked her….did they replace the entire portion? She answered no, as the metal holders are stuck to the motherboard. If really wish to replace, to dismantle the entire portion would be very expensive and not worth it. Furthermore they do not have the spare part for that. What they checked was whether the structure tied to the motherboard was broken. If yes, then the phone could not be salvaged.
In my case, the structure was still intact. So they replaced the broken legs with their own metal holders (note: if your phone is under warranty then by doing this kind of repair the warranty woukd be void….so if your is under warranty, send back to check first).
But she advised me to be gentle when replacing and try not to change the SIM to often.
Anyway if you stay in Klang Valley…Petaling Jaya or Kuala Lumpur area, you can try out this phone repair shop:
Pacific Technology Solutions
Lot 1-07 1st Floor Digital Mall
NO. 2 Jalan 14/20
46100 Petaling Jaya
Tel/fax 03- 79550696.
Anyway, my Blackberry was fixed and I could have another spare phone to use. But the downside was…..if I want to go online, I have to sign up for the BIS plan. Previously due to its broken metal legs, somehow the phone had allowed me to access online without BIS. All I needed was a Wifi. And I carrry 2 phones…my Note 2 and a cheap Nokia phone which I use to make calls. The Nokia can last for days without needing to charge while the Blakcberry like all Smartphones requires constant charge and is heavier to hold. So in the end….I took out the SIM from my Blackberry and switch back to my old uncomplicated Nokia.
Lesson learned: broken SIM holder for Blakcberry may enable you to go online….cannot use the apps of course but can do basic surfing with WIFI. If you fix it, you would need BIS plus Data plan.
