One of the steps in my weekend BlackBerry saga was to wipe the device. I didn’t want to do it, but given how slow the device was running after I restored it, I had no choice. After the wipe, I finally decided to upgrade from OS 4.5.0.77 to 4.5.0.138. After doing this, I found something not quite right about the Berry. When the backlight was out, there was a noticeable delay between when I pressed the trackball and when the screen lit up. I thought this was a lingering problem from my weekend issues, but after some searching it appears this is a general problem for .138.
The issue is nothing more than an annoyance, and a relatively minor one at that. Still, I’d like to not be annoyed when working with my BlackBerry. I searched around the net for possible solutions, but found none. It’s just an issue with the OS build, and we probably won’t see a fix until RIM sends out another 4.5 upgrade. While that’s disappointing, there is one thing that can mitigate the problem.
(Bonus bug: If you let the screen go black while in the applications menu, when you click a button to turn on the backlight again, you’ll be at the home screen. I’m not sure how universal that problem is, but it’s something I noticed. For reference, I’m using a custom theme, but now that I’ve consciously noticed the issue, I have vague memories of the same issue cropping up with my standard Verizon theme.)
When I go to wake up my BlackBerry, I usually depress the trackball. That’s what seemingly causes the delay. If you instead hit another key — space bar seems to work as well as any — the delay is much shorter. In fact, it seems like when I press the space bar, the screen comes back just about normally. So this isn’t a huge problem with .138 in general, just a problem with the trackball function.
Again, it might seem like a minor issue, but it’s slightly annoying to press the trackball and have nothing happen. If you look closely, you can see the screen turn on after you depress the trackball — the real delay is in the backlight. So if you press the trackball to restore the backlight, but then press it again (because you think you missed the key), you’ll launch the application you’re hovering over. It’s a pain, and while minor I’ll be glad when RIM introduces a fix.
