With just over a year of what I would consider normal use, I discovered that my phone, the Blackberry Storm 9530 was no longer capable of producing sound through the built-in loud speaker. As I have learned with this phone, that a hard reboot, caused by the removal of the battery, generally repairs any problem that I have encountered in the past. When the phone completed the reboot process, the sound did not return. This meant no more ring.

After about an hour of Internet searches and finding “solutions” that worked for others, such as downloading leaked Operating Systems to replace their existing two year old OS, to inserting a q-tip head into the headphone jack to clean the heads, to pressing a series of keys quickly while using the media player with the headphone inserted to “trick” the phone into reverting back to the speaker rather than the headphone. All to no avail.

Giving up on these “solutions”, I took the phone to the local wireless phone career. I presented my case to them, that this phone suddenly lost the speaker. The clerk and the manager had never heard of such a thing, and looked puzzled. I also learned that the phone was out of warranty and no work could be done to the phone. My only option was to get a new phone. Well, I entertained their “resolution” and I was shown a couple of other phones. A Droid for $299. I was told that I could get this phone, because I now qualify for it. I was skeptical yet proceeded with caution. My question was, then after all said and done, how much out of my pocket? The response, $299. Shocked, I was. It was explained to me that the phone would have been around $599 if I didn’t qualify. Not at all pleased with this solution, which was essentially like taking your car to the service station to get air in one of the slightly deflated tires to be told that you need to purchase a new set of four tires to correct your problem. This is unacceptable.

Slightly disillusioned, I took my phone home. On the positive spin, the headphone jack is still operational and so is the annoying blue tooth headset. This will suffice until I can afford a new phone. Not.

Back to the Internet. A new series of searches revealed that tool kits exist to disassemble the phone and there are vendors who sell replacement speakers and that there are YouTube videos that illustrate the complete disassembly and reassembly of the phone in less than five minutes.

The Solution

I bought a set of tools from eBay from one vendor. The tools were advertised for the Blackberry Storm 9530. The set really wasn’t. The set contained two screwdrivers, a Phillips and standard, along with a few plastic pry bars. The phone requires a T6 screwdriver to remove six screws. Fortunately, I had a T6 screwdriver.

I found a vendor on eBay that with shipping and handling, the replacement speaker cost only $6.00.

The YouTube videos were not completely accurate.

Here are the two YouTube videos, I found useful. The first video will show you the removal of all six screws to remove the case. The second omits two of the screws to remove the case, however, fulfills the goal of replacing a speaker. However, I discovered that there are two speakers. The one in the second video is for the headset. There is another toward the bottom of the phone, that is for the external loud speaker (ringer). Replace that one and all will be well.

So, for a couple of hours of Internet research, about $11, and a video, I bought the tools I needed, the speaker, and installed it myself. I have a fully functional phone with loud speaker! No thanks to the big wireless service provider.