Dead Blackberry Bold (9000 & 9900) Fix

Update 10/10/2014: the voltage of your charger may play a factor into whether or not the battery needs to be removed. I've noticed that when the charger voltage is of higher variety (e.g. 750mA), then oftentimes the phone will begin recharging after a few seconds. No removing of battery and re-plugging necessary. But when I tried with a lower voltage charger, then the manual process outlined below is necessary. Takeaway is, if you have a higher voltage charger, then using is to recharge may be all you need.  

This is going to be quick post to fix a dead Blackberry Bold 9000 or 9900 series. Mine just inexplicably died over the weekend (possibly due to lack of battery power), but it wouldn't charge at all when I plugged it in. So I had to dig around the internet for some help and came across a couple of good ones -- which I figure to share in case these sources are removed in the future.

The first and most popular solution appears to be a simple case of:
1. Remove battery from the Blackberry
2. Connect to the charger while battery is removed
3. A continuous red light (in place of notifications light) should appear shortly, followed by a "no battery" sign a couple of minutes in
4. After the "no battery" sign appears, insert the battery while the charger is connected (don't worry, you won't get electrocuted)
5. Give it 10-20 minutes to charge itself, which then should start booting automatically

I have to admit that I had a weird experience. Tried the above a couple of times, before it finally working on the third attempt (guess it's true, third times the charm..). In short, it might take a few attempts and lots of patience.

Another method I found (here) is copied and pasted below. I didn't get to try it, but seems like a much more methodological approach. Needless to say, full credits belong to the original poster -- devinr501.

Hello users of CrackBerry, I recently ran into the same issue it seems MANY other owners of the Bold 9000 series smartphone.; Examples being:
forums.crackberry.com/f83/help-blackberry-bold-will-not-turn-160496/
forums.crackberry.com/f83/dead-bold-how-97376/
forums.crackberry.com/f83/blackberry-bold-dead-439865/
forums.crackberry.com/f2/my-bold-dead-283119/
forums.crackberry.com/f83/dead-blackberry-bold-9000-please-help-543344/
forums.crackberry.com/f83/bold-dead-no-led-no-power-nothing-73257/
forums.crackberry.com/f83/blackberry-dead-no-led-nothing-278619/

Seems completely dead, no charging whatsoever when connected to computer, wall, car charger, etc. It started off with a continuous red LED light that you normally get when first booting the device. Then it just completely stopped showing any signs of connectivity/power being supplied to the phone/battery. No red LED, windows didn't recognize it was even connected! So, I got onto google and searched for hours trying to find solutions to this problem. Everyone recommends that you leave the battery out for 24-48 hours.; Well, as that may work for some, it isn't working for everybody with this issue. I did some searching for the mainboard lay-out and functions, what circuits are which, etc. All it took was a little computer knowledge to figure out that the CMOS on the board needed to be cleared! If you have ANY hardware experience when it comes to computers you will know that sometimes you need to remove the little battery on the motherboard and then put it back to fix problems you may run into when adding new hardware, tweaking settings, power failure, etc. This does NOT mean your phone is completely dead, does NOT mean you need a new battery/charger, does NOT mean you need to reload your OS. This a hardware fault that happens when the battery is completely drained, it causes the whole board to act "dead". This tutorial fixes ALL related problems listed above if there is no other indications of hardware malfunctions such as broken USB port. 

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/792...yboldpcb11.jpg

As you see the battery is a small round silver looking object. It's located on the backside of the bold. This process takes pretty much NO tools, no taking apart your phone, nothing that extreme. It's actually relatively simple if you have steady hands and a well-lighted room! :P

1. There is a sticker covering these components that says the model of the phone, IMEI, and other information. Peel this off. 2. You will now see the small circular battery just to the right of your SIM card slot. GENTLY pry the metal rectangle that is on top of it holding it into place back a bit, until the battery will move. This will take a little bit of time, and you DO need patience when doing this.
3. When you get the battery out, put it back and make sure you put the metal rectangular piece back onto the battery and make sure it is securely in place.
4. Re-apply the sticker after you have completed steps 1-3 and put it on the charger without the battery inserted.
5. The red LED should shine again, and if you leave it connected it will show a dead battery symbol. At this point reinsert your battery & leave it on the charger! It can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes to charge up enough to boot the OS. 

Success! Your once dead Bold is back alive and running like a champ! No need to reinstall the OS & all your data is safe & sound on the device. 

And you wonder why Research in Motion, makers of Blackberry, is going down the toilet.