Restart a BlackBerry Bold 9900 (and earlier)

Problem:

For those of you still sporting your favourite BlackBerry handset, you may have noticed that on many models, such as the 9900, the only apparent way to restart your handset is to take out the battery and put it back in. Placing your phone in the "power off" mode from the menu only seems to suspend the handset rather than shut it off. For many, taking out the battery isn't a major problem. However, if you happen to keep your handset in a case the aforementioned procedure can become substantially more difficult.

Solution:

Luckily, there is another way to restart your BlackBerry handset, so long as it is equipped with a physical keyboard:

• Press and hold down the Alt key. Continue holding this key through the next 2 steps.
• Press and hold down the Right Shift key along with the Alt key. Continue holding these two keys through the next step.
• While holding the other two keys, press the Backspace/Delete key. Your screen will turn off and the handset will restart.

Notes:

The restarting procedure in this post is called a "soft reset" and can be used to help troubleshoot problems with the phone. It will not erase data nor restore the phone to factory settings.

Additionally, the above procedure will not work on very old BlackBerry devices such as the RIM 850, 857, 950, nor 957.