I can't give my phone what it needs, and it's ruining our relationship.

June 27, 2008 9:28 AM

I dropped my phone, but it turned itself back on once I slid the battery back in properly. I though all was well. However, it is now demanding a PIN code and won't let me use the phone without it. I'm not sure why it wants one, and I would give it one if I had one, but I don't have one and don't know how I would find one. Can you help? It's a Blackberry Curve, if it matters.
posted by foxy_hedgehog to technology (14 comments total)

Call your carrier. They'll probably want your phone's IMEI (or whatever the non-GSM equivalent is -- serial number?) and they can tell you how to override it.

Most phone have two or three levels of security. The PIN is personal. Then, the others are hardware-specific and are permanent, and only your carrier has those.
posted by cmiller at 9:34 AM on June 27, 2008

The SIM card is probably loose. Turn it off, turn it over, take off the battery cover, take out the SIM card, count to 10, put the SIM card back, put the battery back, then turn it on again.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:34 AM on June 27, 2008

Try the last 4 digits of your phone number, that's the default "lock" password for most phones. Otherwise, consult the manual.
posted by lubujackson at 9:36 AM on June 27, 2008

I bet you 0000 will work.
posted by cincinnatus c at 9:58 AM on June 27, 2008

Strike-out on last 4 numbers and 0000. Now it looks like I've only got one try left. Just emailed the German SIM card company in bad Deutsch asking for help. Please let me know if you have any more ideas.

Mia
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 10:11 AM on June 27, 2008

Try 00000000

That's eight zeros. The default GSM pin code for most phones.
posted by Xoder at 10:15 AM on June 27, 2008

1234 is also a common user lock code default on phones.
posted by burnmp3s at 10:55 AM on June 27, 2008

So, to summarize everyone above:

0000
00000
000000
0000000
00000000
1234
ghij (where your phone number is abc-def-ghij)

The first and last have worked for me on various phone devices (cellphones, bluetooth devices, etc). The one time I called Tech Support on my $500 PDA cellphone, the technician had no clue what the password would be (that I'd never changed from factory defaults), but recommended the above approach.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:42 AM on June 27, 2008

Wow, this post couldn't have come at a better time. My blackberry is not working and I've been on hold for approximately... well, 37 minutes now. Just to resolve this issue, no joke.
posted by banannafish at 12:30 PM on June 27, 2008

Uh, I suggest you don't keep guessing. That thing has a lockout after too many misses. Did you check that the SIM card was securely in place?
posted by meta_eli at 4:03 PM on June 27, 2008

Generally for Bell our pin code is 1111. Not sure if you've tried that.
posted by heavenstobetsy at 4:35 PM on June 27, 2008

To elaborate, the PIN code I'm talking about is completely separate from the one you would set yourself for security reasons and rather is a function of SIM card security. It usually follows the PUK code request.
posted by heavenstobetsy at 4:37 PM on June 27, 2008

There's not enough information to answer this question. What carrier and is it on a BES or are you running it solo via BIS/syncing?

I would imagine a loose SIM card would probably come back with an error message and not request a PIN although I don't have much experience with SIM based devices.

If it's like other Blackberries using a BES it will likely simply completely reset itself if you enter the wrong password too many times.
posted by Octoparrot at 7:49 PM on June 27, 2008

Ok. I figured it out. I don't think this will help folks in the US, since everything seems to be different vis a vis telecom stuff in Germany, but: I found the Help database on the provider's website, and put in "PIN" and "PUK". I managed to translate enough of the answers to figure out that most of them mentioned something about looking in the documentation that came with the SIM card....and there a new PUK was, under a scratch-off carbon lottery-ticket sort of security patch. I put it in, and it asked me to reset the PIN.

Hope this helps...
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 1:28 AM on June 28, 2008