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Hard Resetting the Samsung BlackJack II

June 21, 2009 8:00 am By 47 Comments

How can someone go about doing a hard reset on this device?  If you’re looking to wipe the device clean and return it to factory settings – that means removing all of your personal settings and data stored on the deivce, then the easiest way is to press Start \ Settings \ Security \ Reset and then follow the prompt to wipe the device and/or the storage card.

But what happens if you’ve managed to really mess things up and you can’t get the phone started?  No problem.  With the phone powered off, press and hold UP on the directional pad.  Then, turn on the device and continue to hold the UP key until you see a message on the screen.  You will be prompted to select 1 for reset or any other key to cancel. I recommend doing this with the device connected to power or with a fully charged battery. I can only imagine the mess that would result if the battery ran dry during the hard reset process.MobileJaw-HardReset-BlackJackII

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About Mike Temporale

Mike Temporale has written 603 posts on Mobile Jaw..

Mike Temporale grew up fascinated by computers since an early age. His first hands on with a computer came when he was 7 years old and a travelling lab of Commodore PET computers made a stop at his school. Hooked on the new world these devices offered, he took any chance possible to get in front of a computer. When Compaq launched the iPaq 3600, he was hooked again. This time on a whole new world of mobile computing. Today, Mike spends his day helping clients deploy and manage their mobile device around the world. From installing custom software, to locking and securing data, and everything in between. He is also the Editor in Chief at Mobile Jaw - a site focused on today's mobile world.

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  • Brandon Travis

    I tried these steps and after I told it to reset and told it to delete whole data, it “formatted’ and then went back to a screen that said “samsung” on it and did nothing else.

  • bryce

    my black jack goes to the windows mobile screen on start up and just sits there

    • Jessica

      how did you fix that? mine does the same thing.

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @bryce – follow the steps in the second part of the post to hard reset the device from the powered off state. Make sure you have it plugged in while you do this. If it looks like the device has hung, just let it keep on going. I’ve seen some hard resets take 20 minutes.

    • G Whizz

      Hi Mike,
      Just want to say thanks for this post, did the hard reset and worked brilliantly – I’m sure many use it and don’t reply back so just sending out a big “THANK YOU” for helping out!!

      Have a great 2012!!!

      Gareth :-)

  • Max

    I want to reset mine because it has some sort I glitch; but I still want all of my pictures saved. What do I do? It won’t allow me to go in messages, so there is no way of sending the pictures to my email.

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Max – You need to ActiveSync your phone with your desktop and copy them off. OR, setup Microsoft’s MyPhone and back them up over the air. Read more about MyPhone here – http://www.mobilejaw.com/reviews/2009/06/touring-myphone-microsofts-online-backup-for-smartphones/

  • Tom

    My display screen will randomly turn all white There is not set pattern to this event. Sometimes, once the display times out, i can press any key and it will come back. Other times, it takes multiple reboots by removing the battery to get the display to work again. Sometimes it will last hourr and othertimes minutes. I belive my display drivers are corrrupt. I have installed the 6.1 upgrade but it had no effect on this issue. How can I reinstall these display drivers? Will a hard reset achieve this?

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Tom – There is no way to reinstall the display drivers. They are part of the ROM image. If you hard reset it will flip everything back to the factory defaults – effectively resetting the device drivers, if that is the source of the problem.

    It sounds to me like A)Some program or virus perhaps, or B) the cable to the display has come loose. If you hard reset and the problem still happens, then you’ve eliminated A and you will need to get the device repaired. If it fixes the problem, then you’re off and running again.

    Just be warned that a hard reset will erase all of your data on the phone. If you can, back it up first. :)

  • Troy

    It won’t allow me to go in messages, so there is no way of sending text message or reading them cause when i try to open my text msg menu nothing happens!!if i try to reset it do you think that my msg will work again!?

  • Chuck

    Mike. Hard reset worked like a dream! Why don’t the people had the cell phone stores know how and when to do this?

  • Peter

    My rogers jack when it’s plugged in the screen goes white, and will shut down right after it finishes booting up

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Peter – have you been able to hard reset it? Use the button method I describe above. If it’s a software related problem, then it will be back to factory and you’ll be fine. Otherwise, you need to look into getting that repaired!

  • Kyle

    Hey! I hard reset my phone but once the phone launches it’s still asking for the phone PIN, saying “This phone can only be used with a specific SIM. Enter the unlock code or insert an approved SIM.”

    What do I do about that??

  • Scott

    Hey Mike,
    I have a Blackjack II that is forgot the device lock code for. If I do a hard reset and select the “storage card” option will my info stored on the device be wiped as well as my storage card info? I am trying to save all my info. Do you have any recommendations. I’d rather not do a factory reset. I aborted the attempt once I got to the first screen. I never saw the following screen with the reset options.Any help is appreciated and I’ve just about run out of options here bro.

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Scott – Are you saying that you’ve forgotten the password to unlock the device? Basically, you can’t get into the device to access the data. If so, then the only choice is to do a hard reset. With the password prompt locked, you can’t even do an ActiveSync to browse the device and grab files. So the only option is a hard reset.

    In terms of the data on the storage card, you should be safe. However, I would pop it out before resetting, especially if you have anything you are super worried about losing.

    If this is a managed device (policy set from Exchange) you might be able to convince the Exchange admin to disable or change your PIN, thus allowing you back into the device without doing a hard reset. However, if it’s just a PIN that you setup on the phone itself, then that won’t work.

  • Greg

    My phone is suddenly stuck on the basic ring which is not loud enough for my work environment but when I try to change it to another ring tone that I have always used, it says the file is corrupted and it won’t save the setting. It does this with all the file options except the At&t Basic ringtone. What should I do?

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Greg – the first thing I would do is uninstall any software that you may have recently added. If that doesn’t work, then you will need to think about backups and then hard resetting the device.

    Check out Microsoft’s MyPhone if you’re looking for a way to backup your phone’s data.

    Hope that helps.

  • Juan

    Hi Mike, I have a problem with my blackjack2, it will not go past the at&t screen when I turn it on. I tried the hard reset from the power off, and it did, but it still won’t go past the at&t screen. What do you think are my options at this point?

    Juan

  • Billy

    Hi mike well during the update it got unplugged and i tried this it just sits at the samsung screen

  • Reem Atallah

    Does hard rest delete contacts?

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Juan – After hard reseting the device, you’re still seeing the device hand on boot, then it appears that you might have some sort of hardware issue or ROM issue. If the device is under warranty, then I would look into placing a service call. However, it’s my guess that the hard reset didn’t take. I would attempt this again a couple times – make sure it’s fully charged and maybe even plugged in during the hard reset. Best of luck!

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Billy – If the flash process has been interrupted, then you’ve got some serious problems. If the hard reset was interrupted, you just need to do it again. There’s no risk of corruption when doing a hard reset.

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @reem Atallah – Yes, it will erase contacts and everything else on the phone – back to factory settings. It’s explained in the original post above. ;)

  • eeMJee

    Hi mike.. Yesterday my Samsung Blackjack got stuck on the “Windows Mobile” bootscreen, so I did a hard reset (pressing up button on d-pad, then the power button) then all goes will.. Then i notice something, IT CANT READ MY STORAGE CARD ANYMORE!! It says “cant read storage card or one of its components”.. Again i did a hard reset, but still nothing.. Remove and put it back again, but didnt work.. Do you have a solution on this?.. Thanks

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @eeMJee – I have never seen a hard reset destroy the SD card. So my guess is that the SD card died first. This might have been what caused it to hang on startup – did you have any applications installed to the SD card that would run on boot?

    Anyway, the best thing to do is pop out the SD card and insert it into your computer and see what happens. Worst case, it’s a goner, best case you just have to reformat it and away you go.

  • Zach

    Help please.

    I got the Blackjack II from my friend, but i cant seem to get it to turn on. I plugged it in and charged it and got the green light, but i try to turn it on and it doesnt work. If i unplug it after green amd replug it back in, it goes to red again.

    I would assume the battery, but yedterday i was fiddling with and managed to get on, without my si card in. -.- so i had to take battery out. Ohh, the hard reset didnt work either

    ideas?

  • B Wil

    Hi Mike. My blackjack is unlocked and I wanna delete everything that in it. If i was to do a hard reset, would it remove the unlock?

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @B Wil – Are you talking about a carrier unlock? IE: it’s an AT&T phone but you’ve carrier unlocked it to work on Rogers. If that’s the case, you’re fine. Hard reseting a device does not effect the carrier lock status. So if it was unlocked before, it will still be unlocked after.

    Now, application lock is another thing altogether.

  • Max

    Hello, please help me with my blackjack 2. One day my phone was working fine then I went to go turn it on and it goes past the splash screen but then gets stuck at the windows mobile screen. It stays there for around 5 minutes then automatically goes to he turn off screen and says goob bye and shuts off. I have tried removing the battery for hours and tried hard reseting many times. Does anyone have any other suggestions other than throwing my phone away??

  • Brian

    Hi Mike,

    Looks like you have a lot of good information over the last year. I inherited this password locked BJ2. I cannot power it down without taking the battery out. When I replace battery and follow reset instructions, it just goes to a white screen and stalls. Never lets me do anything else. any suggestions? I’m getting ready to smash it.

    Thanks!

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Max – If hard reset isn’t working, then there’s not much else you can do. I would pull the MicroSD card, turn off the device. Then plug it in and leave it over night. Then in the morning try to power it on and do the hard reset.

    If that doesn’t help, I don’t know what else I can tell you. :(

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @Brian – Is it locked due to Exchange or is it a local device password? If it’s Exchange, I would just enter incorrect passwords until the device wipes itself.

  • creativedlb

    I have the same problem as Zach. My Blackjack II worked fine yesterday, but this morning I noticed it didn’t fully charge like usual. I can charge it and it gets a green light, but when I try to turn it on, it doesn’t power on at all. Any help or suggestions is appreciated! I have not done a hard reset yet because I don’t want to lose any of my stored contents.

    Thanks!

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    @creativedb – I would try pulling the battery and letting it sit for a 12 hours or so. Then put the battery in, plug it in and let it charge for another 12 hours – without turning it on. With any luck, it was just something screwy in the charge cycles and it will clear itself.

    I can’t promise that will work. I had similar problems years ago on other devices and it helped. But I haven’t had the problem with the BJII.

  • Jenn77

    Hello Mike, i left my daughter my black jack to use and she entered the wrong device password one to many times and now i can’t seem to unlock it with the code I originally set it up with.. It only allows me to dial 911.. Devide says the incorrect password was input to many times. what to do??

  • hermen

    my black jack will not let me text cus storage is full. i found were it tell me how used memory. but i don’t know where to go to delete what ever is on the storage not storage card… HElP

  • heidz

    hi mike my black jack shuts down and cant be turned on, i dont know what to do, i’m trying hard reset but still not working. i was playing the bubble game when it shuts down. HELP thanks

  • Lee

    Hi, I lost my blackjack and have all my info including contacts and texts. The phone was lock but I need to know if people could access these info if they take the phone to the carrier and have the carrier unlock the phone…is that even possible? Please advise…Thank you

  • Lee

    Hi,I lost my blackjact but it was locked. Can people take the phone to the carrier and have them unlock? If so, can they access my contacts and texts on the phone? Please advise…Thank you

  • Gerry

    Hi Mike, my BJ2 powers on, I get past the windows mobile screen, then to the white ATT screen, then i can’t get past this point, the keyboard is locked and I can’t get it unlocked, I would like to get my contacts so I can transfer them to a new phone, took BJ2 to ATT store and they said they can do the hard reset but all my contact info will be lost, they also checked and said nothing is on the MicroSD card. Any suggestions on how to retrieve my contacts? Thanks

  • Brenda

    I did a hard reset with my blackjack because it was stuck on the widows screen, but now it wont connect to network.. any suggestions?

  • Les

    I just bought 4 Black Jack 2 phones for my family! One of my daughters phone was blinking like she got a text and when she went to get the text the screen went blank (white) and wont come back to normal ! Helpp

  • Sanyogkjain

    My phone wont load no lights or anything whatsoever, how do i get it to run? its been charging for an hour now.. but nothing is happening.. i tried charging in wall socket, laptop etc.

  • guest

    Thank you mike! I have my phone working again!