You are here

CB » Help, How-To & Tips » The Help Me! screen on the BlackBerry Torch
Help Me! Screen on the BlackBerry Torch Smartphones
USB support shown off on rooted BlackBerry PlayBook Previous
Are you an ePhone user? Make sure you update your BlackBerry PlayBook!Next
26 Comments

The Help Me! screen on the BlackBerry Torch

By Joseph Holder on 13 Dec 2011 11:41 am
0
loading...
0
loading...
49
loading...

I've written about the BlackBerry Help Me! Screen before. This useful screen gives you a lot of rather important information about your BlackBerry. OS version, the phone's IMEI / MEDI number, the PIN, and a lot more can be easily found here. On a BlackBerry Smartphone with a keyboard, pressing Caps + Alt + H will open the Help Me! Screen immediately. But how do you do this on a phone without a keyboard?

It's still pretty easy to do. You'll just need to hold the back key (the one that looks like a sideways U) while you touch certain parts of the screen. While holding the back key, touch in the upper-left corner, then the upper-right, then the upper-left again, and finally the upper-right one last time. So if you were on the home screen (though you don't have to be), you'd hold the back key and tap near the battery icon, then near the signal bars, then the battery icon again, and finally the signal bars. The Help Me! screen should show up sharpish. You can let go of the back key now.

This works on many models of BlackBerry Smartphone - the Torch 9800, 9810, 9850, 9860, and the BlackBerry Storm phones. As a bonus, you can also use this trick on the new OS7 Smartphones with touchscreens. Since I'm a big fan of touch-only BlackBerry Smartphones - and Kevin hasn't shipped me any Bold 9900's recently - I haven't tested this personally. But Michelle gave me a shout that this indeed works on her 9900!

Now you, too, have the power to check your Help Me! screen. And seriously, now that you know how to access it, you'll probably find yourself using it quite often.

Topics: Help Me! Help, How-To & Tips BlackBerry 101

USB support shown off on rooted BlackBerry PlayBook Previous
Are you an ePhone user? Make sure you update your BlackBerry PlayBook!Next
Joseph Holder Joseph Holder 179 (articles) 23 (forum posts)
26 comments

Deathcommand

It can be back, menu, send, or end call buttons.
It works on all touch screen BlackBerries including the former storms.

1CrackBerriz

It works on the 9900 :D Awesomeeee :D

chaoticblissx

This also works on the Torch 9810!

pourtoibb

Cool!! What other tricks can it do......

freddysrevng

Pretty Cool...don't know how the hell you are supposed to remember that little "keyboard dance" to enact, but pretty cool.....Are there any "tricks" like this to make RIMM stock go up??? Now that would be REALLY COOL.......

RoseBud68

Love this place, learn something new everyday.

mrskittens

There was a tweet going around the other day, about a funny "easter egg" I guess, pressing a series of keys and buttons did something apparently funny, but it didn't work for all of us. Can anyone tell me what that was? Something with a d++ etc?

Oh yeah and thank you Joseph for the genuinely helpful info too!

Mathrin

Press the call button
type 6++ then l instead of send.

It isn't an easter egg by any stretch but understanding how the phone works. You can type out names in the phone screen (accessed by pressing the call button). The default is to access numbers until the OS realizes you are typing a word. The + is used for dialing extentions (if I'm not mistaken). So not until you press the l button does it flip the 6++ to its corresponding letters. Therefore 6++l becomes fool when you press the l button.

mrskittens

Thank you for resolving the mystery. For some reason mine doesn't flip, but it sounds like I'm not missing much anyway ;)

kdUbz

this is awesome. coming from 9700 i didnt know to do this on my torch 9860 u the man joseph!

Chaddface

Works both ways with the 9800. I didn't know about either. Thanks.

sir.dangerfield

Very nice tip. Sister has the 9860 and mom really struggles with the physical key combo on her 9810 so I can't wait to show them this trick. I think it's fun that I can do it on the 9930, but the key combo is still a little faster for me on the lovely keyboard.

nccjones

I must not be learnable. It wont work for me. I press and hold the back key, touch the upper left, right, left, right corners, then let go and.....nada.

Edited to add: After many tries it finally worked. But it's hit or miss.

aloomis76

Joseph...Any tricks on how to do a "battery pull" without having to actually pull the battery? On my "old" BlackBerry I could just hit the alt+shift+delete buttons...now with a touchscreen I can't do this...THIS would be a helpful tip!

mrskittens

QuickLaunch and MeterBerry have rebooting options, if you happen to have them. Nice apps to have anyway :)

aloomis76

Apparently my previous comment was flagged as spam :(

Anywho, thanks for the info. Will have to wait to spend some money on any new app...

Was hoping that Joe had another trick up his sleeve being that he is the touchscreen master...free is always better!

mrskittens

You welcome, and definitely free = better ;) FWIW those apps both go on special regularly so you may want to watch for them :) For me, QL is the big bargain, SO full of goodies -- it's my #1 icon! MB is more to address problems I'd say. Warning, that's all from a noob, but I have a bad cover and hate battery pulls!

Branta

Fixed the spam filter. Trying to stay one step ahead of the spammers and I got a typo in a filter :(

 

aloomis76

Understandable...I'll watch my use of the word "FREE" from now on ;) lol

Branta

LMAO it wasn't "Free". Sometimes the filter is a mystery to everyone, including me and I maintain the blasted thing. We check regularly for false positives, this was a minor error (missing .) when I updated a filter in response to the latest spamming attempts.

murialita

Thank you! This is a very useful screen, that I was disappointed I couldn't find anymore. Now it's back! Makes me want to spend hours just holding the back button and tapping different corners to see what other functions exist. Not that I will though, but it would be nice if there was a list published somewhere.

iSin

Any ways to open the event log with a trick like this? That will make me definitely go get a 9860!

Btw, you're the man Joseph

Xterra2

Cool trick didn't know about it