CrackBerry's help guide to resolving a 552 error on your BlackBerry. Fix with a simple battery pull or reloading your OS.

The dredded BlackBerry Error 552 -- It's something that every long-time BlackBerry user fears and has seen over the course of their BlackBerry lifespan. The 552 error is caused by an issue with your BlackBerry software (typically an application) and can most times be resolved by performing a hard reset on the device, or worst case, reloading the device software.

In some cases, the only solution for a 552 error on your BlackBerry is to reload your device software. Unfortunately you'll need access to a PC to get your BlackBerry back up and running in this situation, but it only takes a few minutes and you're device will be as good as new. If you're somewhere with no computer access however, you should be able to reset the device and use it until you can reload or update your device software. A 552 error on your BlackBerry may seem bad the first time you see it, but fear not because it's easily resolved.

In most cases, after receving a 552 error on your BlackBerry, performing a hard reset (remove the battery, keep it out for a few seconds and then replace it) will solve the issue. Your device should boot as normal, however If the issue persists, you'll need to reload or update your device software.

To reload or update your device software after a BlackBerry 552 error, follow our full tutorial here. If you cannot get your BlackBerry smartphone to start up or you receive a different error, you'll need to follow this guide on how to restore a "nuked" BlackBerry.

Need more help? Head into the CrackBerry Help and Discussion forums for more!

If you haven't had the opportunity to restore the OS on your BlackBerry, you're lucky. Seeing a blank screen with "App Error 523" or something similar is not a pretty sight. Granted, it's a much less common sight these days then it was a few years back (how many of you reading can remember installing a OS 4.2 theme on a 8700 running 4.0? oops!) and it's really not that bad of a thing - you can always get up and running again if you know what to do. You can think of the process of reloading your BlackBerry's operating system as a CrackBerry right of passage.

With OS leaks still popping up on an almost daily basis, we thought maybe it was time we update our original  How to Reload the OS on a Nuked or Bricked BlackBerry tutorial with a video of the process that would make things even easier to understand should you encounter the need to fix your BB from scratch. Since everyone complained about how crappy the quality on some of my previous A to Z videos were, I busted out my new HD camcorder and did up this walktrough. So if you have no place to turn and just can't get your device up and running, check out this quick video and get back on your feet. Hopefully you won't need to do this, but if you do, this should help.

CrackBerry explains how to restore a Nuked BlackBerry

Good Afternoon Class! I’ve been a bit slack in my BlackBerry 101 lectures as of late – I blame the Smartphone Round Robin, all the Contests we’ve been running on the site and the busy Holiday Season. My apologies! This will be the last 101 lecture of the year… but we’ll be back in 2008 bigger and better than ever.

Today’s lecture isn’t really a “newbie” topic, but it’s one that I wanted to cover because in the past three weeks I’ve gone through it half a dozen times and that is Reloading the Operating System on a BlackBerry that’s totally “Nuked”. I’m not sure if nuked is the technically appropriate word for it (I also use one that starts with an F and ends in an ED and has a CK in the middle), but it is how I refer to a BlackBerry that is stuck in a permanent reboot cycle and is completely, completely unusable. With a Nuked Berry, essentially the device turns on (red LED comes on for a few seconds), then you see the white screen with the hourglass of death, and then the display shuts off, the device shuts off, a few seconds go by and then it starts up and does the same thing again and again and again (it’ll do it for hours if you let it).

Over the past year I have arrived at this Nuked Berry scenario a few different ways: from installing a BlackBerry theme that wasn’t appropriate for my device/OS version; from installing beta software that was majorily glitchy; and one time during an OS upgrade the installation failed (I think I had too many apps installed and the device ran out of memory when trying to reload the backed-up apps). And while a “battery pull” works for solving most of little glitches that may occur when using your BlackBerry from day to day, that’s not the case with a Nuked BlackBerry.

The GOOD NEWS is that this problem likely won't affect you unless you're out and about looking for trouble and you can always fix a Nuked Berry (at least from my experience!). You just need to know a couple of little tricks and have 45 minutes of free time…

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