PlayBook Wi-Fi Issues

Hello there
My new PlayBook is having trouble with finding, connecting and maintaining wi-fi signals. I've been through the troubleshooting guide and am familar with networking.
Right out of the box, it only found 1 wi-fi signal (mine) and only at 1 bar of strength, even though the router is 2 feet away. Sometimes, it would not find my own router at all. Other computers in my home can see about 8 network SSIDs (from neighbors), but not the PlayBook.
When I did connect to my router, my signal strength would fluctuate from 1 bar to full bars, even though I was seated in the same location the whole time. Walking just 20 feet from the router would cause the connection to drop.
I updated to 1.08 and even tried the 2.0 beta.
What I am experiencing feels like a defective wi-fi unit and not something related to software, so I am planning to return it. The fact it won't even pull up any other nearby wi-fi SSIDs seems to be the biggest clue.
Any thoughts? Anyone with similar experiences?
Thanks!

I have a BT HomeHub 2.0 and had problems with wifi constantly dropping. Read a few suggestions i found on the web and I seem to have sorted out the problem by doing the following:
Got security setting on router as WAP2/AES
Changed from Auto Channel to Channel 10.
Changed router setting so wireless signal is b/g only (I removed wireless n).
Set the Wifi on the Playbook to 2.4GZ only (not dual)
Playbook ain't dropping at all now.

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Playbook Volume Button Issue

Hi
I own a blackberry playbook tablet.
The SN is 134422566854.
Date of Purchase - Dec 31, 2012.
The main issue with that is, the volume button is not working.
I gave it in a local service center, located here in my hometown LUDHIANA in order to get it fixed.
But i was denied the support.
I asked the reason, in return i was told that the rubber lining besides the LCD is not in place.
And they denied fixing the issue for me.
I dont even have any tech support number, so that i can call and log my complaint.
It wasnt provided in the box pack.
I tried to find it online.
I found it anyhow.
But when i called in the tech support number, i was not able to reach that number.
it said that the number is not valid.
Now the main issue as i told you is with the volume button.
its not working.
So i want to get it fixed.
The device is still under warranty and i really dont want to escalate this issue to higher authorities in BLACKBERYY INDIA.
Please look into the mattert A.S.A.P.
Regards
Shivay Gupta
Removed personal information to comply withCommunity GuidelinesandTerms and Conditions of Use.

Here is the Contact Info for RIM in India.
RIM Delhi
Cyber Terraces
Level 18, Building No 5, Tower A
DLF Phase 3
Gurgaon, India 122002
RIM Mumbai
Kalpatru Synergy Executive Center
Golibar Road, Santacruz East
Mumbai, India 400055

Playbook Screen Brightness Issue

I have purchased PB few days back and I am not able to change the screen brightness. I have tried disabling the auto-din feature and tried adjusting brightness from the battery icon. The slider goes from end to end but the brightness remains the same.
Also the sliders in Settings->Screen does not even move.
Did any one else face similar issue? How can this be resolved?

on Playbook press power button and both Vol + - buttons for 10 seconds to reboot it.
and see if it persists.
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Re: playbook wifi connection issues

I just completed the new download and now I can't connect to any Wifi, my help doesn't work and the thing won't shut down properly. what the heck!!!! I got it for a Xmas gift and don't know what to do.

This will clear all cache like rebooting a PC.
on Playbook press power button and both Vol + - buttons for 10 seconds to reboot it.
and see if it persists.
Click here to Backup the data on your BlackBerry Device! It's important, and FREE!
Click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved. To give thanks, click thumbs up
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Playbook and streaming issues

Hello,
We had a problem with our playbook not being able to load apps within facebook, namely some of the games - it was very slow to respond and load pages. We've spoken to the RIM helpdesk and we've tweaked our router settings and that solved the problem with facebook.
BUT now we have a problem in that whenever we try to stream a movie via Youtube, it plays fine for a short while and then either kicks out of the film altogher, freezes (with no litlle circle) or once it actually changed the movie we were viewing to something completly different all by itself. These are movies that we have watched several times before on the playbook with no problems.
We have tried using one of the open hotspot sites, to see if it was our wifi and not the playbook but it still does the same thing. So we seam to have solved one problem and created another.
Can anyone suggest what me might be able to change in order to make the streaming work?

Well I'm sorry I haven't got the solution for you, in fact I merely want to add my voice to what you're saying. I can't seem to get any answers on the streaming problem. I find that when using youtube or BBC iPlayer the Playbook freezes frequently with the spinning wheel. On wifi it won't restart often and the only thing to do is to come out of it and go back in. On 3g it works better but still frequently stops and then restarts after a few seconds, making it very frustrating to watch. I do not have this problem with my ipod touch which streams much, much better. So if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them. I don't have free support from RIM anymore as I have had my playbook more than three months. Any techies have any answers? ??

Can't connect PlayBook to *my* WPA2 wifi (D-Link Wireless N Router) - very frustrated

I'm gettting massively frustrated with this and would appreciate any assistance.
OK, so to start I'm a developer and I've managed to use my PlayBook for months, connecting to various WiFi networks without issue... except at home.
I have actually connected to it 100's of times, but the connection is flakey and often it fails to connect because it can't get an IP Address (my router is set to offer up 100's of them by DHCP... ONLY my PlayBook has issues getting one)
I have thus far had no issue connecting the following devices to my router:
Laptops (5 different brands/models),
iPad,
iPod (4 different devices)
Blackberry phones (3 different models)
iPhone (2 different models)
but the PlayBook always seems to have issues...
I've tried connecting using the "sync" WPS feature both by pressing the button on the router, as well as entering a PIN on the router config page - no luck.
I've tried entering the correct password multiple times - no luck... it always fails to get an IP Address.
I've even pre-assigned a dedicated IP Address to the MAC Address of the PlayBook... (all my other devices skip it) yet the PlayBook won't take it.
The router is a D-Link DIR-615 H/W /ver C1, Firmware ver 3.13NA Wireless N.
Its entirely possible that I've goofed something up, and I'm willing to try anything to resolve it - however if anyone else is having similar issues please chime in... and for anyone at RIM with 5min free... a quick "paranoia" once over look at the connecting / IP gathering code in this area would be greatly appreciated... in case there's an odd "off by 1" error of some kind in this area.
Finally, I'm not sure if there is any more info to provide when the PlayBook does fail to get an IP... but if there is an error message or log that us users can look at (or get in an OS update) it would be helpful in trying to diagnose why the connection fails.
Thanks for any advice,
Steve
PlayBook Apps: DataMine, Dots + Boxes, 5 Marbles
BlackBerry SmartPhone Apps: 5 Marbles Soon: **** (D.Z.A), ****Quest, **** Challenge, VaultCracker, DevBrowser, Radial****

I was having the same issue until yesterday.
After spending a couple of nights dealing with BB Support techs, I came up with this steps and worked for me, even though that Playbook should connect automatically as other devices do. Moreover, of course I am not going to ask everyday the IT guys for a modem reset
Here it goes :
1- If you own a lap top/pc connected to your work Wifi network, open the network adapter window on the PC. Go to wifi adapter and left-click on properties in order to display detailed connection status.
2- From there you may obtain a valid subnet mask, Default Gateway, Primary DNS and Secondary DNS.
3- Since the IP Address was already obtained by your Playbook while trying to connect, it will be asking for the same IP each time, so write down the Playbook IP too. You can access it from the wifi? Icon on the wifi configuration script on the playbook.
(The issue here was that for some reason, my Playbook on "auto IP mode" was choosing a different default gateway number than the correct one. I still can't figure why, but I'm not going to invest more time on it, until a new software update becomes available and go from there.)
4- In your playbook tap the wifi icon and go to saved networks, tap on edit (pencil) and delete your office previous connection.
5- Create manually a new wifi connection and unselect "auto IP mode". You will have the opportunity to copy all the information mentioned above. IP, Subnet Mask, Primary DNS. Secondary DNS and Default Gateway.
6- Tap save and connect.
Hopefully you Playbook will be online and ready to navigate.

BBM crashes in Playbook after OS2 install.

Hello,
I upgraded two Playbooks to OS2, one has no real issues. (other than a longer boot time.) The second has problems with BBM.
When you open the bridged BBM it starts to open but immediately crashes. I have tried resetting the phone (which has the new bridge.) and Playbook but the issue persists.
Has anyone else experienced this or have a fix?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

It took me over an hour and 2 BB's to figure this out for a user at my company. It didn't seem to be Playbook related as other BB's worked on that particular Playbook without issues.
I migrated the users data over to a new BB and found that it had the same issues! Lates OS, latest version of BBM and Bridge.
The only thing I could think of is that it's something in the users data. I looked at the list of BBM Contacts this user had and found a number of entries with really odd characters. Stuff like "_~@Princess@~_" but with even stranger characters not in the english alphabet. On the BB, I edited these contacts profiles and changed their display names to something plain text and re-tested. It worked!
I presume these fonts/characters that the Playbook can't display is what is causing the BBM crashing.

Playbook & BB Bridge

just got a 32gb playbook, besides other issues set up BB Bridge with my Bold 9780 & after some initial issues it worked fine for a few days but ever since has lost connection & will not reconnect even tho i have tried every method of setup & reconnection again & again. Wifi & most everything else seems to work fine, getting fed up wasting my life trying to get this to work again, any help much appreciated! Thanks, Cal

Sorry for stating the obvious but presumably bluetooth on both the 9780 and the playbook are switched on and functioning correctly?

How to hard reset/delete data?

My BB playbook has some issues, I cant login because I dont know the password and its stuck on final attempt! But cant type anything! So cant go in to menu, settings and restore that way!
I tried the hard reset by holding volume keys and power key but that doesnt work, held em for 15 seconds and even longer sometimes!
I think there is too much data and **bleep** in the PB hence its slow and irresponsive!
How can I restore it to factory settings by means of hardware??! What if I take out the battery?

First I would like you to do a Back Up of your PlayBook using your computer and BlackBerry Desktop Software.
This can be downloaded for free from http://us.blackberry.com/apps-software/desktop/
After the Back Up is complete I need you to unplug your PlayBook and then push and hold down the Power Button until the unit Force Powers Off.
Now, while Desktop Software is still open on your computer and the PlayBook Powered Off, Connect the PlayBook to your computer.
You should see and error screen from Desktop Software pop up that has the options to Retry, Update, or Cancel.
QUICKLY choose the Update option.
This will erase all the information off of your PlayBook and Re-Write the Software back onto it. Once it's complete your PlayBook will need to go back through the setup wizard, and you can then perform a restore using Desktop Software to return your information. The only thing that won't come back after the restore are the apps that you downloaded from App World but they can be easily Re-Installed using the My World feature in App World.
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Error accessing media

After syncing music to my play book, I get the following message when opening the music player....
SQLERROR(3128): There was an error accessing your media library, please try again.
I can go through my PC and access the music, so I know the music is on the playbook.
Any ideas?

Hey pkrapp74,
Welcome to the BlackBerry Support Community Forums.
What version of OS are you running on the PlayBook? Also if you reset the PlayBook does the issue persist?
-ViciousFerret
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Connected to the wifi but cant acces internet from my ipod, connected to the wifi but cant acces internet from my ipod

I am connected to the wifi and show a strong signal strength but I cannot access the internet from the ipod. Can anybody help?

This reply is about problems with Playbook connecting WPA2 wifi networks.
I would suggest to check what kind of wifi network you are trying to connect to. If its an WPA2, this might help.
I was having the same issue until yesterday.
After spending a couple of nights dealing with BB Support techs, I came up with these steps and worked for me, even though that Playbook should connect automatically as other devices do. Moreover, of course I am not going to ask everyday the IT guys for a router reset.
So here it goes :
1- If you own a lap top/pc connected to your work Wifi network, open the network adapter window on the PC. Go to wifi adapter and left-click on properties in order to display detailed connection status.
2- From there you may obtain a valid subnet mask, Default Gateway, Primary DNS and Secondary DNS.
3- Since the IP Address was already obtained by your Playbook while trying to connect, it will be asking for the same IP each time, so write down the Playbook IP too. You can access it from the wifi? Icon on the wifi configuration screen on the playbook.
(The issue here was that for some reason, my Playbook on "auto IP mode" was choosing a different default
gateway number than the correct one. I still can't figure why, but I'm not going to invest more time on it, until a new software update becomes available and go from there.)
4- In your playbook tap the wifi icon and go to saved networks, tap on edit (pencil) and delete the troubled wifi connection.
5- Create manually a new wifi connection and unselect "auto IP mode". You will have the opportunity to copy all the information mentioned above. IP, Subnet Mask, Primary DNS. Secondary DNS and Default Gateway.
6- Tap save and connect.
Hopefully your Playbook will be online and ready to navigate.

WiFi Disconnecting

Hi,
I've been successfully connected to my home Wifi but the iPhone has now started to disconnect itself - it's not holding the connection. Any idea how to resolve?
(currently I've disabled security and am just using mac address filtering - my home PC's don't disconnect so there's no problem with the router.)

sebastianmoran wrote:
Could there be anything on this - http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-PlayBook/playbook-wifi-connection-issues/td-p/1083... - thread that might shed some loght on this problem? I don't know what else to suggest
That thread has lots of info, good suggestion.
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Faulty chargers?

The charger that arrived with my Playbook worked for the first couple days and then suddenly quit working. I contacted customer support and was overnighted a new charger. Now the replacement charger quit working. Has anyone else encountered something like this? To ensure the issue is was the charger I plugged my torch in to see if it would work, no dice. Now im beginning to think that my playbook is somehow messing with its chargers.
Anyone have any ideas?

I have 3 playbooks and no issues with the OEM chargers or the Rapid Pod charger.
I can switch from my laptop to my Torch charger with out issue.
Click here to Backup the data on your BlackBerry Device! It's important, and FREE!
Click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved. To give thanks, click thumbs up
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Issues with Blackberry Playbook not being recognised by Windows Explorer

Hello, I'm new to the forums but am having the same problems as many others are, that being my Playbook not regonised by Windows Explorer. I have tried all of the solutions I have read like unistalling Desktop Manager, uninstalling then re-installing drives in Windows Device Manager. But one I recently stumbled across was uninstalling Blackberry Device Manager, how do I do this?
Also the main problem appears to be that my Playbook will not sync anything with my computer. In Desktop Manager I can back-up my Playbook, but not sync anything. After re-installing a drive I now get the message of: 'Your Blackberry device is not compatible with this feature' whereas before I got the message of: 'You haven't configured any sync methods' but yet all of the sync options were greyed out.
How do I get Windows Explorer to recognise my Playbook as a drive and how can I sync in Desktop Manager?
Thanks in advance!
Note: I'm using Windows 7 32-Bit

Hello Tobster_,
The following article should also help with detecting your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet:
Identifying and troubleshooting issues with the BlackBerry Desktop Software detecting a USB connected BlackBerry PlayBook - http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/KB27424
We hope this helps.
Thank you.
-FB
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Ongoing Issue Connecting Playbook to Laptop via USB

I have never been able to get my PB to work via the USB cable, meaning I have had to do all file transfers through wi-fi , which is incredibly slow. Here is what I have tried plus some notes:
- Driver appears to be correctly installed in Device Manager. I tried to uninstall and reinstall (when I do the reinstall I can see the PB as a mounted CD drive, this is the only time I can see this)
- I tried turning off all firewalls etc - still won't work.
- When I plug it in, Windows say 'Blackberry device PIN XXXX has been connected to the system, initialising device access' followed by 'your device is ready to use'. Still won't work, don't see any mounted drives in My Computer either.
- In the BB software itself, my PB appears in the 'Device' menu. When I click on it it just goes to 'Connecting' in the bottom right and stays in this mode indefinitely.
- The one time I did manage to get it to connect, it said 'A problem occurred while attempting to connect to your Blackberry Device' and switched back to 'Connecting' again. I've attached a screenshot of this.
- Blackberry device manager appears in my task files, doesn't display any issues. PB appears in there as a 'Connected Device'. From the 'About' menu in there:
* BlackBerry Device Manager Version 6.0.0.48
* BBDevMgr Version 4.2.0.15
* RIM USB Driver Version 4.2.0.14
* PlayBook RNDIS Driver Interface Version 1.0.0.38
* RIM USB Serial Device Version 2.2.0.0 (I think ,it's hard to see this one)
- I am on Windows 7.
- One thing I have noticed is that Windows appears to search for the latest Driver through Windows Update everytime I connect it. Again I don't know if this is normal.
- I noticed only one error on the PB itself saying 'Unable to charge battery with connected source'
- There is no issue with the USB cable, I use it for other things.
- The only other thing worth noting is that my PB must take over 5 minutes to boot up. I don't know if this is normal or not...

That unable to charge message is one new to 2.1 and simply warns that pc usb at 500mA is not enough to do a decent charge. Ignore it.
What version of Desktop Software do you have, I can't tell from your list. I believe the latest for windoze is 7.1?
Did you try to map a drive to your playbook like map drive z to \\xxxxxxxxxxx\Media where xxxxxxxxis the "Tablet Network Name" or the 169.x.x.x usb ip address.

PlayBook Wi-Fi Issues

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