The first step when handling problems involving Blackberry™ service is to determine where the fault occurs — this in turn determines to whom the customer should turn to resolve their issue.

I’m trying to set up my BlackBerry™ for first use and I can’t get my PIN to register. Is your PIN registered with another provider? In other words, did you previously have BlackBerry™ service from another email provider?

If so, you need to have that provider release your PIN, and you may have to reinstall your BlackBerry™ software and repeat the setup steps.

I get the error message “Exchange Server is unavailable.”
Generally this does not indicate that the BlackBerry™ piece is malfunctioning, but rather that your Outlook profile is not correct. You probably do not have proper connectivity to your MAPI email account as a result.

Typically, users with this problem do not have the proper registry settings, service pack, or Outlook profile settings (these should have been installed by the client install tool if you used one, or should have been set up manually following the Standard Configuration for Hosted Exchange document).

Follow the configuration and troubleshooting steps for Hosted Exchange before returning to troubleshoot BlackBerry™.

I think I’m set up right, but I’m not receiving any emails.
There is a wireless setting on the BlackBerry™ device that must be turned on. In the menu of icons, it looks like an antenna when it is off, or an airplane when it is on. This setting must be on.

I use Outlook 2003 and the BlackBerry™ desktop software crashes when I try to get set up.
Two settings must be turned off in your Outlook 2003 profile while you are installing your BlackBerry™ software.

The settings are HTTP Proxy and Cached Exchange Mode.

To turn them off:

1. Tools > Email Accounts > change existing Exchange account > change > uncheck “Cached Exchange mode” under the Microsoft Exchange Server box.
2. From the same screen: more settings > Connection tab > uncheck HTTP at the bottom of the window. These settings should be turned back on again when you are done setting up your BlackBerry™.

Should you need to do any cradle-based synchronization later, these two settings must again be turned off.