Help for my Palm handheld PDA

I got a Palm M105 about 2 1/2 months ago. Three times I have turned it on in the morning to find that the memory is totally wiped out. It’s like a brand new machine, asking me to reset the digitizer, and it has none of my old data, etc. (Now that I think of it, I think all three incidents were Monday mornings, perhaps 3 weeks apart, the latest being today.)

I’ve been able to easily retrieve almost all my data by doing a hotsync, so it’s no disaster so far, but I did lose some data since my last hotsync, and I worry about this happening away from home. The first time this happened, I thought the batteries had died overnight, but the second two times they were definitely still okay.[ul][li]Am I doing something wrong?[/li][li]Is this something which would justify exchanging it for another M105 via the warranty?[/li][li]Is there a known bug that might be easily fixed?[/li][li]The Teeming Millions are great, but is there another Bulletin Board somewhere for Palm owners where I should post this?[/li][/ul]

On his way to to work, The Better Half pauses to read your OP and says:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/index.asp

http://www.pdabuzz.com/

I would think that failure to reliably store your personal information constitutes unfitness for purpose in a PDA - you should be able to get a refund or exchange (I’m basing this on the UK sales of goods law, but I’m sure you have something similar wherever you live).

Another great PDA site is http://www.PalmBlvd.com , which has message boards for each brand an model.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. (Good thing I still have my receipt somewhere in my desk… somewhere… )

I had a similar problem with my Palm IIxe which I bought in Feb 2001. I sent it back to Palm for repair under warranty and it came back good as (better than) new. If the place you bought it won’t exchange it, send it back to Palm. There should be instructions for return under warranty in the paperwork that came with it.

If you registered your purchase, you won’t need the receipt. My trusty m505 suddenly went south after 6 months of flawless performance last month. I bought it with my corporate card and gave the receipt for my clerk to process, so I was worried I’d need a duplicate to get it replaced. I called the Palm support line to get a reading, and they told me not to worry, since I was in their database of registered users. They told me to just use their user-friendly on-line support chat.

Now that was a problem. After navigating the links to the appropriate site, I was queued about 20 minutes waiting for a rep. Then I spent nearly an hour doing what should have been 10 minutes of problem isolation and the administrivia of arranging the replacement. I’m not posting from home; I would really love to share the transcript of that chat session. It was, in retrospect, a hoot. Seems their server was giving them problems, and about half of the tech rep’s inputs were lost, as were a random half of my responses. So there were the inevitable frustrating “Hello?” messages as we each waited for the other to respond. I only kept my temper because I eventually caught on to the problem, and because I have so much sympathy for overworked support techs. Once “in the system,” however, I got my replacement unit several days sooner than the 10 working days they advertised.

Of course, now that my 505 is “obsolete”, I covet the m515; and I positively salivate over the prospect of the m715(?) PDA-GSM phone. But that’s for another thread…

Probably not. If you are sure that the two times you lost your data overnight your battery was sufficiently charged it is possibly a hardware problem. Perhaps a capacitor leakage problem, though its hard to tell without physically examining the device.

Provided that the relevant information is true to the best of your knowledge, it would seem to me to be a sufficient justification for exchange within the terms of your warranty agreement.

[quote]
Is there a known bug that might be easily fixed?**

I am presently unaware of any bug in the Palm m105 series that should consistently cause this issue. It is more likely isolable to your specific device, and your exchange warranty should take care of it.

Yes, they are great. Their depth and breadth of knowledge, information and experience never ceases to amaze me. Not to mention the humour.

Yes there are special interest groups that cater to your specific Palm needs.

These are called Palm User Groups.

I am the Founder and President of The Indian Palm User Group and i offer local technical support and service to all users of Palm OS devices in the India, and email technical support to users of Palm OS devices worldwide.

The IPUG is accessible at http://www.notcomguys.com/palm

I see from your profile that you are from the NY/NJ area. You have a number of options in these areas. Aside from offering online support, Palm User Groups hold physical meetings on a regular basis. You will be amazed by the stuff you can learn at these meetings.

User Groups for the NY/NJ area include :

Capital District Palm User Group
Long Island PDA/Handheld Users Group (LIPHUG)
MetroPUG Palm User Group
New York City Digital Assistant Users’ Group(NYCDAUG)
NYPC PalmPilot SIG
New Jersey

An exhaustive list of Palm User Groups around the world is available at http://www.interpug.com/find

If you have any further Palm OS related queries that you would rather have answered over email, feel free to reach me at palm@notcomguys.com

The New Jersey PUG link seems to be down.

Also, here’s a BB dedicated to Palm talk :

http://discussion.brighthand.com/palmhandhelds/

Thanks, xash. You guys have convinced to try exhanging this for another via the warranty.

FWIW, the first time this happened, I freaked and replaced the batteries right away, so I’ll never know it they had discharged or not. Second time, I opened the back, suspecting that the batteries were not sitting properly, so I pushed them a little, and after restoring the system with the hotsync, I saw it had plenty of power left.

Today, I did not even open the back. Without opening it at all, I simply ran the hotsync, and again there was plenty of juice left in the batteries. This (plus my understanding that even with dead batteries it takes 2 weeks to lose the memory) leads me to conclude that battery discharge was not the problem, but that some hardware or software problem is causing a reset. In either case, exchanging for a new machine will hopefully fix it.

Thanks again.

A few more points worth noting:

Use NiMh batteries over NiCd batteries wherever possible. NiCd has a steeper discharge curve, which could lead to loss of data when the batteries are low.

If your usage is heavy , use NiMh rechargable batteries and get a charger from Radio Shack or someplace… this will save you an enormous amount of money in the long run.

It is possible that you lose data when you replace your batteries… It has happened to me a couple of times… In this case it’s not a hardware problem, just a spike that leads to loss of data…

from this excellent page :

http://www.pstec.de/ppp/ppppowpi/ppppowpi.html

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A final word on data loss: My speculation is, that a spike on the power supply of the Palm is more likely the reason for a data loss when changing batteries than a low voltage situation (unless there is a real defect) So IMO, changing the batteries one-by-one is not a good idea, as you have two times the critical situation of breaking supply and making ‘first contact’ again (no, your Palm is not assimilated …). Maybe the worst is, when you’ve a ‘shaky’ hand when inserting the last battery (no joke!).

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It is not possible for any software to cause a hard reset. Your power button must be physically depressed for this to happen.

Also, you are supposed to replace batteries within one minute of removing them… but you generally have a lot more time to do this… On pieces i’ve tested, data has been unaffected even though batteries were removed for upto 12 minutes… the capacitor supplies charge for this period…

So, in conclusion, and with renewed data in your last post, it is still possible that it is not a hardware problem, provided that the spike is what caused data loss the first two times, and NiCd batteries caused loss of data the third time.

I suggest that you test the time that your Palm m105 can stay without batteries and still not lose data, and if it can consistently do more than 5 minutes over repeated tests, then your capacitor seems to be intact and it is possibly a problem with the brand or composition ( e.g. NiCd ) of batteries that you are using. In this case, switch over to NiMh batteries (Duracell alkaline batteries are also good). If it loses data within minutes each time, then it is more likely a hardware problem and you should go in for the exchange thing.

thanx