…and I am as panicky as a cat on a hot tin roof 'cos many valuable information are stored itself and I feel lost without it!
It was working the day before, but today when I try to press the green switch to on it, it refuses to come on. Out of desperation, I use the hidden pin within my stylus to poke the reset button. Hurrah, the screen came on, went to the options, then flicker blank.
I am suspecting it may be my Palm Vx has ran out of juice. Am I right, or shall I bury my Palmtop?
And on top of it, while charging it, I couldn’t switch on the my Palm Vx either. (Usually I could…now…no)
Anything here help?
If you have the unit synced to your desktop why panic? Palm backups are cheap. You can get 8 meg Vx Palms for $ 130. Newer more modern ones with more memory and features can be had for around the same price range. Just throw a new unit on and the desktop will sync up the new Palm.
Have you tried to HotSync with it? With some types of problems, you can’t use the unit but you can still synchronize with it. I would back up the data folder on the desktop before trying - there’s a non-zero chance the data will get overwritten by corrupt data from the Palm. The default location for the data folder is in C:\Program_Files\Palm<username> or something like that.
Usually, if the soft reset doesn’t fix the problem you try a hard reset (poke the reset button while pressing the power button). This will erase all the data, so if you haven’t synchronized recently you’d want to explore other options first. I’m afraid I don’t know what other options exist at that point.
Calling xash…
It happened to me too. You can restore the data through a sync. What happened to mine is the connection in the back got dirty and wouldn’t accept an effective charge. Once I cleaned it, I had no more problems (mysteriously - this isn’t covered ANYWHERE in the Palm website - I nearly went and bought a new one) I took a soft toothbrush, the kind you use for baby teeth and just sort of scrubbed it (no water or cleaner - just dry) and I got a lot of dust and stuff that was interfering with the conenction. Try it and see if it helps.
I’m assuming you have atleast a recent backup of your critical data. If not, you’ve probably lost data. If you have a backup, don’t worry. You can always recover your data onto any Palm OS device.
First, try a warm reset. Hold the “Up” button while inserting the pin in the reset hole. Release pin. Leave the “Up” button pressed for about 3 seconds. Release. If this works, you’re good to go. Just some software conflict on your device.
Else…
The likely possibilities are :
To check whether the cradle is charging the Palm Vx, look for the green light on the cradle. Does this come on when the Palm Vx is in the cradle ? If not, either the cradle is faulty or the contact is broken. Try another cradle with the Palm Vx. Try another Palm Vx with the cradle.
If the charger is working fine:
Leave your Palm Vx charging on the cradle for atleast 12 hours. The first few hours it might not power on, even in the cradle.
Once you get your Palm Vx to power on, try reviving the battery.
Place your unit on charge in the cradle, and, while charging IN the cradle, press the reset button. Allow the Palm to charge overnight, or, at least 4 hours. After the charge, reset the Palm Vx, while IN the cradle. Do NOT remove the Palm between the 2 resets. This procedure is valid for all models with internal rechargeable batteries. This procedure ensures the battery registers are set to the optimal values, for the longest lifetime of the batteries.
If your battery is dead, you can get a replacement battery for about US$30 from http://www.gethightech.com
Replacing the battery yourself is a difficult and risky process, as the Palm Vx strangely has no screws. The two halves are glued together and requires careful ungluing using a blow dryer. Careless handling could lead to melting your screen.
Report back with preliminary results and we can proceed from there.