I have been experiencing problems with my PDA and don’t know what to do next. I have an IBM Workpad c500 which is a relabeled Palm m500. It appears to be freezing up on me. Sometimes it just doesn’t respond to the touchscreen, both the screen and the graffiti area and buttons. Other times it won’t even respond to the buttons, including the up/down and the power buttons. When that happens and I have an app open that has a flashing cursor, the cursor has stopped flashing. I poke at it in many ways. Sometimes, after a little time, it flashes through a number of apps before it settles. I am guessing it had my pokes in a buffer and got done doing what it thought was more important than me and then executed my pokes. Sometimes it will respond to a soft reset, sometimes it won’t. Sometimes after a reset, it still doesn’t respond to the touch screen.
The first guess is I loaded something on to it that is causing problems. But this started a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t loaded anything on it for months. I finally tried the ultimate solution I know of. I kissed my data goodbye (trusting to backups) and did a hard reset. It still wouldn’t respond to the touchscreen right away. Eventually it started behaving again.
Does anyone have any idea what is going on with this silly thing? Is it a software issue or is the hardware giving out? I have had it less than a year. Is there any diagnostics I can run on it? I am getting beyond frustrated with it and don’t know where to go for help.
sorry, I’m lost too. My first guess would be that the batteries are dead, but the m500 is a rechargable, yes? So it would be tough to replace, and should be designed for longer life. Did you buy it new? If so, talk to the IBM tech support people, and you should be covered by warranty.
It is rechargable and most of the time the silly thing works fine. It just gets wonky and freezes up like it is stuck in a software loop.
Palm-istry
Hello! Internet Addict asked me to take a look at your post and offer comments if I could (I work for PalmSource and have been a Palm addict…er, user, for 7 years).
It sounds to me like what you have is a hardware issue involving the screen and underlying digitizer. These units generally come with a year warranty, so you should call PalmOne’s technical support and get a trouble ticket started (http://www.palmone.com/us/support/contact/contact_us.html). I’d call them instead of using the web or email option since you’ve already tried the hard reset and the problem persisted.
You will probably have to send the device to them for repair. My experience with using their repair service was pretty positive — it took them less than a week to get the device back to me.
Hope that helps!
~Amy
Re: Palm-istry
I thank you greatly. Having a real clue which way to go makes it possible to move forward. Not that it is an easy move. Since this was an ebay purchase (still new but who noes the history) and an IBM version of a Palm product, I wasn’t sure where to go for warranty information or what my proof of purchase would need to be. It looks like PalmOne doesn’t support this product and I did get a hit on the serial number from the IBM site. I bought the product in July but they claim the warranty ended in Jan. I am guessing that is when it was purchased from them and then resold to me later. I think I am hosed. Back to hiding my head in the sand while I process this information and try to figure out what to do next.
I really appreciate your knowledgeable advice. It helped point me in a way that made sense and got me out of running through too many options gained from not having a clue.