Palm IIIc dead--won't turn on

[Walt8472]

Help!!
My Palm IIIc is currently no more than a fancy paperweight. As of a week ago, I haven't been able to turn it on. I had used it only a couple days earlier with no problem. I put it in my backpack and the next time I took it out to use it, no response. The power button doesn't work. The four shortcut buttons don't work. The Palm won't even recharge in the cradle, let alone do a hotsync. I've tried doing a soft-reset, a double soft-reset, and a hard reset. Nothing helped. '
One item of interest is the fact that the notepad shortcut button won't depress very far. It does not respond much to a button push, certainly not with a healthy 'click' like the other buttons do. 'Tis a sad situation, I must say. Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Walter

[strider_mt2k]

I'm not sure if this will work...

Try bending a paperclip so that you can push the reset button while it's on the cradle.

If the unit powers up, then leave it on and download BackupBuddy it will completely backup the contents of your IIIc (granting it powers up, and no data is lost.)

If that works, then at least you still have all of your data.

I recenly went through this complete battery failure situation with a 1-week old m130, and it's how I saved my data.

Actually to be more precise, I used my memory card for the backup, but the results are the same.

Either way, it looks like you need to either replace your unit, or have it serviced.

[Ben S]

If the notepad button is broken, it could account for the fact that the unit won't wake up -- it might have been completely drained if the unit was left with constant pressure on the button for an extended period of time. Strider_mt2k's soft reset in the cradle trick will help with that *if* the notepad button is no longer depressed. I'd try opening the unit up and taking a look at the button bar -- the IIIc uses sealed microswitch buttons, so if the button is damaged, you should be able to tell (it won't click like the others when you press on the bubble). If that's the case, you may need a new motherboard, which you can get at http://www.gethightech.com/ .

[bbadillo13]

Amazingly, I had the exact same problem happen to me this past week with the same model. I was wondering if you ever found out what the problem was or how to fix it. I tried the soft reset, but that didn't work.

Regards,
Brian