FAQ: SUDS - sudden failure of USB on M5xx

[MATTB911]

yep, i have the "E" cradle. I guess if the replacement gets SUDS outside of the warranty period, i will go get a serial cradle and/or a wrench to do the battery disconnect thing. I would hate to think that palm's "fix" is to drain the battery send them back out as replacements. The new and improved cradle doesn't help.

[boyanowski]

Thank you, that certainly fits the pattern. I've contacted Palm Support to see if it's still under warranty and will try draining the battery (the safe way) as well.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your help! I'll let you know how it goes.

[Dompil]

If my Cardle is maked by "E". Does that mean that the problem of my USB hostsynch is smething else then SUDS ?

Because i'm having the same problems that everyone seems to have.

[boyanowski]

My cradle also has an E. But I still get the static shock from time to time. My guess is that "E" stands for Enhanced and the "F" model will stand for Fixed.

[dcasux]

I just received a replacement m515 yesterday. I was so excited to get back up and running!

Today, all has gone wrong. Why must I toil with technology?

I was standing in my office, and I walked to my desk to pick up my palm 515. I have a palm hard shell case for the 515. As soon as I touched the case, (which had nothing connected to it), a spark went off.

I immediately opened the case, and turned the palm on. To my dismay, it DID NOT WORK! Dead! ACK!

I did a hard reset and had to delete all of my data to get the thing running again. I breathed a sigh of relief!

All I had to do was hot sync....right? So, I hot synced. Nadda. My new replacement 515 is as dead as the palm on the shipping dock waiting to go back to palm with the same issue.

I called palm and they're sending me a new 515 at no cost to replace the replacement.

Does anyone have any clue why the palm would be so sensitive?

Is this a bad design flaw in the 500 series?!?!?

I think, if this happens again, I will be looking elsewhere for a PDA.

If you have any advice, or if PALM INC. reads these post, please reply or email me.


Frustrated!

[Ben S]

Dcasux, it sounds like your environment is a static-filled one. There are a few precautions you can take when working in such an environment that can help prevent you from zapping your Palm (among other things). Typically, if you can ground yourself before touching the device/object that tends to give you the worst shocks, you can prevent the damage. Touching an unpainted part of your computer's metal casing ought to ground you sufficently. Just do that before picking up your Palm and you should be OK.

Usually, the drain fix (described by Biglig, above) can restore a Palm zapped by static electricity to proper functioning.

If the environment is causing the problem, replacing the Palm is not going to solve the issue (however, you might want to think about using a non-conductive case).

[wkiraly]

What do you mean by a non-conductive case? Does Palm's aluminum case count for or agains that?

I bought the m515 after my m500 stopped synching. Since that was out of warranty and I would have had to pay for even a phone call, I bought the new one and it worked for several days then it, too stopped synching. I called Tech Support and they told me to exchange it at the store which I did and now a week later, this one stopped synching too. Tech support tells me to return that one too. They, of course, can't replace it with a new one, only a refurb--probably sent back for the same reason, I suspect. I am currently in the process of trying the battery drain and my end up buying a serial cradle and letting them get away with selling me a crappy $300 product because I don't have the time to pursue getting lots of replacements that will have the same problem in another week.

When getting a new PDA, I strongly considered the Sony but went with the 515 because I already had so many accessories (keyboard, memory card, several cradles and case) from the 500. Given what I know now, I suspect I would have gone with the Sony. I don't have time or patience for these kinds of problems. According to the CNet Forum, lots of people have had this problem and some have replaced them three or four times for synching problems so its hard to believe that Palm is unaware of the problem but they won't tell you that on the phone. Must be just my units they say, because the new cradles fix the problem. (riiiiiight)

I use my Palm a lot but I don't use it under extreme condtions nor am I particularly hard on it. This issue is definitely leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

[imported_montanablue]

After reading the messages in this thread, I realize this may be my problem, also. I have had 2 Palm M515s---they have both died. The second one was having syncing problems just before it died. It was probably related to SUDS or GLC (as I have read about on these forums.) I do have a cradle with an "E" on the bottom. Anyway, after my second one had been in the shop for 6 weeks, Palm sent me a 505 instead of a 515. Now they won't send me a 515 until they get the 505 back from me. This is totally ridiculous--worst customer service I've ever encountered. I, too, wish I had purchased a Sony.

[wkiraly]

After consideration of everything, the cost of replacing my accessories, and going through loading everything again, I went out and got a serial synch cable at Office Max and that worked fine. I called Palm Tech Support and they confirmed what I understood from these discussions that the problem is USB only and doesn't affect the Serial port so I bought another serial cradle for the home desktop and Palm sent me a serial cradle for free (and they did not ask me to send my USB cradle in). The first synch is a bear on Serial, something like fifteen or twenty minutes but after that, regular, day-to-day synching is okay. So far, after several weeks, its working fine.

So, I'm letting Palm get away with selling me a defective product because its not worth the time and effort to fight at this point. Actually, other than the synching problem, I like the 515 just fine. But Palm's poor reaction in the wake of such a pervasive problem on a piece of equipment we're paying $300 for mean I probably won't get another Palm when I upgrade in a few years, no matter what the specs say. I don't have time to go through this crap on a device that supposed to help me manage my time.

[120202]

I have a one-week old m515 with the supposedly shielded "E" USB cradle and have already been hit with a Green Light Crash,which I recovered from via a soft reset, but now I can't synch at all.

I had not heard of these phenomena at all until I found this forum but as soon as I saw the symptons, I suspected that static electricity might be at fault. I had it in the pocket of my nylon jacket on a bitter cold and very dry day. And was walking in and out of buidlings and rooms with lots of carpet wearing rubber soled shoes. Guess I was asking for trouble. No wait. Palm engineering should be better than that. Doesn't much matter now. I can't synch. And that suchs.

Question is, should I go through the rigormorall (sp?) and delay of sending it back and waiting for a new one or is there a good chance that the shortcut three dot, or whatever, trick to drain the battery might solve this?

Any ideas?