Colors reversed on E2

[comvox]

I have been happily using the E2 for some time (except for a couple of the usual compatibility problems due to the changeover to nonvolatile memory). But yesterday I turned on my E2 and found that the screen colors weren't right. They seem to be reversed, and it makes it very hard to use the E2. This is *not* due to an inadvertently changed color theme. All the color themes under "preferences" are affected too.

I have tried both soft resets and hard resets, and it doesn't solve the problem. The resets have no effect on the screen colors. The screen colors remain inverted or reversed.

The only odd thing that happened before the full color problem was that I had recently installed the latest version of HandBase (3.51 build 1) over a previous version, and found that it used changed colors in some text fields. I thought this was odd (although I haven't yet checked to see if other HandBase users saw the same color change--maybe this was an early sign of malfunctioning of the E2 rather than a HandBase problem). But this didn't seem to affect any other program. And in any case, I presume that a hard reset to the E2 would have cancelled any problem that any software might have caused. But after a hard reset -- and even before restoring any software program -- the screen colors remain bad.

Has anyone else had this problem, or know anything about such a problem?

Thanks,

comvox

[holvoetn]

Welcome to BrightHand comvox
Even in these difficult times ...

My personal guess:
If this happens after a hard reset, there are only two options left:

1) keep it powered on until the battery is running so low it will not power on anymore. Then wait some days to let it run down even further.
2) open the device and disconnect the battery (only do this if your device is not under warranty anymore.

After this, recharge for a couple of hours and verify.
If this does not help, I think your device is defect and needs to be replaced. I hope your device is still under warranty in that case ...

[comvox]

Thanks, holvoetn.

My E2 is covered under an Office Depot product protection plan. So if I have to have it replaced, hopefully everything will go smoothly. But first I'll try your suggestion number 1, although I don't know how long my patience will last before I feel lost without my E2. True, all the information on the E2 is backed up and available on my desktop, but if that was a satisfactory alternative, I wouldn't have gotten a PDA in the first place!

[Haisook]

It seems that color-corruption has made it to the NVFS. In order to restore the original condition, you have to empty the NVFS from charge completely. For that, I'd go with holvoetn's advice. But to add more accuracy to it, leave your Palm untouched for 7 days.

[comvox]

I am on the second day of leaving the E2 drained and untoched. But gee, seven days?! Sigh. Haisook, it seems from your comment that you may be familiar with color-corruption from other PDAs. Could you tell me anything about why color-corruption takes place, why draining the charge from the E2 might help correct it, and why it would take seven days?

[holvoetn]

Color corruption usually indicates either the OS going berserk or some HW register going south in a way which the OS is not programmed to correct (since it may be a state which normally should not occur ? Who knows ...).
Draining the battery would cause the complete HW to be reinitialised from scratch, not just by using the OS init routines.
It can take up to seven days since the OS will not power up the device anymore after a certain battery threshold has been reached (I believe in the order of magnitude of 5 to 10%). This means the battery needs to be depleted by the 'standby' activity (the device NEVER shuts down, it remains functioning even when you switch it off). But this takes time ... and even the 7 days is a guess ... albeit an educated one.

I know this can be really painful, but the only think that can help you right now is PATIENCE.

Our thoughts are with you ...

[Haisook]

comvox,...

Actually,
<...Haisook copies holvoetn's last post, and then reposts it>

[doogie]

I don't know if this helps the "kill the battery in seven days" strategy, but do you have an expansion card and any MP3s? Use RealPlayer (or whatever better audio program you have) and play an MP3, setting it to repeat indefinitely. I would imagine that this would help drain down your battery faster? Or does it still need a full seven days?

[comvox]

Thanks doogie. I used a similar strategy with Aeroplayer to drain the battery to the point where the E2 wouldn't power on anymore. (I changed the preferences under the Aeroplayer menu to ensure that Aeroplayer wouldn't shut off prematurely.) I gather holvoetn and Haisook are advising me to let the E2 lie fallow for seven days after the point of no-power up. I'm in the midst of the third day today.

Thanks holvoetn and Haisook for the explanation. I guess I do have to wait the whole seven days. Although, I must admit, I don't understand the explanation completely, mainly because I probably don't understand the different parts of E2 memory or E2 hardwiring. Normally I wouldn't think that draining the battery would affect anything, even the OS init routines, as the E2 uses nonvolatile memory.

If the seven-day wait works, I will be happy (presuming the color-corruption doesn't return soon). If it doesn't, I will be sure that there is no alternative to making use of my Office Depot warranty, so it will still have been worthwhile to do this. So I guess I have to wait for a time without the E2.

My first PDA was a refurbished Palm IIIxe, which I bought at super-discount in order to see whether I liked PDAs without spending too much money. It was really nice; it had sufficient capacity to be a useful tool which quickly became indispensable. But eventually I wanted something more powerful. My plan was to keep the IIIxe as a backup in case my next PDA ever had problems and had to be fixed; I could still run MemoLeaf and other programs on the IIIxe, and thus have my basic information available, I hoped. Unfortunately, the screen suddenly became very, very faint on the Palm IIIxe in a little under a year. This forced me to finally make the jump to another PDA, but unfortunately it left me without a backup PDA.

Meanwhile my E2 had been growing better with age until the color-corruption problem. The external speaker had been very low on my E2 -- fortunately, I didn't really have any need for it. But it had gotten louder over time!

[Haisook]

I must admit, I don't understand the explanation completely, mainly because I probably don't understand the different parts of E2 memory or E2 hardwiring. Normally I wouldn't think that draining the battery would affect anything, even the OS init routines, as the E2 uses nonvolatile memory.

It's as simple as that: Although Palm has told us its new non-volatile memory (NVFS) is never cleared, it actually gets cleared after some time. It's like the starving must die in the end. Through experimentation, that 'some time' seems to be 6-7 days, and disconnecting the battery for 2 minutes might do the trick too.

The 7-day procedure has worked for many guys (at least that's what I've noticed in my short stay here). Though your issue is new to me, I have hope your E2 is gonna be restored.

Good Luck