T5 Power Button Out....Again

[brush]

Am I doing something wrong? My power button slowly failed on my first T5. In late August I sent it in and got a replacement unit. This week, the power button abruptly failed completely. Worked one minute and complete failure the next. It is still under warranty, so I will send it back again. I did a hard reset (not easy with no power button, but set a security code, and purposely missed it 5 times causing hard reset) and that had no effect on the power button. Could I be pushing the button too hard or something? How big a problem is this with palm?

[TungstenEguy]

I had the power button fail on my Tungsten|E (similar to the T5), and it seems to me it's a design flaw. The power-button is pushing on a tiny surface-mounted micro-switch that has no real support (IMO) against the pressure the power button applies to activate it. If the soldering is poor, or the switch is just not within a certain tolerance of distance to the power button, it could very well push too hard on the switch itself and eventually cause it to break away from its soldered connections. This is what happened in my T|E. Funny thing, I was still able to operate the power button because the solder joints hadn't all failed and so if I pushed hard enough, the switch would still be touching all it's connections, and it would function. My solution until I had it repaired was to use a small amount of tape to adhere the switch to the mainboard better, and prevent it from swiveling itself off its connections. Eventually I did send it away for repairs and have not had any problems since. I also use a T5 and it's power button has yet to give me any indication it's failing. I feel I know what to look for since I had my other experience with the T|E. I will note that the T5 power-button micro-switch appears more solidly connected/soldered than it does in my T|E.

That was way too much information, but that's my story.

[brush]

Dear Tungsten|E Guy,

No your answer was great. Thanks. I also had a T/E and its power button failed to and after the palty 90 day warranty. I wrote the then CEO of Palm and complained and he authorized the repair. I do think I push the button harder than is necessary. In my other palms, and the button was failing, pushing harder was required. maybe I am shortening the life as a result. I must turn it on and off 10-20 times a day. I also think I should stop turning it off and let it do that on its own. So you are opening the case? Is the micro switch user replaceable? Did Palm do your repair? My replacements have always been refurbished units so no telling how long they were used.

I called Palm yesterday and they have agreed again to repair it and this time they offered to pay the shipping cost back to them. That was nice. The unit works OK without the power button, but since it reboots each time, you loose the place where you were. Thanks again. Bill

[palmsole]

To spread out the workload of my power button I assigned one of the hard buttons for powering on and also purchased PowerOff which allows instant shutdown if you touch the screen icon or assign another hard button. This also gives you the peace of mind that in case the main power button fails you still have a way to use your palm. I think there is another program out there that is freeware if price is an issue.

[brush]

Thanks. sad we have to do this on a relatively expensive device.

[brush]

Pamsole

I just tried to reassign one of my buttons to power on but did not see that option. can you double check and tell me what it is called? thanks

[TungstenEguy]

So you are opening the case? Is the micro switch user replaceable? Did Palm do your repair?

Yes, I have opened the case of my T|E, and though it's surely possible someone could replace the switch themselves, I wasn't inclined to do so myself, so I had mine repaired under the 3 year warranty I have with Best Buy. They replaced the mainboard, and battery, but I don't know if it was Palm or another company that did the actual repair.

Good luck with it!

[palmsole]

Pamsole

I just tried to reassign one of my buttons to power on but did not see that option. can you double check and tell me what it is called? thanks

I think the T5 is preconfigured to turn on with most of the hard buttons unless they are locked out in the preference settings. If you still have problems with this there is another freeware program that assigns hard button for on/off and many people in the forums seem to like which is called AuDodo.

[jetjock]

It's nice to know it's not just me...

I've gone through two Tungsten Es' power buttons and just tonight the power button on my 3 month old T|X failed.

Thank goodness for Costco's return policy...

[brush]

While inconvenient, I wnet almost a year without the power button on my T5. The 4 hard buttons will turn it on. The problem is that when they turn on, they launch a new program. If you are looking at a future date and push a hard button, it reboots the program. Tunring off is easy. Just let it turn off when it times out, or I used to use Dalauncher 5.1b4 and Ak Utils which allows a swipe across the grafitti area to activate a little program which turned the unit off, but could not turn it on. Now, I just loaded audodo recommneded by palmsole above. Free simple and now one of my hardkeys will turn it on and off. I wonder if the hard key is any better designed than the power button.