Zire 31 contrast issues

[redbach]

Hi guys. Love the forum you've got here - it's pretty much the only helpful troubleshooting resource for Palms that I've been able to find (in the two days I've been looking, that is :-P )

I've just purchased a new Palm Zire 31 off eBay and it arrived from the States on Friday (I live in Australia). I gave it the usual four hour charge before using it and then configured all my software and had everything working nicely. The Mozilla Address Book Sync conduit wasn't behaving until I realised I was running Thunderbird 1.5 beta 1. Upgrading to final release fixed that slight problem.

On Saturday I was playing my third game of Bejeweled, and when I hit the home button on the silkscreen the pda gave an electronic choke (an abrupt squeal from the speaker) and then blacked out. The screen's backlight was still on (there was leakage at the edges) but the screen was black and unresponsive.

Doing a soft reset woke the pda up from its coma, but the screen is now really, _really_ washed out. At normal contrast setting, you can only read the screen at high angles, and at the lowest contrast setting, you can forget about reading anything - it's just white. I've set it to the highest contrast setting possible (pushing the slider all the way into the black) and that makes the screen kinda normal. Except that having the screen at such high contrast makes the bright vertical lines that often appear on these little non-transflective screens really obvious and quite annoyingly bright.

Software wise, the unit is working fine. I suspect that this may be a result of the uninsulated speaker shorting out like I read about in some other threads, but wondered if anybody had any similar experiences or suggestions. When the unit is on and I hold it up to my ear, I can hear a quiet electrical buzzing sound that I don't remember being there before, which I think confirms my suspicions, but then again I wasn't really listening for anything before so that may be normal.

It's only very new (it's been in my hands for about 72 hours now) so I'll make a warranty claim or get my eBay seller to replace it, unless somebody can give me a better answer. Any ideas?

Oh and if anybody knows anything about Palm's service centres in Australia, like if they exist or where they are, I'd love to hear from you too. I plan on trawling Palm's website later...

Thanks in advance.

[holvoetn]

Hello Redbach, Welcome to BrightHand

Have you also tried a Hard reset ? If you are still having this after that AND if you are certain all your apps are compatible with Zire31 it _might_ be someone sold you a defective unit ...

How much did you pay for it if I may ask ?

[redbach]

Hi holvoetn,

Yeah, I forgot to mention I tried a hard reset as well. Even with just the default apps and data the problem remained. In fact when I did a hard reset, it also reset the contrast adjustment level back to the average level, so it went back to washed out until I changed it back.

I had read somewhere that maybe incompatible apps were the problem and thought that I might have overdone it on the software side. On Saturday I had installed a whole bunch of applications from various websites to see what the thing could handle; I deleted all of those and did a hard reset to eliminate that possibility. The only extra apps on it now are Adobe Reader 2 for PalmOS, Bejeweled, and all the apps that came on the Software Essentials CD (SplashMoney, MobileDB, photos, RealOne, etc.)

I paid AUD$136 for it on eBay, plus about AUD$25 postage. I checked a couple of retailers in Australia to compare and it still retails here for around AUD$200, so I thought it was a reasonable deal. The seller had 20+ of the things, so he may have unwittingly sold one defective unit. He says he tests them all before shipping - and it was working fine when I first got it. It just lasted a day and a half

[holvoetn]

If it also does this when operating from a clean state (= after Hard reset, no other applications installed) it is definitely defective.

One final suggestion (maybe a wild shot ...): put it on the charger and soft reset while charging. Then let it charge for a couple of hours. See what it does then ...

If that doesn't work either, try to get a replacement from the seller or make the warranty claim.

Sorry ...

[redbach]

I've contacted the original seller and he's offered to replace the unit at no charge. I'll still have to post it though...

He also said that Palm don't offer warranties on auctioned units and he doesn't mind me trying the hardware patch before sending it back. I guess if the unit is defective he's not going to sell it again anyway.

Thanks for that other suggestion. I'll try that first, and if that doesn't work, I'll try some microsurgery with electrical tape. And if _that_ doesn't work... it's back to the States for my new digital friend. It's a shame about that - I've only had it four days and I think it already knows more about my life than I can be bothered to remember...

I guess I can manage until a replacement arrives <sigh>

BTW how awesome is AvantGo? I live in a residential college and they only get two copies of the paper for the dining room each morning. Never again will I have to fight for a copy...

[holvoetn]

Originally posted by redbach
BTW how awesome is AvantGo? I live in a residential college and they only get two copies of the paper for the dining room each morning. Never again will I have to fight for a copy...

Some like it, some love it, some hate it ...

I am in the undecided camp (read: I do not use it)

[Nine]

Originally posted by holvoetn
I am in the undecided camp (read: I do not use it)

You may be undecided, but I don't think you're in the slightest bit camp, Holvoetn. Don't worry so.

Welcome to Brighthand, Redbach. I think AvantGo is great, merely because my daily paper of choice has several extensive, fully-featured channels on it. Therefore I'm a bit biased.