Destruction

[AKBishop]

Anyone got any good stories about destruction of their PPC's or accessories (cases, CF/SD cards, styli, etc.)?

[JonnoB]

Here is a story: sent my Jornada in once for dust cleaning and they sent me a note saying that broken/cracked screens are not covered under warranty.... There was no broken screen. Somehow, it slipped out of the protective plastic suspension in the shipping box on the way to the factory.

[Coralie]

go on .. tell us how it ended! what happened after that then?

[JonnoB]

go on .. tell us how it ended! what happened after that then?

Story has not yet ended. They charged my credit card and I refuted the charges. I will finish the story when the dust settles.

[Kati Compton]

I will finish the story when the dust settles.

I thought the point was to get rid of the dust.... ;)

[Janak Parekh]

I will finish the story when the dust settles.
I thought the point was to get rid of the dust.... ;)
Good luck about that on the J568's, you'll have to wait awhile. :twisted: ;)

--janak

[Abba Zabba]

Last weekend when leaving for work, my ipaq slipped out of my hands and hit the concrete :oops: . I picked it up and to my surprise the only thing broken was the screen protector on the CF expansion pack plus. :D

Thank goodness. What would I do without my pda???

[Janak Parekh]

Thank goodness. What would I do without my pda???
I had to answer that question while I sent my iPaq back to Compaq 3 times over the duration of a month; during that time I only had access to my unit for about 2 hours. You try to memorize; you fail. You miss the MP3 functionality. It's not fun. :(

--janak

[brntcrsp]

My J568 resided in my should bag, along with a couple books. Arrived at work and swung the bag over my head, it slipped off my shoulder and landed squarely on the ground with all the books on top and the J568 on the bottom. I knew the screen was gone before I even picked up the bag.

[PPCWanderer]

I have a Jornada 548, 2 years old. The case is dented from the many times it has been dropped and sat on. It is so dented and bent that after all of the screws holding it together finally fell out, it took a hammer and pliers to mold it back into shape, I had to use screws from a eyeglass repair kit and spent an entire night forcing the holes in the case to line up with the screw mounting holes in the frame.

Since then I have had to take it apart to use a can of air in it to blow the dirt, not dust, from under the screen, from the contact points for the CF slot and the charging cradle.

It no longer works with the cradle, and the only sync option is with my laptop via IR. The power cable only charges the PDA when I use binder clips to hold it in the charging port.

The toggle wheel/Select button no longer returns to the original position when released and I have to make sure that I push it back to the right spot or it will just keep scrolling around the screen on it's own. In order to use the select button, I have to force the button to the rear of the machine while simultaneously pressing in on it.

The cover broke off in the first month I had it and the screen has been pretty much unprotected since then. The screen is scratched but not broken and the system still runs fine, expect for the caveats listed above. The 548 reminds me of the Bradley I used to drive, it's too heavy, too big in all the wrong ways, a little slow, and would sink in water, but I could always count on it and it made me feel safe from all but the biggest bullets.

I plan on a new machine in 6 months, or sooner if the 548 dies. I wonder if the new 1910, 335 or the V35 can take this kind of punishemnt for 2 years and still be usable? I know I will certainly miss the 548 when it is time to let it go. I will probably pass it to my son to replace his Gameboy. I certainly won't feel that sure of the toughness of these new lightweight PDAs.

[bdegroodt]

This is a big leg up of the Blackberry/Good Technology units. I think you can use them as skip rocks and still have no damage to them aside from an occasional screen cracking.

I dropped my original 36xx Ipaq when I first got it from the roof of my car, unprotected onto the garage concrete. Dented the case as it landed right on the top left corner. Not a problem with it operationally though.

I have a bad habit of dropping my cell phone and that was one of my biggest worries with my PPC PE (But then the paint started wearing off, so I sent her packing.).

[Gen-M]

I left my first iPaq (the 3650 in my avitar) on the roof of my car and drove off. It landed in the road and was run over.

Compaq replaced it for $125. :D

[bdegroodt]

I left my first iPaq (the 3650 in my avitar) on the roof of my car and drove off. It landed in the road and was run over.

Compaq replaced it for $125. :D

Oh man! That hurts just to look at! Stop it! Make it go away!

[toml]

A bit embarrasing, but here's my story about how I killed my Casio E-125.

I like to listen to audio books, with Audible player. I was using it for that, with the earbuds on. Well, nature called. Decided to keep listening. The ear buds didn't reach down to the floor when my pants were down around my ankles so I unclipped the PPC from my belt and set it on the counter. As I was finishing up, I moved my head such that the PPC got jerked into the toilet, while running.

Ugh. Glad I got that CompUSA warranty :)

My wife has an Ipaq story too. She does support for Microsoft and as the only PPC owner in her group she decided to take on Reader support, become the guru, and train her group. She went in to start the training, and promptly dropped the company's only Ipaq and broke the screen. Doh! MS Professionals aren't even exempt.

[medic119]

Here is a tale I posted on Brighthand on 1/23/01 about my Car wreck and my Jornada 545. I ended up selling it about 6 months later for almost full price.

"Here is my tale for all you other users who think the Jornada is a bad investment because it Slow/Heavy, etc etc.

I was recently in a car wreck where I dumped my Truck in a River (due to rain). My Jornada 545 was in an Arkon Dash Mount when I wrecked. Well the 545 Was tossed clear of my vehicle & the Mount(via the Passenger side window which broke at some point).
When I found it (I was uninjured) It was laying about 30 feet away in the middle of the interstate (I am surprised no cars hit it!)

Well Now for the good part. Thank goodness for Magnesium Casing. Outside of a lost stylus and Two small Dents (one on the Bottom Right corner and the other Top Right corner) The thing Survived! The screen Works, Digitizer is fine, No other scratches ANYTHING!! My jaw dropped when I saw it still Worked. Try that with a Ipaq or Casio!

Well Thats my Story.. And for those wondering I have 7000 worth of repairs to my Truck!

If I had a Digicam, I'd take a picture.
The loss of the Stylus gave me good cause to order a Color Cover ...

LONG LIVE JORNADA!! The Thing is a TANK!"

[JornadaJ]

When I was in the Army, we grounded our gear next to a range. (Rifle qualification.) I had my PPC in my gear, specifically in a spare ammo pouch on my gear.

Well, the range went a little later than we thought because of some reason. When darkness fell, some supply guy started taking equipment back to the HQ in a HMMWV, ("HumVee"). Well, he thought he had enough moonlight to where he didn't have to turn on his lights until he hit the road.

He missed *most* of my unit's gear, grounded, in formation, just off the road. I say most, because he didn't miss mine, which was out in the front of the formation. Crushed. There was the shell of the case and a surplus of crushed parts, all neatly packde in an ammo pouch. I swear I heard the crunch about 50 yards away.

When I called hp and explained it, I think the guy had the best laugh ever. I did get a replacement. I mailed it to hp, ammo pouch and all. (Had to make sure they got all of the parts.)

Probably the only one here that had their PPC destroyed by a HumVee. That is why I am so adamant about hp going back to the metal case like the 548, which I think would have survived...

This is still not as bad as a fellow officer who had his in the pocket of a flak vest. His platoon was at the grenade range. He had a lot of new soldiers in the unit, and his Platoon Sergeant had this thing he did to prove to the soldiers to trust their flak vest. He would set a flak vest a few meters from a grenade and set it off, to prove to them that it would stop shrapnel. Usually, he'd buy an old one from some of the Army-Navy surplus stores around there. But he didn't that day. He came up, and asked my buddy for his, and told him he'd get him a new one. My buddy, forgetting that his PPC was in the pocket gave him the vest. He didn't remember until after the Platoon Sergeant had set it up and pulled the pin. I remember his words. "It hit just just as I saw him running back over the berm...and then BOOM!"

Needless to say, destruction by grenade is not covered.

[Freak]

Well my story is of the old days when I still had my Casio E100 (Yeah it's a Win CE story 8) )
I was grabbing a bucket of water and had forgotton bout my E100 in my shirt pocket and certainly when I bend over my PDA took a dive and went right into the depth of a bucket of luckily clean water 8O. In panic I grabbed the device out and was about to break out in tears. Water was coming out everywhere and luckily I didnt get tempted to just wipe it of and turn it on. Instead I went straight to the operating table, opened it up and ripped it's gutts out :twisted: and started using a hairdryer to dry everything off. An hour later under lots of stress I got everything back together. No less than a miracle it was alive, HALELUYA!!!!
I was so happy that I sold it immediately and got myself a casio M500 :wink:
Nowadays I avoid wearing shirts completely :roll:

[MultiMatt]

I have the worst luck with peripheral devices:
I have a Symbol Wireless Networker card for my iPAQ 3970. I love it. I take it with me wherever I go. Recently, I was in San Francisco with some co-workers, and we stopped by the beach. The Symbol card was in my pocket (I was just using it earlier), and in the midst of pulling something else out of my pocket, the card dropped onto the ground! The bad thing is, I didn't know it! At some point, a co-worker looked down and saw it!

But it gets worse!

Apparently, while the card was on the ground, I stepped on it! In a panic, I cleaned the card off and inserted it into my iPAQ. Luckily, the card still works! It looks bad, but it still works!

I have the worst luck with all of these little peripherals! I've broken, forgotten or nearly lost way too many items! I'm glad to see models like the Toshiba e740 and the iPAQ 5400 offering integrated Wi-Fi. I need as many things integrated as possible, for my own good!

http://www.pocketpclouisville.com/images/crushed_WiFi_Card/crushed_WiFi_3.JPG
http://www.pocketpclouisville.com/images/crushed_WiFi_Card/crushed_WiFi_2.JPG
http://www.pocketpclouisville.com/images/crushed_WiFi_Card/crushed_WiFi_1.JPG

Matt

[sfjlittel]

I broke the screen of my casio once :-)
I threw it in the air and it landed with the screen on the corner of the table. Cracked digitizer. :-(
Happily Casio sells them separately for only 18 Euros, so I the only thing i didn't like was living without it for a month or two (during the holidays).

Now it works again, as good as before.

[yawanag]

Not sure I understand what a uber-destroyer is but this is the worse that has happened to me since I have owned a PPC.

1) The cover for the CF slot broke on my Jornada 548. I called and emailed for a replacement but HP was too busy promoting the 565 and 568 to care about the 548 customers. I never got the cover because I didn't want to send it in and be without it for something I could do myself.

2) I downloaded "Nice Start" on my T-Mobile and my PPC froze and died. I sent it in for a replacement. I had to be without it for seven days because it was back ordered. That was a difficult time for me since this also meant that I was without a cell phone for seven days. I prayed that I'd have no emergencies during that time. I had the Jornada as a backup.

I emailed the folks at TranCreative and let them have it. They apologized and proomised to lok into the matter.

After I got my T-Mobile back and received a message from TranCreative I concluded that the problem was more because I had Pocket Facelift loaded. I love "Nice Start" but am afraid to try it again.

I'd like to hear from someone who has both installed and no problem.

[nineline506]

ive had some good luck with screens my self. in the summer i had my pocket pc in my front pocket of my shirt, listening to some through the little speaker. i bent over to pick something up and it slipped out of my pocket and hit the floor. i picked it up and it had i nice crack in the screen. what really sucks was the fact that there was a thick rubber mate 2 inches from were it hit the ground. ordered a screen from foxconn fixed it and this november i little snowstorm came (good old canada) and i was showeling my driveway and i had my pocketpc in my coat pocket and i must have hit my pocket pc with the showel or somthing. when i reached it my pocket to get my pocket pc to uses it the screen was cracked again. good thing i ordered 2 screens from foxconn when i break my first screen.

[Alucard]

never cracked the screen, but I have had to get my iPaq3635 replaced more than once due to dropping.

1st time: accidently hit the wall when I was tossing it onto my bed; ruined the screen alignment, couldn't get it to realign

2nd: fell on the ground while attached to my USB sync cable, ruined the connector on the ipaq -- I could still charge it with the sync cable, but that was the end for data communications

3rd: must have been reading too many ebooks, d-pad suddenly stopped working

really glad I got the next day replacement carepaq. :)

now getting an Axim. 8)

[Sheynk]

NOT A SCRATCH




I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo over protective

[carphead]

My story...

My trip is across country with about 20 miles along roads one step above a dirt track. About two or three month of the year they get a bit waterlogged. So a couple of years ago I brought a LG Phenom Express (I know it's not a PPC but it is a WinCe machine so live with it).

At the same time I decided to buy a ex-army Land Rover (1980) which I drive when I know the roads are going to be dodgy. It takes me twice as long as the Land Rover will only do 50mph but it's still quicker than taking a 50 mile detour and it’s was handy for lugging stuff to the rubbish dump. I was renovating a house at the time so it paid for itself in a couple of months. So I figure I know these roads fairly and drive through this flood. But it turns out the road underneath the flood has collapsed. 8O

The land rover stalls in the middle of the flood despite having a water proof exhaust. The water comes in the windows. I know I'm in trouble when the Phenom which was in the back of Land Rover comes floating by and out a window!!! The last thing I remember was how impressed I was that it didn't sink! :o

The worst bit was explaining to my boss how I lost a 4 grand top of the range laptop at the same time. In the end I dumped the laptop on his desk and tipped out the water and mud! :lol:

These days I have a 3975, T68i, IBM Laptop, Renault Laguna for the summer and a 4x4 with a very big waterproof locker in the boot!!!!! :)

[denivan]

Jason, where is the 'this poll sux and your hair stinks' option ? ;-)

Anyway, not many damage to mine, minor paint damage on the D-pad and silver slider off my ipaq 3660. Has been replaced twice for stylus lock issues, going back this week for battery and screen flickering issues. Also, the bottom connector is broken I think, most keys of my foldable keyboard stopped working, and it works fine on another ipaq. I'm glad I've got a carepaq ;-) I'm still getting a Dell when it comes in europe tho, the ipaq will serve fine as my girlfriends first PDA ;)

[Janak Parekh]

Great stories so far, guys!

Jason, where is the 'this poll sux and your hair stinks' option ? ;-)
It's not Jason's poll. He's the only one obsessed with his hairdo. :lol:

--janak

[M4X P0W3R]

I can confidently vouch for my Toshiba e740... well, when it comes to physical durability anyway :wink:

One day, walking down the stairs holding my PPC with my headphones (which have a 2 meter or longer cord) plugged in, I stepped on the cord, flinging the PPC out of my hands and down 7 feet onto the concrete floor! After losing 2 years off my life, I rushed down to check it, and though it had hard resetted, it was fine. The surprising part is that it landed sort of on the audio jack, and instead of the headphone cord breaking the PPC, the PPC bent the headphone cord to hell, and yet stayed perfectly intact itself--I can play mp3s as good as before, no problem. I find this surprising, considering how many cd player headphone jacks I've broken through much less extreme circumstances...

[ExtremeSIMS]

I am back in the PocketPC camp after destroying my Zaurus. The screen is cracked in two places and the digitizer does not work, but the unit still functions - which makes the damage all that more bitter.

Evidently while watching Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, the CF WiFi card slipped between the case and the screen. I have a bad back as a result of botched surgery, so as I pressed more and more into the case during the movie, I could not feel it. End result is the smashed screen. :cry:

One of the reasons I bought this new Toshiba e740 - no CF card to get lose and crack the screen. :P

[arutha]

My Tales of Woe and Destruction:

iPaq 3630: Purchased a used one of these after my MIPS-based Casio was starting to get weak in the knees. A couple of days after I got it, I stuck the naked device in my front shirt pocket and took the dog for a walk. Out of nowhere came an unexpected rainstorm, and that was the end of that one. I sent it back and had them repair it. I also had them fix the dust. I think they ended up replacing the whole mainboard.

Fujitsu LOOX: OMG, I'm on my third one of these in as many months. I dropped the first one (about a one foot drop) on concrete. It still worked fine, but it had some cosmetic damage on the casing. Since I'm finicky about this sort of stuff, I ended up replacing it. The second one developed the nasty dust problem. Since I'm not willing to put up with this, I did the old stick-the-hair-in-the-gap to clean it out. I ended up adding more dust, and the screen became discolored. I thought I could just clean the LCD by popping it off, but when I did the screen cracked! Ack! I'll probably send it in to Fujitsu and put it on eBay.

BTW, my two year old Casio E-125 and Palm IIIC are both in great shape. :)

[jutae]

I dropped my old Ipaq 3835 and cracked the top black portion. The power button fell out. I simply put it back in and super glued the crack. Of course super glue doesn't last forever and the power fell out again and I lost it. Stoll I could press the little pad to power on and i superglued the crack again. Well after press that little pad (think it had a spring under it) too many times it stop working and I had to rely on powering on with 1 of my 4 hardware buttons, and just let it powered down by itself. Three months later, I bought a brand new 3955 and gave the 3835 to my wife :lol: Thinking about fixing the 3835 though. I saw the part I need at Ipaq Parts Store http://www.services.foxconn.com/?pModule=Home for $29.

Jutae

[ipaq adam]

All these stories are great, and make me feel less bad about all the pain I've put my iPaq through.

I got an iPaq 3670 a year ago today. Since then, I've dropped it twice due to my own carelessness but without incident. I got paranoid that it would happen again, so I popped on the included "Coverpaq" plastic sleve to help protect it - big mistake! The iPaq slipped out of the sleve one day when I was holding the thing upside-down and landed on the "record" button, cracking the case and splitting it open on the left side. Still works great, except some dust got under the screen and I had to put some signage vinyl over the missing part of the case.

I also spilled some Yerba Maté (http://www.guayaki.com) (a coffee-like drink) all over the iPaq once. Gosh, did I feel stupid. The digitizer didn't work for 2 hours, perhaps the scariest two hours of my iPaq's life. I was quite relieved when it worked again.

I was imagining all these scenarios where I could use the device without stylus input. I didn't come up with very many.

There was the incident when I washed the AC adapter with my dirty clothes, but that belongs in another thread, I suppose.

[Goosey]

The best story has to be about the guy who got his PPC gernaded :)

[seanturner]

I tried to kill an iPaq 36 something or other. My friend brought one over and he needed to test the durability of the thing for his boss. So, we got started on ways to destroy it. So, I threw it on to my wood walls several times but the thing kept on ticking (although it did make a mark on my wall). Then, I took a really powerful magnet to the case and made the screen flicker and stuff but it still came right back. Then, I ran some tap water over it and it still kept ticking. So, I dropped it in my pool and that finally got some wierd parrot to appear on the screen then it died. But, then, the next morning it came back. So my friend, after passing it on the durability test, came with me to my vacation home in Oregon and we took it out back and shot it from behind with a .22. It dented the back but still kept working. Then, I took a .223 AR-15 and shot the screen. That went straight through. I wish I had had a digital camera at the time... And for those of you who are wondering, he had to give it back anyway so he wanted to go ahead and obliterate it...

[seanturner]

The best story has to be about the guy who got his PPC gernaded :)

I shot an iPaq 36something or other with an AR-15 :?

[Janak Parekh]

I tried to kill an iPaq 36 something or other. My friend brought one over and he needed to test the durability of the thing for his boss.
Instead of the AR-15, wouldn't a hammer have been simpler? ;)

--janak

[seanturner]

I tried to kill an iPaq 36 something or other. My friend brought one over and he needed to test the durability of the thing for his boss.
Instead of the AR-15, wouldn't a hammer have been simpler? ;)

--janak

What's the fun in that?

[seanturner]

Actually, I also fried a Sony VAIO R505 once.

We got one of the targus notbook power adapters that plugs into the laptop and has two prongs comming out of that. It is designed to take 19.5 volts DC through there but we plugged those prongs into a wall outlet and it made a pretty impressive spark through the keyboard. It actually blackened a section of the motherboard...

[Pony99CA]

I had to vote "Dropped but no cracked screen", but I have cracked a screen.

First, my Pocket PC story. I carry my iPAQ 3870 and its dual PCMCIA sleeve in an iHolster. I was running with my daughter one day, and she bumped it. The iPAQ flew out of the holster, landed face down on the concrete sidewalk and skidded for a few feet.

I thought my iPAQ would be dead, but I picked it up and and turned it on. It worked fine; even the sleeve was working. There were some minor scratches on the case and sleeve, but those could have been worse -- the runners on the sleeve probably helped by lifting the iPAQ slightly off the sidewalk.

Now, for my cracked screen story. I had a Sharp Mobilon Handheld PC which I loved to play a game called Emerald Hunt on. You move a little tractor around with your stylus. I played it so much that the screen developed scratches and eventually cracked.

The good news is that the Mobilon still works for the most part. You can't tap the screen in very many places, but because it has a keyboard, I can use keyboard shortcuts to do most everything if I wanted to. Sadly, the batteries are probably dead now.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I broke the screen of my casio once :-)
I threw it in the air and it landed with the screen on the corner of the table. Cracked digitizer. :-(

If nobody else is going to ask, I will. Why would you throw a Pocket PC into the air?

Steve

[Pony99CA]

The best story has to be about the guy who got his PPC gernaded :)

I shot an iPaq 36something or other with an AR-15 :?

Yeah, but I wouldn't count that. You were trying to destroy it. Anybody can destroy something if they want to, but it takes a real good story to get yours blown up with a grenade by accident. :-)

Steve

[Diane Dumas]

Sad tale in the life of a Casio PPC!

http://www.pocketpcpda.com/video/mpg/DroppedCasio.mpg

Diane~

[KyleC]

How about "I dropped it, in its case, and my case that I paid good money for didn't protect it! :evil: " which is what happened to my handheld. And it was only a few feet above a tile floor! :roll: Anyway, back to the subject at hand: my handheld was cracked, I sent it to Toshiba, and now I have a repair bill of $130! But that's a topic for another time...

[Hau Wei]

Here are the recipe for the best sizzling dish of PocketPC steak:

1. Working PocketPC
2. 6V 4aH sealed Pb battery pack (Or any other high voltage/maH battery pack)
3. Connector cable with polarities switched. 8O

Making the dish:
1. Plug the battery pack into the PocketPC's power jack.

There you go! Served hot for one.

That's my story and right now I'm PPCless for a month already. Sigh. :(

[eric linsley]

Well i ahe had my own share of destruction. However This is about my customers at compusa.
We have a replacement plan that does include damage so we see quite a few "recks". I think the worst one was when a guy ran over his with his tractor "for his farm". We also have had them washed in laundry machines, ran over by cars, used as chew toys by pets, adn possibly the worst DROPPED IN TOILETS, EWWW...............
Me ive gone through 3 devices.
I had a Hp Jornada that i dropped "cracked" and then a ipaq 3670 that bumped against a table "crack" and now im on a iapq 3955.
Heres hopeing.
http://it1.aulr.edu/elinsley

[JornadaJ]

One testimony to the PPC, yesterday I was concerned about my PPC. We were visiting family and it was in the high 20's yesterday. I spent a lot of time outside and then coming in the very warm house to eat/sleep/watch football. I had a bad feeling about the condensation in my PPC, but it did not become an issue. I was pleased...

[mmidgley]

i can understand that minor damage stories are not near as interesting to read as the total-loss ones, but why not include that in the poll at least? i couldn't vote because i have dropped my iPAQ, scratched it, etc--but nothing catastrophic.

m.

[EmTClyp]

Ok, I have a good one.

I was leaving church one night and had my iPaq 3650 (in the slip on standard case) and my CF sleeve in the outside pocket of my Bible cover. I had placed the Bible on the roof of my van so I could help one of my kids get into his car seat. Well, you guessed it, I left the bible on the roof. I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main highway, a four lane highway with turn lane and proceed to drive about 100 yards to the Sonic drive thru. As I pull into the turn lane I hear something sliding on the roof. I immediately know what it is and my heart just sinks. The next thing I see is a little black rectangular object come flying off the roof. At this point I'm in panic mode. I pulled into the Sonic and parked right next to the road. I hopped out and looked on top of the van. My Bible had stayed on top thanks to the luggage rack on the van. I look in the side pocket and much to my surprise my iPaq is still in place!!!!!

However, the CF sleeve is gone. I walk out to the road and again to my surprise I find the sleeve sitting on the side of the road, but the CF card is no where to be seen. I'm walking back to the car and notice this shiny object in middle of the road. After making sure the coast was clear I run out to it and it is the CF card. I figure there is no way this thing is going to work, but the CF sleeve and card worked just fine. Only damage is a few scratches on the sleeve and card.

I could not believe my luck. I guess God is a PPC fan. :D

[KyleC]

How about "I dropped it, in its case, and my case that I paid good money for didn't protect it! :evil: " which is what happened to my handheld. And it was only a few feet above a tile floor! :roll: Anyway, back to the subject at hand: my handheld was cracked, I sent it to Toshiba, and now I have a repair bill of $130! But that's a topic for another time...

Just got my handheld back today! There's something magical about turning on your Pocket PC and using it when you haven't in a long time. I certainly felt that today. :D