What would you do?

[iPAQi]

I need some advice from the PDA veterans out there.

I recently purchased an IPAQ 2210/2215 (my first PDA). After getting it all set up with my appointments, contacts, avantgo subscriptions, etc., I crawled into bed that night to read my tasks for the next day and found that the screen would not respond to my taps with the stylus. It was if the touch screen was completely dead. I could open applications with my pre-programmed buttons but anything to do with the touch screen was impossible. I decided to do a soft reset but that still did not fix the problem. After about 5 soft resets with no luck I gritted my teeth and decided to do a hard reset.........now I was at the startup screen where you align the screen with the stylus and still got no response from the touch screen. After about 3 more hard resets, I decided to remove the battery for about 5 minutes to see if that would work.........still no luck. It was time for bed so I decided to remove the battery overnight and let the backup battery completely drain. When I got up the next morning and re-installed the battery, everything was back to normal. I now have everything all set back up and it's working fine.

Question 1: Has anyone ever experienced this and is this very common?

Question 2: Would you return the unit for a replacement fearing that this might happen again or would you just keep using it to see if it recurred?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[David Prahl]

This is very irregular, and I think you should send it in to HP. Now would be a good time to do so, since you're going to have to load everything onto a device again anyway.

:D :)

[dmacburry2003]

I bought a Franklin Ebookman PDA once (have since switched to Pocket PC) and the same thing happened to me. But, I noticed that when I bumped the EBM, the screen responded. Bumping it again, it did not. So, I opened it up and found part of the small ribbon cable connected to the touchscreen to be unevenly inserted in the slot on the motherboard. Upon adjusting the cable, and supergluing it, I fixed my problem (unfortunately, the EBM was put together like a piece of CRAP, and I messed the case up totally trying to open it). If you know what I am talking about, and if it is the same problem, you can probably fix it yourself.

[Janak Parekh]

If you know what I am talking about, and if it is the same problem, you can probably fix it yourself.
I would not recommend this for a new unit -- it will void one's warranty.

--janak

[dmacburry2003]

Yeah, that's probably right.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

Question 2: Would you return the unit for a replacement fearing that this might happen again or would you just keep using it to see if it recurred?

I know someone who had a calibration issue with his 5550 screen, and he was turned around in one week with a repaired unit. My advice? Call HP. Might was well get this all worked out early in the life of your new toy.

[iPAQi]

I called HP Tech Support yesterday and explained the problem to them and they had no record of such a thing ever happening. His advice was to try it for a week or so and see if it happened again. He said he felt like this was an isolated incident but he could not guarantee that it would not happen again and re-assured me that it was covered under warranty until December 2004.

It would be real easy to call the merchant I purchased it from and swap it out now since I just bought it, but it would cost me shipping both ways to do it. I'm thinking about doing daily backups and just trying it for a week or so.

[Sven Johannsen]

On the Backup front, I highly recommend Pocket Backup. I know a light version comes with the 2215, but I don't recall all the features it has or doesn't.

One I like is the ability to schedula a daily backup and limit the total size of backups or the number of them. It can create an backup in executable form that you just tap and it restores your device from factory fresh. I would presume you could pull the SD card I have this on, on my 4155, put in a new 4155 and basically get a clone of my PPC.

I have this running on both mine and my wife's PPC. I have exercised it a lot on hers. Seems that the case doesn't keep the thing from being turned on in her purse, and once on, pressure on the touch screen keeps it on, until the batteries die. Restoring her machine has been a once a week event. Mine is in an aluminum proporta case, though it is for a 1900, and I have no such problems.

[Dave Potter]

I bet this negative experience sort of ruined the adrenaline rush of getting a new PPC, eh? I wouldn't risk it. You payed enough money for the damn thing - you shouldn't have to 'tippy toe' around with it fearing another 'coma'.

I'd exchange it for a new one with the vendor.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

shouldn't have to 'tippy toe' around with it fearing another 'coma'.

I'd exchange it for a new one with the vendor.

Absolutely. It is kinda silly to have a brand new device and in the back of your mind wondering every single day if you're going to hit something or do something to make the screen stop working.

I say send it back while they aren't fighting with you about it.

[karen]

This happened to me once. Check around the edges of the screen to see if anything is lodged between the edge and screen. If so, it is already 'pressing' the screen, so no other screen taps will work.

...and I also had the inside connector problem, too. But I agree with the rest - if that's the problem you want the vendor to fix it so that your waranty remains in place.