Power Settings - Turn Off Device on External Power

[Dave Potter]

Maybe this is a silly question...

When my iPAQ 1935 is cradled and charging/synching (via USB), it stays on all of the time - even when the synch finishes. It seems to me that this may be causing extra wear and tear on the device and the screen. I have the backlight set to turn off after 1 minute - this works fine. I also have set the device to power off after 2 minutes on external power - but this doesn't seem to be happening.

Ideally, I would like it to shut off after synching is done and then occasionally turn back on to re-synch - about every hour or so - and then shut off again.

Am I doing something wrong? Are the 'Turn Off Device on External Power' settings being ignored because the unit is still connected via USB?

[Dave Beauvais]

There's really no "wear and tear" to worry about simply by having the device turned on. A friend of mine routinely leaves his iPAQ on with the backlight on full brightness for hours on end in its cradle. He's been doing this nearly every day for almost two years without a single problem or hardware failure. Personally, I set mine to just turn the backlight off after ten minutes but the iPAQ itself remains on while connected to external power.

Short of dropping it or scratching the screen, about the only thing you would have to worry about is the lifetime of the battery. It's very likely that the iPAQ will continue to function perfectly long after it's outlived its useful lifetime for you.

[Dave Potter]

Interesting...

Is there a way to have it shut off though?

[Dave Beauvais]

As long as you're not running an application such as Windows Media Player which prevents the device from turning off, it should turn off as long as it's configured to do so. I'm not sure what to tell you, but maybe someone else can suggest something.

[PetiteFlower]

if you have it set to sync continuously, it won't shut off, and if you turn it off manually it will turn itself right back on. You have to change the sync options as well as the power options.

[Dave Potter]

That's what I thought too...

I have tried setting it to 'Sync on connection' and ' Sync Manually'. I have also varied the 'Turn Off Device on External Power' time from 1 minute to 10 minutes. It still won't turn itself off!

The only way that it will turn itself off is if I disconnect the USB cable and leave the charge cable attached - then it shuts down properly. Unfortunately, this sort of defeats the purpose of having it in the cradle.