A Nearly Miraculous Recovery.

[gregmills]

This morning my pocket computer's digitizer seemed to be lost. Tapping on the far left of the screen activated items on the far right. I did a soft reset, no good. I did a hard reset and on the align screen it would only seem to recognize taps on the left half of the screen. I took out the battery for a few minutes then tried it again, same problem.

I figured it was some kind of short in the connections so I tapped it on my desk, same thing. Figuring that it was probably a lost cause anyway I bounced it off the thick carpet floor of my office, same thing.

I carry it in my pants pocket and sometimes (especially with jeans) the unit gets flexed pretty tight around my leg when I sit down. So I gripped it with both hands and twisted it until the case started creaking. That did it!

I could restore from my backup now but I think I'll get a fresh start and just re-install everything.

[hamishmacdonald]

I know! I had the same thing with my Asus (MyPal A730W). I bought a hard case for it, and was really impressed with the industrial design of the thing, but apparently sitting on it is just too much strain. On a couple of occasions the screen wouldn't register input, and it was very scary. Surprise: the issue went away when I stopped sitting on it. (And I'm a skinny guy.)

I like the idea of a hard case. I liked it in my old Jornada; that the thing was a tank, and that if I dropped it, it was be protected. This hard case came with a belt clip, but unfortunately the clip was cheap, fragile plastic that only lasted two days. The case is still great, but -- where do you put it? I don't ever want to leave the PDA in my jacket, which means...

Yup: a utility belt. I wound up using the supplied Asus belt case. Happily, it's a decent one -- the only good case I've ever received with a Pocket PC. Nice magnetic enclosures and all.

I must embrace my geekness.

Here's the hard case for the MyPal 730 series, if anyone's interested:
http://pdaden.com/shop/catalog/product_16868_Metal_Case_for_Asus_A730_with_foldback_lid_cat_408.html

[fivepetpalace]

This morning my pocket computer's digitizer seemed to be lost. Tapping on the far left of the screen activated items on the far right.

Sometimes a screen saver can cause this behavior, you simply take it off and put it back on.

Michael