Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 201

As some of you may know, I've done a little dance with Handspring regarding my Prism, and I finally got one that seems to be ok. But my question to the group at large is this: I recall when the inital reviews for the Prism came out, there was mention of "slight screen flicker" due to a slow refresh rate. Now, out of the 5 (yes, 5) Prisms I've had sent to me, two had painfully bad flicker, two had no flicker at all, and one (the one I've got now) seems to have the afforementioned "slight flicker", which is more like a ripple effect over the pixels, but then goes away. I'm curious to know: are there any other Prism users encountering this same situation?

(Or do I just keep getting the shaft from HS?)

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 14

Hi - I have had my prism for about 2 weeks now and also notice a slight flicker. It's not quite bad enough to be annoying, but it's definitely noticeable.

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 1

Prism Flicker

I, too, notice the flicker on my Visor Prism. It occurs several times a day (that I notice anyway). Though not bad enough to warrant a return, I do notice it.

This morning I called Handspring about another (unrelated) issue. I asked the tech support guy if he ever noticed Prisms with screen flicker. He said he had never heard anyone mention that before. His response almost made me want to return my unit.... until I found this thread today.

I'm not alone it seems.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Streamwood, IL USA
Posts: 118

Screen Flicker eh?

I wanted to chime in and let you know that I have had my prism for about a week and I have not experienced any of the 'Flicker' you mention. I have noticed a much slower refresh rate however. I have a connect 4 game that repaints the screen after every move. It is no problem on any monochrome device, but it is just long enough on the Prism to lose the animation effect and cause a problem trying to find when the computer played.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 8

I too have experience the occasional flicker on my Prism. The only thing is that it only seems to flicker while I'm using AvantGo. This may be because this is when I sit and stare at the screen for long periods of time, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's application specific.

Is anyone having a similar experience? Are there certain applications where you notice flicker?

Michael

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 201

Re: Prism Flicker

quote:

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Originally posted by martinledford
I, too, notice the flicker on my Visor Prism. It occurs several times a day (that I notice anyway). Though not bad enough to warrant a return, I do notice it.

This morning I called Handspring about another (unrelated) issue. I asked the tech support guy if he ever noticed Prisms with screen flicker. He said he had never heard anyone mention that before. His response almost made me want to return my unit.... until I found this thread today.

I'm not alone it seems.

---

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 76

Are you talking about a flicker, or the wavy line thing? I've seen both called "flicker," so I just wanted to clarify. I've seen both; the flicker I've seen is just that, the screen will flick off almost inpercetibly for a fraction of a second. My first unit would do that intermitently; it didn't bother me too much. I've also seen the wavy line thing, now on two units. If move the unit, even slightly, shimmering, shifting wavy lines drift across the colored parts. It shows up more prominently in some colors than others. With the wavy line thing the unit is still usable, but I find it pretty destracting.

So, I had a unit that worked just fine, and the screen had neither problem. However, the paint was pealing (see other thread ), so they sent me a replacement. The replacement Prism had the wavy line problem. In addition, I also noticed that colors didn't show up right, particularly in the Photo Album app. Some pictures show up blotchy and pixilated, like the Prism isn't displaying 16 bit colors properly. I called customer service yesterday, and they promptly offered me a replacement, which (amazingly enough and to their credit) arrived this morning. However, the new unit has exactly the same problem, the wavy lines, the funny looking pictures.

Today, I called tech support, hoping against hope they could tell me to do something other than send it back. The agent of course professed no knowledge of this problem, and didn't have anything very useful to tell me other than do a hard reset and call back if the problem doesn't go away. Well, it hasn't.

So, just how prevalent is the "wavy line" thing? Is it them, or do I just have bum luck? Otherwise, I guess I'm just sharing, or venting. I now have three Visors sitting on my desk, and fourth will soon be on its way. It's almost comical. My Visor collection may rival CompUSA .


[Edited by valodya on 01-04-2001 at 01:19 PM]

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 201

quote:

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Originally posted by valodya
Are you talking about a flicker, or the wavy line thing? I've seen both called "flicker," so I just wanted to clarify. I've seen both; the flicker I've seen is just that, the screen will flick off almost inpercetibly for a fraction of a second. My first unit would do that intermitently; it didn't bother me too much. I've also seen the wavy line thing, now on two units. If move the unit, even slightly, shimmering, shifting wavy lines drift across the colored parts. It shows up more prominently in some colors than others. With the wavy line thing the unit is still usable, but I find it pretty destracting.

---

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 76

I now have 3 Prisms in my desk drawer, and number 4 is on its way. I called tech support again, and this time he immediately offered a replacement. I asked if he knew anything, and he didn't, and he sounded rather baffled. He put me on hold for a while, presumably to ask someone something, and came back with no new information. He did ask me a few questions about the problem and what solutions I tried, I don't know if he was taking notes or if this was just his own curiosity.

I did try to tell him that I saw posts by others in various fora about this same issue; I'm not sure he believed me. To Handspring's credit, they didn't question the veracity of anything I said, and offered another replacement with no fuss or muss.

Here's hoping the last one works. If it doesn't, I think I'll give up and keep the one with the pealing paint for a while and see what happens. Maybe it'll be like the grafitti problem. They'll keep sending out replacements, professing no knowledge of the problem, until one day a software patch magically appears.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 76

OK, I too need to settle. I've gotten unit #3 with *exactly the same* problem. I'm sick of sending units back and forth (even if they're paying) and I'm going away for a while, so can't really deal with it anyway. Now I can't decide which unit to send back. Would I have a Prism with a perfect screen, but pealing paint, or one that has a pretty outside, but (somewhat) snarky screen? Opinions anyone?

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA Interests: Women, Drums, Visors, Computers, Home Theater and any cool gadgets.
Posts: 138

quote:

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Originally posted by valodya
OK, I too need to settle. I've gotten unit #3 with *exactly the same* problem. I'm sick of sending units back and forth (even if they're paying) and I'm going away for a while, so can't really deal with it anyway. Now I can't decide which unit to send back. Would I have a Prism with a perfect screen, but pealing paint, or one that has a pretty outside, but (somewhat) snarky screen? Opinions anyone?

---

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I don't NEED color, I crave it!
<BR>Just a fan! <A HREF=" http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/ "><IMG SRC=" http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/nav/foot-station.gif "></A><BR>

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Oxford, OH
Posts: 60

Possible Solution

I have been lurking around this forum for a while, thought now that I have actually got something to contribute, I might appear.

I had the flicker problem, and the wavy line problem on my first unit. It was not that annoying, but I was by a CompUSA one day, so I thought I might see about replacing it. They did a great job, I did not have the box, nor receipt, but they replaced it right there... even let me open about 5 boxes to check them all out to see which one I wanted. I really commend them on that.

However, after a little while with my new Prism, I noticed the wavy line... so I set out to solve it myself. What I found out was that the Afterburner hack fixes this!!! Atleast, it did for me. I only saw that wavy lines in a couple of apps, so I set Afterburner to to speed these up, and tada, the problem dissappeared... plus my Prism is a rocket now too.

Thought you all might want to know.
-Russ

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, Washington
Posts: 293

I got the flicker problem too on my prism.
the flicker just appeared when I move my prism.
is it normal? is everybody got the same problem too?
so, do I need to return the prism?
thank's

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I Love My Prism!

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

I just got my prism replaced (recharge LED croaked) and I also have the "flicker" on the new one, but it doesn't really bother me so I am keeping it. Here's something fun, put the prism down and move your head around, you'll see the flicker without actually moving the prism, so I am thinking it's some kind of optical illusion. Maybe they are using different LCD's with a different refresh rate, in any case the colors look a bit different than on my old unit (I compared them side by side before I shipped the broken unit back).. I don't have a screen saver and I am not running hackmaster or any "afterburner" type apps, but I may just try it to see if the effect goes away.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 3

I'm on my third Prism. The first one (purchased the first day they were available) worked great but had the paint problem. The second one had the "wavy lines" problem (and the paint started coming off after a week!). I don't use screen protectors, so I don't think that's the problem. The girl at Handspring told me she had never heard of such a problem (wavy lines), either. My third one, which I received just today, has a perfect screen, which is also a lot brighter than Prism #2.