Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 16

quote:

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Originally posted by trentsongs


An HS Executive Relations Customer Care Specialist contacted me today to confirm that a new Prism that has been tested by a systems engineer was shipped to me with the assurance that it meets their quality and performance standards.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Mesa, AZ USA
Posts: 50

Response from Support...

After not getting a response to my email two nights ago, I called today.

I was told that they think one of my 3rd party programs is causing the problem. The suggested steps were:

o hotsync the Prism
o move the backup folder to elsewhere
o hard reset the Prism
o hotsync to reload the data but not the 3rd party stuff

At this time the Prism is supposed to work fine.

I seem to remember that I did a hard reset when I first got the Prism and was having problems then, but I can't be sure that it actually true.

I can't try this now as I'm at work and the NT wont work with the USB cradle (no serial cradle yet). So I will have to try it out tonight.

I have what I think is a real easy test though if someone is in a position to do this that is already experiencing this problem.

For a Visor DLX experienced user, If you can get to the point where you do a hard reset, go to the Graffiti learning program and test the writing there. It shows you what it sees when you enter the characters. If it is not similar to the Visor DLX, then the problem is most likley in the hardware. If it is fairly smooth, then the problem might as they are suggesting be one of the third party programs.

I will try it again tonight... it would be nice to see someone who has the problem and has used a DLX before can try this to see if it really makes a difference...

I also asked why this isn't on the web page and he said it was a "new" problem.... I suggested that perhaps they could save a lot of phone calls if they posted the info...

If it works, great otherwise it might just be a smoke screen...

Should have brought my backup module in today....

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Kevin Reed
TNET Services
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Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 19

I requested a replacement for my Visor Prism today. I went through all the steps, (digitizer setup, hard reset, test graffitti) and the problem was not me (I have been using graffitti successfully for 3+ years) and not my software. I will let you know if the replacement unit works better. Handspring was quick to answer my call and gave me no trouble with requesting a replacement.

Mark

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Mesa, AZ USA
Posts: 50

quote:

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Originally posted by VisorWA
I requested a replacement for my Visor Prism today. I went through all the steps, (digitizer setup, hard reset, test graffitti) and the problem was not me (I have been using graffitti successfully for 3+ years) and not my software. I will let you know if the replacement unit works better. Handspring was quick to answer my call and gave me no trouble with requesting a replacement.

Mark

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Kevin Reed
TNET Services
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Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Clarksville, VA, USA
Posts: 74

quote:

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Originally posted by krelvin

quote:

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Originally posted by VisorWA
I requested a replacement for my Visor Prism today. I went through all the steps, (digitizer setup, hard reset, test graffitti) and the problem was not me (I have been using graffitti successfully for 3+ years) and not my software. I will let you know if the replacement unit works better. Handspring was quick to answer my call and gave me no trouble with requesting a replacement.

Mark

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Its really wierd because I mentioned that a lot of people were talking about having problems and this seemed too easy of a fix. If it were really true that a 3rd party app was causing this problem, it must be very popular because a lot of people where reporting the same thing.

Also, if it really is the "Fix", then why would it not be posted on their web site yet?

I'll try it again tonight to be sure.. but I somehow think this is a smoke screen.

Last night when I actually started comparing my Visor DLX to the Prism, it was very easy to see the major difference.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 1

One more test...

The grafitti recognition on my Prism is very bad also. I've noticed some screen flickering and wondered if that could be part of the 'noise' problem discussed in the thread mentioned above. I've also noticed something else that is suspicious. In the Klondike (solitaire) game, if I drag a card and hold it with the stylus, it jumps all over the place. There are one or two places on the screen where I can get it to hold still, but everywhere else it is very jumpy. Can any of you duplicate this, or does the card hold still?

Chris

[Edited by axnar on 11-03-2000 at 05:20 PM]

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 6

Wow...very interesting posts

I am really finding this intriguing, reading all these posts about the Prism/Grafitti problems. I noticed so many common things, that are just to large of "red flags" for a company that has made it so far to ignore. (Oh, BTW I also have the same problem on my Prism, but I won't bore you with the same details about it as the rest of the posts. Mine is the same problem.)

I mean, wouldn't you think that as a company that is interested in reactions to their new products, that they would:

1. read message boards dedicated to their products like THIS ONE?
2. Acknowledge that there is a problem (seems that every tech that previous posters call said "This is the first time I've heard of this problem")
3. Based on the sheer MAGNITUDE of the number of people that appear to be having the problem, look into it. (DUH!)
4. Admit there is a problem. Microsoft is good at not doing this, and then releasing hidden updates called "security patches".

Here's another interesting thought. We have programs like Jot and TealScript that we can mess with to try to make it better (but between you and me, I really like Grafitti the way it is/was because I'm very used to it now). Wouldn't you think that if it is merely a software problem, that the way to fix it would be a update or a patch to the system software. I hardly think it's necessary to go through the trouble of sending out an entirely new Prism to fix this problem (and wait for shipping to happen).

Well, I may be speaking for myself on this one, but I'd be willing to admit that the rest of everyone experiencing this problem would agree. ATTENTION HANDSPRING: If you are really serious about keeping the diehard believers in the Visor products on your side, and retaining faithful users that have cast aside their Palm's, and not allowing the IIIc to be a better product despite its shortcomings, you may want to take a more pro-active approach (rather than just sending new units out) towards this issue. Use these message boards, we do! We all LOVE the Prism, it marks another milestone in the Palm computing platform, and gives Handspring another feather in it's cap, but don't let that feather get blown away in the wind. I am a former Palm IIIc owner, and a diehard Grafitti user of 3 years. I took the Palm IIIc back immediately when I heard the Prism was coming out. But if the Prism is going to have problems, I'd be willing to sacrifice 8-bits of color and 10+mhz of speed for flawless handwriting recognition and go back to a Palm IIIc. This isn't a threat, but more or less a plea for answers and support.

__________________
CJ Miller
Handspring Visor Prism
Palm III

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 13

quote:

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Originally posted by trentsongs
I look forward to posting a follow-up report of how a properly-tuned Prism should behave.

Darrell

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 4

Graffiti Sensitivity

I am also having trouble with the Graffiti. I was able to take notes in meetings with my Deluxe, but writing with the Prism is very frustrating.

I was hoping that once it was "broken in" it would get better.

It does seem more sensitive than the Deluxe, the letters have to be more precise.

The brightness idea is an interesting one, I'll have to try that.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Baltimore MD, USA
Posts: 717

After I took the 8 gauge vinyl screen protector off my Prism, my Graffiti recognition instantly jumped up to almost the same as my old VDX. The major difference is that it seems to have trouble with the letter "o".

Last night I got my TapPad ( http://www.tappad.com/ ) labels and registration code for the tappad hack. The peel and stick labels work wonderfully, with no noticable degredation of Graffiti recognition.

(as an aside, I found the TapPad to be one of those incredibly useful applications that should come standard with the Visor. It really makes text editing painless )

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 2

Mine is shabby too...

Well...After using my Vdx for almost 6 months now, I've really had a great experience with Handspring. Unfortunately though, I just received my Prism on the 3rd and it's been a pain in the ass ever since taking it out of the box. Let's run through the list, shall we?
--One of the pixels in the unit is dead
--Paint is already wearing off
--Battery power is poorly retained and is consumed rapidly
--Grafitti has pathetic recognition
--Race Fever is incompatible with the new OS (not really that important)
--Resolution is no where near as nice as the iPAC

Needless to say, it is being returned. However, I am very impressed with Handspring's prompt handling of the problematic prism. They have already dispatched a new unit to my residence, along with a return package to send back the defective unit. I guess I was just expecting a little more than what I got for 450.00....I will continue to purchase handspring products in the future though because even though I've had these problems, I feel that things are slowly going in the right direction...Hopefully we'll see a newer, higher resolution unit out soon...Or is it just wishful thinking???

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Re: Mine is shabby too...

quote:

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Originally posted by jdbaluch
Hopefully we'll see a newer, higher resolution unit out soon...Or is it just wishful thinking???

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 2

Yardie...When do you think the newer, better units will be coming out? Should I return my prism and just stick with the VDX until the newer unit comes out? Or, is it going to be a long time (4 months or more) ? Just curious...

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Speculation

quote:

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Originally posted by jdbaluch
Yardie...When do you think the newer, better units will be coming out? Should I return my prism and just stick with the VDX until the newer unit comes out? Or, is it going to be a long time (4 months or more) ? Just curious...

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Oklahoma City Ok.
Posts: 42

I don't know if anyone has tryed this but i just did and now i can see why the grafitti strokes can not be understood and all the mistakes are made, no mater how hard i try to make the best letters i can this app (tealecho) shows me that i can not make it better no matter how hard i press or how big i write, try it and see what i mean......

http://www.palmgear.com/software/sh...&prodID=311

it is free to try kind of thing.....

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 109

I tried it

My 2 cents. I went to the local Comp USA and tried graffiti. It worked excellent on the demo unit. (Which they did not have on display but in the back room).

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Nazareth, PA
Posts: 99

The Graphiti on my new Prism works better than perfect it regignized my fast crappy writing with no problem and with the brightness turned up all the way.

__________________
http://signature.coola.com/[email protected]

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: Brooklyn!
Posts: 6

I am not sure whether I have the graffiti problem or not. My Prism seems somewhat less forgiving of my writing than my BVD did, but when I slow down just a bit, it works perfectly well. I guess what I'm asking is whether the folks with the graffiti problem have it worse than this.

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Snowcap
It's what you learn along the way that counts

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York, New York
Posts: 560

quote:

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Originally posted by Snowcap
I am not sure whether I have the graffiti problem or not. My Prism seems somewhat less forgiving of my writing than my BVD did, but when I slow down just a bit, it works perfectly well. I guess what I'm asking is whether the folks with the graffiti problem have it worse than this.

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__________________
Felipe Garcia
Happy Treo 600 user, so far. Thanx Cingular for having an unlocked phone.

My Treo 600 is my phone, my PDA, my watch, and my MP3 player. Oh yeah, I take a picture once in a while with it. Convergence is such a great thing.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: DC Metro
Posts: 16

quote:

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Originally posted by yardie
My biggest complaint about the Prism is the graffiti. aCCURACY REALLY SUCKS. I am used to writing about 30 word per minute on my old deluxe with a very high degree of accuracy. Now I can't even write one word on the Prism accurately. Is there any way to bypass Graffiti (apart from the soft keyboard)? Tealscript perhaps?

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--Inspector Gadget

"Go Go Gadget Treo!!"
Treo 600 CDMA

Palm V-->Palm IIIc-->Visor Prism-->Visor Phone-->Treo 270-->Treo 600