Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 1

Hi,

I recently ordered a Visor Prism, my first PDA. I received it on Saturday, charged it up for 2 hours as recommended, and then settled in for what promised to be a wonderful day of learning and playing. I was greatly dismayed to find that the LCD display on my Prism was defective.

The unit's display was almost completely dark at the top, and slightly brighter at the bottom. Adjusting the brightness control did nothing to alleviate the problem. I noticed that by tapping the Prism gently (or squeezing the case just below the number entry graffiti area) I could momentarily get the display to light up the way it was supposed to, but it would always flicker and become dark again. There is obviously a loose connection or cracked PCB trace in the circuit that supplies power to the LCD light tube.

Anyway, I've seen a lot of discussion on these boards about graffiti recognition problems with the Prism, and I was wondering if anyone else had a display problem such as this? In reading the user reviews of the Prism on this site, I noticed a negative review from one person who described his display as "dark at the top, washed out at the bottom, and flickering"... the same as mine. I wonder if he realized his unit was defective? For the brief moments that the unit was working properly, I thought the display was beautiful.

To Handspring's credit, I called up and described the problem, and they immediately issued me an RMA number and sent out a new unit, which I hope to receive this week sometime. I suspect they've had other units returned with this problem already, as they made no attempts to have me fix the problem myself. FWIW, I had one of the "Boxster" Prisms.

--Rob