Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 40

ARRRGGH! Almost every time I put new batteries in my VDX, everything goes wrong! The screen flashes, it makes beeps, then it comes to the typical (for me!) hard reset screen, where it asks if you want to erase all data. Even if I hit no, all my 7 megs of stuff are gone when I go back! I need to re-install AvantGo and Docs. To Go, and all the programs and books and pictures take about 5 minutes! By the end of that sync, my battery has drained at LEAST 1/4 of the way. And this happens about every other time I replace batteries. Anyone have any "tips" for replacing batteries?
(I'm gonna get the Full Charge for Christmas, but at my rate, I'll need new batteries every week until then)

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

Hmmm... are you taking an exceptionally long time to change the batteries? The only thing I can think of (besides flaky hardware) is that the capacitor used to hold the memory intact during battery changes (approximately 1 minute is the "official" time allowed for changing batteries), is bad. You may want to contact Handspring Tech Support...

__________________

God bless America, my home sweet home...

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 54

Personally, I would NOT take more that 10 seconds to change batteries! Get your batts ready, (sitting in front of you)... look at the batts in the compartment... pop them out and pop in the new ones.

I have had my visor dlx loose every thing in less than one minute.

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: USA
Posts: 75

guess I'm lucky - I changed mine while driving one night, because I needed to get to my directions for where I was going... Didn't lose any data, I know it took more than a couple of minutes, because the batteries fell out of my case and were rolling all over the place !

**NOTICE**
That stunt was performed by a trained professional on a closed track, do not try this at home !

;-)

Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 216

I wonder...

After reading about this happening to some people but not to others I have an idea.

When people are replacing their batteries...

a) are they leaving the Visor ON when they do this?

b) are they accidentally hitting the power button when the old batteries are out or the new ones not yet fully installed?

Either of these scenarious could lead to very rapidly discharging the "hold-over" capacitor.

I know that the very first time I replaced my Visor batteries, I had the unit off, replace the batteries in under 20 seconds, turned the Visor back over and it was ON and showing the Palm OS logo. Scared the hell out of me because I thought I had lost all my data. (I didn't.)

I remember that my ring finger of my left hand was right on top of the power button as I held the Visor while replacing the batteries. I thought that I could have pressed it while inserting the new batteries.

After that first time I make an effort to keep my fingers away from all of the buttons while changing the batteries.

Just some ideas.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 40

I take great care in seeing that the batteries are out no longer than 5 seconds. Of course, the power is OFF while doing this. Yet 7 out of 10 times it would...like blow up (you hafta read the original post!) Is it my VDX?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 431

jackal,

You might want to try changing your batteries the way that I had to on my old PalmPilot Pro. I had to replace the batteries one at a time instead of taking both out at the same time. I supposedly had a capacitor problem.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Normal, IL. Really.
Posts: 1

Same problem Delux and Palm III...

I have the same thing happen from time to time. Replace the batteries, turn the thing on and get either nothing or the Palm OS spalsh screen that flickers every couple seconds. I get the same thing on my wife's Palm III. To get past it requires a hard reset and reload. This happend, most recently, this morning on the PIII but I was able to hold the up arrow and get the thing running. This is the first time I have been able to do that.