Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

Hi..
I have had my Prism for several months now and have been very happy with its performance. I am a long time user of handhelds beginning with the Newton, moving through various Palms and now to the Prism.

In the last few days I have noticed a strange buzzing sound coming from the Prism. As I was trying to figure out what was going on, I noticed that if I tipped the Prism one way or another the buzzing would start and stop. Further, as I held the Prism, I noticed that putting a very slight pressure on the back of the case stopped the buzzing. From that I concluded that the screws on the back needed to be tightened. One of the screws (lower right) seem to be loose, so I tightened it up slightly and the buzzing stopped. I noticed that if I tightened it too much the buzzing came back.

However, the next day the buzzing started up again, so I again tightened the lower right screw, and this time I noticed that the screw must be stripped because it will not tighten down all the way like the lower left one does. To get the buzzing to stop this time I had to loosen the lower left screw.

I want to assure you that I take very good care of my Prism and have not dropped it or anything like that. I keep it in case, as well. Further, the Prism is performing properly even when buzzing. No crashes occured and no resets needed to be done. Finally, I have not put any new software on lately, though I have many third party apps on it. It seems pretty clear to me that this is a hardware problem not a software one.

Does anyone have an idea of what is going on or what might be a solution?

Thank you,
Jo

Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 31

I would give Handspring Tech Support a call. Maybe they've had other people with the same problem.

Good luck!

Barb

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Princeton, NJ
Posts: 3

I had the same problem when my Prism first arrived. Open the case by removing all 6 screws from the back. (Don't forget the 2 screws on the Springboard slot!) You can then separate the top and bottom halves of the Prism. The bottom half of the Prism includes the battery and the speaker (a small copper disc), each connected to the top half by a pair of wires. Take care to hold the two halves close enough so you don't pull the wires apart.

You can turn on the Prism at this point, and see where the buzzing noise is coming from. In my case, it was coming from the speaker. It appears that the pair of wires leading to the speaker are supposed to be taped down to the back of the case with a small bit of adhesive. The adhesive had come loose, so the wires were jiggling around, creating the buzzing noise. I simply pressed the adhesive against the back of the case and the wires stayed put. I put my Prism back together and the noise has been gone ever since.

(Disclaimer: I don't know if this voids your Handspring warranty. I'm not much of an electronics expert, but it was easy enough for me.)

Hope this helps.