My Little Pal lives again!!!!!!!!!

[kazbluesky]

My Little Pal lives again. Took me about 25 hours of farting about.

About a month ago I posted here that my lifeDrive had just become an unresponsive brick. Well, I sent off for a new battery and it didnt appear to make much difference - still a brick. Then I started unplugging the battery and trying a reset and stuff and occaisionally it would start up but then hang on the palm screen and fade to white. I tried to do a Hard reset but the button down wouldnt do anything except blank out the screen and then I would have to unplug the battery and then plug it in and then plug in the power occaisionally it would try to rebbot but would always hang again then after trying a million combinations I kind of hit on the right one.

If yours is a brick try this. Unplug battery , leave it 3 minutes then push a couple of the buttons (dont ask - it just works!). Plug in the power and then plug in the battery. Now after trying this a few times (it takes a couple) you will get the hard reset screen - do nothing! leave the unit plugged in to power like that for about 30 mins THEN push the down hard reset button. It will hard reset. Then unplug battery once more then plug in the power cord then plug in the batter and do a soft reset and everything works again.

I recon, though not being a tech in any way, it is all to do with the power management . Something gets confused between the battery and the power charging and the machine goes silly.

For those of you with out of warranty LifeDrives sitiing in their drawers spend an hour trying this - it took me literally hundreds of wacky permutations to get this (yup I know, I seriously need to get a life) but maybe with this info it will only take you a couple of goes and you can have your lil pal back!

Anyway, good luck if you try it.

[Bexuanmai]

Congratulation , welcome back from death.

[kazbluesky]

Thankx , Im a happy chap!

[tomlouie]

Congrats on figuring out the steps!

Just curious, will the LD run off of the power plug, with the battery unplugged?

I'm willing to bet that the LD won't charge up its battery unless the battery voltage is under a "battery low" threshhold. Many Li-Ion chargers avoid topping up the battery if the battery seems to have enough voltage. Apparently many Li-Ion batts can burst into flames if improperly charged.

So, if somehow the LD charging circuit "battery low" threshhold value gets jiggered too low accidently, then it won't notice that a battery needs charging until the battery completely runs out of juice.

I bet that the random keypresses act to completely discharge whatever juice is still stored in the capacitors of the battery-less LD, and then that must allow a proper reset of the low battery threshhold.

[kazbluesky]

Tomlouie,

no, the LD wond work when plugged into the mains without the battery plugged in. I think you are right about the buttons. Without that step the process wont work.

My LD is still working !!

Im so happy to have it working again, didnt realise how much I had integrated this into my work and social life. Dictionaries, language lessons , music, my books and family photos, timers and encyclopedia for work, calender, watch and alarm clock, and remote for work/home TV satelite and car.

[Dick Tracy]

Great news!

[SoS]

Great job Kaz. I feared we had heard the last of your LD!! Welcome back to LD land...

[Daved40]

I think your point is very well made! Yesterday my LD crashed. I pushed the re-set and it did a soft re-set and when it finished it went beep and the screen went black. It would not power up!!! With no power no reset of any type was possible. I was really upset!
I decided to simply let it sit for about an hour, then plugged it in to recharge. About 1 hour later the LED showed amber and, VIOLA, it powered up and all was well.
There is definitely a power management glitch in this PDA. Too many anecdotal stories to dismiss the concept.
With all that I still feel the value of the LD for me is greater than the occasional pain it causes. :)

[op31972]

hi! I'm having problems like kazbluesky and trying to do the same procedure but nothing works yet. I noticed something, the LD does work when the ac adapter is connected to it and no battery plug in. I also have a question: If the palmone screen can be seeing that means that the microdrive still works? Also I can get into the secure/quick erase screen but after that nothing happens.

[kazbluesky]

ok , its dead. And im admiting defeat.

I have a question for anyone who has bought an LD recently. If your LD came with update 2 was anything else tweeked at the same time? Im kind of thinking of buying another (I just use the damn thing so much) but because I cant return the new one under warranty if I have a problem this one has to work reliably from day one. Has anyone had problems with a recently produced update 2 LD?

[slaughters]

...Has anyone had problems with a recently produced update 2 LD?I don't know if there is a LD being produced with the 2.0 update all ready installed on it. Palm has sent me a total of 3 replacement LD's over the last 9 months (two in the last month) and not one of them had the 2.0 Update on it when I received it.

[SoS]

I don't know if there is a LD being produced with the 2.0 update all ready installed on it. Palm has sent me a total of 3 replacement LD's over the last 9 months (two in the last month) and not one of them had the 2.0 Update on it when I received it.

that is a ridiculous situation - what are Palm up to??? :eek: :mad:

[slaughters]

-what are Palm up to??? :eek: :mad:Best guess? Dumping their remaining old stock of LifeDrives.

Faint Hope says: To make room for the next Mobile Media Manager Generation !
Harsh Reality says: To get out of the PDA market so they can focus on Smart Phones.

[bulls96]

ok , its dead. And im admiting defeat.

I have a question for anyone who has bought an LD recently. If your LD came with update 2 was anything else tweeked at the same time? Im kind of thinking of buying another (I just use the damn thing so much) but because I cant return the new one under warranty if I have a problem this one has to work reliably from day one. Has anyone had problems with a recently produced update 2 LD?


what happened man? this time it just wont turn on anymore?

[kazbluesky]

bulls96, basically yes - it just doent turn on anymore. It worked fine for a week or 2 but always reset after the battery charged then it started to just turn off by itself for no reason and I had to unplug battery to get it going again. Seems to me that the micro drive worked fine , it was something to do with the way the unit worked out the power. Anyway, its completely unresponsive now.

As some of you might remember Im not an LD basher, I loved that machine, it was incredibly useful for me, but Im really hesitant about blowing another 500 dollars (to get it delivered to Japan) on a machine that I cant use the warranty on and that seems totally unpredictable in terms of when it will cease to work. If the newer manufactured devices had been de-bugged maybe Id feel a bit more confident about buying another.

It's such a shame as I have gathered loads of excellent, useful palm programs and yet it looks like I might have no option but to go windows mobile now (though on principle not made by Palm).

I feel really pissed off at the people at Palm because even without Flash memory if this machine had been absolutely reliable (like we had a right to expect it to be) it would have been almost unbeatable. As it is, on most other forums this machine has been branded a joke because of its reliability issues alone. Crazy to wreck your brand name for the sake of a few more dollars in testing.

Anyway RIP my little pal. While you worked, you worked well.

Anyone got a suggestion for what I should buy instead?

[ronsoo]

I thought this will never happen to me... but it did. My LD died last evening after a few soft resets ! Many hours of re-charging via the USB cable and AC power could not even bring the screen to wink or blink.... my LD remained a brick!

I then did exactly the steps KAZBLUESKY had shared and my LD came back to life !

"Thank you, KAZBLUESKY !"

My only input would be that you have to be gentle when prising the back case open with a screw driver. The case is made of plastic and too much pressure with the screw driver may result in "dings and dongs" on those gaps by the sides.

My life is back to normal!

[ronsoo]

bulls96, basically yes - it just doent turn on anymore. It worked fine for a week or 2 but always reset after the battery charged then it started to just turn off by itself for no reason and I had to unplug battery to get it going again. Seems to me that the micro drive worked fine , it was something to do with the way the unit worked out the power. Anyway, its completely unresponsive now.

As some of you might remember Im not an LD basher, I loved that machine, it was incredibly useful for me, but Im really hesitant about blowing another 500 dollars (to get it delivered to Japan) on a machine that I cant use the warranty on and that seems totally unpredictable in terms of when it will cease to work. If the newer manufactured devices had been de-bugged maybe Id feel a bit more confident about buying another.

It's such a shame as I have gathered loads of excellent, useful palm programs and yet it looks like I might have no option but to go windows mobile now (though on principle not made by Palm).

I feel really pissed off at the people at Palm because even without Flash memory if this machine had been absolutely reliable (like we had a right to expect it to be) it would have been almost unbeatable. As it is, on most other forums this machine has been branded a joke because of its reliability issues alone. Crazy to wreck your brand name for the sake of a few more dollars in testing.

Anyway RIP my little pal. While you worked, you worked well.

Anyone got a suggestion for what I should buy instead?

I have done what you have suggested earlier and it worked.... but only for a day and a half. The problem returned and I did exactly the same thing with a little additional this time...

I somehow have this feeling that the power slide switch at the top of the LD cannot be trusted. Thus, I have used a third-party software called "ButtonEx". With this, I have created my own "power on" and "power off" keys on the hard buttons. I have been using the hard buttons to switch my LD on and off since.... and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

[Pdaman]

and i did think that there is something news about ljp =D oh how many brains i have... lol

[kazbluesky]

Im happy it worked for you. Mine is simply junk now. I took out the microdrive and now have a 4 gb storage drive for my family photos and that's that as far as my LD goes.

I bought a new (non-palm) machine about 2 weeks ago. The only programs I cant get for it that I really really REALLY miss are PalmFiction (Mobipocket sucks large and Isilo, even if you pay for the superdooper version, isn't anywhere near as good) and the brilliant Padict (Japanese Dictionary).

Loved my LD, but a 1 year reliability (and I consider myself one of the lucky ones) is ridiculous for a 400 dollar device. However, I checked out so many other devices and it made me realise all over again what a gem the LD is/was - the screen is BEAUTIFUL you should see some of the crap screens out there. However, I just couldn't buy another LD, kind of felt I would be rewarding crap business policy and lack of testing/rush to market practices.

Anyway, Im happy all those hours of farting around trying to get my LD working was of use to someone else too.

[ronsoo]

Kazbluesky, my LD suffered the same fate... it did live but only for a very short while. It is really dead this time. Couldn't revive it anymore.... My LD with a life span of slightly more than 1 yr is finally gone.

But I didn't want to give in nor surrender... I called PALM and demanded for an explanation but there was none for me. My persistency paid off with PALM eventually giving me a replacement. I collected my replacement LD this afternoon... and despite the fact that it is a refurbished set, it really look brand new !

I'm now hoping that this new LD will outlast all the other PALMs that I have had.

[bulls96]

Kazbluesky, my LD suffered the same fate... it did live but only for a very short while. It is really dead this time. Couldn't revive it anymore.... My LD with a life span of slightly more than 1 yr is finally gone.

But I didn't want to give in nor surrender... I called PALM and demanded for an explanation but there was none for me. My persistency paid off with PALM eventually giving me a replacement. I collected my replacement LD this afternoon... and despite the fact that it is a refurbished set, it really look brand new !

I'm now hoping that this new LD will outlast all the other PALMs that I have had.

Wow you were still able to get a replacement even after more than a year? how did you do that?

I am still praying this doesnt happen to me... how can i prevent it? :)

[SoS]

Wow you were still able to get a replacement even after more than a year? how did you do that?

I am still praying this doesnt happen to me... how can i prevent it? :)


they may have taken so much flak over the LD reliability thing that they have just given up.. Have to say, mine is great after ~1.5 yrs now (just less I guess) but I am knocking on any available timber as I say that!!!

[Bexuanmai]

My LD has died :(
Now I have a small brick :(
I can't find tool to open the coin of LD ( my country doesn't use that coin )
I'm still confused :confused: