Treo 680 lighting up spontaneously; is this a ghost?

[Alex Ethridge]

I have noticed that just recently my Palm Treo 680 screen will light up all on its own, spontaneously. Just now I noticed the keyboard, just the keyboard, was lit up. When the screen lights up spontaneously, it lights up to whatever screen was in use when I turned it off last. In other words, if I was playing Solitaire when I turned the screen off, then Solitaire is what is on the screen when it lights up spontaneously.

This seems to happen about every 1- to 2 hours.

The only thing I installed recently was DateBook6 Trial; but, if I remember correctly, I think this started shortly before the installation of DateBook.

[Another Michael]

I have noticed that just recently my Palm Treo 680 screen will light up all on its own, spontaneously. Just now I noticed the keyboard, just the keyboard, was lit up. When the screen lights up spontaneously, it lights up to whatever screen was in use when I turned it off last. In other words, if I was playing Solitaire when I turned the screen off, then Solitaire is what is on the screen when it lights up spontaneously.

This seems to happen about every 1- to 2 hours.


I also know this behavior from my Zire71 and T5 and i don't know where it came from ... (screen flashes sometimes on my Z71 an the Palm powers on without any interaction by myself.)

[Alex Ethridge]

I uninstalled DateBook6. Then I did a little research that turned up a thread about possible problem with contacts on the SIM card. I removed the SIM, cleaned it with paper napkin and denatured alcohol and put it back in.

I'll post back when I know if any of this helped or not. I've done two things so far and if the behavior quits, I won't know if it was the uninstalling of DateBook6 or the cleaning of the SIM; but, we'll see.

[philpalm]

If it ocaasionally flashes, that is a tough thing to detect. Usually when a repairman is nearby such flukes rarely present themselves.

I suppose if it is a quick flash, it would not be as bad as the constant green light my Treo 650 does (but at least I know when to recharge it when the blinking stops). All my Palms turn on if a memory card is inserted, so I suppose it is related to that feature. Otherwise I doubt if it is a program that is activating on the screen for the last screen used.

[juggernaut#2]

are you sure you don´t have any alarm set that will do something - note that not only alarms count but any type of schedule, which is called an alarm as well, i.e., with 2PlayMe, with powerhero, with a profile manager, with whatever software does something in the background? any software that does something needs to wake up the palm and thus will cause it to light up for a brief moment - in order to turn the screen off, you need to wake up the device which will light up the screen thus causing this brief "flash" of the screen :)

[Alex Ethridge]

When it comes on, it stays on 30 seconds, the preferred time-out for the screen.

No alarms related to this. I do have alarms set for appointments; but, I've been using that feature for over a year without this problem.

[Aces]

My 680 has done that for a long time (maybe always). I only would notice it at night, as it's face up on the nightstand. It has to be related to the cellular provider; because it doesn't do it if I have the phone radio off.

[Alex Ethridge]

Since cleaning my SIM card and uninstalling DateBook6, I haven't noticed a spontaneous turn-on. I'll watch it another day or two and then reinstall DateBook6 and see what happens.

I'll keep the thread updated with the result.

[Furball]

I noticed this happens a lot with my Treo 680 when I turn it off while on the Contacts (phone) app. Aside from that, haven't noticed it happening anywhere else.

So I just go back to the launcher and turn it off from there. Not sure why it would do that on the Contacts app though.

[Alex Ethridge]

Well, I've decided it is either the cleaning of the SIM or the uninstalling of DateBook6 as it hasn't happened since I did those two things.

I'll reinstall DateBook6 now and see what happens.

[Alex Ethridge]

Looks like it was DateBook6. As soon as I put DateBook back on, this problem started again. I took it off again and the problem went away again.

I know it could be a combination interaction with more than one program on my Treo; but, DateBook is the trigger in this case.

[Aces]

Alex, Did you use DateBk5 before this? Or just the standard datebook application? I'm curious if this could be inherent in the way DateBk works, or if in going to version 6 they changed something inadvertently.

[Alex Ethridge]

Version 5 has never been loaded on this Palm.