SJ20 without digitizer

[tomwendy1313]

I recently purchased a Sony CLIE SJ20 from ebay. It has no digitizer. I knew this at the time, but it was so cheap I couldn't pass it up.

When I power it on, the Setup Screen comes up (I don't remember if that's what it's called, it's the screen with the rotating PDA in the lower right corner w/ the stylus jumping out). Obviously at this point I'm supposed to remove the stylus and tap the screen to continue. But since I have no digitizer, I'm stuck.

So here's my question: Does anyone know of a way to bypass this process and go to the Apps screen (main menu)? I know within the Palm OS, there are tricks and shortcuts that the developers build into the OS, so I'm hoping there is one for this problem.

Thanks.

[michaelwbyrd]

No digitizer? You don't by any chance mean that it is missing its stylus, do you? Assuming that the screen is in good condition you can use any object (or your fingernail) to enter info on the screen. The stylus is just a stick with a rounded plastic point - I'm sure you can find a replacement at a store that carries Clie accessories or someone else on this forum can point you in the right direction.

Hope I haven't made a bad assumption here. If you're talking about a more serious problem with your Clie and I'm too dense to understand your question then please forgive.

-M

[tomwendy1313]

No, I'm referring to the glass that covers the LCD and registers touch input from the stylus (or your fingernail).

I was able to advance to the next screen in the setup process by pushing buttons (I don't know what sequence). But now the pda is at the "digitizer setup" screen. That's the one with the "X" in the top right corner of the screen. I can't find a way past this screen, since I have no digitizer (tap-sensitive glass).

Any suggestions? I'm looking for something like a programmer shortcut or a backdoor, maybe.

Thanks.

[smoothjordan]

I'm sorry, but you just wasted your money. I had an SJ-20, and broke the digitizer. No matter what I did, it would always be stuck at the digitizer setup screen. I was so pissed I disassembled it and had fun looking around. A waste really.
Smooth

[sj22Gam3r]

hey i dont know what this will do but have you tried the hard reset button? well what i would do and this has fixed several problems for me is hold down all 4 buttons on the front and hold those down while you use the hardreset keep holding them down until a screen on your palm should pop up and it will say erase all system memory and it might reset the digitizer too you just have to try it

[smoothjordan]

NO, a hard reset will keep it the way it is. Gamer, he DOESN'T HAVE A DIGITIZER so how could he reset it? Please read carefully before posting.

[BOJI4OHKA]

Define digitizer.
How can a handheld not have one if it is the sensitive glass on lcd?
errr. sorry for dumness..

[bre]

He bought a broken Clie on eBay figuring he could just fix the glass top and use it.

Tom. I have the same problem (and stuck at same screen) and am looking into getting a digitizer (glass top) and repairing it myself. I haven't been able to find anyone that will repair it but a few will sell the digitizer for about $45 incl shipping. Let me know your progress on this and I will do the same.

[strider_mt2k]

You can always check out www.gethightech.com too.
EDIT
Here's your digitizer (http://www.gethightech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SO1375&Category_Code=DIG)

They, as well as other companies sell replacement parts for PDAs!

Bringing that SJ20 back from the edge of oblivion will garner you a working PDA (cool in itself) AND you can tell the story of how you did it to boot! (Suprising how many self-proclaimed techies won't open a case!)

I got my first Palm OS machine by doing that.
It was a free non-working PalmPilotPro that only needed it's display connector re-seated

[smoothjordan]

It's almost worth just buying a new PDA rather than putting glass in it. That's a personal opinion though. Oh, just to let you know when my Digitizer broke they wanted 125 dollars just to fix it. That was more than I had paid for my SJ-20!
Smooth

[tomwendy1313]

Update: i purchased another non-working pda on ebay (this time an SL10, which has less memory and a green backlight) and installed it's digitizer into my SJ20. A pretty simple procedure, and substantially less expensive than buying a digitizer from gethightech.com.

Now the pda works great, but I've since discovered that the rechargeable Li-ion battery is worthless (something the seller didn't know or failed to mention). Oh well, I've gained a bit of experience.

BTW, while I had both the sl10 and the sj20 apart, I noticed that the battery assembly for the sl10 (basically a box that holds the 2 AAA batteries) plugs into the main board the same as the li-ion battery does on the sj20. So when I realized my sj20 battery was toast (no longer holds a charge), I thought I might be able to simply switch the two, making the sj20 a 2-AAA powered pda. But that doesn't work, either. Even though the main board looks the same in both pda's, the 2 leads from the batteries don't line up.

So I guess now I need to buy a li-ion battery.

Or maybe I'll buy another dead clie on ebay. One with a good battery! :)

[ewb49]

I have digitizer screens for the SJ series. They are a pain to install since you have to remove all of the circuits and the LCD because the wiring runs under it. I also fix them. If interested, let me know.
ewb49@go.com

[sj22Gam3r]

Dude for what your paying buy a clie sj-22 for 98 bucks or this other one 400mhz for 115 bucks good luck
heres a list of good prices
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_gen.php/form_keyword=clie/topcat_id=1/mode=googlecp/ut=04a28756d2398991

[Yonatanz]

Hi, I am in somewhat the same situation as Tom.
I was given (for free) an old PalmPilot Pro that got broken.
the glasstop+digitizer literally smashed to bits.

After disassembling and removing the broken glasstop, I realized I can't get away from the digitizer screen.

Ofcourse the obvious solution is to buy a working digitizer, but I was wondering if anyone knows where I could find the specifications for the 4-pin interface of the digitizer...

I am looking into making this Palm the controller of some system I'm working on (since it's easy to program, etc.), so I'd rather not have a digitizer, and maybe even connect something else instead of it

[Unregistered]

I guess it doesn't matter much, but I managed to get out of the digitizer calibration routine without a digitizer and glasstop.
I am not sure how to reprodce it EXACTLY, I just know that this worked:

1. Power the device up "for the first time", you get the rotating palm animation screen.
2. Press reset, you should now be in the digitizer calibration screen (tap on the target in the topleft corner)
3. using a small wire, short the 3rd pin of the digitizer connector (on the back of the display board), with the big metal place of the display. this simulates a click, which I believe is considered the top-left corner of the digitizer.
If this virtual click worked, you should hear a small tick sound from the speaker, and the screen changes and asks you to tap on the lower-right.
NOTE: from my experience, you can short any other of the 4 pins of the digitizer, this didn't seem to do any harm...
4. this is where I'm not sure what I did that made a difference :)
keep "clicking" by shorting the metal plate with the pin for a while, then disconnecting, for a few times.
5. reset the palm
6. If you did what I did, then you should now be in the preferences application, in the "General" screen, where you can (if you have a working digitizer) set the date/time, sound and other options...

From this point, I was able to do HotSync.
I am now experimenting with an application that on-reset, binds itself to the DateBook hardware button (so I can later run it on demand)
So I can practically do anything I want with the Palm now... which is much better than before :)

Also note, that I once accidently made the program hang the OS, and had to do a hard reset, and go through the 6-step process described above for the second time.
Since I was able to reproduce the require sequence of actions to some extent, I decided to write it here for everybody to know.