Clie "going nuts on aircraft" (story at CliePlanet)

[andrewcoffin]

The note below appears in today's CliePlanet update. I'm so glad that someone else brought this up--it describes exactly what's been happening to me lately. I use a T615 and hadn't had any trouble at all using it on airplane flights (and I took quite a few of them) initially. However, during trips I've taken in the last 5 months or so (I really noticed it this past December for the first time), my Clie has been unusable on airplanes or even in most airports.

I flipped out the first time it happened. I thought that my Clie was fried and called Sony when I reached my destination. However, it returned to normal--until I took the return trip home. I've flown several times since then, and the same thing has happened. I also tried disabling hacks and getting rid of FastCPU as possible solutions, but nothing seems to help. The stylus doesn't work on most of the screen (all except a small portion at the bottom), or sometimes just sporadically. My Clie always works fine later, however.

My guess now is that this is somehow due to heightened security measures, but I have no idea if this is correct. I'd love to figure out a way to keep this from happening, as flights are an ideal time to take advantage of a Clie's excellent time-wasting capabilities (and occasionally important work too)!

Have others had this experience? Are other Clie's responding the same way? (So far, it has been documented with the T615 and T665.)
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Anyone else had this problem?- "Hi! I'm an Australian T665 user, and I love your website - I usually visit every day or two to get the latest news. I wanted to bring to your attention something I just noticed (and maybe find out if anybody else has the same problem). I have been travelling the last few days, and have found that my Clie T665 goes nuts on the aircraft. The problem has been related to very inaccurate and erratic stylus behaviour. Hard buttons and jog dial work well, but it's as though stylus calibration is way off. I tried soft resets, disabling all hacks etc (very difficult with completely random stylus behaviour!). Also recalibrating stylus/screen. All to no avail. Graffiti is impossible. I was getting very worried, as I had done nothing unusual, and then when I arrived at my destination, and was trying to use it in the terminal at baggage claim, and same problems. Once I was out of the terminal, everything was back to normal. So I thought "just some weird temporary glitch". This morning I was back on the plane, and the same thing happened. This time it was fine when I was in the terminal (but different airport). However this evening, back on the plane again, but no problems this time. Each time I was flying on a Qantas 737, but the final aircraft was an early model 737-300, the others were more modern models. I'm thinking some sort of unusual electronic interference. My laptop (an Apple Mac PowerBook G4 800MHz Titanium) was fine on all flights. Anybody else heard of this? And does it happen with other PalmOS devices?"
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[Burdie]

There have been a couple of other threads about this - it did not seem, at the time, that many people had experienced this. The consensus seemed to be that the problem was something to do with the cabin air pressure, and, perhaps, the tightness of the screen.

I have not flown with my T665 yet, but I had the same problem with my T415. The buttons would work, but the screen wouldn't. It usually went back to normal after the plane landed. I did notice that it took a few days for the screen to work properly after I flew to Colorado, and was staying in a camp at 9,000 feet. So that makes me think that it is something to do with air pressure.

I'm relieved that I am not the only one who experienced this!

Burdie

[MaceList.com]

Up until 6 months ago I caught planes all over the world every week or so. I never had any problem with my T415. It would not have anything to do with air pressure though.

[wilsonch_98]

Maybe static?

[jimod]

Likely that it is getting electronic signal noise interfearing with it. The same problem that the airlines state as the reason they do not want any electronics used during takeoff/landing. It may have something to do with the way the clie is shielded.

Dunno, just runnin that up the flag pole to see if anyone salutes.

[UKClieBoy]

I used my N770 on a Virgin flight to Japan last year and it was fine both ways with no screen problems - more than I can say for those crappy TV monitors in the seats!

I am off to Japan next week again, but by KLM this time, so I will see what happens. Aaahhhh! Cheap Sony stuff in Japan! Beats the UK prices by a mile...

[sindu]

I have been flying around every 2 days and always with my Clie. Use it for MP3, Monopoly, and some work without problem.

[asindu]

Honestly I experienced my T615 digitizer going nuts aboard the airplane. It's only a 1 hour+ flight. I'm very much worried at that time yet when it landed everything is normal just like nothing happened. The problem is only for T615 ?

[ID Engineer]

Yes, it happened to my T615, on a two hour flight from San Diego to Salt City. Suddenly the touch screen wouldn't respond. I tried recalibration, multiple soft resets, etc. When I got home I put it in the cradle overnight, thinking that I'd have to do a hard reset in the morning. When I turned it on the next day all was well. I have no hacks so that is not the problem.

It hadn't occurred to me until I read this thread that there might be a connection to the flight. I fly all the time and had never seen this before.

[jimroad]

I was thinking if the unit went thru a metal detector, the magnetic signal could easily screw up the unit.

[Flash-57]

Everything seems to point to a physical problem, not an electronic one; the primary being that only physical controls (i.e., the stylus) are affected.

Remember that the stylus action is based on the fact that you put pressure on the screen. So, it makes sense that a change in overall air pressure could affect the way that the pressure of your stylus is interpreted by the screen.

[orol]

however, i haven't flown with my clie yet, with my old palm IIIxe/trgpro i didn't have any problem using it on board .. one very good thing about b/w screen i could read books for hours ..

[mmmm_beer]

I posted something similar to this earlier this year. My 1 month old T665 expierenced the un-responsive digitizer problem while on a flight. It seemed to disappear after a little while, only to appear after a few days/weeks. I noticed that if I applied some pressure to my Clie right above where the up/down rocker is, it would respond normally.

I called Sony, and they just repaired it, saying something about soldering a connection. Hopefully it will continue to work.

I also had a T615C before that, which I flew many times with. On a Christmas flight it started acting really funny. It started with that digitizer problem, then it would fail to turn on and off, without hitting the reset button many times. When I called Sony about that problem, they said the CPU was shot and that it would cost me $150 to fix it. They said it had no warranty since I got it on Ebay. Luckily I found one recently with a cracked screen and swapped the main boards to get it working again.

I don't know if it is a coincidence or not, but both of them started having problems while on a flight. Makes me a little wary of flying with it again.

[Willber-Force]

My opinion is that the digitizer problems are more likely to be caused by electronic emissions within the plane. The digitizer seems to be analogue in nature so it much more prone to interference than a digital signal. Why do I think it is analogue (other than it is an input device which are generally analogue anyway)? If you run YiShow or any other application where you can drag stuff around (something do draw will work) and press one finger on the lower left portion of the screen and another finger on the upper right part of the screen you should notice that the point that the pen appears to be at is between your two fingers. If you press harder on one finger the pointer will be dragged towards it and vice versa. So the signals obviously vary in magnitude and are not digital.

There are probably more sources of electronic emissions on a plane than there are in other places. Most of it is sent out intentionally through powerful communications equipment and others unintentionally (but planned for) such as generators in the aircraft's engines and the wires arcing behind the wall next to your seat waiting to cause a fire. ;)

So you have a nice big area with electrical current flowing through it waiting to be disrupted. Solution: Make a faraday cage for your Clie ;) :D

My $0.02

[Burdie]

Willber-Force:

Thanks for the 2 cents. It makes sense to me, but it still leaves me with a couple of questions.

Why does this effect some people's Clies, but not others?

And, at least in my case, did the Clie work OK for a while on the plane, and then quit?

Puzzling.

Burdie

[Burdie]

One more observation. The people who have had problems have, from what I can tell, all been owners of T series Clies.

I don't recollect owners of other Clies (or other Palms for that matter) posting about this - just T Series owners.

Burdie

[wilsonch_98]

Hmm....maybe good to try asking sony......

[Unregistered]

I have a N610C and the trip to hawaii a couple of weeks played havoc with my little machine. The digitizer was erratic and would often respond only when i touched down and went through the digitizer resetting sequence. It hasn't worked the same since--hope i don't need a new digitizer