rhs2008

Hello everyone, I've been a secret stalker of 1src, I've read a lot of things, but now I actually made up my mind and registered

UPDATE: After doing a lot of testing, results come up that the motherboard is bad. This can be hardware or software, I still need to check that out.

Well, now to my problem. So I've had my LifeDrive for about 1-2 months now, I got it from eBay (dun dun dunnn). I've never had any major problem with it, except of course for the sluggishness. It was exactly 1 week ago when I really started getting problems.

I was doing a photo shoot, and I was listening to music with pTunes. I decided to turn it off for the moment, and put it back into the leather case. It was when I tried to turn it back on, when I realized something was just not right. I didnt power on, and before I took off, I remember I had it charged. I thought "Well, maybe I just didnt turn it off, or something drained the battery, owell".

I got home that night and put the LD into the cradle, I waited about 1 hour, and it didnt want to turn on. Since I didnt have warranty, I opened it (I noticed it had marks on the case, which led me to beleive it had been opened before, but the warranty sticker on the HDD was intact. I unplugged the battery, plugged it back in and voilà! I saw the palm logo; it was resetting.

So I left it in the charger overnight, and the next morning, it seemed to work, but after I had it up and about, when I powered it off, it didnt want to turn on again

Now, I thought I could live with this, but it was until yesterday, when I unplugged the battery and put it back again, that it went into a reset loop. It would power on, I would see the Palm logo, and the progress bar, that would load up, and then the next screen would appear for about 4 seconds, and it would turn off, then back on, and would do that over and over.

I have been looking all over the internet, and I have tried everything, every type of reset (yes, ever a warm sys reset) and nothing seems to work. Oh, and when I try to do either a Quick or Secure erase, the screen goes black and the unit powers down.


What I have come down to is this:

The problem is either (or all combined O_O)...
1. [Proven wrong]The Hard Drive is bad, ROM is messed up
2. [Proven wrong]Battery/Charging Circuit
3. [Confirmed]Motherboard is bad?
4. [Still Plausible]I am just a bad user.


And check this out, when I press the d-pad down button, while pushing the reset button, the palm thing loads up, and instead of the circular palm logo, I get this:
http://www.oldschoolwarriors.net/lifedrive.html
EDIT: Now, after extensive research, I found out that this "mode" is the debug mode, now, I know I got in it, what can I do with it?

Thanks for reading, and sorry for the super-long post

stutorker

hi rhs,
'fraid i can't actually offer any advice, but i'll be watching this thread with interest, as my lifedrive has just joined the legion of the dead last friday

exact same senario. fully charged, had a quick game of BikeOrDie, put the lock slider across and stuck it back in my pocket...10mins later...DEAD.

apart from occasional crashes my LD has been faultless since launch month. i was hoping that going back on the charger after a weekend of death would reanimate it, but no joy. so i'm off to find one of those funny wee screwdrivers to crack open the back and unplug the battery...

__________________
when 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not...hmmm?

rhs2008

Hey stutorker,
Have you tried the in-cradle reset? If you can get it to "turn on" you can do this:
(might be temporary fix) So completely drain your battery, you can do this by doing a quick/secure reset BUT NOT doing anything, just leaving it on the screen that tells you "Warning...lose data...blah". So just leave it on until it powers off by its own. Now you can either leave it 1 day like that (people say it improves your odds) and then you would plug it in to power, and do a in-cradle reset.

I cant guarantee it will work, but it has for some people, so good luck!

Note: I plan on updating my post (the big one ) once I get a lock-down on things, so I can kinda make it a advanced "troubleshooting" thing.

Dick Tracy

Given the age of the LifeDrives being discussed I suspect the battery is no longer holding a charge.

rhs2008

Hello,
Well, you might find it interesting that this is not the case
I did not note the voltage of the battery when it was fully charged, but I noted it at 3.75v (and this was when it did not want to turn on). Now, right now, the battery is at 3.45v, and when I press the reset button, the palm loading bar appears for like 5-9 seconds, then it turns off (the bar does not load up)
This is intensional, as I want to fully drain the battery.

The battery is rated at 3.7v
(also note that before it had this problem, it would last about 4 hours playing music with pTunes)

Ok, well, now that I look over the post, it does not make much sense. The point I'm trying to make is that the battery is in great condition, and its the hardware/software that is giving us a hard time.

sgosnell

If the battery is only reading 3.75V when fully charged, it's not in great condition. A fully-charged LD battery should have over 4V, and 3.45V is nearing the cutoff point where it can't provide enough current to power the handheld. I think you need a new battery.

rhs2008

ahhh, I didnt explain quite good, I said that it was not fully charged, but working, at 3.75v

and that 3.45v was the least I could get it to operate (for about 5 seconds)


Well, in other news, I got a friend's LifeDrive which I will open up, replace MD, and test, any reason why I should NOT do this?

rhs2008

ok, just did the testing:
1. I proved it was not the MD; this was by swapping both MDs and testing
2. I proved it was not the battery; again, I swapped them, no change.

So whats left?
The motherboard is bad. I dont know if it can be fixed, but I can get a replacement from usedpdaparts.com for $95.

The question now, is, is it really worth it going to all this trouble (and money)to get my LifeDrive working again?

stutorker

hi rhs,
did the battery unplug (and a bit of internal cleaning while i was there!), stuck it back on the cradle and it went through a reset without issue. didn't loose any data *PHEW* - only needed to adjust the date/time - all other prefs etc intact. just done a full backup (hadn't done that for months!), just incase this turns out to be a rolling fault (which i'm expecting).

i also believe that the battery is *not* the issue. mine is giving almost identical performance now as when it was new. i've seen the motherboards for sale too...but if this problem continues, i think i'll opt for a TX as a replacement. i'll miss that extra internal storage though...

good luck with yours

__________________
when 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not...hmmm?

sgosnell

What were the results of the swaps? Did your HD work in the other LD? Or did you just check your own?

rhs2008

The results are as follow:
(Note: For this, "Bad LD" will be my dead, looping lifedrive. "LD2" will be my friend's working LifeDrive)

Bad LD + Good LD's MicroDrive = NO SUCCESS

Good LD + Bad LD's MicroDrive = SUCCESS!

Good LD's motherboard + Bad LD Case = SUCCESS!

Bad LD's motherboard + Good LD's Case = NO SUCCESS


And I also did battery swapping, which proved no difference. Thus proving that the problem was not the MicroDrive, but the motherboard itself.

sgosnell

Are you certain that all the connectors are properly seated? There are several of them, and one poor connection could cause your problems. It's certainly possible that it's a bad mb, but not yet certain.

rhs2008

yes, I am 100% sure.

I even cleaned them with a DRY cotton swab. I also tried switching the connectors for the MD (both ways) and still no working LD =[

Right now, I think I am set on selling it for parts. The LCD screen is in excellent contition, the Digitizer works, but with few minor scratches, and battery is almost as new.....but, no one wants to give me more than 85 dollars.

I loved my LifeDrive, while it worked. But I think that repairing it will only fix it temporarily, since they are so prone to problems.

stutorker

well, my LD worked perfectly again all day yesterday as if nothing had happened. then i tried to start it again after a few hours off the cradle and it had died. replugged battery again and it booted up & worked fine the rest of the evening. i woke during the night to find it mid reset - got as far as my lifekeys splash screen and died again. replugged it and put it on the cradle again this morning and it's fine...

...the pattern i had feared...

..."dear Santa, there's this cool thing called a Palm TX which i would really like..."

__________________
when 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not...hmmm?