m515 has a strange sound (not from the speaker)

[mgrabo]

Hello,

the palm support didn't really help me, perhaps someone that reads this can do:

when I put my palm into the cradle or when I remove it while it is turned off (it doesn't appear when it's on) there is a strange sound from inside the palm. When I now press the up or the down key the palm turns on again and the sound stops. Until I put it back in the cradle.
I've tried a hard reset with erasing all data and programs, and then I noticed, that the sound occurs after a reset, when the palm is on. I have to turn it off to stop the sound. When I turn it on again, there is no sound, until it reaches the cradle.

It's not from the speaker. Now I've heard that sound very silently (I have to put the palm to my ear) when it is off, and it stops when I turn it on.

I have no ideas wether this sound is kind of normal (I suppose the silent one is, but not the louder one) or what to do.

Greetings
Michael

[DrMud]

Michael,
I know that other Palm owners have mentioned being able to hear strange noises emitted from their Palm inner workings. To tell the truth I don't remember the out comes since in their situations the noise was related to other issues. When the other issues were resolved the noise was gone as well. Is your Palm acting normally in all other regards including battery life?
DrMud

[mhamann]

I have a small "electronic hum" always being emmited from my Palm. it's normal for me, so unless that is someting else, you should be fine. But don't neccessarily take my word for it. I've been known wrong before.

[mgrabo]

Hi DrMud,

I've got not camparison, the others at our company are using Handsprings Visor Deluxe, how long the accu should last. After about 6 to 8 hrs the battery indicator is nearly empty. But I think this is no unusual value for a color PDA.
As the silent sound only appears when it's turned off I watched the battery level after I didn't use the PDA for some hours, but there was no significant change. So I think the battery lifetime is OK.
When working with it there are no strange problems, all software crashes I get are reproducibly on other PalmOS devices.

Can you remember what issues caused the sound in the examples you mentioned?

Greetings
Michael

[mgrabo]

Hello mhamann,

I got used to the sound (but I'm doing all to hear it not too often) but it still worries me. Perhaps it's just because I can turn my Palm on in a way that should not work when I hear that special sound.

Greetings

[DrMud]

Michael,
As I recall they were related to charging. One was a bad connection in the cradle and the others were heard after being charged and may have been related to power discharge.
Your problem seems to have a different cause and effect.
Doc

[mgrabo]

DrMud:

At first I thought this, too. Then I disconnected the power supply from the cradle and tried it again, but there was no change.

But funny: an hour ago I had an appointment with some customers. I saw that they were using the m515, too. So I told my experience and we tried the steps which brings my device to sing.
And then: the same sound! You can turn on the palm with the up/down Buttons. They have never noticed that sound, because their office is much louder than ours.

So I suppose: it's not a bug! It's a feature!

Many thanks that you tried to give me some help!

[mhamann]

more like a "feature" I don't think it was meant to be that way.

[mgrabo]

"It's not a bug! It's a feature!" was the original sentence the Novell support told us as we asked about a problem we had with our servers. ;)

(Every day we had to reinstall the licences because the licence mangager throwed them away at night)

[DrMud]

Thats a new one on me! My 515 will not turn on using the scroll buttons?
DrMud
PS: I just visited a friend with a 500 and ask about "noises" and he remarked that when his back light is on the Palm hums. Sure enough. I would never have heard the sound had I not put it to my ear. The sounds frequency falls very close to a deaf zone I have as a result of rally driving in my youth.

[mgrabo]

Perhaps this problem is limited to a small number of palm, a fabrication error. I've read of some m515 users that got a message the accu get's low and a few seconds later the palm was off.
I know that backlight sound, my old Handspring had that sound, too. But when my palm is on, there is no sound from within. Even when I put it directly to my ear.

Turnin on with scroll buttons only works when I stuck in or remove it from the cradle while it is turned off. In all other situations I have to use the regular buttons.

[JohnKes]

DrMud,
The hum comes from the DC/DC converter for the backlight. People have questioned this sound since the first PalmPilots that came with backlight. There is also a fainter hum from either the Dragonball or the oscillator crystal, that can be heard if the backlight is off.

My ears are still good, but my eyes can't handle small PDA screens.

[DrMud]

Perhaps when they switch over to Organic Liquid Displays the screen could unroll to be four times the current size! Something like the old roll up window shades. Pull it out till it snaps in place then tug on it one more time and it rolls back into the unit. The unit could be shaped like a cigar and perhaps satisfy the folks with oral fixations too! Wait the phone is ringing; could it be SONY's design department calling me!
Doc
PS: I'll make sure the buttons are big enough!

[JohnKes]

I saw a videophone with a roll out screen on a sci-fi show the other day. I could go for that!

[DrMud]

Order two maybe we can get a discount!
Doc

[PDASROCK]

Yeah, get me one too! Seriously though, they have to do something about the small screens, my eyes are ok now(I'm still young) but even so, imagine a 20" pda roll-out 1200x1200! Well, I might still be alive when it happens...

[DrMud]

Don't worry if 1200X1200 is too far down the road we will freeze you so that when it finally appears........well you know...you and all the rest of the frosty folks can thaw!
Doc

[PDASROCK]

:D

[specterss]

Please help.
I have palm m505 and I hear some strange hi-frequency noise comming from my palm, when I turn it off. To be precise: when I press power off, noise begins at hi frequency and rising/falling for about 10 seconds and then stays on that level all the time, until I power device on. When palm is on, there is no sound. I belive noise commes from speaker. It doesn't matter if palm is in cardle or no. And I think that noise drains battery a little more. If I leave palm after it shows low battery warn, for 1 day with no charge, I lose all data! And battery was replaced last summer.

Is this normal and if not, does any one have an idea, how to fix it? Or what part inside should be changed.

Btw: reply for upper messages: about noises you hear when you turn backlight on: this is normal on greyscale palms (Palm III,100,105,125,500,705,visor), which have EL backlight and is caused due to hi-voltage convert inside palm. Color palms like 5x5, tungsten,.. use LED backlight wich doesn't need hi-voltage and so no noise when backlight is on.

[mhamann]

Hmm, I'm not sure exactly what your problem is. I know that if I hold my device up to my ear, when on or off there's a very slight buzzing sound, however it seems normal. My cousin's 505 does the same. As for the squealing, my 505 does that occasionally while in the cradle. When it does it it seems(ed) rather random. Sometimes turning it on made it stop, occasionally turning it off made the problem cease. Then it would come back a few seconds later until I removed the device from the cradle.
Then it stopped.

Now, recently my beaming capablilities have eaten the dust, so I had to do a complete battery drain. I wasn't sure whether this would fix the problem or not, but after I finished (finally. see the post: Palm SD Reset Card - SUDS (http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33047) to see my story on the infared problem I was having (now fixed, yay!!)), everything went back to normal. Haven't heard the noise recently, so possibly it's fixed? We'll see.

There's probably someone else out there that could offer some non-drastic solutions for you, so you might want to wait before trying what I would tell you:

Turn your backlight on and open a new memo. Make sure you've backed up all your data prior to doing this!!

Once you have the memo screen up, use graffiti to enter the shortcut symbol for the following two commands.

1. Enter 'shortcut.3' - Palm will display message stating [No Auto-Off]
2. Enter 'shortcut.1' - Palm will freeze.

Now comes the 'hard part' You'll be without your Palm for about 72 hours. Basically, this is going to run your battery down and reset the palm to factory-state except for the OS if you've upgraded it. It will reset all hardware functions. This could, I repeat COULD, resolve your issue. After your Palm's battery can no longer power your screen, the palm will 'turn off' but the LED under the power button will continue to glow. It won't really ever turn itself off probably for 2 or 3 weeks, but there's no need to wait that long.

After the 72 hours are over (you'll be lost until then), but your Palm into its cradle for about 2 hours. Soft reset, restore all your data and you're back in business again.

As I said, that's a pretty extreme 'fix', but it might work. Hopefully someone else can come along and provide you with another solution you can try before doing what I did! Good luck.

[specterss]

Thanks for help, but I think that didn't help my palm. After last battery drain, I disassemble it and disconnect battery - that was last weekend (year:). And yesterday I put it together and make full charge. Still the same efect - slight buzzing sound when off.