Jornada screen problems

[the_machine4]

Hey guys, I have a problem with my Jornada 548.

It seems as if the screen flickers intermittently. Seems to be somewhat touch sensitive. Not stylus touch sensitive I mean, but rather, certain spots I hold the PDA with will cause the backlight of the screen to go out. Now the unit itself remains on, but the screen itself flickers in and out. A friend and I were able to troubleshoot it down to the connection port on the bottom where the unit docks to. Now it seems as if that connection port is somewhat sensitive. Everytime I touch the port, perhaps the contacts fall out of alignment, and the screen flickers off and on rapidly. When push the plastic of the connection port in, the screen will stay on. Or if I apply pressure to the inner parts of the port, the screen stays on. If I kinda jam it in with the back end of the stylus, or something else, the screen stays on no problem. Then the contacts fall out of alignment.

What are my options? Professionally repair it? Can I do it on my own? Does anyone know what exactly the problem is? And exactly how to fix it? Has anyone had this problem before? And if they did, how did they repair it?

Thanks for all your feedback.

--J

[exscentric]

Sounds like you have a loose connection or solder joint. I would assume it is on the circuit board. I doubt the connector is related other than it puts pressure one things enough to make things come and go.

IF - you are mechanically inclined pull the back off and take a close look around where the connections from the screen to the board are made. See if you can see anything loose.

Look at the solder joints on the board and be sure they are good. When a solder joint goes bad many times you can see that the conductor coming through does not have a smooth surface to the board - usually looks like a crack around the conductor.

To repair you would have to have a low power soldering iron. Radio Shack has them fairly cheap.

If you don't feel comfy soldering, then have it fixed by someone else.

Also a little trick that may help find the problem - if you get the back off, turn the unit on and then turn the room lights out and bend and twist the unit as you do to get it to come and go and look for little sparks around the connections - sometimes there will be enough sparking to see where the connection is bad.

Hope this helps.