Comments on: Update on Palm's Cradle Replacement Program

> only took a year

Palm has been replacing any handheld which had USB problems from the very beginning. It's not good that the m505 has this problem but you can't fault Palm's handling of it.

> you can't fault Palm's handling of it.

You must work at Palm.

Palm issued defective hardware and is only now coming around to fixing the problem. That's a year, my friend.

Completely, utterly ridiculous. And Palm has the temerity to send me an email claiming I can get a great deal on a "new" m505 for $349. Gimme a break.

Thanks, Fred. I updated the article.

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News Editor

Alan, that's not how SUDS works. While the cradle may cause the problem, the problem isn't in the cradle. According to Palm, a static shock can jump from the cradle to the handheld. Though the handheld isn't permanently damaged, the ESD has scrambled its USB software. The new cradle is supposed to prevent that from happeing again but it doesn't help a handheld that already can't sync.

The first fix referenced in the article has apparently proved to be so successful, some Palm tech support people have begun suggesting to customers that they try it instead of replacing the handheld. If you are curious, you might try it on the non-syncing Palm before you send it back:
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=2785

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News Editor

have you read thru the whole passage?

"Replacing the cradle won't help people who already have a handheld that won't HotSync, though it will prevent it from happening again. Palm will replace any handheld that has the problem. Contact Palm's support staff to find out how to get a replacement unit. "

Alan
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Read your manuals before you ask!!

I would suspect that the new cradle does not guarantee that ESD will never damage your M505. I would suspect that it will greatly reduce the chances of it happening for most people. It is true that some people are more "Charged" than others and may damage their handhelds even with the new cradle.
I zap my Visor at least twice a week when I put it in the cradle. Sometimes it actually resets (soft) when it get zapped. I have not had a sync problem after that, but I would suspect that it is because the Visor does not have Flash memory, so there is no way to scramble the ROM! I suppose that is one nice thing about a non-flashable ROM!

appartentnly

Apparently Palm is not the only one to suffer typos. Considering that they are managing an entire site and not just a message, and that 'WS' is just an masked entry for a real value in a web fronted DB I don't think it's to sad.

Mike
-DBA
SQL, VB, Access

Should be a part of Canada? Bah.

What's with all the Canada PDA related topics lately?

Canada sales for PalmOS reach 84%
Canada's Rogers AT&T first to offer GSM/GPRS Blackberry

I find it funny that Palm said they wouldn't release the i705 up here because the market didn't seem to want their wireless device.

Seems the US didn't either. :P

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Dooobie Dooobie Dooooo....
http://raj.phangureh.com

..."who cares aboout Wisconson anyways? It should be part of Canada, and forgotten. Stupid Packers."

We'll take Wisconsin on any given day. But where the heck is "Wisconson"??? Palm.com's web guy may have overlooked the proper abbreviation for Wisconsin, but what's your excuse for misspelling "aboout" and "Wisconson"? Lack of education, perhaps?

-Tet from CANADA

you must be canadian. too bad.

Maybe your're using Netscape. I had that problem with Netscape v4.78. However, the ordering page worked with IE, though I don't like M$ at all.

You can stop your incredulity. Palm publicly acknowledged the problem in November, five months ago.

p.s. Are you the same person who names *all* his comments "Too Little, Too Late"? Geez, what a lame-o.

Whoa! 5 months ago? Palm acknowledged that 5 months ago and only NOW they are doing some serious soul searching and realized they should have been nicer to their customers?

And it cost Palm a bundle to swap their duds? What about customers that forked out $400 in the first place and the "productivity" cost when it needs to go back each time it fails?

Gee, luckily Palm have customers like you guys. Oh, wait a minute. You are into original headlines so here's another for you - lame-o?

"Making" you lose confidence? Wow - you sure have a LOT of patience. I have been a Palm fan for years - in fact, even before the original Pilot was released (I worked in 1995 at an IBM shop about three blocks from them in Mountain View, CA, well before they were even Palm I was purchasing Graffiti for the Newton from them when I found out about the Pilot!!!) - but Palm is hopelessly behind the competition, at this point, and I have totally lost condidence a long time ago (unless Palm catches up in the fall with a PDA w/ 200mHz ARM, 64megs RAM, 64megs Flash, 480x480 32-bit color, wireless with REAL web browsing (not that clipping crap) and an included 1gig SD card - I know, I'm dreaming, but of my cute little perfect Palm device and NOT of any micro-$lut piece of crap!). So, at this point, I am drooling in anticipation of the Sony NR-70V if this device is as good at it seems to be in advance, then, OK, I'll retool to MemorySticks - and the hell with Palm! FOR SALE: Old Palms, enquire within....

Update to my original post:

- After not receiving the seriel cable again, I called Palm customer service again. They said that I received the seriel cable delivery and signed for it. The only problem is the person who they said signed for it was a person I don't know. They said that they will again ship a cable to me next day, and that I'd receive it on Monday (this was a Friday).

- On Monday, guess what? I received TWO seriel cables in the mail ! I also received my credit card bill which showed that I was billed for the original 3 items that they shipped me incorrectly (which they confirmed to me that they did NOT bill me for), PLUS TWO seriel cables!!!

- I called Customer service again, and told them about this problem, but they wanted me to call a "returns" dept to get a credit. I refused and asked them to credit my account as they had all the info they needed, and I did not want to waste more time on hold (they said they could not transfer me directly). They still said they couldn't do that, so I asked to speak to a Manager. When they tried to transfer me, I was disconnected.

- I called back, and asked to speak to the same Manager. They said she was on the phone but would call me back in 5-10 minutes. It's now two hours later and I have not received a call back.

The story continues...

Yes, you can backup all to card then reinstall fully the entire Palm again - as new. Try BackupBuddyVFS which is a free program. You can get someone to load it then beam it to you. Easy to use and works all the time.

Another quick way without having to invest in a SD/MMC card is to beam the address book, date book, todo and memo/notepad info to another palm. Then beam it back after you've fixed your 505. There are many 3rd party softwares for this such as Beamware, Mcfile etc. that allows you to see all the files in the Palm. The names of the files to beam are:
DatebookDB
AddressDB
ToDoDB
MemoDB (if you use memo rather than the notepad)
or
npadDB (if you use notepad)

You sound like you received a really bad experience with palm. I have also been using them for a long time since the Pilot days. I must say that my experience with them have been rather good. Not had to use the customer service too many times. Only 2 incidences with a broken screen on the Pilot and a Vx with a broken button after too much Galax!) but when it came to it, worked out fine and professional.

Guess that in Asia, Palm is ok.