First, I have to say...has anyone said what a
wonderful machine this Newton is lately? There is a
short story and a long story...The short story is that
my Newt is now fully functional and has experienced NO
DATA LOSS!!! It even has the notes I took on the
National Car rental van that drove us to the airport
on Kauai! That's the short version. If that's all you
need, stop reading now and go on to the next email!
...
...
You still here? Good! Now for the meat of the
problem...I'm no airport x-ray specialist. But my
specialty is abstract/non-linear thinking and spacial
realization...so, bear with me if some of this seems
to come from far afield.
In a way, Eric here is correct. The x-rays them selves
and the motors directly did not cause the problems
(notice the plural?) with my Newton no longer
functioning.
Early in my learning, I was taught that it is
impossible to prove a negative. Therefore, whenever an
airport x-ray technician tells me that their machine
has NEVER damaged a "palm" device before, it tells me
that there is still one more word that is needed at
the end of that sentence...."yet". It hasn't damaged a
palm device...yet! This process allows me the
possiblity of perceiving all probable and possible
alternatives! That, coupled with my strong agnostic
belief, and some of my solutions are very abstract!
So, here goes.
What I found was the problem with my Newt is two
things. One, the ROM card wasn't seated compltely and
two, the battery contacts weren't making a solid
enough connection. Cause? Vibration! On the ROM card,
that's held in with a simple plastic holder...the ROM
card has some mass and a minute amount of play and so
through constant vibration, worked its self loose. The
battery contact is a little different. It was loose
through metal fatigue! Again, the batteries have quite
a bit of mass and quite a bit of play, and through
vibration, the non-spring loaded contact had bent far
enough away to be no longer making contact. If I
pushed in the battery tray beyond the lock mechanism,
the newt would start. But once I let go of the battery
tray, it would shut off. I also discovered a future
potential problem. One of the wires I was using for my
crystal acellerator seemed to have a solder joint that
wasn't as shiney as the others. If you'll recall...I
couldn't find any new wires, so I used some older
wires from an old breadboard kit I had. This one wire
had some oxidation on it and the solder didn't flow as
smoothly as it should. This would have eventually
caused another problem.
So, my solutions?
I put a little dab of hot-melt-glue under the ROM
board and pressed it back in place (that should hold
it, and the nice thing is that the glue is competly
removable)
I then bent back the other battery contact and coated
it with some R5 Power Booster liquid. This liquid
makes a cleaner electronic connection through a more
pure metal to metal contact. It removes oxidation from
all metals while filling in microscopic gaps in metal
surfaces for a better contact. Go to your neighborhood
MicroCenter computer store and pick up a small
tube...it's expensive, but worth it!
I then put a small piece of closed foam sponge rubber
behind the contact to prevent this from happening
again. Old make-up sponges work great for this. I use
these things for all items that need vibration
protection! I also R5'ed the wire and resoldered it.
Result? a Newton that came back to life and I didn't
even have to realign the screen! Just awsome...really
awsome!
Now, how to prevent this from happening in the future.
Here's what I suggest;
You can prevent the battery problem by removing the
battery tray prior to placing on the conveyor belt.
I'm certain that the belt is the main culprit!
Especially now with poorly trained technicians running
these machines...They see a Newton and they don't have
any idea what they're looking at, so they zap that
belt back and forth a half a dozen times to figure it
out! That constant bouncing (and it is quite
violent...) can't be good for the newt. Couple that
with the take-offs and landings (there were 10 of
these before we left Kauai including the helicopter
tour of the island!)...not a good thing. Either cradle
the newton during these stressful periods, or again,
remove the battery before hand. As far as the ROM card
is concerned? well, if you don't want to open up your
newt, there's nothing you can do. Otherwise, follow my
method above. Vibration is the killer. And since the
battery has the most mass, that will cause the most
potential problems. Remove the tray and you'll be
OK...
Hopefully this information can help those others on
this list who have a failed Newton!
--- "Eric L. Strobel" <fyzycyst_at_comcast.net> wrote:
<snip>
> The chief danger in most cases is that
> your computer equipment
> must go through w/o case and sometimes takes quite
> an impact after it slides
> off the conveyor.
>
> Now, I've never been to Kauai, so I don't know how
> old their equipment is.
> If it's an old machine, the stop/start/reverse
> because I'm not sure what I
> just saw/start again that usually happens nowadays,
> just might get you,
> especially if you didn't center it on the conveyor.
> (Whatever is driving
> the conveyor would be driving it from the edges, so
> I'm guessing that the
> effect would be worst there.)
>
> So, while it is *possible* that the x-ray machine
> caused this, it could
> easily just be coincidental failure. For that
> matter, we *are* still near
> the peak of the solar cycle and you were on a rather
> long flight at high
> altitude, right?
>
> - Eric.
>
> --
>
> Eric Strobel (fyzycyst_at_NOSPAM^mailaps.org)
=====
Just because you're a genius, doesn't make you a smart guy!
- The Powerpuff Girls -
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