This is a long one, sorry. I posted on Apple's discussion site for
Newtons but have not received any help. I thought maybe someone on the
list might have some ideas.
First post:
I just purchased a Newton 2000 (2100 upgrade) on eBay last week. I
received it last Friday, got the battery charged and started using it.
It was off for most of the day Sunday and Monday. Monday night when I
turned it on, the screen came up, I turned the backlight on and then 10
seconds later everything went dark. The Newton no longer turns on. Does
this sound like it went into deep sleep?I haven't loaded any software
on it, and it was running just fine all day Saturday. It didn't come
with an AC adapter, so I purchased a multi-selector 1.0A adapter (has
settings for 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 & 12 watts - I've been using 7.5) at
Radio Shack and it seemed to be working fine. The battery charged and I
didn't get any error messages about the power supply not sending enough
power, or too little power. I know it's hard to diagnose a problem with
this little information, but if anyone has a suggestion I'd appreciate
it. The Newton is still beautiful, even if it's a paperweight.
First update:
I've tried treating the situation like deep sleep with no results. I
left the battery out and the Newton unplugged for almost 8 hours on
Tueday. Put the battery back in and tried the resets described in this
forum, nothing. So I took the battery out and left the Newton unplugged
for almost 24 hours. Put it all back together on Wednesday night and I
got a flicker. The screen came on, but it was frozen. I couldn't get
the message dialogue (The Newton has restarted because the reset button
was pressed) to go away. After a few minutes, I gave up and pressed the
reset button again. Nothing. The Newton does not respond to anything.
At this point I'm thinking deep sleep doesn't seem to be the issue. So
I leave the Newton plugged in with the battery in overnight. Thursday
morning, I turn the Newton on and same problem it comes to life but is
frozen on the dialogue box screen. Rather than hit the reset button, I
leave the Newton plugged in, turned on and on the counter while I go to
work. When I get home, I hit the power button and it comes on, still
stuck on the same screen. I'm able to turn it on and off, the backlight
will come on but it always remains frozen on the dialogue screen. After
5 minutes of playing with it, I hit the reset button again. The Newton
restarts but is still frozen. I hit it again and I'm back to square
one. The Newton does not respond to reset button or the power button.Is
my Newton dead? Or am I missing something? Any suggestions on what to
try next.
Second update:
I've taken the battery out of the Newton, that seems to have solved
part of the problem. I can now get the Newton to start, restart, and
shut off on a regular basis, but still with the frozen screen. The
message in the dialogue box changes from messages about the battery
needing to be charged (even though it's not inserted) to the Newton has
restarted because the reset button was pressed. I can turn the
backlight on and turn the Newton on and off with the power button.
I've even got it start up a few times with no dialgue box but I can't
get the screen to react to the stylus. I don't think the system has
frozen because the border of the dialogue box occaisonally begins to
shimmer and dance around, suggesting that somethings running somewhere.
Should I save this thing for parts or does someone recognize a problem
that can be solved by the average adventurous user?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Chad Cole
schmotz_at_modempool.com
-- Read the List FAQ/Etiquette: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Read the Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ This is the NewtonTalk mailing list - http://www.newtontalk.net/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Thu Oct 31 2002 - 12:03:01 EST