Palm and Treo Hacks

Repair Worn Contacts

If you sync too much, you can wear out the contacts on your Palm device. This hack shows how to repair these contacts.

If you sync your Palm device via a cradle or USB cable, then it is possible to sync too much. The mechanical connections on your PDA can be worn away by repeatedly connecting and disconnecting from the cradle or cable.

Tip

If you sync your PDA wirelessly, this won’t be a problem unless your sync connection is also used for charging.

Even if you have a wired connection, you should be fine unless you sync every day for several years. You don’t need to sync that frequently, unless you are either updating data on your Palm device that often or you are getting daily downloads of information (such as web sites, music, or video).

If you do sync enough that you wear off the contacts, there may be something you can do. Note that opening up your Palm will probably void your warranty, but by the time this happens, your warranty will have most likely expired anyway.

The first step is to get access to the connectors. On some devices, such as the Handspring Visor, this is trivial because the connectors are easily accessible without removing the cover, as you can see in Figure 8-5.

On other devices you will have to remove the cover, as shown in Figure 8-6.

Figure 8-5. Comparing access to connectors

Figure 8-6. Removing the cover

This may require a special screwdriver ...