Palm and Treo Hacks

Replace Your Batteries

The rechargeable batteries in Palm devices don’t wear out very often. If they do wear out, you can change them yourself.

There are two types of rechargeable batteries in different Palm models. Newer Palm devices have a big rechargeable battery that powers the whole device. Older Palm devices used AAA batteries for primary power. However, you could change the AAA batteries, and if you were fast enough (you usually had a minute to make the swap), you didn’t lose any of your data. The reason you didn’t lose your data is that the older Palms had a small rechargeable battery that powered the memory when you swapped the primary batteries. The rechargeable battery recharged itself off of a trickle charge from the AAAs.

General Notes

Your Palm device will stop turning on before the batteries are completely exhausted. This gives you a chance to recharge them (or swap them if you are using AAAs) before you lose your data. Typically, you have about a week from the time your Palm device stops turning on until you will lose your data. If you should happen to lose your data, you can always restore the data from your most recent HotSync.

Tip

Your Palm device will eventually drain batteries (even full batteries) even if you don’t turn it on. It takes power to keep the memory intact, which pulls from the batteries. A powered-off Palm can drain its batteries within a month or so for rechargeables and a bit longer for alkalines.

Replacing Rechargeable Batteries

Replacing rechargeable ...