What is the Grey Ghost/dead area on my screen??

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Dragon Rider

New member
Hello Everyone

I got my Palm TX about 3 months ago. I use it everyday in an office enviroment. It doesnt really run any 3rd party apps other then those supplied with the machine. The machine hasnt suffered any hard knocks etc. I use a standard LCD cleaner wipe now and then to clean the screen. They are widely used ones here in the UK. We havent had any other problems with them here at work on any of the TX's we got in January or on any other LCD screen.

I used the TX this morning and got a phone number from the PDA to make a call. The next time i switched on the PDA had big grey ghost on the screen. There was about 10 mins between me making the call and using it, nothing happened to the PDA during this time. It was used as per-normal.

A photo of my screen is here:

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e150/steelwind101/screenprob.jpg

I know it isnt a very good photo but you can clearly see the problem!! The area is see thru and there are a few pixels in the grey part that are "normal".

Does anyone know why this has happened and how i can get it to go away?? I have tried resetting the device and this hasnt changed a thing. Its there on re-boot and all time.

Any help appreciated.

Many thanks
Geoff
 
You said you reset the device. Did you do a hard reset by pushing the reset hole and the power button at the same time?

Does that shaded area appear in every application you run or when you are in the launch screen? If yes, it is probably a hardware problem. In that case, the device would have to go to the repair shop.
 
Hello

Thanks for the help!! Hard reset tried etc etc. No luck at all.

What ever it is has acutally gone away, i dont know how or why but its been replaced.

About a day after i posted the cloud had got smaller and i contacted Palm. They were intreasted to investigate and i sent it to them.

I have got a new one now and all seems to be fine.

Strange!! But many thanks for yor help.
 
You say you used a 'standard' LCD cleaner, but one thing to be aware of is that the PDA's display is not 'standard'. The surface you clean is the pressure sensitive digitizer which is on top of the LCD. Also, there are a number of variations in the surface of the various LCD's manufactured, so what is good for one may not be for another. A damp rag is always safe while other chemicals may or may not be, depending.

Is it possible that the gray area is the result of a cleaning liquid seeping undrneath one of the digitizer layers?
 
Hello!!

When i said lcd cleaner i meant pda cleaner, we got the wipes from Palm when we bought out PDA's. I dont know if some fluid got stuck behind the screen or not, i suppose thats why it might have gone away.

It seems like Palm were willing enough to just replace the unit.

Geoff
 
I didn't bother jumping in until now but your picture did look like it was liquid behind the screen.

If the digitizer fails - typically it will do so in a linear fashion (half the screen, quarter or all of the screen) and not in an non-descript pattern as shown in your picture.

You can sometimes use a hair dryer to remove the moisture, set on low. And sometimes it will just dissipate naturely. And moisture can get behind the screen without even trying. I never use any liquid cleaner - even it's just a moist towellete. I use a microfiber cloth to remove any dust or fingerprints.

I've been on these boards too long and have heard of Palms getting wet and becoming unusable from moisture so..........M2C.
 
Hi

Yeah i always worried about liquids too, even way back when screens were just screens of the era of Psion 3c.

I do think it might have been moisture, from where, i have no idea. As it did start to clear up. I will contact Palm UK and see what they think and report back.

Geoff
 
I agree with Moose Man -- a microfibre cloth and for something more stubborn, fog it up first with your breath. Good enough for expensive camera lenses, good enough for a PDA.
 
Oh when using the blowdrier make sure it's on COOL.

Someone dropped some water onto they're G4 laptop and she used a blow drier to try dry it, then gave it to the techie's to fix and guess what they found inside... MELTED RAM CHIPS!

We wouldn't what that happening to our palms now would we :p
 
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