Palm TX is a Piece of Junk

Submitted by David Grant on Sat, 2007-06-02 22:43

I got my wife a Palm TX in December 2005. It worked for almost a year, then just as the warranty was about to expire the power button started getting all flaky and only working on 1/3 presses at best. It never really worked great to begin with, often requiring one to hold down the button for a second or two until registering that you pushed it. It seems that others had the Palm TX power button problem as well:

"My second device has worked flawlessly until just a few days ago when the power button problem returned. With a little research (Google: power button problem palm TX) it seems this is a very common problem. The problem is that the button is only soldered onto the board and no other mechanical connection is used. As the power button is used the solder deteriorates and the button eventually becomes useless. Any other button will turn on the palm and there are ways to power it off without the button but I still find this unacceptable. With a broken power button a hard reset is also impossible."

The power button was deteriorating and eventually became completely unbearable and as the warranty period was almost over we decided to return it in December 2006 before it became completely broken.

So we got a new Palm TX in the mail sometime in January 2007. No major problems until May 2007 when the wifi suddenly stopped working. It can't even try to connect anywhere. Anytime the radio is turned on, the Palm locks up. The only cool thing about this was watching the LCD fade slowly to white as the TFTs in the display leaked off charge allowing the backlight to shine through. I'm never seen a Palm lock up so badly that it completly disabled the LCD electronics. A hard reset reset was not able to fix this problem so it is clearly a problem with the hardware itself.

Anyways, I have no idea what we will do now. My wife can live without wifi and in fact did not really use it much before. But she'll be working somewhere this summer where there is no computer although there is probably wifi available nearby. It would be handy if she could send/receive email through GMail on her Palm TX. More than that though, we feel a bit ripped off as (at the time at least) the Palm TX was significantly more expensive than comparable models, largely because of the wifi. We are unsure whether the replacement model they sent us is under warranty (it would suck if they didn't reset the warranty for a reparied devices). It is doubtful that Palm would send us a different more reliable Palm model either, but we'll try anyways.

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Comments

Yonah (not verified)

Mon, 2007-07-09 14:31

I've had my Palm for over a year now. No real problems untill the power button went out. Yup. Just 2 weeks prior to the one year warranty expired. I'm not sending it in, I'm going to attempt a repair by myself (I'm a computer tech by trade). But I gotta tell you, not really happy with Palm also because of the software.

Palm Desktop? It's nice, when it works. It runs for a few weeks, then refuses to load, hanging up on the Splash screen. The install folder reveals a smorgusborg of DLLs and Config files. What a mess. Sloppy, poorly written code. As a result I use my Palm for it's Wifi and Audio/Video capabilities and less as an organizer, since I don't feel like resintalling, and backing up everything if I want to use the Desktop App. My 1st and last Palm.

Wilson (not verified)

Sat, 2007-08-04 10:51

I always wondered if the electronics were made to last just up to the warranty so they can make more profit. For example, my CD drive for my P4 died after 2 years. The computer can see it, but cannot do anything else with it. I had a 386 in 1993 and the CD drive lasted with me until I switched to a P3.

G B (not verified)

Fri, 2007-09-21 13:28

I have had the same problem.In fact sometimes it automatially turns ON and dries down the battery.I have the autokey lock feature ON now. But power button has to be pressed for long. I really hate my decision to buy Palm TX.

Eyal (not verified)

Tue, 2008-04-15 15:20

Hi did you solver the problem ?

I got the same one on my palm tungsten E . Wonder what to do. But mine I had and worked well for over 6 years.

Hope you solved it.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2009-01-29 16:49

I had my palm for just over 1 year (normal warranty period) but I had purchased additional warranty. It broke down DEAD and I sent it back to be repaired, They lost my palm, They tried to charge me for it, it took over six months to fix, so I purchased a Treo 650 and when I got my palm back, it was not mine, different serial number, and lost stylus ?? I'm not looking at Blackberry Storm ..

The only plus to the Palm Range apart from it's poor old OS, is Palm Desktop, It's simple, Powerful and is not made by microsoft so it doesnt crash all the time... :)

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2009-02-18 23:38

The thing about electronic equipment these days is that there are always problems with the hardware or the design/layout of the system. The best thing to do when you want to buy an electronic item, is to wait for about half a year and then check on them again. This will allow the manufactures to spot the problems and sort out the bugs. I have a palm tx and i have had it for about a year and a half. I haven't had any major problems besides adding a few to many games on it. Then i would have to hard reset the palm all over agian. I had wanted one ever since it had come out but i patiently waited till a year and a half ago to purchase one, all the while finding information on what the problems where with the system over the web. I find that a little patients goes a long way when it comes to electronical equipment.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2009-02-24 20:33

I have same power button problem. Got it as a gift. I was happy with the performance. But this power button is driving me crazy. I pulled out the power button and using the stylus to turn it on!! how is that

TheCoffeMaker (not verified)

Fri, 2009-03-13 13:07

Today my TX die, I went to play a game and it shuted down misteriously, made a reset and when the date screen was show it shutted down again and never awoke ... tried a lot of ways to give life once again but no luck at all, definitely died.
I had several issues with that piece of crap, first the speaker stop working, I had the luck at my side in that moment, 4 months left to finish the warranty, later the digitalizer started with problems, but since I was running without warranty, I were not able to change the TX again. The digitalizer continued with problems increasing the broken area, by today the screen had only 1/4 working area. Another issue that I had was with the bluethoot, it never synchronized with my phone, I was able to dial numbers, receive sms but never send.

And as I wrote in the subject .... I will never buy another Palm product, I don't care if they make the best product, they will apply to the Murphy's law ... your warranty will expire when you have a problem ... and you will have it for sure!

Alexandre (not verified)

Sat, 2009-04-11 13:14

I have a Palm TX for more than a year now. I'm a heavy user, I use it at least once every day. I've installed many programs on it and never had a single problem with it. My favorite features are wi-fi (really efficient with the opera browser), IR (so i can use my palm as a remote for the tv, clear display, and the possibility to control my desktop computer from anywhere. I think many people are not aware of the possibilities of this product.

I love it and will most probably buy an other Palm when this one breaks/becomes too old

Biggest flaw : Palm Os but it gets better with every update

OMIGHTY1 (not verified)

Thu, 2009-08-27 13:32

I've had this thing for a grand 5 years now, and somehow, it's still alive. The power button is still in a good working order, but the stylus slot is a bit worn away, and the digitizer is nearly nonexistant when using the stylus. Otherwise, mine is still going strong. I find it that when my power button started acting weird, I EXTREMELY gently pulled on it with my index fingernail. However, my dad's TX power button is having the same problem. Figures that I get all of the different problems... lol. :P

tv series on dvd (not verified)

Sun, 2009-11-15 08:55

i brought mine last year when it just came out. from the second week it just started playing up and the letters on the keypad were sticking all the time. i sold mine on ebay 2 months later. all i can sugges is do not buy it.

ebay (not verified)

Sat, 2009-11-28 04:13

Mine is still alive and I sold it on eBay too :)

MyForces (not verified)

Thu, 2010-12-16 15:34

Now that is a great idea, or maybe on Kijiji :)

hifiguy (not verified)

Wed, 2010-01-06 18:31

Ive owned many PDAs and my experience with my TX is that its pretty bullet proof. Im not having to download the OS update of the week and over all its a work horse which I have been using for a very long time. Palms strength is in its OS continuity, and ease of data input and data exchange.

Ken (not verified)

Sun, 2011-02-13 18:46

After my Palm TX power button stopped working, I found PowerBtn 2.0:

http://powerbtn.en.softonic.com/palm

which is software which allows you to remap, as a replacement power button, one of the 4 physical buttons surrounding the 5-way navigator button.

Yes, you have to get used to a different routine about your button use, but I had previously been done that road with different software (can't remember the name of it) for similar functionality with the Palm V (whose power button also stopped working).

You can also use it to create a new "Off" program which you can use to turn the TX off. For me it is more useful to program one of the 4 bottom buttons to turn the TX on and off.

Stephane Richard (not verified)

Tue, 2013-10-08 17:33

Hi all, I put an email behind my name because you can answer to my mail and to my post. it's mystikshadows@gmail.com.

I bought a Palm TX recently, when it got here I noticed it didn't have wifi installed, I couldn't see the icon on the toolbar right beside the blue tooth icon.

Have any of you gotten this issue tell me how I can fix it. The Warm reset followed by a soft reset doesn't seem to want to work.

Thank you in advance for any help. :)

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