Touchstone Problems

[blz2]

I'd just like to buy a Palm product without problems or glitches. I was excited to get this thing for only $14, only to be frustrated because it charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects, charges, disconnects.....

[FloridaPacifico]

Well I ordered one from Verison online last week for $19. Problem with it cycling on and off began from the get go. Got it to work by using two magazine order cards between TS and Palm. Than being a glutton for punishment ordered a second one, this was a package deal, TS, car charger, and leather case for......$14. TS worked flawlessly. Took the original to the Verison store and he swapped it out. The new one works as it should. Very pleased wih the online deals available from Verison and the service at the store, especially when i was asked for my Verison number as they were doing the paperwork for the exchange and I had to inform them I do not have a Verision #, I am a AT&T client.

Long report to say, if you are having the cycling problem, swap it out until you get one that works the way it is supposed to work.

[GodShapedHole]

My touchstone just broke... it's ridiculous that VZW sells them for $19 (€13) in the US and you can't even get them below €30 ($41) on eBay here in Germany.

I'll still have to go for it I guess since plugging my phone in has become unexpectedly difficult for me.

Oh by the way - my Touchstone was one year old TODAY. The problem is I'm not sure if I can get a warranty replacement since I got it as a gift from O2 (all first-day adopters did).

[wekya]

My TS started to give the 100% alert after about a month of use. It then started to give alerts every 10 seconds. Now it won't do anything, and I tried testing it using device info and no TS shows up. I have to think it is knackered as the TS is now fairly warm and the phone is not on it. The wall wart is also a little warm so the current is flowing through it but it won't send any to the phone. As you can see I'm in Taiwan and I have to try to get Amazon to send a refurb, but I wonder if anyone has any new ideas. I slapped it, rebooted, changed batteries, plugged and unplugged all cords, put a paper shim in, pulled the contacts up a bit on the phone so they made a better contact with the back, all to no avail. I did notice a 3mm crack in the back up near the camera that is nowhere near the TS circuitry, but I wonder if that could make the back not snug enough and thus not want to charge. When I think that some people are shimming it with paper it seems that this would not make a difference. Also, I tried pushing the whole phone down while on the TS to see if that would make a difference and it didn't. Could having UBERkernel 1000 have any effect? I have a Euro GSM Pre minus. Let's hope HP can bring their expertise to the table and lower hardware defects.

YES...I'm a ******....If you have totally no life you should go back and listen to the CES 2009 podcasts. I just listened to Engadget's (Podcast numbers 126, 128) for the first time (128 WebOS discussion is near the end around the 50 min mark) and they just GUSHED at how great the OS is, Of course they also thought the TS was cool, and arguably groundbreaking. It is, it all is, and always has been from the Palm Pilot to now, but the devil is in the details. I'm glad to see that the Pre II is going to be a GSM unit and will launch anywhere but Sprint, but most importantly, that it will be launching in the rest of the world at the same time. There are 6.5ish billion other potential customers, and I think a solid Pre II will be a compelling option for many of them. The Pre 1's and TS and the US launch of WebOS were a beta, so now c'mon HP lets wow the rest of the world, the way Topolsky et al were 18 months ago. This OS launched with cut/paste and multitasking, something M$ or fruitco couldn't do. Ruby said there is room for several OS's in this space. He's right, but not if the underlying hardware leaves many to evangelize their glitches, but not the best OS platform going.

[preuser05]

Read up and did'nt see this one; just got a TS in the mail, does not work at all. Tried it on the wall first, then took it out to the car just to see if it would work, and as soon as i attached the Touchstone to my car charger, all the lighting on the car changer went out and obviously it did not work. It is almost as if the TS "shorted out" the charger, because to get the car charger to work again (plug in to phone) I had to unplug and replug the car charger, and then the light came back on (on car charger) and i could plug in to the phone and charge, but still turns off if i try to attach the TS base?? Is my base a dud?

[60milesmile]

Here's my experience and suggested solution for the biong biong cycle problem...summary @ bottom in bold.

Clearly all the parts (charger, cable, touchstone and pre back cover) have tolerances.

The inductive coupling on the Pre needs a higher current than simply plugging in. I suspect (no evidence - not yet got an in line amp meter) that the unit needs a good couple of amps of current to charge.

The touchstone uses standard usb cabling to deliver power - I suspect it’s not designed to take higher than average currents for sustained periods.

So my hypothesis is that:

1. Tolerances within any part are tight and an individual part falls outside the limits and as it’s a series circuit, one weak link leads to failure. Some people have dodgy touchstones for example.

2. Personally, my view is that the USB connections (on the charger, cable and touchstone) are not designed to provide > 1 amp and so its likely that its these parts which are failing in most (not all) products.

3. Clearly the touchstone is designed to work (!) - So I've played around with the USB connections - I can’t access the one on the touchstone (the teardown online isn’t very detailed - interested if anyone’s got photos) so concentrated on the cable and charger.

4. I had two cables and one seems better (not sure how) but suspect weak connections.

5. on the charger I was able to push out the support pins (bottom of the unit) to make the cable fit better.

6. I found that the unit works better when the USB cable is pushed down in the charger (I've the standard UK charger). I used a wedge of paper to keep it there.

7. The first (international) charger I had (subsequently stolen) seemed to work the best - I suspect as it was bigger the internal transformer has a greater current output - and I tried my cheap blackberry charger and it just couldn’t spit out enough power for the touchstone to work at all (clearly it worked when plugged in directly - but this needs lower amps).

So in short - focus on the USB connections and don’t bang your touchstone - the copper wire is a very small gauge and could easily come lose.

So - that’s my hypnosis, very interested to hear what everyone thinks - and I suspect that as HP are using the touchstone they are aware of the issue and I'm sure future hardware will work well. Incidentally - a touchstone for a (large) tablet palm would likely need an even bigger current, but personally I hope they keep backwards compatibility!

Precentral Store - it would be helpful to know which chargers you sell pack more of an ampage punch.

[djmcgee]

I also had an issue where one touchstone would not properly charge one phone but when swapped with the other phone worked ok.

I think there are enough tolerances in the fabrication of the touchstone, touchstone backs and cable connections that there are some combinations that won't work and some combinations that will work.

Just another 2 cents.

[lordbah]

Weird - after working fine for more than a year, today my Pre won't charge on the Touchstone. Took the cable out of the TS and plugged it into the Pre and it charges that way. When I get to work I'll find out whether it charges with the TS that I have there - i.e. is the problem this one TS or the Pre.

UPDATE: Now it's working again. Hope it doesn't start getting "temperamental".

[joe8617]

Originally Posted by lordbah

Weird - after working fine for more than a year, today my Pre won't charge on the Touchstone. Took the cable out of the TS and plugged it into the Pre and it charges that way. When I get to work I'll find out whether it charges with the TS that I have there - i.e. is the problem this one TS or the Pre.

UPDATE: Now it's working again. Hope it doesn't start getting "temperamental".

I have two touchstones. One just started to act up. One is fine. But I'm suspecting that this somehow has to do with a software issue. I know it doesn't really make sense, but I just have the feeling that WebOS is not playing well with this one charger. It seems to stop charging when my phone's data connection activates. I can't help thinking that some app is interfering with the charging. Oh well.

[poploser]

My touchstone stopped working about 4 months ago. I went away for about 2 weeks, came back, and it was dead. Hasn't worked since. I've tried all sorts of stuff (changing USB cords, changing outlets, making sure the back of cover of the phone was clean). No luck.

Ultimately, I just gave up. I only use the touchstone at work, and its not a big deal to just plug the phone in directly.

[JJCook]

UPDATE: I ordered a new TS back for my Pre Plus and received it today. I am currently testing it with all of the TS's that I have and I'm not seeing the problem any more. I'm confident this has resolved the issue.

I have 3 TS chargers and am having a problem with the charging cycle between charging and not. I believe it's a TS cover issue since it is happening on all of my TS's and I've ordered a new one. When I plug the USB into power, my Pre Plus charges fine. Again, I'm hoping a new TS cover will resolve the issue.

[mg3]

had the same issue and a new cover fixed it. Hope it helps you

Originally Posted by JJCook

I have 3 TS chargers and am having a problem with the charging cycle between charging and not. I believe it's a TS cover issue since it is happening on all of my TS's and I've ordered a new one. When I plug the USB into power, my Pre Plus charges fine. Again, I'm hoping a new TS cover will resolve the issue.

[rlshank]

It seems like most everyone is having problems with the touchstone not connecting correctly. I had another problem where the phone would indicate it was charging but really wasnt and the battery kept draining.
What I found was that the best thing to do with the touchstone is to make sure you are using the factory charger. I was using the charger from my old Treo. It worked fine when you plugged it directly into the phone...but not with the touchstone. When I used the factory charger and usb cable it worked perfectly. Keep things factory and I think it may help.

[daexpression]

My thought is that it's a design issue.

Engineers just relied on a strong magnet to keep the Pre in place, but the problem is when the phone vibrates - (ringing) or charge / discharge etc, then it might get dislodged. They could have made the TS charger with probably 2 -3 bumps which correspond to dimples on the back of the Pre backplate and solved this problem. the dimples / pits will lock the phone in place. Unless this will not work cause the TS charger / backplate have v. low tolerance so thus each backplate to TS charging is an art LOL.

My current Pre Plus (Frekenstein version) / TS has this problem.. It was charging fine..for a while then it did the charging /discharging..etc..and now cannot charge or discharge. I though it was the backplate or even the TS, but does not seem to be. The interesting thing is that IF i reboot my phone, put it on the TS and let it boot up..it would charge. BUT upon taking it off the TS, (the phone would still think it's charging) and will not charge on TS anymore only USB.

Any ideas lol?

Update :
Now I'm testing my pre plus with 2.1.
When i place the device on the TS. No chiming sound to let me know its charging (it used to do this when i upgrade to 2.1
In Govnah- it shows charging since i see +ve power coming in, but when left in exhibition mode - the battery sign does not show charging. So any ideas? lol..

[howardbw]

I've been having lots of trouble with my touchstone, and even got another brand new one and had the same problem. I was using a blackberry charger. On a whim, I tried to use the Palm charger (circular one), with my regular (not supplied from Palm, but works to charge my Pre) microUSB cable, and it now works with both. When I came here to add to the forum, I saw this post, and I want to make sure people know that it works!

Originally Posted by KingRican

FYI,....

I had this happen to me as I tried to plug my palm pre using a non-pre cable (power cord for the rant for example, or the blackberry tour)....

You have to use USB cable and the USB power thing that the palm pre came with...try that then let me know if that solved the problem. It sure did for me!!

GOOD LUCK!

[intelligen]

I started having issues with my Touchstones about a month ago. All of a sudden, the Pre Plus would go into the continuous connect/disconnect cycle. If I rotated the phone to landscape orientation to try to get a better orientation (which has sometimes worked in the past), it would either go into the connect/disconnect cycle, or wouldn't even connect at all.

I took the back off, rebooted it, etc., numerous times trying to get it to work, because in the past (when I first got it), that's all I had to do to fix the problem. Sometimes, just continuing to use the Touchstone seemed to make the problem fix itself. Unfortunately, none of that worked this time, and the business card trick has never worked for me, either.

Finally I took a close look at the contacts where the prongs on the Touchstone back connect to the phone. One of them was black at the point of contact. I tried rubbing it clean with my finger, then with the corner of my shirt, but that didn't do anything. Then I remembered a trick from the olden days, when oxidation on desktop computer memory would cause a computer to fail or act erratically. Back then, it was common to see a motherboard with gold contacts in the memory slots and tin contacts on the memory module, or vice-versa. Sometimes the dissimilar metals reacted with one another, causing a layer of corrosion to form--which, in turn, caused bad connections. However, there was a simple, low-tech fix; and I decided to give that a shot. Today I grabbed a pencil and used the eraser to wipe the contacts on my phone clean.

Good news! So far it seems to be working again! I suppose it's too early to tell whether this is going to last; but I'm optimistic, considering that the phone was consistently entering the connect/disconnect loop every time I docked it on the Touchstone before my eraser trick.

[dtrain13]

Originally Posted by howardbw

I've been having lots of trouble with my touchstone, and even got another brand new one and had the same problem. I was using a blackberry charger. On a whim, I tried to use the Palm charger (circular one), with my regular (not supplied from Palm, but works to charge my Pre) microUSB cable, and it now works with both. When I came here to add to the forum, I saw this post, and I want to make sure people know that it works!

I just had an issue where I would get the charge/disconnect/charge thing and thought it was a bad touchstone. I change the cable as I noticed it was the cable from my old treo pro, and voilla! No more issues. For those that have this issue, it would be a good test to swap out the cable you are using for a new Palm charger that came with a Pre (+, -, 2) It will not solve all problems, but its an easy quick test you can try.

[cmahy]

Good point. I have one TS that works great and the other that has the old Bing-bong cycling issue. I'll have to try the wires from the good TS on the bad one to see what happens.

For a side-reference, the following thread helped me out a lot (incase there are still people looking here for TS help).

http://forums.precentral.net/webos-s...-solution.html

On a personal note: I don't know why I waited so long, but, mode switcher is a great way for screen-off nighttime charging on WebOS 1.4.5.