acmegeek

A couple months ago, my X51v went through the wash and of course didn't work afterwards... I took it apart, aired it out, and cleaned all contacts as best I could using a fiberglass circuit cleaning pen from Radio Shack. I put it back together and nada execpt for a quick blink of the red light when I put it in the cradle.

Fast forward to last night, when I took it apart again, completely cleaned the contacts and the board as best I could with my fiberglass pen. Put it back together, and nothing...

So just now, I all of a sudden hear the sound of the activesync activating and my device completely syncing up!!!

But the screen backlight isn't on. I took it out of the cradle and it shut off. But it turns right on with the power button. But the backlight won't come on at all.

Now, if its not in the cradle, it won't stay on for more than 20 seconds, but comes right back on with the pwoer button. The battery is reporting 100% charge.

In the cradle, it stays on, but the backlight isn't on.

The Wifi does work!!!

So, since I'm so excited about maybe having it work again, what could I try to do to fix the power issue and the backlight?

What parts of teh circuit board should I look more closely at to see if there is some corrosion buildup that I missed? It seems to be working fine other than that. All of my info seems to have synced back, it even has all of my wifi profiles, etc.

Just no backlight, won't stay on out of the cradle, and the charge light doesn't behave as expected.

Thanks, any info is greatly appreciated because I had thought this thing was toast.

Thanks!

Sam aka acmegeek

koalala

Power on the Axim with the power supply.
When it is on, do an Hard Reset if you are nothing very important (or save it by ActiveSync). (You push reset while you push power button, after select the option which erase all.

You can try to change brightness settings.

acmegeek

I think the backlight might have gone out. Also, the backup battery seems to be gone as well or not charging. Is the little button cell rechargeable?

I haven't tried another main battery, but maybe that is back as well. its reporting 100% charge, but it turns off fairly quickly, even if in use, but not while in the cradle. But its still not charging via cradle or cable. (I charged the batt by taking it out and putting it in the cradle slot.)

Anyone have a broken Axim with a good LCD? Any other ideas?

Thanks!

mkss55442

Once corrosion starts, it grows under the integrated circuits, inside shield cans and other in-accessible places. Turning it on when the corrosion has shorted out parts of the circuitry creates additional problems. I'd say you're lucky you got as much functionality out of the x51v as you already have.

__________________
Nothing is never "no problem".

acmegeek

Well, this thing wants to live again I guess.. ssitting in the cradle, the backlight has started to flicker on and off. It was just every few minutes, but now its starting to flicker almost constantly, staying on for a second or so sometimes.

I did take it apart again and used some Deoxit on all of the chips and leads. I found some more oxidation and took it off... I did take the sheild cans off and cleaned under there a bit.

So, it may come back from its watery grave!!!

I'll be sure to let you know if it works as I'm sure there are others out there who may have washed their axim too.

Sound does work, wifi works, haven't tried bluetooth, but we'll see!

Sam aka ACMEGeek

purcy

Truly remarkable, that's one thing I wouldn't think my PDA could survive. I wish you the best of luck.

X typed from Ax.

paulcb

This is very interesting... please keep us updated. I'm anxious to find out if the patient is going to live!

bigtsr

It's my understanding that the 51v does not have a backup battery but instead
uses a capacitive charge network to give limited backup for changing batteries
etc.
I could be wrong but this is what I have read in tech writeup.

acmegeek

its alive! i'm posting this from my axim! via wifi. the power issue figured itself out. the screen backlight is getting brighter. a couple buttons don't work, but I can fix that. yeah! I'm so excited to have this working again.

davidtm

Congratulations! I pictured you in your post as Dr. Frankenstein --> IT'S ALIVE!!!!!

__________________
The Large Print Giveth
. . .and the small print taketh away
- Tom Waits

purcy

Wow, congratulations! :approve: that is truly incredible. Now keep that Axim away from the wash cycle

acmegeek

another update... the screen kep flickering and I noticed that sometimes pressure made it come or go. So, I took it apart again to see it there was anything I could do about it. I took it all apart and then connected the battery and pushed the batt cover switch and turned it on. I then saw the problem! One of the wires in the main screen connector was arcing inside. I guess my taking it apart so many times, or maybe the first time, had bwoken the lead. I then took the screen off and carefully used an exacto and a radio shack fiberglass pen to clean off the wire on both sides. I could see the break, and the reason it had been flickering was that the contact was arcing across.

With my handy dandy harbor freight butane soldering iron, on the lowest heat possible, I carefully soldered both sides together. This caused a little lump, so I used my leatherman's diamond file to sand it down until it was flush.


i put it all back together and the backlight is perfect now!!!

So to recap, this was washed twice, unresponsive for two months, I cleaned all contacts with the fiberglass pen and some DeOxit, and just let it sit in the cradle for most of these two months. And it has magically come back to life!!!

The only things that aren't working are the down button and the charging light at the top.

I'll still try to figure out the buttons. If anyone has an extra button pad/switch, I might be interested in it.

Thanks!

Sam aka acmegeek

nateb

Very cool story! Glad to hear that it is up and running and I hope that you can fix the rest of the bugs.

Nate

Wiseguy075

is this one of the reason the Axim was discontinued, undestructability. They figured we wouldn't buy the next version