The PDA Blues
After two years, nine months, my beloved Palm m130 has bit the dust. Dead battery, as near as I can tell. Why does this constitute the death of the unit? Because I purchased it for $200, new, and to have the battery replaced (which can only be done by the Palm support shop or the warranty is voided) would be $169. Evidently, you don't buy Palms, you only rent them.
A third-party replacement battery is $25 and the toolkit needed to do the replacement is $9.99 (backordered). It looks like some double-sided tape is involved, as well. However, having looked at third-party instructions on how to do this, I start to see why Palm demands you treat this as a repair. You have to completely disassemble the unit, including removal of the systemboard, in order to reach the battery. The battery must then slide out, be disconnected, be pried away from its mounting bits (there's that tape), be re-taped in place, and the whole thing must be reassembled. Even the screws are highly non-standard. I'm a computer geek, and anything that involves both proprietary tools and semi-permanent adhesives starts to worry me. It's usually not worth my aggravation. But $169 is kind of steep.
I bought the m130 specifically because it had a rechargable battery. I'd messed around with a Palm III, before, and it chewed through a pair of batteries every six weeks. I stopped and calculated: 2 years and 9 months is 143 weeks is 23 six-week periods. That's 46 batteries, if the formula holds roughly true. That's about $35--almost exactly equivalent to my replacement cost on the m130 battery if I decided to do it myself.
Also a moot point, evidently. Palm no longer makes PDAs that run on alkaline batteries. The Treo phone has a replaceable battery, but it's pricey to start with and I don't need a whole phone. Heck, I don't even need a whole PDA, with what PDAs have become. While I can't get by with paper (I've tried), I don't do a lot of things with a PDA that I thought I might. In practice, this is what I really use:
In other words, if I had my shit together, I don't really do anything that couldn't be done on paper. I just don't have my shit together, and the cost of the initial PDA was a concession to that.
So now, I have to decide if I go with the low-line Palm Z22, on the theory that I'll only have to spend $100 every two or three years. But I'm not sure the Z22 will hold up to the physical abuse I dish out. Do I look for some other brand, one where the battery is designed to be replaceable? If I do, do I stick to the Palm OS (which I like), or do I open my options and risk not being able to import my data? I type fast, but that doesn't make re-keying any more pleasant. Will it use the same stylus input-system I'm used to? And how much am I willing to pay on the base unit for the privilege of being able to change the battery out?
It's not that I think it's not worth $35 to make the attempt on the m130 battery replacement. It's that I'll have to wait for the back-ordered tools to come in in the first place, and I know myself well enough to know that I'll put the project off and off again because the instructions don't look comprehensive and that makes me a little nervous. Do I want to spend the $35 and the aggravation when I think the odds are good I might not succeed, anyway?
Thoughts?
A third-party replacement battery is $25 and the toolkit needed to do the replacement is $9.99 (backordered). It looks like some double-sided tape is involved, as well. However, having looked at third-party instructions on how to do this, I start to see why Palm demands you treat this as a repair. You have to completely disassemble the unit, including removal of the systemboard, in order to reach the battery. The battery must then slide out, be disconnected, be pried away from its mounting bits (there's that tape), be re-taped in place, and the whole thing must be reassembled. Even the screws are highly non-standard. I'm a computer geek, and anything that involves both proprietary tools and semi-permanent adhesives starts to worry me. It's usually not worth my aggravation. But $169 is kind of steep.
I bought the m130 specifically because it had a rechargable battery. I'd messed around with a Palm III, before, and it chewed through a pair of batteries every six weeks. I stopped and calculated: 2 years and 9 months is 143 weeks is 23 six-week periods. That's 46 batteries, if the formula holds roughly true. That's about $35--almost exactly equivalent to my replacement cost on the m130 battery if I decided to do it myself.
Also a moot point, evidently. Palm no longer makes PDAs that run on alkaline batteries. The Treo phone has a replaceable battery, but it's pricey to start with and I don't need a whole phone. Heck, I don't even need a whole PDA, with what PDAs have become. While I can't get by with paper (I've tried), I don't do a lot of things with a PDA that I thought I might. In practice, this is what I really use:
- Memos. Lots of memos. Everything from shopping lists to fragments of poetry.
- The address book. I feel naked without it.
- The calculator, occasionally.
- The stylus. I can't get by with something push-button.
- Did I mention the memos?
In other words, if I had my shit together, I don't really do anything that couldn't be done on paper. I just don't have my shit together, and the cost of the initial PDA was a concession to that.
So now, I have to decide if I go with the low-line Palm Z22, on the theory that I'll only have to spend $100 every two or three years. But I'm not sure the Z22 will hold up to the physical abuse I dish out. Do I look for some other brand, one where the battery is designed to be replaceable? If I do, do I stick to the Palm OS (which I like), or do I open my options and risk not being able to import my data? I type fast, but that doesn't make re-keying any more pleasant. Will it use the same stylus input-system I'm used to? And how much am I willing to pay on the base unit for the privilege of being able to change the battery out?
It's not that I think it's not worth $35 to make the attempt on the m130 battery replacement. It's that I'll have to wait for the back-ordered tools to come in in the first place, and I know myself well enough to know that I'll put the project off and off again because the instructions don't look comprehensive and that makes me a little nervous. Do I want to spend the $35 and the aggravation when I think the odds are good I might not succeed, anyway?
Thoughts?
posted by Journey | 7:02 PM
1 Comments:
Hmmmm. I hate this disposable culture. I would love to see you defy it in any way possible, which would probably mean doing the battery surgery. On the other hand, I'd hate to hear that you martyred yourself out of $35 in a failed attempt to stick it to the company. My gut feeling says buy the new toy and make the most of it.
I was joking with a friend tonight that I would save him $4000 and do his lasik surgery myself. I've got a headlamp and a laser pointer, and I can get instructions off the web. What more do I need?
--durangodave
Post a Comment
<< Home