The WiFi card that ate two H/PCs

I recently pulled out one of my Jornada 820s after it had sat unused for a few months, trying a few hexedited Windows Mobile 2003 apps (that worked, BTW, after changing the OS version from 4.20 to 2.11). Using an Enterasys RoamAbout PCMCIA WiFi card that has worked fine with several other devices from CE 2.11 through 4.1, I attempted to sync with my PC to restore PIM data, and a series of weird things happened. First, inserting the card on one occasion scrambled the display, which returned to normal as soon as the card was removed. Then, on a subsequent occasion, the 820 froze, and when I pressed the reset button, the device powered off but would not power back on and complete the reset. I took out the main and backup batteries and let the device sit for several days to hard reset it, but it still wouldn't power on.

I tried removing and later reinstalling the ROM and RAM chips (with the batteries out, of course), but still no go. I tried swapping out the ROM chip with the other 820, which was working but was having problems with the display and keyboard due to ribbon cable problems. Still nothing. Finally, in desperation I tried swapping out the entire motherboards between the two 820s, and finally got it working. So I restored data with the backup program, put in the RoamAbout card again to sync PIM data, and - yep, you guessed it - the exact same sequence of events happened.

Can a WiFi card damage an H/PC's motherboard?

I imagine that it can if there are some cross-connections on the card that caused it to short out the power and data leads. To answer your question...well you answered it yourself...it can happen...obviously.

I'd toss that card!





Attachments
----------------
evilcard.jpg (175KB - 0 downloads)

Freaky! What is the state of the PC Card slot pins?

Are you suggesting that both motherboards had the exact same problem with the pins in their PC card slots?

I'm asking, is the motherboard really damaged, or is something else going on?

No, I'm suggesting that there could be a pin fragment lodged in the PC Card and a bend or distortion in the pin matrix could show that off.

I assumed that wasn't the problem, because I had used the same card in other CE devices in between those two tries with the 820, and had no problems with those devices. I've checked the pins in the PCMCIA slot of one of those other devices, and all the pins are intact on that device. So, just to humor you, I checked the pins on both 820s - and sure enough, the middle pins (the longer ones) were both bent on both 820s. I bent them back, and inserted another PCMCIA card to finish straightening them out, and - voila! - the 820 is back.

So clearly you were both right - the RoamAbout card was the culprit (though I checked the pin holes on it and didn't see anything lodged inside). I was using it because my old standby, the Agere ORiNOCO Classic Gold card, is currently buried somewhere in my garage among stuff I moved outside the house temporarily while doing remodeling indoors. I had tried one of the three Proxim Harmony cards I pulled from my DreamMaxes, but they wouldn't connect (haven't I always been saying that those Proxim cards are iffy in H/PC Pro devices? ).

Thanx for dragging me kicking and screaming in the right direction.

Nice...I guess your 820 is the Lazarus of the HPC realm...

The longer ones are the vpower feeds, so if they were shorting out I should imagine the thing would not want to boot

Thats pretty much very similar to what I had to do with my 360LX. My PC Card was not being detected properly so I straightened the pins in the slot and its working fine now. Mind you, the release mechanism is a bit misaligned now...

Glad to see the CE Geek collection lives to fight another day. Since a lot of our machines are well past ten years old, when are they simply going to blow up when we next turn them on, filling our faces with HPC shrapnel and becoming the talk of neighbors (who wanted this to happen all along--oh, wait, that was my wife who wanted it to happen all along)?

Jake

Jake don't say that I still got maybe 15 is my closet, that need to be fired up.

I would love to get my disply fixed on my G138 , it has been years since i bumped that door and display went out.

Sim card would now work on it.

S/F,
CEYA!

What a shame...that is such a nice machine! I always wanted a G138...

Edited by Yoldering 2012-08-16 12:17 PM

It still working and vga cable to monitor.

A connection came loose when I turned around while on the computer.

Just need to find someone to fix it.

Unless someone has a manual to take it apart.

If you had the 6651/Telios and G138 mixed together that would be the machine I want.

Take everthing from G138 beside the size and take it to 6651/Telios and I would be in heaven.

S/F,
CEYA!



Edited by Ceya 2012-08-16 6:26 PM