Oh no, not again!

About a year ago, my HP660LX bought the farm, so I had to buy a new HPC. I got a good deal on a reasonably unused J720. Today, the screen flickers--black/normal/black/normal--several times. It finally settles down, but it has me worried. I have only used it one other time since that problem, but it didn't repeat. I'm concerned because I think my 660LX did that, too, just before the "magic white smoke" escaped. Is my screen dying or am I just experience a loose connection due to so much use in the last year?

Opinions, suggestions and facts welcome. :+)

if you find out the cause i'd be very interested. i already experienced similar problems with the j720 though only at power on, and it does that flicker only once at a time (the LED will be lit as well) and it didn't repeat for a while now.
did yours do this at power on? or just during normal use?

Now that you mention it, I do believe that it was at power up. However, it last for some time, perhaps a minute or more. The reason I suggested a loose connection is that it was particularly bad while adjusting the screen angle. After I had it adjusted, the flicker became less frequent, but did continue for a few more seconds. I'll let you know more as I observe it.

Thanks,

that doesn't mean any good.. it might easily be a loose connection though.
if it starts happening more often, i'd suggest you test the unit on AC without battery, if you can't find a loose connection.

Last night it was powered up with AC, though the battery was still engaged. It was on for at least a couple hours and while I was in and out of the room a lot, I never saw any display anomalies. It wasn't in use much, though. I was only testing my wireless router. As I said, I'll post any additional information I deem helpful to diagnosing the problem. Thanks for the thoughts, so far!

I'll add my experience here. When I used the cradle with my 690 weird screen things would happen like you've described.

I stopped using the cradle and all the screen problems went away. Very weird I know. But, try your hpc without the cradle for a bit and see what happens.

hm.. the exact same screen flashing problem at power on? oh it would be nice if it were that easy to solve. i'm afraid you were just lucky and it was a coincidence, but if it was not exactly this problem then it might have been the solution there.
sorry for being so pessimistic.
anyway it is really worth a try... i'll put away the damn cradle, and charge the batteries with the dead 720 i just got for 12$. i never use usb activesync so it's not a problem either

There is a significant layer of dust on the cradle, if that tells you anything. ;+) I had another "event" yesterday. The thing flickered among various states of lighting--no screen, dark screen, light screen--and frequencies--rapid on/off, long periods off/short periods on, and on as long as I didn't move it. These variables continued for several minutes and in between blips I was able to save and finally power down. I later used it on two separate occasions with no screen problems.

Best guess: Earthing short, either its come disconnected (there is a return from the screen into the motherboard along the main loom) or in a certain position / thermal state there is a short.

could it apply to the MP900 too?!

anyway my 720 is still fine since then... nah not since the hard reset, because it did this one-flash thing once after the hard reset too... but it was weeks ago. well i lent it to a friend and not sure if he had this problem or not. but since it came back to me, it didn't happen again.

if you used it without problems afterwards that doesn't mean the problem has gone away forever..

anyway... did it happen at power up again?? though your words sound as if it just happened out of the blue while you were working the 720..

how do you mean that it flickered on and off as long as you didn't move it? did it help if you tried to move/adjust the screen?
did it get worse than on the first occasion?

hope you can fix the problem soon..

Don't worry, I'm not THAT optimistic.



Sorry. Yes, it was at power up. The difference is that it didn't "settle out" as it had, before.



I was contrasting the fact that previously it had calmed and eventually stopped, once I set its position. This time, it continued, no matter what... until the next power up. Yes, I would say this event was worse than any of the previous.

Thanks

hm.. it is definitely getting worse... have you thought of usedhandhelds.com? they will repair jornada 720's!
oh and can you try the AC idea until you send it in for repair? just curious if that helps...

This problem has seemingly been resolved. See post here:

http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=2810&posts=11#M27282

Thanks everyone!