Jornada 680 screen calibration problems

I have just bought a Jornada 680 on eBay (well, this is the **last** time!)
The unit came in really excellent conditions, with all accessories and such. It seemed like new.

However: I cannot complete the screen calibration procedure.
Whenever I reset the 680, it starts the screen calibration, cycling through five points around the screen. I tap the screen and the pointer moves to the next position. The problem is that it continues to cycle around the screen in an endless manner!
The only way to stop it is to press the ESC key, but at this point the screen is completely uncalibrated and unusable.

Of course I have tried several times to soft and hard reset it, but nothing has changed.

As far as I have understood, it might be a problem related to the screen cable, that might need reseating, maybe because of some mishandling during shipping (probable, since it also came with the small plastic piece that holds the hinged CF/PCMCIA slot broken and the seller says it was fine when he sent it).

My problem now, apart of trying to be refunded by the insurance, is: what I can do?
Do I need to take the machine apart to check the cable? And in this case: how? Is there some photograph on the net or in a manual on how to do it (I have checked but I haven't found any).

Please help, in these conditions the Jornada is completely useless!!!

BrianD

Mine did this due to a software bug (i think). You can get around it. Use the keyboard to work your way to windows, then into the control panel and choose Stylus from there. Then try recalibrating. If it does the same thing it probably is the hardware.

Sorry, but I have already tried it, and more than once!
Nothing has changed, even when tapping on the 5 calibration points for a huge number of cycles (I have not counted them, but I'd say about 20 cycles at most) since I have read somewhere on the net that sometimes the calibration cycle could repeat several times (but > 20 seems really crazy to me!)
BrianD

Try tapping in the wrong place for a few cycles, then do it properly. It might think that you've got such-and-such% better and work.

well, this idea about tapping in the wrong place isnt bad. just don't do it too far from the crosshairs. i have a sharp hc-4100, and the poor thing doesn't sense the touch at the middle of the screen, but i can trick it into calibrating it if i deliberately touch a wrong place not far from the original middle of the screen. of course it doesn't help but at least i can calibrate and use the device without real problems. fortunately every other part of the screen works.

anyway if you take it apart, i'm not sure you can still send it back... hmm or it is no problem if it's just an insurance refund?

OK, I'll do it as soon as I get home.
The idea seems a little weird at first, but on a second sight I think that it basically means that some areas of the screen could not sense well the pen, and you suggest to fool it a little bit.

I guess it will be a long, boring evening...

I reply to myself.

No, yesterday was not a boring evening. I haven't tried to trick the calibration setup. Not because I didn't have time or had better things to do. No. Simply because the unit doesn't work anymore.

It had been sitting closed on a desk for the whole day. When I got home I opened it: no sign of life.
I have charged the battery for hours, hoping that it was just due to that. Nothing!
The only thing that works is the charging led, which has turned green after a while, seemingly when the battery was fully charged.

I am discussing with the seller about a refund, at the moment he seems friendly but I don't know how I'll be able to manage the situation (and worse, I have no idea about how it works on eBay).

Well, now I think the best thing I can do is try to open the damn thing...

Today I have completely torn apart my Jornada. Quite difficult, actually, but I thought it was even harder.
I have taken photos of the process, if there is some interest I could write a short report.

Anyway, after separating all the pieces I have connected the mainboard to a stabilized power supply (an Agilent/HP unit, to make it feel confortable... ) and started to test the unit. THIS is difficult, because one needs to avoid to short adjacent IC pins. No clue. I was not sure whether it was functioning correctly, but I was sure it was not completely broken.

By mere chance, I decided to look below the RAM/ROM board, which was the only thing still in place on the motherboard. Looking in the small orifice between the two boards it was clear (well, almost clear) that the RAM/ROM module wasn't inserted correctly.
Just a few seconds: reseat the module by pressing firmly in the position above the connector, turn the ower supply on and... wow, the Jornada takes life again.

At the end it is obvious: without the RAM/ROM module in place, the Jornada could not start at all and then that was the first thing I had to check. Simply I didn't have any idea until the late afternoon that the module contained the system ROM, not just RAM.

Now the Jornada lies opened on the bench for the night. Tomorrow it'll try to put everything together again.

I still have the screen calibration problem, but at least the Jornada works again.

Well since it is open, did you check the screen cable?

yeah there's interest!

and yes check the touch screen cable, as PS suggested!

If the cable is right from the mainboard to the hinges, maybe you should check the part that goes into the screen assembly also. i have a j720 whose screen wasn't reacting at all, until i opened the case and stuffed the empty space on the assembly that surrounds the cable with a bit of paper, in order to have it bent to a particular position where it would respond, i haven't had a single problem since that day

Edit: about the jornada disassembly operation.... the first time is always the harder (and the most messy one!). That's why i've been afraid of dissecting the sigmarion

Edited by matrixcore 2005-11-30 10:13 PM

why, you want to disassemble that nice sigmarion?

i wanted to dissect it just for the fun of doing it (to see what's inside )

Edit: sorry, i first posted the other topics reply here then corrected it.

Edited by matrixcore 2005-12-01 1:41 AM

It booted eventually, for no apparant reason. This seems to be a problem with the last few Jornadas from Tigerdirect/Expansys

Thanks to all of you for the suggestion. This was actually the first thing I wanted to check. The flat cable from to motherboard to the screen assembly is ok, it was well seated in the small connectors, with no sign of cracks.

But actually the problem **was** in a the cable. On one side of the LCD screen there is a flat cable with four wires, that connects the touchscreen sensing electrodes to the relative electronic circuit (basically an A/D converter, I would say). To be inserted in its connector, the cable is bent by 90°. And that is the problem: some of the wires has cracked and there is not electrical continuity. Actually, by pressing it a little bit, I have managed with some luck to complete the calibration setup (but I haven't been able to repeat it a second time!)
The cable is sandwiched between plastic films that are very hard to remove without damaging the wires, plus a purple glued tape that is relatively easy to tear away.

I am thinking about how to repair the thing. Well, tomorrow I'll put it in practice... with crossed fingers...