Fix Palm Memory Loss on Battery Change

OVERALL: A GREAT little PDA - I've had mine for at least 4 years now, and have NO reason to upgrade. The battery life isn't as good as the early Pilot 5000 which gave 3 months per set of AAA's, but the 6 weeks per set is far preferable to my wifes Palm M505 which has a color screen, but only lasts 10 - 14 days per charge. The 8MB of memory is more than adequate to hold a couple of games, thousands of phone numbers, thousands of calendar appointments. The desktop will synch with Microsoft Outlook, so your secretary (or you) can set up meetings over the corporate network, then you can do a hot-synch in the morning and the afternoon and take everything with you.

Now - here's the rub! After about 2 - 3 years of operation, the little critter will start forgetting everything whenever you have to change the batteries (seems ALL the Palms in the M100 series do this)! This gets to be a REAL pain, because a complete hot synch, restoring everything over a USB 1.1 port can take 15 minutes or more). The problem is with the battery back up system that is supposed to hold power for 30 - 60 seconds while you change to a new set of alkalines. This is a single device - a 3.3 volt, 0.22 farad capacitor (that is a HUGE capacitor in terms of the amount of charge it can hold) which eventually breaks down and dies. Mine had green ooze coming out of it when I replaced it!

The OEM replacement for the capacitor is made by a German company called ELNA which made a Double-Layer Electrolytic Coin Cell Capacitor, part number DSK-3R3H224-HL . I tried for weeks to get a reply from ELNA, but their customer service sucks! They will only talk to you if you're interested in sending them $10's of thousands in business - and maybe not even then. So I had to find a replacement.

Fortunately, Panasonic makes a "Gold" series capacitor which is identical in size and electrical parameters. You MUST get the "A" terminal configuration, with Panasonic part number EEC-EN0F204A. I found these in the USA at DigiKey at about $2.19 each in onsie - twosies (800 344-4539, or http://www.digikey.com/). Their part number is P11067CT-ND. I bought several just because, and shipping was about $9.00 by USPS first class mail (I got them in 4 days).

You'll need a 25 watt pencil tip soldering iron, some 0.031" diameter RESIN core electronics solder (fine), tweezers, magnifying glass (table-mounted helps), jewelers screwdrivers, tweezers or fine needle-nosed pliers, and a TORX #5 driver tip to open the Palm case. You can get a full set of TORX drivers from Home Depot (SKU 165355, Husky Part #WF74502) for about $6.00.

First, back up your data with a Hot-Synch. Then remove the batteries, pop off the flapper cover, and then the pop-off face plate. Remove the 4 TORX screws with the #5 tip and the back plate will lift off. You will see the small coin cell capacitor just above the battery case location, to the left side of the palm. While gently levering under the capacitor with a small jewelers screwdriver, heat one of the capacitor tabs with the pencil tip iron and lift it free of the circuit board. Then grasp the body of the capacitor with fine needle nose pliers while heating the other solder tab and remove the device.

Make sure to replace the new coin cell capacitor in the correct orientation - the positive tab is the wide one, and the negative tab is the narrower one that is closest to the battery box. Flow a small drop of solder onto each tab and reconnect it to the circuit board. None of the soldering or desoldering operations should take more than 5 to 10 seconds of heat application!!

Reassemble the case of your Palm M-105, perform a Hot-Synch, and from then on you can change batteries to your hearts content! Your memory loss problem is now cured!

Merlin