# Palm TX Discharges Unexpectedly and When NOT in Use



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

*Palm TX Sporadic Discharges*
self-locking timer to blame

I post this because it took me many months to find the cause and solution and there was no help from Palm. Maybe my hard-earned discovery will save someone some anguish.

I have suffered through several months, countless tech support calls to Palm and two Palm TX replacements with no positive results before I found a defect in the Palm software that causes the TX to discharge sporadically. This problem first appeared after the better part of a year and didn't exist before.

I didn't make the association at the time that the sporadic discharging problem started when I enabled security that locked the Palm TX after a pre-determined time period, usually around 3- to 6 minutes of inactivity. This timer allows the display to turn off; but, the timer obviously keeps the units internal circuitry running, draining the battery.

It seems this defect in the Palm software is a little-known-to-unknown fact among Palm users.

I configured the Palm to lock when off, instead--no timer used. The sporadic discharge problem disappeared immediately, ran it several days with no unexpected discharging. I re-enabled the timer and the problem returned.

*Conclusion:* The self-locking timer is defective and prevents the TX from going full off. This defect will cause the unit to self discharge. So, if you use security, set the unit to lock when off and do not use the timer.

I dont know if this problem exists on all TXs; but, it does on the only two that I have used the self-locking timer.


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## buzzrexx (Oct 21, 2007)

Also a note to add RE: unexpected battery loss when the unit is off:

This is RE: the Tungsten T3 but may be relevant to other Palm devices with bluetooth support.

I had this problem with my T3- I had left the bluetooth on, and discoverable, and connectable. This left the bluetooth radio ON all the time, even when the unit was off. I would go a whole day without using the PDA and would find a whole bunch of battery used up. The problem was solved by keeping it out of Connectable mode unless needed.


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