- RE: Damaged Netbook Keyboard

- Corrupt CF Card

- Any problems with NIMH s in P5?

- RE: Damaged netBook Keyboard

- Synchronising Agenda & Outlook (Office 2003)

- Video on Psion,

- Update on the future question

- HTC Athena - Netbook replacement?

Date: 25 Jan 2007 17:24:34 +0100
From: ealasaidandsimon <address truncated>
Subject: RE: Damaged Netbook Keyboard

> Has anyone get a knackered Netbook with a working keyboard, or know > where I can purchase a spare keyboard.   I managed to spill coffee > over my Netbook :^(.  Everything else works - I swapped bits over > from my spare Netbook to check - but the keyboard types rubbish > when used.

Dear Lewis,

When this happened to us we managed to mend it. The keyboard is a  sandwich of plastic layers, some with metal contacts and some with holes. When you press a key, the layers with contacs are bent down into the holes and make electrical contact. The coffee goes between the layers and messes up the contacts.

If you take the keyboard out, and pop off all the keys (take a digi photo first to remind you of their positions!) you'll see on one side or the other, probably the bottom, a series of wee black plastic nibs sticking through oval holes in the metal base plate. Get a really sharp craft knife or scalpel and shave just enough off the sides of each nib to allow you to pull the thing apart. Then you can clean both sides of each layer and leave them all in a warm place separated for a day or two to dry off. Then put them back together in the same order as they were. Then finally get an old cheap soldering iron and while holding the layers very tightly together with your other three hands, melt the edges of the nibs so they once again flow a bit over the metal base plate to hold the pieces firmly together again. that should solve it.

Best wishes

Simon

Date: 25 Jan 2007 20:58:09 +0100
From: Melvin Woody <address truncated>
Subject: Corrupt CF Card

I've just discovered that the CF card that I've been using in my Mbook is corrupt. (A little black bar with that message appears when I shift from "C" to "D" drives.  I had been having lots of trouble using the Mbook because I would open files and write into them and then, when I tried to reopen and add, I'd get a corrupt notice about the file and could not save it in its revised form.  So in one way, I'm glad to discover that the problem seems to be in the card as a whole.  I've tried opening, changing and saving files using a smaller CF card that i had on hand, and that all goes very well.
     But what do I do now?  I find that I've backed up that CF card pretty well - hopefully before it became corrupted, although I can't be sure.  Should I try reformatting the card?  Or should I delete one file or folder at a time in hopes that one file has jinxed the whole disk? Or should I just buy a new card and forget the one that's corrupt?
    I'll be grateful for any guidance.

Melvin Woody

Date: 25 Jan 2007 23:02:54 +0100
From: Cyril Catt <address truncated>
Subject: Any problems with NIMH s in P5?

My P5 manual was written in 1997, before NiMH batteries became widely available.
Although NiCad batteries are mentioned in the manual, NiMH batteries are not.
Is there any reason why NiMH batteries should not be used in a Series 5 Psion?
Cyril Catt

Date: 26 Jan 2007 09:42:14 +0100
From: Trygve Henriksen <address truncated>
Subject: RE: Damaged netBook Keyboard

Greetings1

Lewis wrote:

> I managed to spill coffee over my Netbook :^(.  Everything else works
- I swapped bits over
> from my spare Netbook to check - but the keyboard types rubbish when
used.

Have you tried cleaning it?
I once spillt something on my keyboard, too, but that cleaned up without
too much problems.
(The computer was in bits already, so the innards were never in any
danger of getting wet... )
Depending on what was spilled, it may be possible to take the keyboard,
strip it of keys and just rinse it with warm water for 5minutes, then
leave it to dry overnight.

If not, and which was the case with mine, I stripped it down, then
opened up the bottom plate.
If you look closely you'll see that it is held together with small black
'hooks' that goes through evenly spaced holes.
You can force these out and separate the layers to easily clean out the
gunk. (Isopropanol or 'electronic cleaner' should work OK)
The problem is getting it all together again, because the 'hooks' will
no longer grip properly.
I solved this by using a soldering-iron set at he lowest temperature, to
melt the hooks and flatten them.
It doesn't look as nice anymore, but the keyboard has worked flawlessly
for 3 years since then...

Sorry for not being able to give a more detailed description, but it has
been a few years ago, and I'm not about to open it again, just to
refresh my memory...

:-)
Trygve

BTW: it's "netBook". Not "Netbook"

Date: 27 Jan 2007 21:25:46 +0100
From: Colin & Ali Messer <address truncated>
Subject: Synchronising Agenda & Outlook (Office 2003)

Gary Jenkinson <address truncated> wrote on 11 Jan 2007

> "Does anyone have any tips/ideas/suggestions of how best to > synchronise Agenda/5mx with Outlook/Office 2003-WinXP
> so I avoid all those duplicated and inaccurate entries that I got > the last time I tried this??"

The only way I know to avoid duplicate entries is to use one system as the master and the other as slave.  All other attempts turn up duplicates eventually, though the XP/Office2003 combination has been the least troublesome.  Even so I still occasionally find events duplicated.

The most trouble free synchronisation I use is between my work outlook and an agenda file I call Desk Diary where I rarely update my netBook.
Synchronisation with the home system Win98SE/Office97 is another matter.
If a large contacts update has taken place then I see large number of duplicates on the netBook, though not if the updates are small.

> ...  it was particularly disappointing not to get a SINGLE reply.

I too have requested help on a couple of issues and have also received no reply, but as my university tutor would say, "If you have nothing to say, say nothing.", so I didn't take it personally.  Though perhaps I could take this opportunity to ask the assembled knowledge base if anyone has has success converting video files for playing on a netBook, and if so, how?

Regards
Colin Messer
using a Revo/netBook combination

Date: 28 Jan 2007 00:21:23 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Video on Psion,

Answer to: David Steer & Austin

Re.: Video on Psion - Does the nBook screen really have enough power and pixels to show a video ? If I look at photos on a nBook I find the quality poor and would a video not be the same quality, i.e. poor as well ?

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 28 Jan 2007 00:29:40 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Update on the future question

We have now received 84 answers from which 15 said no to any change, 1 was undecided and the balance said yes to expand the scope of the digest. This give an 80% to 20% opinion towards expanding.

We will now discuss this matter between the operators and see what we will do with this result and will inform you all again in a few weeks (discussing by email does take time).

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 29 Jan 2007 09:24:20 +0100
From: John Morris <address truncated>
Subject: HTC Athena - Netbook replacement?

I've just read a couple of reviews for the new HTC Athena (see this link: http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/articles/htc-athena-en.shtml ). It seems to be heading very firmly into Netbook / Series 7 territory, with added SatNav, Camera & 3G capability. Its keyboard looks poor, though, but HTC will probably invest in improvements in future releases until they get it right.

John Morris, Cambs UK