How to fix the power button on the Palm Pre
August 8, 2010mike 4 Comments »It looks like you chose to fix the power button on the Palm Pre,
Which means you either:
A. Have a Palm Pre (Plus) Sprint, Verizon, AT&T etc.
B. Wanted to know what the hell I am talking about
The Palm Pre (especially the early ones) has inherent flaws, one of the main ones is the breaking of the power button (yes I could get a case to protect the corner)
But instead, here are some fixes I have put up on the Palm help forums over the year I’ve had it:
“I have had the Palm Pre since it first came out and have mostly enjoyed it. Sure there are the software shortcomings that I’m sure will be remedied in upcoming OS updates. There are some bugs here and there (needs to be a way to recalibrate the screen), but one thing that started today and I am sure I won’t be alone on this one, is the inability to turn the phone off and on with the power button. It seems the little plastic nub that is the power button was not made large enough to, after a little wear press the electronic switch beneath it. I have to press the plastic nub extremely hard several times to turn the unit on (which I usually slide it to do anyway) or off (the only way to do that).
I called Sprint regarding this and they said I should go and have a tech look at it. (read pain in the ass) or could have a refurb sent out (read even more worn out power button) I suspect I will not be alone in this problem and hope that as more Pres are built a new power button will be used. When that happens I will be looking for mine in the mail.”
“Got worse! So eventually I got that Pre (original replaced) some time ago.
Since then my current Pre (Sprint) has had a similar problem. After some time the “paper method” stopped working because the “little sticker” inside the power button (which I had since used the “sticky” of a post it note to “resticky” so it would stay in place) eventually became lost.
Without the “little sticker” the paper method doesn’t really work (no metal). I am now using the Paper Method 2.0 aka the Aluminum Foil Method and have folded that up and placed under the power button.
This method is a little more difficult as it can get to close to the sliding mechanism causing the power button to trigger when sliding the Pre open and closed. It can also somehow overlap with the inner circuits of the vibrate toggle so place the foil carefully. Good luck!”
A little laughter after fixing your Pre? http://www.styrofoamsoup.com/tech/all-smartphones-can-be-held-wrong/
(((And now that you know how to fix that… A lesson in manufacturing aka why this probably happened in the first place! http://www.styrofoamsoup.com/tech/a-lecture-in-manufacturing/ )))
August 9th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
[...] [...]
August 9th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
[...] to be fair my power button crapping out on my Pre sucked too, but I figured that one out as well http://www.styrofoamsoup.com/tech/how-to-fix-the-power-button-on-the-palm-pre/ [...]
August 9th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
[...] How to fix the power button on the Palm Pre [...]
February 6th, 2011 at 7:28 am
I used a small strap of scotch folded up. It has the advantage of giving you some elasticity plus it is not conducting. In fact I used two doubled up pieces which I cut such that they would just (with a bit of pressure) fit in. Works like a charme.