TX: Tiny portion of screen not registering.

Question

I've only had my TX for a few months and have always had a screen protector on my TX's screen and have never dropped it.  Thinking that the screen protector was just worn out, I changed it this morning, hoping that would be the answer.  I cleaned the screen, did the whole business card/paper thing around the perimeter, and put the new one on.    No luck.
What's worse is that it's smack in the middle of the "letters" side of my Graffiti area.
I turned the screen to horizontal mode to use the notepad to show the problem area.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h238/mooshisho/100_3273.jpg
This is what it looks like after one "pass" over the area. 
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h238/mooshisho/100_3274.jpg
This is what it looks like after multiple passes.
I can't use Graffiti to write my notes anymore. Any idea of what I can do to fix it?  It seems that it will register only if I write REALLY slow and push down with a bit more pressure than needed.  But I really don't want to do that...  Also, that little area doesn't feel "smooth" like the other areas of the screen.  I don't know if that is the fault of the screen protector or not.  What are the chances of having a defective screen protector in the same area twice in a row?
Thanks for any replies...
-- Moo
Post relates to: Palm TX

Answer 1

Your digitizer has failed, and no software will repair its functionality.
Your choices are a warranty repair by Palm (call the number above to get it started), or doing it yourself.
Cost of a warranty repair is one-way insured and trackable shipping from your location to Texas (Priority Mail, Insured cost me about $13 each time).  I have two TXes, each of which has had at least one digitizer repaired/replaced under warranty.  They each failed in the same area where yours failed.  I got tired of repeatedly spending the money to ship to Texas only to have the next digitizer fail in 2 months and do it all over again, so I did the self-repair on both of them and never looked back.  Anther down-side is that you will be out the use of your TX until you get it back...maybe a couple of weeks though it should be quicker than that.
Doing it yourself will cost $40 for a new glass-backed digitizer from http://www.gethightech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PA1693&Category_Code=DIG along with the cost of a T5 Torx driver (found mine at Sears for a few bucks) and shipping.  The site also has a take-apart video.  Other excellent user threads on the subject are available on the forums at www.brighthand.com with tips and pix of the process.  These digitizers are way superior to the OEM digitizers in the TX...better response and feel, and not prone to failure like yours and mine experienced.   I did both of my TXes in about an hour (the first one took about 45 minutes because I was nervous and went very slowly; the second one was 15 minutes).  Basically, to borrow a phrase, it's so easy "a caveman could do it".
The self-repair route will void the balance of your TX's warranty, however.
Post relates to: None
Message Edited by smkranz on 01-16-2009 01:03 PM
smkranz
I am a volunteer, and not an HP employee.
Palm OS ∙ webOS ∙ Android