What happens When You Cook Your Palm Pilot

Hal-kun writes "What happens when you put a Palm Pilot in the oven to dry with the warmth of the pilot light, only to have someone cook a Pizza while you were out? Take a look. Stick a fork in it, I think it's done."

If you like this stuff...

[kisrael]

...and don't mind a little blatant karma-whoring:
The Palm Graveyard [palminfocenter.com] is dedicated to tales and pictures of Palms that have piloted their way to the choir invisible.

Fully intact?

[EchoMirage]

Interestingly, the electronics looked to be pretty intact for the temperature it was cooked at, and the screen didn't look too bad. I'd say those Palm VIIx's are fairly resilient. Too bad they're so big.

This brings up another interesting question, however. Are there "rugged" PDAs that are able to take a beating? I know that Fellowes [fellowes.com] sells a bumper case that's supposed to protect Palms, but how durable are they? Does somebody make a "rugged" PDA?

Actually, though...

[Anonymous Coward]

You really can, and people actually do dry out circuits by baking them. If he had removed the LCD, plastic case, and batteries it might have survived.

Re:If you like this stuff...

[faqBastard]

Also maybe we can get The Drop Squad [dropsquad.com] guys to do some additional testing. :-)

How to fix a car radio

[ortholattice]

About 10 years ago my wife spilled some Coke (or Pepsi) into the dashboard, and somehow it drained into the radio/cassette, rendering the unit nonfunctional. The dealer and a repairman declared it a total loss.

Here is what I did to resurrect it.

I took the radio out of the car and the cover off the radio. I filled the kitchen sink with cold, clean water and soaked everything, cassette player and all, for 1 hour. Drained the water, refilled the sink, and soaked for another 15 minutes (rinse cycle). Finally, I baked it at 160 deg F in an (electric) oven for 8 hours.

Why 160? I figured a car radio could get that hot when the car was in the sun with the doors closed. I hesitated to go higher, mainly concerned with the plastic parts in the cassette player.

The radio and cassette still work fine to this day. Yeah, I still own the car - these days only gas-hogging SUVs match the surprising storage space inside of the tiny-looking frame of a 1988 Honda Wagovan, AFAIK made only one year, and only in tan. With plenty of headroom for extra-tall folks.

Re:How to fix a car radio

[mikewas]

An undersea vehicle I was testing sank. It was recoverred after a wek on the bottom, in seawater. The NAVY crew working with me placed it into a sealed container filled with seawater, and shipped it back to the depot's lab for failure analysis & salvage.

Keeping it under water was less damaging than exposure to oxygen in the air. When we got it back, they rinsed everything with lots of flowing fresh water. We took everything apart, inspected it with a blacklight (sea-salt flouresces), baked it overnight in an environmental chamber (50C), reassembled things and almost every subassembly worked!

Cable assemblies took longer. There are lots of nooks & crannies for salt to hide in. They inspected them after a few weeks. Any salt tends to migrate out & beomes visible.

Re:The poor thing...!

[CMiYC]

No the internal PCB would probably be just fine. Anything plastic would be melted, such as wires. All of the components on the PCB go through a solder wave or a reflow oven. Those temps are much higher than what you'd be cooking a pizza at.

Re:How to fix a car radio

[armb]

> About 10 years ago my wife spilled some Coke (or Pepsi) into the dashboard

Allegedly the US spec for military aircraft instruments includes being able to resist Coke spillage.

> I filled the kitchen sink with cold, clean water and soaked everything, cassette player and all, for 1 hour. Drained the water, refilled the sink, and soaked for another 15 minutes (rinse cycle).

It can be worth using distilled/deionized water for the final rinse.