I just bought a used Palm T|X (or Palm TX) to replace my old Palm Tungsten E2. The E2′s speaker had developed a short or something, so that I often had to tap on the device to get the speaker to start working. I rely on my PDA to wake me up every morning, and if the speaker is not working, then it can’t do it. Sounds like an excuse for an upgrade, to me. The T|X also has 802.11b and you can get WPA and 802.1x support from Palm for $6, not a bad deal. I also enjoy the larger screen and the ability to rotate it to a landscape view.
My Tungsten E2 had a little whine problem. That is, if it was on and I held it up to my ear, I could hear a little high-pitched whiny noise. Turns out that the screen is causing this. It wasn’t a big deal, because I have to hold it right up to my ear to hear it and I noticed it only by chance. In 10 years, I probably won’t be able to hear that high-pitched a noise anymore.
Anyway, while being mostly very pleased with the T|X, I was dismayed to find that it came with a huge whine problem. The whiny noise is probably 10 times louder, or more, than the noise coming from the E2. It was enough that I could clearly hear it when the PDA was on and over an arms length away from me.
After using the thing to take notes during a 50 minute class today, it was enough to drive me crazy (though it would probably be very good at keeping me awake and alert). I don’t know if anyone sitting around me could hear it… No one said anything to me about it. I think my ears are a little more sensitive to high frequency noise than many other people my age, though I am certainly not sure about that, I certainly won’t mind when I’m not able to hear these whiny noises anymore. Anyway, something had to be done about this problem.
Googling, I was pleased to see that I am not the first to come across this problem. However, the T|X is not exactly a new device, and some of the advice I found on fixing it yielded dead links to software that is no longer supported (I suppose). However, I did find a software-only solution. WarpSpeed, an overclocking utility available over here for $11, has the option to silence the screen noise (I believe this is done by lowering the screen update rate). I downloaded the trial version and sure enough it was able to reduce the noise coming from my device from a terribly annoying whine audible from 3 feet away to a very, very quiet buzz audible from only about 2 inches away. They got my $11.
Tags: Palm