Database Users

How would you test a used 8525?

I just won a slightly used unlocked 8525 on EBay. Since I won't have a warranty, it seems like a good idea to verify that the device is in full working order as quickly as possible.
Do any of you have tips on what you would do to fully (or almost fully) exersice an 8525?

Theres no menu like the nokias have to see if its ever been serviced but theres a few things i do when looking at pocket pc's although i've never purchased a used one because i haven't found one's which look that sound.
First thing i would do is look at its physical state. Scratches etc. which will show if it's been dropped or handled roughly.
Second i'd take off the batter cover and look at the screws to show if they've every been removed. You can tell this by either seeing small scratches on them. Also the I-Mate Jasjam screws are black so you can tell easily if a screws been in them.
Then i'd remove the battery and the sim card(if inserted) and see if theres a little felt/paper square. This should be white and changes color (to purple i believe) if it ever got wet or moist. Inspect the little bit of the circuit board thats visible under where the sim would go for imperfections.
Now I'd go back to physicl aspects. Look at the screen, if it has a screen protector thats marked up, remove it and inspect the LCD and see if itself has scratches, if there are scratches and they are small i'd suggest the pocketpctechs screen protector which covers up blemishes.
Press the bottons on the front and sides and see if they feel well (are they hard to press, do they got stuck etc.) Slide the device open a couple of times and see if its locks into place or not and if its rough/smooth to open/close.
When its open i'd go and press each button on the keyboard and see if any of them stick and look for things as you would with the other buttons.
Then turn on the device and test all the buttons, and the keyboard on a new notepad. See if the screen is aligned by opening a new note and draw a line from one corner to the opposite corner, make sure the line is under the pen. Align the screen and keep in mind when you did it and cross your fingers and hope it stays aligned. If it does have the SA issue, go to the wiki for a fix.
I guess thats all i can think of right now... hope it helps you in deciding whether you want to keep the device or not. Oh yah, also check if the memory slot works and inspect the Mini-Usb port, and the stylus silo (haven't heard of it becoming loose on the hermes yet)
Good luck and hopefully you got no problems with it and its a sound device. Enjoy it and welcome to the Xda-Devs!

Thanks fone_fanatic! Looks like some great advice that will help me make a checklist.
Having come from a Palm T3 + a Sony Ericsson T637, I'm long overdue for an upgrade and really excited about converging devices with the 8525.

dont forget to make a phone call bring your sim, sometimes people forget the obvious

WooHoo!
It tests out great. There were only two problems
1)a slight creaking in the top left corner - really more an annoyance than anything else
2)The phone was sold as unlocked but prompted me for the unlock code which the prevous owner did not know. This problem was easily overcome with the unlock solution posted on the Wiki.
Thanks for the testing tips as they help me feel far more secure in my purchase!
Now I just need to get used to the PocketPC OS (seems a little complicated coming from PalmOS). After I get the feel of the OS figured out, I will start trying to write some apps.

Hi creaking top left corner is actually fairly normal. The screw will be tight but it's not in the corner (see battery compartment). The screw passess through camera board and holds it slightly proud. If it really bugs you, you can remove back (a warranty voiding activity) a place a piece of papervas padding to take up slack - otherwise not a big issue.
Glad it's working fine
The voyage of discovery and frustration begins - enjoy
Mike

Enjoy your device. They really are the best PPC around.

White screen - is my Wizard dead.

my first for ages.
I recently purchased a wizard which looks to be virtually brand new.
now the other day I updated it the the o2 uk latest rom as it was running a really old rom.
and it has been running perfectly, i have not looked into running any other rom or performance upgrades etc.
now I was using the device in landscape and after closing the unit my screen went bright white and my pride and joy is now not usable.
I can still acept calls, the touch screen still works but the screen is pure white.
Ive contact a few places and they all say the screen has died and needs replacing
Does this sound right.
its a £80 fix if this is right. im so gutted.
any advice is great before i pack it up and send it off.

anyone please....

Can you put it into bootloader mode? If not i would say you have a loose connection on the screen to the mainboard i had the same problem with my old phone the screen disconnected for the main board so no display! If you cant get it replaced take it apart and carefully check the connections if still doesnt work i would try another screen or buy one.

even when i reset it, it stays whits so cant see anyhting on screen,
ive had someone take it apart and re-seat the cables and still just a white screen
so im off to purchase another one in hope this is all thats gone

as your phone is booting up press and hold the camera button, is the screen still white?

cant tell now. ive sent if off for repair.
Im gutted.

bleep said:
cant tell now. ive sent if off for repair.
Im gutted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a similar issue, the keyboard sliding in and out must have worn out the switch that detects when it is open/closed. I had had my wizard a year and the screen started flickering, i dealt with it for a while, then the scree was stuck blank white unless if i pressed on the area of the phone that had the contact.
I had to send it back and got a refurb.
sounds like thats what happened to you too. Hopefully when you get it back it will be good as new

ive sent mine for a screen replacement tho not a repair.
now im worrying that its gonna come back in the same state.
Gulp

got my wizard back after having the screen replaced.
2 days later when ever i touch the bottom of the screen with pen, finger or even breath on it.
the screen goes off and the phone locks up and dies.
I have to take battery out and restart it and it then works great till i touch the bottom again.
Sound like a dodgy screen or something else.

Seems like a flexi strip(The one conecying the display to the mother board) sometimes if the strip develops a tear or is not properly connected this issue usually happens.

the shop doing the repair have said there is the following issues
1- padding issue on the screen (either too much or not enough)
2- Problems with the main board. (something on there is failling, hardware wise)
How the hell could this be happening on a device that was working perfectly
apart from the screen had died.
have they done more damage attempting the repair... I think so .!

I had the white screen 6 months ago. Luckily still under warranty period so got it repaired. It was the flexo-cable. since the fix no problem so far despites using the phone (also in landscape mode) daily.

when i got it back after the screen was replaced my xda worked great but as stated as soon as some preasure was applied to the bottom of the screen it would just die there and then.
I would have to take the battery out and then it would power on as normal
but again if i put presure on the bottom of the screen.. bang DEAD !
so sent it back to them and they told me what I stated above !
now waiting 2wks to hear what they are gonna do about it
not a happy bunny

still nothing back from the company thats doing the repair.
i dont know why they do this.
Im now thinking of getting my Xda back, selling it either on here or ebay and purchasing a new one.
Should i quit now or wait out for the miracle that they fix it completly.

Anyone in the uk reconmend a good repair company please im pulling my hair out.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=303872
theres your answer

Screen issue fixable without having to send back?

Hey,
So I noticed a problem with my phone that there's a section right accross the top of the screen that is not reponsive to touch, it's probly about a 1/4 inch or so and don't care what I do seems to solve it. I kinda noticed it from day one before I rooted and put on CyanMod ROM on it but since I never put any games as such on there before cause it would slow it down some I hardly ever had to touch that section of the screen for it to bother or stand out to me. Now I'm rooted and all and put some games on and notice it big time.
So I was wondering if there is something some of the development people here can do to fix it via software or something instead of me having to send it for repair? I called HTC about it and they said I can send it in but it would be for repair (charged) rather than warranty because I've unlocked the bootloader.
What do you more experienced people think? Maybe for some strange reason the touch screen area on my phone was enterred wrong or something so it covers a smaller area and so could just be written to cover the proper area size? Just thinking but I have no clue how that stuff works. I have no other issue with the screen like what I read others complaining about, everything else lines up fine and works fine just this... Any help appreciated!

Is the screen firmly fixed at the top? Does it click at all when you press it?
SC

Seems so, I checked all that but am nervous to try pushing any harder on it to be honest, no clicks
Edit: Even tried pressing that side of the screen outside the touch area and as close to the as possible, still no response and no clicks

The only reason I ask is that someone had an issue like that and used a hair dryer to warm it up and secure it...
Just a thought.. granted a wrong one :/
SC

Was their's unresponsive in the upper part as well or just clicking? I have hot air soldering tools for doing BGA repairs on xbox360's, PS3's and even an iPhone just Friday I repaired. If something like that would work sure have better tools for it than a hair dryer but wouldn't want to do damage anymore than what is already done to make repair costs higher.

beware: how to open the back casing

Its easy to break the sliding mechanism when opening up the back cover. There is a small slit on the bottom back when supposedly helps do that, but it does not work as intended. If you pull out on that slit, you will cause the sliding mechanism to break in that there will now be a gap in between the 2 halfs of the phone and it will not be tight as before. The way to open the back cover is to open the slide, hold the back portion on one side of the speaker grill (do not hold or pull on the top half of the phone) and use your fingernail to separate the back cover along the edge. It will come off easilly and when you have enough of the back cover peeled away it will separate easilly. I broke my first phone's mechanism by trying to pull on the small indent on the bottom which clearly does not work as intended.

I agree. The manual mentions that little slit on the bottom, but it's obvious once you start putting pressure on it that it's a quick way to break your new toy. I just went to the other side and started prying and got it off.

Deleted Post

I think this has happened to me, the gap is driving me nuts right now is there any way to fix it cause I don't think I have a case in order to return it and get it replaced. What is stupid is that the manual tells you to open the back like that. Edit: So I ended up trying to get a new surround and since I was over the 30 days (by 3 days) they wouldn't give me a new phone. My next choice is to send it to HTC and get it fixed but I am not too sure if it is worth it, or if it will get worse and that I should. Any comments?

nVd90 said:
I think this has happened to me, the gap is driving me nuts right now is there any way to fix it cause I don't think I have a case in order to return it and get it replaced. What is stupid is that the manual tells you to open the back like that. Edit: So I ended up trying to get a new surround and since I was over the 30 days (by 3 days) they wouldn't give me a new phone. My next choice is to send it to HTC and get it fixed but I am not too sure if it is worth it, or if it will get worse and that I should. Any comments?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should try talking to HTC's customer support. explain to them the situation. and let them know that the OFFICIAL user manual tells you to do it like this. I really don't think they can blame you for instructions they gave you. It's worth a try...

loose buttons but not something to worry about!

What a story!!
I bought a galaxy note 4 right on launch day first thing in the morning. Ive had just about every phone but have been waiting for a while now to get my hands on the new note 4.
I ended up buying the phone at the St . Bruno shopping center in Quebec, Canada and once i singed all the papers for my contract and got home, I finally open the box and took the phone out of the box. I loved it, it did everything one would expect from the highest end phone on the market.
A week later however, I started noticing that my buttons, especially my home button were slightly loose and my phone was also developing a weird oil spot under the home button.
So I went back to videotron but this time at St. Catherine street corporate branch store and the manager there obviously didnt know much about phones because he looked at it and proceeded with putting windex on a paper towel and wiping my screen with it and than told me that theres nothing wrong with it.
After frustratingly explaining everything to him, he told me that if the phone makes calls and works, than these issues arent covered for any kind of exchange as its not affecting the functionality of the phone. My logic tell me however that if one buy's a ferrari and realizes that the paint is f-up, wouldn't the dealership do something about it??? Anyways, without any luck I eventually left disappointed.
The following week After exhaustive attempt to solve the matter with Videotron to no avail, I found out that there was a store here in montreal called Service Absolute which is a samsung repair center that I could bring my phone to. I called them first to not waist more of my time and was than informed that yes they could help me but that it could take nearly a month before they would have any parts for this phone.
So after patiently waiting, I finally got a call back from them and droped off my phone the following day. I only had to wait two days before i got my phone back and thought that the turn around time was great! Only after few minutes of playing with it however, I noticed that the phone's new screen which now didn't have the oil spot was actually lifting from the housing about 1mm at the top of the phone and that the buttons were all still loose.
Its easy to imagine at this point how infuriated i was with all the time spent dealing with a phone that should of been right in the first place.. All the waiting, calling and runaround I got only to get a phone that was now even worst!! I could actually see inside my phone and behind the screen. Dust was starting to get inside the phone and under the camera lens and so on and I was really starting to freak out and was completly desperate to fix this issue asap to prevent things from getting worse and worse.
So I decided at this pont to take matters in my own hands and use my old trusty screwdriver to take this thing apart and get
To the bottom of the loose buttons and screen seperation.. I know! Scray [email protected]$ but it had to be done because at this point I needed a working phone for work and nobody seemed to help me. So after watching a few youtube videos, I unscrewed the screws at the back and gently seperated the phone from the metal frame with my fingers.
The whole assembly came out of the metal frame the same komd of way the old HTC phones used to. After doing so, the first thing i found out was that if your going scatch your phones metal frame which makes up most of the phone outer surfice, it's no big deal as it can be swapped out for around 40 to 50 bucks.
Next I noticed that all the buttons (volume and power) aren't adheared to the frame but only clipped in with a few pins stratigically placed. So its normal that they have play and wiggle. They're not gonna break and we're likely engineered to be this way. The wiggling is not really important as it won't affect anything on the phone's motherboard.
The next thing I noticed was that the glue between the inner midframe (the part that holds the motherboard to the screen assembly) also wasn't glued properly and was able to gently seperate it from the lcd/digitizer assembly without a heat gun or anything.. after doing so, the home button fell out and was simply dangling from its flex cable. It wasn't actually glued in place or held in with clips or anything. It's only connected to a flex cable on the left side of the button but thats it. I was easily able to pull it out and inspect it. It was built to be completely free floating between the midframe and the screen.
Which means that again, no need to worry about anything breaking as the home button is not a solidified part to start with and only in place where it is because of the space tolerence engeneered in the screen's home button whole. So it being slightly loose is normal and something that will eventually happen to all note 4's sooner or later. The slight looseness actually makes sense to me as any dust material that will get in between the home button wont get stuck as as much as if the space toleren was less. In my opinion, I thik that iPhones have less issues like this as the home button is part of the screen assembly and is also round.
In the end, I wasn't able to adhear the screen back in place as I didnt have double sided tape but manages to send it back to samsung and get it serviced again. I clearly asked them to fix it properly this time and it looks like they finally did and glued it back properly now.
This was a crazy experience and all I can tell you is that I definatly got an up close look of this phone and decided to keep it afterall as it's still better than a refurbished one and also because it's super easy to repair if anything ever broke on it.
Anyways i know this is a long post but I thought I'd share my experience with everyone and put some of your worries to rest.
Cheers!