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If you find that over time that the Palm isn’t correctly recognizing your taps, or that the screen is drawing slightly above or below or “off” where you currently have your stylus, then it’s time to “digitize” your Palm or “calibrate” the digitizer. Doing so normally can reset the Palm to correctly detect where you are tapping the screen.

Normally, the calibration or digitizer program will kick in shortly after you’ve done a hard reset, or when you originally turned on your Palm for the first time. This process of tapping at the crosshair or intersection of two lines allows the Palm to correctly detect where you are tapping on the screen. But, you can also access this program at any time.

Here’s how to launch the Digitizer:

Go into your Prefs application.

Tap on the Digitizer or Touchscreen or something similar to that in the application. The name may change but it should be similar to digitizing or calibration.

Then, tap at the crosshair or intersection of the two intersecting lines at the indicated targets. Usually you will tap first at the top left hand corner, next at the bottom right hand corner, and finally at the center. If the program has accurately detected your stylus taps, you will exit the application.

Digitizer or Calibration simulation on both a Treo 650 and Zire 71

The simulation will play through to the end unless I’ve inserted a pop up note to explain specific points.

To continue playing the simulation, press the or button.
To go back to a previous paused segment, click on the or button.
To pause the simulation at any time, press the button. To continue after it’s paused, press the button again.

To scroll forward or backward in the simulation, click anywhere on the left (to go back earlier in the simulation), or right (to go forward in the simulation) on the progress bar.

Alternative Flash link: Photobucket

More digitizer software programs

Sometimes, using the default Palm digitizer program won’t help as you are stuck tapping away at the three crosshairs and it never exits the program because it’s not correctly calibrated. In those cases, check out my Digitizer Fixes posting for an extensive list of digitizer programs and ideas you can try.

Last resort trick: Complete battery drain

Most times, using a digitizer fixing software program will fix the problem. But before you go and get it repaired, here’s one last trick you may want to try. Let the Palm completely drain its battery. That usually means leave it uncharged for a few days. If you can’t power it back on, then it’s likely the battery is completely drained. You may want to leave it for another day just to make sure that all the juice is gone. Sometimes, even when you can’t turn on the Palm, there is still a bit of battery left that will keep the data stored but not enough to power it on.

Once you’ve determined that the battery is completely drained, charge it back up for a few hours (3 - 4 hours is a good amount of time). Turn it back on and see if the digitizer is working. Most times, letting the battery drain and then charging it back up after a few days will work for many people. But, sometimes, you may need to have it repaired as it’s more of a hardware problem. Check out my posting Protecting your new investment to get links to repair shops and services.

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