Hello,

I just bought an IPAQ H3600 from a friend. It was working fine, and I realized he had left phone numbers on there. He came and said he was going to wipe everything out of it, and he stuck a paperclip in the bottom. Now it seems to be stuck on the boot screen. All it says is the version number at the lower right. I can touch the screen and the backlight comes on (don't know if that means anything).

Thanks for any help!

P.S. This is my first Palm, so I don't know anything about them.

First an ipaq is not a Palm. Palm OS is an operating system currently only used on Palm, Treo and Sony devices. The iPaqs use Windows Pocket PC version. You can find drivers and other tools for the unit at:

Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC h3600 series -  Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=100803&prodSeriesId=96479&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=204)

The little hole in the bottom is a hard reset. It should restore the unit to factory settings so you can start from scratch. But there should be a windows screen that comes up. You can get the manuals for the unit at the link above.

Thanks Scott, now I think I made it worse though ;) I downloaded the files, and started going through the instructions to install it. It said I needed to install Active Sync, so I downloaded it, installed it, and it connected to the IPAQ without a problem. Then the instructions said to put make sure there were no extra cards or anything added, so I removed the extra 64mb SD card that was in it. Now that I have done that, it will no longer connect to my computer, and even if I do another "hard reset" it won't let me do anything. The backlight no longer comes on at all, and it still will not re-connect to my computer.

Try putting the card back in. You can also try e-mailing HP for support. They will charge for phone support, but may do e--mail for free.

I got it working! :) I'm not sure what exactly the button did that the guy I bought it from was pushing (other than mess it up) but after reading several websites for several hours, I finally found a diagram, that shows kind of a hidden cover at the bottom. Inside of there was a switch that after turning off and back on, fixed the problem.

Thanks for your help Scott!

Glad you got it. Hmm my ipaq doesn't have such a switch. But it does have the recessed reset pinhole.

Hello,

I just bought an IPAQ H3600 from a friend. It was working fine, and I realized he had left phone numbers on there. He came and said he was going to wipe everything out of it, and he stuck a paperclip in the bottom. Now it seems to be stuck on the boot screen. All it says is the version number at the lower right. I can touch the screen and the backlight comes on (don't know if that means anything).

Thanks for any help!

P.S. This is my first Palm, so I don't know anything about them.
Hi SuddenImpact,

The best is you make a complete set up. Bush both bottom outside buttons and than the button on the bottom side of the PDA with the stilos for about 5 sec.

Than it should start completely new.

Regards Franz