Second x50 dies in 17 months

[Wrenhouse]

I purchased my x50 new directly from Dell for $340. Within 8 months I had to order a new docking unit because the original one broke down. It cost me $17. Within 10 months of the original purchase date my Axim totally died and I had to send it in to Dell for a replacement with a refurbished unit. This was covered under the original warranty. Now 7 months after my Axim was replaced this second unit has died. I can not get it to boot up using the power button or the reset button. The battery is charged and the power button is lit green when it is in the cradle. The ActiveSync is not working because it is not recognizing the PDA. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem? Since it is no longer in warranty, Dell has offered to replace it with a refurbished unit for $210. I will not be replacing it. I am a gentle consumer with my tech equipment. I seldom drop my PDA and the use is moderate. I keep it covered and protected and carry it on my person as apposed to throwing it into an attache or backpack. I asked Dell what they considered to be the average life of the Axim. They couldn't tell me, but they said they have no record of an extraordinary amount of problems with this model. My feeling is that anything electronic that I purchase for over $300 should last me at least 3-5 years. They are asking me to spend another $210 on a piece of equipment that I don't trust to last past another 10 months. That would be over $550 for equipment that lasts a little over 2 years, if I'm lucky. Of course they told me that I should have purchased the extended warranty. I didn't because I have always trusted Dell to produce reliable equipment. I am very disappointed in Dell and the quality of this equipment. I am a Dell fan who may be leaving the fold.

[Drifter]

HHHMMMMM, sound like you have been having a bad time. The problem you ndesribe is not common and docking station problems which were arround at the very start of the x50 were resolved a long time ago

Have you tried a hard reset on your current axim ?

Press and hold the power button, then whilst doing so, press reset. This will put the unit back to as supplied condition and hopefully put some life back.

Please let us know what happens.

If not sucessful, it is possible to buy donor motherboards and cases on ebay for a lot less than what Dell quoted or you can always consider selling your unit as the screen is useful.

Good luck, I hope a hard reset works

[jps1212]

This is the same problem I am having. It freezes on the start-up and soft/hard reset are not changing anything. Anyone else with this problem or can help?

[Drifter]

Have you checked to make sure you are on the most recent ROM ,??

This should be A05 for your x50.

Also if you have by chance upgraded to WM5, it is recommended you downgrade back to 2003SE.

[jps1212]

I did upgrade it to WM5, and i would be happy to downgrade back to 03. Since i can't get it past the start-up screen and it won't sync, how would I do that?

[Iowan]

Sounds familiar... My son upgraded his X50 to WM5, a few days later it refused to boot. Dell tech support diagnosed it as hardware failure and replaced it under warranty. He upgraded the refurbished replacement - which worked until two weeks after warranty expired. Same failure. He replaced it with an iPaq and vowed never to own anything else with Dell on the nameplate. Rather than leave the corpse on his desktop (and because I didn't own a PDA), I paid the "repair" bill and became an Axim owner. As you can imagine, I'm a little hesitant about upgrading to WM5.

His "hardware failure" sounds a lot like the 80% boot failure mentioned here:
Need Help: can't reboot