Fixing Broken Treo 650 Screen in Beijing

[longjingcha]

After using my Treo 650 for just over 3 months, I dropped it and broke the screen. I bought my Treo in the US, but I am currently studying in Beijing. I called Palm in China, but they said they can't fix it since it wasn't purchased in China. I called Palm in the US, but they will only ship it to a US address after they repair it.

- Does anyone know if and where I can repair it in Beijing?

- Where is a good place to buy a new one here? What is a good price? I saw some postings, but they are not current. 3 months ago I paid $520 for an unlocked 650 on amazon.com, and today the price is $415.

- Is the Treo 680 a better choice? Does it support PlecoDict? Is it available in China?

- I live and study in the East part of Beijing, so I prefer going to BaiNaoHui over ZhongGuanCun, but I heard prices there are a bit higher. Is there a big difference in prices and availability?

Thanks in advance

 

[longjingcha]

I went to BaiNaoHui on the weekend, and found 2 stores willing to replace my screen. The first was a small store on the first floor near the entrance, that sold Palm products. They wanted 1800 RMB, and said it would take a week.

The other was was a fairly big cell phone store, just outside the main entrance, that did not carry the Treo, but did have a repair department. They said they would do it for 860 RMB, and it would be ready the next day, so I decided to go with them.

When I got it back there was a problem with the colors on the new screen. Black text is fine, but when you highlight something (for example in PlecoDict), the white letters have a purple tint. Pictures look terrible, as if they only have 8 bit color depth, and the different colors are separated by purple and greenish-yellow lines. Some icons also look bad, such as the keys in the Calculator application.

The people in the repair store said it was a software settings problem, but since they don't know English, they can't fix it. I seriously doubt that. I think they either gave me the wrong screen, or a bad screen. Does anybody have any ideas?

 

[mikelove]

Sounds like the new screen is very low quality (the backlight might have some kind of a color cast to it) and/or only supports 8-bit color (as opposed to the 16-bit the Treo's OS is explaining, which would explain both the photos and the weird colors in applications). I don't believe there's any way to get the Treo to switch to 8-bit color systemwide, so even if this is in fact a settings issue there may not be any way to fix it... your best bet might be to get the screen replaced somewhere else, perhaps if they can salvage your current replacement they'd give you a little credit for it.

I can't offer much advice on places to buy new Treos (there's been some discussion of this on chinese-forums.com recently so you might try there), but I don't believe the 680 is available in China yet. At least not officially, Palm's China website doesn't mention it. It should run PlecoDict just fine, though - specs-wise it's a small improvement over the 650 (a bit smaller/lighter and twice as much memory) but not enough to justify going to a lot of trouble to get it instead.

 

[ajamal]

I've fixed my Treo 650 in Beijing

I fixed the screen on my Treo 650 last summer in Beijing at the Zhongguancun electronics market for 500rmb. I don't have the exact store's contact info--but i'll try my best to explain where I went.

At the main street where all the markets are--there are two buildings--Taipingyang and Hailong across the street from one another. Which ever one is on the west side of the street (this is the side with Carrefour), you need to go the the building immediately BEHIND it. That is, if Hailong is on the west side, go to the building immediately behind Hailong--this building also has a market inside.

Go down the escalator 1 flight, turn left and walk along the wall. There is a store that sells Treos (and other PDAs) on the right against the wall. Btw, this was the only store I found in this building that sold Palm pdas--so if my navigation directions inside the building are off, you can always ask around and find this store. Also, they don't fix it themselves--they will take you to an office in yet another building to fix it.

Took about 15-20 mins to fix and they fixed it perfectly. It's been six months since and I have had no problems at all.

Hope this helps--sorry for the convoluted directions.

Good luck,

Amin

 

[longjingcha]

Thanks Amin. I actually went back to the same place in BaiNaoHui, and they fixed it right this time. It appears the screen was OK, but they didn't install it correctly. It took them about 20 minutes to take it apart and put it back together. It's been over a month, and it still seems to be OK.

I hope it doesn't break again, but it's good to know where to go in case it does...