Inside a Compaq 1530 PDA: What's Broken?

I've seen it three times this year. There's a problem with the old,
faithful 1530. In the process, you take the battery out, then put it
back in. Maybe you're replacing the battery (at great cost). Or maybe
just resetting the device to start over again.

Now it doesn't work. Or doesn't work reliably. Sometimes it switches
off on its own, then back on. Sometimes you can't switch it off at
all. Or the display seems to flicker on and off. You do a hard reset.
No effect. Out come the batteries again, then back in. Now it works.
Sometimes. By the time you initialize it (calibrating the stylus,
reloading the Pocket NAV or GN II software, resetting the buttons,
etc.) the 10th or 11th time, you're ready to throw it away and buy an
IPAQ...which does the same thing, only in color (and arguably not any
more legibly), at even greater cost.

I saw it again with another pilot's 1530 this weekend. On this one,
the failure (screen blanking out, then reappearing, sometimes with
garbage displayed) was closely correlated with inserting it in or
removing it from the cockpit mount (factory Cambridge). And it could
be reliably precipated by squeezing together the front and back of the
case between thumb and forefinger in the upper righthand corner, just
outside the corner of the display screen.

We suspect some kind of intermittant fault--maybe tarnish on the
little contacts that connect the display to the CPU/buss. When the
display "vanishes," the brain reacts irrationally.

Anyone else seen this? It really does often seem to be triggered by
removing/inserting the main battery.

Anyone opened up a 1530 to play around inside? The screws on the case
make it look possible to get in without destroying it but it's always
nicer to learn from others' successes/disasters.

Based on collective experience in my area, there have to be more 1530
owners out there with the same mode of failure. And since none of us
can navigate without our GPS moving maps anymore, this is a serious
problem.

Chip Bearden