doctorzeph

I went to my local Sprint store today and tried charging my Pre on their Touchstones. Got to full charge on both the demo Touchstones with none of the on/off charging business. So it turns out that in my case it's not the backplate but the actual Touchstone that's defective.

sinlasalle

My TouchStone works perfect

doctorzeph

Count yourself as fortunate. I guess I haven't been as lucky with regard to the Touchstone. Hoping the next one works as it's supposed to. Keeping my fingers crossed.

clemgrad85

I just received my TouchStone on Friday and so far it is working great! It seems like such a simple thing to plug the cord into your phone, but the TouchStone is just extremely convenient and keeps my Pre charged on a more regular basis. I also like how you can keep the keyboard pulled down, on the Stone, and text without having to remove it off the Stone. Was always a little annoying with the cord the way I had the cord wrapped around things to make it not look so noticeable. Anyway....happy with the Stone here....and it seems to charge just as fast.

__________________
PalmPilot, PalmIIIc, Treo 650, Pre

"It's good to be the King" - Mel Brooks, History of the World, Part 1

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have."

"I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me." General George S. Patton

doctorzeph

Until my replacement arrives, I'm using a piece of clear plastic (like the kind you find on toy box display windows)that I secured to the Touchstone using double sided tape. Provides the minimal gap necessary to prevent to dreaded on/off charging issue.

Ecode

I have two TS's.... One at home and one at work... my one at home works perfect. I've never had this problem. Today at work though, on my second TS, it started. Turned out it was becasue I had my work TS plugged in via a crappy extension cord. Seems like I need to plug mine into a wall outlet, or at least, a very robust extension cord.

EDIT: Nope.. no the issue....... I'm going to have to compare both of the TS docks at home with the same conditions to see if its the work dock that is defective.

EDIT 2: Alrighty then, I tested out both of touchstones with the same outlet/adapter/cable (all OEM). Work TS, still does the cycling - and at random charge levels, not just 100%. Home TS, works perfect, no cycling, its awesome. I'll be heading back to the Bell store tomorrow to exchange the bunk pre with a new one....

EDIT 3: Exchanged the TS that was cycling with a new one at Bell today. My new one works perfectly fine. Just perfect like my original TS that I still have at home.

pplotz

I have the same problem as a lot of people here. The charging works great until the battery is at 100% and the it just ding dongs every few seconds.

I put the plastic protector sheet that came with the touchstone in between the phone and the touchstone, and it seems to have gotten quieter for the most part... it also makes it easier to place the phone, it just slides into place.

playdrv4me

I was having this 100% issue (also ordered my TS from Amazon) and since it only cost me $30, I don't find it's worth enough of my time to be exchanging and waiting for merchandise via mail two and three and even four times, which is just silly. Muting the charging sound is also unacceptable as a constantly stopping and starting charge seems like a recipe for early battery death.

I tried the paper fix with a napkin first and that DID shut it up but looked hideous, then I took a cue from someone above and I put a piece of double stick tape up against the plastic sheet that came with the TS, attached it to the TS and set the phone on it. So far... so good. We'll see if this lasts. I don't see a serial number anywhere on the packaging so if it still fails, or maybe just for curiosity's sake and to add to the unofficial poll we have going here, I may exchange it out with one from a local merchant since they all end up back in Palm's hands anyway.

We have to be talking about tolerances of mere millimeters here. Sounds like it is time for someone with techie hands to dive into their Touchstone and see if there's a way to create this obstruction from withIN the unit. Maybe I will try this also if the thing can be opened. The idea mentioned here and in other threads of bending and fiddling with the pins doesn't work at all by the way.

In any case, while I love the coolness of the TouchStone, I'm FAR more enamored with the smooth grippy backplate versus the factory cheap looking shiny plate.

doctorzeph

I got my 3rd Touchstone set this week (2nd replacement set), and this one works perfectly! No more constant off/on charging sound. Stays quiet all night long. It seems both the Touchstone and backplate were defective with the previous set as I did some experimenting with various combos of Touchstones and backplates. Now I don't have to use that piece of plastic fastened with double sided tape to the Touchstone (though it worked well in a pinch).

A properly functioning Touchstone is a beautiful thing.

An improperly functioning one can be a nightmare (drained batteries, higher temperatures, the charging sound which you can turn off, the screen coming back on, etc.).

Palm needs some serious QC improvement with these Touchstones!

AOW

I've been using my touchstone for 3 days now, and I have the dreaded charging on/off bug. Last night I couldn't take it any longer so I turned the phone off, this morning the battery was completely dead! I had to plug it in to the wall charger for couple minutes before the screen came back on and displayed 11% battery life!!

I'm going to try the tweaking of the prongs on the back plate first, then the plastic trick. If the backplate tweak doesn't work and the plastic does, I will exchange the touchstone kit.
FYI, I purchased my touchstone from Amazon as well. Maybe they got a bad lot.

EDIT/UPDATE: tweaking the prongs under the back cover did not solve, but adding the thin piece of plastic did the trick. Before upgrading to the TS back cover I had an Invisible Skinz installed on my Pre. I'm thinking that if I add that protective film to the back of the TS back cover that this will solve the problem. Will test later and report back.

mcinnamon

I have two touchstones (one at home, one at the office) I have had zero problem at home but the touchstone at work has had this problem from the start. I'm using the same phone so the back plate adjustment didn't make sense since it works fine on the one at home. I wondered about using a power strip at work (compared to a wall outlet at home) possibly causing some interference with a bunch of other cables.

Finally this morning I went to the nearby Sprint store. They swapped out the touchstone for a new one, (they even gave me the back plate out of the box so now I have a spare) and I've had no problems the rest of the day with my touchstone at work.

SoundGuyAndy

(And a hearty never mind...had a theory about a patch that might be causing this problem, but it was wishful thinking.)

Malimal

i don't know if this is an issue, but when i look at the battery percent from the pull down menu by tapping the battery icon in the upper right hand corner I get a different reported percent then if i immediately do an Interactive test from the device info screen. Its a difference of about 4%. the battery icon reports 100%. the interactive test reports 96%. Battery monitor app seems to verify the interactive test report.

maybe some how these are being reported incorrectly to the Os. I don't know where the battery icon polls its data, but it may be reporting the device as fully charged and then where ever the interactive test is pulling its data is telling the OS that its still needs to be charged. Hence why it keeps going on and off once the battery icon reports 100%.

Is there a way to get these reports to be the same. Maybe if i drain the battery completely they will match up.

AOW

I ordered and received a replacement touchstone from Amazon.com and issues are gone! I now get this annoying high pitched sound, faint enough that I can sleep, but loud enough if bedroom is completely quiet you can hear it.

doctorzeph

Yeah, the high-pitched sound is a known issue with the Touchstone. I've had no problems at all with my Touchstone since my last replacement (my 3rd one!). I love it. 1.3.1 update caused some problems with Brightness Unlinked though.

Gumbochief

Another busted unit from amazon here.

Mine cycles as soon as I put it on. No need for it to hit >95%

Paper relieves the issue. But frankly, that is a dealbreaker for me.

I will try to exchange it at amazon to see if I get lucky, on monday.