[NTLK] Notephone and OMP/MP100 issues

[Sylvain Pilet]

Frank,

Thank you for your clarification on the MP100/H1000. I have a much better understanding of the frequent problems with these models. I will make some component purchases and get into the business of repairing the units I have.

About the Notephones and their motherboard...
What do you mean by "a certain degree temperature-related"?
Do you mean that certain components are too sensitive and if they heat up too much they no longer work? 


Sylvain Pilet

http://message-pad.net
http://messagepad.no-ip.org:3680 [NPDS Tracker]


> Le 15 nov. 2020 à 22:10, NewtonTalk <newtontalk at pda-soft.de> a écrit :
> 
> I own seven or eight Notephones, most of them complete and in their original
> packaging, and over time I've had three or four from other people on my
> workbench. They all have the same problem: They don't "hang up" when you put
> the receiver back on the cradle. So the toll office out there thinks your
> phone call isn't yet finished. That's why you'll never get a dial tone for
> your next phone call unless you temporarily unplug the phone. This problem
> hides in the base unit's mainboard, and it is to a certain degree
> temperature-related. Most, but not all, Notephones will work fine for a
> short time if you put them in your fridge for an hour before making the
> call. 
> 
> Don't waste your time adding the cradle switch to your suspect list. The
> switch is perfectly OK.
> 
> At one time I thought I had fixed this problem by replacing some capacitors
> that had leaked, but I was mistaken. This Notephone is now in Sonny's
> possession, and eventually the problem came back. 
> 
> The Notephone's Newton will quite happily do faxes when you furnish it with
> the correct cable. The problem is that even in Germany a standard German
> phone cable will not work because Siemens did their own thing cable-wise.
> You'll have to reverse two wires to make it work. I dimly remember there's a
> further cable change required if you want to make the Notephone run in the
> US, but off the top of my head I'm not sure. 
> 
> The Notephone was never sold with an English OS Newton. Those that are out
> there were all modified by yours truly. They DO look genuine, though,
> because I not only replaced the mainboards, but also the touchscreens (to
> get English silk screen buttons) and all decals that are visible to the
> naked eye. I'm glad to hear that people won't part with their English
> Notephone for less than a thousand bucks. Always nice to have one's work
> appreciated :-)
> 
> The problem with the silent Newton is a completely different cup of tea.
> This is an problem that eventually befalls every Notephone Newton, OMP, or
> MP100. Normally the Newton only appears to be silent, but isn't. If you set
> the Newton to maximum volume and hold it close to your ear, you normally
> still hear the sound, albeit very faintly.
> 
> The reason is a 100uF 4V capacitor that has leaked. If you remove the back
> part of the case, you will (assuming you look at the Newton with the battery
> compartment pointing towards you) find it at the bottom left-hand corner to
> the left of the white fuse. That's close to where the speaker wires are
> soldered to the board. The capacitor is silver, cylinder-shaped and has a
> black rectangular "housing" around it. Replace it, and the sound will be
> like new. Make sure to clean the area around the capacitor with some
> cleaning fluid after removing the old capacitor and before putting the new
> one in.
> 
> You'll probably have a hard time getting a 4V capacitor. Higher voltages are
> OK, but make sure the capacitor isn't bigger than the original, otherwise
> you wouldn't be able to reassemble the bottom case part correctly.
> 
> While your Newton is open, you should also replace C51 (3.3uF 35V). This
> capacitor is known to cause display problems that make the Newton impossible
> to use, as Erik Johnson found out about two years ago. This component is on
> the "wrong" side of the mainboard, so you'll need to remove it for the
> replacement.
> 
> Taking an OMP/MP100 apart and putting it back together isn't for the faint
> at heart. Some time ago I wrote instructions how to do this. However, since
> these instructions are still missing the required DoPa approval, which is
> entirely my fault because I'm so darn busy taking care of other issues at
> the moment, they're not yet available on my website. If you want to have a
> look at the ugly and incomplete draft version, be my guest:
> 
> 
> <https://www.pda-soft.de/scratch/How%20to%20take%20apart%20an%20OMP%20or%20N
> ewton%20MessagePad%20100.docx>
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Frank
> 
> -- Newton software and hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de
> 
> 
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