JISHOU, HUNAN — My cherished Palm Treo had a stroke on Sunday. It started acting flaky on Friday, recovered somewhat on Saturday, but ended up partly paralyzed by noon Sunday.
It could send, but it couldn’t receive, reliably, anything. No texts. No phone calls. Except when it wanted to. It was like dealing with a patient from a House M.D. episode.
One friend thought I was mad at her, because I wasn’t responding to her calls or messages. Another thought I was seriously ill. The first called a mutual friend, who assured her I was not angry at anyone. The other eventually caught up with me on QQ.
The flakiness started Friday. People were complaining they were texting me, but not getting my usual prompt response. After pulling out the SIM card, buffing the contacts and blowing some air into the Treo, I got it to receive for about 10 minutes, reliably, and longer, sporadically. Some people could reach me, while others couldn’t. Frustrating.
I’ve had the thing for about three years, and it’s about five years old, ancient by cell phone standards. It was beginning to exhibit some other annoying behaviors, like refusing to charge unless I connected it just so, and arranged it on the desk just right. If I bumped it too hard, it would shut off the radio. Occasionally, the touch screen would not respond, but after I pressed on the entire surface, it would work again.
