All this talk lately got me thinking about the stuff I have around. In digging through my boxes, I found an Apple Newton H1000 that I forgot I still had. Naturally I had to see if it would boot up, and amazingly it still worked. It had lost all its settings, so I reset everything with the proper date/time, name, etc and started using it at work to jot down notes in meetings. The screen is not up to today's standards, but the interface is still as intuitive and easy as I remember it. I also swear that the handwriting recognition is better than on my XP tablet pc. Needless to say, it has turned quite a few heads, and I get a lot of questions about what it is and how does it work. Everything was going good untill today when I tried to turn it on and ... nothing. Plugged in the charger, changed the battery pack, and still nothing. I am thinking that the backup battery is probably dead, seeing as it is an old 3v CR2032 cell. Would a dead backup battery make it not turn on? I plan on running out to get another one today, but was curious if anyone could confirm this.
Chef
The early Newtons always needed at least one working & charged power source, so in case the backup battery is the only one inside the Newton and its an old one it is most likely empty. Therefor You will always lose any "stored" information and You will have to go through the first setup process again. Any backup battery with the same specifications will do but keep in mind that its capacity drowns very (!) fast if You don't own another external power supply or a correctly working battery pack.
J
So then Jenne are you saying that it should start, as long as I have a fully charged battery pack and/or I have it plugged in? I have a rechargable battery pack, the AAA battery pack, and a power plug, and no combination of them will seem to get it to start. I have never had this kind of issue before with it, which is why I suspect the backup cell is finally discharged.
Chef
I'm not too sure about it but as far as I remember the backup battery (the little round one) has to be in place always and in working condition. Then it might be possible to use it along with the power supply or the battery pack. I can't remember wether this works with all 3 components together but I will let You know as soon as possible and as soon as my OMP arrives that I got for about 12 bucks some days ago ;-)
j
I guess the backup cell was the problem. I replaced it, hit the reset button, and it seems to be working. The date was off a few days, I guess from when the battery died, but everything else looks ok. Too bad the 2000/2100 models are still so expensive, as I would love to have the pcmcia slots.
Chef
I won't tell You how much I paid for my 2100... But I enjoy the two PCMCIAs very much!
J