Fix a PDA Yourself

Well, Thanksgiving is over. You know what that means. If you’re someone who celebrates Christmas, it’s time to get started on your holiday shopping in earnest. And, if you’re a tech geek like me, you probably have at least a few gadgets on your list—to buy for friends and family, or that you are hoping they’ll buy for you.

If you are also somewhat of a butterfingers, or the person you’re buying for is, you may be worrying that the new toy you get won’t last very long before it breaks.

Well, at least if you’re talking about smartphones and PDAs, there is a company out there with an alternate solution to waiting several weeks for the manufacturer of a Treo, for example, to replace a broken screen.

A rep from the company, PDAParts.com, recently got in touch to tell me about their solution: replacement parts for some of the most popular Pads, and instructions for how to fix the device yourself.

Before we go any further, it should be noted that attempting self-repair of a PDA will void your warranty, so you’d need to be fairly confident that you can successfully complete the task before starting.

PDAParts.com offers replacement screens, motherboards, keyboards and other parts for a pretty broad range of PDAs, including Palm Treo, Visor, and Clie. They also offers parts and repair instructions for iPods.

Seems like an interesting idea, although I’m not so sure whether voiding your warrantee is a good thing. If you’re really impatient, or the warrantee on your PDA already has run out, this could be an option.

Now, here’s hoping you never will need the services of PDAParts.com!