Sometimes a Palm Pilot won’t turn on. It may appear dead, but in most cases it is not. There are some simple tricks to reviving the Palm Pilot so you can keep using it.

The first is to do the needle trick. The Palm Pilots were designed with a reset button on the device. They made it hard to hit by accident so you will need a needle or pin to press the button. On some models, you can unscrew the stylus that will have a thin plastic device that will fit into the slot. Press the button firmly for a few seconds and the device, assuming it has a charge in the battery, will turn on again. Sometimes the device reboots on its own, while other times it doesn’t. Sometimes there is data loss because the Palm Pilot crashed, which was the cause of the problem.

Sometimes you are simply working with a dead battery. Let it charge for at least half a day and try turning it on again. Sometimes the battery itself gets too hot or too cold and does not work properly. After being indoors at normal temperature for a few days these devices have been reactivated.

Many times, since Palm Pilots are quite old technology, the batteries have completely drained, just as they eventually do in devices like your laptop. You will need to replace the battery to get your Palm Pilot working again. You can find used batteries cheaply on sites like eBay. Just make sure it works with your model before you buy.

Just unscrew the back and lift off the outer shell. The battery is easily accessible right there. You can disconnect the battery from the device and replace the new one quite easily. After recharging the device, it will be back in working order. Unfortunately, this will cause you to lose all your data.