Situation: iPAQ 4700 overheating and shutting down

Description: During hot days, the 4700 iPAQ can warm up to the point where it becomes too hot. There is a temperature limiter in the unit that shuts it down at around 105*F. When it reaches maximum temperature, the unit may show a white display and shut down, or it may lock up and cease operating. Once the unit cools down, it will restart with no problems observed.

Remedy: The simplest way to manage this is to keep the unit from sitting in direct sun in the windshield of your aircraft on a hot day. The dark-colored case also helps the unit retain heat and pushes the temperature up faster. If you can, leave a door open or take the PDA out of the mount while you are away from the aircraft getting fuel, lunch, etc. Or throw a light colored towel or map over it while you are away. When in flight, try to keep air circulating on the unit.

In addition, you can adjust the backlight settings. When we prep the system, we turn the backlight all the way to highest intensity. You can turn the intensity down using the little slider on the main screen that you see when the PDA is powered on.

You can also adjust the backlight controls so that the backlight turns off after a few seconds of not being touched. To do this, tap Start > Settings, then tap on the System tab. Tap on Backlight. There are tabs at the bottom that allow you to configure backlight operation when the system is on internal batteries and also when it is on external power. Once again, when on external power, we have the settings on high and disable the backlight shutoff. You can check the box that turns the backlight off after [30 seconds or 1 minute]. This way, the backlight will turn off after 30 seconds or so have elapsed since you have touched the screen. Yes, the screen will be harder to see, but to check your position and the weather, etc, simply tap the screen once with your fingertip. The light will come back on again and stay on for another 30 seconds after you touch it. This will significantly reduce the heat build up of the PDA. Naturally, this is an issue on very hot days. For the most part we find the 4700 to run well in all temperature conditions.