Aggrieved consumers claim that the damage occurred to the serial
ports of their PCs when a static charge passed through the brushed
aluminium case of the Palm V series PDA, via its Hot Sync docking
cradle. With damage to a serial port, a PC can become impossible to
re-boot.
A lawsuit has been filed in California against Palm and its
former parent company 3Com. The lawsuit originally alleged that the
software which connects certain Palm PDAs to PCs damages or
destroys the motherboards of certain PC brands. It was later
amended to state that the problem could be static electricity, and
argues that the risk was foreseeable and avoidable during
design.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two US-based Palm PDA users and
seeks class action status for all those consumers affected.
