I've been putting this off for about 6 months now, but I finally got around to fully dismantelling my SL5500 to find out exactly what FRIED when I accidentally inserted a REVERSED-POLARITY power adapter.

It turns out the the damage was not so easy to spot at first, but in the end, a small hole on the top of a very small component gave the first clue. Luckily the SL5500 has two of these components side by side, so I was able to get the part number off the good one.

The part is an SP6650EU High Efficiency 600mA Synchronous Buck Regulator made by Sipex. The trick now will be finding a vendor that will sell me these in low quantities, or finding another dead zaurus owner willing to be an organ transplant donor.

I guess there are a few of us out there with this same problem, so maybe we could pool our resources and fix them all at once?

jcabrer,

what's the problem ?
It's available from SHARP parts service.
SHARP Part # : VHISP6650EU-1L
Part name : "IC (SP6650)"
Price : About 9,-- EUR without VAT.

If you're a European user, we'll have
no problem to get one for you.
If you're located in the US, contact a local
SHARP dealer and ask for the part #.

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

:-) I fried my first 5500 in exactly the same way after about a week, and was told by sharp - obviously I didn't tell them I knew why it was dead - that because I'd updated my rom my warranty was invalid (yes I'd used a sharp rom from the us website and the english support centre say it's dangerous). So I bought another 5500 from argos, swapped the dead one for the new one (good job they ship with battery discharged and loose in the box) kept the spare battery and returned the dead zaurus to argos for full refund :-)
Okay so it's not strictly legal - but nobody got hurt. Sharp got their dead zaurus back - eventually, argos weren't out of pocket and I learnt not to bugger about with cheap 'alternative' power supplies :-)

SHARP Parts Service? Easier said than done. If you know of one, please give me their contact info. Thanks.

Jcabrer,
normally every SHARP dealer is able to get spare parts.
I would simply look in the YellowPages for the next
SHARP copier dealer in your area. These guys always
have access to the spare part system.
Should this turn out to be a real problem in the US, we
would be able to send you the needed parts. But to keep
shipping costs down, we would send it via snail mail.
This can take a while
Try your luck first at a local dealer. If you don't get
it, drop us a mail.

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

I still dont understand how engineers as good as sharp has , would leave a protection diode out of the design.

because with a li-ion battery charger circuit, it is not really possible to deal with the extra overhead that a diode needs on a 5v supply. Besides, you are not supposed to be plugging in your own equipment into your Z...