First, yes I know that Pocket PCs don’t really have a power button. The button just toggles the device between a low-power suspend mode and active mode. But, let’s just call it a Power Button to simplify life.
The photo above is of my old Compaq iPAQ 3650 Pocket PC. It was released in Fall 1999 and was probably the first Pocket PC that really drew a lot of attention. Unfortunately, mine had two moving parts that wore out a lot quicker than I thought they should: The power button and the stylus release button. I ended up having to turn on the device by using its feature of letting any hardware button activate the underlying application. I used the PHM Suspend PowerToy mentioned a few days ago to turn it off. It finally gave up the ghost in early 2002 after I used it about, hmm, 18 months or so. I had a 3850 by then. But, the 3650 was actually replaced by the a first generation T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition.
that happened to my 3850 – it is currently living out its days along with some torx screwdrivers in a partially disassembled state. It was too nifty a device to just die, be repurposed in a hacked up state (with more robust power button).
I’m an ex-Palm user. Same thing happened to my Tungsten E, after only three years. The physical power switch inside the Palm actually came off the circuit board!
There were, of course, similar ways to turn on the Palm without the switch as with the Compaq and PPC’s today.