How to stop the HP310/314 switching off or locking up during a flight

You might already have experienced a power loss lookalike in your HP31X. If happening during a flight, it can be also dangerous not to mention the task informations and the lost IGC log. We discovered that it's a stupid hardware problem, very easy to fix. Symptoms are: black screen, no way to power it on again, hardware reset needed.

Open the battery compartment of your HP31x, and locate the small switch which is deactivated when you remove the cover. The cover can move during a flight, and the small switch will cut off power resulting in a complete crash. You can avoid all of this with a small piece of tape properly placed there to keep the switch always pressed.

Push the tape in the hole with a tool, so that the switch is well pressed. Apply twice. Once done, you can check that the fix is working by resetting the PNA with the back cover still off.