Geoff,

The only thing I can think of which explains your problem is that you have an earlier version of the Palm (Palm Personal?), that does not have a backlit light. If this is the case, do NOT buy this Palm, or if you have this type of Palm, then don't use it as a remote control. I know for a fact that the Palm Professional and up all have backlit lights and allow for touchscreen with your finger. The Palm Pilot I spoke of in the previous replies, has these features.

Without the backlit light and being unable to use your finger, the Palm that you have is virtually useless as a remote control. In fact, 3Com does no longer sells that version of the Palm Pilot. It's a good thing that 3Com decided to fix that issue with all following versions of the Palm Pilot.