Voluntary Recall of Toshiba Pocket PC e740

[fyiguy]

Toshiba Singapore Pte Ltd today initiated a voluntary recall of its Pocket PC e740 handheld products. The reason for the recall is to repair a recharge problem with the e740's back-up battery that ensures data retention even if the main battery is fully discharged. Toshiba estimates an approximate 1,100 units may be affected in Singapore and Hong Kong. Units bearing serial numbers 72014641L through 92042130L are effected (few are estimated to have come stateside, but it is good to check your serial number, if you do have one.)

Customers can return their Pocket PC e740s to Toshiba for repair by calling a special Toshiba e740 Support Hotline at +65 6461 6418, which will be activated from Monday Oct 28th, from 8:00am. This special support hotline will then be available 24-hrs x 7 days a week. Customers can also go to http://www.pocketpc.com.sg or http://www.pc.toshiba-asia.com for further information or repair .

To read more on this recall go here (http://pc.toshiba-asia.com/index.jsp?newsid=64).

[David27]

I just call this morning to get the return process started. It was suggested to me that it would only take about 5 business days for them to return my PDA and that that I would also get the new Flash ROM installed.
So, I asked "There is a new Flash ROM for the e740"? "Can it be downlaoded and user Installed?" The answer was yes there is a new flash ROM, but was not sure if/when it would be available for download.

At any rate I will believe it when I see it. I wonder if the person was not confused with the Flash ROM for the e310?

[jim s]

This week I was traveling with my e740 and no PC and my battery switch moved to the middle position - what IS that position for, anyway - and realized it shortly afterwards when it would no longer turn on. Moved the switch back up, and yep - hard reset.

Today, I got home and read about the recall. Checked my s/n and it starts 620 - out of the range for recall. I called anyway, and was transfered to tech support as the recall didn't apply - even though the symptoms are identical to the recall. First guy suggested I do a soft reset - huh? - and then that maybe the battery switch is sticking - again, huh? I hung up and did a little test. Made sure unit was fully charged, then removed battery. 30 minutes later, reinserted battery and it had hard reset. Called ts back and this time got someone who would listen and knew what to do. Warranty repair. I asked if I would get the new ROM and he said that as far as he knew, all devices with battery problems were getting the new ROM.

Will keep you posted...

[perfyct]

From what I've heard from a brighthand forum, the ROM upgrade will be applied to all recalled or serviced e740's. However, the ROM upgrade will most likely NOT be made available to all users. The reason being that the current bootloader (1.02xxx) will not work with the new ROM. The new ROM requires a bootloader version of 1.06xxx. And, unfortunately, the bootloader can only be upgraded by Toshiba.

I hope this is not the case but Toshiba has yet to post any information regarding the new ROM.

Here is the brighthand forum I spoke of:
http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63366

[Jorj Bauer]

Will keep you posted...

Please do! I've got a 620* unit as well, and while I'm a little loathe to see whether or not it will survive battery removal, I'd be interested to hear how this all pans out for you (including upgrade, of course)...

[lonewolf69]

I just GOT back my E740 from the Toshiba sponsored recall notice. I quickly tried to perform a "RESTORE" from the FULL backup as per Toshiba's recommendation before sending in the unit and received an error message stating that the device I am restoring to is not a support/same device as the restore file. Reconnect and try again...

After 30 mins. of frustration I made a quick phone call to Toshiba and they QUICKLY acknowledge there is a problem when the unit has been serviced!!!

At first, I thought this was an April fools joke but when the tech wasn't laughing, I started to CRY!!! :(

Apparently the NEW version of the ROM chip installed "1.06.0409" is INCOMPATIBLE with the FILE restore from the PREVIOUS ROM pre-recall...

I am now sitting anxiously by my phone waiting a level 2 or level 3 rep call me back with a solution to restore my data... :(

No, I'm not going to hold my breath but what else can I do...?


Thanks,



Disappointed
New York

PS. Yes, I do know I can "restore" just a OUTLOOK info, but I did have a really REALLY nicely customized E740 and I just don't want to go through the hassle of re-configuring from scratch until is becomes a necesscity :(

[Brad Adrian]

...Apparently the NEW version of the ROM chip installed "1.06.0409" is INCOMPATIBLE with the FILE restore from the PREVIOUS ROM pre-recall...
Yuck! Unfortunately, getting that error message is probably a true kiss of death. I sure haven't heard of any way to get past it. That's why I always make sure I've got a copy of all my software keys, because I know that eventually, I'll have to do a complete rebuild every month or so.

[Jorj Bauer]

I quickly tried to perform a "RESTORE" from the FULL backup as per Toshiba's recommendation before sending in the unit and received an error message stating that the device I am restoring to is not a support/same device as the restore file.

That doesn't surprise me. I've never seen a restore file from one rom revision that (smoothly) restored to another revision.

What does surprise me is that Toshiba recommended the backup before you sent in the device. Sounds like they have two different groups of people working on this that don't talk to eachother...

My gut instinct would be that you're out of luck with that restore file. There may be some way to hack the binary to tell ActiveSync that it came from that device, but you probably wouldn't want that anyway (because of what it would do to the upgraded ROM apps once you restored the old versions over them).

[lonewolf69]

Jorj, Brad,

Thanks for the info!!! I'm going to rebuild from SCRATCH then... Especially now that you mention about possible "corruption" due to different ROM info being written over...

The reason WHY Toshiba mentioned backing up the unit is because I sent it in for the RECALL notice about the BATTERY power problem... Nowhere did the recall mention ANYTHING about a ROM upgrade...

Well I guess it's for the best anyway, I'll just have to redo the unit from scratch... :)

Thanks again for your help and input!!!



-Alex

[David27]

I have had my repaired e740 for a few days now and I have made one interesting note about the battery fix and ROM upgrade. For some reason I was noticing slightly stronger than usual WLAN signals and made the discovery that my 802.11b device has a new MAC address. Even though it would be possible I really doubt the new MAC address was issued with a ROM upgrade, which would cause a whole lot of issues with everyone having to have a different ROM. My guess is the battery fix required them to replace the 802.11b hardware. Now I am wondering how much of the hardware did they replace? Since my old screen protector was still on the screen and the serial number did not appear to be tampered with, I do not think they just sent me a new unit or replaced everything inside.

Interesting….

Dave

[PHactotum]

I too have a 620 series e740. I have experienced the hard reset condition twice with the battery switch in the middle position. I had always thought that I had basically lost everything because the switch was in this position long enough that the backup battery had drained.

I did have a battery that wouldn't hold a charge (charged from 1% to 100% in five minutes). I called Toshiba and they sent me a replacement. I didn't have any problem replacing the battery. I swapped them without loosing any data.

So now I'm confused, do I have a unit that needs to be updated? Or is it "working as designed?"

[dly]

I just received by repaired e740 yesterday. The turnaround
time is exactly what they said in the info sheet they send you:
they will ship it back to you the next business day after they've
received it using overnight express. The new firmware is
1.0618.049 (not 1.06.049 as reported by someone else.)

I was able to "restore" from backup. However, I haven't had time
to figure out if its an activesync issue or a e740 issue...but
the restore doesn't restore the applications that you've
installed. Luckily, I only had the acrobat reader and a game
installed before I had to send it in....but for some of you who
had "lots" of apps, this might be a problem. If you have
already activated your ebook reader with MS, that activation
is also lost and you'd have to do it again. It also doesn't
restore alot of the settings like my customized menus, transcriber
customizations, button settings, and who knows what else.
oh...and non of the info from contacts, calendar, etc got
restored....well, I didn't verify that, but after the restore,
activesync indicated that it had a whole lot of contacts and
calendar events to sync from Outlook from my laptop....

So what did I get? The owner info settings, and the WI-FI settings
(yay! see later)

Can someone verify if this is what activesync backup/restore is
suppose to do? Sounds pretty bad if it is...and yes, I did make
a complete backup previously.

I haven't had a chance to see if the 802.11b signal is "stronger"
because I have been having this issue with getting a configuration
error every time I try to change WIFI settings. I managed to
change it once and got it to work....it seems those settings got restored
from the backup, so I'll try tonight and see...