Activesync Nightmare

[hlevin]

I hope someone can help with this problem. I have been syncing my iPAQ 3970 with Outlook 2002 unders Windows 2000 Professional for a long time now. Everything was working fine today until the following updates installed through Windows Automatic Update:

810847: February 2002 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1
811630: Critical Update (Windows 2000)
810833: Security Update (Windows 2000)

Well, at least I think this is what caused the problem. I could be wrong.

After that, when I plug the iPAQ into the USB cable, Activesync starts up on both devices, but the iPAQ hangs after a few seconds and requires a soft reset before it'll do anything again. I've tried installing Activesync 3.6
and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 since then in an attempt to fix the problem, but no dice. I know this looks like a problem with the iPAQ, but it was working fine before the Win2K updates (again, I think).

I'm REEEEAAALLLLY hoping to not have to try a hard reset. Thanx in advance for the help!

[Chris Spera]

Try deleting the partnership and recreating it. When ActiveSync asks you if you want to combine, replace, etc; choose replace, unless you have items on your iPAQ that are not on your PC. If that's the case choose combine and then take time to make sure all the duplicate appointments, contacts, files, etc., are removed

If that doesn't work, you are most likely looking at a hard reset.

Christopher Spera

[hlevin]

OK. Deleted the partnership, hooked up the iPAQ and it didn't hand. Started taking me through the partnership setup. After setting a partnership name and telling Activesync to only sync to this computer, I got "Unrecoverable error. Please disconnect your device and restart Microsoft ActiveSync."

Now what? Is Outlook broken?

[ctmagnus]

Have you tried logging off/logging on?

Is Outlook shutting down correctly?

Are you using Word as your email editor? (if so, the previous question may be no.)

Have you tried rebooting the computer?

Also, after you delete the partnership, open Windows Explorer and navigate to

C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Application Data\Microsoft\ActiveSync\Profiles

and delete any folders in there.


What I would do in this situation is open Outlook, navigate to Tools -> Options -> Mail Format tab and uncheck both Use Microsoft Word to... boxes, if they are not already unchecked.

Then go to Help -> Detect and Repair. You may need your Office/Outlook installation CD for this.

When this is finished, open ActiveSync and delete the profile(s).

Then delete any folders under C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Application Data\Microsoft\ActiveSync\Profiles.

Reboot the desktop. Soft-reset the iPaq.

When finished rebooting, try synching again. If it doesn't work at this point, you have a more serious error.


Enjoy! :)

[hlevin]

OK. You'll all love this one. I actually grabbed up a tech at HP today that had a clue. We did many of the same things that were suggested by ctmagnus. Still, nothing worked. On a lark, we removed my 256MB SD card and, guess what? Everything worked again. I uninstalled Pocket TV Listings which saved it's listing filed on the card and everything's back to normal. Turns out that one of the files on the SD card was corrupt.

Only thing they can't tell me is why something that seemingly should have no impact at all on ActiveSync did.

Thanx for all the help! Hope this solution gets someone out of trouble in the future. :)

[ctmagnus]

...is why something that seemingly should have no impact at all on ActiveSync did.

Welcome to the world of computer troubleshooting :)