Possible Windows Mobile 2003 Soft-Reset Bug?

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.xscale.de/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=372' target='_blank'>http://www.xscale.de/modules.php?na...article&sid=372</a><br /><br /></div>This article (Google translation <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xscale.de%2Fmodules.php%3Fname%3DNews%26file%3Darticle%26sid%3D372&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools">here</a>) details a potential problem that has been cropping up in a few places with Pocket PC 2003. Apparently, a particular database (DB_notify_events) grows with every soft reset, to the point (perhaps after 50 soft resets or so) that ActiveSync becomes extremely unstable. These guys have linked to a small program that apparently "cleans up" this database on a soft reset.<br /><br />I'm not sure how common this problem is or not, but if you're having this issue, you might want to check out the article; however, run the program attached at your own risk. Microsoft has not yet confirmed if a problem exists, but if they do, a patch would presumably be forthcoming.

[sting0r]

I am definitely having this problem. My ipaq 1945 has been freezing from time to time.... I wonder what the specific key is, so I can edit it manually. Don't know if I trust a program in a foreign language....

Anyone having a problem in which Calender reminders freeze their pocket pc as well??? This has also been happening...

[Janak Parekh]

I wonder what the specific key is, so I can edit it manually.
It's in the article, you know ;)

Anyone having a problem in which Calender reminders freeze their pocket pc as well??? This has also been happening...
I've heard that the presence of Pocket Plus and scheduled Sprite Pocket Backup Plus backups can both cause this problem.

--janak

[William Yeung]

According to the screen shown up its not registry... I think its within a CE database store (those system databases) which keeps appending new entry.

[Qman]

Agreed!

[Janak Parekh]

According to the screen shown up its not registry... I think its within a CE database store (those system databases) which keeps appending new entry.
Darn it, you're right. I read it last night and forgot this morning. Editing post now...

--janak

[sting0r]

I wonder what the specific key is, so I can edit it manually.
It's in the article, you know ;)

Anyone having a problem in which Calender reminders freeze their pocket pc as well??? This has also been happening...
I've heard that the presence of Pocket Plus and scheduled Sprite Pocket Backup Plus backups can both cause this problem.

--janak

I did a search on my registry and that key doesn't come up.....I even searched on some of the events listed and still nothing, weird.....

[Janak Parekh]

I did a search on my registry and that key doesn't come up.....I even searched on some of the events listed and still nothing, weird.....
It's because I'm out of it. :morning: As others have commented, it's a Pocket PC database and not a registry entry.

--janak

[sting0r]

anyone of you try it yet....

[sting0r]

I just tried and reboot and all seems well, I guess time will tell.....

[thanos255]

I could only hope this fixes the alarm problems, but I am going to assume not.

I am soooooooo ready to return my 5555. I mean it cannot even set off reminders correctly!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Thanks
Thanos

[gorkon280]

While I have had problems, I don't think my 5555 has this issue. It seems to be ok. Lord knows I have had other issues. F-Secure was giving me notification errors.....baleated! Stick with Resco for encrypting files....Some other things...mostly stupid user mistakes (me). I wish I can get rid of the blasted alerts for the external battery in my CF Plus Sleeve...just tell me when the main batt is about to go other wise I don't care! Will check in to teh DB_Notify events....

[Qman]

I just tried and reboot and all seems well, I guess time will tell.....

Same here and if I'm not mistaken I had a little more free RAM/speed increase!

So if you haven't installed/ran this program already can somebody check their free RAM first to confirm the increase/speed. Ok that was a bad idea, a soft reset clears the RAM anyhow so how would we tell. :roll:

[Pony99CA]

Anyone having a problem in which Calender reminders freeze their pocket pc as well??? This has also been happening...
I've heard that the presence of Pocket Plus and scheduled Sprite Pocket Backup Plus backups can both cause this problem.
If you have an iPAQ, there is a fix for the iPAQ Backup which may help. Check out Sprite's Pocket Backup Support page (http://www.spritesoftware.com/support/pocket_backup_support.html#5j).

Steve

[Godsongz]

hehehe Google translated pages are always fun to read. Downloaded and installed the app on my 2215, have reset a couple of times now with the second reset being just a tiny bit quicker than the first.

[Gerard]

I don't have PPC 2003, yet, being a 3835 user, but am curious about this situation. I have used Phatware's dbExplorer for a long time now, and when I want a bloated and useless database I just select it, tap Edit, then Empty. This is something I do once in a while with Calendar, as I am not sentimental about business appointments which have come and gone. The PPC offers no native tools for easily clearing databases, and since Activesync never properly synchs anything for me the Phatware tool is the only way which makes it simple.

So what I'm wondering is; what would happen if you selected DB_Notify_Events and emptied it? Would it properly rebuild on the next soft reset, or would it cause errors which would require a restore or hard reset? Here are the entire contents of my current DB_Notify_Events database currently. I've just cleared out a few appointments, if that makes a differents:

"\Program Files\CodeCity\CityTime.exe" "/Sync" 1
"\Windows\MyDash_FreeSpaceNotify.exe" "AppRunDeviceChange" 7
"\Windows\NoteMSrv.exe" "***Wake-up***" 11
"\Windows\NoteMSrv.exe" "***Wake-up***" 11
"\Windows\NoteMSrv.exe" "***Wake-up***" 11
"calnot.exe" "AppRunAfterRestore" 10
"calnot.exe" "AppRunAfterTimeChange" 1
"clocknot.exe" "AppRunAfterTimeChange" 1
"clocknot.exe" "AppRunAfterRestore" 10
"repllog.exe" "AppRunAtRs232Detect" 9


Just curious for now, but whenever the HP version of the WM upgrade comes available I'd really like to be ready, so any thoughts on this?

[EvilOne]

The application does what it is suppose to do, I had lots of those entries in that DB and it was taking up about 30KB of space, after a soft reset, the DB was only taking up about 2KB.

[fmcpherson]

I wonder what the specific key is, so I can edit it manually.
It's in the article, you know ;)

Anyone having a problem in which Calender reminders freeze their pocket pc as well??? This has also been happening...
I've heard that the presence of Pocket Plus and scheduled Sprite Pocket Backup Plus backups can both cause this problem.

--janak

I did a search on my registry and that key doesn't come up.....I even searched on some of the events listed and still nothing, weird.....

I've also experienced Calender reminder freezes, and I have Pocket Plus and Scheduled backups running on my iPAQ 2215. I just installed the fix from Sprite Software's site for the scheduled backups, so we'll see if that takes care of the problem.

In regards to the original topic of this thread. I used dbExplorer to look at the DB_NOTIFY_EVENTS database, and found it to be 18.24 KB in size with 221 records, making it one of the largest databases on my iPAQ. I ran the little fix program and the database is now at 1.11KB with 11 records.

If DB_NOTIFY_EVENTS is a system database, wouldn't the SDK give us some definition on its purpose describing why it would grow so large?

[Gerard]

Not to discredit this as a real problem at all, but "30KB" and "18.24KB" are scarcely huge databases. My Contacts Database is currently 111.68KB, with 555 records. CityTime Cities measure 56.98. (I long ago deleted the CityTime airlines and whatever the other one was, as I don't use them). Of course, if this slowly increasing DB_Notify_Events db is causing soft reset errors, then it's something which must be addressed. But if it's just the size then it is certainly nowhere near as significant as even the garbage that Inbox piles up as duplicated entries, in both file system (\Windows\messaging) and database entries. Using nPOP I avoid that nonsense at least.

[vagelis]

The bug exists on the Core PPC2003 OS code and is affecting PocketPC Phone 2003 devices as well. I use my xda with ROM 4.00.01 ENG ROM Date 05/16/03 and it IS affected by the bug.

The number of DB notify events was 35 before I ran the utility, and after running it it shrunk down to 8 As a side bonus to running the utility, my bootup time has sped up noticeably.

[ignar]

I experienced the same problem, and the hotfix seems to take care of it pretty well. My database size reduced quite a bit.

[MultiMatt]

I am using an iPAQ 5555, and I installed the file, then have done some soft-resets...

It takes to the count of 6 (with a blank, white screen that I never saw in any other iPAQ I have owned) for my iPAQ to complete the reset process.

In other words, the app did not change a thing for me....

Matt

[Server]

Alternatively, you could always use REMOVER @ http://www.geocities.com/s_k_s_k_s_kru/util.html

This n/c program will either, DELETE the offending database, or
EMPTY the database.

http://www.geocities.com/s_k_s_k_s_kru/remover.gif

[jgahr]

Not sure, where does this Hotfix get installed to?

Thanks

[mjfalcone]

After reading Janak's post I download the app onto my iPaq 5555.

Before I ran it the size of DB_Notify_Events was 466 records & 37.14KB.

After I ran it then restarted, the initial load was about twice as fast. The database went down to 10 records & 1.10KB.

Also all of the long syncs or no syncs went away. It sync'd up fine immediately. Before I ran the utility it wasn't syncing right away.

Janak , great find and thanks for the post.

Michael

[Jerry Raia]

I just tried it on my 5555. My DB was small to start, 3.48kb but after I ran it .9kb. Question: how does one look inside those DB files?

[ignar]

Question: how does one look inside those DB files?

You can use Pocket dbExplorer to view and modify those files.

[Dave Beauvais]

You can use Pocket dbExplorer to view and modify those files.
... which can be found here (http://www.paragraph.com/hpcdbex.html). :) Version 2.1 even supports Windows Mobile 2003. The free Databases Control Panel in the PHM PowerToys (http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/PowerToys/) may also allow you to view/edit the databases, but I don't have it installed, so I can't tell you for certain.

--Dave

[scarybear]

I discovered this same problem while using my iPAQ 1945. Since I test software and do numerous soft-resets for our Today Screen plugins, I found that I had over 600 notification events in my system which was slowing down certain applications. I wrote a simple program to clear out two of the offending notifications ( one for "conmgr.exe" and the other for "SSTimeChange"). Now I have about 59 active notification events (for alarms, etc.).

If anyone wants this simple application, I can make it available at no charge. In fact, I can change it to run once a day to clear out these offending notifications if desired.

Regards,

Dave
ScaryBear Software
www.scarybearsoftware.com

[Jerry Raia]

You can use Pocket dbExplorer to view and modify those files.
... which can be found here (http://www.paragraph.com/hpcdbex.html). :) Version 2.1 even supports Windows Mobile 2003. The free Databases Control Panel in the PHM PowerToys (http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/PowerToys/) may also allow you to view/edit the databases, but I don't have it installed, so I can't tell you for certain.

--Dave

Just got the pocket dbExplorer trial. Pretty nice. A bit pricey though.

[PhMajerus]

Reading this thread and posts about editing the DB_notify_* databases...
PHM PowerToys 0.13 now provides a "Scheduled Tasks" control panel applet, which lets you view (real properties display, not database table) and delete both time and event based notifications (DB_notify_* entries).
It should be able to fix this kind of issues, and typical "Notification Error - Cannot execute [some application]" errors.
Scheduled Tasks applet PowerToy (http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/PowerToys/#PHMNtfy)
In the same package, the "Databases" control panel applet lets you view the size of these DB_notify_* tables.
Databases applet PowerToy (http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/PowerToys/#PHMCEDB)

Let me know how it goes if you try it (I don't have a 2003 device yet).

[Pony99CA]

You can use Pocket dbExplorer to view and modify those files.
... which can be found here (http://www.paragraph.com/hpcdbex.html). :) Version 2.1 even supports Windows Mobile 2003. The free Databases Control Panel in the PHM PowerToys (http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/PowerToys/) may also allow you to view/edit the databases, but I don't have it installed, so I can't tell you for certain.
I use DbView (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://ppcf.mklabs.com/index_mobile.php%3Fmode%3Dsoft%26soft%3D152&prev=/%20search%3Fq%3Ddbview%2Bmagenic%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26%3Cbr%20/%3Eie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG). It allows you to see your databases and the records inside them. You can delete databases or individual records (but you can't edit them). Best of all, it's freeware. :-)

Steve

[Wigald]

Alternatively, you could always use REMOVER @ http://www.geocities.com/s_k_s_k_s_kru/util.html

This n/c program will either, DELETE the offending database, or
EMPTY the database.

http://www.geocities.com/s_k_s_k_s_kru/remover.gif

Do not try this at home! REMOVER deletes the complete database... There are some important entries. (ActiveSync stops working without them)

Question: how does one look inside those DB files?

I recommend dbView or Philippe's PowerToys (great job!) if you want to check if our little tool works properly.

Not sure, where does this Hotfix get installed to?

Simply copy it to your StartUp folder. (\Windows\StartUp)
It works fine on all language versions of Windows Mobile 2003.

[torgamm]

Alternatively, you could always use REMOVER

This n/c program will either, DELETE the offending database, or
EMPTY the database.

Do not try this at home! REMOVER deletes the complete database... There are some important entries. (ActiveSync stops working without them)
You are right if you look at File|Databases.
But you can also look at File|Notify queue to view this database and then you can delete entries one by one.

[Wigald]

Alternatively, you could always use REMOVER

This n/c program will either, DELETE the offending database, or
EMPTY the database.

Do not try this at home! REMOVER deletes the complete database... There are some important entries. (ActiveSync stops working without them)
You are right if you look at File|Databases.
But you can also look at File|Notify queue to view this database and then you can delete entries one by one.

Not bad :D

Sorry, i underrated it :oops:

[jt3]

I tried installing the patch on my 5555, and noticed that with the patch installed, powering on the unit (not resetting it) really slowed down. With the patch out of the startup directory, my iPAQ Today screen zips right up, but with the patch in the startup directory, you can actually watch it scroll through the separate Today fields, one at a time. This is easily reproduced. I even soft-reset the device with and without the patch, to ensure that there wasn't a trace of it running, and it made no difference. Today screen sluggish with the patch, zippy without; pretty cut and dry.

Anyone else seeing this?

[MultiMatt]

The patch is doing absolutely nothing for my 5555...
On a soft-reset, after the HP screen (which is moving slower than it did when I first got the unit), I see a blank white screen for at least 5 or 6 seconds before it finally comes to the Today screen.

Now, on a seperate issue, my device has stopped syncing with my PC altogether! Getting sync failure, USB device failure messages...
I've tried another cradle - to no avail.

Looks like it's time for a hard reset and start from scratch again!

This is what I get for wanting bleeding edge stuff!

I'm hurting! Ouch! :oops:

Matt

[sky]

I have a Ipaq 1940 with about 40 apps installed, and I have reset it about 100 times (force of habbit).

I first ran DBVIEW and found 8 records in db_notify_events, none of which are duplicates. I then performed a soft reset and again review the database records - no changes reported.

I can conclude my Ipaq does not suffer from this Wm2K3 problem. As nothing is broken, I have nothing to fix.
:)

[Sven Johannsen]

I noticed another fix for this problem at ScaryBearSoftware, in case anyone wants an alternative.

http://www.scarybearsoftware.com/ppc_notificationclear2003fix.html

While you are there, do check out some of their 'not free' software. I love their Today Screen Plugins.

[Bruce Jackson]

You can also try out 'alarmToday', a today screen plugin which
removes all duplicate alarms in DB_notify_events.
It also gives a great overview of all alarms on the device
(incl. Appointments and tasks), allows creating quick notes and
playing music on an alarm. Available at Handango.

cheers
Bruce