WakeUp Tweak To Mitigate 2003 Alarm Bug

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=876">http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=876</a><br /><br />"Wakeup Tweak is a little program that corrects a bug that appeared in Windows Mobile 2003 concerning alarms that don't always ring when they should. Everyone knows now that the PocketPC turns itself on at midnight to execute some maintenance routines, in particular the alarm initialisation. There is a fault in that the delay to switch on the Pocket PC is only 15 seconds, and that that time lapse is too short to do it correctly. Consequently, some users had have the unpleasant surprise of not hearing their Pocket PC ring out when it should have. This bug can be corrected by a change to the Registry, but if you are not too inspired to do this, you can install this utility instead."<br /><br />I say it mitigates the issue because the above registry tweak doesn't fix the problem 100% of the time. I've seen posts in the newsgroups that by changing the 15 seconds to 60 seconds, it greatly increases the chances you'll get the alarm, but doesn't guarantee it. Still very odd that I have no problems at all on my 2215, the device most people with the alarm issue seem to have. :?

[JvanEkris]

Still very odd that I have no problems at all on my 2215, the device most people with the alarm issue seem to have. :?Perhaps your list of possible events (tasks, to-do's etc.) is much smaller. I only had this problem when i had not archived my calander and to-do items for a long time. When i cleaned them out, the problem also was gone......

Jaap

[dmacburry2003]

WHY CAN'T MICROSOFT FIX IT??? WHAT ARE THEY DOING OVER THERE IN THE MOBILE DEVICES DEPARTMENT??? BUILDING THOSE LITTLE MEDIA WHATSITS??? :shocked!: THEY NEED TO GET ON THIS NOW!!! ITS ALREADY BEEN DONE FIFTY MILLION TIMES SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT EXCUSE THEY COULD HAVE!!!

[Steven Cedrone]

WHY CAN'T MICROSOFT FIX IT??? WHAT ARE THEY DOING OVER THERE IN THE MOBILE DEVICES DEPARTMENT??? BUILDING THOSE LITTLE MEDIA WHATSITS??? :shocked!: THEY NEED TO GET ON THIS NOW!!! ITS ALREADY BEEN DONE FIFTY MILLION TIMES SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT EXCUSE THEY COULD HAVE!!!

Sir, move away from that coffee pot!

Steve

[david291]

So what are the registry settings that affect those parameters (both the duration to wake up, and setting it to come completely on every time)? Does anyone have a pointer to the technical details on the registry settings?

[Steven Cedrone]

So what are the registry settings that affect those parameters (both the duration to wake up, and setting it to come completely on every time)? Does anyone have a pointer to the technical details on the registry settings?

There is a set of system states - for example, Suspend, On, and more. Suspend is, as one would expect, the state that the unit is in when its "off". On is, of course, the unit running at full power. There are others as well. The definitions for power settings for each state are stored in the registry at HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\State.

Interestingly, there is an intermediate state called "Resuming", which is the state between Suspend and On. In other words, between the point where the unit is off and on, it is "resuming from suspend". Here is the comment from platform.cpp regarding this state:

// devices should be very low-power in this state, while we figure out whether
// or not to fully resume.

While the unit is in the resume state, the unit will remain powered on for precisely 15 seconds (the default). This is controlled by the registry key HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\\Power\Timeouts\ACResumingSuspendTimeout while on AC power and HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\Timeouts\BattResumingSuspendTimeout while on battery power. System activity does not affect this timeout (i.e. if you were to tap on the screen it would have no effect and the unit would still power down).

From the monster thread (http://www.tekguru.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=308&start=0) on Tekguru!

Steve

[Jonathan1]

This has to get fixed in PPC2004 (I'm not giving up my Pocket PC name dang it! :) ) This, IMHO, is a major embarrassment to the platform when it can't do the basic functions of a PDA. I have to believe MS has been working their butts off to fix this. If this problem is still around in PPC2004....... 8O

[Ed Hansberry]

Still very odd that I have no problems at all on my 2215, the device most people with the alarm issue seem to have. :?Perhaps your list of possible events (tasks, to-do's etc.) is much smaller. I only had this problem when i had not archived my calander and to-do items for a long time. When i cleaned them out, the problem also was gone......
I keep 12 weeks of historical appointments on my device, which is probably 30-50 items and I have about 90 tasks on there right now. I don't know if that is a lot or a little compared to your list.

[aris-www.todopocketpc.com]

Hi:

I had that problem, really is solved with tweaks2k2, a program (app) that does many usefull tricks.
According to that bug, 60 seconds sometime is not enought, something that has been reported by some users of Tweaks2k2 in our forum in www.todopocketpc.com. For those users values higher than 120 seconds worked.
You can find here the program www.pc-counselor.com/downloads.htm
Cheers,
aris

[Don Tolson]

I've been testing this tweak as part of my review of PTravelAlarm. I, too, have a 2215 with over a years worth of appts, tasks, etc. (for client reference/billing reasons). 60 seconds did not produce reliable results for me, either.

I'll have to try something a bit longer and see if I can get the alarms to work reliably.

[manywhere]

WHY CAN'T MICROSOFT FIX IT??? WHAT ARE THEY DOING OVER THERE IN THE MOBILE DEVICES DEPARTMENT??? BUILDING THOSE LITTLE MEDIA WHATSITS??? :shocked!: THEY NEED TO GET ON THIS NOW!!! ITS ALREADY BEEN DONE FIFTY MILLION TIMES SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT EXCUSE THEY COULD HAVE!!!
Sir, your caps lock seems to have gotten stuck. Please switch it off... :)
No seriously, Microsoft has (reportedly) fixed this problem long time ago and the bug fix, EUU1, should be out around this spring -- or sometime this year. The device manufacturers have been testing it lately and perhaps some MVPs also? I cannot confirm that however, as I've got no MS insiders for the moment being.

Just hold on... ;)

Sir, move away from that coffee pot!
:lol: Luckily, I run on Batteries (http://www.batterydrink.com) :wink:

[manywhere]

Still very odd that I have no problems at all on my 2215, the device most people with the alarm issue seem to have. :?Perhaps your list of possible events (tasks, to-do's etc.) is much smaller. I only had this problem when i had not archived my calander and to-do items for a long time. When i cleaned them out, the problem also was gone......
I keep 12 weeks of historical appointments on my device, which is probably 30-50 items and I have about 90 tasks on there right now. I don't know if that is a lot or a little compared to your list.
Perhaps the problem is related to the magnitude of entropy for the user? On second thought, maybe not... :lol:

It would be nice though to hear an official description of the problem like in the Microsoft knowledge base. Why does it seem to mainly affect the iPaq 2210 so much? Time to open an X-case-file over at FBI... 0X

[Lynn]

Well, at least I don't feel as alone. I had been wondering why my 2215 turns itself off every (nearly every) time I turn it on. Just timed it, and it is exactly 15 seconds. A second tap of the On button (after it has turned itself off) turns it on, and it stay on.

Maybe I can avoid the annoyance if I do an On-Off-On to start.

By the bye, my alarms never (nearly never) wake up the 2215. I initially thought that this was an annoying feature. Now I see that it is a bug.

[Perk]

Very exciting stuff. I'm going to d/l it right now.

http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=876

"Wakeup Tweak is a little program that corrects a bug that appeared in Windows Mobile 2003 concerning alarms that don't always ring when they should. Everyone knows now that the PocketPC turns itself on at midnight to execute some maintenance routines, in particular the alarm initialisation. There is a fault in that the delay to switch on the Pocket PC is only 15 seconds, and that that time lapse is too short to do it correctly. Consequently, some users had have the unpleasant surprise of not hearing their Pocket PC ring out when it should have. This bug can be corrected by a change to the Registry, but if you are not too inspired to do this, you can install this utility instead."

I say it mitigates the issue because the above registry tweak doesn't fix the problem 100% of the time. I've seen posts in the newsgroups that by changing the 15 seconds to 60 seconds, it greatly increases the chances you'll get the alarm, but doesn't guarantee it. Still very odd that I have no problems at all on my 2215, the device most people with the alarm issue seem to have. :?

[HTK]

I had this alarm issues with my h1910, but now my h1945 is working flawless so far

[StuartM]

I am on my second 5555, and have worked with this platform for several years. I find HP to do a pretty poor job of Q/C themself. As an example, compare the drop down menu when you use the navigation button on a 5555 to select and copy. You get a partial circle and you can't select and copy. This is part of testing. The Toshiba PDAs I have tested work well when it comes to this function.
MS - is not a very responsive nor a quality conscious company. They put out poorly tested software. For firms to continue to knowingly sell a tool such as a PDA and by making false claims that it has a Reminder/alarm Function is probably illegal. The 555X PDA is in the price range of 500-650.00. Shouldn't this product be completed and actually work when it is purchased? It is the responsibility of the seller to resolve this with their vendor (MS in the case) or they should cease to sell it until it is repaired.
MS continues to show their lack of quality with the latest unbelievable security vulnerabilities that were just announced the other day for their desktop OSs. For this reason as a Tech consultant, I will be getting certified in Linux, and not renewing my MS certifications.
I do like this platform - but NONE OF US should accept the junk that is being dished out to us. As I have stated before, it is like purchasing an automobile that simply stops running randomly when it is in use.

[mtb]

I suffered terribly from this problem on my XDA II - I have about 150 pending appointment events at any one time I think.

I found that, even on 120 seconds Wakeup Tweak didn't cut it for me, but by using the "Always wake up PPC to full power mode" with a Settings | System | Power | Advanced | On battery setting of 3 minutes it hasn't missed a beat. It does mean that the unit powers up fully at midnight (I've watched for it) but I can live with that.

I also run the two cleanup tasks fairly regularly - the Calendar one regularly doesn't "complete in a timely manner (10 secs)" on the first run so I just rerun it until it does.

I might try tweaking the registry setting for Battery | Wakeup Idle Timeout to 180 by hand but, then again, might just leave it working as it is.