Frustrations Of Setting Up A Device

[Ed Hansberry]

I installed an update to an app this week that made a change to the UI that I really didn't like. In trying to revert to the old version I caught the bug that some of you have - failing alarms. :? Two days in a row they have failed. Now it is time for a hard reset. I figure now is as good of time as any to upgrade to the new iPAQ 2215 ROM 1.10, so off we go.<br /><br />The upgrade ran smooth. Now for the hours and hours of putting apps back on through this weekend. There were several things I wanted done today though and one was to get my bluetooth partnership with my Nokia 3650 going. I am sure you can see where this is headed. I start the process on my 2215 and the Nokia keeps seeing "Pocket_PC" which is wrong. I've already named my device Hans2215. Buried deep within not the iPAQ Bluetooth Manager but the Bluetooth icon in the Connection tab I finally found out why. For some stupid reason it says "Pocket_PC" for the device name. Fine. Change that, ok, ok, ok, hit New Connection in the Bluetooth Manager again. Same thing. Reboot the iPAQ and Nokia. Same thing. Screw it. Connect as "Pocket_PC" then rename it on the Nokia side, because, yeah, I'm anal about that sort of thing. :grumble: <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2004/20040326-frustrating.gif" /><br /><!><br />But do they connect? Noooo.... Now I try to establish a partnership from the Nokia to the iPAQ and that works. I have no clue why I have to do it both ways. Fine. Enter the impossibly long connection string to get T-Mobile working, connect, nothing. Sigh... The iPAQ and Nokia are talking, but the dialup isn't happening. For some reason I have to open the Bluetooth Manager and tap-hold on the phone icon, click connect then tell it to use my "TMobile" connection because for some reason, me telling the TMobile connectoid to use the Bluetooth Dialup Modem involved too much common sense. I am beginning to understand that bluetooth is like a black hole. It lives in the same Einsteinian universe I live in, but like black holes, it doesn't obey the same laws. So, as you get closer to the bluetooth event horizon, logic is crushed in on itself and a whole new set of rules kicks in. I am not well versed in quantum physics, or bluetooth apparently. :roll: After this step, the connection finally works. :werenotworthy: <br /><br />Now to launch inbox and connect to my corporate email server. I know this works because I have already set up the VPN server with my Socket WiFi CF card. It blows sky high. Fine. Start|Settings|Connections. Where did all of my network connections go?!?!?! "My ISP" and "My Work Network" are gone and in their place is a single "Bluetooth Settings" configuration. Now, keep in mind I was in a foul mood before this because:<br /><br />• Audible has changed their Pocket PC software in an apparent answer to <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14194">my post here</a> and my trick no longer works. <br />• Microsoft has changed the default black text in the Start Menu to White somewhere in the Theme logic and all of my favorite themes are rendered useless.<br /><br />Dig around and find out that the HP Bluetooth Manager has added this new "network" for bluetooth settings and moved all of my ISP and VPN settings into it. Not copied. <b>Moved!</b> Fine. But HP, like the rest of us, doesn't fully grasp the finer nuances of Connection Manager because if they did, they WOULDN'T HAVE MOVED MY VPN SETTING FROM "MY WORK NETWORK" TO THEIR BOGUS "BLUETOOTH NETWORK INTERNET" SETTING! You can't do that. That is like setting everything to WORK WORK WORK in the Connection Manager then wondering why your VPN never fires. Trust me. It won't.<br /><br />So I change everything back to the way it belongs with My ISP and My Work Network, make a new connection string, which I have to call TMobile2 because TMobile is used in the Bluetooth area :roll: and my VPN is called VPN2 for the same stupid reason. And yes, I did go and delete the ones in the Bluetooth network and rename mine because, yeah, I'm anal about that sort of thing.<br /><br />Oh, one more thing. For the first time since moving to Windows Mobile 2003, I got the "Not enough memory" error when starting up the bluetooth stack. I am not impressed with ROM 1.10 at all. And I am not upgrading <i><b>anything</b></i> for quite some time. I am sick of loading apps and playing "Find the UI control we moved" and it has happened several times in the past 2 weeks with both Pocket PC and PC apps I got an urge to update.<br /><br />One good thing did happen today though. My new <a href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sugarplum">CDs by Sugerplum Fairies</a> arrived. Bliss...

[JvanEkris]

Ed,

We have found a fix for your white letters problem. With regedit, go to HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Color
You find a lot of keys there:
1 color of 'status' in activesync cnnct msg.
4 today screen font color
5 background of starticon.
6 horz separator lines in todayscreen
7 color of command bar background
8 color of status bar background
9 color of status bar text
10 navigation bar highlite color
11 tray background
12 tray highlight
13 msgbar left
14 msgbar right
25 alert left
26 alert right
39 color of startmenu letters

This last key should be there (if not, make a Binary Word with name 39). Basically it is a RGB-code for the color:
00 00 00 00 = Black
FF 00 00 00 = Red
00 FF 00 00 = Green
FF FF 00 00 = Yellow
00 00 FF 00 = Blue
FF 00 FF 00 = Purple
00 FF FF 00 = Lightgreen
FF FF FF 00 = White

Hope this helps:)

Jaap

[surur]

Friday, Bluetooth rant day 8O

I personally blame connection mangler, which is trying to impose some weird paradigm on ppc users, instead of simply allowing them to set a default connection as on a pc.

but blame it on bluetooth if you want... :roll:

Surur

[brianchris]

I personally blame connection mangler, which is trying to impose some weird paradigm on ppc users, instead of simply allowing them to set a default connection as on a pc.

I agree. One of the "features" of WM2003 was an improved, less conveluded Connection manager. Ummm, excuse me? :grumble: I long for us to be able to just set up connections and manually initiate them (if need be). MS, how about an option to use Connection Manager's "features" or not? I wonder if WM2003 S.E. fixes (or removes) connection manager?

[Ed Hansberry]

Hope this helps:)
Thanks! Unfortunately, it deletes #39 everytime you change themes, but I don't do it that often. Much appreciated. Got my old theme back. :)

[kamikun]

Three words: labor saving devices.

Until makers of devices and software start using real beta-testers during their quality control and evaluation phase this kind of stuff is always going to happen.

Big, multi-million dollar, highly capitalized firms skimp on the beta-testing phase by bringing in poor representative samples to kick the tires, gadget geeks. Sure they don't have to pay these testers anything (just give em a free copy of the software (or in my case a keyring... thank you Microdoft). These kind of testers are great for pushing the operating limits of the device or code but they are notoriously bad for evaluating the usability of the thing being tested.

If you want your iThing-a-ma-jig to penetrate across all market sectors then you better test that Larry the tech junkie can't crash it and that Loretta the cosmetology drop-out can at least get it set up and running.

Like anything else... you get the quality control that you pay for.

/.02

[Pat Logsdon]

I am beginning to understand that bluetooth is like a black hole. It lives in the same Einsteinian universe I live in, but like black holes, it doesn't obey the same laws. So, as you get closer to the bluetooth event horizon, logic is crushed in on itself and a whole new set of rules kicks in. I am not well versed in quantum physics, or bluetooth apparently.
8O This quote is like poetry - very well done! I feel your pain, but like the Marquis, I keep coming back for more, hoping that things will improve in time. Fortunately, I've been pretty lucky with bluetooth so far - my Fortuna Clip-On BT GPS works very well - two taps and it's ready to go. :way to go:

[disconnected]

My iPAQ 5555 has been running slow lately, probably from some junk I installed and uninstalled, so I'd love to hard reset and install everything from scratch. What's holding me back is all things wireless -- and particularly the bluetooth connection to my t608; even with some instructions from sprintpcsinfo.com it took me several tries, and finally seemed to work totally by accident; I'm afraid to touch it.

[Don Tolson]

I know it's a bit late for you Ed, but maybe for others considering the ROM upgrade...

I found that when I took an iPAQ backup to CF card, did the ROM update, then did a restore from the CF card, I got the message "...not from the same machine or OS level. May cause significant problems." I ignored this and went ahead anyway. Voila! all my apps and connections back where they should be.

I have gotten the 'Not enough memory stack' once when trying to initiate the Bluetooth Manager, but a soft reset seems to have gotten rid of that.

[ctmagnus]

I'm setting up my 5550 again because last night I was playing with PI and it managed to hard-reset the device (the first time I've ever had a hard-reset occur that I didn't initiate). And it didn't like the Sprite Backup I had performed less than an hour earlier. But I use Pocket Quicken and the latest version won't install unless ActiveSync or lower is installed on the desktop, So I unstall 3.7.1, reboot and reinstall 3.7.0. Then there are the programs that won't (or don't like being) install from cabs so I have to sit in front of the desktop while I'm installing those.

Then there's WEP settings, BT bonding (which, in my expereince isn't too bad) and all the little tweaks I like to have.

[Jon Westfall]

I feel your pain Ed, with the text on the start menu problem. I also think that FAR too much work goes into re-setting up a PPC vs. a regualr desktop. With a desktop, I can be back up and running in an hour... a PPC takes a few days to get all the setup done as you forget to do things that you don't use often.

(And for some reason, every time I setup the speed dials on my i-mate, I am forced for some reason to do a hard-reset within 24 hours... quirky I know, but its like clockwork)

[GRD]

Now that I upgraded to the ROM 1.1 all of my Inbox attachments go to the iPAQ storage file instead of my SD card. So its RAM or iPAQ Store and not allowing SD Card. Has anyone else had this problem and if so does anyone have a work around this? :devilboy:

[enemy2k2]

Sounds like a pretty incompetent bluetooth implementation. Buy a Palm :silly:

[Small Town Man]

There is one thing to know while configuring BT:
The BT manager does not accept all changes when any utility is running that changes the behavior of the close/minimize/ok button.
That mean, if you have installed Pocket Plus (wisbar etc.) before you set up BT, you have to disable the "close funktion on minimize" before doing the BT setup.

This may cause a lot trouble because people are sure they set up everything correct, but the BT manager just did not accept the settings.

[ppcsurfr]

Well, I set my BT between my h2210 and my T68i and everything went smoothly...

Oh lucky me...

Even the GPRS connection I made works without a hitch...

:D :D :D

I think it has something to do with Nokia... hehehe

Carlo

[orol]

Sounds like a pretty incompetent bluetooth implementation. Buy a Palm :silly:

:clap:

I own UX50 right now and while goiong throught all the forums I'm really less and less willing buying motorola MPx. on my UX50 there were no problems with bluetooth (and I have nokia :-) or wifi. there was no need to reset the device after backup, which I do daily, to the flash memory and to the memory stick :-) well I'm a bit of paranoid :-) plus I beta test some software... and I guess it would be nightmare to live with PPC for me. :devilboy:

gosh and MPx look so perfect for me .. gsm/gprs/bluetooth/wifi/1,3mpix camera with flash AND thumboard! :drool:

[BarryB]

Yeah, I had problems with making a partnership also. I finally got it to work after significant playing around. I think it all started with a dialog box that asked whether I wanted to delete a partnership and I answered "No" because I thought it might delete the contents of my Pocket_PC_Documents folder. Okay, yes, maybe I should RTFM, but why should I for such a relatively simple task?

If my wife had a PocketPC, she would 1) never have upgraded because she wouldn't have understood the problems, and 2)had she upgraded, she would have sent the PPC back to the factory because she couldn't be bothered to make it work.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: It's things like this that keep smartphones and PDAs from becoming indispensible items.

[Altaman]

Yeah, I had problems with making a partnership also. I finally got it to work after significant playing around. I think it all started with a dialog box that asked whether I wanted to delete a partnership and I answered "No" because I thought it might delete the contents of my Pocket_PC_Documents folder. Okay, yes, maybe I should RTFM, but why should I for such a relatively simple task?

Humm! Confusious say, if task simple why you have problem :wink:

If my wife had a PocketPC, she would 1) never have upgraded because she wouldn't have understood the problems, and 2)had she upgraded, she would have sent the PPC back to the factory because she couldn't be bothered to make it work.

Actually that is the thing about wives, they do go by the sayings "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"! Us teckno-gottahaveit-gods have a different motto: If it ain't broke, time to upgrade or fiddle with something that will make it not work.

Take care and good luck ol' Technogod!

Alt