burtcom
10-07-2005, 05:16 PM
WARNING: do at your own risk. This may turn your HP iPaq into a brick!! This will remove all information on your HP iPaq's memory, so do a backup to Storage Card!!!!
Over the past week my rx3115 would occassionally freeze, and yesterday I figured out why -- I got bitten by the "iPaq File Store" bug.
Apparently, if your iPaq File Store gets too full, it may get corrupted. Files on the store may read just fine, but trying to delete or add a file causes the machine to freeze. A soft reset brings the machine back but the file store is still corrupted and unusable.
So how do you fix the iPaq File Store? A hard reset doesn't help, and neither does re-flashing the ROM.
Turns out the secret is to flash the ROM to another language, then flash it back to English. Normally you can't simply run the ROM installer from a different language, but here's a way to work around that.
go to the HP site and download and install the latest ROM update software (ifor English) for your rx3000 model. When you get to the "Welcome to the ROM Update Utility" sceen hit cancel.
Now download and install the latest ROM update for French. Click on "Suivant" , on the next screen click on "Jaccepte les termes de ce contrat de licence" then "Suivant", then "Suivant" again then "Annuler" to cancel the rest of the install.
Now look on your Windows machine in C:iPAQ. You should see two folders, in my case SP29766 holds the English ROM update software and SP29781 is the French update software.
Do a normal reset of your HP iPaq rx3000 and connect it via USB to establsh an ActiveSync connection. Connect it directly to the computer (don't use a USB hub) Make sure to disable sleep mode on your Windows computer.
In ActiveSync, Click on Explore so that a "Mobile Device" file window opens.
Open the French ROM folder on the Windows machine (in my case its C:\iPAQ\SP29781) and copy the file "EnterBootLoader.exe" from there to the "Mobile Device" window.
Now go to your HP iPaq and find and run this "EnterBootLoader" program. Your iPaq will enter into the ROM boot load mode and wait.
Go to your Windows machine and look for ROMUpdateUtility.exe in C:\iPAQ\SP29781. Run it. Click on the check box by "J'ai bien compris la Precaution..." and theh "Suivant"
On the next screen click on the check box by "J'ai execute les..." and "Suivant" again.
On subsequent windows click on "Suivant" to continue. When the actual flshing starts you'll see progress bars on the Windows machine and on the HP Ipaq.
When finished, the iPaq will restart, and ask you to align the screen. etc. You should now have a French-speaking HP iPaq with a fixed iPaq File Store!
Now of course we need to get it back to English. Make sure you have established an ActiveSync connection, like before.
Open the other folder in C:\iPAQ\ (in my case its SP29766) and, like before. copy "EnterBootLoader.exe" to the HP iPaq. Run this on the iPaq and it should start waiting for the ROM boot image.
On the Windows machine, run ROMUpdateUtility.exe -- this time it will be the English version. Proceed as directed.
When finished, you should have a working iPaq File Store!
WARNING: this procedure worked fine for my rx3115, BUT IT IS RISKY. If your iPaq is still under warranty you should definitely send it to HP to have them fix it instead. If you don't want to risk it, just ignore yor ipaq File Store and put stuff on a Storage Card instead. This procedure could turn your HP iPaq into a non-working brick -- you have been warned.
Over the past week my rx3115 would occassionally freeze, and yesterday I figured out why -- I got bitten by the "iPaq File Store" bug.
Apparently, if your iPaq File Store gets too full, it may get corrupted. Files on the store may read just fine, but trying to delete or add a file causes the machine to freeze. A soft reset brings the machine back but the file store is still corrupted and unusable.
So how do you fix the iPaq File Store? A hard reset doesn't help, and neither does re-flashing the ROM.
Turns out the secret is to flash the ROM to another language, then flash it back to English. Normally you can't simply run the ROM installer from a different language, but here's a way to work around that.
go to the HP site and download and install the latest ROM update software (ifor English) for your rx3000 model. When you get to the "Welcome to the ROM Update Utility" sceen hit cancel.
Now download and install the latest ROM update for French. Click on "Suivant" , on the next screen click on "Jaccepte les termes de ce contrat de licence" then "Suivant", then "Suivant" again then "Annuler" to cancel the rest of the install.
Now look on your Windows machine in C:iPAQ. You should see two folders, in my case SP29766 holds the English ROM update software and SP29781 is the French update software.
Do a normal reset of your HP iPaq rx3000 and connect it via USB to establsh an ActiveSync connection. Connect it directly to the computer (don't use a USB hub) Make sure to disable sleep mode on your Windows computer.
In ActiveSync, Click on Explore so that a "Mobile Device" file window opens.
Open the French ROM folder on the Windows machine (in my case its C:\iPAQ\SP29781) and copy the file "EnterBootLoader.exe" from there to the "Mobile Device" window.
Now go to your HP iPaq and find and run this "EnterBootLoader" program. Your iPaq will enter into the ROM boot load mode and wait.
Go to your Windows machine and look for ROMUpdateUtility.exe in C:\iPAQ\SP29781. Run it. Click on the check box by "J'ai bien compris la Precaution..." and theh "Suivant"
On the next screen click on the check box by "J'ai execute les..." and "Suivant" again.
On subsequent windows click on "Suivant" to continue. When the actual flshing starts you'll see progress bars on the Windows machine and on the HP Ipaq.
When finished, the iPaq will restart, and ask you to align the screen. etc. You should now have a French-speaking HP iPaq with a fixed iPaq File Store!
Now of course we need to get it back to English. Make sure you have established an ActiveSync connection, like before.
Open the other folder in C:\iPAQ\ (in my case its SP29766) and, like before. copy "EnterBootLoader.exe" to the HP iPaq. Run this on the iPaq and it should start waiting for the ROM boot image.
On the Windows machine, run ROMUpdateUtility.exe -- this time it will be the English version. Proceed as directed.
When finished, you should have a working iPaq File Store!
WARNING: this procedure worked fine for my rx3115, BUT IT IS RISKY. If your iPaq is still under warranty you should definitely send it to HP to have them fix it instead. If you don't want to risk it, just ignore yor ipaq File Store and put stuff on a Storage Card instead. This procedure could turn your HP iPaq into a non-working brick -- you have been warned.