02-01-2006, 11:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Still Having Alarm Problems with Windows Mobile 5?
My Jasjar, with only four third party apps installed (FlexWallet, ZoneCalc, SOTI Pocket Controller, Skype), stopped doing reminders recently. They'd just never trigger. I decided to do some testing, so I'd enter a reminder, wait 30 seconds, then hit the power button. No reminder would ever trigger. I'd enter in six reminders, wait 60 seconds, then just close the lid. No reminder would ever trigger. I've recently hard reset it again, installed no 3rd party software at all, synched with my Exchange server [affiliate], and now I have reminders functioning properly. Puzzling. Since the reminder problem is one that dates back a couple of years - Pocket PC 2002 was when the problem first cropped up I believe - I thought I'd do a quick survey and see how many people with Windows Mobile 5 devices are having some level of difficulty with alarms and reminders triggering.
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02-01-2006, 11:26 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 92
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I think the answer lies in the "shouldn't see the light of day" nature of the spastically buggy WM5...
Is there anyone out there with a WM5 machine that is experiencing bug-free operation?
I doubt it - by the way - mine is an Axim x50v - rolled to WM5 (twice) and still humming away on WM2003SE...
Clearly the MS mother ship hasn't seen any responsibility to help the OEMs get the problems fixed.
Oh wait, I guess the Dell Axim x51v folks are happy (right?)...
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02-01-2006, 11:40 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 450
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IIRC, It was a WM2003 bug only, and was already fixed in 2003SE...I don't really remember having problems with reminders under WM2003SE nor WM5...maybe one or two.
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02-01-2006, 11:47 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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I had the very same problems with my JasJar shortly after purchasing it. It seemed like it wouldn't wake itself up if an alarm was set to go off. At the time I traced it back to setting an alarm and then turning the unit off immediately. I think WM5 wan't able to write the alarm to the Alarm's database before being turned off? Just a wild guess, no idea it it's accurate.
Anyway, after a hard reset for an unrelated issue, I haven't noticed it occuring, but it is puzzling. I know I'm not a programmer, so I probably oversimplify things, but I would think that creating alarms and having them go off consistently would be one of the easiest things to do. Even the cheapest of cell phones manage to pull that off these days. Why can't WM?
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02-01-2006, 11:49 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1
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Pocket Informant cures the missing reminders...
I have Jasjar, too and had the same problem, too. I did everything humanly possible to resolve it, all kind of resets and nothing gave a result until I have installed Pocket Informant. The reminders were back and sounding in an instant. Try it� I don�t know the cause for reminders not to pop up but I have found this to be the cure. I hope it works for you, too�
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02-01-2006, 11:50 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 797
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I've given up all hope of ever seeing a reminder since WM 2003.
It used to be such a nice function too...
Now my X51v does exactly what my 2215 did.
You guessed it. Nothing...
And I ain't hard-resetting it AGAIN. I went through nothing but hard resets the entire first week I had it (a period, during which, reminders did not work either).
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02-01-2006, 11:53 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 13
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Problems with Reminders
I have had problems with Reminders on my Axim x50v with WM5. I think I may have found how to get them going again. My problem occurs mostly with AlarMe not triggering my morning wakeup alarm. It uses a mechanism similar to reminders to wake up. In trying to figure out what was going on I looked at the notification queue (using PocketMechanic). The Notification queue holds information about upcomming reminders and other notifications and system events. What I found were notification records with incomplete information (such as no Application name) and notification records that were past their time but never removed from the queue (Reminders that you have snoozed will show a time in the past. This is ok). If a record is not for a reminder (does not have POOM in the Action Detail) and it is past time, it most likely a leftover that should be removed.
When these problem records were removed from the queue (using the delete feature in PocketMechanic), everything started working again. Typical records that start the problems are the ones that wake the device up at midnight, but for some reason are not removed from the top of the queue.
Be careful what you delete from the queue as there are many records that are required for the proper operation of the calendar, etc.
Could someone else that is having issues with reminders try this fix and see if it works for you?
This same issue may be contributing to the battery drain people have experienced (dead battery, memory error, etc.). I find that when it occurs on my Axim, I usually have had several reminders stacked up. WM5 seems to have a feature that will automatically snooze a reminder after a set amount of time. I think this is acomplished by another record in the notification queue. When the device wakes up to snooze the reminder it seems to get stuck in an inbetween state that drains the battery.
This last part is more of a guess than a proven fact.
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02-02-2006, 12:04 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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Perhaps Burr Oak Software should start advertising Wakeup Tweak again. If they rigged it so that the unit would remain "on" for a set period of time after the power button is pressed, this could possibly alleviate alarm issues on WM2005 devices.
__________________
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02-02-2006, 12:06 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by whydidnt
I think WM5 wan't able to write the alarm to the Alarm's database before being turned off? Just a wild guess, no idea it it's accurate.
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Yes, that's one possibility, but that's why I waited 60 seconds for the database write, and also why I created several appointments so the first would certainly be stored by the time I got to the sixth. It didn't seem to have helped. :?
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02-02-2006, 12:33 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 252
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i can't believe that Microsoft has delivered another operating system with the same problem.
I have solved the problem on PPC2002, WM2003 and WM2003SE with burr oaks wakeup tweak.
Although there seemed to be some discussions about the device not having time to write the alarm I have never been able to prove or disprove this. In fact, most of the time when I have had problems with missed alarms they always seem to trigger as soon as switch on the unit which suggests to me that they are in the database.
Basically wake up tweak extens the idle time out for wakeup. It suggest to me the problem is more concerned with the triggering of the alarm and the ppc not waking up but not having time to actually trigger the alarm before the timeout puts it back to sleep.
Now for total speculation on my part but could the need to read the storage card. I wonder if MS testing (I just can't believe they don't test this functionality) is done on a standard machine without a memory card. Certainly one of the first things power users do to a pda is slam in a card. Potentially I would also see any problem further excerbated by the installation of programs on the card.
Anybody having problems without a memory card installed?
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