Start Button doesn't do anything

[ori]

Hey everybody...
I've got a problem that I could use some help on.
My Cingular 3125 has been working pretty well for the 3 weeks i've had it.
Tonight, while downloading some software, I noticed that when i go to my home screen and hit the soft button for START, nothing happens.

It seems that after hitting the start button, it functionally goes to the start icon list and i can hit the action button and open the center program, but the screen stays on the home screen the whole time.

Does that make sense? The home screen stays frozen after i hit the START button.

Has this happened to anyone else?

thanks
ori

[Mike Temporale]

I haven't had that happen to me. Have you rebooted your phone? Just turn it off and back on and see if that changes anything.

[ori]

I have been trying to do a hard reset without taking off the case/battery and am having trouble doing it. I've read some of the threads on it here, but it doesn't seem to work.
Instead, what i did was delete some of the programs i'd downloaded and at some point, after turning the phone off and back on, the start button seemed to work again.

thanks for the reply.

it's strange that nobody else has seen this. i wonder if it could be the phone - i have 4 days left in my 30 day grace period.

ori

[Mike Temporale]

No need to hard reset - that will wipe everything from your device.

A simple reboot or soft reset will refresh system files. For the most part, Windows Mobile protects the system files. If they go missing or are changed, they will be refreshed to the system default on startup. That's why I suggested a reboot. ;)

Glad to hear it's working again.

[ditch_azeroth]

i usually encounter this error when i "accidentaly" terminate programs via task manager... especially appman.exe and telshell.exe. if the programs that you installed had something with these two running apps, i'm pretty sure that's the reason why you encountered that problem. nothing a reboot won't solve ^_^ worst case scenario = hard reset. you do backup your contacts and files, right? ;) (sprite is best with this task). hope this helps ^_^

[scottb]

This is a pretty common ocurrence on WM5 when installing new software, or if you terminate the Start Menu process as mentioned above. Again, as previously mentioned, just reset the device.

[ori]

Sounds great.
To be honest, I haven't been backing up the data.
I've heard great things about the Sprite Backup program.
Is there a decent freeware backup program out there? I don't like to invest too much until i have a phone figured out... and this 3125 and I still have some way to go before we figure ourselves out.

Thanks again for the replies

Ori

[scottb]

I don't believe there are any free backup programs for Smartphone. Two free alternatives to backup your PIM data are ActiveSync to your PC, or to an Exchange server. I use Mail2Web's free Exchange service as a backup.

[ditch_azeroth]

funny... that's the exact same thing i did before i had sprite - backup contacts via outlook (which also backs-up the photos i saved for each contact... cool) and i have a backup of all my phone files on my desktop at all times, via activesync. i got used to this procedure, so i dont use sprite often, in fact, at all. lol.

[DestinyNowhere]

Ori,

I am still pretty new to this phone but I just had to do a hard reset yesterday as directed to by the TMobile rep I was on the phone with because I called with concerns of usually about once a day I will receieve a text message and click the button the bottom right that takes me to the texts ... and nothing happens .... then I go into it throw the home screen ... and nothing happens. The phone works but I cant open my texts, then I gotta turn off the phone and turn it back on and it seems to fix the probably. I didnt understand this problem so I called them and he told me to do a hard reboot. I dont have all the crazy stuff on my phone as you probably do yours but so far it has worked, 1 full day and it hasnt froze yet.

any ideas or anything please throw some my way
Mike

[Mike Temporale]

If you were havning problems and you just reset your phone, it's my suggestion to NOT install any 3rd party apps right away. See how things go for a day or so. If it works then add 1 app back, and watch it again. Then add another and wait, etc... You'll be surprised how many bad applications are out there.