Spontanious Hard Reset

[Gallivant]

I just turned on my Axim, was told that it had experienced an "error", and proceeded to discover that it was hard-resetting itself. What the hell just happened?

[Jason Dunn]

Very strange. Had you recently installed a new piece of software? That's certainly not normal...

[Gallivant]

Well, the thing's only been in my hands since Wednesday, so everything was newly installed... but nothing in the past 24 hours or so.

[PPCRules]

I've had this sort of thing happen 5 or 6 times since November. Kinda annoying. You just learn to not trust it working the next time you turn it on, and backup often and activesync as soon as you can after you enter anything on it. ActiveSync backup and restore has always worked for me, once I figured out how it works.

For what it's worth, twice has been when connecting for syncing (so I plug/seat the device very carefully), and another two times has been when I've removed the CF memory card when the unit was off, which normally wakes the thing up (so I try to remember to always turn the device on before removing the CF card). At least once was just plain turning it on like you described.

Best advice: if you have an AXIM, backup regularly. The first time or two, you just sigh and figure the memory needed some cleanup anyway. But after that, reloading everything becomes a drag.

[edit]I might add a little more, for the sake of anyone else trying to track this down.

First point I'd make is that when you add a replaceable battery on a device, you're adding the potential for problems. When you have a slide-on battery with flat wipe-style contacts, you're adding the likelihood of a lot of problems. So, in that case, you have to add the backup battery like the Dell has, to maintain the memory and machine state when the battery contacts open up for a moment now and then.

Now, I've also had some flakey things happen with the backup battery (which is a non-rechargable primary cell). From the first day, the battery meter has jumped back and forth from like 80% to 100%. More recently, I've gotten error messages about the cell needing replacement (20% or so), then the next thing I know, it's 100% again. Then a week or so ago, it gave a more urgent message, and the meter showed zero. With the device plugged in to AC, I removed the cell, measured it to be almost full voltage, replaced it and it still read zero. I think I did a soft reset at that point and it read full or almost full.

So, my theory on the hard resets: The main, removable cell often drops contact for short or longer periods of time. This, in combination with the failure of the backup cell system (the monitoring circuit, triggering certain software events, or intermittent electrical contact), causes the system to loose it. Now is this going to get caught in production test? No. Will it get caught testing returned units before they are sent out again? No. I've been wondering who might get my unit next, when I get it exchanged.

[PPCRules]

the thing's only been in my hands since Wednesday...
I'm curious about what that means. You got it new then? Or did you get it pre-owned? If the latter, I'd guess it's one from the group mine is from, and this is why someone unloaded it.

[Janak Parekh]

I've had this sort of thing happen 5 or 6 times since November. Kinda annoying. You just learn to not trust it working the next time you turn it on, and backup often and activesync as soon as you can after you enter anything on it.
I disagree (not with the backup, but coming to accept random hard resets). I've not had a forced hard reset on my Pocket PCs in years (and even then it was caused by a drained battery). Something is wrong, either software or hardware.

--janak

[PPCRules]

I've had this sort of thing happen 5 or 6 times since November. Kinda annoying. You just learn to not trust it working the next time you turn it on, and backup often and activesync as soon as you can after you enter anything on it.
I disagree (not with the backup, but coming to accept random hard resets). I've not had a forced hard reset on my Pocket PCs in years (and even then it was caused by a drained battery). Something is wrong, either software or hardware.

--janak

I'm not saying it's acceptable; it's not at all. I was just addressing how to best limp along, in a somewhat fatalistic tone of voice. I had similar problems on a previous device I had (Jornada 525), so I am more 'numb' to it.

Just curious: what devices is your good experience from? My ipaq 3100 has never had a problem.

[Janak Parekh]

Just curious: what devices is your good experience from? My ipaq 3100 has never had a problem.
I've had a 3650, a 3870, and now I'm playing with a Pocket PC Phone Edition. Of the first two (haven't had the Phone long enough to comment), the 3870 has been by far the better one, although I had to send it back a bunch of times due to problems with its d-pad.

I've not heard the experience you've been having by other Axim owners, though. From what I hear, the Axim is a very stable, polished unit. It sounds like yours is having issues, though. :(

--janak

[PPCRules]

I happened across this old thread and thought I should add an update.

After 6-8 months of use, and numerous spontaneous hard resets, I upgraded to a larger SD card. Five months and no hard resets. Then I did have one, before I upgraded again and I did have one since that.

So, I've had the problem with each of the other two cards, but I feel that the original SD card was the primary factor in my frequent hard resets. It was the off-brand 64MB card that TigerDirect sold for free after rebate on their 2002 Halloween sale. In all honesty, it could have been a bad contact - not the card itself; I never removed the card the whole time I used it. And I have experienced bad contacts on two other SD card readers (out of about 4 in my experience), so maybe it's just hard to make good SD card sockets. Anyway, it was much worse with that first card.

Just wanted to mention this in case anyone else is struggling with this and digs up the thread. Try replacing the SD card, or inspect and clean the contacts.

[PetiteFlower]

Happened to me once. Only once in a year. Fortunately I do nightly backups :) If it happened often I would have returned it.

Re: Backup Battery meter weirdness--the Rom upgrades A03 and later I believe fix this problem.

[WindWalker]

Amazingly, I had my first spontaneous hard reset today on my X5. I'll be rebuilding tomorrow, but I was well on my way to a Toshiba e805 anyway. I am going to need one between now and then, but I guess I'll only do the minimum until I can get to Circuit City (and the ol' bonus kicks in from work.....woo hoo!)

[PPCRules]

Re: Backup Battery meter weirdness--the Rom upgrades A03 and later I believe fix this problem.
I have the Windows Mobile 2003 update now, and it's greatly better, but I still get an occasional 'dead cell; replace immediately' warning, and the next day it reads 100%.
I'm sure there is a hardware problem, and the newer software just did extra things (double-check the measurement?) to eliminate most of the erroneous messages.