Pocket PC AutoComplete Dies Occasionally?

[Ed Hansberry]

One of my favorite features of the Pocket PC OS is the autocomplete feature. I use it as much for correct spelling as I do to save taps. Sometimes though, it dies on me. It simply stops working. I can't reproduce it though which makes troubleshooting it and bug reporting impossible. If anyone else has noticed this, let's put our heads together and see what we have in common. <!><br /><br />The only system setting I routinely change is enabling the New menu so I have New^ in most apps. I also change autocomplete to show me 3 words after 2 characters and to <i>not</i> add a space.<br /><br />Apps I am always in are Pocket Informant, FITALY, Palm Reader, Inbox and Pocket Bible. I notice it breaks most often after using my Socket WiFi card. This is not new to 2003. 2002 did it too. So, what can you add? :duh:

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I did notice that one time when using the mail application. In the To: box, when I start typing in an address, it will automatically provide provide autocomplete options with the actual contacts name (if the email address matches someone in my contacts db)... in fact, I believe you even posted on this feature.

But one time, I was trying to invoke that feature and I couldn't get my PPC to pop up the contact name I was looking for... strange... :roll:

[Icebaron]

Never saw this one before, but I had a customer today who was complaining of this very problem. He was considering a new 2215 to replace his older ipaq, and his only complaint about pocket PC was that the dang autocomplete was hit or miss. He had no clue what the cause might be.

[Dave Beauvais]

I've noticed this recently -- i.e., in past week or so. As far as I can remember, it worked fine before that. I'm hard resetting my PPC tonight after I finish rebuilding my laptop. (I'm starting fresh with both PC and PPC. The laptop has had the same WinXP Pro install since the day WinXP was released. It went from taking about 10-15 seconds to boot to nearly two minutes, and it's pretty unstable. I finally had enough of it and this is rebuild day.)

But back to the topic at hand... I have no proof of this, and I certainly don't wish to point fingers, but the problem with autocomplete on my PPC seems to have started when I installed PHM PowerToys. I'm really curious if any of the three SIPs included in that suite of utilities messed around with anything.

I also have the ThinkOutside Stowaway Keyboard driver v1.7 installed. I don't plan on installing the PHM PowerToys right away after I hard reset, and I can go a couple days without the Stowaway driver. I'll see if autocomplete works consistently that way.

--Dave

[Jeff Rutledge]

The only system setting I routinely change is enabling the New menu so I have New^ in most apps. I also change autocomplete to show me 3 words after 2 characters and to not add a space.

Apps I am always in are Pocket Informant, FITALY, Palm Reader, Inbox and Pocket Bible. I notice it breaks most often after using my Socket WiFi card. This is not new to 2003. 2002 did it too. So, what can you add? :duh:

I have quite a few similarities. I'm using a 3870 with PPC2002.

Like you, I always enable the New menu. I also change autocomplete to show me 3 words after 2 characters. I allow it to add the space afterwards though.

There are also similarities in my application usage. I do > 90% of my text entry in Pocket Informant. I also use Inbox, ListPro, and MS Money quite a bit (Money has its own autocomplete so I don't think that counts). Also, I use FITALY exclusively.

So there is definitely some overlap there. Maybe we'll hear from some others and can narrow it down.

[jkendrick]

I have seen this happen 3 or 4 times so far. It began when I switched the AutoComplete from 1 suggestion to 3. I am not using any of the utilities others have mentioned here- just PI.

I tried switching back to 1 suggested word but it still happened again. The odd thing is a soft reset doesn't always clear it up. It just recovers when it wants to. I'm pretty sure it's an OS bug introduced when they revamped AutoComplete.



One of my favorite features of the Pocket PC OS is the autocomplete feature. I use it as much for correct spelling as I do to save taps. Sometimes though, it dies on me. It simply stops working. I can't reproduce it though which makes troubleshooting it and bug reporting impossible. If anyone else has noticed this, let's put our heads together and see what we have in common. <!>

The only system setting I routinely change is enabling the New menu so I have New^ in most apps. I also change autocomplete to show me 3 words after 2 characters and to not add a space.

Apps I am always in are Pocket Informant, FITALY, Palm Reader, Inbox and Pocket Bible. I notice it breaks most often after using my Socket WiFi card. This is not new to 2003. 2002 did it too. So, what can you add? :duh:

[David Prahl]

What I hate about autocomplete in PPC '02 is when it "splits" your word into two words.

I start to type in "automobile."

I type "automb" and hit backspace to correct it.

When I start to contine at "automo" is suggests "mobile" or some other word, ignoring the first half of the word! :evil:

Does this happen to other people?

[Ed Hansberry]

I start to type in "automobile."

I type "automb" and hit backspace to correct it.
This was fixed in 2003. AC in 2003 is far better than it was in 2002. It goes back to look at the beginning of a word when you edit and tries to help out. Much better, except these odd times when it dies. :?

[entropy1980]

Yes I get probably 60% of the time it's driving me nuts.... I thought it was just me! Well there always the first EUU for 2003 :roll:

[Pony99CA]

I've never had a problem with it, other than the suggestions disappearing too quickly. I have Word Completion (I assume that's what you mean by AutoComplete) set to 4 words, 2 letters and add a space. I also have the New button menu on.

Maybe I just haven't noticed Word Completion not working, though.

Steve

[Jeff Rutledge]

I've never had a problem with it, other than the suggestions disappearing too quickly. I have Word Completion (I assume that's what you mean by AutoComplete) set to 4 words, 2 letters and add a space. I also have the New button menu on.

Maybe I just haven't noticed Word Completion not working, though.

Steve

Maybe I'll try 4 suggested words instead of 3 and see if it makes a difference...

[tonyrxman]

I have seen this happen 3 or 4 times so far. It began when I switched the AutoComplete from 1 suggestion to 3. I am not using any of the utilities others have mentioned here- just PI.

I tried switching back to 1 suggested word but it still happened again. The odd thing is a soft reset doesn't always clear it up. It just recovers when it wants to. I'm pretty sure it's an OS bug introduced when they revamped AutoComplete.
I just purchased the 2215 and this is happening to me all the time.
I agree that it must be a OS bug......to bad I really like the device?!?! :cry: :cry:

[markvan]

This has been happening to me ever since I got my iPAQ 5450. But a soft reset fixes it for a while.
I use Fitaly and have my word completion set to 4 words, 2 letters and no space.
Thats the only similarity I have to what was mentioned previously.

Cheers
Mark

[jkendrick]

The more I think about it I believe I first noticed the problem after I installed spb Full Screen Keyboard. I remember thinking how great version 2.0 was for incorporating AutoComplete and when I switched back to the on screen keyboard AutoComplete was gone.

Then it starting disappearing a few times randomly.

Wierd but I still think it's the OS.

[Jerry Raia]

I use WordLogic and it has never stopped working as far as auto complete goes.

[mv]

I use WordLogic and it has never stopped working as far as auto complete goes.

The word completion function of the pocket pc does not works with word logic. Word logic has it´s own word completion system in it.

[Jerry Raia]

Works good too. :D

[cyp]

This is a frustrating bit about using word completion in WM2003 and PPC2002. I don’t remember having this problem with PPC2000 and WinCE2.0. (But since I'd sold off my devices that runs on the older OSs, I can't confirm that).

[jeff]

It's happening right now on my new 1940. Let's see if a soft reset fixes it.... Yes it did. The only always memory resident program I have on this thing is PocketNav, but I doubt very seriously that's the problem.

[Mexico]

I don't know why, but I have a feeling it's Pocket Informant on my 2215... :|
I'm not positive; it's just a hunch.

[jkendrick]

You may be right about Pocket Informant. The very first 2 times it happened to me was inside PI.

[Ed Hansberry]

You may be right about Pocket Informant. The very first 2 times it happened to me was inside PI.
From launching blank PI forms from the Today Screen or from inside PI itself?

[jkendrick]

I don't remember exactly but it was inside PI. I was either editing a contact or an alarm note when I first noticed it was gone. Once it's gone it stays gone and sometimes a soft reset doesn't bring it back.

I wonder if PI is common to all of the posters here who exhibit the problem?

[Ed Hansberry]

I don't remember exactly but it was inside PI. I was either editing a contact or an alarm note when I first noticed it was gone. Once it's gone it stays gone and sometimes a soft reset doesn't bring it back.Well, I've never not had it work after a soft reset when it fails like this.
I wonder if PI is common to all of the posters here who exhibit the problem?
Good question.

Who here with failures does not use Pocket Informant? This won't be conclusive in and of itself since PI is so popular, but we can rule it out if someone replies that they don't use PI and still witness the failures sometimes.

[netBEUI]

I do not use Pocket Informant and Word Completion only works for me about 50% of the time. I'm running PPC 2002 on my HP Jornada 568.

[jkendrick]

Only one time a soft reset didn't fix it. A second reset did the trick.

I had assumed it was a WM 2003 phenomenon as I had never heard of this under PPC 2002 until now.

Alex (PI developer) says he doesn't think PI has any code that could affect AutoComplete.

[QoS]

Any solution to this problem yet?

I'm not running PI on my 2215, just Wisbar Adv. The auto completion-thinggy seems to disappear whenever I've been using WMP for a while, any one else notice this?

- QoS