WiFi not working on iPAQ 5550 o a regular basis

[MadBison]

Hello

I have a iPAQ 5550. It has PPC 2003, and built in WiFi. I had it working for a while. Then it stopped.

Symptoms: Turn unit on. Open "iPAQ Wireless" from start menu. The WLAN icon is green, indicating that wireless is working. But the little orange/green LED top left does not flash. I cannot connect to wireless lan. Software says there is no network hardware.

So I:
1) Back up iPAQ to PC.
2) Hard reset
a) Press bottom left and bottom right hard buttons while also pressing the soft reset button for 30 seconds.
b) Remove Battery.
c) Replace Battery.
d) Place in Synch cradle
e) Turn on.
3) Start "iPAQ Wireless".
4) Hit WLAN icon to turn it on.
5) Wireless works.
6) Change region to English (Australia)
7) Recover backup from PC.
8) Start "iPAQ Wireless".
9) Hit WLAN icon to turn it on.
10) Wireless works.
11) Use iPAQ for a couple of days
12) Wireless stops working
13) Goto 1

Does anyone else have this problem?
Is it a software/driver issue?
Is it more likely a hardware issue?

Thanks
David

[iPAQ_ace]

Whoa 8O

...that's quite the sequence to get it up and running again!

Do you have the latest wlan firmware on your ipaq? Go to HP's support website at http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/download/19764.html to see if you have the latest version (if not download it).

Are you on a LEAP or an 802.1x network?

I had a buddy who had a similar problem with his H5450. He brought it to me hoping i could fix it. For his iPAQ, there was no sequence to bring it back.

You would be able to turn the WLAN icon on to green. The orange/green LED would never light up. If you went in the WLAN status screen, it said that the WLAN radio was initializing and then fail.

He sent his to tech support, and sure enough it was hardware based, his WLAN radio was dead.

Reading your issue, at first i would say its totally hardware, but the fact that that particular sequence brings it back, it sounds like a combination of both, but then again, it could be software only too... i know, not much help :roll:

You should give hp's tech support a call. It should be interesting to see if they've heard of this happening before...

[dhettel]

Also you might want to;
1) turn off
2) pull battery
3) press reset button 5 times
4) replace battery
5) turn on

This will normally work. and most times it will not cause a hard reset. It really sounds as if some of your software is not compatible with the Hp WLAN.

David

[Chris Spera]

This is a memory/ resource issue.

The only way to resolve this issue is to insure that you have enough Storage and Program Memory available at device boot up. (Program Memory for OS Resources and WLAN driver initialization and Storage RAM for TEMP files...)

Aside from this, you MUST have the latest ROM/ WLAN Firmware Upgrade for your device in order to resolve this issue.

If you also run a lot of apps at start up (we used to call these TSR's back in the old DOS days...), like Calligrapher, then DON"T run them at start up (after a soft reset). You should run as clean as you can at startup, and then soft reset as needed if you are having trouble getting WLAN running.

Even after a WM2003 upgrade, Firmware upgrade, and cleaning out my Startup folder, I still occasionally have this very same problem on my 5455. A soft reset usually clears it up for me.


Kind Regards,


Christopher Spera

[dhettel]

I disagree, it is more than just a memory/resource issue. If it was just a memory/resource issue then a soft reset would fix it. Also he has a 5550 with twice the memory we have with a 5455. Removing the battery should not be necessary, but it is. Clearly the WLAN can get into a state where it is NOT control by the software. The Newest drivers, firmware help, but don't totally solve the problem.

David

[ctmagnus]

When this happens to my iPaq, I:

1) Turn off
2) Pull the battery
3) Replace the battery
4) Turn the unit on

(no resets neceassary)

[MadBison]

Thank you everyone for your help

I think it is not a memory/resource issue. I have nothing that I know of set to run at startup. I have 128mb built in memory, and because I keep my data mostly on the 256mb SD card, I always have about 50 to 60mb free.

I will try the remove battery option when it next happens. This will save a lot of time and effort.

It seems like it is a semi common occurrence. I wonder if it can be fixed in future with a flash upgrade, or if it is a hardware fault, and we will have to live with it forever.

does anyone know how long you can remove the battery before the memory is lost?

Thanks again for all your help.

David

[DVD]

I have a 5550 and what sounds like the same problem -- after several days of use it takes longer and longer to make a wi-fi connection. (The problem seems to be much worse if I make the mistake of letting the main battery go completely flat while the radio is turned on.)

I also discovered the trick of disconnecting the main battery (after several soft resets that didn't help).

I have an HP CF Expansion Pack Plus (which I use for a Pretec LAN card (some of my clients have LANs without wi-fi -- the things a consultant must put up with <g>) and for its extra battery), and I find that every time I remove the 5550 from the expansion pack I have to pull the main battery to get wi-fi working again.

WRT how long the data will survive without the main battery: IIUC the 5550 has a backup battery as well as the (removable) main battery; and I imagine the backup is good for at least a few minutes....

[ctmagnus]

In my experience, pulling the battery out and reinserting it right away resolves the issue. You shouldn't need to leave it out for minutes at a time to get the wireless to work.

[Chris Spera]

My 5455 has 128MB of RAM thanks to PPC Techs.

I DO think this is a memory/ resource issue. Soft resetting the device is the same as rebooting. You may not see a difference in getting Wi-Fi connected after a soft reset because you are putting the same stuff BACK in RAM as was in before the soft reset if you have a bunch of stuff in your Start Up folder.

Pulling the battery works because it removes power from the device, disconnecting the battery driver. Your device must reinitialize both the battery driver and the Wi-Fi driver upon device restart, and THAT'S why this is a resource issue. The Wi-Fi driver is failing to initialize. Something in active RAM is conflicting with it.

The problem you're having is the same problem that the 5400's were having. The Wi-Fi driver is failing to initialize. That's why the Wi-Fi light never turns on/orange.

I'm not sure what the actual cause of this problem is; but it sure is a pain in the butt! I have completely hard reset my device, reconfigured Wi-Fi access, and reinstalled apps one at a time. Its not NECESSARILY a software conflict with anything that I am using. After I get everything back on the device, Wi-Fi still works. ITs after I've used the device for a while that it MIGHT crap out again...which makes me think evern more so that this is a memory/ resource issue.

But this is really just my $ 0.02... I'm not a hardware engineer and am not 100% certain that I am right; but I'd be willing to buy the guy who proves me wrong a beer as a thank you!


Christopher Spera

[Jerry Raia]

When this happens to my iPaq, I:

1) Turn off
2) Pull the battery
3) Replace the battery
4) Turn the unit on

(no resets neceassary)

This method has ALWAYS worked for me too.