Spontaneous Hard Reset!! The Awesome 415x falls....

[Wiggin]

This is a tale of frustration and relief, offered to my PPC brethren, especially those who have joined the fortunate ranks of 415x owners.

I must admit, I was initially shocked at the number of iPaq owners who posted to PPCT about their devices experiencing a Hard Reset ... spontaneously! :shocked!:
But as the stories continued, I resigned myself to the fact that the marriage between HP and MS was not perfect and this type of behavior was an unfortunate reality we all needed to accept. Plus, I said to myself ... "Self, no worries, you have a new race horse (4155), and it appears the spontaneous HR is only affecting the 19xx and 22xx units :) "

All of that changed last night... when I sat down in the living room to read some news on my 4155 using my WiFi connection to surf the web for the latest events in the world. I hit the power button... and BLAMO! I was greeted with that dreaded HP logo, and it was soon followed by "Welcome to the Pocket PC" screen ... and my trusty companion was transformed into a different machine... a spontaneous Hard Reset had hit :evil:

Fortunately, I performed a backup with Sprite Pocket Backup (http://www.spritesoftware.com/home.html) five days ago, and after reinstalling the software via a guest connection to my computer, I was able to restore my 4155, minus a few apps & settings, and after a few minutes of work, I was back to full speed. :D

The Morale of this story is simple: never assume that the problems of your PPC compatriots will not find their way to you... and BACKUP! Without Sprite Backup to save the day... I shudder to think how long it would have taken to get my trusty companion back to full racing trim!!

[small rant] :soapbox:
How in the world did MS allow their PPC OS to evolve to the point where it is even POSSIBLE for something like a spontaneous HR to occur?? :silly:
I accept the need for Soft Resets due to users installing strange apps, or poor programming / reg hacks which cause a PPC to hopelessly freeze ... but to design code which allows a PPC to SPONTANEOUSLY Hard Reset, no matter how messed up the OS gets, is absolutely absurd![/rant]

Cheers :way to go:

[Zack Mahdavi]

Yeah, it's these small inconsistencies of the Pocket PC that I hate. Sure, they're great devices, but this is something you'd never worry about with a Palm. They just worked all the time. Of course, Palms can't do half the things that a Pocket PC can do, or at least as well. That's why I love my PPC! :)

Anyway, I'm really hoping these really weird problems will be fixed soon by both companies.

Oh, what version of Sprite Pocket Backup do you use? The professional or regular version? Do you backup to a memory card or straight to a PC?

[Pony99CA]

How in the world did MS allow their PPC OS to evolve to the point where it is even POSSIBLE for something like a spontaneous HR to occur?? :silly:
As much as some of us enjoy Microsoft bashing, why do you assume it's Microsoft's fault? Why couldn't it be HP's fault? For example, an electrical problem could make it appear the hard reset buttons were pushed or that the battery was missing.

Steve

[Kacey Green]

what can cause this to happen, is there anything we can do aside from back up.

my backup gives me a problem with an active sync file, but other than that it is error free, I've never tried to restore my backups.
edit: the first backup I did after my apps were installed and data synced up, didn't have any errors.

[Wiggin]

Anyway, I'm really hoping these really weird problems will be fixed soon by both companies.

Oh, what version of Sprite Pocket Backup do you use? The professional or regular version? Do you backup to a memory card or straight to a PC?

I agree with you zk! HP & MS need to get to the bottom of this phenomina and remove the root cause(s).
Re: your questions about Sprite, I use ver 2.1.4 Premium, and I backup to an .exe file on a 256MB SD card. My backup files (which I do not compress) are usually 42-45MB in size. The only glitch I've uncovered during a restore relates to a few programs which are Today-screen plug-ins. The programs are restored, but they are not listed on the selection list within Settings/Today/Items. A re-install of the missing programs brings each one back to normal behavior... strange stuff.
Hope that helps
:way to go:

[Pony99CA]

The only glitch I've uncovered during a restore relates to a few programs which are Today-screen plug-ins. The programs are restored, but they are not listed on the selection list within Settings/Today/Items. A re-install of the missing programs brings each one back to normal behavior... strange stuff.
I'm just speculating, because I've never used Sprite to do a restore, but do you back the registry up and restore it? If not, that might explain the missing Today items.

Another thing to check is if all of the programs show up in the Remove Programs settings applet. If they don't, it means some registry or \Windows files aren't being backed up properly.

Steve

[Kacey Green]

Wiggin, do you get any error messages during the backup, before it says backup successful?

[Wiggin]

Wiggin, do you get any error messages during the backup, before it says backup successful?

KG, I do not receive an error message. The Sprite backup works like a charm each time. If I had more time, I would try to find the root cause of the issue, which I am sure is centered around the Registry. The odd part about the issue is that the problem apps are "installed" after the restore (e.g., they show up in the program list, their directory structure is in place, settings files exist, their parameters are in the Reg file, etc.)

Ah well, just one more quirk to add to the [already long] list!
Cheers
:way to go:

[Kacey Green]

Update: I no longer recieve the error message, but I still have not tried to restore from my backup (I will try this right before rex gets the SE update if it [Rex] doesn't need a restore before then)

Anyways, I got rid of the error messages by inserting the card to recive the backup image (I normally keep 256MB of music in the cf slot so I have to switch for a 64MB cf to backup to) and then reset Rex. Then immideately I enter the pin > start iPAQ backup > select my options and press start. > backup complete > no errors :D > close iPAQ backup > remove backup card > reinsert normal card > reset Rex

Hope that helps someone else who was getting the error message

[Take1]

I have had the hard reset syndrome hit my 4150 twice and restored without a problem. Since I back-up often, this was not a catastrophe, but if I were new to the PDA world and had this happen, I'd be seriously peeved and think that something was wrong with the PDA.