Making Alarms More Reliable In Windows Mobile 2003

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mtekk.com.au/browse/page826.html' target='_blank'>http://www.mtekk.com.au/browse/page826.html</a><br /><br /></div>"A known problem with WM2003 is that the first alarm of the day can be rather unreliable. Users regularly report that the first alarm of the day doesn't always trigger until the device is turned on by the user, whereupon all outstanding alarms then trigger immediately...The commonly accepted theory for this is related to the number of alarm events the device has in the Calendar, coupled with the amount of time the unit has to perform house keeping at about midnight."<br /><br />MTekk gives a quick summary as to what one possible cause is to WM2003 alarm troubles as people have reported, and then has concise instructions on working around it. I agree with those that say they shouldn't <i>have</i> to develop a workaround, but in the meantime, if you're affected by this problem, it might be worthwhile to give this article a look.

[OSUKid7]

I can never tell if I have this problem. I don't use the alarm feature often (I do use the calendar reminders, but that's different, right?), but when I do, half of the time it seems to work fine, and half of the time it doesn't. Strange stuff.

[c38b2]

It blows my mind that alarms still do not work properly in Windows Mobile. Microsoft needs to take a page from Palm's book and, y'know, make working alarms... :roll: Ahh... this is one of those things that I can just take for granted will work now that I've switched back to Palm OS.

[ctitanic]

Tweaks2k2 (http://www.pc-counselor.com/downloads.htm) v1.80 has included these tricks allowing you to configure the time out up to 180 seconds. From my experience I have got the best results between 120 and 130 seconds.

[Zack Mahdavi]

I have never found the PocketPC's alarms / calendar reminders to be particularly useful. When I used my Palm m505, I could always hear the alarms go off. That's not the case with my iPaq 4155... whenever it's in my pocket, I barely hear the alarm even if the volume is at its highest setting.

Am I the only one that has this kind of trouble?

[fixerdude]

The buggy alarm on my 2210 was the main reason I switched to PalmOS. I missed too many meetings with my 2210. My Clie & T2 have never failed once. Come to think about it not even a soft reset after about 1 year. The empty promises of Cobalt & SD wifi driver for PalmOS made me switch back. This time I bought a 4150. Sure enough, the alarm failed again after 1 week.

I stumbled on http://www.burroak.on.ca/wm2k3tweaks.html while looking for an alarm fix on google. Since installing it, I've never missed a meeting!

[szamot]

I am so tempted to rip out the speaker from my old cell phone and jam it into my PPC, that should at least fix the loudness issue, the rest I do not have problems with?!

[guinness]

I've been using the Wakeup Tweak app from Burr Oak for the past several months and haven't had a problem since. It's still annoying that MS hasn't fixed the problem yet, so that a user dosn't need to use a software patch.

[ppcsurfr]

... this is the same tweak for PPC2002 with alarms not firing on time...

which was also fixed... other than this reg hack... by SuperAlert and MeetingMute...

Carlo

[Garry [WMA]]

Actually I should point out that SuperAlert uses a different method we didn't feel changing this timeout was an appropriate method as it was too variable between users as to an appropriate setting. Also this only fixes one of the many problems with alarms (notification database corruption because of powering off too quickly after setting an alarm is another).

We are still working on a 2003SE version of SuperAlert but fixing some of the other alarm issues has proved more difficult than we thought.

[mhowie]

I have used WakeUpTweak and applied the registry modification as discussed in the initial post-- both to no avail. My 2210's alarms simply do not sound if I have set them prior to midnight (that is, until I manually turn on my 2210 as the article states).

It is unbelievably frustrating that I must take a $6 travel alarm clock when I travel because MS can't write an OS that allows alarms to work reliably! :(

[ctitanic]

I have used WakeUpTweak and applied the registry modification as discussed in the initial post-- both to no avail. My 2210's alarms simply do not sound if I have set them prior to midnight (that is, until I manually turn on my 2210 as the article states).

It is unbelievably frustrating that I must take a $6 travel alarm clock when I travel because MS can't write an OS that allows alarms to work reliably! :(

how many seconds you are using on that trick?

[ppcsurfr]

]Actually I should point out that SuperAlert uses a different method we didn't feel changing this timeout was an appropriate method as it was too variable between users as to an appropriate setting. Also this only fixes one of the many problems with alarms (notification database corruption because of powering off too quickly after setting an alarm is another).

We are still working on a 2003SE version of SuperAlert but fixing some of the other alarm issues has proved more difficult than we thought.

Yikes...

But if I remember it correctly, I sent out a similar suggestion on increasing the wakeup timeout during the PPC 2002 days... I can't remember to whom, but it also sorted out some alarm issues then.

If I remember it correctly, when an alarm was fired with PPC2002, it would immediately timeout and go back to sleep thus not completing the alarm sequence... but that was a long time ago and I've always set my wakeup timeout from between 30 seconds to 3 minutes to match Super Alert before... when I was testing it especially when you set an interval longer than that supported by the wakeup timeout...

The situation may be different today... but it's nice to know that the same registry hack has some use.

Carlo

[Kevin C. Tofel]

I applied the registry hack yesterday and increased the time to 180 seconds. My PPC woke me up at 5:30am on the dot today for the first time since I've had it which is great. The question I have is: what, if any, "side effects" will there be....will the timeout setting impact any other functionality?

Thanks,
KCT

[ctitanic]

I applied the registry hack yesterday and increased the time to 180 seconds. My PPC woke me up at 5:30am on the dot today for the first time since I've had it which is great. The question I have is: what, if any, "side effects" will there be....will the timeout setting impact any other functionality?

Thanks,
KCT

So far, I have not seen any "side effects". :devilboy:

[Kacey Green]

Doesn't the device wake into suspend mode on several occaisons throughout the day, especially if you have active tasks, or calendar items? just when it gets shut off too soon at midnight maintenence that any problems surface

[Chairman Clench]

It blows my mind that alarms still do not work properly in Windows Mobile. Microsoft needs to take a page from Palm's book and, y'know, make working alarms... :roll: Ahh... this is one of those things that I can just take for granted will work now that I've switched back to Palm OS.

This is THE reason I switched back to PalmOS. It is absolutely mindboggling that M$ hasn't fixed this issue yet.

Furthermore, what I find most disturbing is that this issue has existed since the original release of the PPC OS! Interestingly, whenever this issue is mentioned by this site, the author always fails to mention that the issue has existed for 3 releases of the OS. To make it worse, the problem has actually become MORE widespread with each release of the OS!

I understand bugs in software. I can accept that there will be bugs in software. Having this issue exist in 3 releases of the OS is simply silly. Call me a pessimist, but I seriously doubt M$ fixed it in WM2003SE or whatever the heck it is called. I've said it before and I will say it again, I would gladly trade advanced "features" of the PPC OS for more reliable "core" functions like alarms and reminders that work and reliable syncing.

I vastly prefer a PPC over a PalmOS device... however, I can't afford to miss meetings. So, I had to switch back to a PalmOS evice.

[Garry [WMA]]

Yikes...

But if I remember it correctly, I sent out a similar suggestion on increasing the wakeup timeout during the PPC 2002 days... I can't remember to whom, but it also sorted out some alarm issues then.



It will certainly work as long as you tune it to your situation but it was a little tricky to get it consistant in a mass market product. We're also happy if anyone wants to use it alongside SuperAlert as it is belts and braces.

As to side effects the main one is battery life if you have a lot of power on notifications in a day.

In case anyone is interested there are actually two processes that run at midnight one to handle the calendar notifications and the other clock notifications. Often but not always the clock on runs last and therefore if the system times out early this will often not get run at all which is why clock alarms can seem the most problematic.

[mmarlor]

Furthermore, what I find most disturbing is that this issue has existed since the original release of the PPC OS! Interestingly, whenever this issue is mentioned by this site, the author always fails to mention that the issue has existed for 3 releases of the OS. To make it worse, the problem has actually become MORE widespread with each release of the OS!

He's new to the platform :-) Well pointed out though.

[Jason Lee]

My alarms actally worked after I installed the 1.10 rom on my 2215, until I installed WISBar Advanced that is. :) It slowed power up enough to make the alarms not work anymore... :( So I just upped the time out from 15 to 60. That works great for me. I will probably turn it back down to 15 or maybe 30 now that I have given up on the memory leaks in the new WBA.
I do agree though that changing this time out works differently for different people. I would imagine the more appointments and alarms you have the longer your ppc is going to take to do it's late night work. I have a fair amount of appointments but not alot. I would imagine you busy people might need to up the time out to 120 or more. But this fix has worked for me. If an alarm does not fire I just up the time out another 15 seconds... :) Bad way to have to "configure" your OS but it seems to work if you get the number high enough.
And the only drawback would be a slight decrease in battery life from your ppc comming on for 3 minutes instead of 15 seconds at night but not much.
Also the calnot and clocknot do not run every night. Mine schedule reminders for a week then run again. Unless I change or add something then they reschedule for that night. But again, if you have lots of appointments and alarms it may actually run every night. It may schedule up to a week or a set number of reminders. My calnot is set to run tonight and the clocknot is not set to run until the 16th.

[ctitanic]

That´s the point. I have it set to 120 seconds. And when I turn on my PPC in the morning to stop the alarm my battery still at 100%.

[cweeks]

Well, I applied the hack yesterday. I can't determine if it works, though, because since then I can only get sound through the earphones. The speaker is disabled and no amount of soft reset has fixed it.

Oh well, without the reminders I only needed sound through the earphones anyway.

[Bill Gunn]

It blows my mind that alarms still do not work properly in Windows Mobile. Microsoft needs to take a page from Palm's book and, y'know, make working alarms... :roll: Ahh... this is one of those things that I can just take for granted will work now that I've switched back to Palm OS.

For a while the problems with PocketPC where more than offset by Palm's lack of multimedia capability and it's limited hardware platform. Not anymore. The new Tungstens have better resolution, handle MS Office documents better, have as much RAM and run faster, AND the alarms work.

A new PocketPC today is virtually identical in speed and performance to a two year old device. A new PalmOS device is an order of magnitude better than a two year old device. I know one thing; my next "PDA" will not have a 320 by 240 display.

[Steven Cedrone]

Well, I applied the hack yesterday. I can't determine if it works, though, because since then I can only get sound through the earphones. The speaker is disabled and no amount of soft reset has fixed it.

Oh well, without the reminders I only needed sound through the earphones anyway.

Try pushing in and pulling out your headhpone jack about ten times. See if your sound comes back. I may just be that the switch to turn off the speaker is "stuck"...

Steve

[cweeks]

Yep, I actually tried that just before I saw your message. That was the culprit. That's the first time that's ever happened to me. Is this a problem with this model?

[racerx]

I've been using the Wakeup Tweak app from Burr Oak for the past several months and haven't had a problem since. It's still annoying that MS hasn't fixed the problem yet, so that a user dosn't need to use a software patch.

I used the Tweak too, but I found that I had to enable the setting of powering the unit on fully. Since I've done that, I've had 100% reliability of all alarms for several months now.

[fixerdude]

I applied the registry hack yesterday and increased the time to 180 seconds. My PPC woke me up at 5:30am on the dot today for the first time since I've had it which is great. The question I have is: what, if any, "side effects" will there be....will the timeout setting impact any other functionality?
KCT

The only side effect is my unit is triggering the alarms on time all the time even when I do not want to hear the alarms. :lol:

[mhowie]

I have used WakeUpTweak and applied the registry modification as discussed in the initial post-- both to no avail. My 2210's alarms simply do not sound if I have set them prior to midnight (that is, until I manually turn on my 2210 as the article states).

It is unbelievably frustrating that I must take a $6 travel alarm clock when I travel because MS can't write an OS that allows alarms to work reliably! :(

how many seconds you are using on that trick?

I used 120 seconds with WakeUpTweak and 175 seconds with the registry modification...

Thanks,

[mhowie]

I've been using the Wakeup Tweak app from Burr Oak for the past several months and haven't had a problem since. It's still annoying that MS hasn't fixed the problem yet, so that a user dosn't need to use a software patch.

I used the Tweak too, but I found that I had to enable the setting of powering the unit on fully. Since I've done that, I've had 100% reliability of all alarms for several months now.

RacerX,

I enabled that setting ("power unit on fully") and found my 2210 alternated between turning on and off every few minutes (after I had powered down). I suspect the timing of this automated power on/off is related to my backlight and power settings, but I wasn't prepared for this behavior.

Do you notice the same phenomenon or are your settings different such that this constant on/off is not present?

Thanks,

[racerx]

I used the Tweak too, but I found that I had to enable the setting of powering the unit on fully. Since I've done that, I've had 100% reliability of all alarms for several months now.

RacerX,

I enabled that setting ("power unit on fully") and found my 2210 alternated between turning on and off every few minutes (after I had powered down). I suspect the timing of this automated power on/off is related to my backlight and power settings, but I wasn't prepared for this behavior.

Do you notice the same phenomenon or are your settings different such that this constant on/off is not present?

Thanks,

No, I never experienced anything like that. I have my unit power off after 2 minutes of inactivity and the screen dims after 1. Basically, everything works as expected on my iPAQ now except for JournalBar wanting to connect to the Internet after I do a soft-reset :cry: What are your other Wakeup Tweak setting set to?

[Janak Parekh]

He's new to the platform :-) Well pointed out though.
8O I'm new to the platform? I've been using Pocket PC since June, 2000 -- I got my iPAQ 3650 then -- how I don't know. ;) I've never heard of issues on PPC2000, and certainly had none. There were reports of it on PPC2002, although I've never had a problem with it on any of my PPC2002 devices (including my current i700). WM2k3 seems to have the most consistent issues, and we as MVPs have told Microsoft about them repeatedly. The point is, I was reporting on the article, which was trying to get to the bottom of the problem on WM2k3.

For a while the problems with PocketPC where more than offset by Palm's lack of multimedia capability and it's limited hardware platform. Not anymore. The new Tungstens have better resolution, handle MS Office documents better, have as much RAM and run faster, AND the alarms work.
Bill, you make it sound like there is no advantage to using a Pocket PC as a PIM. Things like multiple categorization and multitasking add functionality for me that isn't available on Palm yet. Oh, and tools like TextMaker are full-blown word processing applications that work, and work well. I'm not defending the alarm issues, mind you -- but there are reasons to own a Pocket PC.

I know one thing; my next "PDA" will not have a 320 by 240 display.
That's right -- my next PDA has a 640x480 display -- and it rocks. :P

--janak

[mhowie]

I used the Tweak too, but I found that I had to enable the setting of powering the unit on fully. Since I've done that, I've had 100% reliability of all alarms for several months now.

RacerX,

I enabled that setting ("power unit on fully") and found my 2210 alternated between turning on and off every few minutes (after I had powered down). I suspect the timing of this automated power on/off is related to my backlight and power settings, but I wasn't prepared for this behavior.

Do you notice the same phenomenon or are your settings different such that this constant on/off is not present?

Thanks,

No, I never experienced anything like that. I have my unit power off after 2 minutes of inactivity and the screen dims after 1. Basically, everything works as expected on my iPAQ now except for JournalBar wanting to connect to the Internet after I do a soft-reset :cry: What are your other Wakeup Tweak setting set to?

120 seconds and 60 seconds (battery and AC power respectively). I have my 2215 set to dim after two minutes and turn off after three minutes of inactivity...

Thanks,

[zilla31]

i have mine set to 120 and 120 and checked power on fully... i have a different problem w/ alarms though - my task alarms (set via agenda fusion) never sound... what could that be all about?

very new to PPC - need to get alarms working properly - especially for tasks! my agenda alarms seem to work fine...

[zilla31]

PS will superalert possibly fix this problem? will it work on wm2003 (doesn't explicitly support it)? i have a 4155. THANKS A MILLION.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I have to say, I've upgraded my new iPaq (finally moved up to WM 2003 permanently) 2215 to ROM 1.10 and alarms have been reliable since...

Maybe HP fixed it?

Just a thought...

[zilla31]

yeah i'm not sure there is an upgraded ROM available for the 4155? or is there?

[Vincent M Ferrari]

Doesn't appear there is... I'm telling you, though, it fixed the 2215 problem (based on very informal use after 1 day) so far, but I think it's a good sign that the manufacturers are not going to wait for MS to fix this "feature."

8)

[Vidge]

I have never found the PocketPC's alarms / calendar reminders to be particularly useful. When I used my Palm m505, I could always hear the alarms go off. That's not the case with my iPaq 4155... whenever it's in my pocket, I barely hear the alarm even if the volume is at its highest setting.

Am I the only one that has this kind of trouble?

Nope, you are not alone. My 4155 alarms are simply not loud enough. What can I do to fix this? (Thank goodness I still have my T3.)

[bvkeen]

Can anyone offer any hope for a resolution of this problem, or maybe a new hack to try? I've tried Wakeup Tweak at max setting, along with Check Notify and Clear Notify and I've tried Tweaks2K and even the Power Alert feature in Battery Pack Pro. I have WM2003SE on an e800, so I have the latest OS. I'm glad I still have my Palm T3, but I would like for my pocket pc to work as advertised.

[bvkeen]

As I have researched this further, one thing that some folks have mentioned is that it is best to wait a while after creating an appointment before turning the device off. Some even recommend just letting the device shut itself down.

But, what I have recently started wondering about, and this is a question for those who program for WM2003, is: is there a certain Windows Message that can be sent to the messaging que telling the device to double check on appointment, or some related housekeeping task? I wonder if a device does this before it powers down, for example, before it sending the WM_TURNMEOFF message, or whatever message gets sent to turn the device off (it's been YEARS since I've done Windows programming, so excuse me for not knowing the actual message names).

It has occurred to me that I have generally been using some software program to turn the device off (such as HandyMenu, or Spb PocketPlus, or BP Pro, or any number of programs that offer the option to turn the device off or to soft reset it through one tap on the screen). It also occurred to me that these programs may be sending just a WM_TURNMEOFF message without sending any housekeeping messages in advance of it in the que. Since so many of use such software, I wondered whether that may in fact be a contributor to some of the alarm problems we are seeing.

I'm not trying to give Microsoft or anyone "an easy way out" on this, as much as I am truly trying to understand the problem. I would like to have 100% reliability with my appointment alarms and I would like to understand what types of practices (and software) lead toward that goal and what types of practices (and software) work against it.

For the time being I am no longer shutting my e800 down using software - I either let it turn itself off, or I use the power button which may or may not send housekeeping messages before a power-off message).

One other thing I am trying out is that I have removed ListPro's alarm notifications from the notification que, thinking that this might help some because I have a large ListPro Mylists file (was 459kb, but I trimmed it down). I do not use alarms in ListPro, but I do not know whether the notification had to process through all of my ListPro database to figure that out or not, so I no longer give it the option. For those who use ListPro alarms, this would not be a good option - but perhaps it is going to help in my case (or at least not hurt).

[Brad Adrian]

...was the main reason I switched to PalmOS...This time I bought a 4150...
Welcome back to the Dark Side!

[kiwi]

HI guys,
I just got a 4150 the other day as well.. I am thinking of coming back to PPCs - I have been on P900 for the past 1 year.
The thought of WiFi + BT in a small formfactor was appealing. I cant beleive though the alarm problem still exists?!! I use my P900 for my daily alarm in the morning and its been great. Looks like I may have to buy an alarm program or something than use the built in one.



I really wanna give those PPC OS developers a kick in the pants.. !

[ctmagnus]

I use the 2003 startup fix feature of Spb Pocket Plus in conjunction with Burr Oak Software's WakeupTweak (free) (http://burroak.on.ca/ptafaq.html#wakeuptweak) and the occasional scan with MemMaid and/or ScaryBear's Check Notifications (free) (http://www.scarybearsoftware.com/ppc_cn_overview.html), and the built-in alarms in the Clock applet. No problems with the current unit yet!