HELP! windows media player won't work on toshiba e310 pocket pc

[jeanius]

hi everyone,
i just got a new pocket pc (toshiba e310) and everything was working swell until today when for some reason my windows media player decided to stop working. whenever i click on the program the words 'windows media player' will appear in the top task bar briefly and then disappear.
this has happened even after i tried re-installing the program twice.
i can't figure out whats gone wrong, except that the other day the screen froze and i had to reset it and then uninstall some dodgy programs. but i dont see why this should affect the media player.
anyone know what i can do about this?? as i dont want a dead program on my pocket pc
thanks!

[OSUKid7]

reinstalling? what do you mean? I was unaware that it's possible to uninstall/reinstall WMP.

[c38b2]

The media player is built into the ROM of the device - a hard reset will restore it. Make sure you have all your data backed up before you do.

[Pony99CA]

i just got a new pocket pc (toshiba e310) and everything was working swell until today when for some reason my windows media player decided to stop working. whenever i click on the program the words 'windows media player' will appear in the top task bar briefly and then disappear.
this has happened even after i tried re-installing the program twice.
i can't figure out whats gone wrong, except that the other day the screen froze and i had to reset it and then uninstall some dodgy programs. but i dont see why this should affect the media player.
Before you hard reset, make sure it's not data related.

First, take any storage cards out of the Toshiba before starting WMP. If they have been corrupted, they might cause problems while searching for local content.

Also, have you by any chance connected to a LAN and mapped the Network folder on your Pocket PC? If so, it's possible that Windows Media Player is scanning your local hard disks' My Documents folders for content, which would make it look like the program was locked up.

Steve

[jeanius]

hrmm ok well i think i mightve done a boo-boo... when trying to re-install the media player (from the cd which came with the pocket pc) i first deleted all the media player files that could be deleted. i think there was only one file called 'player' which i couldnt delete.
anyway, would a hard reset fix this? and what exactly is a hard reset anyway

[jeanius]

steve,
i dont have a storage card or anything in it. in fact it's just new and i've only ever connected it to my computer once. so i dont think its data related...

[Steven Cedrone]

and what exactly is a hard reset anyway

A hard reset will wipe out your device and restore the factory default settings...

Steve

[jeanius]

ok i backed up my data onto an SD card and then hard reset the pocket pc... but then when i tried to restore the data it said that there wasn't enough memory to restore??
i tried adjusting the memory settings but alas to no avail... surely it should work as i have around 31mb free on my pc, and the backup file is only 0.004kb??
so now my windows media player works perfectly but ive lost all my data... hrm =/

[Pony99CA]

ok i backed up my data onto an SD card and then hard reset the pocket pc... but then when i tried to restore the data it said that there wasn't enough memory to restore??
i tried adjusting the memory settings but alas to no avail... surely it should work as i have around 31mb free on my pc, and the backup file is only 0.004kb??
so now my windows media player works perfectly but ive lost all my data... hrm =/
How exactly did you back your files up to the SD card? Does the Toshiba include a backup program?

You probably should have also done an ActiveSync backup, just to be safe. I know that's too late now, but maybe you'll save yourself trouble in the future in case the backup to SD doesn't work.

Steve

[jeanius]

well i followed the backup instructions in the toshiba manual, which specified backing up to an SD card. it said nothing about backing up to active sync, i didnt know this was possible! how do you do it? is it possible to synchronize ALL files and programs on a pocket pc to the desktop?

so anyway, is my data lost forever now?

[Pony99CA]

well i followed the backup instructions in the toshiba manual, which specified backing up to an SD card.
What exactly were those instructions? Does the Toshiba include a special backup program?

it said nothing about backing up to active sync, i didnt know this was possible! how do you do it?
In ActiveSync on the PC, do the following:

Click on the Tools menu.
Click on the Backup/Restore... action.
Select Full backup for your first backup. (You can use full or incremental on future backups; incremental will be faster backing up, but may take longer to restore.)
Click the Back Up Now button.
Wait until the backup is complete (don't use your Pocket PC until you get the message saying the backup is finished).

is it possible to synchronize ALL files and programs on a pocket pc to the desktop?
Doing a full backup is as close as you can get without additional software.

so anyway, is my data lost forever now?
It depends, but you've quite likely lost some of it forever unless you can restore the backup from your SD card. Even if you can't, there are two things you might be able to do.

First, if you had any tasks, appointments, contracts or Outlook E-mail, and had synchronized your Pocket PC before you did the hard reset, another sync should at least restore those. If you've never synchronized with Outlook, those are all gone, though.

Second, you can easily reinstall most or all programs that you installed using ActiveSync's Add/Remove Programs... (in the Tools menu).

Steve

[Pony99CA]

ok i backed up my data onto an SD card and then hard reset the pocket pc... but then when i tried to restore the data it said that there wasn't enough memory to restore??
i tried adjusting the memory settings but alas to no avail... surely it should work as i have around 31mb free on my pc, and the backup file is only 0.004kb??
By the way, if the backup on your SD is really only 0.004 KB, I wouldn't waste time on it. 0.004 KB is four bytes, hardly enough for any data or programs. That could be why the restore program was failing.

Steve

[baker]

I thought the backup on the e310 only backed-up the PIM information.

[jeanius]

what is PIM information? maybe thats why the backup didnt work.

btw i figured out what made the media player stop working. after the hard reset everything was working fine, until i renamed the 'main' tab in the home menu. then for some reason the media player stopped working again, sigh... has anyone else had this problem? then when i tried to rename the tab back to its original name i get an error message saying that the tab already exists... ehh??

btw i have another question - everytime i do a hard reset and then try to synchronise with the desktop, i get an error message from Acticesync along the lines of 'the folder pocket_pc already exists, please rename etc' but when i try to rename the 'new' connection it wont let me, and keeps saying that i'm using invalid characters in the name (im not).
in order for activesync to recognise my 'new' pocket PC i have to keep uninstalling Activesync and re-installing it. does anyone know how to fix this problem??

thanks for your patience all... although i've been having so many problems with this thing im thinking of selling it and going back to my trusty filofax =/

[Pony99CA]

what is PIM information? maybe thats why the backup didnt work.
PIM = Personal Information Manager

Typically it refers to your Calendar, Tasks and Contacts information, and possibly Notes and E-mail.

btw i figured out what made the media player stop working. after the hard reset everything was working fine, until i renamed the 'main' tab in the home menu.
You'll have to be more specific. What is the "home" menu? Do you mean the Start menu (the one you get clicking on the Windows logo in the upper-left corner of the screen)?

Also, what is the "main tab"? There aren't any tabs in the Start menu, nor in any of the settings applets that I know of.

everytime i do a hard reset and then try to synchronise with the desktop, i get an error message from Acticesync along the lines of 'the folder pocket_pc already exists, please rename etc' but when i try to rename the 'new' connection it wont let me, and keeps saying that i'm using invalid characters in the name (im not).
That's by design. It prevents somebody else with a Pocket PC with the same device name from connecting to your PC and getting (or deleting :!:) your data.

When you hard reset, if you want to keep the same device name, you have to delete the previous partnership. In the PC ActiveSync, click the File menu, then the Delete Partnership action.

although i've been having so many problems with this thing im thinking of selling it and going back to my trusty filofax =/
Don't take this the wrong way, but have you tried reading the manual? That would have explained how to back up your data, I think, and avoided some of the problems that you're having.

User manuals don't tell everything, which is why we're here to help, but I'd strongly suggest reading it if you haven't.

Steve

[jeanius]

my apologies steve, for some reason i assumed that all pocket pcs operate on the same sort of software but now i realise that they dont.
on my toshiba e310 theres an option called 'home' which produces a menu with 4 tabs - running, main, programs and games. each tab has a list of the corresponding programs etc. the 'running' tab has a list of all the programs currently running on the pocket pc. my problem was that when i renamed the tabs (an option which is listed in the manual) the media player stopped working.

and yes i have read the manual, several times over in fact! but it is quite rudimentary and describes only the basic stuff. its quite weird in fact coz im only learning about vital info now from internet forums such as this. you'd think that they would include important info in the manual!

i think ill just give the pc one more hard reset and just leave it at that, no more fiddling around with it. although i do have one more question (i promise this is the last!) which is, where are the programs on my desktop which correspond to the programs on the pocket pc stored?
i know that my contacts and task info etc is stored somewhere on my desktop otherwise i wouldnt be able to synchronise it back after a hard rest, but i cant find where its actually stored. i thought that the contacts list might have corresponded to the address book in windows, but this isnt so. outlook corresponds with pocket outlook, ms money with pocket ms money etc... but everything else?? where is it?!

btw steve i really do appreciate your helping out a poor n00b like me! =)

[jeanius]

btw does anyone know of a site which perhaps actually details all this important stuff?? maybe i should read up on it, would save me a lot of trouble!

[Pony99CA]

for some reason i assumed that all pocket pcs operate on the same sort of software but now i realise that they dont.
The basic software is the same, but each Pocket PC manufacturer can add different programs to their devices. It's similar to various PC makers preinstalling programs for customers.

One common thing added is a task manager (like your Toshiba's Home program and my iPAQ's iTask), because the Pocket PC OS doesn't include a useful task switcher/killer.

on my toshiba e310 theres an option called 'home' which produces a menu with 4 tabs - running, main, programs and games. each tab has a list of the corresponding programs etc. the 'running' tab has a list of all the programs currently running on the pocket pc. my problem was that when i renamed the tabs (an option which is listed in the manual) the media player stopped working.
How did it stop working? Did the icon in the Home program no longer launch the Media Player? If so, what about the icon in the Start menu or Programs folder?

I can't imagine renaming the tab would break the entire Media Player, although it might screw up starting Media Player from the Home program.

i think ill just give the pc one more hard reset and just leave it at that, no more fiddling around with it. although i do have one more question (i promise this is the last!) which is, where are the programs on my desktop which correspond to the programs on the pocket pc stored?

i know that my contacts and task info etc is stored somewhere on my desktop otherwise i wouldnt be able to synchronise it back after a hard rest, but i cant find where its actually stored. i thought that the contacts list might have corresponded to the address book in windows, but this isnt so. outlook corresponds with pocket outlook, ms money with pocket ms money etc... but everything else?? where is it?!
Not all programs on the Pocket PC correspond to desktop programs. Some don't synchronize directly with the PC, although files stored in the My Documents folder will.

For example, Contacts and Tasks are stored in Outlook (probably in a .pst file). If you have questions about a specific program, we might be able to help, but trying to provide a list of all programs that might work in conjunction with the desktop would take a lot of time.

btw does anyone know of a site which perhaps actually details all this important stuff?? maybe i should read up on it, would save me a lot of trouble!
Check out Chris De Herrera's CE Windows site (http://www.cewindows.net); it has one of the most extensive list of FAQs around.

Steve

[jeanius]

>> How did it stop working? Did the icon in the Home program no longer launch the Media Player? If so, what about the icon in the Start menu or Programs folder?

not only did the icon in the home program not launch the media player, but neither did the start menu or programs folder. all because i changed the name of one little tab.... which leads me to think that some how for some reason the media player is dependent on that tab...