Pocket Player doesn't work

[terrypin]

I cannot get Conduits' Pocket Player to work. After a soft reset to ensure a clean system, it runs OK the first time. But if I close it and start it again I get an error message:
'pocketplayer' is not a valid Pocket PC application.

I've reinstalled but that made no difference.

I'm now down to 24 days left of my trial, and so far my experience is becoming negative!

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Another problem is that the program doesn't make it clear that reinstallation requires first removing PP from the Today screen. Instead it just gives a techno-speak message about pptoday.dll still being in use, perhaps in ROM, etc, etc. What's wrong with "Before reinstallation, you must first remove Pocket Player from the list of Today screen items; use Settings>Today>Items.

Could someone also tell me where the program files are located please? Searching with Resco Explorer for targets such as 'pocketplayer', '*player', 'conduits', I found nothing relevant except an 'unload' link. This is after the failure to start, BTW - maybe the program is somehow deleting itself!


--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[terrypin]

My earlier note (the second of 2 I've posted about Pocket Player problems so far this morning) said I thought I'd now installed OK. But that was obviously over-optimistic. After an hour or so of playing WMAs (during which I sent my 2nd post about the Pocket plus/Reminder conflict), I closed down. Now I've tried to start the program again, and I'm getting
"Cannot find 'pocketplayer' (or one of its components)"....etc.

The only relevant thing I've done is to use Settings>Today>Items to uncheck Pocket Player, as I don't want it permanently on my Today screen. So the error arises trying to start it from Start>Programs (or from my launcher icon in Pocket Plus).

And I've now just used Resco Explorer to try to find the program - and I can't!

Hopefully I'll hear back from Conduits late today (UK time) but meanwhile any idea what might be going on please? Anyone else with similar symptoms? Seems almost as if the program is wiping itself out, somehow triggered by unchecking the Today item in the PPC Settings...

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.
:confused:

[Jason Patterson]

The program-start problems you are experiencing is one we have not heard before. Where have you installed Pocket Player? It will install itself to \Program Files\Conduits\Pocket Player if you installed to RAM, or \Storage Card\Conduits Pocket Player if you installed to Flash ROM or a memory card. Try launching Pocket Player twice, via the File Explorer, by tapping on the PocketPlayer program file there.

How are you exiting out of Pocket Player? If you are using SPB's Close Application command, while Pocket Player is playing, that might be the cause of a problem. Pocket Player ignores all Close Requests when it is Playing or Paused. SPB, when closing an application, first tries to close the application "cleanly". After that point, if the application does not close, it "kills" the application in a non-clean way, which might be the root of all these problems on your device. You can verify this behavior by using the Pocket PC's Start>Settings>System>Memory>Running Programs screen. Try stopping Pocket Player while it is playing, and you will see that it does not close. We modeled this behavior after Windows Media Player (which also does not close when Playing) -- essentially it prevents the system from automatically shutting down the player (which it will do to free memory in some cases). You can disable this behavior in Menu > Options > Advanced in Pocket Player. Perhaps try that, and see if that fixes the problems.

[terrypin]

Thanks, Jason. Encouragingly, I've now had 2-3 hours successful further use of Pocket Player. So far, no repetition of those exasperating start-up errors.

I have installed to my 512 MB Viking SD card (as space is too limited in main memory). It's fair to consider a faulty SD card as one possibility, as I had my first problem with it yesterday (see separate thread, 'SD card - all files vanished'. But I rather think the Reminder issue is unrelated to that; I suspect a conflict with Pocket Plus as described.

I've just opened Pocket Player again, using my preferred method, a Pocket Plus launch icon. Now I've closed it using Pocket Plus's tap-and -hold menu item 'Close'. And re-opened it using Start>Programs. So, at the moment anyway, that particular problem happily seems to have gone, whatever its cause!

I'll post again if I get a repetition.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.