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View Full Version : hx4700 locks up and other media playback woes


threedaysdwn
01-20-2005, 07:46 PM
My application for the hx4700 might be non-standard, but when it works it really works.

I have my hx4700 custom mounted where the center air vents used to be in my car, connected to a DC to USB to iPaq power adapter, switched on automatically when the car is running.

I have a 4GB hitachi microdrive and 1GB SD card installed in the unit. I customized the today screen/dashboard (oh, its in Landscape mode) with spb pocketplus, and have it running PocketTV, WMP/PocketMusic, and right now the trial version of mapopolis (still haven't decided on a permenant nav solution). Oh, and there's a bluetooth GPS receiver in there as well.

So here's my problem...

The 4700 sometimes locks up while playing media files using both WMP and PocketMusic. I tried PocketMusic because of the lack of large-button landscape mode skins for WMP, and because PocketMusic can be set not to override the power-off timer... This works particularly well in my car setup because I have the "on AC" timer turned off, but the battery timer set to 1 minute. So when I power off the car, the iPaq will shut off regardless of whether I stop playback or not.

Most of the problems seem to stem from it powering off and back on with either media player app running. It does NOT seem to matter if I stop playback before it goes off.

Right now I think the problem is the microdrive. Whenever the unit resumes from standby, it seems to take some time powering up the microdrive and mounting the volume. So if I try to play a song before its ready, it sometimes locks up. But what's confusing and frustrating is that sometimes it will play a couple songs and THEN just stop while loading another one. Sometimes the "thinking" icon is circling over and over, and sometimes it's not.

So far I haven't tried any music on the SD card. I think my next step in debugging this project will be to try using that exclusively, to see if it still locks up.

So, has anyone else had their iPaq 4700 lock up frequently when playing music? Is this a common problem?

Thanks, and I'll post an update with any further results I have.

kosmos
01-20-2005, 10:15 PM
Why not try Mortplayer, its great. Has all the PocketPlayer features and more

http://www.sto-helit.de/freeware/pocketpc/mortplayer/en/

I was using Pocket Player for over a year, just installed Mort, and its really good.

threedaysdwn
01-21-2005, 12:48 AM
Doesn't support WMA so it won't work for me.

And I'm using PocketMusic (with the enhancement pack whatever) not Pocket Player.