H5455 R.I.P.????

[piperpilot]

I think it's time to pull the plug on my beloved H5455. It started going downhill two days ago. I performed a soft reset but instead of soft resetting, it did a hard reset then turned off. I thought maybe the battery was too low so I installed one of my spares and the same thing happened. I plugged it into the AC and let it charge overnight. It appeared to be OK the next morning (yesterday) except that it would not let me restore from a backup. I wasn't too happy about having to re-install all my software but I had to have the device up and running. I spent several hours reconstituting the device and when I got done, I backed it up. When prompted by Sprite Backup to do a soft reset, I did so and sure enough, another hard reset occurred. Anyone have any ideas about what is wrong with it? Any suggestions about a place to get it diagnosed and repaired? Is it truly the end of the road for my little electronic companion? If so, what should I be looking at for a replacement. I am a power user. Must have lots of RAM--my H5455 runs at 128MB after a Pocket PC Techs upgrade. Also must have a fast processor, WLAN, Bluetooth, SDIO and preferably, a VGA screen.

[Menneisyys]

If so, what should I be looking at for a replacement. I am a power user. Must have lots of RAM--my H5455 runs at 128MB after a Pocket PC Techs upgrade. Also must have a fast processor, WLAN, Bluetooth, SDIO and preferably, a VGA screen.


There're five devices you should consider, if you really want a VGA device:

iPAQ hx4700: the only one VGA iPAQ. Great screen. Has decent battery life, unlike the Dell and, more importantly, the Asus. 64M RAM only.

Dell Axim x50v: considerably cheaper than the iPAQ; has a great graphic processor and VGA output. However, its screen is not as colorful as that of the iPAQ / the Pocket Loox and is only 3.7". 64M RAM only.

The devices that are not that known in the States. All these devices have USB host functionality, unlike the previous two; however, they "only" have an 520 MHz CPU, unlike the iPAQ/the Dell, which have a 624 MHz one.

Toshiba e830: great device, BUT its screen is not as good as that of the iPAQ / the Pocket Loox and its BT unit is far from perfect. Has decent battery life, unlike the Dell and, more importantly, the Asus.

Pocket Loox 720: maybe the cheapest solution for Europeans. A very good device: its screen is as good as that of the hx4700 and has decent battery life.

Asus a730W: the worst device battery life-wise. Howver, in its other parameters, it's pretty cool.

All the three latter devices have 128M RAM; the two former can be upgraded to it (by sacrifying 200 US$ and the warranty). All of them have WLAN.

Unfortunately, there is no "it" - a device that just has everything. Some people will say the iPAQ is the best, some will say the Dell, the Asus, the F-S. Unfortunately, all these devices have shortcomings and disadvantages. You should read all the forums here and on other PPC sites and decide what is the most important feature for you and what shortcomings can you live with. It's not very easy to choose your PPC, especially if you're not living in the States.

[ChunkyMonkey]

If you didn't mind the size of your 5400, the iPaq 4700 is for you. I think the footprint is about the same but it's thinner and you get CF without a sleeve.

If you want a smaller device, go with the Dell x50v. If you buy a Dell, be patant and keep your eyes out for sales, coupons and etc. You could upgrade it to 128 MB RAM at Pocket PC Techs and still be less expensive then the iPaq 4700. I have only heard good things about Pocket PC Techs in regards to product and support. They do provide a 90 day warrenty with an upgrade, if that helps.

[piperpilot]

If you didn't mind the size of your 5400, the iPaq 4700 is for you. I think the footprint is about the same but it's thinner and you get CF without a sleeve.

If you want a smaller device, go with the Dell x50v. If you buy a Dell, be patant and keep your eyes out for sales, coupons and etc. You could upgrade it to 128 MB RAM at Pocket PC Techs and still be less expensive then the iPaq 4700. I have only heard good things about Pocket PC Techs in regards to product and support. They do provide a 90 day warrenty with an upgrade, if that helps.

I do a lot of gaming on my device and the directional pad on the 4700 is not terribly good for that, I'm told. Right now, I am leaning toward the Dell or the Siemens SX66 PPC Phone edition. What I get will all depend on how large my tax refund is this year :wink:

[Dave Beauvais]

I do a lot of gaming on my device and the directional pad on the 4700 is not terribly good for that, I'm told. ...
As an hx4700 owner, I can say that is D-pad based games are important to you, the touchpad on the hx4700 will annoy the crap out of you. It is truly horrible for games. The four application buttons are also not well suited for games. They are too close together and difficlt to find by feel during a fast-paced game. Fortunately, all of the games I play are almost entirely stylus-driven, so this isn't a problem for me.

I use an Axim X50v extensively at work and its D-pad is usable, if a little on the small side. I wish manufacturers would make them round instead of oval. It has a positive "click" feel in all directions. (Tactile feedback you obviously don't get with the hx4700.) The application buttons are also easier to locate by feel since they are actually buttons.

I wish Dell had kiosks in stores so I could recommend that people go to compare them in person. If you get the Dell, I doubt you'll be disappointed. Also, there looks to be a number of high-end VGA games that may only be available for the Intel graphics processor used in the Dell. (The HP uses an older ATI chipset.) In fact, the demo of the game Enigmo that ships with the Axim is quite fun, but will only run on the Intel chipset. :(

[piperpilot]

I spent all day yesterday restoring my software after the third spontaneous hard reset in four days only to wake up this morning and find the battery completely drained following an automatic soft reset as part of an automatic backup. The device was connected to the AC all night long. I have two spare batteries that were in an iPAQ stand up charger. I inserted them into the device and they, too, drained to nothing immediately. Does anyone have any idea what is causing this problem? I don't know what to do. Normally, I would just go and buy another device, but there is no single device that has everything I want and if I go to a brand other than HP, I will have to replace all my accessories and that's going to cost big $$. So, here is what I plan to do: I am going to perform an intentional hard reset on the 5455 and hopefully eliminate the immediate battery discharge problem. I have also ordered two spare batteries from Mobile Planet and am having them sent Fed Ex priority so I will have them tomorrow morning. If I can't restore from my most recent backup and have a stable device for at least a couple of days OR I can't resolve the battery discharge issue, I am going to bite the bullet and buy a new device. Right now I am leaning toward a Dell Axim X50v because of the fast processor, etc. Does this make sense? Am I nuts for trying to salvage the 5455? My only reason for doing so at this point is to keep it limping along until I find a device that has everything I want (see above).

[Dave Beauvais]

... Am I nuts for trying to salvage the 5455? My only reason for doing so at this point is to keep it limping along until I find a device that has everything I want (see above).
You're not nuts for that, but you're nuts for buying two batteries from Mobile Planet for a device you may not be using for much longer. Just kidding. Mostly. :lol:

The only thing that concerned me when I bought my hx4700 was that it had only 64 MB RAM. However, after some discussion here, I decided to use the large 80+ MB file store for program installation and currently have 45 MB dedicated to program memory. My only complaint remains the touchpad; I think it was just a bad idea.

The X50v is a pretty sweet little machine. Nice VGA display, fast CPU, and with the recent ROM update A02, it seems to perform even faster. Same RAM configuration as the hx4700, and also has a large file store that can be used for software installs. I think rather then spending money on life support equipment for your h5455, put the money toward the purchase of a new device. That's my ten cents. (Two cents just doesn't buy much these days.)

[piperpilot]

UPDATE: Well, all this talk of replacing my little friend must have had its ears burning because when I got home from work on Monday, I found it on with the battery fully charged. I switched out the battery with one of the two spares that I had thrown away because they had been instantaneously drained, and in about 45 minutes, it went from completely drained to completely charged. I then switched out that battery for the last spare and again left it for about 45 minutes with the same result: the dead battery came back to life. More importantly, the device seems to be operating normally and I haven't had a spontaneous hard reset since Sunday. I just don't get it. Now with the two extra batteries that I bought from Mobile Planet, I have 5 batteries for the device. That's pretty excessive, I know, but they will come in handy during my frequent week-long backpacking trips. Now I won't have to be so miserly about energy consumption in the back country :wink:

[Dave Beauvais]

Okay, that's just weird. Definitely let us know if it starts acting up again.

[piperpilot]

Yes, and about an hour after I posted that update, the device the device suddenly seized up during a sync with PocketQuicken. I removed the device from the cradle and performed a soft reset, which resulted in a hard reset instead. I was able to restore from a backup but I can't keep dealing with hard resets every couple of days, so I have made arrangements to send it in to Pocket PC Techs for some diagnostic tests to see what's wrong with it. I think the sync port is broken. This would be the third broken sync port for this device, but I don't think that's what's causing the hard resets. We shall see. This is a good week to send it in for repair because I won't be using it much this weekend--I will be watching the Super Bowl and hoping for a third Patriot's victory!

[ghostppc]

I have had the same exact problem with my 5455 and after fresh installs, or backups, the problem persisted. I would stop all processes, and yet after I turned it off, the next day when I'd go to turn it on, it was completely depleted of juice and went back to factory settings. But after removing the new version of Avantgo from my pda, it hasn't done that anymore. So my Ipaq will just have to be Avantgo deprived :cry:

[piperpilot]

Yeah, I ditched the new Avantgo a long time ago because it wreaked havoc with my device and I wasn't really using the service anyway.