Not shutting down properly

[LaurenG212]

Recently I've been having issues with my PPC shutting down. When I hit the shut down button on the top the screen goes blank but still goes, and in turn wastes battery. When I plug it in at night it stays in the case, so when I pull it off the plug in the AM to take it with me I don't realize that the screen is still glowing so when I go to use it later on it's already dead!

Any solutions? Anyone else had/having this issue?

[npatang]

Ya I have
This is a suggestion
Take the back up of your data and then do the hard reset on your device.
After that if it works that is fine if not contact OEM i think hardware issue .

[Janak Parekh]

The hard reset will most likely correct the problem, but before you do that, did you try a soft-reset?

It's possible there's an application that you have installed that's interfering with the turn-off process.

--janak

[LaurenG212]

how do I do a hard reset?

[Darius Wey]

how do I do a hard reset?

It depends on the model you have. In most cases, it requires a press of the power button and the soft reset button simultaneously. You may have to hold it for a few seconds.

[LaurenG212]

and what does hard reset do?

[Janak Parekh]

and what does hard reset do?
It erases your Pocket PC and returns it to factory condition. It's generally a last resort for problems which seem unsolvable.

--janak

[LaurenG212]

ha! good thing i didn't just do that!!

[Janak Parekh]

ha! good thing i didn't just do that!!
Yes. ;) For your sake, I hope you regularly sync, just in case the battery dies one day, which can cause a similar effect.

Just to clarify -- there are two kinds of "reboot" operations in Windows Mobile.

1. A soft reset is like rebooting your desktop PC. It clears out the RAM portion and restarts the OS. Any running programs are closed, but the storage portion is not removed. This is useful when a program gets "stuck"/crashed in some fashion, or if you need to reboot as part of an install. The only data lost might be an open record inside a program (i.e., data is generally not lost), but it doesn't solve every problem.

2. A hard reset is more like reinstalling your desktop PC. After a hard reset, only the built-in applications remain; any custom apps and all data are removed. It's useful when you want to do a reinstall to clean things up (for example, if a problem is difficult to debug), or if you want to give your Pocket PC to someone else. Accordingly, the physical mechanism for a hard reset is considerably more difficult.

--janak

[LaurenG212]

thank you very much

[Janak Parekh]

thank you very much
You're welcome. Did you solve the turn-off problem?

--janak

[LaurenG212]

haha no. i may just un-install some programs. maybe do a hard reset but make sure everything is synced and i have all the setup.exe files before i do it.

[Janak Parekh]

haha no. i may just un-install some programs. maybe do a hard reset but make sure everything is synced and i have all the setup.exe files before i do it.
Right, that's what many people do when they decide to reinstall. (I assume the soft reset didn't work.) If you do the hard reset, install each program one at a time and carefully monitor your device -- it's possible a bug inside a program can cause the problem. Also, I like to revisit each of the vendor's websites to see if they've updated their program before reinstalling the programs.

One last tip: you don't need the setup.exe files to reinstall most programs. When you add programs using ActiveSync, it "keeps" them in the ActiveSync program folder for easy reinstall. You can dock your Pocket PC and go to Tools => Add/Remove Programs on ActiveSync on the desktop, and you'll see a list of all the applications installed there. After a hard reset, they'll all be there, just unchecked. You can check them, click OK, and the same version'll be reinstalled. (Of course, you may not want to do that if a new version comes out.)

--janak

[LaurenG212]

right, ok i gotcha. i'll do it probably early sometime next week when i have time. busy weekend ahead. thanks for all the info!!! :)

[Hrun]

Before you wipe everything, can I just put a silly suggestion forward.

Are you sure that you are not holding the power button down for too long when you power off as all this will do is turn of the backlight?

Also when you disconnect from AC power I do not think the PDA will power off automatically. If you set the PDA to turn of after x mins of inactivity this would stop it discharging when you forget to turn it off.

Just a thought

Giles

[yankeejeep]

Stupid suggestion, I know, since you are probably aware of this already. If you hold the power button in, it simply turns the backlight off and it will most likely appear to you that the PPC is off since your display will probably be too dark to see even though it is still on. Make sure that you quickly click the power button to turn the device off. While this will use less power than running with the backlight on, it will still burn through your battery power since everything else on the device will still be running.

This is common across all PPC devices.

[npatang]

Thanks for helping Janank . Actually I never available on weekends. I think now it is clear what is soft reset and hard reset !!!!!!!

Npatang

[Janak Parekh]

Before you wipe everything, can I just put a silly suggestion forward.
Actually, it's not a silly suggestion. It's one of those things I never think of, yet is the most likely cause. Let's hope she reads it in time... ;)

--janak

[Patrick Y.]

Maybe you should try SafeMode 1.01. If the problem stopped while the Pocket PC is running in safemode, you can be sure that some program is causing the problem. Anyway, I may be wrong. :wink:

Just a thought

[LaurenG212]

no i'm definitely pressing power off hard enough. it's not that it's just turning the back light off. it's that everything turns off EXCEPT for the backlight. does that make sense? there's nothing ON the screen except for a soft glow and the blue tooth and wireless lights are still flashing.

i'm about to go do a hard reset after i sync and charge up...

wish me luck! :)

[LaurenG212]

oh yeah - forgot to mention. sometimes when i hit the power button to turn it on it simply won't turn on. so i have to take it out of the case and press that button on the side which "reboots" it i guess. and then it works. and no it's not just when the power has run down haha ;)

[LaurenG212]

reboot complete. :) working well so far. :)

one time it did not close properly. like where i hit the top button and the screen stays lit up. anyone else have that issue?