unreliability of my ppc

[JesterMania]

Since I've gotten my PPC almost half a year ago, it's been functioning great but not exactly as great as I'd hoped. Unless I soft reset the thing at least once a day, my software seems to slow down and freeze the OS if I don't soft reset it in the morning before use. Another case is one day, I found that all my SD card contents got totally wiped out and I have no clue why that happened. But it doesn't end there...what really drove me to write this topic was this morning when I turned on my ppc to look at my exam schedule to find the location of my exam and to my dismay, my entire calendar with my entire schedule seemed to have been wiped clean! 8O I took a look back a few months and saw an indication of one obscure event somewhere (didn't bother to check what it was).

Now, if I hadn't a mirror of the data in Outlook it would have been a major pain. This drove me to think, just how reliable are these devices? It's not the fact that I lose data (I keep everything backed up so that's the least of my troubles) but what would have happened if I was away on a business trip, and my contact list and calendar information with my schedule, meeting times, etc. ended up being totally wiped out?

I keep my ppc around so I don't need hard copies of all my stuff, but with this unreliability it could very well cost me my exam, or worse (maybe a job). I'm interested to know, does anyone else experience these sorts of problems? Is this an indication that something in my device is failing?

[burtcom]

I now have an HP iPaq WM2003 device -- previously I had an HP Jornada 640.

The Jornada was rock-solid.

The WM2003 has to be reset every morning when it has the SD card plugged in -- if I don't then I run a real risk of corrupting the card.

For some reason, when this device does it's midnight update, it gets confused about the SD card. Apps that are on it won't run, and any attempt to write to the card will likely corrupt it.

This doesn't happen with the iPaq File Store -- only the SD card. I've tried it with two 1GB cards and both have behaved this way.

Doing a soft reset first thing in the morning makes it usable. It would probably also work if I removed the card before midnight then replaced it in the morning.

I'd like to know what it is about the midnight update procedure that does this :-)

[Menneisyys]

I now have an HP iPaq WM2003 device -- previously I had an HP Jornada 640.

The Jornada was rock-solid.

The WM2003 has to be reset every morning when it has the SD card plugged in -- if I don't then I run a real risk of corrupting the card.

For some reason, when this device does it's midnight update, it gets confused about the SD card. Apps that are on it won't run, and any attempt to write to the card will likely corrupt it.

This doesn't happen with the iPaq File Store -- only the SD card. I've tried it with two 1GB cards and both have behaved this way.

Doing a soft reset first thing in the morning makes it usable. It would probably also work if I removed the card before midnight then replaced it in the morning.

I'd like to know what it is about the midnight update procedure that does this :-)

That's very uncommon and is definitely the fault of the memory card. What memory card is that? A-DATA?

Also, did you try using another file system on it as described at http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17921 ? Did you try modifying the PNPUnloadDelay as described at http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44488 ?

[r@dimus]

First a HP Jornada 560, then a HP iPaq 4150, and now a Dell Axim X51v. No major problems with any of them, except for the 560. On that one I used it without a screen protector and wore out the touchscreen. Learned my lesson.

I would say try using your PPC without the memory card and see how things go. If that doesn't change things then do a hard reset and see how life is without installing any extra apps.

[JesterMania]

Hmm...maybe I'll do a hard reset and try to run it with the bare minimal of software.

[Patrick Y.]

99% of problems comes from third-party softwares. What's your device? x51v?

[r@dimus]

Speaking of which, what 3rd party stuff was installed when it was acting up.

[JesterMania]

My device is an iPAQ hx2790 (pretty similar to the x51v). I have these installed so far:

WisBar Advance 2
WisBar Advance Desktop
Adobe Acrobat Reader for PocketPC 2.0
Skype
Snes9xJ4u
PocketNES
TomeRaider 3
EBReader
Tweaks2k2.NET
e-China
Monster SIP
Bagoj IME
Resco Explorer 2005
Resco Photo Viewer
WebIS Pocket Informant
SPB Pocket Plus
PPCLINK Lexisgoo English Dictionary
SoftMaker TextMaker
The Core Pocket Media Player
Macromedia Flash Player 7

[Menneisyys]

My device is an iPAQ hx2790 (pretty similar to the x51v). I have these installed so far:

PocketNES


BTW, I'd recommend PocketNester instead - it's generally better IMHO.

[r@dimus]

Yeah, Jester, I could see one or more of those apps giving you grief. When you start putting them back on after the hard reset go a few days between installs to see how things go. You might also want to find a good diag app and run a battery of tests after the hard reset too.

[JesterMania]

Alright, thanks guys. I was sort of suspecting a software conflict myself. I think I'll do a hard reset and install the bare minimal and see how it goes.

EDIT: By the way, a thought just occurred to me. How much free space is good enough for a ppc to function properly. I currently have 1.35MB free space in my ipaq filestore. Is that usually enough? I know if the free space gets too low, WM warns me and freezes up usually.

[r@dimus]

Alright, thanks guys. I was sort of suspecting a software conflict myself. I think I'll do a hard reset and install the bare minimal and see how it goes.

EDIT: By the way, a thought just occurred to me. How much free space is good enough for a ppc to function properly. I currently have 1.35MB free space in my ipaq filestore. Is that usually enough? I know if the free space gets too low, WM warns me and freezes up usually.

Yes, being low on memory can cause all kinds of problems. Filling up the ROM on a WM5 PPC is similar to filling up the hard drive on your PC. Windows, regular or pocket, goes into fits because there's no place to store temporary files and such.

[roeland]

Yes, being low on memory can cause all kinds of problems. Filling up the ROM on a WM5 PPC is similar to filling up the hard drive on your PC. Windows, regular or pocket, goes into fits because there's no place to store temporary files and such.


basically, the problem of windows (either on your desktop, server or your PPC) is in this case that garbage collection is not implemented.

I always find it ridiculous that y'all seem to rest the case by knowing that 99% of the problems is caused by the 3rd party tools.

to me it's clear, owning an hw6515d, that the operating system just isn't right.
you can support it by changing your device from 1.04 with all your applications to 1.12, to 1.21

you will see a non-useable system (1.04, crashing several times a day), useable but not for long (1.12, once, ttwice a day crash) to 1.21 which leaves the device on for a few days before it goes bezerk.

I don't get it. MSFT should be pressed hard to write better code for a start.

[r@dimus]

basically, the problem of windows (either on your desktop, server or your PPC) is in this case that garbage collection is not implemented.

I always find it ridiculous that y'all seem to rest the case by knowing that 99% of the problems is caused by the 3rd party tools.

Because third party software is a good place to start. If you're going to call support about the problem you need to make sure nothing you installed is the issue. Who said this case was rested, anyway?


to me it's clear, owning an hw6515d, that the operating system just isn't right.
you can support it by changing your device from 1.04 with all your applications to 1.12, to 1.21

you will see a non-useable system (1.04, crashing several times a day), useable but not for long (1.12, once, ttwice a day crash) to 1.21 which leaves the device on for a few days before it goes bezerk.

I don't get it. MSFT should be pressed hard to write better code for a start.

Your example sounds more like HP's problem than Mirosofts.

[Phillip Dyson]

My device is an iPAQ hx2790 (pretty similar to the x51v). I have these installed so far:

WisBar Advance 2
WisBar Advance Desktop

-{snip}-
Monster SIP

-{snip}-
SPB Pocket Plus


Just keep in mind that a lot of plugins and SIPs can effect the performance of your device. And that subseqently can cause usual behavior.

[burtcom]

The WM2003 has to be reset every morning when it has the SD card plugged in -- if I don't then I run a real risk of corrupting the card.

[snip]

I'd like to know what it is about the midnight update procedure that does this :-)

It appears this may be one of my SPBSoftwareHouse apps messing things up by running on the storage card instead of main memory.

I relocated all my SPB apps to the main memory and the device survived the midnight update without problem.

Now to figure out which one...

[Pocketjumper]

My old Toshiba e830 was a complete nightmare in terms of reliability. It died on me 4 times in a few months, which required the unit to be sent back to Toshiba for repairs (they swapped out the mainboard who knows how many times) and it died again when it was out of warranty. It now works (after being placed in storage for a few months, and a repair job by a technician), but I am adverse to go back and use it, after I switched back, so I may put the unit up for sale just to get it off my hands.

On the bright side, my Dell Axim x51 is completely reliable, except for the nagging issues of hanging during accessing my 1GB CF card, and the issues with Windows Media 10 Mobile messing up with the library.

Then again, I should have learnt to suspect shoddy worksmanship on the part of Toshiba as I am a computer technician, and over the years, I have seen a disproportionate amount of Toshiba laptops comming in for repairs than any other laptop model.

[Phillip Dyson]

My old Toshiba e830 was a complete nightmare in terms of reliability.

Sorry to hear that. I've heard other e830 stories in other forums as well. I was certainly one of the lucky ones. I've never had a problem that I couldn't trace back to software of some kind.

In fact my only issue is I wish it had the widcomm bluetooth stack. Oh and maybe the graphics accelerator.