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- How To / Troubleshooting (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=2)
-- Hot Sync Major Problem (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=2621)

For the entire first 4 months that I've had my Visor Deluxe I have had no problems at all whether I hotsynced once a day or 5 times a day. Just push the button on the cradle and that was it. For the last 4 days I have not been able to hot sync. I have not changed anything in setup. I use the Visor with Win '95 and a serial cradle. When I push the button to sync, I get the screen on the desktop that says identifying user. In the past my name used to come up there and the sync would continue normally. Now, I get to the identifying user page and nothing happens and then the sync is interrupted and disconnects. Am I not being recognized for some reason? Can anyone help? I've loved this Visor up until this past week and now I'm pulling my hair out! One additional fact to mention, I downloaded AvantGo a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty cool and synced fine until this whole problem began. Could AvantGo be the problem? I've done numerous soft resets and they don't work. I've also cleaned the foil on the Visor and the cradle with a pencil eraser as the user manual suggests but no success.
Please help.
Thanks!

You might try uninstalling and then re-installing the desktop software.

If you try it, make sure you uninstall first, don't just delete the software.

Start/Settings/Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs.

Dave

As a follow-up to my initial problem, it now seems the visor is not even making the connection or recognizing the desktop. I push the button on the cradle, wait forever and then I get the window that says: "The connection between your handheld computer and the desktop could not be established. Please check set up and try again."

Believe me, I've checked everything and tried everything. No success.

Sounds like it might be a serial cradle gone bad. There have been several reports of this happening.

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MarkEagle - Ice is nice!

You might also try doing a soft reset on the Visor. My unit forgets how to hotsync with my USB cradle (never had any problems with the serial unit @ work) and a soft reset seems to cure it. Don't ask me why...

I would also suggest the soft reset. My USB cradle sometimes does this. My serial cradle
at work has not so far.

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After about two weeks of 100% performance hot-syncing my Deluxe and a Solo once or more daily, the Deluxe failed to communicate on a second hot-sync within an hour. Interestingly, the Solo would still hot-sync repeatedly. A soft reset cured the Deluxe.

With two Visors, I was able to rule out cradle problems, so my advice would be to not jump to a conclusion regarding the cradle.

I think the fellow said soft resets did not work for him.

When this happend to me, last week, I unplugged the USB cradle (while the computer is on) and then shut the computer down. I turned it back on and then pluged the usb cradle back in with the Visor in the cradle. It said "new hardware found" and after that it has synched fine.

Try it, what have you got to loose?

OOOPPSSSS MANY APPOLOGIES, Didn't realize you were working with a serial cable. I should try reading a bit more closely. Well maybe this will work for someone with a USB cradle.

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oh well, nothing ever changes, does it?

[This message has been edited by grumpy ol' man (edited 03-24-2000).]

[This message has been edited by grumpy ol' man (edited 03-24-2000).]

patlawman

Have you loaded DST Panel and/or Daylight Savings Hack? When I loaded DST Panel, my Hotsync manager wouldn't come on. After I deleted it, everything went back to normal. Check for software incompatibility first.

I am the original poster. I thank all you your for your suggested attempts to help. None, however, have helped. Despite what I wrote in my original post, the suggestion of soft resets has not solved the problem and no, I have not loaded any Hacks on to my Visor. I don't even know what a hack is. As I stated originally, the only thing I have loaded on to my Visor is AvantGo. Anyone else have any other suggestions for helping me solve my SERIAL cradle hot sync problem?
Thanks!!

patlawman,

Delete Avantgo!!! It is a known culprit that causes hotsync problems. See http://www.visorcentral.com/silindex.php3 for incompatibility list. Also search "Avantgo" on this forum for the past discussions. Do let us know whether it helps.

???

I have the _exact_ same problem. Serial cable, always was fine, then it stopped. I use linux as well as windows however, so I can safely say that it isn't on the computer side. I have also done a soft reset, as well as deleted avantgo.

Someone above mentioned that some of the serial cradles are bad. How do I test this? Why would handspring make such crappy serial cradles that die so easily?

Again, I'm the original poster. I've followed all the suggestions. I've uninstalled AvantGo, performed soft resets, no Hacks on the Visor, checked Hot Sync manager, checked port connetion. Still not able to hot sync. Last resort, I believe the serial cradle is in fact broken and I'm going to contact Handspring and see if they can replace my serial cradle.
Thanks everyone.

Received a new serial cradle from Handspring and am now able to Hot Sync for the first time in 2 weeks. The problem was clearly in the cradle. Handspring was very professional in handling my problem. Thanks to everyone here for all the helpful suggestions.

I had the same problem- a hot sync that didn't work quite right then it wouldn't connect at all. i called tech support and he had me delete something on the registry under USB driver (?) then do a soft reset and it worked. He said I might have touched the connector on the visor where it connects to the cradle and a chip in the visor creates problems when this happens.

I also had the serial cradle problem. I have had the serial cradle replaced, TWICE. Both times it didn't work for me.

Although Handspring is very professional regarding this matter, it also seems that some of them are not synched with what was going on.

I have tested my serial cradle on 3 different computers, one of which is a barebone, so we can rule out the possibility that other applications are interfering with the cradle.

I have also tested my serial cradle on Windows NT 4. No luck either.

I have hotsynched with Avantgo using the serial device in the past.

If the problem is that you can't even get the desktop to recognize your Visor, then I've got something that somehow got missed in this thread . . .

One tactic that can help with serial cradles is to reduce the HotSync speed setting all the way down to 9600 (bps), and see if that works. If it does, don't panic. In a few days you can try a higher speed setting. Eventually you'll be back to full speed. I've gone through this cycle several times now.

I've had to throttle my sync speeds for most of this week because of the low humidity (today we were at 12%). I'll leave it here until the weather changes. In my experience that is when the the humidity gets back up above 30% - 40%. I am increasingly confident that this is an issue, but I'm not close to proving anything. I'd be interested to know if others have noticed the same thing . . .