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-- Problem with Hackmaster (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=623)

Has anybody had a problem using Hackmaster with the Visor. It has locked up my Visor three times now. I got a fatal error message. I could not do a soft or hard reset (nothing would happen). I had to remove the batteries for 45 minutes before the fatal error message went away. Last night my visor locked up again. I took the batteries out before I went to bed. This morning I put the baterries back in, did a hot sync to reload my data and the Visor locked up again with the same fatal error message! Any suggestions?

HackMaster appears to work just fine on my Visor. What hacks are you running? I currently run ten hacks but I have tended to avoid using any that have not been recently updated because I've seen compatibility issues with some old hacks and Palm OS 3.x --- i.e. not Visor-related.

Hackmaster itself works fine on my Visor, but certain Hacks really caused some problems. It looks like you're going to have to go through the pains to troubleshoot, by a process of elimination, which hack(s) are causing the problem.

If you upgraded from a Palm and transfered your info into your Visor, you have another consideration to make. After I did the upgrade, my Visor crashed continually. My solution was as follows:
1) Did a hard reset on my Visor
2) Made a complete backup of the backup directory in the Palm folder, and then totally cleaned out the original folder
3) Hotsynced the Visor, so that my crucial data (datebook, addresses, etc.) was in the Visor
4) Uninstalled Palm desktop*
5) Reinstalled Palm desktop*
6) Synced data from the Visor to the desktop
7) Reinstalled the software--from the original .zip files and .prc files that I had on storage.
8) Looked in the backup of the /Backup for the old .pdb databases for the apps just reinstalled, and used Install Tool to sync them to my Visor.

* Did these steps because I'm paranoid. I'm not sure if they're necessary, but they certainly didn't hurt.

I still had to go through several rounds of tests, which included repeated soft resetting, to make sure that I wasn't replicating the crashes that I experienced earlier. Lo and behold, my Visor was happy and stopped crashing.

You may have to try the steps above. It seems that the upgrade from Palm to Visor is not the smooth, pain-free transition that it was supposed to be.

I hope this helps. Let us know what happens.

I've had these problems and I isolated the it to a problem with DSHack. Sometimes it gives me the ol' fatal error kick, sometimes it just doesn't bother to change the time when I simulate a rollover. I have uninstalled DSHack and don't have any more problems with my 10 or so hacks, etc.

MJH <><

I've had my visor for just over 3 days and it's great. I've got four hacks installed (treksounds, lefthack, menuhack, and popcalc). I haven't had to reset due to hackmaster or the hacks themselves. I have had to soft reset due to trying to use IRSync+. It continually gives a fatal error. I just checked the website and they're coming out with a new version specifically for Visor so I suppose it's either a Visor prob or a PalmOS 3.1 prob. In any case, no hackmaster or hack problems here!

Mark

I've had problems with GreenLight Hack. The first time I used it, I tried to disable the hack to compare the reverse backlight and encountered numerous fatal errors. Hard resetting and restoring via Backup Buddy solved all my problems. But I've noticed that I really have to be careful with disabling hacks.

Thanks for the info. I was hoping it would be an easier fix. I only tried to install Hackmaster itself (no other hacks were installed)when the problem started.

Jon,
I've got hackmaster installed with Trek Sounds and Middle Caps Hack. No problems. Look for a file called Update 3.1.1 or similar program. Also, are you or were you using anything like backup buddy before you received your Visor?

If not, go grap a clean copy of Hackmaster at www.1stresource.com/~mistered/hackmstr.htm and try reinstalling.

I have had a problem with the Battery Monitor Hack. And that is on this webpage as a incompatible hack.

But my question is, what are some hacks that you all would recommend to us? I just got my Visor, and the only hack I use is MenuHack, very nice. Any suggestions?



------------------
Mark Neumann
[email protected]

Middle Caps Hack is great! It allows you to set the graffiti area to create capital letters without having to "shift". You can set it to read caps on the right, or left or across the dividing line between letters and numbers.

Star Trek Alarms hack is great. Changes the alarms to various Star Trek sounds such as incoming hail, red alert and more to numerous to name. I recommend these two and they definitely do not conflict with Visor.

Mike1in3,
There was a problem with DSHack (Daylight Savings Hack). If you look at http://www.visorcentral.com/visor/softwareerror.asp you will see a note that you need to install version 2.1.

Hacks that I recommend are GreenLightHack, HackDelete, SwitchHack, MiddleCapsHack, RunWrite.

I heard about the problems with HackMaster on the Visor, so I installed EVPlug Base on mine. It is supposedly compatible with all Hacks and much more stable. Any thoughts?

BTW, I currently only have Green Light Hack installed and it works fine.

where can one get the GreenLight Hack? Sounds interesting...


Mark Neumann
[email protected]

You can find most hacks, with ratings, here http://pda.tucows.com/palm/util_hacks.html

I had more crash problems (like every time!) with 2.1.1 than I had with 2.1! I disabled it and I have only had one problem, after I installed iSilo, but that is the only one. And I had repeated problems with 2.1 and 2.1.1 on DSHack. the thing is disabled now, no problems...

MJH <><

I also had problems with DSHack 2.1.1 and also with ScreenWrite. Do not recommend either of these.

[This message has been edited by 150pilot (edited 11-21-1999).]

I'm curious...are Palm III & V users experiencing the same Hackmaster problems? If not, are the problems do to the changes that Handspring made to the Palm OS?

The Daylight Savings Hack author says that it will not work with Palm OS 3.3. On the Visor, we're using 3.1x but because of the 3.3 incompatibility, I will no longer use it.

I have not used ScreenWrite so I cannot comment on that Hack's compatability.

In regard to Donsell's question about whether Palm users are experiencing the same problems, what problems are you referring to? There are some hacks that do not work on OS 3.x such as Daylight Savings Hack and HushHack but I have not seen anything written about hacks that work on OS 3.x on Palm devices and do not work on the Visor.

There is reportedly a problem with Battery Monitor on the Visor but the author has now released a patch for OS 3.1x i.e. for Palm and Handspring devices. Can we blame Handspring for these incompatibilities --- I don't think so.