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-- can't serial hotsync anymore (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=17328)

can't serial hotsync anymore

For the last year or so, I've been using IR to sync my Visor. I wanted to switch back to serial, but I can't sync with serial for some reason.

It starts the hotsync process and then dies on the Visor side saying that the connection was lost. Then when I try to cancel on the PC side it says it will take up to a minute (but takes about 5!).

I can still sync my wife's Palm on my PC via serial with no problem.

I borrowed my friends Visor serial cradle (same result).

It's hard to track down the conflict since it's been many months since I've tried it.

I'm afraid to hard reset at this point, since I won't be able to load the IR drivers without the serial sync first.

Is Local Serial selected and properly setup in the HotSync manager on the desktop?

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God bless America, my home sweet home...

Yes. I've even tried lower speeds. Nothing helps. It never gets past the "identifying user" part on the Visor and the "Connecting with Handheld" on the PC.

Most of the time, but no always, I get the following message on the Visor when I try again.

"Unable to initiate HotSync because the serial port is in use by another application."

I have to soft reset to get this to go away.

What IR app are you using and is it still enabled? It's possible that the Visor's serial port is being captured by the IR software.

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God bless America, my home sweet home...

Workpadsync. It is disabled.

Try doing a soft-reset.

I have. Many times! No help.

Sounds like your Visor is establishing a connection to the PC, so the serial port and cradle are working. I'd check the baud rates on the PC (Control Panel), Hotsync Manager (right-click/Setup) and Visor (Preferences/Connection). Make sure they're all set to the same speed (115200 is nice and speedy).

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If you're using an external keyboard, try disabling the driver since they can also cause the serila port lockup on the Visor.

Also, try a warm reset to disable any hacks. Then attempt a sync... if that works then you have a software conflict somewhere.

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God bless America, my home sweet home...

I will check baud rates again when I have time (I have to reboot my laptop after changing a bunch of things to switch between IR and serial).

As to the keyboard, I do have one. I have disabled it and even deleted the keyboard driver.

No luck.

Wow, interesting. I've got the exact opposite problem on my VDX. I can sync with the serial cradle, but not with a USB cable. I had been using the cable for over a year until I bought a Prism. The other day my wife's IIIc died and I offered to let her use the Prism, hoping to convert her, and said I'd use my old VDX. (Actually I was kinda hoping she'd like it so much she'd want to keep it and that I would hang in with the VDX until a new model came out).

Anyway, I the serial cradle works but not the USB cable. Which is a drag not only for speed, but because Audible Advisor requires that You use USB. I spent literally the entire day trying every trick, download and reinstall I know (I had my VDX since Oct of '99) and nothing. Called tech support and after he tried half adozen things and then had me play around in Win 98 Registry, still nothing. Well, actually it was worse. I used to get the message like yours about identifying user, then close down, now it won't even do that. I'm waiting for a "senior" tech rep to call me back tomorrow.

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-Michael-