VisorCentral.com - Fatal error and HotSync problem

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VisorCentral.com (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/index.php)
- How To / Troubleshooting (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=2)
-- Fatal error and HotSync problem (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=3120)

Posted by 3D on 08-09-2000 09:22 AM:

I have a Visor Deluxe, which I USB sync with Win2000/Win98 (usually Win98 tho').
I installed the OS patch a few weeks ago.

Anyway, while working with the Visor a couple of days ago, it suddenly reported a fatal error (while running Launcher 1.5.2 of all things!), and froze.

I tried warm and soft-resetting it, but nothing. A soft reset only resulted in the startup Palm OS screen with a small, blinking square in upper-left corner.
It didn't go on from there.
Does anyone know what the blinking square means?

Finally I decided to do a hard reset, as I had synced the night before and thought I'd only loose a couple of appointments I had added since.

I did a hotsync after setting the System conduit to desktop overwrite handheld.

But...I did definitely not get my Visor back into it's previous state.
Applications were missing and and in some cases application which I had installed and later deleted were present in the system again???? I lost all my Address records, while DateBook+'s records were intact etc?

Does anyone know what's going on here?
Is there anything I can do at this point to reverse some of the damage?

Posted by potter on 08-09-2000 02:26 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by 3D:
Does anyone know what the blinking square means?

The blinking square means that there was a fault during boot and the device has dropped into debug mode. There are some developers' tools that one can then use through the HotSync port to figure out what is going on. I have not actually every done this, so I can not give any details.

quote:
But...I did definitely not get my Visor back into it's previous state.
Applications were missing and in some cases application which I had installed and later deleted were present in the system again????

When the HotSync manager senses that one is restoring a device, it installs everything that is in the Backup directory. The problem is the Backup conduit has not been doing a good job of managing that directory. The Backup conduit is run on any database on the device for which there is not a specific conduit and the backup bit is set.

The applications going missing is because most applications are distributed with the backup bit set off, and thus the backup conduit does not make a copy of it in the Backup directory.

The applications that were delete reappearing is because the backup conduit distributed by Handspring does not manage removing files from the Backup directory when they are deleted from the device. The latest backup conduit distributed by Palm does. It does sense which databases are deleted from the device, and will move the corresponding file in the Backup directory to the new Archive directory. I wish Handspring would update their Hotsync manager to use the latest backup conduit.

Solutions to solve these problems: There are various freeware and shareware tools out there to help with these two problems. Some help to set the backup bit on all device databases and others that are a replacement to the backup conduit. I cannot comment further, for I do not use any of them. I do use Palms Hotsync Manager at work, were I sync through the serial port. At home I use Handspring's, where I sync through the USB.

quote:
I lost all my Address records, while DateBook+'s records were intact etc?

How odd.

quote:
Is there anything I can do at this point to reverse some of the damage?

As far as the application mess, spend some time reinstalling the missing application PRCs and some time in the delete dialog box deleting all the extra applications and other databases that you no longer need. As far as the address book, if you are using the Palm Desktop the following might get back some of the lost entries. However, t will also restore some entries that you deleted long ago. In the Palm Desktop, select the address book, and then do a File/Import... From there navigate to your address directory, there you may find a bunch of ABA files. Import each of them one at a time. Then use the Palm Desktop to clean up the extra entries, then Hotsync to get them on your Palm. I do not have much faith that this will restore much, but it might give you something.

Posted by Winchell on 08-10-2000 03:02 PM:

I believe that the Palm Desktop software will not re-install programs that you have added.
For that, there are programs like BackupBuddy.

But from your description, you had a major problem with your Visor, and you probably would have lost information anyway.

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