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-- Weird hardware fault? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=8406)

My Visor Deluxe has been crashing a lot lately. Soft resets have been required about twice daily, hard resets are required roughly weekly. Symptoms include the Fatal Error dialog, snow on the screen, and spontaneous looping resets that warm resets didn't cure. Once it even started trying to HotSync while it was out of the cradle, and kept trying to every time it timed out or I cancelled.

I don't run Hackmaster at all, and any software that crashes my Visor once is retested immediately, and discarded upon crashing twice. I've never run AfterBurner or anything like that, either.

I didn't worry about it too much, largely due to the weird HotSyncing I do. I sync at home and at work. At work I use Intellisync with Goldmine, at home I only use the PalmPilot Desktop software. I figured that may have had something to do with it. But I needed to hard reset it on Saturday, so I took the batteries out and decided to work on it Sunday morning.

After renaming my backup directory and all that good stuff, I HotSync'd it fresh without installing any of my old software. No apparent problem. I then installed one app (the AT&T Direct Access Number Finder, a plain-vanilla kind of app that's never given me any trouble), and it immediately did a Fatal Exception.

I'm running PalmOS 3.0.1H, and I don't have the 8Mb DRAM bug according to the testing software. Is this hardware? Am I missing anything?

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Michael A. Atkinson
<[email protected]>

Completely remove AT&T Direct Access Number Finder, and try installing another app. See if it too causes problems. If so, I'd figure that it is hardware related. If not, then you may have found your problem.

This problem has been going on consistently since before I had installed the AT&T Direct Access Number Finder app.

I'll delete it and see if that makes a difference. I'd have a lot of trouble believing that it could be the culprit.

In fact, a few minutes after the first version of this message went out and I'd deleted the AT&T app and HotSynced, my Visor started spontaneously going into a HotSync loop. It was off and nothing should have been running.


Mike

[Edited by chaos on 10-02-2000 at 08:40 PM]

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Michael A. Atkinson
<[email protected]>

I see your point. There is one thing that I forgot. Do you use dbScan? If not, you can download this freeware app from Pimlico Software - http://www.gorilla-haven.org/pimlico Once you've installed dbScan, launch dbScan, and press the "Clean up ShortCuts" button. Yes. Your "battery out of Visor" ploy should have fixed this, but just in case . . . Anyway, if this doesn't work, I'm stumped. You should probably contact Handspring, and see what they suggest.

I've been using dbScan. No changes in behavior.

Handspring informs me that I should recieve my replacement unit by the end of the week. Thanks much for the input.


Mike

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Michael A. Atkinson
<[email protected]>

I called Handspring on Sunday and had my new unit on Tuesday. That's excellent. The first time I had to get a warranty replacement (the digitizer stopped working) it took more than a week to get a ship date.

The new unit does not crash.

It has, however, done something very weird indeed. Tuesday, Wednesday and last night it started spontaneously trying to HotSync. When cancelled or timed out, it would immediately try again and wouldn't stop until I pinned it.

It did this at about 8:00p each time.

What's that about?


Mike

__________________
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Michael A. Atkinson
<[email protected]>