Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 32

About 3/4 of the time, when I shutdown or power off my YadaYada Minstrel modem, I get a Fatal Exception error and have to restart.

I called 1800-yadayada and pressed 3 for tech support. The guy who answered said to call 1-888-923-2923 to talk to Minstrel since it's their modem and their problem.

I did this without really thinking about the number and got YadaYada's customer support. 923-2923 is yadayada! The woman who answered was nice, but admitted she was clueless. She had tech support call me within 45 minutes.

The guy who called back was good. He talked me through changing the network settings and that appears to solve the Fatal Exception, and it looks like I'm getting a stronger signal, too.

The fix involves entering my primary and secondary dns numbers as well as modifying the network script to (DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT CALLING YADAYADA!!):
delay: 1
send: ATE0V0
send cr
send: AT\\APPP
send cr
wait for: 1
end

You need YadaYada to give you your dns numbers.

Brad

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 32

Now that I've played around with the modem for a while with the above changes, I have had some Fatal Exceptions. I'm not convinced that the changes solve the problem.

Anyone else have some suggestions?

Brad

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

If the Minstrel uses the same Hayes AT command set as normal modems, those commands don't do a lot, E0 is to shut off local echo, V0 is to turn on numeric responses instead of text. AT\\APPP seems to put the modem in PPP mode.

I've noticed if you have a poor connection it can cause your Visor to hang until modem is ready to release control. The poor connection has caused mine to have fatal crashes (from hanging). This could also cause other errors too. I think a poor connection has a lot to do with crashing.

I have found that if I go out the app launcher (the default Palm one not the YADAYADA one), go to the power switch program, turn the modem off, then go back to the launcher I have less problems. Also, I set my auto turn off to ON. So it shuts down when I turn my Visor off. I seem to be getting less problems now.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 231

quote:

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The poor connection has caused mine to have fatal crashes (from hanging). This could also cause other errors
too. I think a poor connection has a lot to do with crashing.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 49

Fix For YadaYada Shutdown Fatal Exception

Some time ago, someone at Yada tech support gave me an explanation why my Prism hangs very often when I insert or remove the Minstrel. He said that it had something to do with the fact that it is due to a conflict not with hacks, but with the Hackmaster application itself. He said that Hackmaster is "an Autorun program", as are some of the apps installed from the Minstrel's flash memory. Evidentally after a reset, the apps on the Minstrel "fight" with Hackmaster over which app autoruns first, resulting in a crash.

This might also explain why I get occasional similar problems when inserting/removing the Backup Springboard module as well.

No flames please, I'm just repeating what I was told.

Hope this helps!

-cnegrad

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are great, the rewards subtle."
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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

I'm not running hackmaster and I still get crashes. What I meant by a good signal was a locked - nonblinking signal. When my modem has problem keeping the connection, thats when I have problems (regardless of RSSI signal strength). {I'm posting this via my Minstrel !}

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 276

This error (Fatal Exception) seems to happen to a lot of people thanks to constantly searching through the message board. I believe it has more to do with the monstrel or yada yada than the PDA. Look at this, none of us have the exact same setup with software but we are encountering an error. I mean, I deleted all my other browsers and my VDX gets fatal exceptions almost everytime when I disconnect. Isn't it true that YadaYada burns the software into the ROM and therefore you have nothing else but their software with their settings on the minstrel? Wouldn't you think that we all have this in common, the software in ROM that is. I don't think they have an answer... I have called about 10 times or so just trying out different techs. I think they just don't want to hand out minstrels with 2mb of free space and the possibility of not using their software or their proxy. Corporate strategy, but I hope that doesn't get taken for conspiracy (god forbid, that would be a discussion a mile long). I would like to RMA my modem with one that has no software on it... I believe that would be the first step in solving this issue...

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what?<br>

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

I think I have it down to a few possible things:

1. Poor connection, If you don't have a good lock you are just asking for trouble.. Allot of my crashes have been when the Minstrel is "seeking" a connection, it apparently goes off into la-la land, leaves my Prism hung, apparently Palm OS will queue up digitizer/button presses, so when the Minstrel (or the IP stack in the OS) finally releases the GUI all those actions blurt out causing the crash.

2. Some websites seem to use "funky" html, I have had a few crashes from certain websites with Blazer.. I think the web page render proxy server makes a mistake and sends back junk to your palm.. again causing a crash.

3. Insufficient free memory/space.. This caused the most problems for me. I finally resolved the problem by deleting a few old programs (i.e. solitaire etc..) I believe the Palm web browsers need "scratch" space to work, above and beyond the "cache" requirements. I try to keep atleast a 1 MB free. So far I've had very few crashes.

4. Removing the minstrel when a "modem" related program is running. I think this is true for any springboard. I try now to go to the "default Palm OS" launcher before I remove or insert a springboard.

5. Making YADA YADA's launcher the default launcher. Since I went back to the regular Palm OS launcher I've had very few crashes (just one so far see #2 above)

These have been my observations so far.. I'd like to hear back from others what they have noticed.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 276

anyone completely solve this yet?

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what?<br>

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 32

quote:

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Originally posted by timmins
anyone completely solve this yet?

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

No crashes yet as I have been sticking to the 5 points I outlined a few messages back.. Also been testing afterburner 3.0t (Prism supported version), seems to REALLY speed up PQA's, Blazer, PalmScape and Avantgo.. I haven't done any timing tests yet but I like what I see so far.. I still feel the quality of your current connection has a lot to do with stability. For the record I am also using a modified cell phone replacement antenna (5 1/2 inches) on my minstrel. It seems to improve things a great deal (in my case anyway as I can not even connect with the normal stub antenna at my apartment). Loosing the connection when you are downloading a web page also seems to be an issue. I have noticed on the YADA BROWSER some website with very large list boxes (i.e. pick a city) will crash YADA BROWSER. YADA browser seems the least stable of the crop. On occasion I have had to delete Blazer and the cache database to get it working again. Once in a great while, after a hard reset, I have to go into the Network Prefs and just review the settings to get the modem to work again (got that tip from someone else here on VC)

My HS backup module has paid for itself at this point! I'm very happy to have it! I've been spared lot's of aggravation, the HS Backup Module really should have got the "Module of the Year" award..

[Edited by EricG on 01-19-2001 at 12:19 PM]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 97

There was a Visor Central news item on this subject last month: "Tips for Module Errors." Since I started following this advice, I've virtually eliminated any crashes when removing and installing my Minstrel S. The basic issue is to turn off any module-related programs before you remove it. Here's the URL:

http://www.visorcentral.com/page/0-2-746-2.htm

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 72

Mine was solved by having a replacement sent by Novatel [via YadaYada]. Before it crashed just about every other shutdown, now not at all. The old one had the Yada software, but the new one has Eudora and EudoraWeb 1.1 [which will render version 2.0 useless... until they get a fix or workaround].

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 97

I downloaded version 2.0 of the Eudora package, and use that instead of the version 1 that came with the Yada Yada minstrel. Version 2 lets you access multiple e-mail accounts.