Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA
Posts: 36

I have had my visor for about three months now and have been synching fine though the serial port of my 68040 based mac. Yesterday I received my brand new G4, and whenever I try to synch (though USB) nothing happens. If anyone has any suggestions or insight I would be very thankful

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Read through the posts below...there's about 3 threads on the same issue.

So far, there is no definitive answer. I was hoping to go through them and consolodate the answers, but my Visor just died and I'm waiting for the replacement to test things out.

Here is the verdict so far:

OS 9 can cause the serial port monitor of Decktop (DT) 2.1h to crash after every hotsync.

To prevent the crash, upgrade to DT 2.5. Unfortunately, this only allows you one hotsync per session (you then need to restart the computer).

Upgrading OS 9 completely kills the hotsync process.

Here are the answers that I've seen: (both from this site and from Macfixit at http://www.macfixit.com/ultimate/Fo...TML/000326.html )

1) remove all items in your backup folder and try again OR remove the folder completely.

2) downgrade back to 2.1 h (haven't personally tried this) after upgrading to OS9.4

3) Turn file sharing off (apparently works for some people)

4) change the "transfer speed" on the DT and Visor to a slower speed.

5) in OS 9.4, there appears to be a conflict with the new SerialShimLib (1.4.1) and the Palm Connect USBSerialShim. KEEP the old SerialShinLib before installing OS9.4 to fix the problem.

4) Trash the "PowerPC Enabler 9.0.4" on your Mac.

5) Increasing the conduit manager memory to 10 Mb and remove the backup conduit

6) Apparently Palm thinks it has to do with the new USB drivers.

7)Go to hotsync setup.
Turn OFF hotsync ("disabled").
Switch to "Serial Port Setttings" panel.
Switch to _any_ other serial port connection. Switch _back_ to USB connection.
Switch back to "HotSync Controls" panel.
Turn ON hotsync ("enabled").

8) Here's a supposed official letter from apple:

Apple Reply:
In Mac OS 9.0.2, Mac OS 9.0.3 and Mac OS 9.0.4, Macintosh conduits that
relied on a HotSync function during prolonged synchronizations would often
fail. Most notably,the Meeting Maker and Microsoft Outlook Express conduits
are failing, but not in all circumstances.
In Palm's continued effort to offer the best user experience for Macintosh
users, Palm is currently testing a "patch" to improve HotSync operations
with the latest Mac OS 9.0.4 release. The "patch" will be posted soon on
Palm's website (www.palm.com). Stay tuned for a direct link to download the
update.

Damon
Apple Support Discussions

So...try some of those and see if it works. I'd love to hear an official response from either apple or palm or handspring. There appears to be little consistency between the problems, and it actually appears that there are multiple problems manifesting on different configurations of your Mac.

MY QUESTION: Going through these posts, I read that apparently the Backup Conduit DOES back up all of your data from third party applications. Does that mean I really don't need a backup program? I've always been under the imporssion that the Visor ONLY backs up items it has a conduit for, and therefore I've been looking at software to back everything up with.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA
Posts: 36

Thanks for the fast reply Homer, your info definately helped.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Please let me know which of the above solutions work for you.

Once my new visor gets here (still waiting...) I'll need to go through the entire bug-fixing process myself!

I'd love to hear from other Mac users as to which fix they've gotten to work.