Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 10

I came into work this AM and tired my usual AM hot sync. (FYI, I use NT4.0 with a serial cable at work) Nothing happened! My visor beeped and displayed the following "The connection between your handheld computer adn teh desktop could not be established. Please check your setup and try again".

I checked the hot sync icon in my system tray and noticed that both "Local USB" and "Local Serial" were checked. Since I'm using a serial cable, I though this was odd so I unchecked Local USB. When I tried to sync again the "HotSync Progress" dialog box popped up but my name did not appear next to user. About 30 seconds later the unit beeped and displayed the following message "The connection between your handheld computer and the desktop was lost. Some or you data was not backed up. Please check your setup and try again."

I tried to soft reset the handheld and rebooted the computer but I keep having the same problems.

What else can I check?

Thanks in advance.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 12

Greg --

I have been having the same problems. I thought I had a bunk Visor, but it turns out to be the cradle. I got a new cradle and it worked fine for a WEEK! And now I am having the same problem. (BTW - I am also running NT 4.0 and using a serial cradle). I changed batteries yesterday and got it to work, but today nada. I am beginning to think that the cradle is the most cheaply made unreliable product out there. This is not the first cradle to do this, but the SECOND!

Sorry, I didn't have a "real" answer, but at least I can empathize. Let me know if you resolve it.

~jimd

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Spokane, WA, USA
Posts: 114

If you find a solution, please let me know as well... I just started having problems syncing on my Win98 machine (USB) only after I've sunc at work on my WinNT 4.0 (Serial) machine. A soft reset makes it ok, but I didn't used to have any problems at all.

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Chazzz Fishburn
[email protected]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 10

I determined that my serial cradle was bad. Fortunately, I have two, one for home and one for work. I tired my home cradle on my work computer and it worked fine. Therefor, I've got a bum cradle. I called handspring Tech Support and someboday answered on the first ring. I told him that since I had two cradles, I was able to assume that one must be broken. This saved time as he didn't have to walk me through re-installing the software (which i had already tried). He took my info and sent me to customer service. I was on hold for about 5 minutes than a rep took my info and said they'd send me a new cradle. The whole process took less than 20 minutes. Pretty painless, actually. I was expecting much worse after hearing all the horror stories here. I have nothing but good things to say about Handspring, they've treated me fairly.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 62

Glad to give you the benefit of my experiences. Both good and bad.

I am running NT4.0 at the office and at home. Using the Serial cradle at both locations. I find that if the PC is running for a long time without being rebooted, it doesn't HotSynch. On my machine at work, I need to reboot generally every 3 or 4 days, or it won't hotsynch. When it fails, I curse, and reboot the PC. It comes up, I log in, and then hotsynch again. Works the first time.

At home, I have not had problems till I decided to leave my PC on overnight so that I wouldn't have to wait for the PC to boot so that I could reload my Avantgo channels. It wouldn't hotsynch after idling overnight. But, when I rebooted, it worked the first time.

That's my experience, the bad part is that out of the two serial cradles that I received, one was bad. A 50% failure rate wasn't a good sign. But I got a new one, and it works just fine.

Good luck. I hope that the rebooting helps you guys.

larry

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 27

Does that mean that I will have problems if I leave my computer on 24/7?

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN USA
Posts: 4

I am having the same problem -- now on my 2nd Handspring. Here's the deal:

Sync works like a charm out of the box -- for like two days. With the first VDX I had, I called tech who walked me through all the stuff on their FAQ, including the REGEDIT thing. Nothing. The tech finished the call by simply saying he didn't know anything else to do. Thanks.

I had only had it a couple of days, so I called and asked for a replacement. They sent me a new VDX (it arrived the next day, BTW) and a fedex label to return it. They sent only the computer and nothing else -- no new cradle.

I plugged it in and whoopee, sync'd right up the first time and worked great... for two days. Now this one is doing the same thing:
Try to sync, and it sits for 30 seconds, then beeps and says "The connection between your handheld computer and the desktop..."

Sounds like the same problem. What is the solution?!

FWIW, I am running USB on a Dell Win98 Dimension XPST450. Network card, Epson Printer plugged into serial port (or the other one -- the wider of the two). I am also running Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile with the handheld unit plugged in the narrower plug (serial?). It has a zip drive and modem and I am using the newest MS Office Suite, and syncing to Outlook.

Help!

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 144

quote:

---

Originally posted by ottopilot:
I am having the same problem -- now on my 2nd Handspring. Here's the deal:

Sync works like a charm out of the box -- for like two days. With the first VDX I had, I called tech who walked me through all the stuff on their FAQ, including the REGEDIT thing. Nothing. The tech finished the call by simply saying he didn't know anything else to do. Thanks.

I had only had it a couple of days, so I called and asked for a replacement. They sent me a new VDX (it arrived the next day, BTW) and a fedex label to return it. They sent only the computer and nothing else -- no new cradle.

I plugged it in and whoopee, sync'd right up the first time and worked great... for two days. Now this one is doing the same thing:
Try to sync, and it sits for 30 seconds, then beeps and says "The connection between your handheld computer and the desktop..."

Sounds like the same problem. What is the solution?!

FWIW, I am running USB on a Dell Win98 Dimension XPST450. Network card, Epson Printer plugged into serial port (or the other one -- the wider of the two). I am also running Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile with the handheld unit plugged in the narrower plug (serial?). It has a zip drive and modem and I am using the newest MS Office Suite, and syncing to Outlook.

Help!

---

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN USA
Posts: 4

No hacks and (except for Niggle) no 3rd party software. I would love to go with the cradle idea, but it does not make sense. My 2nd VDX worked in the original cradle (in which VDX#1 would not work. Argggg

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Hermosa Beach, CA
Posts: 222

Ok people, here is my 2 cents worth, so if it doesn't make sense (and it very likely will not) or it doesn't work, you can sue me for those 2 cents.

Anyway, sometimes I have problems syncing also; it tries for 30 seconds or so and says it cannot establish a connection with my computer. What I end up doing that works ALL the time is I close/quit the hot sync icon that is located on my systems tray (bottom right hand corner of screen, by the clock/date), then I reactivate it.

Again, I'm no computer whiz, but this works for me all the time.

Good luck and let me know how things go!

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: McLean, VA USA
Posts: 216

I am currently running Win2K professional with the serial cradle. I have experienced hot synch errors quite frequently. I have found that whenever hot synch fails, I have to close (exit) hot synch manager (in the system tray) and restart the program. Hot synch works after that.

Also, has anyone heard a date for when this month (March) Handspring is going to release the new Desktop software? I would really love to be able to use my USB cradle with Win2K.

Thanks and hope this helps.

Craig Hook

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN USA
Posts: 4

Sweet Jesus! I did another soft reset this morning and they're talking again.

...and there was much rejoicing

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 434

If a soft reset is re-enabling syncing, consider the implications. One or more apps on your Visor are the source of the problem. If one or more Hacks are at the root of the problem (and I would start with Niggle if I were you), disabling the guilty Hack is only a partial solution. It seems that Hackmaster does have a bug (not a Visor incompatibility):

quote:

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Q: Why did I get a "Chunk" over-locked" error?
A: You're experiencing a bug in HackMaster v0.9 (the latest version), which is not related to TrekSounds. The crash will occur while running at least one hack, after launching HackMaster 15 times. Since memory chunks can only be locked 15 times, on the sixteenth launch of HackMaster a chunk will be "over-locked", causing a fatal error. The only way to avoid this is to ocassionaly perform a soft reset, which will reset the chunk's lock counter. An easy way to soft reset is to use the "Reset" button in HackMaster. There should be no data loss after reseting the device with a paper clip. (SOURCE - http://www.ecamm.com/palm/treksounds/support.html )

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: St Louis,MO
Posts: 7

I read the post saying a soft reset seemed to get the sync going again. I just tr9ied this after having problems with mine. WORKS GREAT!!! thanks for the post and help

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 289

I upgraded to W2K back on the 22nd of February. I keep my machine on 24/7 and hot sync usually once a day. I have not had any major problems with hot sync (before this I was running NT 24/7 since December without problems) -- occasionally it comes up with a fatal error (visor) and I need to reset, but that has happened maybe twice. Anyways, I posted primarily to those wondering about leaving systems on 24/7...

Joe

(Still waiting for the USB drivers though!!! -- they say it will be out Mid-March.... we will see..)

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 27

Thanks Cerulean for answering my question.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location: Moved to Clie Land
Posts: 331

Bless VISOR CENTRAL!

I just had my first failure to hot sync today and after 30 minutes of messing with it, logged on and had my answer within 3 minutes.
Win98/USB/VDX hot sync problem fixed with soft reset(warm did not work). I do have HACKMASTER.

Thanks again!

------------------
My "Blue" is new....

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Posts: 1

My Saga: I have been having intermittent problems hot-syncing w/ my Windows NT machine (w/ serial cradle)... doing a soft reset seemed to do the trick in the past; however, today a soft reset left my Visor in hanging mode, so I had to do a hard reset - then, repeated attempts to sync (after re-checking my settings and rebooting my machine and soft resetting my Visor) didn't work. Finally broke down and called Tech Support and after 5 minutes of troubleshooting (same things I tried on my own) they referred me to Customer Service and told me I need a new serial cradle. Called Customer Care and they are sending me a new cradle... which doesn't inspire much hopefulness in me after reading some of these postings... is this an NT thing?

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
Posts: 3

I have hotsync problem since the days of Palm III with my NT4 at work. I thought the improved Visor's version of the Hotsync would do a lot better.
I hotsyncd the Visor on the first day I got it and download all of my existing info from my Outlook to the Visor. The next day when I hit hotsync, it just popped up with the Hotsync window and looked like it was trying to find the user profile (I only have one profile on my PC). A co-worker told me after days of frustration that I should lower the sync speed to 9600 instead of as fast as possible. And it worked.
Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Syncing at 9600 would be a disaster if modules like MP3 uses Hotsync as downloading medium. Thanks.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 434

Assuming that Hacks aren't the problem, you might want to try what I do when I have problems syncing. Turn your Visor off, and try reinserting into the cradle (make sure you've worked it around a bit). Then wait a minute or two, and try to sync again. If it doesn't start right away, cancel the sync, and repeat. Sometimes it takes me four trys to get a sync going. BTW, this is with the speed set to fast as possible.

BTW (if anyone from Handspring is lurking), I still think the Visor has a problem with static electricity or temperature changes. I'm keeping track, and I have more problems with syncing when the humidity gets below 40% (i.e. increasing the likely hood of static electricity) or when I subject my Visor to rapid changes in temperature (and try to sync). In case you are wondering, I don't heat my house; but keep my computers in their own room which they self-heat. Hence the rapid changes in temperature prior to a sync when I'm at home.