Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 6

Argh... I love this little gadget, but it's going to drive me insane!!!

Let's see -- it's gone into 3 infinite reset loops; 4 or 5 instances where the screen has been filled with junk characters and crap when I've gone to use it; NUMEROUS fatal errors -- even when accessing DateBook and ToDoList...

At first I thought maybe I had some nasty software on it, so I pared it down to a mere 500k or so of apps -- no better -- even as I write this I cannot do a hotsync because it fatals in the middle of it as it attempts to sync the ToDoList.

Yes, it could still be poorly behaving software -- however, what does it mean if it behaves fine all day, only to have it fatal, or have gibberish on the screen, or have it fall into a reset loop the very next time I turn it on????

And yes, a hard reset does solve things for a little while... but I will go insane if I have to hard reset it every day -- hell, my wife's Jornada has not blown up yet! Yes -- a CE device is outlasting my Visor!!!! *sob*

*sigh* I'm just about ready to throw my hands in the air and get a Palm Vx -- however, I thought that I should at least see if you guys have had this trouble, and I suppose I should give Handspring the opportunity to fix the thing.

Argh... it worked so well for about 3 weeks, then kaboom... 3 hard resets this week alone.

Anyway, I'm done griping -- if any of you have any advice, I would greatly appreciate it!!!

Thanks!

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 6

Hell -- I should give some idea of what is running on the thing just in case any of you know of any big incompatibilities...

Things I have on my Visor other than apps which ship with it: dbScan, UnDupe, AmusementPark2, MineHunt, PalmZee, Patience, PocketChess, and TetrisV.

Anyway, thanks for any help you folks can offer!

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 48

I saw something similar for a while on my home system. I sync the Visor and my wife syncs a PalmIII. I changed the System action to Handlheld overwrites Desktop, synced, then changed it back to Desktop overwrites Handheld, synced again, then told System to Do Nothing on syubsequent syncs. No problems since.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 6

First, thanks for your reply!

I have been syncing a little bit between work and home -- that might have something to do with it...

Fortunately, Handspring Tech Support is shipping a new Visor out to replace this one -- between the flaky behavior and the scratches caused by the bogus stylus, I'm eagerly awaiting the new one!

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 5

My visor exhibits some of the behavior you describe (gibberish on the screen, intermittent resets). After trying hard, soft, medium, warm, and cool resets, HandSpring agreed to send me a new one.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1883

have you guy's tried to remove the battery for more than 15 minutes? It may help. If you remove the batteries and leave them out for a while you'll do the hardest reset possible, that way also all capacitors will be empty and you machine will be in the same state as when you first got.
If the problem persist after that (without installing any 3rth party software) you have a defective unit, else it's a software issue (see incopatibility list: http://www.visorcentral.com/silindex.php3 )

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1883

as a follow up on my last posting..
see: http://www.visorcentral.com/sil.php3?id=49 are you using PocketChess v1.1 ??

I'm using it too and have no problems so maybe it's the combination of PC and one of your other apps...



[This message has been edited by ToolkiT (edited 01-18-2000).]

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 6

Actually, I read today about the static electricity issues they've been having with some of the Visors, and I wonder if that's what has been happening with mine.

Case in point: I discovered the majority of the oddities (crashes, failures to power on, gobblety-gook episodes, etc.) AFTER I pulled the Visor out of my winter jacket pocket (Ohio weather). I'd come home from work, go to turn it on, and it would be dead, or would not sync without a fatal exception, etc. Same thing in the morning when I went to work.

This of course makes me nervous that this issue could materialize with the one they're shipping me -- I only hope that the issue has been resolved (presuming that's the real problem). Otherwise, despite the fact that I love the cost and qualities of this device, I might have to get a Vx or something... *sigh*

Again -- thanks to everyone who has responded to my frustrations!

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 6

Oops - forgot to mention that it had failed to power on this morning -- right after I got to work and pulled it out of my jacket pocket. The experiment I have going now is to NOT put it in my jacket pocket, and instead leave it in my briefcase -- hell, even if that solves the problem, I imagine the static electricity could have already done damage...

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 13

Crimson:

Are you also getting short battery life? I have similar problems as yours, work in a cold environment (getting in and out of my car, putting Visor in wool sports coat, etc.) And I'm getting battery life of 2 days with _brand new_ Duracell alkalines. How is your experiment working?

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 6

G-Man:

Well, since last Tuesday I have not put the Visor in my jacket pocket (carrying it in my briefcase instead), and -- since last Tuesday -- have not had a single instance where it misbehaved. Not once has it crashed, or not powered on, etc.

As for battery life, that's been relatively good actually -- I can get around 3-4 weeks out of one set of batteries so long as I'm not doing a LOT of hotsyncing.

So, I'm hoping the new one that's coming has better protection against static electricity -- I mean, it's going to be somewhat of a pain-in-the-neck if I have to worry about zapping the thing every time I put it somewhere! And I have to wonder if all of the static electricity is doing damage to the hardware itself!

So we'll see how the new one works (provided it ever gets here ).

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Columbus, Ohio USA
Posts: 255

Even with the cold as hell weather we've been having in Ohio, I still haven't ever had any problems with my visor like you ment (knock on wood). I mostly leave it in my pants pocket so it's somewhat exposed while I'm walking from my car (.5 miles) to work everyday.

Also, I'm a static machine. I shock the hell out of myself and everything else at least 15 times a day and so far I haven't had any problems either. Maybe it's just defective after all.