Frustration - Device halts, soft reset problems, etc - 8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General

I have the TyTN for over a month now.
I am frustrated with the fact the device halts in various situations.
For example, today, it just halted with no apparent reason.
When I try to do soft reset, the device is getting past a certain point and halts. Only after I do several soft resets it then boots.
I am suspecting some SPB software I have installed on the device and/or the Resco file explorer.
I would realy appriciate some help on this.
It really drives me nuts.

No halt issues with Spb software here and I use pocket plus, time, backup and weather.

I think (someone correct me if I am misled) on some Tytn/microSD memory card combinations it it critical to run the Today plugins from main memory, not from the card. Try it.

I have actually did a hard reset and did not re-install the SPB software I used to use.
What you are suggesting maybe right, since all of the plugins I used were installed on the external memory card.
Until now everything is fine and working as they should.
I will test this later today to see if this might be the case
thanks for the help

Related

really really dodgey xda exec

Sorry if guys are tired of these threads about the dodgey operations of the xda exec, but mine really got to me tonight.
I only had 3 software installed on mine, pocket informant rev 3, spb diary, spb pocket plus. It was running ok with these 3 software, abit slower than i expected but ok. However i never thought it was totally stable, sometimes it would jus freeze, it would happen to me quite a few times a day, and as mentioned by some other users, it would take around 3 or 4 soft resets to get it back up. I have ordered a replacement from o2 and they said they going to send one but it might take a while as there is none in stock!
I thought id play around with this one for abit, try and get the most efficient set up going so i could do it on my new one. I read a post about Lakeridge WisBar advance and thought id give it a try. I installed and then it froze, i thought a soft reset would fix, but no, i must have tried to soft reset it over 15 times and the cloest i got to the today screen was the sim card pin screen which was half covered by the o2 boot screen so i couldnt even enter the pin. Then i thought o well going to have to do a hard reset, so i tried it and it didnt work, i did the hard reset and it froze at the o2 boot screen. I did it again and it did work. But how dodgy is this pda man!
Install it in Corporate mode and just install needed cabs only, especially the one with connection. Use if for a few days to see if the problems persist, the crap 02 interface may well be one of the main problems.
Mine works fine, this is a great device but also need a lot of tweaks to work well, if you want a good "out of the box" experience then this isn't the kind of phone for you.
BTW, don't install Pocket Plus, it will slow down your Exec as hell.
As above but consider not using the Spb software.
It caused all sorts of memory leaks/crashing on mine over the course of about 3 days of testing.
In addition it also rather annoyingly consistently failed to work right when the phone was resumed after a long delay ie over night.
My dopod 900 running perfectly well and fast even with 5 programs on the background. Guess the way WM5.0 handle the memory usage is different than previous OS did.
Spb pocket plus really slow down my machine, now i'm using my without any task closing utility at all and it runs smoothly.
h,im using dopod 900 for only less then a week.i really find this dopod 900 are much more stable than all xda PDA.
i tot its gonna be the same like xda which always hang or Jam,amazing it work so well.
Dopod900 definitely run way stable compare to Exec or I-mate. I didn't quite face the same problem they mentioned here. Guess O2 and I-mate has mess up their rom after the customization. The other reason could be that Dopod is directly link to HTC so they have the access to the deepest on the programming on this machine.
yep... SPB Pocket Plus causes crashes... :x
Just tried to install the SPB pocket plus 3 on my xda Exec, and after quite a few failed installation attempts -- I should have stopped there -- where for the first time in over a month (when attempting to instasll new s/w) the installation consistently failed. I took a break and decided to have one last go.
This time it did work. During the installation it warned me about installing it on the Storage card: that the card driver has to be initialysed prior to activation of the prog.
The installation finished.
Well after that I tried to open the prog... it didn't work, and the device wasn't responding.
My next step was a soft reset, but it halted in mid-process.
There followed a few attempts again of soft reseting the device - but it kept halting at the same stage...
So for the first time - after testing my device for over a month with many programs - I needed to do a Hard reset :!: :x
This is really annoying! I have read before that SPB is slightly problematic and slows the device down... to put it mildly - I am NOT impressed :!: :!: :!: :evil:
I saw on another thread about Pocket Hack Master for overclocking the Universal. You might want to give it a try.
I also tried SPB Pocket plus, but was dismayed by how slow it made my EXEC. I deleted it off in less than a minute.
jus recieved my new xda exec from o2 this morning. Installed corporate settings and keeping all 3rd party apps off for the mo and see how it runs. Will keep you guys posted.

Random freezing and buttons not responding

I have a brand new imate JASJAM and face the following problems:
(a) The device freezes as soon as you attempt to open some programs (any program) even if this is right after a soft reset.
(b) Certain buttons don't always respond, for example, when the phone rings, sometimes the green button or even the answer soft buttonwon't respond and so you miss the call. Also, the messaging hard button rarely works. If you press it once, nothing happens. If I press it several times or I leave it pressed, e-mail may come up.
Those problems are very frequent. They happen all the time.
I have ROM 1.31.305.2
some applications installed are:
.NET CF 2.0 SP1
Worldmate 2006
Pocket Informant 2007
GPS Tuner
Battery pack
Flash Player
Resco keyboard, Explorer
andreasy said:
I have a brand new imate JASJAM and face the following problems:
(a) The device freezes as soon as you attempt to open some programs (any program) even if this is right after a soft reset.
(b) Certain buttons don't always respond, for example, when the phone rings, sometimes the green button or even the answer soft buttonwon't respond and so you miss the call. Also, the messaging hard button rarely works. If you press it once, nothing happens. If I press it several times or I leave it pressed, e-mail may come up.
Those problems are very frequent. They happen all the time.
I have ROM 1.31.305.2
some applications installed are:
.NET CF 2.0 SP1
Worldmate 2006
Pocket Informant 2007
GPS Tuner
Battery pack
Flash Player
Resco keyboard, Explorer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I certainly would not expect the number of freezes and lack of response you are getting - and if that's a full list of what apps you have added then I would expect a smooth runing device - I have a lot more and get a freeze maybe once a fortnight. The .net CF framework is a reasonably memory hungry app but I have not had any problem with it.
1 I do not see any mention of a Task Manager (apologies if it's included in one of your apps). I consider a Task Manager essential for closing (i.e. really closing ) applications; unless you're ok with running off to the running programmes in memory application. Also note that Wifi must be shut off when not in use to avoid freezing on wakeup, overheating, battery drainage and possibly the Red LED charging issue.
2. Where are these applications installed. Are they all in main memory or SD card or a mixture. The location of certain programmes can make all the difference to smooth performance. As a general rule anything that is required immediately following boot up/switch on like wallpapers or an application you leave running (not something I recommend) can be in the main memory. Other things should be on SD card. In fact my device runs just fine with everything on sd card - even the things that need to be accessed often. Whatever you decide you will find that there will be more frequent hangs when the device memory is over half full - Yes it likes a good bit of free space for run applications.
3. Having ensured the above two are taken care of and maybe swapping apps from SD to Main memory or vice versa to test different performance levels, I would also think about removing applications and testing after each one to see if there is one culprit.
4. Finally a graet may have identified Active Sync as causing lots of freezing issues fro alarms not going off to device not "waking up" etc etc. Providing you don't use push mail then I believe the steps written about on this forum for properlly controlling AS are essential. Notably the fake server trick. see here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=288352&highlight=fake
Mike

New TyTN owner: disappointed with freezes

I've been a long term HTC fan, having had a Cingular 8125 for over a year. I just got a TyTN and immediately added a 2 G micro SD card and then loaded that up with software: uBook, NewsGator Go for blogs, Egress for podcasts, SBSH Weather, and MortPlayer. It was very unstable, freezing about half a dozen times a day. Doing a little research, I found that the presence of a micro SD card was implicated in freezing. Freezing is where the phone part of the TyTN continues to work (green light continues to blink), but the Windows part is locked up. I've removed the weather and Egress items from the Today screen, and so far that's reduced the freezes to once a day.
I would like the Hermes to be as reliable as the wizard which went weeks without me resetting it. I'm currently on ROM 1.18.255.3. Is moving to a new ROM version likely to fix this freezing problem? Are there people out there using a 2 G micro SD without a freezing problem? I understand there's a new ROM due out at the end of January, should I hold off till that comes out?
I mean to add that I have a HT636 serial number in case it is hardware related.
Aha! evidence indicates micro card
By removing various software from the today screen, there was no reason for any software to look at the micro card. The phone had not crashed, and yet the file manager showed that the micro card was not present.
But this stinks, I got the phone so it would hold a gigabyte of stuff, mostly podcasts.
At least can feel confident in the problem. Any chance it could the SANS micro SD card?
Not sure why your file explorer is saying there is no micro-sd card.
I use the same card as you and do not have as many hangs as you.
Some things to be aware of.
Best practice suggests putting in main memory anything that is used on the today screen or by phone application. In other words anything the device would need on coming out of sleep mode is best placed in Main memory.
Everything else can be placed on the SD card.
If you do not use push email you should carefully apply the "fake server" trick
You probably are, but you must use a task manager (say magic button or the like) to properly shut down applications.
I personally steer clear of today plugins that automatically connect to the net for data - e.g. weather/traffic/news type programmes.
Mike
Thank you for your ideas.
I guess I was spoiled by the 8125. Perhaps that it uses the regular SD instead of the micro-SD is the reason. All my apps on the 8125 were on the storage card, and I didn't force applications to quit.
I guess I just need to accept that the TyTN is more touchy about the card and try working around it.
Thanks for the feedback.
I did the same as you, added a 2 gig card from the start. I have journal bar running for weather and news, loaded in main memory, everything else is on the micro SD card. I had the same lockups as you are seeing but it's not the microSD in my case.
I found that the phone "wakes" often for calls, notifications etc. while in it's holster. When it wakes all keys are "unlocked" and subject to getting pressed. From this forum, I applied all the patches and tweakes like Auto-lock on power up, PTT button re-mapping, and many registery tweaks for bluetooth accys.
Mine almost never hangs now. The main culprit now seems to be when connecting/disconnecting it to a charger sometimes turns off bluetooth or hangs the unit, but it's intermittent.
Overall I'me very happy now, till "Kaiser" comes out...
Thank you for the info. I'm going to move the sensitive applications to the main memory. Do you think the ROM version could be contributing to the failures? I have 1.18 and I believe there is an official 1.35 out that is later.
Thanks
Another Way to Speed Up your Hermes
This Might Help You Making Performance of your Hermes Better
WM5_Tweaks_Performance
Espacially by:
Enable FileSystem cache
Increase FileSystem cache
Increase FileSystem filter cache
NOTE: These Tweaks Helped Me ALOT.....
Thanks for the ideas about tweaks. I'm going to see how stable I can make it before applying any of them.
applied all of them and it does seem significantly faster now.
I'd definitely recommend the ROM upgrade, I have never experienced the silly lock ups that I used to since.
I just experienced my first freeze on my Vario II (UK).
I got the phone on saturday, and used it for the first time as an alarm clock yesterday and everything was great (sunday I forgot to turn it off silent - boo that you have to remember).
This morning my alarm didn't go off, when I woke up the phone had frozen and wouldn't display anything - but the light was still flashing. I haven't got a MicroSD yet.
Would I have the latest ROM as I have only just got the phone? If not, how do I upgrade or find out what version of the ROM I have?
i am on the std rom released by imate in australia 2.3 i think. i have used many including xdaII and the universal.
the current hermes is the most reliable, most stable, and most amount of uptime with the best battery life, so overall i am very happy.
by the same token, i have been here long enough to know exactly what needs to happen to totally rebuild these devices from the basic rom to a device that works efficiently.
it is vital that you apply all things that are required or used during the initial startup, including things in the startup directory, and on the today screen to be present in main memory.
i have also found that icons on today or in start menu that are loaded on an sd card can slow the device down.
having memory readers on the today screen, reading the SD card memory isnt good either.
using and going through a lot of the registry hacks are useful, but not necesarily for the speed, hangs, but for functionality.
also, custom applications that are installed on the sd card i move out of the program directory to a sub directory called custom apps. this is simply to ease the speed of opening, and when i open custom, i accept a minor second or two delay rather than immediate.
i did have (not recently) have problems with the system loosing the sd card directory, which a soft reboot fixes. which is all the more importance of hiding the icons and applications from day to day interaction that use the SD card.
you can also look at reformatting the card.
i also did find that doing a full back (SPB) and doing a restore speeded up the device noticably.
there may also be speed issues if you dont synchronise regularly, and the notifications queue on previous devices also caused problem, but havent found much here.
doing other simple stuff like error reporting, disabling bluetooth auto beam is also a good start.
using ring tones or themes that are on the sd card are also not as reliable than locating in immediate ram.
so rule of thumb, you need to be able to boot up and use your device completely independently of your SD card, and only access the storage card for apps that you call for, and for data that isnt needed immediately on boot up, to store songs, files, documents and related types.
hope it helps. but in answer to your question, if you can get a more updated rom, you will definitely get a benefit, but quantifying the benefit is hard. new roms are released for a reason, so consider them seriously.
that said, if you dont need to wait for a supported rom rather than crossing platforms, this is always difficult and should only be done with extensive knowledge. as such, i dont have that many problems i cant overcome, and so am waiting for the official imate rom to be released....
hope it helps with some ideas and areas to consider
S.
ben2004uk; have a read of the wiki, it's all there should you wish to upgrade. It is fairly simple.
Freeze's gone
Ok, I feel a lot better. I've moved the one critical today add-in (weather) to main memory. I've only occassionally accessed the external storage. But with that configuration I now was able to go about 5 days without a freeze!
So I conclude that the storage card is not waking up quick enough or something like that. Other people have said it, but don't put any "always running" or "today related" software on the storage card.
I'm still on 1.18 ROMs, but I think I'll hold off for a while before upgrading. I just don't feel like rebuilding the machine right now.
how to determine ROM versions.
ben2004uk said:
I just experienced my first freeze on my Vario II (UK).
I got the phone on saturday, and used it for the first time as an alarm clock yesterday and everything was great (sunday I forgot to turn it off silent - boo that you have to remember).
This morning my alarm didn't go off, when I woke up the phone had frozen and wouldn't display anything - but the light was still flashing. I haven't got a MicroSD yet.
Would I have the latest ROM as I have only just got the phone? If not, how do I upgrade or find out what version of the ROM I have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It took me the longest time to find this as the wiki did not address it. go the start menu, then settings. Then click on the system tab at the bottom. Select the Device Information control panel. Now go to the TyTN wiki: http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Hermes_Upgrades
and review your options. At Feb 1, 2007, 1.35 appears to be the latest official one.

Devices gets slow

Hello all,
I experience the following problem with my Tytn (gory details about versions and so avail upon request): With age the device got slower and slower to the point that now e.g. ActiveSync times out if the device was not soft-reseted for a long time.
Still, even after a soft-reset the device feels sluggish and unresponsive -- compared to what it used to be.
Granted, it has a boatload of software installed but the "slowness" got worse w/o adding new softw.
IIRC from the old PPC days the old WinCE used to suffer heavily from memory leaks, and the only way to recover from that was to hard-reset the device.
My question is:
- Did anyone else have this experience ? Is it a known problem ?
- Is it actually a appl problem and not WM5 related ?
- Does a hard-reset and restoring from backups solve the problem ? Or do I neeed to hard-reset and install the software all over again from scratch ?
TIA,
Florian
P.S. Sorry I don't have some "hard facts" (mem usage/whatnot), so far it is just an empirical observation
When I originally got my device I tried installing a load of software and this seemed to eventually break the device. It does start to perform slower the more you mess with it. I upgraded the firmware and was careful about what I installed and the device works great now.
If you performed a hard reset and re-installed your applications, you would notice an increase in speed. I recommend the latest firmware also.
i have just replied to similar comments that may help here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=291882
rather than retyping. the bare device works really really really good, so it may relate to your apps. install standard released apps, with care, and do backups regularly to restore if necessary.
also, i have found in the past that large volumes of contacts and large amounts of diary syncs does slow all devices down. one poster said he had over 1000 contacts and wanted to know why phone calls were slow to start (caller id and searching duh...)
so watch what you install, and only install what you really need
install anything that is needed on bootup into memory
hide icons point to your sd card
dont have sd card readers on the today screen
follow the registry hacks and use them
dont install today screen stuff to sd card
accept that the sd card may be disabled or fail on occasion, thus you dont want your device functionality tied to it otherwise card fails, device fails
manage your synchronisation of data
there is soooo much more. make sure you are on the latest released rom for your device. ensure your sd card does have fast read and write ability...
read wiki, do some research. all else fails, HARD RESET and see if it runs at normal or good speed. then test each and use each app carefully, using a backup app to restore as you need to.
this is m$, and i equate wm5 to windows 95, we are a long way from xp status, so play nice, be gentle, and manage the apps you install, they way you install them, and the data u need.

Hermes screws up memory card

I've been having an issue with my device. Once every week or so, something happens to my 16 GB SanDisk memory card. Exactly what happens I can't tell you, but it can be stuff from Media Player not beeing able to add files to the library (but plays them fine if you open them manually), to the phone freezing after entering PIN upon start-up. Sometimes it freezes randomly, and I have to remove the SD-card. Whenever this happen, using my card reader and running Vistas error-checking sorta helps it, or if I can isolate a file that causes a problem (not a program, any kind of file) and delete it, it usually works.
But, why does this happen? I never take the card out of the phone, except when trying to fix the errors. I sync over Bluetooth and USB, I've used different ROMs (I think, I've flashed quite a few recently so can't tell for sure), I've used diffrent line-up of programs, but it stills keep acting weird. Any clues? It's quite annoying. I didn't search the forums, since I honestly don't know what to search for. Any clues or search strings are most welcome! Thanks!
Forgot to mention, I'm currently running CRC's latest stable, but, as I said, I don't think that's the problem.
same thiong happened to me
My mem card started showing up files with some weird names, other files were unaccesible, programs stopped responding and the phone would freeze until I took out the mem card. What I id to fix the issue was, took out all the vital info (keep it minimal cuz there might be a corrupted file and we dont want to transfer that one to the phone again. format your memory card using a "low level" format application http://lmgtfy.com/?q=low+level+format+freeware+download+sd&l=1 then pop it back in again and the phome will format it, and transfer your old data back. This happened to me a while back and havnt had a single issue sience the low level thingie. Hopes this helps
I'm afraid this is a common enough problem and has been written about many times. Causes vary from software errors, switching off before all data is written or even physical contacts between phone and card (some evn say different brands of card work better).
If it happens that you see corrupt file names do not continue using the device or open programs or trying to delete data. Imediately perform a soft reset, this can recover (sometimes) the corrupt FAT file and save data.
The inability to save Media Player files to the library is an un-related issue and is a known software issue. You can overcome the issue by deleting the msmetadata file (search this forum for more info). Unfortunately it's something you may have to do fairly regularly.
Mike

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