Database Users

Strange SD card behaviour

Whenever I soft reset the device the memory card is not picked up, or only half the directories are picked up, and I have to pop it out and back in again for it to recognise everything correctly..
I am running 1.72 and we have three imates here at my work and they all behave like this.
Sometimes the Storage Card just seems to vanish even when there was no reset and the card has to be ejected and reloaded to pick it up again! This occurs daily for me (only had the device 4 days though) and one of the other guys here says it hapens quite frequently to him too!
Is this common behaviour for the imate/xda2 ???

I had similar problems with my SD card in my XDA2 (1.66.00wwe), i took out the card and formatted it a few times in my PC and so far it dosent seem to have happened again. This problem originally occurred in my ipaq 4150 so im not sure whether it was card related or not. There's an application called Pocket Mechanic which can run tests on SD cards, might be worth running that to see if it picks up anything. If you need a copy of it you can "borrow" mine.

mmm, no problems with pocket mechanic test!
Might back up data on card and try a low level format through PocketMechanic and see if that helps, but it is strange we have multiple devices and cards here (my work) all with the same behaviour. My Card and imate are both brand new..

Might be of interest: what brand of cards are you using?
There ARE issues with SD cards, mostly related to data transferrate.
Some brands are fast (ie KingMax i read) some are very slow (ie Kingston/Toshiba i noticed)

I bought a Fujifilm 512MB SD card off ebay for a silly low price, originally blamed my problems down to that fact but it seems to be ok now.

It is a Sandisk card (256mb) so VERY slow

Not sure if it is related, but I had an issue with mine, where I could read the SD Card in my PC, but not in my XDAII, unless I pushed it very firmly down, holding it in place.
It turned out to be dirty connections on the Card. With a bit of a clean (with a Screwdriver), everything works again!
Ian

FYI - a pencil eraser is the best thing to use to clean contacts on PC boards, memory cards, etc. It is only mildly abrasive but does a great job of removing grime, etc.
HTH

Browsenow - excellent idea. In fact it comes close to my blue-tack inventions. Well done!

Jupiter - Thanks! I have adapted pencil erasers to another problem for which your solution was BluTack . . . the missing external aerial cover. I found a pencil eraser that was the same diameter as the aerial (antenna for those of us in the US) connector hole, chopped it off and inserted it. It has the added benefit of being firm and slightly longer than the hole, so it provides stability when the device is laying on the desk.
Oh well . . . I guess I need to find something more interesting to fill my days . . . like making my imate work as a TV remote so I don't have to wrench the actual remote from the Mrs. :wink:

Are you trying to say that the rubber solution is better than the blue-tack solution! I vouchsafed you the honour of saying that it came close. Dont throw that back at me. !
Blue-Tack is better because
1. Its sticky
2. Its blue
3. You can use it to stick things
4. In an emergency you can take it out of the XDA and stick a note to the fridge
5. In the event of being bored you can make a baby teddy with it
What can rubber do apart from rub. :roll:
It was a 'good' idea but lets keep it at that

First of all, you did not say it was a 'good' idea - in fact you said it was an 'excellent' idea. As for BluTack . . . if you use it too many times it will be neither blue nor sticky!
As for the eraser, it is better because -
1. It is firm
2. It is NOT blue
3. It can erase things
4. In an emergency you can . . . um, you can . . . :?
5. In the event of being bored you can use it to CARVE a baby teddy - well a really tiny one!
Ha! Long live the eraser 8)

Now your just being silly!
Where are my blue-tack buddies when I need them?

They have all abandoned you and are out searching for various sizes, shapes and colors (colours?) of ERASERS!
They should start their search here: http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Browse/Sku.asp?PageType=1&Sku=507053

How shock resistant is the Athena hard drive?

Has anyone tested the Athena hard drive in situations like mountain biking where shock resistance would be essential? I am interested in the built-in GPS and large screen for digital mapping.

Hi, I dropped a T-Mobile Ameo serveral times (about 3-4 times) from a normal desk with that keyboard attached for testing purpose.
The result was a broken pin at the contact plate on the keyboard. The Ameo and the harddrive were still working without problems.
Then I dropped it two times from a "standing man" postion, about 1,5-1,6 m without any damage. Ground was typical office floor.
So, what i wanted to proof is that the harddrive will be damaged soon in daily use (before we buy some more), but i was wrong.
Be aware, this is not a representative result. Might be that in a countinuous heavy use the drive will give up.. so far, the.superunknown

the.superunknown said:
Hi, I dropped a T-Mobile Ameo serveral times (about 3-4 times) from a normal desk with that keyboard attached for testing purpose.
The result was a broken pin at the contact plate on the keyboard. The Ameo and the harddrive were still working without problems.
Then I dropped it two times from a "standing man" postion, about 1,5-1,6 m without any damage. Ground was typical office floor.
So, what i wanted to proof is that the harddrive will be damaged soon in daily use (before we buy some more), but i was wrong.
Be aware, this is not a representative result. Might be that in a countinuous heavy use the drive will give up.. so far, the.superunknown
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, I'd like to volunteer to be your tester. I'll be sure to put it to "continuous heavy use". I'll even drop it on a daily basis if you like. But since you don't really care about this phone, I'll be glad to be of service.

Kurvenal said:
Has anyone tested the Athena hard drive in situations like mountain biking where shock resistance would be essential? I am interested in the built-in GPS and large screen for digital mapping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the ameo, has a large internal memory, big enough for a map anyway!! you will probably have to use this instead of the microdrive. The Microdrive has an acceleration/shock sensor and the constant shocks will make the hard drive park it's heads and stop reading data temporarily (until the shocks stop ie the end of your mountain bike ride )

Replacing Shift Radio board with another one Possible!!!

okay under the instructions of our valused member Cmonex we have now opened this discussion as a food for thought
the begining of the conversation was here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2480768#post2480768 and now from there we continue
cmonex said:
there is no such thing as "standard WM drivers". drivers are hardware specific.
for god's sake why would you think it is based on the advantage? the processor and everything else is different. the closest is a kaiser but the LCD and some other things are of course n ot the same.
Please open a new thread to discuss this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i assumed that the board would be advantage because they both have spinning hard drive and maybe because i own an advantage will am willing to donate in the name of sience for such a cause other wise if someone who opened shift can tell us what he thinks of this as we can simpley replace that board with this one, the only 2 things that i assume would be hard is
2. the hardware button that switched between OS's
3. the sdcard slot, in which i assume with some soldering to unify the 2 boards it would work fine (hardware side but software i dunno

Rabia said:
okay under the instructions of our valused member Cmonex we have now opened this discussion as a food for thought
the begining of the conversation was here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2480768#post2480768 and now from there we continue
well i assumed that the board would be advantage because they both have spinning hard drive and maybe because i own an advantage will am willing to donate in the name of sience for such a cause other wise if someone who opened shift can tell us what he thinks of this as we can simpley replace that board with this one, the only 2 things that i assume would be hard is
2. the hardware button that switched between OS's
3. the sdcard slot, in which i assume with some soldering to unify the 2 boards it would work fine (hardware side but software i dunno
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you explain to me why you would want to place the advantage board in the shift? Whats the use of that?
I dont get the point.
And no, I dont think it is plausible (possible)

not advantage, we are just saying what if, so we can use full mobile strength and not software solutions

Rabia said:
not advantage, we are just saying what if, so we can use full mobile strength and not software solutions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its kinda funny how big companies always screw up their stuff...
PS3 = only 256MB ram
Xbox360 = No BT and WIFI
Willcom D4 = only PHS
Shift = Crippled...
sad sad, isnt it?
I would be lying if I say I havent thought about swapping the CPU and I spent hours searching for ram...
i gave up....now my machine is sitting there, waiting for the SHIFT PROJECT

yes your 100% right, but swapping CPU and Ram is harder than swapping a whole Radio Board, just think of it, any HTC (kaiser for example) just mount it in a place inside the shift (after freeying the old space takin by radio) and just figure out how to connect the display, even better since shift has vga, get an advantage or one of those htc with VGA out pout and connect it from within, this is defenatly a project am doing 365 days from now or the second HTC will have a product i will buy (in this case a none crippled SHift), the more input we get from those who have looked inside it and looked inside other HTC's, personally i know how does wallaby, himalaya, jamin, jasjar, advantage look like, i have opened all and usually this is what i do in anything get, the second i the warranty ware off i strip it down to learn

You can't do that. Take a look at the FCC pics and notice the board differences.

well i looked and didn't make any sense earlier but should it be housed exactly the same, would't any radio board that fits withen the space in the shift just do the job?

No, it's connected through a proprietary connector, which you don't have in any other PDA Phone. Also you're not taking into account the Embedded Controller which allows sharing the touchscreen, keyboard, etc, between both systems. See the attached pictures.

oh now that i didn't look at, the controller that would share those things together, though after seeing the board its a close reminder of qtek 1010 or qtek 9090, i assumed that display belt is connected through the MB and keyboard is input is through a shipset like advantage with just keys being remappted throught SW, that what would i do if i was HTC coz then this would just save loads of production line equipment, this is stupid though, SDcard is connected though radio board but works with Main MB, it means almost a year from now we actually might have a full usable mobile, what scare me though is the Bluetooth Shipset, where is located to your knowledge?, i know whats going to happen in the first few realeses, phone will be working only while vista is on to be able to use WIFI and BT for audio routing and VOIP from phone board, then slowly they will become independant again (i guess)

Rabia said:
yes your 100% right, but swapping CPU and Ram is harder than swapping a whole Radio Board, just think of it, any HTC (kaiser for example) just mount it in a place inside the shift (after freeying the old space takin by radio) and just figure out how to connect the display, even better since shift has vga, get an advantage or one of those htc with VGA out pout and connect it from within, this is defenatly a project am doing 365 days from now or the second HTC will have a product i will buy (in this case a none crippled SHift), the more input we get from those who have looked inside it and looked inside other HTC's, personally i know how does wallaby, himalaya, jamin, jasjar, advantage look like, i have opened all and usually this is what i do in anything get, the second i the warranty ware off i strip it down to learn
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ram isnt that difficult to swap. You can just get a different module, since its not soldered.
Unfortunately, there are only 512MB and 1GB modules commercially available, but give it time and you can purchase 2GB.
About the CPU, nowadays, CPUs are not soldered onto the board like on the VAIO T1 to T5 series. They are glued.
My mate is soldering prototype PCBs for a living. He showed me how he glues SMDs onto the board.
So, you can change them, but its risky to pop the chip off.
But then again, will the BIOS reckognize it? How about power consumption and heat dissipation....maybe not worth the effort.

after looking at the scheme i think other than the keyboard loss its pretty doable, they are completly seperate, other than the display, which i assume the red circled connector is the one for it, i also assume the black and white are for power, other than the keyboard nothing is connected (which i assume the green circled connector is what shares the keyboard and power on etc

Help: MicroSD does not stay inside the device. Only half of it.

I had a problem with some keys on the keyboard not responding.
But I also have another problem, after assembling the phone back, I tried fitting the card in, and it didn't make the click sound, now somehow I'm not able to have the card inside the storage card compartment.
Is there any switch, was this done, because of the 3 sheets of paper?

DarkWolfx said:
I had a problem with some keys on the keyboard not responding.
But I also have another problem, after assembling the phone back, I tried fitting the card in, and it didn't make the click sound, now somehow I'm not able to have the card inside the storage card compartment.
Is there any switch, was this done, because of the 3 sheets of paper?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends where you put the paper.
Whatever, you're going to need to dismantle again. Either the slot and it's spring mechanism are damaged or (perhaps more likely, something is pressing on it/obstructing it.
I'd say dismantle and test it when you have it apart and keep a close eye on whether anyting is interferring with it as you re-assemble.
Mike

Yes Mike, I have it disassembled, I see nothing obstructing the storage card compartment, I checked on top and bottom of it, the 3 pieces of papers should not be obstructing them in any way.
I think the spring mechanism is damaged, how can I determine that, and how can I try to fix it?
When I push the card, on the left side I see something trying to move out, and from the top of it, I see the white mechanism inside pushing in, and it did feel the spring mechanism, but it didn't click, so in someplace it should click, thought I'm not able to find where.
it does go completely in, and feels like springing, but not clicking.

DarkWolfx said:
Yes Mike, I have it disassembled, I see nothing obstructing the storage card compartment, I checked on top and bottom of it, the 3 pieces of papers should not be obstructing them in any way.
I think the spring mechanism is damaged, how can I determine that, and how can I try to fix it?
When I push the card, on the left side I see something trying to move out, and from the top of it, I see the white mechanism inside pushing in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd need to do a close inspection of that. Unfortunately that's unlikely until the weekend. However, even then I wouldn't be too hopeful of being able to give very practical help, if only because describing anything that small would be difficult enough let alone how to fix it.
Still, I'd be willing to have a look at mine if you still have the problem by then.
Mike

*Update*
As trying multiple times, to see if it made click with anything, the storage card is not even being recognized by the device anymore...
So now..it's basically useless to have the storage card compartment, lock the card.
Don't know why... or the reason..but I'm starting to lose faith in these HTC devices as a first timer...
But anyways, as posted on the other thread, I have an old HTC hermes, that I replaced the motherboard with.
That storage card part, works fine, it does click. But...the real question will be, how exactly can I transfer the old storage card into my own device?
Or maybe if I make work the old motherboard?
Mike: You said on some other thread, that you might think that a fuse is blown right?
I saw an image showing this, but the fuse is under the metal plate, how can I get under it, and check if the fuse is blown indeed or not?

Universal is slowing down without reason

Hi folks,
I love my Uni, and would not exchange it for anything else. (Except for a 128MB RAM Uni. The small RAM is my pet peeve on this unit.) It was a little slow before I flashed it with Tomal's WM6.1 v8.9 -- and, boy oh boy, it was blazing fast. But I can't reflash it, since my USB port is broken (seems I'm not the only one here). And, worst, the device is now slowing itself down without a reason. The CPU usage is at 100% and does not come down. (And then the problem vanishes without a trace, just to appear again a few days later.) Already tried a hard-reset and it didn't help much (the problem appeared again after a week). The task manager included on Tomal v8.9 does not show anything abnormal, and there's nothing else free that shows processes' CPU usage. Seems it's the (in)famous Device.exe, but I can't spot it.
Please help me!...

didja try hard resetting it?
and if you..really wanted to, you could probably hold the usb connector in place long enough for a flash to go through.

cheapusenet said:
didja try hard resetting it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact, I did. The problem went away for a few days, but now it's back.
cheapusenet said:
and if you..really wanted to, you could probably hold the usb connector in place long enough for a flash to go through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact, I can't. It's totally broken. My XDA fell on the floor with the AC charger connected, and now the connector is dancing inside my device. (LOL.)

yeeesh, friends have had that happen to them. resoldering that is damn near unsolderable for any normal person, but im saying a wince flash takes maybe 5minutes, if you disassembled and really put your mind to it im sure you could get the usb pins to hold still for that long.

cheapusenet said:
yeeesh, friends have had that happen to them. resoldering that is damn near unsolderable for any normal person, but im saying a wince flash takes maybe 5minutes, if you disassembled and really put your mind to it im sure you could get the usb pins to hold still for that long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disassembling? Man, I don't have the guts for it. Anyway, I hard-reset it once again but did not install any apps nor restored any PIM backups. Let's see if it holds.

actually taking apart a uni is extremely simple, it gets alittle dicey the first time you remove the motherboard though. you should, that usb connector rattling around in there cant be good. pop onto the wrong place and fizzle short.

In fact, I've got here the Uni disassembly manual. (But right now I'm on my laptop, and it's on my desktop machine.) Gonna see if there is written the correct place for the USB connector. But won't disassemble it before I get another phone.
Here in Brazil, the HTC Touch Diamond is very cheap second-hand... And it looks delicious! (But I'm gonna miss the hardware keyboard...)