Related
I have started this thread so that we can begin development of a program or a solution which will make the alarm system on our Wizards totally reliable.
As we know, a number of us have a problem whereby our devices fail to wake up when an alarm is due to go off, causing us to sleep in, and be late for work. This is an unacceptable situation. It is my intent to develop a program which will replace or augment the alarm system in WM5 so that we never again have to worry that our PPCs won't wake us up in the morning.
So far, we know there are a number of problems which might be contributing to the failed alarms:
1. Duplicate alarm/calendar notifications being entered into the notification database (same alarm shows repeatedly in the database)
- This can be resolved with CheckNotifications (http://www.scarybearsoftware.com/ppc_cn_overview.html) which will remove duplicate entries. It does not prevent the duplicates from being entered in the first place.
2. Alarm settings not saved to registry. It seems there may be a problem whereby registry changes are not being copied from RAM to Flash immediately, so if you Standby the device shortly after setting/changing the alarm, the alarm is not saved.
- This can be resolved by leaving the PPC for a minute or so before putting it in Standby after changing an alarm.
3. The big one. An alarm notification not turning the device on from standby. Why this affects some people and not others, we don't know. Some users report than when an alarm is due to go off, the device doesn't wake up. When the device is turned on manually, the alarm then sounds. This seems to happen randomly (with some alarms working OK, and others not) but doesn't affect everyone.
As yet, there is no known solution to this problem. This thread is intended to develop that solution.
My idea so far is to develop an application to replace the standard alarm on WM5. Our main objective is to create an event which will, reliably, and without fail, wake the device from standby. Once we have developed this program, a new alarm system can be tacked on to it, or the source code can be made available for developers of current alarm systems to integrate into their programs.
My PPC programming knowledge is limited, so the intention is for this project to be a joint effort, and I would urge anyone who has any useful input to contribute it on this thread.
I have noticed a few people mention that a program called Pocket WakeUp is a reliable alarm system, and doesn't suffer from the known bugs in the WM5 one.
http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=1299 (French version - see below for translated English version)
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to have been an update of the program for quite a while, and also, the program is in French, so there aren't many people using it to see exactly how reliable it is.
I have done a quick-n-dirty translation of the program into English (I hope the author doesn't mind - no other changes were made), and attached it to this post. The interface isn't great, and it can be quite convoluted to use, but perhaps with an English version, more people can give it a try and see if it actually is reliable.
From what I can gather, Pocket WakeUp adds a notification when an alarm is due, which loads with WakeUpStart.exe program, which then loads the main program and sounds the alarm.
If this program is actually reliable, then I expect the author has found a way to make the device wake up from standby without fail, and the WakeUpStart.exe is the important part.
Please let me know if you use Pocket WakeUp and it works reliably, or randomly fails. Also, if the author of this program reads this board (or someone knows how to get in contact with him in English) I'd be interested to hear your views.
Good effort, I'll try the cab and report back over the next week.
Excellent endeavor! I have been using PPC devices for sevearl years and this has always been my biggest problem. Its hard to believe that MS has issued 3 new versions of their WM platform, all with this issue. This should be one on the first things you need to get right in these devices.
On the WM2002 and WM2003 platform I have good success with both PhoneAlam with AlarmToday for Pocketmax and also SuperAlert. But since moving on to the KJAM, the current versions of these programs just don't work.
I am not a developer, but will certainly help with testing etc. I'll try the FR prog now and will also post results.
Regards
Chris
The alarm not waking up on standby bug was fixed in the leaked 9100 test rom.. so whats the point in fixing a problem thats already been fixed
MilanoRex said:
The alarm not waking up on standby bug was fixed in the leaked 9100 test rom.. so whats the point in fixing a problem thats already been fixed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Says who? I'm using the latest i-mate ROM and the problem still persists.
I've been using Pocket WakeUp to check - *zap* - and so far it seems to work fine. Problem is, that's what I thought of the standard alarms until they failed a couple of times on me. Unfortunately, it also seems that my battery is draining faster now - but I would have to confirm that absolutely with a full copy of pocketbatteryanalyzer. I'm using my old phone in the mean time to make sure I do wake up.
For me, just not switching the device to standby is still the best bet. This also negates any issues related to point 2. Point 1 remains, and is actually a cause for old alarms going off when they shouldn't - and the cleanup thing is something I still do.
One thing that I think I should point out, though, is that the problem isn't just with a wake-up alarm. Pocket WakeUp may very well be a perfectly fine solution to that (no way to be 100% certain, I guess). The problem is that on at least one occasion, the device failed to wake up for a meeting event. Thankfully I was keeping an eye on the clock and I was leaving only 5 minutes late - and with a little speeding got there in time just fine. Point is, a wake-up alarm won't fix -those- :\
ZeBoxx, as far as I can see, Pocket WakeUp does use the notification system. Set an alarm with it, and check the notification queue. Delete the item from the notification queue and the alarm never sounds.
If we can work out how Pocket WakeUp reliably brings the device out of standby, then there's the possibility of writing a program to tack a wake up event in front of every calendar entry.
gah.. WakeUpStart? totally missed that.. I'll stfu now
ZeBoxx said:
gah.. WakeUpStart? totally missed that.. I'll stfu now
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Click to collapse
Yep! Thing is, if WakeUpStart can wake up the device without fail, then it will be simple enough to tack a similar wake up event a few secs before each alarm or appointment. Just need more people to test Pocket WakeUp to see if it's reliable - and hopefully we can get a hold of the author so he can tell us how he did it!
I upgrade to the new KJAM rom and now my alarm works.
texasez said:
I upgrade to the new KJAM rom and now my alarm works.
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Click to collapse
Yep, the whole problem with this bug is that it affects people randomly. Some people have the bug, some don't. Some people just get it one day for no apparent reason. There is no one solution to everyone's problems. Upgrading worked for you - good for you - doesn't mean it will work for everyone, and there's always the possibility that you never had the bug, and then you upgrade to the latest ROM and you start getting the bug!
thanks alot elyl !!
the translation of this program is the best news in months! I have been using this prog for 3 months without any problems. It seems very reliable to me. I dont understand French thoug, so it has been a little bit hard to use.
Before I started using the program, I had alot of problems with the alarm...
I tried Pocket wake up yesterday with mixed results. My KJaM seemed to be waking up for each event, but I was expecting it to continue to repeat the alarm beyond the few repeats that you get with the built in reminder. That did not happen though... I have set Pocket alarm wake up call take is set go in a few minutes, so will see if that works (guess that I am already awake though, so it won't be a big deal if it doesn't go off )
cbrow51 said:
I tried Pocket wake up yesterday with mixed results. My KJaM seemed to be waking up for each event, but I was expecting it to continue to repeat the alarm beyond the few repeats that you get with the built in reminder. That did not happen though... I have set Pocket alarm wake up call take is set go in a few minutes, so will see if that works (guess that I am already awake though, so it won't be a big deal if it doesn't go off )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try setting a snooze time for about 5 mins? It will repeat then if you don't cancel it. Also, if you are using a short audio file for the alarm, make sure you increase the Minimum time of alarm to be X number of seconds - then it will repeat your alarm sound for however many seconds.
Hi Elyl
Yes, stumbled into that in the end. My French is very poor, so I had to guess at the options. Still, that seemed to work. I did notice that if you change the settings and then let the device go into standby, the alarm did not repeat...:-( I had to reset a new time, then it worked. I will now set a reoccuring alarm and not touch the settings and see how that goes... Will post back at end of day today..
Regards
chris
to be thorough...
In an effort to be thorough, I'll add my experience so that maybe a developer can read a solution. I use my kjam as a daily alarm. It has almost always worked when I leave the device plugged in and though the backlight is off but the actual system never goes into standby (everyday except one in six months). I have also experimented with using the alarm from a battery power source, but again, making sure that the device never goes into standby (this is a real battery drain).
I have used SPB time, Ptravel Alarm, and the built in alarm. SPB time is completely unreliable and has never worked (not even when set immediately after a more reliable alarm). Ptravel alarm has worked over the past week when I have tried it in both power/active and non-powerd/active, but I haven't tried it when the system was in standby. The Ptravel Alarm developer (Burroak Software) is a very very active developer and seems to really care about making his products work. The only flaw I have is the interface (i.e. stop button) is somewhat small to press first thing in the morning.
The built-in alarm is the one I have used most and seems to work well from a power source. Again, it does not work from standby reliably.
I know this is re-hashing the obvious for all of you, but thought it might give some more background. There simply must be something that is develop-able, which wakes up the device from standby (a turned off state) in time for the system to register and activate an alarm program or a few seconds before.
Could there be a way to extrapolate the program which activates the device or part of it to remotely activesync on a time schedule?
I will use the WakeUp program and report back.
wakealarm
just to stress the point, i will also use wakealarm and report at the first failures. If 100 users would do the same, we can improve our evaluation time by 100X. If even to a single user it will not work, i cannot fully trust the program for professional reasons or travelling.
Today, I have the test rom, SPB pocketplus, and yes ONCE the standard wm5 alarm didn't work on this configuration (over about 20 alarms and 200 calendar reminders that worked successfully). i use once in a while checknotifications and sktools to keep the notify queue clean - should i do it or not? sometimes, i am afraid that the alarm i loose are those that these two programs remove by believing they are unnecessary duplications....
i noticed that - in the infamous occasion of a missed alarm in the morning - i forgot the wifi connection on while the system was recharging beside my bed, and in the morning i had a pop-up message it complaining about the absence of network (instead of waking me up...).
Did i understand it correctly that - at midnight - the wizard does some internal procedures and wakes up? do i guess that - after waking up - it had to deal with the wifi network search instead of some alarm critical procedure? if it would be so, i would be happy - for example - to do the alarm critical procedures every few hours, so to be sure not to miss any.
Few hours later, finally at work, i saw the wizard rebooting by itself (second time ever, the first one was with the 1.6 ROM!) and, at reboot, started sending a list of alarms that i could not easily dismiss (since the system was in an early phase of reboot, no today screen available yet). i had to softreset a couple of times, after dismissal of the pending alarms it started to work correctly again.
I am reporting this in order to increase empirical understanding of the reasons why the standard alarm fails.
cbrow51 said:
Hi Elyl
Yes, stumbled into that in the end. My French is very poor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why I translated it! See the attachment.
Maybe its just me but I cannot see any link to a translation?
I can see the link to the cab file and I can see the link to the web site but no document?
Robin
First of all sorry for opening a new thread.....did search but didn´t find anything.....and I usually get annoyed myself by people asking question that have already been answered....
Problem: once in a while - and in no understandable pattern - my HD does not switch to standby after the set timeout (60s for me). Soft-reset does not solve the issue, but it disappears after a while (several times turning the display on/off). Have not changed/installed anything recently. First blamed it on S2U2.....uninstalled and problem seemed to be solved, but only until today - now it´s back in all its glory....
Already compared the - what I think - relevant registry values to my Diamond registry....no suspects there.
And no, there is no video-, audio-, or navigation program running in the background, as the problem manifests itself right after a restart/soft-reset....
Any ideas?
Thanks!!
mine does the same...I've just gotten used to it.
twisted-pixel said:
mine does the same...I've just gotten used to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm....I don´t want to get used to it, because whenever the device wakes up (missed call, reminder, alert etc.) the display stays on (altough dimmed) using up battery power....
Same problem here with my Diamond.
Any news or ideas on this?
Same for me, and it's a very big problem!
I've read in some of the other posts that it may have to do with the activation of auto-screen lock that is included in the ROM, but this isn't turnd on in my case!
I use my Blackstone professionally, which means I need as much battery power as possible on one charge! At the moment this problem makes the device last for about half a day during work!
If anyone has a fix, I would appreciate hearing about it
Is there a way to stop the HD waking up at midnight?
Thanks
stiscooby said:
Is there a way to stop the HD waking up at midnight?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same question .. ^^
It's a normal thing or not ? Don't know if the HD does that before installing/uninstalling TFDetacher ..
well mine doesn't do this so it has to be a recent software you installed.
I have seen several people mention it on here before but not so sure anyone had a solution?
Only thing I have installed on mine is G-Alarm?
it's g-alarm thing and i dont see why it is a big deal to a lot of ppl. it's only like for one mins and then it goes back off.. WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL PPL. i dont get it anyway sorry i am not helping but had to take this off my mind
its not our place here in the xda developers community to judge or criticize others needs or preferences, because we know not the circumstances by which they live their lives. our place is simply to lend a hand when we can so we an grow individually and as a community. getting something off ones chest is best accomplished with a baseball bat and a tree...
stiscooby said:
Is there a way to stop the HD waking up at midnight?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I gave it hot cocoa that didn't work... still woke up at midnight so I tried sleeping pills... same thing again dead on midnight it wakes up - the hot bath however definitely did the job; problem is that it hasn't woken up since
Sorry I couldn't resist!
SomethingWicked said:
its not our place here in the xda developers community to judge or criticize others needs or preferences, because we know not the circumstances by which they live their lives. our place is simply to lend a hand when we can so we an grow individually and as a community. getting something off ones chest is best accomplished with a baseball bat and a tree...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
again it's only for one min. dont you think you're throwing it a little out of proportion.. anyway i am used to bashing my head against a wall but i couldnt do it this time because of all the blood!!. this has been discussed before at least two times to the best of my recollection with no positive results so i am guessing you're going to have to take it with you inside the mattress
Of course it's not a big deal, it's just a " strange" things ..
It's maybe a feeling but i found that my battery drain faster after midnight
So, sometimes i do a soft reset at 00:01
I'll have to do some tests
This is the reason...
stiscooby said:
Only thing I have installed on mine is G-Alarm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's so that the notification queue can be rebuilt for the next day. It happens anyway in Windows Mobile but G-Alarm offers to extend the amount of time allowed for rebuilding as there's a known bug with the default setting that sometimes doesn't allow enough time for it to finish (15 seconds default and G-Alarm offers to alter it to 2 minutes iirc).
Its biiig problem with that midnight wake
inspireme87 said:
again it's only for one min. dont you think you're throwing it a little out of proportion.. anyway i am used to bashing my head against a wall but i couldnt do it this time because of all the blood!!. this has been discussed before at least two times to the best of my recollection with no positive results so i am guessing you're going to have to take it with you inside the mattress
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well it actually is BIG problem for me as it is not just for one minute.... somehow when it wakes at midnight it stays on and does not want go sleep again, overriding the settings which i set for keeping backlight for 1 min., and obviously as a result i get drained battery in the morning which is so frustrating as i do not have time to charge it again...so for me that is A BIIIG PROBLEM...
is it the only solution to take off g-alarm?? kind of like it and got so used that really do not want to part with it
Thanks for the few who mentioned it seems to be G-Alarm.
inspireme87 - think you need to chill out my friend........... No, its not a BIG problem for me, I thougt I was just asking a simple question/query
On a few occasions I notice it's got "stuck" and not gone back to sleep as mentioned above so I have to press the power button to make it sleep.
stiscooby said:
Thanks for the few who mentioned it seems to be G-Alarm.
inspireme87 - think you need to chill out my friend........... No, its not a BIG problem for me, I thougt I was just asking a simple question/query
On a few occasions I notice it's got "stuck" and not gone back to sleep as mentioned above so I have to press the power button to make it sleep.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well it's kind of a hard to press power button when you are actually asleep . i do not want to let the phone to dictate my sleep time if you know what i mean.
http://www.ageye.de/index.php?s=galarm/manual/limitations#AlarmBug
2. Windows alarm bug
Windows Mobile has on some devices a strange behaviour: Although an alarm is successfully added to the WM notification queue (it's like a scheduler) it doesn't go off.
Searching the web gave me following information:
At midnight WM rebuilds the notification queue, therefore it wakes up for about 15 seconds. If the notification queue is too big or the device too slow WM goes to sleep again before it could finish building the queue for the next day.
If you force WM too stay awake for a longer time, it should successfully build the queue on at least more devices.
If you start G-Alarm and it complains about the Windows alarm bug, you've got the default WM settings (15 seconds WakeUpTime). If you press "Yes" G-Alarm changes it to 120 seconds which should be enough.
Here are the registry values G-Alarm changes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\Timeouts\ACResumingSuspendTimeout
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\Timeouts\BattResumingSuspendTimeout
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
marasp said:
well it's kind of a hard to press power button when you are actually asleep . i do not want to let the phone to dictate my sleep time if you know what i mean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I fully agree.
I was talking about things from my point of view/issues I have experienced. The times I have noticed it failing to go to sleep, I have still been awake so noticed the light still on in the room so luckily didn't find my battery was flat in the morning.
I will remove G-Alarm to make sure it's the problem and see what happens.
marasp said:
well it actually is BIG problem for me as it is not just for one minute.... somehow when it wakes at midnight it stays on and does not want go sleep again, overriding the settings which i set for keeping backlight for 1 min., and obviously as a result i get drained battery in the morning which is so frustrating as i do not have time to charge it again...so for me that is A BIIIG PROBLEM...
is it the only solution to take off g-alarm?? kind of like it and got so used that really do not want to part with it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem... and I noticed that during the day a windows error occured, maybe from GAlarm? the problem is that several times I found my battery to 2 or 3% in the morning...
Thanks for the advice for Galarm (I didnt understood why the device was not shutting down by itself at midnight)
t0k0m0k0 said:
I had the same problem... and I noticed that during the day a windows error occured, maybe from GAlarm? the problem is that several times I found my battery to 2 or 3% in the morning...
Thanks for the advice for Galarm (I didnt understood why the device was not shutting down by itself at midnight)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did found solution, though u need registry editor in order to make it work... change the value of the string in HKCU\Software\ageye\G-Alarm\MidnightWakeUp from True to False. from now on you will not be bothered by waking of your toy and alarm will be working as normal... at least my does.
marasp said:
i did found solution, though u need registry editor in order to make it work... change the value of the string in HKCU\Software\ageye\G-Alarm\MidnightWakeUp from True to False. from now on you will not be bothered by waking of your toy and alarm will be working as normal... at least my does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip I will give it a try
Mind you most mornings now I am finding G-Alarm seems to hang/crash my phone? The first alarm goes off as expected, i press the snooze button then sometimes it will go off again and then hang.
The G-Alarm screen remains on phone, with the screen lit, and nothing responds, not even holding in the power button. I have to remove the battery.
So might just scrap it as it seems a bit "buggy".
I have same trouble and there is no G-Alarm app on my HD so I think I have problems with another app...
I already posted in the sticky but didn't get any answer.
My problem is one that occurs quite often how I see but still I don't find any solution.
The problem is that the screen of my HD doesn't show up anymore when it was in standby and I left it for some minutes. It's on because I can still change the loudness and I can feel the buzz of the buttons when touching one. It takes me some luck and time to bring it completly to life again by pressing over and over the ON/OFF button. When I bought it the problem occured very rare but now it's happening all the time when it is in standby.
I never did install any roms (because until now I have no idea what it is about ), the only things I have done so far:
Installed TomTom 7.450.9028 and these two registry edits:
under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Inbox\Svc\POP3 i renamed the mailtrns.dll to mailtrns2.dll (it's a fix for the email because my GMX account didn't work with POP3 on my phone) and the other was setting the value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/GPSIntermediateDriver/Drivers/GPSOneDevice/PollIntervall, to get better GPS-Signal
Everything else is just original, like it was when I bought it some days ago.
Is there anything I can do? Or do I have to send it in?
I really like the phone and it's working perfect except to this point so I'd like to stick to it. Hope you have some advice,
THX in advance,
-db-
-db- said:
I already posted in the sticky but didn't get any answer.
My problem is one that occurs quite often how I see but still I don't find any solution.
The problem is that the screen of my HD doesn't show up anymore when it was in standby and I left it for some minutes. It's on because I can still change the loudness and I can feel the buzz of the buttons when touching one. It takes me some luck and time to bring it completly to life again by pressing over and over the ON/OFF button. When I bought it the problem occured very rare but now it's happening all the time when it is in standby.
I never did install any roms (because until now I have no idea what it is about ), the only things I have done so far:
Installed TomTom 7.450.9028 and these two registry edits:
under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Inbox\Svc\POP3 i renamed the mailtrns.dll to mailtrns2.dll (it's a fix for the email because my GMX account didn't work with POP3 on my phone) and the other was setting the value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/GPSIntermediateDriver/Drivers/GPSOneDevice/PollIntervall, to get better GPS-Signal
Everything else is just original, like it was when I bought it some days ago.
Is there anything I can do? Or do I have to send it in?
I really like the phone and it's working perfect except to this point so I'd like to stick to it. Hope you have some advice,
THX in advance,
-db-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried going to Start > Settings > All Settings > System > Power > Advanced and making sure device isn't set to turn off after a period of time?
Thx for reply but doesn't that mean my phone will be always on? Or can I set it then manually (by pressing ON/OFF) in standby and turn on again without problems?
-db- said:
Thx for reply but doesn't that mean my phone will be always on? Or can I set it then manually (by pressing ON/OFF) in standby and turn on again without problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes to both, it will remain on unless you manually put it into standby by pressing on/off
Ok, I try it out now. Hope it works that it comes on out of standby without problems.
Wow until now for exactly 1 hour and 33 minutes no problems. Seems to work, hope it will continue like this, if so I could kiss you
THX
-db- said:
if so I could kiss you
THX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be difficult (grin).
Can the phone wake up if i put it off when i have sett the alarm.
Is it based on a setting or is it not possible!?
Its good if its possible to have it off on nights and get the alarm going in the morning.. saving power ehen i am out of my home..
Please give me som advice.!
fpow said:
Can the phone wake up if i put it off when i have sett the alarm.
Is it based on a setting or is it not possible!?
Its good if its possible to have it off on nights and get the alarm going in the morning.. saving power ehen i am out of my home..
Please give me som advice.!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can´t help you, but i´m also missing this function, on my old SonyEricsson worked this, i tried today with the trick on my TD2 but no, it doesn´t work by default.
jonas9000 said:
I can´t help you, but i´m also missing this function, on my old SonyEricsson worked this, i tried today with the trick on my TD2 but no, it doesn´t work by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My nokia´s and ericsson are all doing this... tis is realy bad that its not working!!!
This was also on my Blackberry. It would automatically switch off at 10.00pm and wake up at 7.00am (weekdays) then however at the weekends...
There are loads of really clever people contributing to these forums, hope its not too long before a solutions appears.....
Mark
anyone any ideas?
Auto off at 10.00pm
Auto on at 6.30am (with an alarm) (M,T,W,Th, F)
all adjustable as per in G-Alarm.
thanks
I though if blackberry can do it so could could you guys....
Well, I think that if you are switching it off, it's off...
But you can use software to switch to 'plane mode' for instance like phonealarm or other programs.
And then let it in sleep mode.
Without any connexion, the phone will not use the battery...