FWD: Re: Error Message <<#167609-281083#>>

[Edward Glowacki]

The following is my recent exchange with Handspring Tech Support regarding a problem with my Visor Deluxe.  (See my comments on the exchange below.)

----- Forwarded message from WajahKha <support@cl2.handspring.com> -----
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 14:23:09 GMT
From: WajahKha <support@cl2.handspring.com>
Subject: Re: Error Message <<#167609-281083#>>
To: glowack2@msu.edu

Dear Edward Glowacki,

Thank you for your email.
Please if you have any third party application on your visor delete those and hard reset again.
Although you may have deleted the program from your handheld, it may have been archived in your desktop Backup folder. If this is the case, every time you synchronize that program will be reinstalled on to your Visor. You need to permanently delete the file: 
1. Start the Windows Explorer program. 
2. Follow the path C:\Program Files\Palm\<user name>\Backup (Note: some users may use a different drive) 
3. Locate the file you are trying to permanently remove and delete it from the directory. It will almost always be a .prc (Program) or .pdb (Palm Database) file. 
Please down load HS_updater V 1.0 from www.handspring.com/support/softwareup.jhtml and install on your visor.  Please check for any fatal error after that.
ther question please email us or call our technical support at 1 (716) 871 6448 (Mon - Fri 8 AM to 10 PM Sat - Sun 10 AM to 7 PM EST time)


Thank you,
Handspring Technical Support

--- Original Message ---
From: Edward Glowacki <glowack2@msu.edu>
Received: 04/24/2001 10:15pm Eastern Standard Time
To: technicalsupport <support@cl2.handspring.com>
Subject: Error Message

FROM: Edward Glowacki
EMAIL: glowack2@msu.edu
PHONE: (517) 355-4500 x235
ZIP CODE: 48912
INQUIRY_TYPE: Error Message
CRADLE_TYPE: USB
INSTALLED_OS: Win2000
INSTALLED_SOFTWARE: Yes Installed
PRODUCT: Visor_Deluxe
COMMENTS: Occasionally when I power on the Visor, it will immediately
give me a Fatal Error.  A soft reset brings it into an infinite
loop where it displays the "Welcome to Palm Computing" splash screen
over and over.  A system reset doesn't help, and you can't turn it
off.  The only way to break the loop is to do a hard reset and lose
all data.  This has happened to me several times now, usually when
the battery is getting low, but today it hit me when the battery
was nearly full.  As a result of this, I don't use my Visor as
much, because I don't trust my data to be safe long enough to get
it backed up onto my PC.  Any suggestions on how to fix this problem?

------ Please do not remove your unique tracking number! ------
<<#167609-281083#>>

----- End forwarded message -----

First of all, "OOoooo, I'm special, I have a *unique* tracking number!" ;)

To analyze my report, "Every once in a while my Visor crashes, and
on restart gets stuck in a loop, forcing a hard reset which erases
all data."

To analyze their response, "Strip it down to a bare minimum, wait around
for a while to see if the problem continues."

WTF?  From the Handspring web site, "A system reset tells your
handheld to stop what it's doing and start over again, bypassing
any system extensions." Which leads me to believe that it's only
the PalmOS and the Visor hardware that is involved, as no 3rd party
code, or extensions of any kind would be loaded.  Now didn't I say,
in my error report, that a system reset didn't help?

So basically Tech Support was worthless, but they did give me a
(non-800) phone number to call for more help!  Sigh... gotta love
embedded systems that you can't trust...

-- 
Edward Glowacki			glowack2@msu.edu
Michigan State University	
"...a partial solution to the right problem is better than a complete
solution to the wrong one." (http://uiweb.com/issues/issue14.htm)