Database Info

phone froze -> hard reset

damn I'm pissed. I was messing around with my phone as usual, setting up pRSSreader and updating all the feeds/channels. I had the phone plugged into my PC because it gives me a faster connection. My connection went out however, and pRSSreader gave me an error. No big deal... so I tell it to update all channels again, and it freezes. I soft-reset the phone twice and it doesn't get past the 3rd boot screen (for me, the blue WM6 screen from mfrazzz's XM6r3 ROM which I'm currently using). Damn. hard reset was the only thing I could think to do.
What would you guys suggest I do incase it happens again?
I sure am getting better at having a list of programs to execute on a fresh install

First you need to figure out if its something that you installed to cause this to happen. There are programs that don't play well with WM6 (but those seem few and far between). Make a list of everything you install on top of the custom rom. If it happens again, you may want to give this a try (but I wouldn't use it until you have the issue again, so you know its something you have added and not this program itself ):
http://www.airscanner.com/blog/blog.php
Its an alpha product (and I've never used it) but supposed to give you a SafeMode (like XP) so you can get back into your phone if software / regchanges go bad on you. SPB has similar, but I haven't used that (and not sure it works on WM6).
Unfortunately, if you are stuck in the 3rd splash screen there isn't much else you can do. You can try pulling your SD card and rebooting to see if that might fix the issue. Also don't be plugged into the USB cable when you reboot (I've seen programs like BatteryStatus hang on restart in the past if you are hooked to USB). Speaking of BatteryStatus, if you are overclocking (or using CPUscalar) try turning that off to see if the problem goes away.
Good luck, and let us know what you find...

Activesync of Outlook stopped working

For no apparent reason, Activesync (4.5 5096) of Outlook on my TC (standard ROM see below) has stopped working. Outlook email/contacts/diary not getting synced.
After plugging USB in a message says 'Sync cannot be connected succesfully...try again... and run troubleshooting..'. But Activesync/Help/Troubleshooting/Reporting says there is nothing wrong! Indeed, I can still explore TC and card, sync other software (e.g. Media Player, TomTom Home, eWallet etc).
But I can't get in to the ActiveSync/Options menu to check out the relationship. Have soft reset TC, turned off PC firewalls etc, but nothing helps. Little puzzled because it all worked fine for the past 2 months and I wasn't even playing around when it decided not to work!
Any ideas please?
Thanks,
CI
Touch Cruise
ROM vers: 1.25.405.1 WWE
ROM date: 12/11/07
Radion vers: 1.58.21.23
Protocol vers: 25.65.30.04H

had the same problem some time ago. changed the cable and everything was fine.you could also try uninstalling and reinstalling activesync.

Jackster
Thanks. Cable was OK, but uninstall/reinstall of activesync worked. indeed speeded up activesync and fixed a lot of other minor secondary problems while it was at it would recommend it for all every now and then. strikes me that activesync is one of the those bolt-on bits of MS obeseware that needs regular maintenance?

USB Device not recognized
To mark the anniversary of me posting my original message, all of a suddden and for no apparent reason, Activesync has stopped working again. Bizarre
This time its a little different, I don't get anything except a pop message on PC saying 'USB device not recognized: One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance click on this message'. Which of course I di and it didn't help!
So, I've tried
- un-installing/re-installing Activesync 4.5
- rebooting PC and TC umpteen times
- changed USB port/cable
- tick/untick Settings/Connections/USB-to-PC/Enable Advanced network functionality
- putting the kettle on
Nothing is working (Although the cup of tea was nice
Would really appreciate some help please
Thanks
CI

Help! Really desperate on this one. I have been trying to think why this should suddenly happen. Two things possible:
- During my last succesful sync I received and answered a call. Would this damage registers or something?
- I accidently pulled the mini-USB headphone cable a bit while listening toi music. But the sound is still perfectly OK, and I receive power charge via USB even though it won't connect/sync. And like I said, I've swapped cables/ports.
I've Googled this a lot and most people fix by fiddling with stuff I have already done and praying!
Please. Anyone got any ideas before I too start praying!
Thanks

1. No, it should not. Never heard it did.
2. AFAIK, not reason as long as it charges trough USB port.
Try to delete device from Active Sync while device is not connected. You might need to restart PC.
You'll have to set options again when device is recognised.
This is what I have to do often.
Also, check device name on device itself, it tends to change from time to time for no apparent reason (at least to me). If it changes, it causes following problems to me:
1. Active Sync troubles
2. BT connection to car audio stops working.
Hope some of this will help...
BTW... you have WM 6.0 on it? If so, don't upgrade to WM 6.1... IMHO, WM 6.0 is faster than 6.1 and has less problems with Active Sync...

Bodisson,
Thanks for suggestions. Alas, none work
It looks like I am going to have to hard reset and/or burn new ROM. For those of us who don't do this regularly, this can be a nerve racking experience. However, I was perhaps sweating too much about it for a couple of reasons:
- it seems very few people have anything good to say about WM6.1. Until now I have been pretty happy with WM6.0 and have had 14 months of virtually trouble-free use, so maybe I'll just stick with that. I'm not a power-user, so the vast array of cooked ROMs is rather bewildering. Unless one is rock solid and aimed at non-power end-users?
- I thought installing a new ROM without Activesync was impossible, but I see someone has worked a way to do it via the SDHC card. Well done XDA
So, unless anyone has some further ideas I will just hard reset to WM6.0 and hope for the best. I have this terrible feeling though that my mini-USB port is damaged and I'll get the same bubble of doom even after hard reset.
Thanks

Either do a hard reset back to factory (and hope you can re sync all your stuff with the PC),
OR
Re flash the rom to C Shekar's "b" rom. It really is very good, and transforms the phone. In fact, it is so good that I have finally stopped fiddling with my phone! (and I'm a born fiddler!)
It is very good, and works immediately, but you might need to spend time tweaking it - the must is to install the correct radio.
I've done quite a lot of rom upgrading, so am quite comfortable now with the process. If you want to do it and need a hand, let me know.

Have you tried to verify your firewall? Last time I had some Sync problems was just after updating my firewall that changed settings to default, blocking the Polaris-PC communication.

Have tried disabling all firewalls with no luck.
I've hit a brick wall on this one, but am fearful it will be hard to get device back to working order again if I do hard-reset and still can't sync
Suggestions very welcome
Thanks
New_Wizard said:
Have you tried to verify your firewall? Last time I had some Sync problems was just after updating my firewall that changed settings to default, blocking the Polaris-PC communication.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

OK, I feel for you on this one!
If you don't want to flash to a new rom (or, re flash to your old one), there is a solution but it involves removing and renaming your Outlook.pst file ... the procedure (which is on this site somewhere) seemed fraught with danger, to me, so i preferred to re flash when i had a similar problem.
Before re flashing, if you decide to, you backup your data using PIMBackup - only your contacts and maybe phone call list, not anything specific to the phone's operating system or software.
Re flash, then restore the data.
Then, Active Sync will see the phone as a completely new system.

I've never seen this problem before... unable to install/uninstall applications?

Hello,
No matter what application I would try to install, it would fail right away. I thought that maybe the last application I installed was the problem, so I went to uninstall it from the settings menu. When I got to the Remove Programs list, it was empty! I cannot install or uninstall applications!
The last program I was able to install was this: http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=3646
Can anyone help me fix this, or will I need to hard reset?

I gave up and just did a hard reset.

SKTools
Hi
for anybody else still facing this issue, SKTools may help you.
Cheers
andrew-in-woking

i have same problem, i do tweak registry settings, but haven't for about 2 weeks before this problem happened. tried to use sktools to uninstall programs, but same result.
any suggestions? i do have a registered install of sktools for smartphone.
btw, im using a BJII with 6.1
Also, just realized i cant access the "about", "Accessability", or "owner info" info in "settings", it gives me "ERROR The settings could not be opened"
however, "version" and some others in the "settings" menu work fine (i haven't gone thru and tested all of them)
I have already performed a couple soft resets, with no change. seems like something pretty basic is F'ed. any ideas would be appreciated, i am planning to hard reset tonight if i dont get this taken care of...... So so much to re setup/install.... :-(

i did a hard reset, reflashed my bjII to the most recent 6.1 ROM. and now it is doing the same thing AGAIN!.
i have done no registry mods besides unlocking the keys ATT tries to restrict for their ghey medianet/cellularvideo links. and that has NEVER caused any issues before.
i Have installed:
NETCF3.5
Live Search
LEDAlertsSP
GoogleMapsMobile
Resco Explorer
Opera
SKTools
Increase Ringtone size to 25mb
the only app i haven't tried before is Twikini (a twitter app) it seems to work perfectly, but it is the only thing i have not had on my phone for an extended period of time.
Anyone with advice on how i can go about finding out what the real issue here is please lemme know.

PrettyPistol555 said:
i did a hard reset, reflashed my bjII to the most recent 6.1 ROM. and now it is doing the same thing AGAIN!.
i have done no registry mods besides unlocking the keys ATT tries to restrict for their ghey medianet/cellularvideo links. and that has NEVER caused any issues before.
i Have installed:
NETCF3.5
Live Search
LEDAlertsSP
GoogleMapsMobile
Resco Explorer
Opera
SKTools
Increase Ringtone size to 25mb
the only app i haven't tried before is Twikini (a twitter app) it seems to work perfectly, but it is the only thing i have not had on my phone for an extended period of time.
Anyone with advice on how i can go about finding out what the real issue here is please lemme know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello I think it wasnt necessary, I had the same problem twice, and flashed it again, and restored the rom and it keeped on non working. So the first thing i did was to unmount the sd card and mount it again and it worked for a while.
Afterwards I format microSD card- FAT32, other guy wrote in a forum with 4096.
here is the link hope it works for you
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1124590

Does Raphael (or any ROMs) have a Safe Mode?

Does the HTC Raphael have any kind of Safe Mode that you can boot into which would disable any auto-run programs and allow you to use the device in a "plain vanilla" mode?
My specific problem is that I've managed to install a program which apparently sets itself up to auto-run at startup, and which has effectively bricked my phone. The device isn't completely unresponsive. Using keyboard shortcuts I can run certain programs such as Opera or the mail client. Unfortunately, I can't get into the Remove Programs settings applet.
I also can't get it to sync with my PC, which would be another way to remove a program. When I plug the USB cable in, I get the "Choose a connection type" dialog, but the PC doesn't recognize that the device is plugged in. So that's a dead end.
I've done multiple soft resets, to no good effect. The phone hangs at the same place each time, which is before the Today screen appears BTW. I'm viewing a hard reset as a last resort, since I really don't want to spend the rest of the day reinstalling and reconfiguring applications and system settings.
Any ideas would be appreciated. I've been searching the forums and wiki for about an hour, but haven't found anything relevant except for something for a different HTC device. I've spent several hours trying different things that I've thought of with varying results, but the basic problem remains. And finally, while I'm new to this forum, I'm definitely not a noob. I've been a serious PocketPC user back to the days of the Casio E-100, and a mobile device user starting with the original Newton.
Thanks in advance.
Scott Trotter

i know the older versions of spb mobile shell had a safe mode, i havent use spb since my nike tho so i dont know if its still included
obviously as you cant install programs in your current state i suggest u try a hard reset

it was wkTask or ILauncher that had it. Check it out

What did you install? And how does it run at startup? Is it just a link in the windows/startup folder, or a reg entry? If you can launch a file explorer, reg editor, or sk tools, you should be able to disable it.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that the culprit is SPB Wireless Monitor. I had a discount coupon for SPB software that expired last night at midnight, so I installed a couple of trial version programs to check them out. Everything worked fine until I tried Wireless Monitor, which apparently bricked the phone. I say "apparently" because its possible that the problem is caused by some type of interaction between Wireless Monitor and something else. In any event, I'm not able to run anything on the phone that will help me diagnose or fix the problem...whatever it is.
I'll probably wait until tomorrow to see if anyone comes up with a reset-saving solution, then throw in the towel and do a hard reset. Probably take the opportunity to try a different ROM while I'm at it.

SPB Pocket plus brings a safe mode to every windows mobile device; it deactivates all autostart proggies & has helped me a lot of times. i have one more cab to install safe mode, but i dont know where its from, and i remember that it does not work so good as SPB Pocket plus does ...
hope it helps
Boris

In my own situation, I ended up having to hard reset and start from scratch. Oh well, such is life.
To wrap up, based on the responses above or the lack thereof, it appears that the following is true:
1) There is no "safe mode" capability in the Raphael, neither as a hardware feature, nor as an operating system feature.
2) There are some third-party software alternatives which offer this capability, but you need to have the foresight to have them installed so that they are available in an emergency situation.
Thanks for everyone's help.

Very much bolting the stable door etc etc but
Get a decent backup client and schedule it to backup every day (week, hour, month - depending on how often you change the data on the phone).
If you envisage more than a few hard reboots in a year (changing / testing roms, trying software you might decide you hate, or just a geek etc etc) spend a little time creating a UC setup (there are a few different versions / ways now so i wont prejudice by linking to any one).
I know its not a fix, and requires a little preperation, but for a few $$ and a handful of hours, its can save a whole load of grief later on.

borisku said:
SPB Pocket plus brings a safe mode to every windows mobile device; it deactivates all autostart proggies & has helped me a lot of times. i have one more cab to install safe mode, but i dont know where its from, and i remember that it does not work so good as SPB Pocket plus does ...
hope it helps
Boris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeeah spb pocket plus not mobile shell thats what i ment lol

Beeble said:
Very much bolting the stable door etc etc but
Get a decent backup client and schedule it to backup every day (week, hour, month - depending on how often you change the data on the phone).
If you envisage more than a few hard reboots in a year (changing / testing roms, trying software you might decide you hate, or just a geek etc etc) spend a little time creating a UC setup (there are a few different versions / ways now so i wont prejudice by linking to any one).
I know its not a fix, and requires a little preperation, but for a few $$ and a handful of hours, its can save a whole load of grief later on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've given that lecture many, many times myself. Its embarrassing to be on the receiving end.

I'm surprised that the Safe Mode feature isn't in SPB Mobile Shell. After having it in Pocket Plus, and it being so useful, why take it out?

[Q] Screen lock software stalls Messaging

I was using S2U2 as a screen lock application while running Windows Mobile 6.1 on my HTC Touch Pro 2. In the beginning everything worked smoothly, and S2U2 was exactly the program I needed. However, after I while, I started experiencing problems with my text messaging applications. Text messages would not come in, only the screen would wake up. Then, if I unlocked the phone with S2U2, the first stuck text message would come in. Later, as the problem progressed, text messages would not come in even after the unlock. I would have to open any other program, close it, and then the next SMS would come in. And so on. It came to a point where I was going off my mind, and I couldn't figure out where the source of the problem is.
It seemed as it is either a software problem or a system problem. Because of all the problems I decided it's time to upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5. I was confident that this would stabilize everything. Unfortunately, after restoring all programs and settings from a backup program, it was even worse. I was very disappointed. This meant that the problem is with some software, and trying to figure out which one is a major job. But I had no choice. I made another hard reset and started re-installing all programs one by one, while monitoring performance in order to pinpoint the bad guy.
Guess what? I installed everything I had before and it works very fine. The only program I did not install is S2U2. I suspected this one is causing all the trouble, but I had no evidence. Now I do. I need this program desperately, but I'm afraid to re-install it, because I'm sure it will start all the problems again...
Later, I found another similar program (but not free) - Pocket Shield. So I installed this program. Worked nicely, but sure enough, after a day or 2, the same problems started to resurface again!
I guess after all, it must be something in the code that both programs use that clogs up the system.
Right now, I'm totally lost. I desperately need a screen locker because my phone does all kind of weird stuff on its own while in my pocket, but I'm afraid to install any of these programs, as I'm sure it will mess everything up again!!
Any help will be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance...