rebuilding a palm, slow and nervous

[redbird]

Testing with absolutely nothing but the native software and no installed data strongly suggests that rivka was right and this is a software problem.

So now I slowly put things back. I've made a copy of the Palm's "backup" directory on the desktop, and removed almost everything from the main/original directory (the one the software looks in).

If I have what I think I do, the just-completed hot sync should have only restored my datebook info.

I'm going to be slowly adding to the Palm--if I can get the datebook and address book working, I can cope. Memo pad and shopping list would be useful. So (yes) would Bubblet.

This entry is mostly a note-to-myself on current status.

12:36: Adding the datebook information--not the snazzy Datebook4 program--seems to have worked.
12:47: Restored address book data. So far, so good.
• Added to-do items with no problem. Added memo pad, and got some errors in the hot sync log about it being unable to add everything, but the Palm still works.
• Next, either HandyShop or figuring out what I need to do to get DateBk4 back.
17:00: I have HandyShop back, and the Palm still works.
17:30: Restored DateBk4, which led to a tedious scan through a lot old email to find my registration code for the software. So far, so good. Prudence suggests stopping here, but I want bubblet. I'll get a fresh copy of MetrO, I think, in case it had been corrupted. I can live without ParensLite (a calculator).
11/7: And now the digitization has wandered off again. Time to start over without DateBk4, or install a brand new copy.

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh! I just posted a link to instructions in a comment to your previous entry, but it sounds like you've figured the phenomenon out on your own.

[redbird]

Your link did help--it showed me how to start adding third-party software.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Cross your Palm with silver?

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope it stays working now. I had a Handspring with an entirely different but still annoying set of problems. It took to crashing completely and erasing its hard drive randomly. I thought it was a corrupted software problem so I cleaned everything off it and loaded only essentials back on and it worked fine, until we went to Italy. I had installed a couple of guidebooks, itineraries, currency converters, and language books on the thing, but when we got of the plane in Paris and I turned it back on, it had crashed again and lost everything. I managed to refrain from jumping up and down on it and then pitching it in the trash, but I haven't trusted it enough to use it since.

[markusn.livejournal.com]

Well, this is hardly encouraging, but my experience with portable hardware (A palm Vx among others)is that it isn't. Specifically if you lug around electronic equipment that is specified to be lugged around, it will eventually break. Frankly, I don't think Palm inc expected a 1999 vintage Vx to be working four years later.