New battery driver released for 210 Ipaq by HP for discharge / NeillM syndrome...

worldweary · 06-30-09, 08:19 PM

A Huge THANK YOU to Prof Julie, one of the moderators on the HP Ipaq Business forum for coming to the rescue on this...

I approached her last week to see if she could find out whether HP was ever going to release the fabled beta battery driver. Within 24 hours she came back and told me that per HP, they had recently incorporated the new driver into the 210 update file (sp39620.exe), which was originally released back in June of last year. They did not however, change the date or add any addtional documentation about this.

FIve days ago, I installed the update on my 210, along with Commontime mNotes 5 (a known instigator of NeillM syndrome), and since then, NO problems! To put this in context, the last time I tried this with the old driver, my PDA lost all power over night every time, and eventually ended up with a corrupted ROM that HP had to reflash for me.

After installing the update, the battery driver dll in windows is dated 12/10/08, which was about the time it was released to the beta tester over on the HP forum who indicated it worked fine for her.

This may explain why some people have recently received notifications to download this update. Prof Julie is going to see if she can get HP to change the date and make some mention that the new battery driver is in there. She is also going to see if she can find out whether this is applicable to the 100 series.

I hope some of the folks who have had this problem are still around to take advantage. Get the update. Be sure you run the update from an XP machine, that you plug the USB cable directly into a USB port on the device (no USB hub), and that the battery is fully charged before running the the update. Also disable the computer's power saving mode and remove any installed storage cards.

Very good news...

W2

jspalaroan · 07-01-09, 02:30 AM

I have installed the new update on my HP210 using the SP 39620, now my cf card in unrecognize, it says enter the name of the device driver for this card, for info see the cards mftrs documentation , Unknown card in socket 1. I'm using vista w/ wmdc. Would you know the workaround on these? I should have not upgraded as the power drain in my handheld is not that much, Btw , I'm using transcend CF card. Yes, the wifi diver was upgraded to new version but the F card is not recognize. Tnks and more power

worldweary · 07-01-09, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by jspalaroan

I have installed the new update on my HP210 using the SP 39620, now my cf card in unrecognize, it says enter the name of the device driver for this card, for info see the cards mftrs documentation , Unknown card in socket 1. I'm using vista w/ wmdc. Would you know the workaround on these? I should have not upgraded as the power drain in my handheld is not that much, Btw , I'm using transcend CF card. Yes, the wifi diver was upgraded to new version but the F card is not recognize. Tnks and more power

I don't use a Compact Flash card in my device so I am not sure. I would recommend contacting HP to see if they can fix your issue with the card, or give you instructions on how to uninstall the update.

W2.

jspalaroan · 07-01-09, 08:42 PM

I did hard reset my HH, tnx to the backup (spb), I have restored everything, now my HP is back to normal, as a compromise , I will just live w/o the update but my CF is recognized

Julie · 07-01-09, 10:27 PM

The ROM update reflashes the ROM on the device. This update cannot be removed by a factory reset or by restoring a backup file to the device. If restoring your backup file to your IPAQ fixed the CF issue, there was something else causing your problems that was not related to the ROM update.

07-02-09, 08:50 AM

Is this an actual full ROM update or just for the drivers. Please let us know what the updated ROM information is on your device after implementing this (such as Rom Date, Rom Revision, etc).

The only thing I am seeing in the HP page is the the following update.

HP iPAQ 200 Enterprise Handheld Series - Update for Wi-Fi Driver, Data Transfer, Extended Battery, and LCD Manufacturer''s Name 1.01
10 Jun 2008
4.4 mb

This seems to me just to be an updatd Bios like we had last year, except newer?

Thanks for the information.

jspalaroan · 07-02-09, 10:11 AM

Originally Posted by zacksba

Is this an actual full ROM update or just for the drivers. Please let us know what the updated ROM information is on your device after implementing this (such as Rom Date, Rom Revision, etc).

The only thing I am seeing in the HP page is the the following update.

HP iPAQ 200 Enterprise Handheld Series - Update for Wi-Fi Driver, Data Transfer, Extended Battery, and LCD Manufacturer''s Name 1.01
10 Jun 2008
4.4 mb

This seems to me just to be an updatd Bios like we had last year, except newer?

Thanks for the information.

Yes, its states only an improvement. I think when i have updated , its was really an improvement and it did not reflashed my rom, where Can i download the rom update? but still hesitant though as not to brick my unit (see screenshots)

JakeRich · 07-02-09, 07:03 PM

I have yet to see proof that this so-called update actually addresses the NeillM syndrome. The OPs problem was battery drain overnight, which was an unrelated issue that HP addressed last year. The file in question is NOT a ROM upgrade, just some replacement drivers. It does not re-flash the unit in any way.

I'm still waiting for NeillM to be fixed. It's been 16 months now.

Julie · 07-02-09, 07:46 PM

You are right, the update is not a ROM update. Install the update again and see for yourself. You might be surprised. You can find the update here.

Quoting from the email I received from my contact at HP:

Quote:

Hi Julie,
The battery update .cab file is already on the BSC under the same softpaq number sp39620.exe , we kept the same number and just updated the softpaq.
The fix is not shipping from the factory since the failure rate is very low, we only offered as a web download update.

Release Note update:

Updates the battery driver so that when the unit resumes from standby mode, it fully boots up instead of booting up to the Windows Mobile 6.0 screen and then turning off. (battery driver actually crashed as WM resumed causing device to power off and corrupting EEPROM )

worldweary · 07-02-09, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by JakeRich

I have yet to see proof that this so-called update actually addresses the NeillM syndrome. The OPs problem was battery drain overnight, which was an unrelated issue that HP addressed last year. The file in question is NOT a ROM upgrade, just some replacement drivers. It does not re-flash the unit in any way.

I'm still waiting for NeillM to be fixed. It's been 16 months now.

Correct. Its not a ROM update and I have edited the original post to reflect that.

Here is a quote from a post from NeillM himsellf in the Brighthand 210 forum thread about the Syndrome, (post #84 on page 9 in the thread), regarding his own use of Commontime mNotes 5, which was the application that last summer caused my device to start completely losing power, and ultimately left me with a corrupted ROM that HP had to reflash.

"It's CommonTime's mSuite version 5. It reliably triggers neillm syndrome. The manufacturer has been very helpful, but are baffled by it. I guess it may not be their code directly. It may be some weird interaction when the device has populated email and calendar. It is a shame because it is a great product. I'm hoping the new battery driver HP have promised will fix the fault."

Since installing the update Julie references above, which contains the updated battery driver dll that HP released for beta testing in December, (Per the NeillM thread on the HP forums), I have been using my same 210 for over a week now having installed mNotes version 5 with no problems. I have noticed some slow responsiveness on a couple of occasions but so far this thing is working for me. If I still had the old battery driver, I have no doubts, I would be back in reset hell by now...

W2