zeluiz

Hi,
I´m having frequent hangs in my new HX4700, it´s my first PPC after many years using a Palm Pilot Professional. I knew that PPCs were highly unstable when compared to Palm devices, but I guessed it wasn´t so bad.
A single soft reset never solves the problem, at least 3 soft resets are need to restore the machine to work. When I perform a soft reset that "startup bar" is filled only up to some extension and then freezes, so new resets are needed until the system recovery is complete. Is that a common problem?
Also, most of the times a repeated (up to 5 consecutives)soft reset is not enough and I need to make a hard reset, but not a "simple" hard reset, I have to remove fisically the battery and leave it this way for about 20-30 min, only then the reset is allways successfull.
I´m inclined to say that these "hard" hang ups are more frequent when the unit is hot/warm, after a long recharge or sync.
Any hints about that?
Would an upgrade of the ROM to 1.10 solve that?
Besides these hang ups, I´m very satisfied with the HX4700 and it´s impressive VGA screen. But I want a more stable system...
Thanks for reading,
Jose

imported_Dermot81

Probably some bad app that is causing the damage.

Either hard reset or upgrade the rom, since upgrading forces you to hard reset.

__________________
Dell X51v + Motorola e815 | HP HX4700 | HP 2215 | iPAQ 3950 | iPAQ 3835

and235100

Originally Posted by zeluiz

Hi, I´m having frequent hangs in my new HX4700, it´s my first PPC after many years using a Palm Pilot Professional. I knew that PPCs were highly unstable when compared to Palm devices, but I guessed it wasn´t so bad. A single soft reset never solves the problem, at least 3 soft resets are need to restore the machine to work. When I perform a soft reset that "startup bar" is filled only up to some extension and then freezes, so new resets are needed until the system recovery is complete. Is that a common problem? Also, most of the times a repeated (up to 5 consecutives)soft reset is not enough and I need to make a hard reset, but not a "simple" hard reset, I have to remove fisically the battery and leave it this way for about 20-30 min, only then the reset is allways successfull. I´m inclined to say that these "hard" hang ups are more frequent when the unit is hot/warm, after a long recharge or sync. Any hints about that? Would an upgrade of the ROM to 1.10 solve that? Besides these hang ups, I´m very satisfied with the HX4700 and it´s impressive VGA screen. But I want a more stable system... Thanks for reading, Jose

DO NOT UPGRADE. It sounds like your ipaq has a hardware fault. If you upgrade the ROM you will get more problems. Even if the upgrade is successful (which I severely doubt it will be) then you will still experience these issues. Talk to HP! Get it repaired/replaced.

rob1303

Originally Posted by and235100

...It sounds like your ipaq has a hardware fault. If you upgrade the ROM you will get more problems. Even if the upgrade is successful (which I severely doubt it will be) then you will still experience these issues. Talk to HP! Get it repaired/replaced.

talk about an over-reaction

You seem to have an irrational hatred of iPaq's

If you have had problems with yours then I suggest you may also want to try the solution I offer below.

The likelihood of it being a hardware fault is low - especially if it was working before he installed all his software, then this is almost certainly a software conflict.

Just jumping in and saying it IS a hardware fault, the ROM update will make it worse and that he should contact HP - without doing any problem solving is just wrong!


Here is what you should try:

Perform a hard reset.

Use the device for a couple of hours, perform some soft resets - if it still hangs then it is a hardware issue, if not then it was caused by a software conflict.

Reinstall your programmes one at a time and try them out. (I would perform a full back-up each time before installing piece of software - you will see why in a moment).

When you install the piece of software that restarts the problem you will have found what caused the issue.

Perform a hard reset and restore the back-up that you made just before you installed that bit of software (this saves you from having to reinstall all the software that you installed before the offending item).

Then come back to the site and do a search to see if others have had problems with the same software.

If it doesn't appear so - ask a question: stating what the software was and the problems it caused.

Good luck

__________________
Regards

Rob

zeluiz

Hi,
I decided to take some risks and performed the upgrade.
So, I installed a lot of software to see if one would cause a problem. Some games did freeze it and also the DiVx player, but for the first time I´m able to use a single soft reset to quickly solve the problem!!! No more need to frequent hard resets!!! WOW!!!
That´s a great improvement from the previous situation.
But, I still have some doubts about the heating problem, when I disable WiFi things get much better, but as soon as WiFi is turned on for 30-40 min., then it begins to freeze ramdomly, the BIG difference is that now I "unfreeze" with just one soft reset!
Maybe I will need to talk to HP... Let me see if the warranty is a global one or if it is just to US, since now I´m at Brazil.
Any more hints will be welcome!!!
Thanks for reading,
Jose

Driftless

Make sure that you are not installing your apps to main memory. If you lose a lot of memory, it WILL start to lock up. I've not had a single freeze/lock up yet (knock on wood.... )

Just install them to the iPAQ Filestore...then in your memory menu (click memory icon on today panel), move your memory bar to between about the 3rd and 4th tick. You should have about 30mb or so free after a soft reset. (according to the today panel)

Alos install a program called Magic Button. This will actually close programs instead of minimize them (saving precious memory). This probably could be the only program installed into main memory (if you want it there)...all the rest go into filestore or an external card.

You shouldn't even have to do a soft reset at all, except to clean the memory up from running programs (dll's left in memory)

Also remember to clean your Pocket IE cache after you turn Wifi off...I've eaten up 10mb of memory browsing the memory before...slow as hell until i cleaned the cache.
[Open PIE, Tools>Options>Memory tab> clear history and delete files]

Windows Mobile isn't as bad as people think...you just have to remember that it is Windows and it will take maintenance to keep running good. Same as the desktop versions.

Oh...and a good Memory Link:
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=76407 (Built in Storage/BIS and our Filestore are the same thing.)

Good Luck and Have fun!!

__________________
---------------------------------------------
Driftless....

tracknut

Originally Posted by zeluiz

Would an upgrade of the ROM to 1.10 solve that? Besides these hang ups, I´m very satisfied with the HX4700 and it´s impressive VGA screen. But I want a more stable system...

Hi Jose,

I'm not going to be any help, other to agree completely with you. I'm having the very same problems with my hx4700, and haven't figured it out. I've taken to running it with absolutely no add-on software at all, and it still freezes once in a while. The ROM update made my wifi network stop working (802.1x problem), so now I'm down to running a generic PDA with no network. I think I could have paid a lot less money to play solitaire...

Personally I'm starting to think this is a hardware problem.

Dave

zeluiz

Thanks for the advice from Driftless, I now know what caused the frequent cracks!!! LOW MEMORY!!!
I remember that my main memory was usually about 15MB...
Now I´m keeping it over 30MB all the time and NO more hangs, except from one trial to watch a DiVx movie, that a soft reset solved.
I guess that many iPAQs returned to HP only have this "problem"...
During the next weeks I´ll keep my tests, but hopefully my little gem will continue working fine.
I love to surf the web and read my e-mails on the iPAQ!!!
Thanks again,
Jose

zeluiz

Originally Posted by tracknut

Hi Jose, I'm not going to be any help, other to agree completely with you. I'm having the very same problems with my hx4700, and haven't figured it out. I've taken to running it with absolutely no add-on software at all, and it still freezes once in a while. The ROM update made my wifi network stop working (802.1x problem), so now I'm down to running a generic PDA with no network. I think I could have paid a lot less money to play solitaire... Personally I'm starting to think this is a hardware problem. Dave

Please see the advice from Driftless, keeping the free memory above 30MB solved my frequent hangs.
As for the WiFi, after updating the ROM I had to reconfigure the WiFi connections assigning manually my WiFi router. Before the update I guess the WiFi configuring was more "automatic" and I was able to connect to any available WiFi network in the area, that was more flexible and the iPAQ choosed automatically the one with the best signal. I guess there is a way to keep it working as it was before, but since it´s working fine with my router now, I didn´t try to find out...
Thanks,
Jose

Driftless

Originally Posted by zeluiz

Thanks for the advice from Driftless, I now know what caused the frequent cracks!!! LOW MEMORY!!! Thanks again, Jose

No problem...that's why we're here!

__________________
---------------------------------------------
Driftless....

zeluiz

Hi,
Unfortunately, my HX4700 really has a hardware problem...
After thinking that increasing the free main memory had solved, when I did start to use it for longer periods the hang ups returned.
A lot of consecutives soft resets weren´t enough to solve, so I had the "exotic" idea of putting the device inside the refrigerator for a few minutes. Eureka!!! After taking it out, ONLY ONE soft reset solved, it started to work perfectly again.
I repeated the tests twice, same things happened.
So, I guess that the "refrigerator test" is a good idea to reach a definitive conclusion about a hardware problem.
I´ll open a new topic to see if other users have the same behavior...
Thanks,
Jose

imported_robbym

I too have had problems with my 4700 both before and after update 1.10

My unit takes a very long time (minutes) to save or open documents and requires frequent soft resets. I did some experimenting to troubleshoot my problem e.g hard reset and reload activesync, load programs one at a time using the unit between program loads to pinpoint software causes.

What I found suggests I have a hardware issue. My unit had the problem before and after ROM update, my unit had these problems with no other software loaded after a hard reset, my unit had these problems after a hard reset and a fresh reload of ActiveSync, my unit had these problems following a hard reset and sync'ed to a different computer with a fresh install of Active Sync. I still loaded programs one at a time and found that the problem remained mostly unchanged except to slow even more (as expected) with memory use.

When I called HP yesterday they suggested that since I had done so much trouble shooting that just send my unit in for repair. I am suspecting a loose connector, but would not be surprized by a faulty chip(s). It happens with portable electronics more often than other hardware. I've had 5 laptops and 4 PDA's die in 11 years, go figure? I love my portables and extended product service plans!

Cheers,
robbym