Having tried every upgrade, every patch and every tweak, I at last got fed up with my slow and jerky hx4700, so last Sunday I bit the bullet and installed the original Bios with wm2003 on it.
What a difference! I now have a very very fast and smooth HX4700. No more waiting for things to load, no more hesitation, no need to reset every day just to see if after the reset it will run faster.
For all of you out there who want to excperience the pleasure of a smooth and fast PPC (faster than any of the new PPCs, by any manufacturer) take my advice and put back 2003.
Ok so you loose some memory and some of the WM5/6 tricks do not work, but what the hell, I have had my HX4700 for 3 years now and I do not need any tricks, I just need the basic things I require for my work and solitare to play on.
Just for your information this is what is loaded on my super fast HX4700
SPB Brain evolution (game on SD card)
Gradsoft T-Plus Bridge (game on SD card)
Opera web browser (on SD card)
SPB Traveler (on SD card)
SPB Backup (on SD card)
SPB Diary (main memory)
SPB Pocket Plus (main memory)
DDH Sotware HandBase (main memory)
The main beauty about SPB Pocket plus other than it is a nice Today Screen menu program is that whenever you click on the "X" of a running program the program is CLOSED. (you can create exceptions to this so that certain programs that you need all the time are exempt from this shut down)
Thanks for posting about your experience! It really enforces my belief that it isn't the best strategy to upgrade a device just because you can. You really do stand to lose things in the process and, even though there are some that think windows mobile 2003 se is practically obsolete, I have not found any real limitations with this OS. I still run windows mobile 2003se on my favorite, most used and most reliable Pocket PC and have no plans to ever upgrade the OS in that device.
__________________ Julie | Microsoft MVP Mobile Devices | Mobility Site Moderator | Judge, Smartphone & Pocket PC Best Software Awards 2007 & 2008 | visit my blog: To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
At last! A voice of reason! I too have an original hx4700 w/ wm2003se and it just plain works, with no messing around. I usually travel with it, leaving the notebook behind. Two big changes recently: The 128MB upgrade from PocketPC Techs (wish I did it a couple of years ago. It's worth the money) and Opera (It's great). I've been tempted to go to WM6.1 but that's more playing around than genuine need. I expect I'm good for another year or two. This box is the most successful piece of technology I use.
I would stick with WM2003SE, but I have two major reasons for not doing so.
-Opera Mobile 9.5 won't work. I consider it highly essential, as my hx4700's primary purpose is largely as an Internet tablet. (Everything else I use it for-TCPMP, e-mail, and maybe a little SoftMaker Office on the side-works fine under WM2003SE.)
-On every hx4700 I've had so far (one working unit, one parts unit that I couldn't repair, and one parts unit that I could repair and is now working), the backup battery doesn't work. That means a hard reset whenever I want to perform a battery swap. Of course, I can always restore a backup after the fact, but it's still quite annoying.
Could you post how this was done? Googling for how to downgrade has left me with a lot of vague instructions and broken links. I got my rx4700 with WM5 pre-installed by the seller, and I hate it with a passion; it's a considerable step down from my trusty circa-2001 Jornada. Hopefully reinstalling its intended OS will make it usable again.
I'm still awaiting a solution for how to get the binaries needed for the downgrade; I got an offer of help a few weeks ago, but my replies have not yielded any further response from the person who made the offer, so if anyone here can help, I'd appreciate it.
Unzip the bootloader to a directory without spaces (I just use "C:\Bootloader\").
Then, run the HP ROM update. It may flash your unit, it may not. If it doesn't, it should leave behind the temporary files in the C:\iPAQ\SP29841 directory. In there is the .nbf file you need, and perhaps an .nb0 as well. Either will work.
Now, go to the Bootloader folder and run the executable. When you get a browser window popup, point it to the .nbf or .nb0 file, and it'll take care of the rest.
Of course, this all assumes that the PC doing the ROM flashing is running Windows XP. I've never had it work on Vista-at least not 64-bit Vista, anyway. You may have better luck on a 32-bit Vista installation in that regard.
Avast reported the bootloader installer as a virus, but others have seemed to have used all right, so I backed up my computer and ran it after running HP's "upgrade" EXE (which caused the iPaq to turn into a brick, hopefully a temporary situation). After selecting the HP file (and turning off my anti-virus software), I ran bootloader.exe (in XP), but it's been unresponsive for the last four or five hours or so (and the iPaq remains unresponsive). I suppose for now, I'll keep it running, but it should have had plenty of time to download and install, even at 115200 bps. I might try again, but let me know if there's anything I should know to get this working.
I've always been a firm believer in keeping a device on its original OS. Upgrades tend to cause more problems than they're worth. :(
I'll keep my AX on WM2003se for as long as I have it. :)
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Happiness isn't getting what you want but wanting what you have. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
I thought I was getting 2003SE, with a disc included to upgrade if I wanted. It turns out the iPaq had WM5 already on it. Maybe that's why they were selling it! Anyway, like I said, the program recommended and the iPaq are both non-responsive at this point, and have been for several hours.
Since the bootloader didn't work, I went back to the HP software, and running it a second time did the trick. I've only used the iPaq for a few seconds, but so far I'm much happier with 2003 than 5; at least I don't want to throw it in the trash anymore! And already something works that didn't on 5; something I wasn't sure was even the OS's fault....
I understand Julie point of view, I still have somewhere in my garage an old IBM PC XT 8088 that still works ;) . But I know that I must go on: it's time to get rid of old concepts, that is not an OS upgrade, but an entire different approach of mobile view. I am an Axim x51v user, and I can't imagine myself working with that poor WM5 anymore: it just lack many ideas that make WM6.1 better. Use WM2003 today is like when I open my Jornada 720... a view to the past. Some people use the PDA only for calendar, for that people is OK to keep the original ROM. But for someone that really uses all its resources, its not enough.
__________________ Erickson Leon - Curitiba - Brazil
Best PDA Ever - Axim X51v(WM6.1-L11)
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Since the bootloader didn't work, I went back to the HP software, and running it a second time did the trick. I've only used the iPaq for a few seconds, but so far I'm much happier with 2003 than 5; at least I don't want to throw it in the trash anymore! And already something works that didn't on 5; something I wasn't sure was even the OS's fault....
Well, it did work for about four weeks. Then it became totally unresponsive. Only waiting a while and resetting did anything, but, after a few minutes or hours, it would stop working again, even after the HP OS was reinstalled from scratch. So it looks like a lot of trial and error for four weeks worth of use.
So I guess I need a new PDA. I wanted the iPaq so I could use all my old software (from older systems, and thus working far better on WM2003 than WM5 or WM6) and old hardware (compactflash-based cards). I stuck with Windows Mobile since I mainly do things like edit text files, read web pages offline, listen to podcasts, and keep appointments and contacts. Although I'm tempted to jump the WM ship altogether, I'll probably try to find another 2003SE device for continuity. And this time, if it doesn't work straight off, I'm sending it back....
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