jerryx50

HI,

I recently upgraded to WM5 and am having some real issue with battery life. I am wondering if I am expecting too much from Windows Mobile 5 on my X50v.

Based on the information available before the upgrade I expected:

1) Improved battery life. The documentation published before WM5 shipped said that they had removed some of the early shutdown code since you apps and data would never be lost.

2) In the event of the battery going dead, that my information would still be available. Again, I understood that would not have to re sync all of my data if the battery did shutdown the system.

The reality I am seeing is neither of these appears true. My battery used to last 4 days or so off the charger using the unit once or twice a day for a minute or two Now I can do 2 days with the same usage. When the battery does go down, I can only restart the unit after it is charged and with the soft reset. This does not preserve any of my information. I have to re-establish my profile with Active Sync 4 and re-sync. All changes to contacts, new appointments, etc I have made since the last sync are lost.

In a attempt to get around some of these problems I have done the following:

1) Disabled error logging
2) Disabled wireless
3) Disabled turning on when an any button other than the power button is pressed.
4) Set the window bricghtness on battery power to it's lowest level.
5) Ensured there are no 3rd party applications installed.
6) Ensure a CF or SD card is not installed.
7) Verified the unit slows to 104 MHz when idle.

Is this the expected behavior of WM5?

Thanks,

Jerry

gr123

http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=104805

greyseal

Expecting too much?

Like... "I expect it to work."

No, I don't think we're expecting too much. We waited all this time for a broken half-upgrade. This is a bigger disaster than Windows Me.

patrickj

I'm sure all the bleeding edge / leading edge / did they release WM5 too soon topics will continue to inspire a huge variety of opinions for quite a while. My own experience with WM5 has been very good. Have had issues, but have found solutions to them - a lot of them through very helpful tips and suggestions found on this site. For instance, I definitely recommend the post below from SolSie for some great general tips on common initial heartaches with WM5.

WM5 Here To Stay Tips from SolSie

In particular, you may want to look at this section on battery drain:

ActiveSync 4.0 turns on automatically/Processor stuck at 624MHz ******
There were several posts indicating ActiveSync turns on by itself when the Axim is not cradled and eventually drains the battery. It never happens to me. Circumpvention provided by Invid:

Disabling automatic syncing (and activesync startup) did. The new activesync is a dog, even worse than it was on WM2003SE and makes my x50v almost useless while running. I will list the steps to disable it. Note that you will still be able to sync, but AS will no longer start up on it's own.

1) Start up AS on your x50.
2) Tap the menu tab/soft key and tap "Add Server Source"
3) Configure a server source with a dummy IP address, user id, password and domain name; these do not have to be real
4) Once configured you should have another sync source show up on your main AS screen...continue on.
5) Tap the menu soft key again and you should see that the sync schedule option is no longer greyed out.
6) Change your schedule from a timed automatic start of AS to manual under both fields
7) If you try to sync now, AS will try to contact your imaginary exchange server and that will take forever until it times out, so you can now delete the exchange server from your list of sync sources. Your changes to the sync schedule will remain and will survive soft resets too.

HTH

greyseal

Originally Posted by patrickj

Have had issues, but have found solutions to them

But isn't that exactly the point? Why is it the job of the consumer to fix all the things that should have been working to begin with? I don't buy a car with the expectation of having to modify the engine if I want to drive more than four blocks at a time.

We're at an advantage because we know how to fix these things. But the average person trying to use their Axim day-to-day isn't going to read posts on how to modify settings to keep ActiveSync from sucking the battery, or how to change registry settings so the stupid OS can recognize CF cards.

When you buy something, there is an assumption of trust on the part of the seller that the product works as advertised. Microsoft has trained us to accept half-baked products as part of life. And we've all bought into it.

patrickj

Hmmm - probably all fair points. I wasn't really aiming to go there with my reply - just to point at a useful tips post that might help jerry with his battery issues.

I guess if I think about it, I don't know that I would recommend a WM5 powered device to someone who 'just wants it to work' - not yet anyway. Not sure the comparison with a car is that useful - cars haven't changed that dramatically in say the last 5 years. Little safer, a little more all designed the same and boxy looking, nothing real revolutionary. PDAs / PCs on the other hand, change at an incredible pace - your Axim has the spec of a high-end workstation 5 years ago. So I think I'm just a little more willing to live with the idea that if I want devices that are smaller, faster, slicker, and that can do 101 new things every time we blink, I can handle some bumps in the road when using them.

Also - probably very much in the minority here - but I don't think MS has released a whole lot lately that is half-baked. I think Windows Server 2003 and XP in particular are pretty solid, baked products.

CodeBubba

Originally Posted by greyseal

But isn't that exactly the point? Why is it the job of the consumer to fix all the things that should have been working to begin with? I don't buy a car with the expectation of having to modify the engine if I want to drive more than four blocks at a time. We're at an advantage because we know how to fix these things. But the average person trying to use their Axim day-to-day isn't going to read posts on how to modify settings to keep ActiveSync from sucking the battery, or how to change registry settings so the stupid OS can recognize CF cards. When you buy something, there is an assumption of trust on the part of the seller that the product works as advertised. Microsoft has trained us to accept half-baked products as part of life. And we've all bought into it.

You're right - that is exactly the point. A consumer device should "just work". As a developer of some 30 years I've seen both sides of this. Microsoft technology has definitely had its ups and downs (like the entire industry has). I've used Microsoft stuff ever since they were a 15-man operation and it's amazing to see how that has grown to what it is.

PC's in general do seem to be reaching the point where consumers can buy them and they "just work". Even PocketPC's seem to have gotten to that point with WM2003. I bought my Axim last December and it has worked with little to no tweaking on my part - I simply install stuff and it works. At that point I would recommend PPC to anyone. I would not have recommended the VGA one yet for a neophite user, though, (too much tweaking to get it right).

This situation with WM5, though, I have watched with a great deal of interest. Microsoft and/or Dell has seriously taken a step backward with this one. I've not seen any release of an O/S (since Me) that was so frought with problems. There is no way a consumer-level user could recover from the problems I've seen detailed on just this board; such users would do the only thing reasonable, that is return the product. Who can blame them?

PPC's have *got* to become stable enough where people won't be afraid to buy them and just drop into user mode immediately. We'll always have tinkerers and "power users" around that goof around with the stuff but these devices will have to be nearly idiot-proof before you'll see them carried around in the same numbers that you see cellphones right now.

My 2-cents.

-CB :approve:

ppt

i think i have gotten to the point where i expect blue screens of death (or white screens of death for ppc) for MS products, whereby the fix would be a reboot (or soft reset). it's so expected that it's not frustrating anymore. if my winXP seems sluggish, i reboot my comp. if x50v feels sluggish on wm5, i soft reset. sadly i have grown accustomed to such annoyances.

if i have to 'reset' my microwave oven bcos it's working sluggishly, i wont buy from that brand again. resetting MS products has become part of life :(

CodeBubba

Originally Posted by ppt

i think i have gotten to the point where i expect blue screens of death (or white screens of death for ppc) for MS products, whereby the fix would be a reboot (or soft reset). it's so expected that it's not frustrating anymore. if my winXP seems sluggish, i reboot my comp. if x50v feels sluggish on wm5, i soft reset. sadly i have grown accustomed to such annoyances. if i have to 'reset' my microwave oven bcos it's working sluggishly, i wont buy from that brand again. resetting MS products has become part of life :(

I guess so. I've heard a lot of people complain about that but I'll run my XP development system for days [sometimes weeks] at a time without rebooting it. BSD? I haven't seen one of those on any of my systems in at least 2 years.

-CB :approve: