Solution - Axim not turning on, Disappearing CF/SD Cards and Battery Discharge

[Chillywinter]

The solution I have used to resolve the same issues for my X51V was to turn on BT (Blue Tooth) and leave it on all of the time. For my experience this is much easier to reapply when ROM updates have been preformed. My experience is that the small amount of battery loss (2% over 8 hours while the unit is off) was acceptable to me. Since doing this I have had zero instances of CF/SD loss, battery over heating/loss, white screens when syncing and 'Dose Not Turn On' issues. Just my experience for an alternative should the fine solution mentioned here be to compmlicated to impliment for others.

How do you turn on BT permanently?

[morph166955]

Im not sure if this was said above but i have a theory on the CF/SD problem. as we all know microsoft removed (disabled maybe is a better word?) the sync via tcpip part of active sync in 4.x. Infact from my research durring a sync the internal wireless is disabled for the durration of the sync then re-enabled after. Well what if microsoft thinking ahead set it to shut off the CF/SD card slots in the event that theres a wireless/bluetooth/other network device in either of the slots? this could have been there way of preventing people from doing a network sync if they werent using the internal wireless (eg for ones that may not have internal wireless since i doubt that they have multiple versions of their software). by leaving the bluetooth on it may prevent the system from disabling the cf/sd slots durring syncs or it could possibly re-enable them after the sync in the event they are shut off. yes...its a bug in my book that its happening in the first place but that may give us an idea as to why the bug exists in the first place.

[Marceline]

Yes you can...
Make a shortcut of the Lan connection to tha taskbar (by dragging). If you rightclick the icon you can disable the connection, et voìla! By enabling the connection, syncing will start again. The advantage is that the Axim will charge in the craddle, even without the power adapter attached.

Regards,

You can also disable the USB connection in Activesync on your PC.

File-Connection Settings-(uncheck)Allow USB connections.

[fAlCoNNiAn]

thanks for the tip, worked wonderfully.

[g00nerz]

Im not sure if this was said above but i have a theory on the CF/SD problem. as we all know microsoft removed (disabled maybe is a better word?) the sync via tcpip part of active sync in 4.x. Infact from my research durring a sync the internal wireless is disabled for the durration of the sync then re-enabled after. Well what if microsoft thinking ahead set it to shut off the CF/SD card slots in the event that theres a wireless/bluetooth/other network device in either of the slots? this could have been there way of preventing people from doing a network sync if they werent using the internal wireless (eg for ones that may not have internal wireless since i doubt that they have multiple versions of their software). by leaving the bluetooth on it may prevent the system from disabling the cf/sd slots durring syncs or it could possibly re-enable them after the sync in the event they are shut off. yes...its a bug in my book that its happening in the first place but that may give us an idea as to why the bug exists in the first place.

You know, I think that you may just be right. Good thinking!

[g00nerz]

Does applying this change have an effect when I do dock the handheld? Would it automatically sync when I dock or do I have to do initiate it by pressing a button.

I have been using A04 and have been reluctant to move to A06 given people's feedback. In addition, I have been lucky to not be experiencing these problems on A04 (knock on wood).

Is it advisable to move to A06 with this ActiveSync change and not experience these problems?

1. No, docking with your PC will be the same as normal. It will sync automatically.
2. A06 has been the best of the three Roms for me. Battery now holds charge entirely and the Ax seems a bit more swift. There have been a few other reported problems (search the forum), but I ain't seen any personally.
3. Give A06 a go - you can always revert back to A04 if things don't work out for you.

[rlarson_mn]

How do you turn on BT permanently?

Blue Tooth icon is at the lover right side of your beginning Axim screen. Open it up and check the box that says 'Turn on Bluetooth'. Thats it. You will have a blue blinking light on the uper right side of your unit beside the AXIM name. If you have to do a soft reset, battery change or hard reset you will have to recheck this box. The unit goes back to its default on nochecked box after these things. BTW this was not my idea but anothers on this site. I just know it works 100% for me.

[Chillywinter]

Blue Tooth icon is at the lover right side of your beginning Axim screen. Open it up and check the box that says 'Turn on Bluetooth'. Thats it. You will have a blue blinking light on the uper right side of your unit beside the AXIM name. If you have to do a soft reset, battery change or hard reset you will have to recheck this box. The unit goes back to its default on nochecked box after these things. BTW this was not my idea but anothers on this site. I just know it works 100% for me.

Oh is that all! I'll keep it in mind, but since the AS to MANUAL trick works for me I won't be needing the BT trick. The flashing blue LED would also be annoying for me, so I prefer the AS to MANUAL trick over the BT trick. The AS to MANUAL trick may be a little more complicated to initialise, but once you've set it,you can forget it.

The OS must have some code in it that says something like:

- If BT not on attempt AS via cable.

Then AS locks up your AXIM when the unit is in standby mode.

Conversly the code must say:

-If BT is on AND AS not responding then STOP AS attempt.

It seems then, providing you stop AS trying to sync while in standby mode (either by using the BT or the AS2MAN trick) your AXIM won't lock up.

All in all it's an AS problem that microsoft or DELL should be able to cure with just a few lines of code. When are they going to get their act together?

[halbert76]

Do I still need to Manually stop ActiveSun from Settings->System->Memory?
After using ActiveSync vis bluetooth, I turned power off, then on, I found ActiveSync is still runing on background.
So I guess I still need manually turned off ActiveSyn before turning off power. But your soulution prevent the ActiveSync runing again automatically, is that right?

[morph166955]

yes if your using bt to sync (which i just got working last night and i love it btw...if your not using it and you have the capability i highly recommend doing it) you have to go into the menu and hit disconnect before the wifi will work again. other then that bt should work w/o disabiling the wifi or anything else while its going.

[Watchin]

EXCELLENT rewrite and post!!

This is the first step in caging the resident bugs (gremlins actually)
in the Windows Mobile Version 5 (v 5.0 ... YEAH RIGHT more like v0.1 !) releases.

I actually think the AS running every 10 min is a holdover from
when AS WOULD do wireless syncing. So they took out a useful feature
and left the useless setting while turning off the ability to
unset it (except via deception)...yep sounds about right

A few additional notes to help the noob's (is that a word ) :
a) watch out which theme's you use, I've run into several that
can cause some of the issues we are trying to avoid with this patch.
Especially the older 2003se and 2003se-vga theme's !!
b) If you need a task controller (and you DO) use magic button (free) or
buy one of the commercial ones that is WM5 tested. With MB you'll
see the AS icon on the top bar whenever it's running and can kill
it (except when cradled).
c) DO NOT use the supplied "switcher bar" application
(at least from A01 or A04, haven't tried A06 yet) it will cause
these nasties to crawl out again. Magic Button will do the same
tasks better.
d) when you are adding software to your Axim, do it one application
at a time (I'm into waiting 24 hours between installs
now) cause applications can loose the beasties as well.

[richardfrank]

SO relieved!

My CF card seems to have been reprieved, the WSOD banished and battery power sustained... we'll see if it all still works in a week's time, but for the moment: THANKS!!

[SteveFLHTCI]

I upgraded my x50 to PC2003se after about a month with WM5 for several reasons. I never had the battery drain problem, but I had constant CF and SD card missing issues. The bluetooth fix did not fix it, although it did seem to be more infrequent. I also had a WSOD problem requiring a soft reset probably once daily. The other reason was the bluetooth stack, which has been attacked on the Dell version of WM5 ad nauseum. Now that I have a set of bluetooth headphones, this has become more important to me. Reading about this hack, which I saw before, but never tried since it seemed to only address the battery drain issues which I never had, I am tempted to try WM5 again. One question I would have rior though, is how much program memory do you now have free after a soft reset with no programs running? In 2003se I have around 30Mb. If that number is equalled or exceeded now with this hack, I would be more inclined to try it.

[mrlandlord366]

My Bluetooth Sync has never failed! Be sure there is no firewall running in the background. XP runs it all the time and you have to turn it off. Better that than trashing everything in sight.

brian