ishasha

The biggest problems that bothered me most are: 1) not turning on; 2) heavy power drain (sometimes with hot battery); 3) sometimes not recognizing the CF card. (I only have a 1gig CF card). Worse than most people here, even if I take the card out, I still experienced the problem. After 3 replacements , I finally decided to use my own wisdom, rather than watching desperate Dell rep keep sending me exactly the same unit... It turned out my method seems to be much better. It used to be that 20 minutes after I plug the card in, the unit wouldn't turn on. And now it's good for almost two days. I would say it's a good sign. :) I'll keep watching.

So here is my method. 1) Take the card out. Use a card reader/writer to format it. 2) Hard reset my x51v. Reinstall everything. (do not use backup and restore) 3) Put the formatted card back in the unit. 4) Use ActiveSync (through USB) to copy data into the card or the ROM. That's it. And then there is a rule I plan to stick with: DO NOT use a card reader/writer to transfer data to and from the card from now on. Always use ActiveSync when the card is in Axim.

The idea behind this is: Using other card reader to access the card and then putting it back to x51v might corrupt the file system and eventually lead to a locked up system and power drain. And unfortunately this corruption, once formed, exists both on the card and in the ROM, therefore simply changing either one won't fix the problem. To clear the corruption, both the card and the ROM have to be cleared, and this is achieved by: 1) Format the card; 2) hard reset the unit. To prevent this kind of corruption from happening again is natually to not access this card out of axim x51v.

This is really just my guess. But for me, it's worth trying, especially when the Nov 18 ROM update seems unrealistic again...

rajojomanik

Originally Posted by ishasha

The biggest problems that bothered me most are: 1) not turning on; 2) heavy power drain (sometimes with hot battery); 3) sometimes not recognizing the CF card. (I only have a 1gig CF card). Worse than most people here, even if I take the card out, I still experienced the problem. After 3 replacements , I finally decided to use my own wisdom, rather than watching desperate Dell rep keep sending me exactly the same unit... It turned out my method seems to be much better. It used to be that 20 minutes after I plug the card in, the unit wouldn't turn on. And now it's good for almost two days. I would say it's a good sign. :) I'll keep watching. So here is my method. 1) Take the card out. Use a card reader/writer to format it. 2) Hard reset my x51v. Reinstall everything. (do not use backup and restore) 3) Put the formatted card back in the unit. 4) Use ActiveSync (through USB) to copy data into the card or the ROM. That's it. And then there is a rule I plan to stick with: DO NOT use a card reader/writer to transfer data to and from the card from now on. Always use ActiveSync when the card is in Axim. The idea behind this is: Using other card reader to access the card and then putting it back to x51v might corrupt the file system and eventually lead to a locked up system and power drain. And unfortunately this corruption, once formed, exists both on the card and in the ROM, therefore simply changing either one won't fix the problem. To clear the corruption, both the card and the ROM have to be cleared, and this is achieved by: 1) Format the card; 2) hard reset the unit. To prevent this kind of corruption from happening again is natually to not access this card out of axim x51v. This is really just my guess. But for me, it's worth trying, especially when the Nov 18 ROM update seems unrealistic again...

This is worth a try when I order my third x51v.

rlarson_mn

Thats the same advise I got from Dell each time I have had a problem with my X51V. It takes a lot of time to get every thing back together only to have issues start again the very next day )or sooner). I will wait for the ROM update. Thanks for the idea though.

ishasha

Originally Posted by rlarson_mn

Thats the same advise I got from Dell each time I have had a problem with my X51V. It takes a lot of time to get every thing back together only to have issues start again the very next day )or sooner). I will wait for the ROM update. Thanks for the idea though.

Oh really. I haven't been so lucky to get any valuable advice from Dell. Everytime they just asked me to hard reset. And then ship me a replacement. :rolling:

Of course I hope they stick to their promised date of a ROM update.... What a poorly designed operating system!