(This summarizes most information that I've obtained from different threads on this site - I hope it helps the next victim!)
The Problem:
I was watching a DVD off my SD Card that I converted to watch off my AXIM, as I was on vacation. It appeared to get overloaded, hung and so I had to do some soft and ultimately hard resets, which, of course, deleted everything on my RAM memory. Most programs I had saved, thought, on my ROM/built-in storage (BIS). When I returned home I started the process of reloading my programs...unfortunately I hadn't done a backup in over a year so I decided just to reload the programs manually... while doing one reload it seemed to to freeze and I ended up doing a soft reset: *poof* my BIS was gone.
The Solution:
I read everything I could on this site (yes I spent hours). I tried everything I read (as listed below). This is what I tried and what finally worked:
- Did not work
(be advised, though, that for some these processes worked for others, just not for me): Soft resets; hard resets; "hard reset" but canceling the process; "hard reset" but canceling the process and removing the battery while the "DELL" screen was showing, then replacing the battery; downgrading my ROM version and then upgrading to AO5 version; and finally reloading a complete backup I found from a year ago.
Again, none of these worked. I later realized that the solution lied in reformatting the ROM. The problem was how to accomplish this. Since all the WM2003SE ROM versions use the same amount of ROM, the upgrade program doesn't need to format the ROM when changing between versions - the reason why by "downgrading and upgrading" trial didn't work.
Possible solutions:
1. Using Resco Explorer to format the drive:
http://www.resco.net/pocketpc/explorer/default.asp
The problem with this was that since my ROM/BIS drive was not recognized I could not "choose" it to format!
2. Change languages from English to language X and revert back again. Apparently loading Japanese uses more ROM than EN and therefore will reformat the ROM. see:
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=83668
This was too risky (and complicated) for me before I exhausted all other options.
3. Upgrade to WM5 (and then if desired, return to WM2003SE). Apparently, upgrading reformats the ROM and therefore solves the problem. But I never bought the upgrade CD (after reading how many problems people were having with WM5 upgrade) and I couldn't find it to purchase now off the DELL website.
4. Use the patch for the same problem that occurs on the iPAQ: PSMFormat (see attached zip file). Instructions for use: unzip file, transfer file to pda, double click on file on pda.
This last solution is what worked for me. Supposedly there is an applet that opens and runs on the PDA when you double click on the file, but I didn't get one to open. It didn't seem to do anything. so I soft reset and it took a long time (5 min) to reboot with it sticking on the DELL screen for a while. Still no luck - actually worse - no BIS and it was running really, really, really slow. I tried again - same thing. To back track I tried hard resetting. It froze on a blank lit screen while rebooting. It was late at night, I was frustrated and so I turned it off (how much worse could things get!). This morning I turned it on to get info off of it, as I was going to chat with DELL support, and it surprisingly was working at normal speed. Odd, I thought, given how slow it was last night. So I checked under explorer if my BIS was still missing or not and, oh my gosh, it was back!!!! (albeit formated with all data on the ROM lost). Unfortunately I can't tell exactly which part of the steps above is what solved the problem, but hopefully it will shed some light on possible solutions.
...now to the arduous task of reloading all my programs...it'll teach me to backup my device more often!
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