Man In The Wil

I just received an X51 from eBay. I didn't realize that X51's had so many problems! Much of what I want the PDA for is installed and works at least as well as it did on my old X30. Some programs seem to work much better than before due to the faster processor and larger RAM.

The problem I'm having is that I can't get through a day or even a couple hours without it pretty much shutting down. The screen goes blank, power won't work, reset won't work and I end up having to take the battery out, put it back in then reset. At this point it goes back to 7/1/05 at midnight. The software still works fine (except my demo software is now expired.) It doesn't seem to do this while the PDA is docked, but I did see something weird happen once while it was docked so I could be wrong here. It also seems to not crash if it's actively doing something like playing audio.

I've wondered if the trouble could be an old battery (it holds power for a long time--I listened to audio books for a long time on battery.) Could it be something with the 2GB CF card? Or the backup capacitor? The last seems most likely since it loses the time info whenever I take the battery out.

Also, is there an updated ROM available? Could this make a difference? If so, where do I find it? I haven't had any luck finding ROMs on the Dell site. I didn't even see ROMs for the X30 which I know I upgraded several times.

Thank you for your help!

Man In The Wild (my d got cut off in my name on this site.)

wdement

What ROM do you have?Here is the only ROM update I could find on the Dell site.

Also, have you tried the fake server trick?

psionandy

It could even be down to some software you have installed.

I'd be inclined to go down the hard reset route and install the apps back one at a time (using the latest versions of each bit of software).

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Man In The Wil

Thanks for the replies. I have the 520MHz version, not the v (I wish it was a v!) I just received it a few days ago. It had the same trouble when I first tried it out using the setup of the previous owner. I did do a hard reset and formatted the CF card before installing my software. It continued to have the trouble as I added my software. All software installed is the latest version since everything was freshly downloaded before installing. Ebooks, audio books, and other data is older and came from my older PDA's SD card. The SD card was not used in this PDA due to being broken (I barely got that to work in a reader for the PC.)

Man In The Wil

My ROM version is A03 for the mid version x51.

cravaus

The fake server trick is really key to making the x51 work.

jadesse

Install the latest rom but I am not sure what that would be for the mid. I do have the X51v & the latest rom for it A12. I do not believe it is that same rom.

You said that when you pulled the battery that the date reverted back to 7/1/05. How long did you have the battery out for? That could be an issue if the battery was only out for only a few minutes. There is a small capacitor that is supposed to hold the date & the time to allow you to change out the battery. If you are loosing the date after only a couple of minutes then you were sold a bum unit.

mostlylisten

check your power and shutoff settings for one. Taking the battery out only does a soft reset. Which you want. Hard reset you'd only want to use in extreme cases to erase everything and start over.

Settings/brightness/battery power
Settings/power/advanced

might be the reason for the shutdown?

jadesse

The most current rom is the A12. See the link below.

Search Dell.com

Personally, since your axim was prchased from 2nd hand. I would do a hard reset & install the new rom. Hopefully that will take care of most of your issues.

If the date does indeed revert back 7/1/05 after only having the battery removed for a few seconds then there is very little you can do on your own. That small capacitor can be replaced by someone like PPC Techs. you might even be able to replace it yourself. The thread below is on the X51v & I don't know if there is a difference or not to the mid.

http://www.aximsite.com/boards/x51-h...axim-x51v.html