TX Crashing Problem

[mdspiro]

My TX was doing fine for amost a year — rarely crashing even though I have a ton of 3rd party applications, games and utilities. I love it! Recently I tried installing a Browser alternative called Universe 3. Right away it caused multiple crashes, so I immediately un-installed it and all of it’s related files (using FileZ). The problem it has left me with is that now whenever I use Blazer or AvantGo, touching the “down” button immediately causes a soft reset. It also crashes when I try to pull down any menu in AvantGo. My TX also now randomly resets itself when I’m doing nothing at all! And it also resets at the end of every HotSync. I’ve tried the Hard Factory Reset twice now — and the problems come back every time I restore my files with the first HotSync. I’ve also deleted and re-installed clean versions of AvanGo from their website — no change. Can you suggest any specific file (perhaps a preference file?) that I can try deleting to cure this problem? Short of starting from scratch and re-installing every single one of my dozens and dozens of programs one at a time, I’m at a loss!

Any help that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[cyberdude]

My TX was doing fine for amost a year — rarely crashing even though I have a ton of 3rd party applications, games and utilities. I love it! Recently I tried installing a Browser alternative called Universe 3. Right away it caused multiple crashes, so I immediately un-installed it and all of it’s related files (using FileZ). The problem it has left me with is that now whenever I use Blazer or AvantGo, touching the “down” button immediately causes a soft reset. It also crashes when I try to pull down any menu in AvantGo. My TX also now randomly resets itself when I’m doing nothing at all! And it also resets at the end of every HotSync. I’ve tried the Hard Factory Reset twice now — and the problems come back every time I restore my files with the first HotSync. I’ve also deleted and re-installed clean versions of AvanGo from their website — no change. Can you suggest any specific file (perhaps a preference file?) that I can try deleting to cure this problem? Short of starting from scratch and re-installing every single one of my dozens and dozens of programs one at a time, I’m at a loss!

Any help that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Universe works fine on my TX. Do you have a backup on card from before you installed Universe? It sounds like a 3rd party conflict - app that is not compatible problem. You might try renaming your backup and archive directories in your palm folder on your computer then doing a hard reset and a hotsync to see what happens. Backup before doing this of course.

[mdspiro]

Universe works fine on my TX. Do you have a backup on card from before you installed Universe? It sounds like a 3rd party conflict - app that is not compatible problem. You might try renaming your backup and archive directories in your palm folder on your computer then doing a hard reset and a hotsync to see what happens. Backup before doing this of course.

Unfortunately, it's too late for that solution. I already did a hard reset, and then hotsynced to restore my files. My backup folder was updated after that with several other hotsyncs. Whatever the problem is, it returned with the restore, and is now part of my backup folder! I know I've deleted every file associated with Universe. Now I just have to figure out if there's some other corrupted preference file I can delete to fix this problem.

[Dick Tracy]

Hard reset.

Rename the Backup folder.

Reinstall third-party apps from renamed Backup folder in ones or small groups until you locate the culprit.

It is always wise to use a Backup application such as NVBackup and do a complete backup before installing a third-party app so that you can hard reset and go back to the last backup set if things are not to your liking.

[mdspiro]

Hard reset.

Rename the Backup folder.

Reinstall third-party apps from renamed Backup folder in ones or small groups until you locate the culprit.

It is always wise to use a Backup application such as NVBackup and do a complete backup before installing a third-party app so that you can hard reset and go back to the last backup set if things are not to your liking.

Your solution worked perfectly!!! Of course, it was very time consuming ... but now I have my TX back to a perfect, no-crash condition. And I did install NVBackup, so now I can always revert to a clean version. THANKS!

[Dick Tracy]

Good news! Did you find the culprit? Could you let us know what it was.

[mdspiro]

Good news! Did you find the culprit? Could you let us know what it was.

No, I never did find the culprit. I know my problems all began when I installed Universe 3. I suspect that even though I later un-installed that program and every other file I could find that was associated with it, it may have altered or corrupted something else -- a preference file, a library file, or some other file that was working fine before. All I know is that I've restored pretty much everything I had before, and it's working fine now. And I'm a new fan of NVBackup!

[technical1]

@Dick Tracy,

I must be missing some sort of obvious logic here, but pls detail how to restore apps in ones & twos fm renamed backup file.... I depend on RescoBackup to my SD card so much, I've clearly forgotten strategies for hotsync....

TIA

[alt236]

There was a problem with an older beta of Universe which caused NVFS corruption.

[AZ-TX]

I would also recomend a program called "Destaller". It is an uninstall program for Palm OS. The program has the ability to remove all associated files to a program.

NVBackup and Destaller have save my bacon a few times.

[Dick Tracy]

I rely on the list of Creator IDs to group applications and their associated data files when reinstalling. You can find the list by searching on Creator ID at Brighthand.com.

[mdspiro]

@Dick Tracy,

I must be missing some sort of obvious logic here, but pls detail how to restore apps in ones & twos fm renamed backup file.... I depend on RescoBackup to my SD card so much, I've clearly forgotten strategies for hotsync....

TIA

Here's how I did it: First, I made a list of every application I had on my TX (by category / screen) that I wanted to restore. Then I did a Hard Reset and renamed the old Backup Folder on my computer. Once the TX was empty and clean again, I went into that renamed backup folder and simply double-clicked on each of the program files that matched my list of prior applications. I did it in small groups, hot-syncing in between. Those old applications got re-loaded onto the TX upon each Hot-Sync. After each small group was restored, I moved them from the old renamed Backup Folder into another folder I created named "Restored Files" (just so I could see what was left in the main folder). By doing this over and over I eventually re-installed pretty much everything that was there before my problems started. Once I had it back to where I wanted it, I create a clean backup file on an SD card using NVBackup to avoid having to go through this whole process again, should the need arise.

[snakecitygirl]

mdspiro - Excellent recovery writeup I've seen specific to the TX. Thanks so much !