Fatal Exception!

[Cyker]

I've suddenly started getting Fatal Exceptions when I try and load certain apps.

I first noticed it trying to load TCPMP, but its also happening with a few others like SysTool and ClieFiles.

I had a feeling my Prefs may have been corrupt, so I restored the two files (Saved and Unsaved Prefs) from backup, but no joy :(

Does anyone have any suggestions??

[Cyker]

Damnit!

Restoring from a backup didn't work - Still crashing! :(

I don't mind about ClieFiles and SysTool, but not being able to use TCPMP really sucks :/

I just can't imagine what's suddenly changed to cause this... I haven't installed anything recently and the only things that have changed significantly are some memos, some docs and some Pilot-DB databases!

[alt236]

Did you try running the apps after a warm reset?

[Cyker]

What, the 'safemode' one?

Yeah, they do run under that... but if I then reset again they go back to old behaviour :(

Just found that Resco Explorer also crashes if I goto Control Panel->Associations, and under 'safe mode' it just gives an error about a library not being loaded (Understandable since it's in safemode...)

Grr... I don't understand why!

[alt236]

Ok, if you have a bakcup of the saved/unsaved prefs then delete them and reset.

See what happens then. Don't restore them.

Actually, before that you might want to disable any extensions/ hack you have enabled just to make sure. After disabling them, soft reset and try again.

[alt236]

I meant dont restore them before you try btw :p

[Cyker]

Hmm... if I delete the Unsaved Prefs, things seem to work again. :D

But a whole bunch of other stuff stops working, mainly apps loosing associations, and various settings being lost. :(

I tried using Explorer's "Tools->Manage Associations" menu to restore them, but that didn't seem to do anything.
I also tried restoring the original Unsaved Prefs, then Restore Associations from backup, but that gave a Fatal Exception too :(
The Repair command reported that nothing was wrong...

[alt236]

So it's not your assosciations.

Can you go into the prefs with RE or does it crash?

[Cyker]

Well I guess it might be since deleting Unsaved Prefs does fix that problem.

The problem is that it breaks a a lot of stuff so that I can't use beam/bluetooth to transfer stuff between PDAs.
I was talking about this on the Resco forums too, but even the Repair/Restore functions in RE don't seem to rebuild Unsaved prefs settings :(

Oh, and in answer to your question, I can view the Saved and Unsaved Prefs with RE and Filez, but not SysTool.

Thanks for your help BTW, and sorry about the delays in answering (Work/sleep/work/sleep... :))

[alt236]

Try deleteting the prefs for the crashing apps with RE and see what happens.

[Cyker]

Still crashes :(

Gah! If I could only figure out how to rebuild the Unsaved Prefs properly, I could just delete it and then let it recreate itself, without loosing all the beaming stuff and settings!

[dmccunney]

Still crashes :(

Gah! If I could only figure out how to rebuild the Unsaved Prefs properly, I could just delete it and then let it recreate itself, without loosing all the beaming stuff and settings!What you need to do is figure what was causing the crash. Unfortunately, there is no simple way to do that. It's a matter of hard resetting, then adding things back one by one till you see what blows up.
______
Dennis

[Cyker]

I've never been fond of Hard Resetting as a solution; It is like using a Deathstar laser to cut your lawn.
It is only a Last Resort, and not something to be suggested so casually!

But thanks for the post, and thanks to alt as well.

I finally fixed it after some painstakingly tedious testing - It was an item called "OS Calibration" in the Unsaved Prefs!

Deleted it, re-booted, re-calibrated and now TCPMP et al all work again! :D
And so do my IR/BT beaming stuff! \o/

Thanks for the ideas; Espescially the one to look at Unsaved Prefs - That was dead right.
Also, thanks to Resco for documenting that entry in Explorer - All the other Pref editors list it as 'psys', along with a dozen other 'psys' entries - I'd never have found it without Explorer!

Yay! XD

So if anyone else gets any duplicatable un-named Fatal Alerts try deleting the calibration data and rebooting (Or just re-calibrating from Prefs->Graffiti?).

I've not calibrated this thing since I bought it (And also after DanT replaced the Digitizer), and last time it needed a reset was some time last year!
In tracking this sucker down I've reset it these past few days more than I have since I bought it, and also more times than I've reset my T625, T665 and Zodiac 2 combined! XD

I guess T|X owners won't have this problem... :p :D

[alt236]

When you say that you recalibrated the OS, you mean the Language, Date and similar setup which pops up when you power up a fresh device?

Edit: Congratulations by the way! I'm also not a big fan of hard resets... It reminds me too much of MS Windows as a solution...

[Cyker]

Not the language stuff, JUST the digitizer calibration!

In most prefs editors, e.g. FileZ, you just get lots of entries that say 'psys' 'System Software' or something along those lines.

In Explorer 'tho, the Resco guys have marked what each entry does - On mine it was the one marked OS_Calibration, which stores the Digitizer calibration data, and it seems it was this little bugger that was causing all the trouble!

So I zapped it, reset, then the digitizer calibration popped up after the (Palm) logo. I did the tap-tap-tap 3-step, and since then everything's been fine :D