Help, there is a ghost in my TX !!!

[jacquesv]

Hello,
This is not a new year's joke, my question is :
Is there a ghost in my TX...
A few times ago, I found my TX almost out of battery every morning whilst no program was active.
I first suspected the battery that could be wrong.
I finaly installed Batterygraph and I discovered that my TX always automaticaly wakes up at midnight without any order, connects to my wifi station, and wait untill the morning, draining my battery (the option preserve the battery was not checked in wifi prefs).
After some testings, I found that setting the wifi "preserve the battery" to on and limit the delay to 5 min could bypass the problem, as the battery drain with wifi is now limited to midnight/midnight plus 5 min.
The real question is : why does my TX try to connect automaticaly to wifi every night at midnight ???
How could I find what program is guilty ???
Hel me please...
Jacques

[sweller]

You've possibly installed something that's not exactly compatible with OS5. If you can't remember what you last installed, try looking on the compatibility list: http://www.palmfocus.com/txsoftware.php

Else, I'd start by running NVBACKUP, and then do a hard reset. Then install your apps one at a time until you isolate the culprit.

[jacquesv]

Thanks sweller for the fast answer.
You are right, there is certainly a piece of software that causes the problem.
Reading te forum, I have found that I was not te only one to have this problem :
In the thread "how is te battery life", a message from napalm :
Over the past few days, I've noticed a very similar occurence. I'm finding that my TX can be fully charged at bedtime and then discharged by the next time I come to switch it on the following day. That's with BT and Wifi switched off.

I've no idea what could be causing this to happen.
and one by John Stanley :
I had the same problem for a long time. Then, someone in this forum mentioned that there's a bug in the TX's built-in security panel when you use the "After a preset delay" option... The very option I had been using since day one. :eek:

I switched to "On power off" and I haven't had an overnight battery drain since... (Note: It MAY exist in some of the other options as well, I didn't try them once I got it working...)

I really hope pruss, dimitry, or one of the other hacking genuises figures out a patch for this someday. I really -hate- having it lock every time it shuts off. But, I don't want to leave it totally unlocked, and I hate overnight battery drains even more... :(
I have not installed any software on my TX since years ago... and never noticed that problem before.
The mystery is total !!!

[sweller]

Ooh, WOW! I like a good mystery! :D

[wminner]

I have had the same problem occur sporadically on my Tx, starting in the last month - but it gets stuck on a screen something akin to "Wi-Fi is not connected, would you like to connect?". My first thought was - it it infected with spyware? I will be interested in what you find.

What I am going to try is a soft reset every night before bedtime. My 15-min Palmary clock chime results in shrinking MaxChunk Dynamic memory when it occurs while running some programs, sometimes resulting in a Resco Explorer lockup. But, I like the chime - I am a consultant that has to keep accurate records of my time. Anyway, it may be inflicting some 'harm' to the memory, leading to the sporadic Wi-Fi connection kickoff & battery drain? I'll give the soft reset a try.

[wminner]

Well, last night showed me that a soft reset before bedtime does not solve the problem, so guess I'll try the irritating lockdown solution quoted above. I did a few searches at Brighthand and the Palm support page, but could not find any mention of the problem. My T5 was full of OS bugs, but this is the first that has affected me with the Tx.

[sweller]

Can you post a list of your apps? It can't hurt to have a second set of eyes...

[jacquesv]

Yesterday, I just needed to change the palm clock to 23:59, turn off the palm and wait one minute to see it automaticaly wake up at midnight and connect to my home wifi for ever...
Up to now, I have changed so many options that I cannot identify why this autosart problem has disapeared.
My actions were :
- Alim's preferences (minimum values)
- Pocket Tunes (my favorite soft) that I no longer quit on an internet radio station even if it was ended and program stopped. Actually, when I quit, the last file tuned is on the SD ram.
- I have checked "preserve alim" in wifi preferences and limited the delay to 5 min in the same page (sorry, my palm is french and cannot identify what are the english options)
- I have disabbled all the auto update options on softs as Agendus an PTunes.
- I stopped using Operamini and IBM Java to go to the internet.
- I have installed Battery-graph
Up to now, whenever I change the clock to 23:59,... nothing stange happens any more.
???

[wminner]

Sweller - it would be impractical to list all of my installed applications, and hard to draw conclusions from them, as I have 100+ installed. My Palm is very integrated into my business & personal life, including truly acting as my "external memory". My free RAM is down to 8 mB. There is a bit of overlap - e.g. clock programs include Palmary, BigClock, CityTime, WatchM, WeekUp, and the 'native' World Clock. Each of them likely has their little fingers in the dynamic memory, in order to trigger alarms. However, I did not have any problems until ~1 month ago.

Jacquesv - I find it interesting that your problem was consistently repeatable. If mine is, I haven't figured out how to do it. That's good news that your actions have apparently solved the problem! However, if you don't understand the trigger, it my yet come back.....

I did check the programs that have the ability to auto-update. Rather than try to solve the problem by selectively removing software (the permutations and combinations would be ~infinite), I'd rather just use the irritable but practical solution of locking the unit at night - unless someone has worked out a better cure!

Thanks!
----------------
"Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.", -Nora Ephron

[jacquesv]

Hell !
After 3 days of quietness (battery always at 100%), no personal action except every morning an on/off to check the battery level and a look at BatteryGraph, He is back...

This morning, when I opened my TX, the unexpected message "your battery is very low -or something like that in french)...
As before, I plugged the TX and change the clock time to 23:59, turn off, and wait :
one minute latter at 0:00, the TX auto opened and auto-connects to my wifi, after one othe minute, the screen went off, and then periodically, it lights, showing that te wifi is always active...
It is actually totally reproducible !!!

I have tried to lock the TX, it wakes up as usual, asking always to unlock the palm.
If I disable the wifi, it asks me to start it again.
Both conducting to a battery drain with screen periodically on.

I really don't know what to do !
As I ave Opera mini, I also have Java... could a Java PC program act like that ?
How could I locate a java program with FileZ ?

[sweller]

I don't see how this can help, nor can I see how it could hurt, but do you have AutoWiFi installed?

http://www.1src.com/freeware/index.php?cid=21 (Top of the page)

Are you using the Auto Lock pheechur?

[jacquesv]

At last The ghost appeared to me and I destroyed it !!!
I was surprised to see my TX auto-start at midnight almost every day and connect to internet via my wifi... draining my battery every time.
I was hidden in the cupboard when my ghost appeared :
The guilty was the excellent pTunes whose podcast preferences were :
"Get new podcasts every 1 day and check at 00:00..."

I unchecked all that and the ghost disappeared.

End of a strange story.
Thanks for your help.
Jacques :) :) :)

[caffeinated]

Glad you figured it out. I've never used that setting for ptunes, but I do love that program (Pocket Tunes Deluxe) & use it all the time.

I saw that the price on Pocket Tunes Deluxe has been currently reduced to $19.95, so if anybody was waiting on buying it, now would be a good time.

[wminner]

I also found the cause of my Tx turning at unpredictable times, sometimes wanting to connect Wi-Fi and not turning off (depleting the battery at night). The apparent cause is using the chime feature of my Palmary clock. What I noticed was that the dynamic memory max chunk would drop when the chime went off while running some programs - and sometimes the Tx would lock up & require a soft reset. Despite not knowing what the true cause is (Palmary, interaction with other clock programs, OffFlush, or something else?) I know how to control it. Since I like the chime at work, I brought the ol' Tungsten T to work to act as a chiming desk clock. Back to my normal Tx functions in life.............

[caffeinated]

I had the experience of the battery draining overnight: I think it happened when I had my backup program set to run in the middle of the night, and I had left a 16G SDHC card in the slot.

It's a bad thing to have the battery running down overnight when you also have alarms set on your TX for early the next morning.