EruWare 1.2 corruption problem?

[mr_gkyc]

I just ran into a corruption problem with the 1.2 driver.

I was at the theatre waiting for T3 to start and was trying to listen to some MP3 while reading AvantGo. I'd tried this combo (Audio Player + AvantGo) before so I'd no qualms whatsoever. I started up Audio Player and put together a playlist. Then I jumped back to start up AvantGo . AvantGo dropped me into the default screen telling me that I need to set up my account and/or sync for the first time. That got me worried so I switch to CLIE Files to look around. I saw then that my AvantGo directory (\PALM\PROGRAMS\AvantGo) was corrupted.

My config is as follows:

NX70V
Viking 512Mb CF card
SanDisk 128Mb MemoryStick

I've installed these 4 Sony patches:
MSPro
System Update
CLIE Viewer
CLIE Files

EruWare 1.2 driver
Settings:
Dual MS on
MS Cloaking on
no other options checked

I'd been using the 1.2 driver since the day it was released and it's been reliable until today. I hope this isn't the 1.1 corruption problem rearing its head again. I did not use 1.1 and/or experience corruption problems with 1.1 so I can't compare/contrast the problem.

I ended up popping my CF card into my laptop running Windows 2000 Pro and did a scan to correct the problem.

I will report this to EruWare right after this posting.

George

[ccelada]

I had corruption problems twice(with 1.2 version), while using audio player. Both times, my whole \PROGRAMS\MSAUDIO\ directory was corrupted. I'm taking no more chances on that one: I did a complete backup (better than renaming 150 files a third time)... and now that the Sony driver is out and supports playing audio/video, I'm using Sony driver instead.

[jaimejr66]

I had the Corruption problem the same day I loaded the 1.2 Driver. It seemed very similar to the 1.1 problem. I hope the guys at Eruware can shake this bug. Losing everything on the CF card is more than annoying.

[mr_gkyc]

Hi Jamie,

Sorry to hear about your 1.2 data loss.

Fortunately for me, I only lost my AvantGo directory. Everything else like my movies, MP3, Power48 ROM images were safe. What was annoying was that I couldn't fix my card on the CLIE with CLIE Files.

It was disconcerting... so much so that I'm contemplating dropping this whole CF things and just sticking with MemoryStick. (D*mn you Sony for this!!) I priced out a MemoryStick Pro on ebay and the price of that compared to my Viking card and Eruware's driver is really close, like $50 or less... <sigh>

George

[jaimejr66]

Hey George,

Don't give up yet.&nbsp;&nbsp; I haven't and my CF card has been corrupted twice.&nbsp; The data corruption&nbsp;actually removed the Palm directory, so all&nbsp; of the programs under Launcher were lost.&nbsp;

Actually there not lost.&nbsp; The space they occupy is still used up, I just can not get to them, so at some point&nbsp; I have to reformat my card&nbsp;&nbsp;:(

The guys at Eruware have worked hard on this application and I'm sure they'll shake out the bugs.&nbsp; (Unlike Sony)

&nbsp;

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[Alistar]

I lost my entire apps folder on my CF (where I store the zips or prcs of all the apps I use). I just ran scandisk and it restored the folders for me. I had to rename them but they were there.

[jaimejr66]

I unfortunately do not have a Card reader for my PC. I'll get one soon and hopefully that will help me restore my Card and Data.

I still love the Eruware software.

[Unregistered]

I used someones post here (I forget who) to reliably reproduce the corruption. I asked EruWare about it and they said Running in slow mode will prevent this corruption. I tried and have yet to see any corruption. They also mentioned that they are working on a way to get the best timings for all cards without the use of slow mode for some. I think this would be very cool.

[mr_gkyc]

jaimejr66: I too want to hang on if but for the fact that I'd need a non-Pro MemoryStick for backup/restores. However, it is awkward to have these corruption happen so unpredictably. One of the reason I loved my previous Vx and, in general, PalmOS are their stability.

A CF card-reader is so cheap nowadays that you owe it to yourself to get one.

About slow mode. Eruware replied after I contact their support about that too. However, I can't imagine what slow mode would be like. I run AvantGo off the CF card and it's already unbearably slow. Slowing that down even more would make it unuseable. Upgrading to a 200MHz processor is supposed to be a step up from my Vx's 20MHz and right now, AvantGo on the NX is not slower than my Vx in loading and browsing.

George

[mr_gkyc]

Correction: I mean to say that "AvantGo on the NX *is* slower than my Vx in loading and browsing. ".

George

[jaimejr66]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I used someones post here (I forget who) to reliably reproduce the corruption. I asked EruWare about it and they said Running in slow mode will prevent this corruption. I tried and have yet to see any corruption. They also mentioned that they are working on a way to get the best timings for all cards without the use of slow mode for some. I think this would be very cool.

I'd like to try the Slow mode, but I hope the name does not imply how it performs.&nbsp; I would be very unhappy if this mode degrades performance.&nbsp; I'll give it a shot.

&nbsp;

[stever]

Did anyone have this corruption problem who had not run the system update? I am getting ready to run that, but not if that may be the cause of the corruption.

[archangel]

Same thing happened to me while I was at work last week. No audio for me until I could get home and fix it.

I switched over to the hacked Sony drive and so far so good.

Hopefully Eruware can improve their driver soon.

[ricleo]

Where are the Eruware guys anyway? They seem to be MIA. Someone in another thread even mentioned that he couldn't complete the transaction at eruware.com to purchase/download the CF Driver. Hope they are still around, looking forward to their next possible release that will make their driver better than the sony one.

[AndyJapan]

Hey, guys. That`s why we have life-long updates included. We are the test pilots for Eruware because we can fix the crashes in most cases. After all this trouble reported on this board, I am using the Eruware CF driver only for backups. The CF card and Eruware`s driver cannot replace the MS with regards to stability. The MS is very expensive, but if the CF driver causes trouble all the time I`d rather invest in an MS than struggling with a instable system. I personally think that the CF slot in the Clie models was not needed. They should have introduced integrated BT and a WLAN MS instead. Just my opinion...

[gkyc]

I have come to more balanced view of the CF slot. When I was doing my research on the NX and found out about EruWare, I was very enthuastic about using CF exclusively with the NX. Having used it and understanding the limitations and issues, I now use the CF where it fits. I also bought a 128Mb MS.

I was watching a DVD yesterday night that I'd ripped over the weekend onto my CF card. It was comfortable to be able to watch it in bed. I couldn't have done this as cheaply if I had to use MSPro. So I think I got my money's worth from EruWare. However, EruWare doesn't replace the MS slot completely.

George

[Flash-57]

> I am using the Eruware CF driver only for backups.

} I now use the CF where it fits

Exactly. The driver is not perfect. The stories in this forum of data loss should be fair warning to every reader that your data on the CF card should be considered temporary. You should not use the CF card for storage of any data that you really care about.

In other words, use it mostly for AvantGo data, copies of movies and MP3 files, and downloaded maps. That way, if corruption occurs, and you have to reformat the card, you haven't lost anything that you can't simply recopy from your hard drive after reformatting.

Fair warning, folks.

[Eddy]

Eruware also mentioned that they are working on a way to get the best timings for all cards without the use of slow mode for some. I think this would be very cool.
Sounds like good news... Although I don't use slow mode myself personally.
bug on 1.2
Well, IMHO, 1.2 have been much more stable in terms of what it has to offer. & also much more convient with the dual mode, I no longer use MS Cloaking/ Cache function.

Perhaps I'm just being very careful, & avoid using applications that might influence the performance of Eruware's driver, such as ClieFiles, which I no longer use. In replacement I'm using McFile & have not yet ran into problems. :)
I also began to adapt to the usage of eruware's driver, during playback of videos, I always press stop & then seek forward, or stop the movie playback then exit the movieplayer... etc...
Mainly I think I avoid pushing my Clie to run at its' optimium peek.

[Eddy]

Originally posted by Flash-57
In other words, use it mostly for AvantGo data, copies of movies and MP3 files, and downloaded maps. That way, if corruption occurs, and you have to reformat the card, you haven't lost anything that you can't simply recopy from your hard drive after reformatting.
Yep, that's exactly what I do, on a regular basis, when I add something to the CF, I also make a backup of the exact content on my HDD in a folder "CF_backup", if anything goes wrong, I can always have the CF card formatted & back up running again. :)

[Alistar]

I use the CF driver for everything with only the one hiccup which scandisk restored. I keep a copy of all the zips of apps I purchased and free ones I use and with the cliefiles update have quick access to them. I keep about 300MB of mp3's and several videos, I am running animatrix off it at the moment. I also keep archived backups and I archive photos. I keep all apps running off of it with zlauncher, except netfront for obivous reasone. I also keep all VFS components for apps on the CF card. It works nicely for me. All in all I am left with 35MBs left free on my 1GB CF card.

[Eddy]

impressive Alistar! you leave me speechless..:eek:

[Alistar]

Well, I have been a little excessive in the use so far. I will probably clean house and free up about 100 MBs of programs, MP3's and movies that I don't use anymore.
Also I only have a 64MB memory stick, which holds the 2 most recent backups, driver updates, netfront and clie mail, and then temporary for pictures and such. I've been thinking about buying another MS, but my setup works for me at the moment and it will avoid having to carry around another MS.

[jaimejr66]

I applaud Eruware with the strong work on getting the driver created in the first place. 1.2 is definitely a step in a positive direction. IMHO, I hate jumping through hoops to make things work . I hate even more, jumping through hoops, fire and spinning knives to keep things from crashing.

I have not heard from the Eru guys in a while. So hopefully the next
driver will get rid of this issue altogether.

[Unregistered]

a little off topic, but how many hours does one spend (average wise, just converting movies alone?). I find it very time consuming personally. anyway...

[jaimejr66]

Very Little. I like having the 1G of space for Music, space to take Photos and make videos

[mr_gkyc]

Hi,

If you mean Image Converter's run-time is kinda inconvenient, then I have to say that I find the time converting to be a non-issue because it had to be done irrespective of what device I have.

To elaborate, I'm mainly interested in ripping DVDs, many of which are esoteric releases and not mainstream current stuff. I couldn't be bothered to try hunting for them online and downloading them over broadband. Between my friends and my personal collection, I've got quite a stash that I'd like to have readily available for my CLIE. After reading up at pocketmatrix, I've learned that ripping is a multiple step process of progressively transforming one format to another. So, Image Converter is just the CLIE's final step in place of a PPC guy's TMPGEnc.

If you mean in general that the whole effort involved in ripping is time-consuming, then I'd have to agree. I'd love to have the Hollywood industry include a ready-to-use MPEG-2/4 version of the movie on the DVD for PDA/etc but that ain't gonna happen.

George

[Alistar]

Great. I knew I was pushing the limit with my CF usage. I got a corruption. Its technically not fatal (to the card) but it is annoying.
I have two palm directories. They both lead the same folders and I can access everything within them. However if I put the CF card in my computer it can't read any of it and Scandisk doesn't report a problem. So it looks like I'll have to drag 1GB of stuff off the CF card through the 12MBs left free on my MS. Format and restore everything.

[druss]

Every time i use the beta version 1.2 it causes fatal alert, not sure why, I put it in MS masqurading. where do you or what product do you use to rip dvds? this would be so helpful for the painful nights of no sleep. thanks Dr

[Unregistered]

try to hack the driver first, then soft reset, then it will work.

[druss]

what do you mean hack the driver, sorry still learning, dr

[Drachen]

I've had problems corruption with the 1.2 version too. I've been playing around with it for a while today and haven't been able to replicate the problem well enough to give an accurate bug report to eruware yet. Corruption seems to happen randomly with AcidImage reading images off the CF card. My problems started when I put more than 15 images in the root directory with my CF card reader from XP. The Clie couldn't see that last image and then all hell broke loose, with things dissappearing and AI freezing. XP's chkdsk fixed the problem, but some of the images got corrupted again somehow. Again, chkdsk fixed the problem.

There seems to be problem with how the driver displays the root directory. Sometimes, AI and myWB simply can't see the images there (ClieFiles just gives an error and shows me RAM instead). Other times, it's just fine. It seems random. All I need to do to get a different result is to copy or delete files, either from Palm OS or WinXP.

Has anyone else had any of these problems or more insight into what the issue is? I'm using an NZ90 and a Viking 128MB CF card.