T3 Resets itself

[hdulc]

I'm a new user of handhelds. Twice in the last couple of weeks, I've placed my T3 into the cradle for recharging and it's erased itself. I hear a musical tone and it then acts as though it's brand new, telling me to touch the target, set the date and time, etc., and everything I've had on it disappears.

What am I doing wrong?

[derekweb]

Out of curiosity ....

(1) Are you using the T3 Cradle, or one that came with a different PalmOne product and just happens to fit (from your description, I have an idea on this answer, but it needs to be clarified).

(2) Please list all software you loaded on the device. Include any Patches that you installed from PalmOne.

As a standard, the T3 should NOT be doing what you're describing. And to be honest, I haven't seen anything like that happen (not with the T3s, although I've seen posts about M500 series doing that on the first run on the new cradles.)...

[hdulc]

Thank you for the quick reply!

(1) It's the cradle that came with the T3.

(2) The first time this happened I had added a diet & exercise program and a word games program. They were deleted with the first reset. I hadn't reinstalled them when the second reset occurred. When I look at my desktop, the icons are:

Quick Tour, Calc, Calendar, Card info, Contacts, Dialer, Documents, Expense, HotSync, Kinoma, Memos, Note Pad, Phone Link, Photos, Prefs, RealOne, SMS, Tasks, VersaMail, Voice Memo, World Clock

Do I have to be really careful about the angle I use to cradle it?

[derekweb]

Well, given what you're showing here, I'd say (1) try unplugging the craddle and taking it over to a different outlet. Then try to recreate the hotsync reset issue. If it happens on a different outlet I would take your T3 in where you bought it and have it exchanged as a faulty device.

Personally, it sounds like your cradle might be bad, but you never know. It *could* be the Palm Universal Connector or something else, and you know none of us are exactly hardware techs for Palm. [/shrug] I would let them figure it out while they replace it with a *working* unit for you. After all, you paid a lot of cash for it. It *should* work.

[achoi]

I have experienced this before twice in a week. Since I was still within the 1-for-1 exchange period then, I just exchanged a new set. And the problem did not happen again with the new set.

So I guess the problem is nothing to do with the power outlet.

I have read occassions of such problem in other Palm forums. Palm Support suggested it's the problem with the cradle.

[Ddeath]

It is the problem with the cradle. One guy I know reflected this to Palm and they exchanged his cradle. No issue seen since. ;)

[derekweb]

Gah! This very problem affected me last night as well.

However, I couldn't remember what was going on, so I just started troubleshooting.

I had rearranged my computer desk (eg: disassembled everything, and put it all back together). I had, in the process of reassembling, put my cellphone cradle plug into my Palm Charging Cradle. And vice Versa.

Put my palm into the cradle, and instant HARD RESET.

Once I figured it out, and swapped everything back to original parts, it was all good again. But not until after I had lost 4 days worth of data (I back up on weekly basis). And I had just spent a ton of money on upgrading stuff around the house. :mad:

Oh well.

[JohnKes]

Sounds like static. Your surge protectors are in good working order? I thought the new cradles had extra ESD protection.

JK

[doulos12]

I have the solution for this one, and I've tested it after much vexation: Before placing the Palm in the cradle, touch the contacts of the cradle to ground yourself. When pulling it out, ground yourself somewhere. JohnKes is right. It's static. T3's are sensitive little boogers. Nothing to do with surge protection, though. Your T3 becomes a conduit and shorts out. Also, invest in BackupBuddyVFS (http://www.bluenomad.com) to compensate for those times you forget to ground yourself. Been there, done that. :)

[derekweb]

For my part, just putting in the CORRECT power cord (the one that came with the T3 instead of my Cellphone, Sanyo 8100) seemed to resolve the issue.

/shrug.

[caj_54]

I've had 3 hard resets in 3 days. Every thing was reset to factory settings. Even the date was reset to 01/01/2002. I did not install any programs after the 2nd hard reset and still it happened on the 3rd day.
And i don't think it's static because the 1st time it happened the power cord and the USB wasn't even connected(just come back from a trip).
Also the digitizer is off by a few mm especially at the bottom of the screen since the first hard reset(the ROM has been updated).
Any other ideas?

[caj_54]

It happened again today....that's 4 days in a row.

[palmhiker]

Get a different cradle. I had a synch cable that started doing this. It turns out that if there is a short between the power pin and another pin, the unit will hard reset.

[Ddeath]

Happened to me once or twice. It's more due to the static from the cradle, so try to discharge it by running your finger on the leads before plugging your TT3 on it. I have a friend who has the same problem as me and this hard reset, however, keeps happening to him no matter what he did. He told Palmone the issue he had and they changed a cradle for him immediately. No problem since. So get an exchange from Palmone if your TT3 keeps having hard reset even if you tried my method. ;)