What drained battery

[nsm55]

I installed 2 programs last night... (Battery was fully charged)

1) Trialware of Symantec Antivirus for Handhelds
2) ZLauncher trial.

This morning the clie would not turn on....battery dead.

Its on charge at the moment, but has anyone come across this before?

[Ion Control]

I would assume Norton. ZLauncher has no reason to do so and has never had an adverse impact on mine. Perhaps Norton ran some kind of virus scan afteryou went to bed? Maybe it came on, hit an error and stayed on?

[slaco]

Do you guys think an anti-virus on a palm powered handheld is absolutely necessary? :o

[nsm55]

Particularly for WiFi handhelds, i think it is absolutely necessary; there seems to be an increase in viruses for mobile devices....though i havent seen any that affect the Palm OS at the moment..

[Cheechwhiz]

It could be that Norton WiFi'ed itself and then just waited for an "OK, go ahead. do that...." that you never saw before it shut down.
WiFi WILL suck down the power a good bit.

[nsm55]

yeah,that makes sense...ive removed it now anyways.

[Ion Control]

Currently, there is no need for antivirus on a Palm device. Nevertheless, it is on the horizon. Until viruses exist that thrive in a Palm environment, you don't need Norton. OTOH, when the first virus hits, you'll either be protected or you won't, so currently it's "an ounce of prevention...". I myself will wait until one hits. Then again, just using common sense when installing progs or going wireless is a big step. A computer connected to the internet, using a "secure" e-mail address and safe browsing tactics is only slightly at risk. I've been using anti-virus for 8+ years (I think). How many voruses have I "caught"? none. How many have been stopped before attacking me? 1. How many have entered my Inbox? 2. How do I do this? What was the longest time I ran w/o antivirus software and had no trouble? 1.5 years and then I bought NAV '03 on sale. Viruses are only problem because most computer users are dolts. 4 out of 5 times, when someone says they caught a virus, they mean they screwed something up on their computer and didn't even know it (people delete more important system files than viruses (can't even count the number of "virus" computers I've scanned that had no virus...)). That, or the e-mail message labelled "Imprtant messige from Microsft" with the "delete this fil in you're C:/windows folder" just seemed "so important and I know Microsoft wouldn't want me to be at risk". Ask those people afterwards if they really thought that message was from microsoft and they'll say "Well, no." Or you could always blame the message you got from Sanjay Arapathat saying "Here are some great pictures of my kid". Nevermind the fact that you have no idea who Sanjay is or why he's sending you an e-mail. Viruses thrive because people are stupid. Plain and simple. If you get a virus on your Palm right now, it's because you went looking for it. NAV for Palm is a gimmick to make $ right now...

[jhintonh]

Good Evening-

Shhhhhhhhhh.....get rid of this thread. Nefarious crackers are trolling the 'net even as we speak and if they stumble upon this thread it may get them thinking. Just kidding of course.

To the point, anything with Norton's name attached to it is bloatware, borderline spyware and unnecessarily overactive. I ditched on all of my PC's including my laptop and work computers. I switched to AVG from Grisoft (FREE) and have not looked back. Much easier to use. So I would automatically assume the culprit to be the Norton product.

Finally, I do not think it is necessary to have an anti-virus program on your CLIE...yet. Palms are still too small an audience for virus creators (think Mac users). For virus writers (most of them...the ones not employed by McAfee and Norton) the big payoff for writing a virus is hearing Tom Brokaw (or Brian what's-his-face) say, "And there is a new computer virus ravaging PC users today...the I Touch Myself Cause Nobody Loves Me Virus struck thousands of Internet Explorer users today...". Chances are less than good that CNN or NBC or FOXNews is going to run a story about less than seven million Palm users being inconvenienced by a virus.

-Jhintonh

[jjesusfreak01]

I agree completely with Jhintonh. Norton has yet to come out with a nonbloated product, as Cnet has said in their article, "Why we ditched Norton" (or something of the like). As of right now, im not worried, because I have a Sony pda, and im sure the virus writers dont know enough, and cant find out enough info on sony pdas to even begin to write a virus. Palm users, on the other hand, are vulnerable, as palm freely gives out their programming info to all, and they are a much larger target to hit. My school happens to have a rule that all computers running on their network have Norton installed, but im exempting myself, because if somehow, someone managed to get a virus running on my pda, it would not be useful to hurt the network, because without a program like wifile, i dont have access to the files on the rest of the network.

Worst case situation: Cliepet decided to become a virus writer and write palm viruses. He still could do no more than erase all of the files on my handheld, and I would have to do a hard reset, which I do periodically anyway to remove excess files from my system.

[Ion Control]

Good Evening-
Chances are less than good that CNN or NBC or FOXNews is going to run a story about less than seven million Palm users being inconvenienced by a virus.

No. THAT would be a story, because it'd be the first virus in history to achieve 100% infection :) Since viruses average what, 0.5-1% infection rates, Brokaw would be saying something like, "Today 1 out of every 100 Palm users got a virus. As for why I'm reporting about something that happened to .025% of the population is beyond me. In somehow related news, Bob in Peoria, IL upgraded his memory to 512Mb RAM. This computer-industry bellweather presages a new era in the world of electronic computing." These comments would be followed shortly by the overwhelming sound of 100 millions remotes changing the TV simultaneously. :)

Currently, the only PDA virus exists in a lab and, if I remember correctly, it was for Symbian. Though I wonder if Windows "CE" is susceptible to viruses...?

[RunningWoman]

Obviously, Microsoft is a prime target given the market share they hold. Viruses are made possible, however, by the enormous security holes in Windows that every update through SP2 has tried to address. At best, those are patches and simply attempts to stay one step ahead of hackers and virus propagators. They cannot remedy a seriously deficient OS.

As others have indicated, anti-virus software isn't necessary on the Palm. Why waste limited system resources? If you are concerned, invest in a solid backup program such as BackupBuddy and routinely back up your device. The advantage in programs such as BackupBuddy as opposed to the one in ROM is that you can selectively backup on a file-by-file basis, as well as backup your entire device (with the exception of a couple of unsaved preferences relating to GPRS configuration as I recall). Also, there is a desktop version available that allows you to back up to your PC and mirror to another drive location.

Since I am out of town several days a week, I have a second 1GB memory stick that is simply my "backup stick." Each night (or sooner if I've entered a lot of critical data) I backup to the MS in the device, then swap sticks and write to the backup stick. When I get home, I perform backups to my PC and zip-drive.

Should something necessitate a hard reset, I'm back online simply by tapping the "restore" button.

Kim :rolleyes:

[abelnt]

of course.... if i make a virus for palms, the first step will be BLOCK the hard key stroke to make a hard reset ;)

[cktlcmd]

I just bought Pocket Antivirus 4 for my TH55. I thought my TH was clean and virus free, but when I ran the antivirus program, it caught one. So for $9.00, I'm OK with it. It automatically deletes and takes care of the virus upon identification. What was it? I have no idea. Here is a link, you can check it out if you want:

http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productType=2&optionId=1_1_2&jid=AE8B68D247753738B3A34F8546EXAA2D&platformId=1&siteId=1&productId=122673&sectionId=0&catalog=1&txtSearch=pocket+antivirus

[Ion Control]

lol. Sounds VERY suspect to me. I wonder if you just deleted an important aspect of a program. I would defintely steer clear of 3rd-party "I'm a part-time deeloper" anti-virus software... :)

[cktlcmd]

lol. Sounds VERY suspect to me. I wonder if you just deleted an important aspect of a program. I would defintely steer clear of 3rd-party "I'm a part-time deeloper" anti-virus software... :)


EEEEEEEEEK!!! :eek: I hope not. I installed it last week, so far I find nothing wrong among my programs. I run it everyday too. I'll post back if I notice something suspicious.

[DZack]

I had NAV2003 and then I used AVG because my subscription for NAV was up. It's cool because it's free, but if you get a virus and you want to remove it, you need to buy the professional version. Now I went out and "bought" NAV2004 because AVG didn't really do anything but take up space.

[cktlcmd]

I had NAV2003 and then I used AVG because my subscription for NAV was up. It's cool because it's free, but if you get a virus and you want to remove it, you need to buy the professional version. Now I went out and "bought" NAV2004 because AVG didn't really do anything but take up space.


DZack, does this mean Norton Antivirus for Handhelds did not cause any drain in your TH55's batteries?

[jhintonh]

I had NAV2003 and then I used AVG because my subscription for NAV was up. It's cool because it's free, but if you get a virus and you want to remove it, you need to buy the professional version. Now I went out and "bought" NAV2004 because AVG didn't really do anything but take up space.

Good Morning-

I use AVG, the free version, and I have used it to remove viruses. Were you using the latest version? It is only about a month old (version 7 I believe)?

-Jhintonh

[Pdaman]

I just bought Pocket Antivirus 4 for my TH55. I thought my TH was clean and virus free, but when I ran the antivirus program, it caught one. So for $9.00, I'm OK with it. It automatically deletes and takes care of the virus upon identification. What was it? I have no idea. Here is a link, you can check it out if you want:

http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productType=2&optionId=1_1_2&jid=AE8B68D247753738B3A34F8546EXAA2D&platformId=1&siteId=1&productId=122673&sectionId=0&catalog=1&txtSearch=pocket+antivirus
It look like very nice virus softwara, tell right away when you find viruses, so i will buy that software too...

[Pdaman]

of course.... if i make a virus for palms, the first step will be BLOCK the hard key stroke to make a hard reset ;)
please don't tell more.... THEY do listen ;) :p

it would be catastrophe if someone could block powerbutton with virus :( ....

[Clie Patra]

Do you guys think an anti-virus on a palm powered handheld is absolutely necessary? :o
I think a recent backup on Memory Stick is a whole lot better :)

[susans]

Back to the "what drained battery" topic. Yesterday after Christmas dinner I was sharing PDA stories with my uncle, a recent convert to the handheld cult, and had my PDA on maybe five minutes to demonstrate how to play FreeCell. When I got home later that evening, my battery was gone. Battery graph said that the power had been on for 4.5 hours, but I had only had it on for 30 minutes yesterday if even that long.

So... I charged it overnight and when I took it off the charger this morning I could literally watch the percent numbers fall. In less than two minutes the power went from 89% to 32%. I turned the machine off and the level still fell, though not as quickly. Gripped by fear, I quickly did a hot sync, a MS Backup, and then did a hard reset while charging. I left it to charge while I went to church.

It is now holding a charge, and I was able to use the MS Backup to restore the internal memory. Upon first glance all looks fine, but I an not satisfied with the fit of unprovoked rebellion from my Clie. Is this what happened when y'alls Clies drained quickly? Those of you who posted earlier on this thread: Is your problem fixed?

Confused and disturbed in Texas.

[SonyStyle]

i dont think there are any viruses for palm os right now. i mean they would rather target pocket pcs instead.

[nsm55]

Susans,

Mine was a case of it somehow turning itself on Automatically in the middle of the night and staying on until the battery went down (didnt see it).
I have not experienced what you describe...sorry.

After one charge mine was back to normal

[cid]

I'd rather perform a hard reset sometimes to get rid of these viruses.All antivirus programs turns your machines slower.

[cktlcmd]

I now have both Pocket Antivirus 4 and Norton Antivirus for Handheld installed in my TH55 and UX50. Both runs fine. No crashes. No slowness of any kind. :D

Susans, "No power drain on mine." So whatever caused the power drain on yours is caused by something else, not Norton Antivirus for Handheld. I'd suggest to just start from scratch. :(

[SonyStyle]

i guess weird stuff happen to pdas