Help! Faulty T5?

[brianlee]

Hi All,

Wonder if anyone can help me? I finally bought a T5 after reading all the great things about the T5 1.1 update. I was always a bit wary about stability issues so I held out a long time over this upgrade.

After purchase, the first thing I did was install the T5 1.1 update. No problems at all. Info now shows Palm OS Garnet v.5.4.8

Next I installed Uninstall Manager and after that, the small number of apps I use: AvantGo, eReader, Kinoma, Passwords Plus, Docs to Go...err, that's it really. (Together with the pre-installed stuff like Addit and Versamail that I do not use). Everything is the latest version, all downloaded from scratch. Everything checks out on the T5 compatibility list...

Anyway, with this small collection of apps, I have encountered multiple "fatal exception" crashes daily. This occurs in completely different applications...AvantGo, Passwords Plus, during Hotsync, even just looking at photos in Media. Often, I have to soft reset and am immediately presented with another fatal exception on the Palm screen and I have soft reset again. Surprisingly, there is nothing that I can reproduce consistently...if I go back in to AvantGo / Passwords Plus / Media again, everything works fine....until the next crash.

The only thing that I CAN reproduce is if I try to install Kinoma movie trailers (from the PalmOne website), this ALWAYS produces a fatal exception crash during the hotsync.

My question to everyone is that I certainly expected a higher level of stability but maybe my expectations were unrealistic? Is this typical of what everyone else experiences with their T5 after the 1.1 patch? Or is it possible there is something wrong with my T5 in particular?

Any feedback much appreciated.

Brian

[Antoine]

Make sure that you have versions of AvantGo and Paswords Plus that have been updated for the Life Drive, that will help you out there. Also, if you try the hard reset again, install apps one at a time so that you can easier find the offending app. It takes time, but would make things much easier for you.

[SoS]

Make sure that you have versions of AvantGo and Paswords Plus that have been updated for the Life Drive


sorry antoine, he has a T5, but the advice is sound nonetheless...
I would also suggest to start again..try a hard reset and use the built in stuff first, then if stabel, add things one at a time..

[brianlee]

So, I confirm that I downloaded the latest versions of both AvantGo and Passwords Plus. The website for both programs also explicitly says that the Tungsten T5 is supported.

My question remains though: I am using up-to-date versions of what I consider relatively mainstream and common applications.....surely I should expect my T5 to be a bit more stable that I have described? Or is this considered normal for the T5?

[Robyr]

I think what he meant was that the patch brings the T5 to spec with the LifeDrive OS, so fixes for 5.4.8 should help with the t5 as it did with the LifeDrive

[brianlee]

Does this mean that for T5 owners who have applied the T5 1.1 patch to bring Palm OS Garnet up to v.5.4.8, we should now really be looking for "LifeDrive supported applications" rather than previously "T5 supported applications" (i.e. v.5.4.5)?

[SuperSaiyan]

Is it possible that the 1.1 update did not actually take properly? The first time I ran the update I thought it took but ran into fatal exceptions everywhere. Once I hard reset and loaded 1.1 on my clean T5 all was well.

[brianlee]

Hi SuperSaiyan. Do you think it is possible that the 1.1 update did not take properly even when Info now shows my Palm OS as v.5.4.8?

[Antoine]

I mentioned the LD because the T5 with update now has the same OS version as the LD and a few things (like the keyboard driver) do not work. I too have had issues with previous versions and updated to LD versions where I could and things worked.

But since we agree on the one app at a time method, it should work out really well ;)

[indigenous]

But to answer your most basic question, no this is not normal and something we don't put up with on a regular basis. As others had alluded, we try to track down the cause of these problems to make them go away. My T5 rarely crashes and I have many games and all the standard software installed (e.g. Docs to Go).

I have not installed the 1.1 update, but from what I've read it improves overall stability, it doesn't degrade it.

Hope this helps. :)

[oz-nom]

There should be no problems with most applications after the update. My T5 has not had any unusual crashes since updating. The only crash it has had was from a known bug, that is not T5 specific, in a game.

I agree with others, that perhaps the update didn't take. Also, I have heard some people talk about problems with Kinoma. Maybe this is causing the problems? The advice that others have given seems good: Hard reset, update again, reinstall apps one at a time.

Good luck,
Tim

[oz-nom]

I mentioned the LD because the T5 with update now has the same OS version as the LD and a few things (like the keyboard driver) do not work. I too have had issues with previous versions and updated to LD versions where I could and things worked.

Keyboard driver is fine on my T5 since the update. No change to it, or wifi, or any of my other settings since updating. All work as well, or better, than before.

Maybe different keyboard driver Antoine? Mine was for the Universal Wireless Keyboard.

Cheers,
Tim

[GaryLim]

Reading the posts over at lifedrive, it would seem that the T5 with 1.1 update is more stable than Lifedrive now. Previously my main problems was not being able to backup the T5 with the usual third party software. After the update, I do not have this problem anymore and have experimented with successful restores as well. People with Lifedrive seems to have same problems with third party backup programs experienced by T5 without 1.1.

[brianlee]

Following the advice give, I reinstalled everything from a hard reset. Things seem relatively stable (still averaging at least one non-reproducible reset a day) and certainly much better than before. The only difference.....I have not installed Kinoma.....

Has anyone managed to get Kinoma running on their T5 without causing instability?

[SuperSaiyan]

I'm with oz-nom. I've had no errors with my T5 since the 1.1 update which I got in properly the day after release and I have quite a list of apps on it. Also, I have the latest version of Kinoma Player 3EX and have had zero problems with video, audio or photo's - however, I usually use Resco viewer and Pocket tunes for audio and pics. Both also working flawlessly.
A few other apps I'm using without a glitch.
- Agendus pro
- Docs To Go
- FileZ
- MegaCalc
- MegaLauncher
- Passwords plus
- Planetarium
- SmartList To Go
- SplashMoney
- Teal Backup
all latest versions

[brianlee]

OK, a couple more days experience with my T5 and I am increasingly certain that I might have a faulty one. I am really stripped down to the bare minimal basic applications (aside from built-in) that I run:
- eReader
- AvantGo
- Passwords Plus
and I am still getting at least 2 crashes a day (yes, I am keeping a record of these). Also, some of the longer hotsyncs seem temperamental (e.g. anything involving larger media files) with "fatal exceptions" appearing on the T5 during them.
This sounds completely different to the experience of others on this forum so looks like I will be on the phone to Palm...
Thanks all for the advice.
Brian

[Antoine]

BrainLee;
Have you tried uninstalling those three extra apps and running for a day to see any isses. Also, Docs to Go has had an update that might not be present on your T5. Of course, calling palmOne is always a issue waiting to happen. They will ask you to soft reset, hotsync, hard reset, and then give yu the spew about an advance replacement costing $40.

[brianlee]

Hi Antoine, I think just running a vanilla T5 is just about the only thing I haven't tried. I will have to try and clear out some time for that. I certainly hope the T5 is capable of running some basic third-party apps ;)

In terms of Docs to Go, I do have the latest update which I downloaded from the DataViz website after reading about it here...

Thanks for the advise about contacting PalmOne. In which case, I will exhaust all avenues before using them as a very last resort

Thanks again.

Brian

[Antoine]

I only mention the plan jane (at least with the hot fudge update) because that seems to work best. Then going back and installing apps one at a time helps to find the offending app. For example, AvantGo did give some users issues when the T5 came out, but has since been updated. Even still, it may have an issue.

I do recommend using Uninstall Manager and CleanUp as they do an excellent job of making sure that programs you install, for function or fun, are deleted completly and do not cause problems with other programs.