Still within my 10 return period, but no IR receive

[FIN-MAN]

I think I'm going to be very happy with my LifeDrive. Eventually. :o

My one (known) problem so far is not being able to receive via the IR port, even though I can transmit (yes, IR receive has been turned on during the tests). My LD is a work tool, so the idea of it going away for two weeks is a bummer, and some of the software installed linked to the S/N.

I called the support number, and was told to backup my device and do hard reset. Most of my syncing work is done on a Windows ME machine. I can't run LifeDrive Manager on it. I would have to install LDM on my XP machine and then do the full backup with it and/or using DirectDrive. I didn't have the time to set up a fulll backup, wipe the pda clean, and then hope it would restore, so I declined to take that action until later.

Within this forum I've seen references to soft reset (which I've done, learning to wait for it, wait for it, wait ... well, you know), a hard reset (which I imagine is like reformatting your C: drive and starting over), and a "modified" hard reset.

What does that last option mean? Are there other steps that reveal a hardware vs. software error in the device?

And as to fully backing up the LD to an image that can be reloaded, which procedure works best? LD Manager, Direct Drive, both, neither, other?

Thanks for any guidance.

[FrankG]

My condolences re your using ME. Any of the 98s probably would fair better.... ;)

Anyway, I'd do a backup of the 64M virtual RAM to the drive using one of the available free] backup apps amd then try drive mode and copy everything to the PC machine via Win explorer. After the hard reset you ought to be able to copy things back and then restore RAM.

Sounds like it ought to work but your experience might vary!

Good luck,
Frank

[FIN-MAN]

Thanks for the comment. Actually, ME turned out to be more stable on this system than 98. I just haven't needed to move from it.

You mention "free backup" programs. Any suggestions?

My other concern is restoration of programs from the hard drive backup. It is rarely as simple as just copying them back. Anyone have any experience with this sequence of events and have advise about it? What did you use? What steps did you have to take? What did you lose?

If this (the ol' lobotomy and retraining trick) is going to be a standard "diagnostic" step for Palm it would be good to establish a "what works" and "what doesn't work" in this cycle.

BTW, I still would also like to know if anyone else is experiencing this "no IR receive" problem too.

[Gar]

I had the no IR issue. It ended up being a datebook application app I had loaded. Look at applications you have loaded that might have something to do with beaming their data. You might try reloading them as they may have shifted the beam send/receive. I re-installed my datebook app, then did a reset with the pin hole at the bottom and all is good now.

It isn't particular to the LD, this issue used to come up for folks in the 505/515 days too. Same problem, same fix.

[FrankG]

...
You mention "free backup" programs. Any suggestions?

...

BTW, I still would also like to know if anyone else is experiencing this "no IR receive" problem too.

BackupBuddyVFS Free does a simple job of copying eveything from RAM space to a backup folder -- and back when a restore is needed. It won't keep generations of backups and it won't delete files so if I'm doing a 2nd backup I delete the first then do a full backup. Likewise, it is not multislot aware so it will only backup to the 1st card slot, in the LD case, the hard drive, so after a backup I move the backup folder from disk to SD card. Wow -- maybe it's time for me to pay for a full version....

Yes -- my LD has IR problems when beam receiving but not when IR syncing or IR to modem.

Frank

[Tam Hanna]

There uis a really simple way to check both IR send and receive.
IR Monitor lets you check if the receiver works(try a lighter)
Chck the sender with a digital camera of a cell phone:
http://tamspalm.blogspot.com/2005/03/checking-infrared-sender-of-palm-os.html