1src Forums - TX in perpetual reset loop

03-28-2006, 07:25 AM	#1
silkenpaw Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 6	TX in perpetual reset loop Hi all, My TX has decided to go into a perpetual reset loop. All I see is the orange Palm logo with a black progress indicator on the bottom, then the grey "palm powered" screen, then screen goes blank for a second or two, and then it all starts over again. I tried hard resetting it but it did not respond. To my recollection, this was not preceded by installation of any new software or any other unusual event. What to do? (Right now I'm looking at the pretty logos and waiting for the battery to die, but I don't know whether that will finally return the handheld to a working state.) Thanks for all and any suggestions, -- Magda Plewinska Miami, FL, USA

03-28-2006, 08:16 AM	#2
dmitrygr Software engineer/hacker Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Silicon Valley, CA Posts: 5,061	let battery die, and then wait a day or two. then charge it for a few hourts. should come back. if not, have it replaced. it is a bug in the system that makes it possibly for NVFS to errorneously write to the system area of flash, making the system image invalid and unbootable. __________________ Annoying me is NOT an approved way of encouraging me to produce software My software:PowerSDHC, PowerDrive, nuRom, UDMH, warpSpeed, PowerDiGi, brightnessFix, etc... Get it all here:http://www.PalmPowerups.com

03-28-2006, 08:24 AM	#3
Splat0104 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 42	Actually the thing to do (in my experience) is to reset and hold 'up' on the d-pad. Let this go when you get to the grey Palm logo. This should stop it from loading whatever it causing your TX to do that. If this doesn't fix it do a zero-out reset and let Hotsync put everything back. Fixed it for me after I installed a few apps that didn't play nice even though they were supposed to...

03-28-2006, 11:12 AM	#4
_Em Beta Tester Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Igloo Posts: 2,377	The problem is probably a corrupted Saved or Unsaved Prefs DB file. If you do a warm reset as instructed above, and then (or move) these files, your problem should go away. However, all of your preferences will also be deleted. __________________ My Palm family: Palm T\|X ~ Palm T\|E ~ m130 ~ m125 ~ POSE

03-28-2006, 11:40 AM	#5
lemmyslender Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 11	My TX got stuck in a reset loop as well. None of the different types of resets had any effect on the unit. I even disconnected the battery for several hours to no avail. Had to have Palm replace it. I believe that dmitrygr has the right idea. Let the battery drain and see if that helps. Best of luck.

03-28-2006, 01:23 PM

pruss

Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: Waco TX

Posts: 4,440 pruss will become famous soon enough

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmitrygr

it is a bug in the system that makes it possibly for NVFS to errorneously write to the system area of flash, making the system image invalid and unbootable.

I know you once talked of setting system area to read only in the MMU. Have you thought any more about a utility to do that?

__________________
Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

03-28-2006, 04:44 PM	#7
dmitrygr Software engineer/hacker Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Silicon Valley, CA Posts: 5,061	no good. nand is non memory-mapped [WHY OH WHY??] __________________ Annoying me is NOT an approved way of encouraging me to produce software My software:PowerSDHC, PowerDrive, nuRom, UDMH, warpSpeed, PowerDiGi, brightnessFix, etc... Get it all here:http://www.PalmPowerups.com

03-28-2006, 05:11 PM

NarrowRoad

Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: New York

Posts: 61

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmitrygr

no good. nand is non memory-mapped [WHY OH WHY??]

Lemme get this straight; there's a bug in the NVFS system that can brick the TX? Does anyone know what conditions trigger it? Does Palm know about it? GEEEEEZ - PALM GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ***!!!

03-28-2006, 06:07 PM

dmitrygr

Software engineer/hacker

Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Silicon Valley, CA

Posts: 5,061 dmitrygr will become famous soon enough

Quote:

Originally Posted by NarrowRoad

Lemme get this straight; there's a bug in the NVFS system that can brick the TX? Does anyone know what conditions trigger it?

very low stack in Arm native apps/PACE when a Dm* call happens is one of them

Quote:

Originally Posted by NarrowRoad

Does Palm know about it? GEEEEEZ - PALM GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!!!

Do they know? I'm sure they do.
Do they care? Now THAT is another story.
It is not common enough for them to care really

__________________
Annoying me is NOT an approved way of encouraging me to produce software

My software:PowerSDHC, PowerDrive, nuRom, UDMH, warpSpeed, PowerDiGi, brightnessFix, etc...
Get it all here:http://www.PalmPowerups.com

Last edited by dmitrygr : 03-28-2006 at 06:12 PM.

03-28-2006, 07:44 PM	#10
jjesusfreak01 Custom User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 3,942	And I believe it was a difficult thing for Dmitry to find in the first place. He didnt know it was there until he wrote a program that happened to encounter the bug, otherwise he might not have ever known...anyways, found now, but will there be a fix? __________________ Brad Green - Enthusiast Extraordinaire... Sony TG-50, Sony TH-55, Palm TX...TH-55 still the best

03-28-2006, 08:01 PM	#11
JAmerican Why Does Palm Disappoint? Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 5,909	Looks like Palm is starting to turn into Windows. LOL. Updates are needed to keep stability and fix errors. I hope there is a fix. I hope to use the TX in college as my potential laptop w/ Keyboard. JAmerican __________________ JAmerican Handspring Treo 90 --> Royal RG135nx --> T-Mobile Sidekick --> T-Mobile Sidekick Color --> PEG-UX40 -- > PEG-UX50--> Samsung T629 (Returned) -- > Palm TX (SOLD)/T-Mobile Sony Ericsson T610(Defective) --> T-Mobile Dash(Broken Screen) --> ASUS EEE 1000H Black/Treo 800w/PEG-VZ90 Accesories: Transcend 16GB SDHC \| 8GB Transcend microSD

03-28-2006, 08:28 PM

#12

silkenpaw

Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2006

Posts: 6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Splat0104

If this doesn't fix it do a zero-out reset and let Hotsync put everything back.

This being done the same way as the zero-out reset on the T5?

Thanks,

MP

03-28-2006, 08:38 PM

#13

silkenpaw

Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2006

Posts: 6

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmitrygr

let battery die, and then wait a day or two. then charge it for a few hourts. should come back. if not, have it replaced.

Thanks, Dmitry. Will try this.

__________________
Magda Plewinska
Miami, FL, USA

03-28-2006, 09:56 PM

#14

Splat0104

Registered User

Join Date: Oct 2003

Location: Chicago

Posts: 42

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmitrygr

let battery die, and then wait a day or two. then charge it for a few hourts. should come back. if not, have it replaced.

it is a bug in the system that makes it possibly for NVFS to errorneously write to the system area of flash, making the system image invalid and unbootable.

I guess I got lucky then. Mine had the same situation go on where soft resets didn't fix it, nor did letting the battery drain.

Doing the zero-out and then letting the standard palm backup reinstall everything put it back just fine... along with deleteing the software I ran right before it happened. Installing the program didn't hurt it at all - running it caused the reset and loop.

Thanks for the info. I'll know if it happens again.

03-29-2006, 03:34 AM	#15
veocolores Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 9	Hi!! I had the same problem, as I posted in this forum, and after trying all kind of resets, and having the battery down for many days, I finally sent it to Palm to get it replaced. Bye.