Constant crashes

[Long Pan]

After 6 months of using Pleco Oxford on my Z22 without any problem (this program definitely boosted my Chinese ), I decided a few days ago to upgrade my Palm to a TX and installed Pleco ABC. The first day was perfect - no problem using Pleco. But since yesterday evening after using it while listening to a podcast with Pocket Tunes, Pleco constantly crashes (black screen without message and then soft reset ). These crashes happen usually just 2 or 3 minutes after using it on the regular search screen (and without listening to MP3). I have had more than 10 of them since yesterday (only on Pleco, other program works without problem); so I stopped using it. Any idea of the problem :?:

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Just one more information which might or might no be related to the start of the crash. The short-cut button on my Palm to “Pocket Tunes”, is the “calendar button”. And yesterday evening while switching from Pleco to Pocket Tunes using this button, I realized that the short-cup was not working but displaying at the top right of Pleco screen either a small “P1”, a “P3”, or a “En”. I do not know what these letters indicates, and maybe it changed something. But then I tried Pleco with P1, P3 or En, but it did not change much on the crashes…

 

[gato]

How about deleting PlecoDict on your TX and re-installing? Maybe some setting changed that's not right for the TX.

 

[mikelove]

That P1/P3/En thing is actually associated with another Chinese handwriting input program, I believe - did your TX come with PenPower or HWPen or PalmDragon or another such program preinstalled?

Anyway, given that this is happening with Pocket Tunes and possibly also this other handwriting program in the background, it seems like this is probably either a software conflict or a memory shortage - with the TX' massive amount of built-in memory a software conflict is probably more likely. So I think my first suggestion would be that you wipe the TX's memory to clear out any software (like that handwriting input program) they might have preinstalled. HotSync your TX again to back it up, then go to C, Program Files, Palm, (your username), and rename the Backup folder to Old Backup. After that, wipe your Palm's memory by holding down the power button and sticking a paperclip in the reset hole in the back; keep holding down the power button (but release the reset pin) for 30 seconds or so and you should be prompted if you want to erase your TX's memory. Do that and reinstall PlecoDict and hopefully it should work more smoothly after that.

 

[Long Pan]

Some progress in the process ! I think the solution is close. Here are some factual points with 3 questions (point 5, 6, 7):

1) Indeed Mike, I have PenP on my Palm, but I always switch if off so I don’t think the problem comes from it

2) Although Pleco crash when using it directly, it works well using the “direct access” from Docs to Go (no crash at all)

3) On Pleco I observe that the display is quite slow (when searching for a word), slower in fact than what I had on my Z22. And crashes seem to come from this slowness.

4) Remembering one thread from Roddy talking about memory conflicts between CJKOS and Blazer because of font problem (I quote “As far as I can figure out, if you have too many or too large fonts installed, they can take up memory and Blazer will be unable to start” see here), I switched off CJKOS and… everything comes perfect on Pleco :lol: (display is immediate and no crash at all). So the conflict seems to come with CJKOS, and maybe with all the font I have installed myself

5) Following this idea I would like to delete some fonts I do not use (for instance FGBK24F, FGBK10F, FGB24F, FGB10F, FB524F, FB510F). Trouble is that I do not know where to find these fonts in the Palm (the CJKOS files I see all start with MF…. But nothing related to the font name) Does anybody know how to FIND and then delete these fonts? :?:

6) Most of Pleco files are on my SD card, when only “PlecoDict” is on the Palm. Is it normal or do you recommend to install everything on Palm :?:

7) Last but not least, what is the simplest way to desinstall Pleco application (to reinstall if after of course) :?: What I would do is to delete all the files one by one, but I guess there must be a clever way?

Thanks for your help

 

[gato]

Trouble is that I do not know where to find these fonts in the Palm (the CJKOS files I see all start with MF…. But nothing related to the font name) Does anybody know how to FIND and then delete these fonts?

You probably installed the unnecessary fonts because of my suggestion. Sorry about that. 8)

You can use FileProg (free and the best file manager for Palm I've seen) to delete the unneeded fonts from the system memory.
http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/fileprog.shtml
FileProg v1.14

 

[ipsi]

You can also hunt through CJKOS manager, or even use that to transfer rarely-used fonts to your SD Card. Should be called cManager.

 

[Aunty]

In my experience, Pleco and CJKOS work together fine and speedy on a TX. You shouldn't be seeing problems or slowdowns due to that combination.

To remove CJKOS fonts, there is only one way. Use the cManager program, go to fonts, and tap on the rubbish bin to remove the ones you don't need.

On a high resolution Palm, you only want two the largest available font sizes for CJKOS. And you must deinstall all of the smaller ones, because when CJKOS offers you two font sizes to use, it always offers the two SMALLEST fonts available.

It sounds like you have a few "magic buttons" set up for starting various programs. It's a long shot, but any chance they could be conflicting somehow?

 

[Long Pan]

Thanks all of you for your advise; I finally deleted all GBK fonts to only keep GB + BIG5 (12, 16, 24). It has solved the problem or at least for a while... Because I then had the excellent idea to install the English-French dictionary SlovoEd and try their “instant access function” in Pleco. This lead to a pretty bad loop-crash, for which I had to do a warm reset

So there might be some underlying bugs somewhere. I do not want to do a hard reset now, because I am afraid to lose CJKOS & Docs to Go (which came with the TX I bought here in Beijing). Maybe first as Gato said, I should try to desintall & reinstall Pleco and see what I get (of course I have deleted SlovoEd which by the way, compared to Pleco, is a prehistoric tool). Just need to confirm 2 points :

1) I have a number of files in my card "Palm / launcher" most of them being from Pleco (ABC, Oxford, radicals, B5, GB…) I just hesitate on these 3: Font48.pdb; LAUNCHER.DAT; NWP.pdb could you please confirm these 3 are all from Pleco so that I can delete them

2) Then do you recommend me to reinstall everything on the Palm, or is it OK to keep one part on the card (which seems to be done automatically when we install Pleco with a card, isn't it ?)

It sounds like you have a few "magic buttons" set up for starting various programs. It's a long shot, but any chance they could be conflicting somehow?

Indeed Aunty, I use “short cuts Buttons” to launch Pleco or Docs to Go; is there anything risky about this ?

Thanks for you precious help

 

[Aunty]

I finally deleted all GBK fonts to only keep GB + BIG5 (12, 16, 24).

In that case, your two smallest fonts are the 12 and 16, so CJKOS will only ever use these, never the 24. If you remove the 12, leaving only 16 and 24, it will be using the fonts that it is intended to work with on high resolution devices. If you don't, the 24 is just wasting space.

I do not want to do a hard reset now, because I am afraid to lose CJKOS & Docs to Go (which came with the TX I bought here in Beijing).

Oh, don't you already backup to the SDCard? There's a couple of good freeware programs, NVBackup is brilliant, and there's also InnerBackup which works on slightly older models like the Z72. Check freewarepalm.com. That's the only way to backup an restore absolutely everything that is on the PDA. It'll help you sleep at night. Both of these programs have done complete restores for me when I've lost the lot.

 

[Long Pan]

Things are OK now :lol: . To summarize

1) it seems that the root of my bug was the CJKOS GBK fonts which created conflicts with Pleco. Now that I just keep fonts GB & Big5 (12, 16, 24), CJKOS + Pleco work just perfect (I love the instant access option through Docs to Go or the web)

2) The reason of my second bug with SlovoEd seems to be that I tried to use SlovoEd instant access option on Pleco (to translate some English to French). I read on a French Palm forum, that some problems occured with SlovoEd instant access option on TX - which seems to confirms my idea.

Oh, don't you already backup to the SDCard? There's a couple of good freeware programs, NVBackup is brilliant

Indeed Aunty, that was on my to do list, but not done at the time of the loop crash; hopefully the warm reset was OK to stop it (+ then delete Slovoed + soft reset), so no need to hard reset . Now I installed NVBackup, and you are right, it is brillant.

At least these little bugs made me know much about Palm. Thanks for your help,