Downloading PLECO to ATT Tilt

[kyleleese13]

Hello,

I posted earlier regarding my desire to purchase a PDA to use PLECO. My wife and I have finally received our new phones from ATT and quite frankly, they are simply amazing to us Troglodyte techno people.

As mentioned earlier, the ONLY reason we purchased two $400 phones was because I am going to be stationed in Beijing for three years, and was told this PLECO is the best program out there, and the ATT Tilt (HTC Kaiser) is one of the best platforms for the program.

When I go to the PLECO website to download the complete version exe, basic version exe, or any of the manual versions, the phone, after approximately 2 minutes comes back with a "500 internal server error." I believe that is referred to as timed out, but again, I don't speak, eat, breathe, or otherwise no anything about techno stuff and just follow instructions. I have had five bars (the reception) of 3G internet signal at all times. I have tried my wife's phone and mine. I have been to other sites besides PLECO, and have since downloaded a variety of programs that are larger than PLECO as tests. They downloaded fine, and I have since deleted them, since I want to make sure my wife and I have room on our phone's memory for PLECO (we purchased and installed the 1GB memory MicroSD cards).

I am guessing at this point that either there is something wrong with our two phones (which is standard for my luck with technology), or the earlier posts recommending the Tilt as a phone of choice for PLECO was incorrect and it does not work on the platform.

Any help out there, as this $1000 (phones plus service upgrade) purchase looks pretty silly to me now as I can't get the program that was the only reason for purchase?

Thank you.

Very respectfully,

Kyle Leese

 

[ipsi]

I would strongly recommend having a look at the instruction manual: http://www.pleco.com/ppcmanual.pdf

You'll actually want to download the file http://www.pleco.com/pccomplete103b.exe directly to your computer, then install Active Sync (Assuming you're using Windows XP, there should be a CD that came with your AT&T Tilt that will allow you to install it). If you're using Vista, I think you can just install without worrying too much about Active Sync, but someone else will have to confirm that. You will be able to install it, just might take a bit longer .

If you can't get it working with 1.0, then 2.0 will be out very soon and that should be easier to install. Alternatively, you could try a manual install, but I don't really see that being a lot of fun for you.

1GB Micro SD card will be fine.

I think the error code 500 was just temporary, and was far more likely a problem at Pleco's end than at yours. All sorts of funny things can happen that can bring a server down temporarily.

I hope some of that helps. Worst comes to worst, we could try a screen-shot by screen-shot install guide, but I think you'll find the manual more helpful.

 

[kyleleese13]

Thanks so much for your prompt reply.

I have tried downloading to my laptop (VISTA), but the computer won't recognize the program. I am going to to downloading straight to the 1GB MicroSD card while in the computer, and try putting that directly into the phone. Maybe that will work?

 

[ipsi]

Bugger. Can't help much with Vista I'm afraid, so you can either wait for someone who does know about Vista, or you can try the manual install. Card Install shouldn't be very hard, provided there are instructions in the manual.

I assume your phone connects to the computer without a problem at least?

 

[ldolse]

I don't use Vista either, but if you follow the manual install instructions and put everything on the SD card from the desktop you should be in good shape. Just make sure you're putting the manual install files on the card and not the full installer application, as that won't run from the mobile. What you should be copying to the SD card are a bunch of .cab and possibly .pdb files. That's pretty much how I always handle a Pleco install. Not sure if you're installing 1.0 or 2.0 off the forums. I think either way you will still have a several cab files you'll need to launch and install from the handheld's file explorer app.

 

[kyleleese13]

Thanks again for the help.

I did get the program to download to the tilt by going through my computer. I can actually see the demo on the tilt now.

Next problem is activating the program. I successfully purchased the professional edition for 119.95, and received confirmation email with attachment in a .plk format. I attempt to open it on my laptop, and the computer does not recognize the .plk format, nor does it allow me to open it using any other program. I tried to open it using the PLECODICT files on my tilt, and all that comes up is an Adobe acrobat message that says the file is either corrupted, improperly encoded, or sent improperly. I cannot find anything about this in the instruction manual, unless I have missed it.

I have now been working on this supposedly simple install process for just over three hours, and I have to say, am completely frustrated. The help on this forum has been great, so I am not complaining about that.

But the actual process is not explained for tech newbies in an appropriate fashion. Every time I think I have it figured out, there is a new roadblock, like the .plk file thing put in my path. Everyone says this is supposed to be "plug and play" stuff, but I have been downloading, uploading, converting, entering serial numbers, credit card numbers, activating software, deactivating other software, turning off and on virus protection...truly a nightmare for a program that I haven't even tried to use. God, I hope it is all worth it.

Standing by for any help available.

Very respectfully,

Kyle Leese

 

[mikelove]

Sorry about that - we designed that procedure before Windows Vista came out (it's a lot easier / clearer on XP). The new version of Pleco we're releasing in a couple of days (and to which you'll receive a free upgrade) has a much friendlier system for installing keyfiles.

Anyway, to copy the keyfile over to your phone, first save it to your desktop and *don't* try to open it. Then, connect your phone to your desktop, open up My Computer, and you should see an icon there with a picture of a phone on it (or possibly just a generic picture of a handheld computer) and whatever name you've given the phone as the icon name. Open that icon, open up the "/" folder inside of it and the "My Documents" folder inside of that, and drag the keyfile into that folder to copy it over.

Once you've done that, open up PlecoDict on your handheld and it should detect the keyfile and unlock itself. If it doesn't, choose Quit from the Dict menu and then try opening it again.