Help! Stuck in start up loop

[David]

I have an Acer s60 Palm OS PDA. Last week the system crashed, and then when it started to reboot, it was stuck in an endless loop of rebooting. If I hold down the directional keypad, it will go to a white screen, and stop rebooting. If I hold down the directional keypad while I press the reset button, it will go to a screen with the system colors displayed in large squares. If I hold down the power button, it goes to a screen where it asks me if I want to erase all data (press up if I do).

I think I tried all combinations of pressing keys. I finally selected erase all data. I lost all the data from the last month, which is a lot. (I don't hotsync often because I don't have a computer) When it crashed, I was using Plecodict Beta 2, in resident mode. So, after it erases the memory, I install Beta 3. I start reentering some of the data that was lost, then the system crashes again, the same as before. Right now the system is that crash mode.

Questions: Is there any way to get out of this restart loop? Has anyone else experienced this? I've had my PDA for almost 2 years, and this has never happened. The only software installed on the PDA that was common in both crashes was Supermemo and Plecodict. If I'm the only one this is happening to, I guess I should get a new PDA.

 

[mikelove]

You can get out of the reset loop by holding down the scroll up button while you reset - that'll prevent anything from loading after the reset.

As far as the reset in general, was there any particular action in resident mode which brought about the crash? Were you doing this with the "use clipboard" option enabled or disabled? When you reentered data post-crash, what program were you using? And was Beta 2 the first version of PlecoDict that you installed on your PDA, or were you using another version before that?

 

[David]

I tried holding the scroll up button, but that didn't work. The OS is a Chinese OS, and it quite possibly has some flaws.

I think the "use clipboard" option was enabled. When I was entering data, I was going through a list of words I had written down, and making flashcards in Supermemo for them. I don't think I was doing anything strange, mostly just: activate dictionary (usually with the search string already selected), search, copy, exit dictionary, paste. Beta 2 wasn't the first version I installed. I think I've tried just about all the versions.

 

[mikelove]

Hmm... well there's a crashing bug related to 'use clipboard' in Beta 3 which we've now fixed in 1.0, so that may be the source of the problem. But if holding down the scroll-up button doesn't fix this then aside from a call to Acer tech support I'm afraid there's not a whole lot I can suggest - reset again, and if you reinstall PlecoDict then hold off on using Instant Access at least until 1.0 is ready.

Thanks for the info, and apologies for any portion of this that may have been PlecoDict-related.

It might be worth purchasing an SD card to use for backups, BTW - you can find 64MB cards for US$10 these days, and it would allow you to make frequent (and even automatic) backups without having to use a PC. Even if there wasn't this crashing threat, with a 2-year-old PDA you could easily encounter a hardware failure which would wipe out all your data, so it's worthwhile to be a little cautious.

 

[David]

I'm not even sure what that Use Clipboard option does, (or if I was using it) so I will deactivate it. And maybe I will stay away from instant access for a while. And backup every day (until I start to feel safe, then...).

PlecoDict crashed, but I have to blame the system for making me loose data. What kind of crummy OS dies that easily? (Answer: A crummy crummy OS.) I think I'll blame Acer for that, even though the Chinese OS must be third party.

By the way, in Beta three, instant access was starting up in English to Chinese mode, no matter whether Chinese characters were selected or not.

 

[mikelove]

Use Clipboard allows PlecoDict to look up words from applications that don't use standard Palm OS text fields, like Documents To Go and VersaMail. But if you're not using those then it does absolutely no good.

I'm not sure about that other bug, has anybody else had Instant Access refuse to come up in Chinese mode with Chinese characters selected? I suppose it could be something to do with the Chinese OS on the Acer, but it seems unlikely that it would affect PlecoDict in this particular way...

 

[Jim]

Using a Treo 650 I also get Instant Access coming up in whatever language was last used in Plecodict regardless of the language of the text selected. This is so even if I use Instant Access more than once. For example, if I last checked an English word in Plecodict then later receive a Chinese SMS and need to check several words each time I check a word Instant Access will still open in English.

 

[mikelove]

Oops, I completely forgot that this was one of the bugs in Beta 3 that we fixed for 1.0. When you put out this many public releases, it's hard to keep track of what gets fixed in what... anyway, the problem is gone in 1.0.