Do all PDAs forget settings when main battery dies?

NickG

Hi all,

You know the story, it's dark, raining, you've been stuck on the motorway nearly stationary for a few hours and the opportunity to exit comes up. So you think, cool - i'll come off here and use TomTom to find an alternative route back. You sling the GPS on the dash and pull your PDA out only to find that it's battery is flat and it has lost all it's settings. How many hundreds of times have I been asked to recalibrate my screen and copy and paste that bloody Dental Appointment example?!

I think pretty much 50% of the time I go to use my PDA, I find that it's effectively reset itself and has no software installed anymore.

I have found one solution, which is to use Sprite Backup to regularly back up the PDA to the compact flash card. This means I can run the self-executing backup file while "in the field" and get my PDA back to a working state with TomTom and all my favourites working - but it takes a while (several minutes) and you still need to recalibate the screen, go throught the copy/paste example, set date and time etc etc. So I'm looking for a better solution that preferably doesn't require me to spend £300+ on a TomTom GO.

Another solution might be to find a way to keep my PDA permanently on charge in my glovebox somehow. I could try and steal a power feed from the back of the radio and run it to the back of the glove box somehow and this way my PDA should be fully charged.

But before I start doing all this rewiring in my car, I was wondering: Do all PDAs have this problem, or is it just HP Ipaqs? Eg, do Dell Axims have the same problem? Is there not a PDA that uses non-volatile memory and therefore never loses it's settings? Or maybe one that can remain in standby for a few weeks between charges?

Any ideas on how to make this setup more reliable?

Thanks,

Nick...

StevenGourlay · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:29 pm Post subject:

All PDA's with Pocket PC 2003 SE or lower will loose all your data if the battery is drained. This is due to the data is stored on volatile memory (battery dependant). Windows mobile 5 however will not loose your programs or data if your battery goes flat.
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Steven Gourlay
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NickG · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject:

Has that been released yet? If so, which PDAs come with it? What would you recommend for use with TomTom 5? I quite like the look of the Dell Axims. I'm not too fond of IPAQs as I've had lots of reliability issues.

Thanks,

Nick...

NickG · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:46 pm Post subject:

What I don't get though - is how a new OS can resolve the problem. Surely if it was possible for all settings and software to be stored in NVRAM, they would have done this from the outset? I was expecting it to be solved by newer hardware or PDAs with more NVRAM instead of RAM.

If the battery goes flat on a WM5 device then, what actually happens? How long does it take to start up? Does it have to restore the settings from the NVRAM area or does it start up as normal?

If it really does fix it, then I'll definitely be upgrading because this problem drives me nuts.

StevenGourlay · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:47 pm Post subject:

At present TomTom does not support WM5 but they will be working on an update. Some iPAQ PDA's that come with WM5:

HP iPAQ rx1950 NEW
http://www.totalpda.com/HP-iPAQ-rx1950-NEW.aspx
HP iPAQ 2190 New
http://www.totalpda.com/HP-iPAQ-2190-New.aspx
HP iPAQ 2490 NEW
http://www.totalpda.com/HP-iPAQ-2490--NEW.aspx

Other brands

I-Mate JASJAR mini-laptop 3G phone WiFi
http://www.totalpda.com/I-Mate-JASJAR-mini-laptop-3G-phone-WiFi.aspx
i-Mate K-JAM Wi-Fi PDA Phone
http://www.totalpda.com/i-Mate-K-JAM-Wi-Fi-PDA-Phone.aspx

They are more but that is some you can look at for now.
_________________
Regards
Steven Gourlay
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grayus · Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:23 pm Post subject: dead battery

I found the discussion on PDA operating systems with steve and Nick really
interesting, as I can understand the frustration of a dead battery, what i would like to know can this new new operating system be installed on my Ipaq 2210 PDA and be compatible with my tom tom 5.1 ?If so where can it be purchased from ?
thanks guys Question

StevenGourlay · Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:27 pm Post subject:

i dont think it will work on your 2210 as your model is discontinued now, but you can call HP on 0870 8422339 options 1,3,6
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Steven Gourlay
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northerngent · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 26, 2006 Posts: 21

noticed your comments regarding tomtom and WM5.
tomtom now have a package which includes tomtom navigator, and ipaq rx1950 full details on this link.

http://www.tomtom.com/products/product.php?ID=209&Language=1

Having done my research (I think) I would like to but this piece of kit, however it has to be bought through the usual high street box shifters, and no one appears to stcok it.

anyone know where I can get hold of this pack.

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