WM5 Problem - Deleting Windows junk files

Quantum

I can't find the WM forum, with the new forum layout, so I'll ask here.

Running WM5, which locks up every day due to the Bluetooth driver problem. This crash/reset has over time accumulated tons of files in the Winduhs directory named similarly to 0100wxreytwoudjerhthejjksl.dsm and so on.

The File Explorer gives me no option to cut or delete these files, and when I try to delete with Resco it says, "File {whatever} is in ROM memory! You cannot delete it." Well, the temerity. I have about 50 of these junk files and they need to be deleted.

I've tried renaming them, cutting them, changing properties (which doesn't take), and everything else I can think of, but nothing works. What to do?

Also, can someone please tell me which are the Bluetooth driver files that TomTom adds which are causing these lockups, and how to delete them? I tried once before, but the system refused to let me delete them.

Darren · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:48 pm Post subject:

It's been a while since I used PocketPC in earnest but a quick Google suggests that the .dms files can be safely ignored.

What version of TomTom are you using?
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Darren Griffin

mikealder · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:57 pm Post subject:

Drastic action to try but have you considered a hard reset of the device? Not ideal but if you have a recent back up it should be painless, who said WM5 didn't need back ups....
BTW I moved one of the threads to this forum section earlier, sorry if it caused any confusion - Mike

Quantum · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:21 pm Post subject:

After searching for hours, it seems that the problem is a bug in the OS, not surprisingly. I have to reset every day because of the damned TomTom Bluetooth driver, and the bug is upon soft reset the OS makes another bogus System Notification thread, and thus another one of these gibberish files under /Windows. I read one account where the guy said he had 600 Notification threads, 595 of which were trash!

This is why these files are locked, they are held by all these threads. This mess drastically slows down WM5.

A solution is this free app, ClearNotify:
http://www.scarybearsoftware.com/product_detail.php?productname=checknotify

Unfortunately it's locked in an .exe InstallShield file and I have not been able to tear out the .cab. I run Debian not Winduhs, and so cannot start ActiveStync to do this install. And a thorough search of the web has not turned up the raw .cab anywhere.

Also haven't been able to turn up what bluetooth files to remove. (the old ones installed by TomTom)

Quantum · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:34 pm Post subject:

Well, I've just resorted to a dual-boot of XP and tried to connect in any way possible with all M$ solutions with my iPaq, but it simply does not communicate even with Activesync 4.5, so there is no way for me to get this app installed.

And it seems that no one knows which Bluetooth drivers are installed by TomTom.

So my whole day is shot for nothing.

mikealder · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:55 pm Post subject:

What hardware are you using, is this still the iPaq-4700 running WM5 or have you gone for something new?

I still don't trust WM5 on devices that were designed to use WM2003SE, even the official update isn't too good and can cause issues - Mike

Quantum · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:59 pm Post subject:

Same stuff, just as you say.

I wrote to scarybear and they gave me a direct link to the cab. I installed it, and now on boot the display completely goes dark. I installed this on WM5 because I've read two accounts that say it worked fine on their WM5, but of course it doesn't for me.

Now my navigation system is shot. Apparently there's no such thing as Safe Mode with WM5, so there's no way to deinstall it. I am so glad that I do not deal with Microsoft products on a day-to-day basis, as this has been an infuriating experience. I just have to resolve myself to reinstalling the freaking OS and TomTom, and soft-resetting the stupid thing every day. I am just glad that general society doesn't run on Winduhs. Oh, wait...

Mullet · Frequent Visitor Joined: Dec 12, 2005 Posts: 1051

Quantum · Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:51 am Post subject:

My fault, I don't have a backup, and don't know how to make one. I've run Debian on all my machines except this one, for 11 years. I tried dual-booting to XP and connecting to it with Activesync, but it simply would not connect. I don't know what's wrong.

Do I have to start over?

Mullet · Frequent Visitor Joined: Dec 12, 2005 Posts: 1051

Have you installed the device drivers for your iPaq onto your XP machine? Plug the USB into a rear port, straight off the motherboard.

Quantum · Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:07 pm Post subject:

I've now installed the HP 8710w (laptop) drivers, and the iPaq 4700 drivers in my dual-boot XP.

When I plug in the iPaq Winduhs does the ker-plink, recognizing it's plugged in, but Activestync cannot connect. When I look at the network connection it always says 'acquiring IP address. It seems XP is trying to get an IP from the iPaq and the iPaq is trying to get an IP from XP. I can't find any settings for the network in the iPaq, other than a nebulous 'network interface', so don't know what's going on there.

BTW, when I plugged the iPaq into the cradle the display came back on, so I quickly deinstalled that scarybear software. I sure hope TomTom still works.

Quantum · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 2:25 am Post subject:

OK, sez I, I remember turning off the Winduhs DHCP server, because it's not qualified to do anything important like that. So I set a hard IP for the interface that comes up when I plug in the iPaq. And I set a hard IP in the same Class C for all likely iPaq interfaces. Reboot everything and go.

Now it's no longer trying to get an IP, and the connection shows Connected. From Winduhs I can ping 192.168.1.6, which is the address I'd set for the iPaq's Remote NDIS Host interface. Yah hah, sez I, we're connexcted...

So I fire up ActiveStync, but alas it is still blind. I figure maybe the iPaq has to be running it too, so I start it there and try another scan... no luck.

So I can communicate with other than Activestync. Likely it is unknown how all this actually works, so maybe I'm stuck.

Quantum · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 4:11 pm Post subject:

I've installed MemMaid now, but unfortunately it won't let me eliminate those gibberish files in the Winduhs directory, nor find the old Bluetooth drivers that TomTom inflicted on me.

Darren · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 4:30 pm Post subject:

Are you sure TomTom even installed BT drivers? From memory they just used the BT com port, whose drivers are in the OS? What they did do, much to everyone's annoyance was lock the BT Com Port to TomTom in early releases even if TT wasn't running.
_________________
Darren Griffin

Quantum · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:07 pm Post subject:

I definitely read somewhere (thought it was here) that TomTom installs old BT drivers, and that you have to delete them.

In fact I found an older TTN3 BT driver and renamed/deleted that as instructed in the thread. I was to next delete the TTN5 driver, but the system seized that and won't let it go.

I found somewhere a list of three files which must be removed in order to purge the old driver.

The reason I'm worried about this is that every single morning I find my iPaq locked up, and I have to do a soft reset. This is supposed to be a classic symptom of BT driver conflict. And the iPaq often runs really hot, indicating a runaway loop. But the crappy tools M$ provides give no way to diagnose problems like this. I am so glad to run Debian everywhere else.

Anyway, these everyday resets have resulted in many trash files in the Windows directory as described above, and I theorize these are locked by false threads created by the known reset bug. The system won't let me rename or delete them, and they are building more every day.

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