+Monkey Toes Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 My home computer is a laptop and doesn't have the serial port. I'd rather not continue to use my work computer for my geocaching agenda. I've installed the USB drivers from the Palm website, but I still cannot HotSync with a USB cable. I go into the hotsync app in the Palm, but USB is not an option- only serial and modem. Can this not be done? I'm all ready to purchase cachemate and a premium membership, but if this won't work then it's a no sale. Quote Link to comment
+JDandDD Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 (edited) What you need is a USB to Serial cable. Belkin and other manufacturers sell them. You can get them at RadioShack and Circuit City in the US and in Canada at the Source, among other suppliers. I use one with my Palm III and have not problems at all with Hotsynch. edited to add: I use it on a laptop without serial port as well. JDandDD Edited January 15, 2006 by JDandDD Quote Link to comment
+Monkey Toes Posted January 15, 2006 Author Share Posted January 15, 2006 Got it. two different kinds. Still no worky. I'm glad to hear that someone can get it to work. did you have to change anything on the Palm itself? Do you have it set to "serial" for hotsync? Quote Link to comment
+GeckoGeek Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Yes, the Palm must be set to serial. Likewise the Palm Desktop needs to have serial activated and using the correct COM port. If you've got IR on your computer (many laptops do) you might try an IR link. I think it's faster then serial. Quote Link to comment
+geospyder Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 I use a serial to usb cable from Radio Shack. Works great for my Palm IIIx and Cachemate. Quote Link to comment
+JDandDD Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 (edited) GeckoGeek has that right about the Palm The other thing is to find out how your computer numbers the COM port. For example, on one of my laptops the USBs are seen as COM3 and COM 4 and on the other as COM5 and COM6. Both have just two USB ports so you have to hunt that down as well. Then you make sure that Hotsynch is looking for the correct port. I had to play a bit but it works flawlessly. JDandDD Edited January 17, 2006 by JDandDD Quote Link to comment
+Monkey Toes Posted January 17, 2006 Author Share Posted January 17, 2006 How can I tell which COM port it's looking at? I started over from scratch last night. The driver is installed. I plug in the cradle and it recognizes the Palm. Everything looks good. I check the Device Manager and it says everything is working. I hit hotsync and nothing. I'm stymied. Quote Link to comment
+IBcrashen Posted January 18, 2006 Share Posted January 18, 2006 Right click on the hotsync icon in your system tray, that is where the local usb option is, not through the desktop program. I dont have any com port listed and it works just fine. Quote Link to comment
+GeckoGeek Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Just to clarify a few things. If you're using a USB to serial converter, then you are syncing via serial port. The fact that serial port is at the end of a USB cable is irrelevant. The USB option in hotsync is only for Palms that came out of the box equipped to connect to a USB port. As for what COM port to use, it depends on what COM port the serial cable installed itself as. You can either try until it works, or poke around in Device Manager to find out what it's installed as. Quote Link to comment
+Monkey Toes Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 Gotcha. I think it's a driver software problem- even though I got it from the palm website. I do what the instructions tell me to do, it's listed in device mananger, but when I hook it up, it can't find it, even when I point the computer straight to it. Thanks to everyone for your help, but I think I'm giving up. Quote Link to comment
+RheS Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Here's the thing. You don't want the Palm USB driver... that's for newer Palms that have USB support. The Palm III series doesn't. It will only talk serial. So you need to get a USB-to-serial device that creates a serial port, which will be COMn (n is some number, probably NOT 1). And then set up the Palm desktop to sync with that. To install that USB device, you may need driver software that comes with the usb-to-serial device, rather than something from Palm. I can probably help you with this... I'll send you a private message with my email. I'm very happy with my Palm IIIxe. Best, Dick "RheS" Smith Quote Link to comment
+Monkey Toes Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 Well, that's interesting. (Email replied to.) Quote Link to comment
+Monkey Toes Posted February 6, 2006 Author Share Posted February 6, 2006 This has finally been resolved and I'm posting the solution here for anyone else that has a simlar problem. Dick "RheS" Smith was right. I needed an adapter that would convert the USB port on my computer to a serial port. Nothing from the Palm company would work. I had an Iconcepts adapter and found the outdated software cd. The drivers on the cd would only work for Windows 98 and earlier machines so I had to go online and find an XP version. I did and I can now hot sync at home. Thanks to everyone, specially Dick, for all your help. Quote Link to comment
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