Palm & Cachmate Woes

[+erik88l-r]

Hopefully the combined wisdom of this forum can help me sort this problem out. First some background...

 

I started my paperless caching many, many years ago with a Palm Tungsten E. I tried Spinner and Plucker and loved the appearance of the cache pages on the Palm screen, but found it awkward to operate the application on the Palm in the field and particularly while driving. (Yeah, I know I shouldn't be on the Palm while driving.)

 

Anyway, I loaded Cachemate and life was beautiful. I loved being able to mark caches as found in the field and most of all loved the easy to read and quick to navigate pages and page tabs.

 

Then I sat on my Tungsten E and broke the screen.

Went out to buy a new one and found they'd been superseded by the Tungsten E2 and got that. It worked fine for awhile but not any more.

 

My first problem was that I was unable to scroll down or up the list of caches in a category one by one. A single touch of the button or move of the stylus would jump it two caches. Finally discovered that a warm reset fixed it. (Hopefully I have this right: a cold reset means just pushing in the reset button, a warm reset means doing it while pushing in the "up" button, and a hot reset means pushing it in while holding down the power button.)

 

After that problem was fixed a new one cropped up a few months later, and has progressively gotten worse.

I cannot do a HotSync without the unit freezing up, telling me I have a fatal error, and prompting me to reset. A cold reset never helps. Sometimes a warm reset will get things working again. More often than not I have to do a hot reset. There are two kinds of hot resets, depending on which button is pushed next: with one type you don't have to reload all data, with the most severe you do. Lately I have had to choose this last option to get the HotSync to work and the PQ to load into Cachmate.

 

I can't spend an hour every time I want to load a new PQ, so do have to find a resolution. I've phoned Palm multiple times only to be told it's a third party software problem. Smitty with CacheMate says it's a Palm problem that they won't admit to.

 

So I'm left hanging. If anyone has a fix I'd appreciate it. If not I guess I'll have to go back to Plucker/Spinner since I can't afford any updated hardware to replace the Palm.

 

~erik~

[+ace862]

When I've had problems with my E2, I've found the folks over at Brighthand to be very helpful. If it is a Palm issue, which it sounds like it is, you should be able to find an answer there.

Good luck!

[+erik88l-r]

Thanks ace862. I checked out that forum on your recommendation. Based on somewhat similar problems others reported there I went to my Palm Desktop utility to check for corrupt files and the tool says there are none. I've posted my problem to the forums there too.

 

Some in the Brighthand forums had recommended to those with similar problems that they get DbFixIt. Anyone use that? It'd be worth it to me to get the Palm working again, but I'd like to save the money if there are other solutions.

 

~erik~

[+37251]

I've had similar problems with my Palm TX which got progressively worse as more data became loaded onto it. Eventually, it bacame unusable. So now, it sits in a draw without anyone willing to help me get it working again. I now use a BlackBerry or a laptop.

[+erik88l-r]

After lots of experimentation, including loading the Palm software onto another PC and creating a new Palm username, I've sorted the problem out. It seems the CacheMate program had somehow gotten corrupted.

 

The unit would work fine until CacheMate was loaded, and loading only parts of the program would not work. Loading a new version of CacheMate, and registering it to a new username got me going again. As the original CacheMate was over five years old I didn't mind paying $10 for a new copy. It was a cheap fix in comparison to the hours spent in trial and error frustration.

 

~erik~

[NordicMan]

Congrats on getting your problem fixed

 

Cachemate is $10 well spent, however I do believe your 1st payment makes you a lifetime member. You can download "latest" copies of Cachemate every time a new one comes out.

[+erik88l-r]

Cachemate is $10 well spent, however I do believe your 1st payment makes you a lifetime member. You can download "latest" copies of Cachemate every time a new one comes out.

 

That may be true, but the registration code is tied to the username on your Palm. If you change username as I did the old registration code won't activate the CacheMate program. You can load CacheMate to your Palm for free, as I did, but the trial version will only allow you to upload ten caches. I did that first and found that my Palm stopped crashing, so didn't mind shelling out the $10 to register it. The alternative would have been to buy a database cleaning program designed to fix Palm software issues. It was $12 or $13, with no guarantee it would resolve my issue.

 

~erik~

[jholly]

Cachemate is $10 well spent, however I do believe your 1st payment makes you a lifetime member. You can download "latest" copies of Cachemate every time a new one comes out.

 

That may be true, but the registration code is tied to the username on your Palm. If you change username as I did the old registration code won't activate the CacheMate program. You can load CacheMate to your Palm for free, as I did, but the trial version will only allow you to upload ten caches. I did that first and found that my Palm stopped crashing, so didn't mind shelling out the $10 to register it. The alternative would have been to buy a database cleaning program designed to fix Palm software issues. It was $12 or $13, with no guarantee it would resolve my issue.

 

~erik~

 

You can request a new code.

 

Jim

[+erik88l-r]

Jim wrote:

You can request a new code.

 

Yes, and I have. However it's for the username the original purchase is under. Since I had to change the Palm's username I could not apply that code to another copy. I tried.

 

~erik~

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

Jim wrote:

You can request a new code.

 

Yes, and I have. However it's for the username the original purchase is under. Since I had to change the Palm's username I could not apply that code to another copy. I tried.

 

I believe that what they were trying to tell you is that the Author of Cachemate allows you to get up to 5 activation codes in your original registration fee. This covers things like replacing your device or changing the hotsync name, both of which require a new activation code. I have done this several times moving my Palm cachemate from my original T5 to a Sony device, then back to a few other Palm devices. I have also done the same with my Windows mobile devices (which I gladly paid an additional $8 fee for then even though I didn't need to at the time).

[+Prime Suspect]

Did you try just uninstalling and reinstalling Cachemate?

[+erik88l-r]

Did you try just uninstalling and reinstalling Cachemate?

 

Yeah, but I just couldn't seem to delete all the files associated with Cachemate. The first step of segregating the datafiles did no good. I even took the step of blowing everything out of the Palm, then loading the Palm program and Cachemate onto another PC and syncing with it. I'd copied the Cachemate files to the other PC using a USB drive, but as long as I used the same username to do the sync the Palm locked up on me as soon as I pushed the sync button.

 

~erik~

[+pigpen4x4]

Glad you resolved it.

Sounds like ten bucks well spent!

C.