Palm Notes

Palm Desktop

I keep on forgetting how to restore the Palm from the Desktop app. It is simple, the problem is it is just hidden away, unlike the simple restore handheld option with JPilot.

1. Goto the Conduit Manager.
2. Change the Conduit actions to Restore from Backup and Computer overwrites Palm as appropriate.
3. Cradle the Palm and start a HotSync.
4. Select the Palm username from the list of Palms on the host system.
5. Wait for the contents of the Palm to be restored.
6. Exit the Conduit Manager, start it up again, and double-check the conduit actions are back to normal.

All done until next time the batteries die.

Palm Files

.PDB

Palm Database. This is data accessed by a Palm Application, and what is backed up in a sync.

.PRC

Palm Resource This is typically a Palm Application with its built-in resources, icons, etc. It may also be a plain text file. The PRC files are ordinary Palm databases with more/different info.

Palm Digitizer Problems

There is a lot of information on the so-called messed-up or crazy digitizer on some palms. My old palm developed that problem, but unfortunately none of the before published solutions worked.

After debugging, the problem because obvious. I've noticed that palms tend to suffer an occasional bad byte in memory, and you get odd results every once in a while due to that. It turns out that the Digitizer Preferences in Saved Preferences.prc had a byte or two worth of modification in them. So, I could hard-reset the palm, and it would work fine. After restoring the old contents, the digitizer would be broken again.

The solution was to erase the saved, corrupted, Saved Preferences.prc file, to keep Palm Desktop from over-writing the good one generated on the device. This is one area where the Unix Palm Pilot tools shine; they keep time-stamped backups of everything, and you can tell when things broke.

Now, I just need a tool which can view/change Saved Preferences.prc which would let me return the broken settings, and keep all my other preferences correct.