How I automatically softreset my device every morning ...

[holvoetn]

DISCLAIMER:
the following procedure has ONLY been tested on a T3, which is a RAM based device. It might NOT work on especially NVFS based devices. So please take the necessary precautions before implementing this on your device (backup, hotsync)
EDIT: Quite a lot of people have reported issues on NVFS devices using Crony. An alternative proposed is LookAtMe. It is described further down this post (also marked red for easier reference).

Intro:
Some people have problems from time to time with their device crashing at random times for no apparent reason. All apps are compatible, nothing is corrupt as far as they can see. Yet it crashes ...

I experienced the same thing when starting to use my Palm Wifi card. And boy, do I use that one heavily. At least 5 to 6 times a day the regular SD card goes out and the Wifi card slips in to check mails, browse the web, update RSS feeds, update 4cast info, ...
But all this made my device crash about every other day. Just a crash, soft reset and everything was fine again.
This made me think that somehow, PalmOS was not really able to keep up with all the wireless stuff I had added to the daily activities since my device NEVER crashed on me before (unless I goofed up by installing rogue applications )

So, I picked up this idea from a fellow member here, Nine (well-known to must of us), who once explained that he gave his T5 a morning reset to start the day. It reduced his number of unexpected crashes fabulously.
But I wanted an automated solution (lazy as I am )

The tools
I collected some info left and right and at the end, this is what I have found to work for me, and very important, all freeware !
1) Crony - (version 3.0) a tool to run applications at a specified time and even press buttons or menu items. More later
2) Bird - (version 1.07) Crony needs to know the resource ID for the action to run. Bird can retrieve that.
3) SoftReset - (version 1.02) what do you think this one does ? One big button in the centre of the screen to do it ...
I know most of the 3th party launchers (like e.g. Zlauncher) also offer a soft reset menu item, but usually it also responds with an 'Are you sure' dialog, making the procedure I have in mind useless (Crony can only handle one resource, being it a menu item or a button or whatever ...)
4) for NVFS owners, Crony might cause quite some instabilities. An alternative is LookAtMe (see further down).

Crony
Crony looks like this:

There is no menu to select except 'about' which does what you expect it to do
The buttons on the bottom from left to right:
1) Create new event
2) Edit event
3) Copy event
4) Disable event
5) Trash event

So let's see how an event looks like, the one for SoftReset for instance ...

At the top there are several tabs:
Main - the main screen (Doh ...)
Then minutes, hours, days, weekdays, months.
For each of those you have to specify when it should run.
For example for Day it looks for me like this

but you can alter this as you want of course ...

To get back to the Main tab, you can specify what Crony should do when the event wakes up. It can make a sound, Just wake up, run an app, etc etc ... The tools on the left give you an additional pop-up screen which you can use to fill in further details.
Here we put a check-mark in front of Start app and select the tool.


In this screen there are three things to be filled in:
1) the application, to be selected from a drop-down list (SoftReset in this case)
2) WHAT you want Crony to do, in this case press a button
3) the resource id of the item to be selected (3002 in this case, more later)
Press OK after that.

SoftReset
A quick view on Softreset

It is pretty basic, one big button in the centre which results in a soft reset. There are some menu options to be set for countdown timer and sound but I left them as they were set default.

ALTERNATIVE:
Mreset. Much easier, does what it needs to do upon launch

Bird
But how do we know the resource ID ? That's were Bird came into the picture.

In the left list you can select the application you want to investigate, so here again, I selected Soft Reset and then a double tap on the name.

From here on I had to experiment a bit since I am not at all familiar with how PalmOS works with resources. I found out the screen I needed was a form (tFRM). Anyhow, you can always double-tap on it, and the strings presented at that time will give you an indication if that is what you wanted to have.

And now you see the resource ID of the button to be pressed. It is labeled SoftReset alright, so that's the one we were looking for.

LookAtMe
LookAtMe is a combination alarm clock/launcher. You can set one or multiple alarms, you can even repeat on the selected days. When the alarms is triggered, the programs indicated will be launched, but no possibility to select menu items or button to be pressed.
[TODO] Screenshots to be added [/TODO]

Conclusion
All this results now in my T3 being soft reset every morning at 05h00 AM, every day of the month, every month.

As you can see from the initial screen for Crony, I also did something with Instasync, a tool that automatically hotsyncs when it detects a connection with the sync cable. I have used Crony to disable this feature at 19h00, and enable it again at 08h00 since I do not want this to happen by itself when I am at home. I know when I am messing around with applications at that time and I know when I need to do a sync.

I hope someone else can benefit from this all, it surely works for me since I did not have any unexpected soft resets anymore since applying this procedure (more then a month already).
But again, this procedure is ONLY tested on a T3, so be careful when you try this on your device, especially when it is not RAM based. I do not expect any problems though, but one can not be careful enough ...

Thanks to Nine for the initial idea (though I am sure he does not know anymore he ever mentioned this ) and thanks as well to Alan G for offering to host the pictures when I was having problems with my provider's FTP service. At the end I found a free FTP service which I am using for the time being.

Please let me know if it was of any use to you


EDIT : I replaced SoftReset with mReset (also freeware). This one resets upon launch, much easier

EDIT : Added Explanation of LookAtMe

[DragonHunter]

Cool idea. I don't know that I need to do a SR everyday...but I might be able to find some other uses for this kind of stuff. Thanks for the detailed write-up!

[raspabalsa]

WOW! Very good tutorial, H. Thanks a lot for posting so quickly. I will try it as soon as I understand what you are doing!

EDIT: Works like a charm. Not so hard to configure after all. Crony opens a whole new world of possibilities. Very nice app!

[headcronie]

Holy cats batman... that's alot of investigative work...

Did you know... that there is another software out there, that can do this, and a few other things... it's shareware, no expiration.. just nag screens...

2PlayMe has the ability to set up hotsyncs, soft resets, midi alarms, mp3 alarms, and can launch any program at a specified time, as well as queue a center button push after the program is launched.

I don't currently have a soft reset set up, as my palm doesn't always recover from a rest, and sometimes hangs on the Palm screen, needing a warm reset to get it going again.. I'd have a dead battery.

Just another option, for those of you a bit intimidated by the complexity of the well written instructions above.

[Guest]

This is sort of a tangent, but I know that some backup programs have the ability to schedule backups, and can be configured to do a soft reset after completing a backup. Although there are probably no freeware programs like this, if you do have a program like that for your Palm, you could make it soft reset daily by doing a daily backup at, say, 3 AM.

This will have the side effect of forcing you to leave your SD card in your Palm and creating a daily backup. If you're really having that many crashes, that might be a good thing.

[pruss]

NVBackup (http://handypalmstuff.sf.net, click on "files") is a free backup program that can do a reset after a scheduled backup.

[DragonHunter]

Hmmm

I am on the lookout for a good freeware backup solution. I'll check that out, Pruss.

Crony, on the other hand, was a disaster for me. go tot he site. Have to register to d/l. <sigh> go through all that and finally get it installed. Let's see what I can do with this...hey, volume control...well, I have some set meeting times each week that it would be good for my Palm to automatically "hush" during. Enter the "quiet" event. Enter the "back to normal" event and, soft reset.

Let's try this again....same soft reset. Goodbye Crony! Oh well, you win a few, you loose a few.

[holvoetn]

NVBackup (http://handypalmstuff.sf.net, click on "files") is a free backup program that can do a reset after a scheduled backup.

Ah, thanks
I'll have a look at this to see what it brings me ...

EDIT: NO DICE ! Only works on a NVFS device ...

[holvoetn]

This will have the side effect of forcing you to leave your SD card in your Palm and creating a daily backup.

Isn't that were it is supposed to be when planning a backup ?

If you're really having that many crashes, that might be a good thing.

It is not that I am having THAT many crashes, only when using WiFI a lot over the course of at least 2 days ...
Otherwise it is rock solid

[Guest]

You'er supposed to have to keep the SD card in your device when making a backup, but most people don't make a backup every day, and my idea would require you to do a backup every time you want to do a reset - actually, I guess that is my idea.

I'm just saying, if it solves the auto-resetting problem and provides you with a current backup without you even doing anything, then it is a good idea, unless you can't or won't leave an SD data card in your Palm for some reason.