All My Info Wiped Out! ARRRRGGGHH!!!

[Ladybug04]

Can anyone help? I plugged in my Zire 21 to recharge (it was off) and the next time I picked it up and turned it on, everything was gone; it was acting exactly like it did when I got it out of the box! It's as if it was reset. I doubt there is a way to retreive the info, but I want to make sure it doesn't happen again!

[spvwolfy]

Hotsync it. Do you use a backup program? Do you have a SD or MMC card? And if so, do you have a backup program that you use with said card?

[capoeira]

If you synced your device prior to the reset you should be able to retreive it upon syncing again.

Have you loaded any applications before the reset? This can sometimes cause problems with the palm depending on compatibility with the apps.

Hope this helps.

-cap

Originally posted by Ladybug04
Can anyone help? I plugged in my Zire 21 to recharge (it was off) and the next time I picked it up and turned it on, everything was gone; it was acting exactly like it did when I got it out of the box! It's as if it was reset. I doubt there is a way to retreive the info, but I want to make sure it doesn't happen again!

[Newzire]

My Zire21 is doing the same thing. Everytime I hotsync to Outlook it will reset itself. It will hold the info for an hour or even a full day, but eventally it resets itself and looses all data. They tell me they are working on the problem. Any ideas??

[wossName]

Return it ASAP. If your unit is so utterly misbehaving, you can't be expected to wait for a fix. Sounds like (another?) seriously faulty batch was shipped.

[JPehrson]

I really was going to buy a Zire 21, but after this forum "fuggettabodit..."

Went with a Tungsten E instead. Probably a better idea. (Although it's heavier and needs a *lot* more charging.)

[nursemom]

Take it back! I went thru two of them & decided not to try a third. It ate up alot of my time to reset - so much for the timesaving a PDA is supposed to do. I understand the goal of the Zire line was to cater to entry level users . . .
I did get a Zire, no problems. Palms offer to me was to upgrade to the 71 at my expense. No thank you!

[Donna Johnstone]

I needed my Palm for an address, but when I consulted my Palm for it, all the data that took so long to load was gone! I don't know what you all are talking about when you refer to a soft reset. I assume the hard reset is using the reset hole on the back of the palm. When the battery drains out, wouldn't it at least hold enough juice to keep all the info intact? I can't imagine that Palm would put out a product that just flat fails. I've only had it about a week or so. I can still sync the info again, but it makes me leary about the reliability of this thing - and particularly reading all your complaints about it doing the same thing!

So, what is a soft reset?
Why would a Palm reset anyway?

Thanks!
Donna

[PatrickS]

Originally posted by Donna Johnstone
When the battery drains out, wouldn't it at least hold enough juice to keep all the info intact? I can't imagine that Palm would put out a product that just flat fails.

I'm sorry to say, Donna, that your imagination is in for a rude awakening. This is exactly what happens. The memory, or RAM, in your Zire needs battery power to keep the information alive. If you're using your PDA and your battery gets low, it will warn you and some models will even turn themselves off so that they still have a little juice left to keep memory alive. If your PDA is off for a long period and the batteries run down without you noticing, you might be out of luck. However, if you do suffer a complete power outage, which is generally rare once you get in the habit of power-watching, you can Hotsync the information back in, as you've noted.

So, what is a soft reset?
Why would a Palm reset anyway?

For the same reasons that a computer occasionally needs to be rebooted. Software isn't perfect and sometimes the machine gets confused and has to start again. Sometimes your machine will reset because a piece of software you just loaded needs it, but that is not very common.

You can think of a soft reset for your PDA as just rebooting your computer. No data in your device should be lost. A hard reset is something altogether different. All of the data you've added to the device will be lost, in the same manner as what happens when your batteries run down. All your data can still be reloaded via a Hotsync, though. However, you'll only get back to the state you were at when you last Hotsynced. Anything you did since then is permanently lost.