3mx and psiwin

[blochie]

I have a 3c and 3mx, both of which worked beautifully with psiwin2.3.3.

After coming back from holiday I can no longer connect the 3mx. the 3c works fine on the same connect settings as before. I have tried slowing the baud rate and changing com ports. the 3mx's wiggly worm wiggles as soon as I press connect on the pc but it will not connect.

Any ideas?

[Jim Cooke]

Anthony,

The fist thing to suspect when you run into something like this is a running process that's interfering with the Psion serial port. A soft reset of the Psion, followed by a restart of your PC, usually puts things right. If you still have a problem, write back and include your Windows version.

Regards, Jim

[blochie]

I have already tried that. The strange thing is that the 3c still connects easily. I even reinstalled psiwin.
I am running XP Home.
It seems to be some problem with the 3mx

[MikeMcC]

I had a problem with one Psion that stopped connecting when others were still OK.

My solution was to remove the machine's configuration in PsiWin and set it up again as a new machine. This is done from:

"Start > All Programs > PsiWin 2.3 > Machine Manager"

If you do this, be sure to create a fresh backup as soon as possible.

[blochie]

I already did this too and it made no diffs. However, I might delete BOTH machines identities and see if that changes anything.
Will have to wait until I get home
Thanks

[blochie]

OK tried deleting both profiles. Was still able to connect with the 3c and still not with the 3mx. i am getting desperate here...
Any other ideas?

[Jim Cooke]

Anthony,

This certainly is the week for strange problems. Just as confirmation, you are running both Psion's from the same serial port and are just changing the cable connection when you try to connect, correct? If you're using two different serial ports and/or two different cables, you need to make sure one fo the ports or the cables hasn't gone bad by swaping the two machines around.

Do you happen to have a copy of PsiWin 1.1 still around? If so, install it - it will coexist with PsiWin 2.3.3 fine. I believe PsiWin 1.1 is still downloadable if you don't have it. Do a Google search to find it.

Once you've got 1.1 installed, see if the 3mx will connect using 1.1. If so, then it's likely that something's running on the PC that allows the 3c's serial port connection to work properly but isn't allowing the 3mx, that has a higher speed serial port, to connect.

If that still doesn't work, you can get a freeware program called EndItAll that will stop every non-essential program from running on the PC. Again, do a Google search to find it. Download and install. Run the program and then start up PsiWin 1.1 and see if it will connect. If so, run EndItAll again and see if the 3mx will now connect. If so, there some running process in XP that you're going to have track down.

If it still won't connect, the next step is a hard reset of the 3mx. Thats the only way to stop any other program on the 3mx that might be causing the problem to disappear. If you've got a good backup for the 3c, you should be able to restore from that. Don't restore anything first - just try connecting to PsiWin 2.3.3. Hopefully, things will now work correctly.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Regards, Jim

[MikeMcC]

I believe PsiWin 1.1 is still downloadable if you don't have it. There is a copy of 1.1 on the "Series 3" page of my website.

[blochie]

OK
I have done everything including formatting the internal drive.
The fault must be in the 3mx. The 3 c worked in all the steps you suggested.
It is clear from the dialog box that the pc is aware of the 3mx being connected, it will just not complete the connection.
I reckon it is a hardware problem.
If this is the case it is with deep regret I may have to think of a new machine.
Maybe you can help here. Is there ANY palm or pocket PC software that gives the equivalent of the psion month view? I need to see a whole month at once with all 24 hours visible without having to scroll down the screen. i would settle for 2 weeks with the same view.

If not can you suggest where i may buy a 3mx which I prefer to the revo. i have looked around and have not been able to find one for a reasonable price.
Anthony

[MikeMcC]

Have you tried connecting with Comms in the 3mx and Hyperterminal in the PC? This might confirm if a faulty serial port on the 3mx is the problem.

[blochie]

not sure how to do that

[MikeMcC]

------------------------------------------------
Connecting a Psion and PC
with Comms and Hyperterminal
------------------------------------------------

- On the PC, connect the Psion serial cable to a free
COM port and make sure no other application is using
the port.

- Connect the cable to the Psion and make sure the
"Link" (Ctrl-L in the System screen is set to "Off".)

- On the Psion, start the Comms application and in the
menus - "Tools / Communication settings", use these
settings:

-------------
Settings Tab
-------------
Use comms port - Serial port 0
Baud rate - 115200
Data bits - 8
Stop bits - 1
Parity - None
------------------
Handshaking Tab
------------------
RTS/CTS [X] checked, all others unchecked.

- Tap "OK" and the Psion is ready to connect to the PC.

- On the PC, open the Hyperterminal folder and double click
"Hypertrm.exe". Give the connection a name (Psion?), select
an icon and click "OK".

- In the "Connect to" dialog box, move to the bottom
(Connect using) line and set this to the COM port with the
Psion cable attached and click "OK".

- In the COM1 Properties dialog (or whichever COM number you
are using) enter settings to match the Psion's:
Bits per sec - 115200
Data bits - 8
Parity - None
Stop bits - 1
Flow control - Hardware
and click "OK".

- You should now be connected with the Hyperterminal window
displayed. Characters typed on the PC should appear on the
Psion and characters typed on the Psion should appear on the PC.

------------------
Transferring Files
------------------

- On the Psion, tap the "Send file" button or from the menus -
"Transfer / Send file".

- In the "Send file" dialog, set the protocol to YModem (batch)
and navigate to the file to be sent. Tap "OK" to send the file.

- On the PC, in the Hyperterminal menus, select
"Transfer / Receive File", select the folder for the file to be
received, set the protocol to YModem and click "Receive". The
file should then be transferred from Psion to PC

- To transfer from PC to Psion, set Hyperterminal to send, then
the Psion to receive.

IMPORTANT - whichever machine (PC or Psion) is *sending* the file
must be actively sending before you select receive on the other
machine. If you set up the receiving machine to wait for a file
and try to send, the transfer will fail.

[blochie]

Tried that
does not work
Could not get it to work with 3c either though.
However just tried to use comms with modem and it looks as if the problem is a bad connection because the 3c talks to modem fine (at&f gets OK etc) but 3mx did not.
Then wiggled the plug a bit and it worked.
However no amount of plug wiggling gets it to work with psiwin.
Looks like I would have to replace the rs232 port and not sure there is anyone in sydney who can do it anymore.
Looked at a couple of pda's: No psion-like month view.
The sony ericsson p800 has similar view but only 1 week at a time and no useful software downloadability.
Maybe the nokia communicator?? Do you know?

[Jim Cooke]

Anthony,

It sounds like the serial port on the 3mx may just have a broken or loose connection. There are several sites on the net that show disassembly instructions for the S3. IIRC, the serial port connection has a small ribbon cable that I think was attached by a plug in the 3mx. If you feel at all handy, you could open up the 3mx and have a look as it may just be that the plug has come loose.

I have seen mention of a Psion agent in Australia that does repairs although I don't have the information at hand. Hopefully someone else can chime in here and give you the name.

There's really nothing on the market that has the usability of the 3mx's Agenda. There have been many times, using the 5mx Agenda, that I wished I still had my 3mx instead. :) The combination of the 3mx and PsiSync was a near perfect system to use with Outlook. It's too bad my wife managed to accidently put mine through the washing machine. :mad:

The only thing I would recommend to any ex-Psion user would be a Palm OS machine with DateBk5. It's written by C. E. Steuert Dewar, who was quite a prolific Psion sotware author until he changed focus to the Palm. DateBk5 is the most useful Agenda program out there today, and CESD has incorporated and built upon all the good points of Agenda. It also has an amazingly good month view considering the small screen of the Palm.

Regards, Jim

[blochie]

just checked out that datebk5
Looks like we may have awinner.
I will try to fix the 3mx, but if not looks like I am out of the psion game after 11 years of continuous useage. Sniff...
Just WISH they would restart their PDA line.
Oh well
Many thanks for all the useful advice