How do I flash from os4.1 to 3.5??

[time2see]

I am sick of OS4.1 crashing and chewing up battery life so want to go back to os3.5.
Does any one have a clue how to do this?

[bechcorp]

hey,

do you have a copy of you old 3.5 rom? you'll need that and the palm Vx flash tool. hotsync the palm to back up your data. read instructions that can with the app. it will tell you to place the palm into debug mode. run the flash tool (get it from palm). when the flash tool advises you that your device in incompatable, ignore this, it is. after the flash it complete just hotsync again to restore you data.

hope this helps,

-bech

[time2see]

Thanks for that, yes I do have original disk but cant find manual?
Looked at palm site and could not find vx flash tool???? am I blind???

[bechcorp]

i just looked and here's where it is. go to www.palm.com. enter in to search window 'palmos350'. the first search result refers to a file called PalmOS350_ENG_PalmVx. go there. there are applications for both pc or mac. download and go from there.

i has been over a year since i used the flash tool to flash an os to a rom without an installer to my IIIc, so i don't remember all the details. study the instructions. my results came off without a hitch.

-bech

[vollie]

if you'd browsed around the forum a bit you might have noticed multiple people wanting to go back to 3.5. the point however is that i've not yet seen anything positive out of it. it is also said that it isn't possible. not saying don't do it, just be carefull.

besides what the hell have you been up to to get 4.1 crashing so much? put aside using more of you're battery? it's like saying your power bill has risen since you've upgraded from Win95 to Win98 or something like that. you might wan't to look at you current habit's in comparison to those when you had 3.5 before changing os.

[DrMud]

If you are experiencing crashes with 4.1 you may have other conflicts. If your IIIc had been upgrade to the patched version of 3.5.3 you may have loaed some of the patch files from your backup to the Palm after the OS update. OS 4.1 and will conflict with the patches. Some of the patch files are fairly obvious, they contain the numbers "3_5_3." Delete them. The other patch files are the serial drivers. They neeed to be deleted from the Palm and the backup folder so that they will not be reinstalled. These patch files are the reason for 97 out of 100 OS 4.1 problems.
DrMud

PS: You will need a file manager app for the Palm such as Filez or McFile to see and delete the offending files. If you have SyncWizard on your PC you can use the view of RAM to delete the files.

[TheSpies]

another thing to consider, especially if it is crashing a bunch is: was this an upgrade to 4.1 that you bought from Palm or was it just a rom you got off a w@rez site. there are hacked roms out there that can cause problems but you really should not have any problem if you got your upgrade straight from Palm (other than the problems with patch files as discussed by DrMud).

[DrMud]

THeSpies has a good point. Always use the real thing in software. Especially OS software. Any little bug or damage to the software can cause real head aches. Palm.com has the OS Upgrade CDs on sale.
Doc

[bechcorp]

i wasn't endorsing using a hacked or stolen rom. i've had to do this in the past when my palm cd was horribly scratched, and my palm was corrupted. my only path was to us a stored 3.5.x rom file.

sorry to mislead anyone.:)

-bech

[DrMud]

Bech,
Have you had an occasion of going to an earlier OS on one of the older Palms?
I worked for about two weeks with a fellow that had upgraded his 505 (I think it was, at least in the 500 series...too many postings and not enough RAM!) only to discover that some important software he was using to make dial-up connections had not been developed beyond compatibility with OS 3.5. Long long story short we talked to a lot of Palm tech types and Palm. Word was no backward flashing. And we tried all the tricks! So perhaps that does not apply to the earlier flash ROM.
Doc
PS: No problem with thinking you were encouraging evil deeds.

[bechcorp]

drmud,

i did not go backward, i installed the same version. but, it seems that it would be possible to go backwards in flash. please correct me if i am wrong, but doesn't a flash procedure completely erase the flash rom and leave in state that would be available for anything you see fit to put in it?

-bech

[DrMud]

Bech,
Your right flashing the memory is a complete erase. I think on the 500 series the problem is loading the install stub required to lock the flashtool onto the chipset. It is likley to be more of a chip design issue that a pure software issue.
Doc

[bechcorp]

by this do you mean there is a incompatability between the software and the hardware? or is it just not possible to load a particular install stub? i am assuming that the stub is the flashtool's latch to the palm. sorry, i'm not familiar with 'stub'.

thanks,

-bech

[DrMud]

Bech,
You have the idea.

Have you noted on this board the posting by "bell120" re: "Black Screen". Plam has taken the the ubit back to reflash the OS?
There is a new one.
Doc