So Much for the Upgrade - e740

[engineer1]

So much for the upgrade. Just got the e740 back from the Toshiba recall, and I see no real improvement in Battery operation. I spent a few hours re-installing all of the applications, and had everything working just fine. I changed batteries, to the high capicity battery, and the silly thing lost it's brains. Both batteries were fully charged. Over the next week I will monitor the battery operation to see if there is an improvement. The unit does 'seem' to operate faster, JUST BE CAREFULL, if you are changing the battery, plug it into power first!!!
Will

[sschwar4]

Did your applications all work after reinstalling? I used Bluetooth in mine and it used to work with both BT and WiFi, but not now. I have had to reinstall software twice, due to battery problems. I did notice that the Media Player is ver 8.5 now and it says it has been inproved. It is hard to say, I have been unable to keep a link to load anything larger then 1MB. I wished I had never sent it....

Stuart

[engineer1]

Stuart,
I am starting to think the upgrade was a bad idea too. I have reloaded 3 times, one time was due to 'dumb-thumbs', and twice because of battery issues. I have had no problems loading the application and data though. The big difference I have noticed is in the WiFi connection. At home where I have a WiFi network running, all was well. I get to work today where there is no WiFi and now the Icon for WiFi does not display, and any attempt to get into the configuration utility "Wireless LAN Utility" asks for the LAN switch to be turned on. Of course it is on. I will go home at lunch and try the wireless feature again where there is a wireless network present, will post back with the results. Hope it works.
Will

[drctx]

did they fix the activesync problem?

[engineer1]

All WiFi functionality is back now that it is in an active environment. Took it back to work, and now the WiFi features keeps working, go figure???
Will

[sschwar4]

Just received a brand new unit in a box from tech support. Same font issue. Power supply issue seems to be fixed though. So far 2 soft resets when placing into cradle, but has not disconnected from sync yet. Although it is syncing, the light is solid green, no flashing orange. I did some email back and forth with a couple of software manuf. They are refering people back to Toshiba for the bad ROM. Toshiba is pointing their finger right back at the software guys.

[engineer1]

Well the saga continues. Today I put my fully charged high capacity battery into my e740, while plugged into power, and the silly thing lost it’s RAM, resetting back to a clean system (ARGH!!!). This time I was lucky, I recently purchased a 64mb SD card and Backup/Restore application that worked perfectly and restored the unit right back to the point of the backup. Then I put the e740 into the cradle and synced today’s Outlook activities. If you are going to be changing batteries, and have lots or data and applications that you do not want to recover the hard way, I highly recommend a good recovery program. I don’t know if it is permitted or not to mention the application, but I will: “Pocket Backup”, from ‘spritesoftware.com’

Will

PS - I still think the e740 is the best there is, it just has a few issues that take getting used to.

[pcorbett]

I may never buy a Toshiba product again, I’m trying to figure out how I can get rid of this e740 without losing the $600 I paid for it!

I purchased my Pocket PC 9/20/02. I used it successfully for about 3 weeks with only minor problems (see below), then weird stuff started happening regarding the charging of the battery. The first major problem was after charging it overnight (at least 8 hours), I drove to work with it (not in use or turned on for about 45 minutes). I turned it on when I got to work and got this warning:

"Main Battery Very Low
To prevent possible data loss, replace or recharge your battery according to the owner's manual."

When I looked in the power settings, it showed 1% battery remaining... After quickly putting it on the charger, it went to 90+% after about 5 minutes. I called Toshiba this time and they didn't know anything. Then I think it worked trouble free for a few days, and then this whole thing happened again, only now it wouldn't charge at all. Tried hard resetting which did nothing to improve the situation. Called Toshiba again, gee they didn't know but I might have to send it in. I lamented about that for close to a week, talked to the store where I bought it (CompUSA) to see about exchanging it there - no luck so far. Finally, I called Toshiba back and low and behold, now they have a recall about a problem that sounds related (since they're giving us such vague information about the problem). They said I would have to send it in. I asked them what they would be doing, they said a software upgrade and replacing the battery - I got this answer from two techs that day. So, 11/2/02 about a week later (did I mention that they don't do any pre-shipping of a replacement secured by a credit card, like most other computer related companies?) I got my e740 back. I had been rather diligent about writing down information such as my serial numbers, part/model numbers (battery and pocket pc). I also noted some Windows information such as the number that it shows when you do a reset (I'm guessing this is the ROM version), version/build of Pocket PC, MAC address and version information for the wireless NIC, etc.

When I got the e740 back, it was the exact same battery; the ROM version was changed (new: 1.0618.0409,old: 1.0203.0409), the wireless utility version (new: 1.0.14, old: 1.0.11) was changed as well as the MAC address. The next day, after I charged it for over 12 hours (before using it), I started trying to use it (fully charged). After about 2 to 3 minutes, I got the infamous warning above and it showed 1% battery. I put it back on the charger and it wouldn’t charge (yellow light I believe, that indicates the temperature is not right and it won’t charge – the temperature where it charges is always 69-70). I was furious and called Toshiba. The first person (customer service recall people) was sorry but he couldn’t do anything, he transferred me to technical support to troubleshoot the problem. Tech support finally (after about 40 minutes) agreed to send a battery, I even convinced them that maybe they should ship it overnight instead of the ‘ground’ they were insisting on. He also created a second case number and escalated that to the ATS group, for whatever that’s worth – nothing so far. I received a new battery 11/5. It worked fine until today 11/9. After it charged all night, I turned it on and before I even selected the application I was going to use, I got the battery warning. I called Toshiba, the ATS group apparently doesn’t work on Saturday and the regular guy in technical support said “I don’t know what I can do for you until Monday”, I asked to speak to a supervisor and got voicemail (not even a name, just an extension). I’ll be calling back soon after I post this on as many bulletin boards as possible.


Minor problems referenced above:
Constant soft resets necessary, action buttons work almost never. Strange power button action, like it won't turn off, sometimes it will just turn off the backlight when you hit the power button, etc.

[sschwar4]

The ATS guys seem to make things happen... I had called in on the Friday I had received mine back. Tech support said there was nothing that could be done. Talked to supervisor, just lucky I guess, after an hour on the phone with him, he said everyone is gone for the day and I would have to call back on Monday.

Ok, Monday arrives, call Toshiba, he did make an entry in the case number I had, but not really what we had discussed. So.. start the whole story over. After 2 hours of escalation up to ATS, they said the unit has bad circuitry, send it back. I had to purchase the warranty for next business day so I could get the unit replaced, and not have to go to the week + turn around. Anyway, it was the business day after. Brand new unit in a box. So far just the font issue have plagued me.

The PDA group needs to take some lessons from the laptop group. Next day is just that, next day. I have had close to 30 Toshiba notebooks, only one had problems, and that was a 10 minute phone call to tech support and 2 days later my computer back fixed. FIXED!

I still have problems with software from Infowave, Developer One, and Omega One. I really don't believe that the problems is theirs, but Toshiba's. The products all worked fine before the recall / update.

[pcorbett]

I agree about the Toshiba PDA group needing to learn something from the laptop group. I have always heard great things about Toshiba laptops and the technical support/service. I also work in the "technical support" department of my company and we support hundreds (literally) of Toshiba laptops. I have (mostly) only good things to say about Toshiba tech support.