[MDA III, XDA III, PDA2k, 9090 Software Upgrading] Tuatara:
Re: TomTom issue on V1.3

Wow! Intensive user! You're not kidding! :D

Not sure how happy you'd be ALPHA testing ROMs then, when things go really wrong ... as they often will. ;-)

Well ... a 'soft reset' (by which I presume you mean a 'software' reset using psShutXP) is much preferable to a 'physical' reset (i.e. using the stylus & the reset button), which of course is much nicer than having to 'hard reset' any day. On TuMa v1.3 I think I only soft reset it 3 times - ever while I was actively using it. And TuMa v1.4 ... well ... it's already been oficially retired.

This could well be due to how the software initializes and/or communicates with the port. Quite often based on what the software developers 'believe' to be the right way ... the ports are opened in a different fashion. In one case the port could be opened as a 'physical' (hardware connection) device, and in the second case as a 'virtual' (software driver/controlled) device.

My presumption then based on the starting order which works, is that TomTom expects first to open a physical device - i.e. one connected to real hardware. Ozi on the other hand, is quite happy to open ANY device which says it is a COM port (i.e. virtual).

In this way Ozi has already (correctly) opened the device for operation, and when TomTom starts, it is unable to get physical access to the hardware (first - since the port is already open/active), so it reverts to trying a virtual device connection as a 'last resort' (in their eyes), and this will then succeed.

I don't believe there will ever be another solution to this issue - it's just the way in which they've written the TomTom software. A decision on their part to go for physical hardware first, then try any software devices.

Wifi sometimes has issues (from what I've heard). Strangely I haven't run into this often ... in fact only once. However, I don't often use the Today shortcut, and instead use the 'WLAN Application' to turn on and off the WiFi, not the checkbox. I believe this application works in a more reliable fashion (somehow), so it is preferred.

It is (partially) for this reason I've integrated the WiFi Manager, Display, and Connections elements in the v1.4 ROM. This was a piece of editing work, since it was originally the connection manager from the Jasjar. However, it now very cleanly integrates these 3 elements, and I haven't had any issues with WiFi - even on v1.4. This will also be in the next ROM too.

The BT issue is unforntuately (most likely) in the Bitstream which is sent to the BT chipset on the device. This configuration bitstream tells the BT chipset to "turn off" after a period of 'inactivity'. Additionally, when turning back "on" your PDA, a NEW initialization bitstream is sent, which effectively turns off BT for you ... helpfully.

It's a real pain. We've tried most everything we can think of ... power manager, device settings, registry changes, permanently active, ping or keepalives ... the only thing what has (to date) proven to work has been changing the stack from Microsoft to the Widcomm one (Ivan's ROM).

As for the WiFi issue ... this could be related to something else. Sometimes if an application fails to receive data on a TCP/IP connection, it improperly remains blocked, locked, or continually retrying to get that data. In this way it will force that network connection to stay open and/or eat resources.

This would then lock the network connections in such a way as to prevent the creation of a new one - i.e. WiFi is back in range. In theory the operating system should be taking care of applications which misbehave like this, but even on Windows XP, I'm certain you've experienced those 'browser lockups' when network connections are dropped, and/or DNS lookups fail. It's just a failing of the network implementations - primarily from the application writers, and partially from MS in not fully taking care of all the ways things can be done wrong.

I'll see what I can do. For this next version I'm going to 'bow' to public pressure and make everything in the ROM entirely OPTIONAL! That means by default the ROM will be 'ordinary', and by running a special (very tiny) CAB file (or set of CAB files), you can then enable features in the ROM as you wish.

But I will look into an Alt-Tab manager of some description ... it would need to be a 'freeware' one though - as I can only put publicly available and publicly copyable software into the ROM.

Thanks for all the feedback ... and I hope to make TuMa v1.5 just as stable as v1.3 (minus the few bugs in that ROM), and still incorporate all the enhancements ... maybe even getting AKU2 (push email) working.

*fingers*crossed*