The Zaurus was sanity itself & comparitively straight forward. Within minutes of the upgrade I had it re-synched & working. Had the Wi-Fi working - had it back the way it was.

As for the iPAQ 8375 (please excuse me while I issue at leat 20 expletives) - what a stupid, ridiculous, barely comprehensible process !!! - I had to perform gymnasyics such as holding down button #1, button #3, plus the power button at the top, ***AND*** concurrently pressing the reset button for one second - I had to perform a similar process 2 times (it took me three attempts).

Then I discover that Wi-Fi no longer works & I have to do a complete Wi-Fi card reinstall.

Shhhheeesh - I just got the Wi-Fi working again after months of wondering what had gone wrong. Now I have to go thru all the pain of setting up Win2002 network details again - this is a painful & unituitive process. The Zaurus is hard enough but it is a dream by comparison.

Well all I can say to any of you is 'I have warned you'.

Good luck

Doug Marker

#1 edit

Just reinstalled the Linksys driver on the iPAQ but am back to the problem that plagued me for so long. The Wi-Fi program indicates I am connected to my Wi-Fi access (an Air Station Buffalo). The signal is 100%. The green light on the linksys isn't flashing (indicates an acceptable connection - as happens with the Zaurus using this same card). The problem is that when I invoke MSIE it says there isn't an acceptable connection. It asks me to click settings, this I do (a painful part of Win2002) but the 1st thing here is it asks for a modem - of course I ain't using a modem but a Wi-Fi card. If I list modems, there is nothing related to the linksys lan card.

Hmmmm why did I buy this time wasting unintuitive complex garbage. (but it does look nice ...)

#2
Just tried to get the iPAQ back to woring with bluetooth on my T68 Erricson phone. Can't even get that working. One obvious flaw in Win2002 and its pathetic SETTINGS for networking is that you (John Citizen) have to set dialing patterns. We have discovered that if you don't set all the dialling patterns (local, office & international) to G (ph num only) the thing tries to add unwanted codes onto your number so the dialing never works (unless you happen to be dialing internationally to your ISP - who would do that!! (very often)).

Lesson so far
#1 Don't buy a Compaq unless you have limitless time & patience #2 Win2002 settings & networking are crap #3 Don't upgrade your BIOS unless you are willing to set everything up again from scratch #4 Buy a PALM or a Zaurus.

The default setting of blank for the SSID may work for many Wi-Fi cards but not for this one.

After asking LinkSys for help & getting no quick reply, I guessed it had to be the config program not saving the settings, but if I put a setting for SSID in there, it did save it. So I set my AirStation for 'xyz' as the ESSID & set same on Zaurus & iPAQ & it worked. !!!!!

Then it occured to me that most config programs for Wi-Fi are going to accept 'ANY' as a valid default & sure enough
that worked too

3 months of messing about until I had the time to focus on the problem. All it needed was a few words in the
config program. Use 'ANY' as the default, a blank field may work but will not be saved.

Ahh well - be prepared.

Doug

Just wait until y'all try installing a Bluetooth PCMCIA card in a Win2000 notbook - what pure fun (above is much easier)
(God help John (not computer litterate Citizen)

The new Toshiba 400mhz unit (see link below). They sell a bluetooth model (similar to iPAQ 3780) and a Wi-Fi unit so one doesn't have to put up with adapter jackets & failing adapters.

It comes with an SD slot and a CF slot whereas iPAQ only has the SD slot & back-pack unit to add the CF slot.

But this baby is rather expensive at $US 599 (perhaps too expensive in fact)

[link|http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-2709830-404-20033518.html?tag=prmo4|Toshiba Win2002 PDA]

Cheers Doug

#1 edit - Just noticed that this baby supports an expansion pack that adds a VGA monitor connection & can support 800 x 600 res on the monitor this same expansion pack adds a USB support - hmmm - does than mean a printer ? - add IBM's via voice (comes with the iPAQ) & one might have a workable mini PC.

I am dissapointed with the frustrations I have had with it - it looks such a nice unit (as I keep saying)

but my experience is nothing but trouble with the plug-ins and the MSIE software and especially with the pathetic Win2002 network configuration. I guess I can't blame that on Compaq - also the Zaurus has its own problems - it now fails to recco SD cards & I am sending it back under warranty.

I would say that all of this emerging technology is going to be troublesome for a while.

Here in HK the 400 mhz Compaq 3970 has appeared - still won't take CF cards in the base unit. I managed to see one of the new toxhiba 400mhz units but was quoted 5,500 HK$ which is nothing short of extortion for what it is.

Cheers

Doug (My Sony PEG-N70 PALM just keeps chugging away)