Thought I would pass this along regarding installing Palm Desktop on my
Fujitsu ST 5020. As you may know, Palm does not support Windows XP for
Tablets but many people do install the Palm Desktop on their tablets,
nonetheless, so they can keep addresses, calendar etc. on all their
computers and sync with their Palm palmtop devices.

I found that the installer would run along nicely, apparently having no
problem, but then would freeze. It would not close and tell me it was
finished. The first time, I just assumed that the program did not install
or did not install correctly, so I uninstalled it using Windows "Remove
Programs". When that would not complete either, I deleted files manually
and checked the registry for the added Palm entries, which were all gone,
apparently removed by Windows.

Anyway, prepared to use the Task Manager to delete recurrances of
"idriver.exe" which some said were the problem, I tried it again. But, at
the freeze point, TM did not find any occurances of that driver. So, I just
closed the installation box and tried the program. It worked fine.
Apparently, it was just the installer that froze, after the Desktop was
actually installed.

I was not able to get infrared to work but, happily, I had an extra cradle
left over from a Palm that was stolen from me, with which I could sync the
desktop in my tablet. All seems to be just fine. The Desktop is obviously
not designed for the screen size / shape of the tablet, as it does squash
calendar entries so that the bottoms of the text lines are sheared off, but
that is a small thing -- the entries are still perfectly readable and show
up completely when the pen pointer moves over them. Given that the program
is "not supported" by the operating system, it works well, and syncs with
the palmtop just fine.

mack
austin

Mack: Just a note to let you know that I've had the same problem on my
tablet, an ST5022. In my case, I solved it by shutting down idriver.exe as
recommended in the PalmOne FAQ's. The Palm installer then finished normally
and closed. As to why you didn't find at least one instance of idriver.exe
in your task list, I'm puzzled. It should have been there.

HOWEVER, you are correct that even if you don't do this, simply closing the
installer when it freezes will result in a workable copy of Palm Desktop on
your tablet. It simply doesn't delete the backup files. So either course of
action is OK.

The bigger question is WHY DOESN'T PALM SUPPORT XP ?!?!??!! I've never been
impressed by Palm software, and this is a perfect example of why!

"Mack McKinnon" wrote:

> Thought I would pass this along regarding installing Palm Desktop on my
> Fujitsu ST 5020. I found that the installer would run along nicely, apparently having no problem, but then would freeze. It would not close and tell me it was
> finished.
> mack
> austin
>
>
>

I went over all the processes listed by Task Manager very carefully, more
than once, and it was definitely not in there, not even once. Do you know
where those backup files are? I could delete them. (Maybe just rename them
first, to be sure.)

Why do you say that Palm does not support XP? It is XP for tablets that they
say they do not support. And, yes, that seems odd. But seems to run OK on
my XP desktop.

mack
austin

"Steve S" <SteveS@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D273C3F0-CF75-4A69-B5C8-810BBA1B0969@microsoft.com...
> Mack: Just a note to let you know that I've had the same problem on my
> tablet, an ST5022. In my case, I solved it by shutting down idriver.exe
> as
> recommended in the PalmOne FAQ's. The Palm installer then finished
> normally
> and closed. As to why you didn't find at least one instance of
> idriver.exe
> in your task list, I'm puzzled. It should have been there.
>
> HOWEVER, you are correct that even if you don't do this, simply closing
> the
> installer when it freezes will result in a workable copy of Palm Desktop
> on
> your tablet. It simply doesn't delete the backup files. So either course
> of
> action is OK.
>
> The bigger question is WHY DOESN'T PALM SUPPORT XP ?!?!??!! I've never
> been
> impressed by Palm software, and this is a perfect example of why!
>
> "Mack McKinnon" wrote:
>
>> Thought I would pass this along regarding installing Palm Desktop on my
>> Fujitsu ST 5020. I found that the installer would run along nicely,
>> apparently having no problem, but then would freeze. It would not close
>> and tell me it was
>> finished.
>> mack
>> austin
>>
>>
>>

Something else on this "idriver.exe" thing.

Today, my wireless connection was kind of weird and balky and I wanted to
restart the tablet. During shutdown, Windows put up its little "Ending
Program" box where it asks you if you want to end the program, whatever it
is, now or wait for it to close. Usually, I don't know what the hell it's
talking about, since I've already closed everything I know anything about.

Anyway, I noticed that it ID'd the program it was talking about as
"idriver.exe". Hmmm. So, I cancelled out of the End Program box and went
to Task Manager. Figured it must be running, since Windows wanted to shut
it down. But in the Task Manager "Processes" long list, it was not there,
not once.

Could it be that, for some reason, this particular program is runnning but
not showing up in my Task Manager? Maybe it WAS there when I was trying to
install Palm Desktop but my Task Manager just didn't show it?

mack
austin


"Steve S" <SteveS@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D273C3F0-CF75-4A69-B5C8-810BBA1B0969@microsoft.com...
> Mack: Just a note to let you know that I've had the same problem on my
> tablet, an ST5022. In my case, I solved it by shutting down idriver.exe
> as
> recommended in the PalmOne FAQ's. The Palm installer then finished
> normally
> and closed. As to why you didn't find at least one instance of
> idriver.exe
> in your task list, I'm puzzled. It should have been there.
>
> HOWEVER, you are correct that even if you don't do this, simply closing
> the
> installer when it freezes will result in a workable copy of Palm Desktop
> on
> your tablet. It simply doesn't delete the backup files. So either course
> of
> action is OK.
>
> The bigger question is WHY DOESN'T PALM SUPPORT XP ?!?!??!! I've never
> been
> impressed by Palm software, and this is a perfect example of why!
>
> "Mack McKinnon" wrote:
>
>> Thought I would pass this along regarding installing Palm Desktop on my
>> Fujitsu ST 5020. I found that the installer would run along nicely,
>> apparently having no problem, but then would freeze. It would not close
>> and tell me it was
>> finished.
>> mack
>> austin
>>
>>
>>

Mack:

<<I went over all the processes listed by Task Manager very carefully, more
than once, and it was definitely not in there, not even once.>>

....Interestingly, I opened Task Manager and took a look at the processes and
I didn't find idriver either! However, every time that I've installed the
Palm Desktop, I found (and closed) idriver. I have no idea why you didn't
find it, too...

<<Do you know where those backup files are? I could delete them. (Maybe
just rename them first, to be sure.)>>

....Nope. Don't know where they are. My guess is that they're best left
alone...

<<Why do you say that Palm does not support XP? It is XP for tablets that
they
> say they do not support.>>

....You are, of course, correct. In my haste, I failed to type the correct
version of the OS. However, my beef with Palm and their software stems from
the fact that it's given me installation problems on SEVERAL platforms, not
just tablets. That's a sign of shoddy software design and execution, IMO...