PalmOS 4.1 Installation Problems
As longtime readers should know (and I’m sure there are quite a few of you out there!), I recently purchased a Palm m500 to replace my Palm V. To me, the m500 seems to be the peak of PDAs—it has the Palm universal connector, it has an SD slot, and it’s slim and sleek like the Palm V. It also has damn good battery life, since it’s grayscale—I have little needs for colors when messing with an address book or calendar.
I decided it was time to upgrade from PalmOS 4.0 to PalmOS 4.1. I should’ve known this would be an uphill battle as I saw that the 4.1 upgrade does not work on Windows XP nor does it work on Mac OS X. Any version. So, not wanting to swap in my Windows drive, format my XP install and put 2000 on it or anything like that (my desktop machine is running Linux all the time anyway), I installed MacOS 9 on an external hard drive. Ok, problem one defeated.
I then attempt to flash my Palm with PalmOS 4.1. Every single time I try, the flashing program simply hangs. MacOS becomes unresponsive and there’s nothing I can do but reboot. I had this problem for the longest time (I actually first attempted this months ago when I first got my m500). I looked through getting my Palm into Debug Mode so I could flash it using the “Advanced” mode of the flashing software and all that to no avail. It seemed that I couldn’t even get my Palm into Debug Mode!
This is where I started getting on the right trail. Looking through various FAQs and papers about developing for Palms, their security, the debug mode, etc. I eventually discovered that somewhat recently (well, 5 years ago) Palm added a new security mechanism to prevent unwanted Debug Modes—if you have a password set, the Palm cannot enter Debug Mode! This was not at all obvious from any of the software or the documentation for upgrading the operating system. Certainly not in anything I read! Even doing the normal flash, it apparently reboots the Palm into Debug Mode—but since I had a password, Debug Mode was disabled, so the flashing software wasn’t seeing a Palm in Debug Mode and it was just hanging!!
That problem solved, I attempted to flash it to PalmOS 4.1. It takes a couple of minutes and then the Palm reboots…. and hangs at the “Palm” booting logo. I try rebooting again, same thing. I try rebooting in Debug Mode, same thing. I read around and apparently plenty of people have had this problem. The solution? Flash it again and again until it works! I had to use the “Advanced” flashing mode about 5 times before my Palm finally worked.
That was quite an adventure. Now if only people still developed Open Source software for PalmOS 4.
so many exclamation points, but every one of them was deserved.
I’m having the same problem with my m500, I’ve tried flashing it atleast 5 times already, no luck! Do you have any other solutions?
Make sure you’re actually running in MacOS 9 or Windows, and make sure all of the security stuff is turned OFF. That’s all I know. :)
Hi
I have a big trouble with my Palm m515. I have them more than 2 years. Last week I got my Palm to my friend. In the Monday my friens visited me with words “Palm doesn’t boot, only Palm logo appears”.
I was try a few soft and hard resets. Without success. Pal is still dead - now is no Palm logo on the screen - display lights and that’s is all.
I think, that firmware in the flash memory is little bit corrupted. Do You have the same opinien? Do You have any advice to help me (to buy new Palm is not the right advice).
Thank You for help.
No, sorry, I don’t really know what to do other than call Palm and see what they say. A double-hard reset (where you hold the up button down for 10 seconds while hard resetting) should be enough if it’s at all usable.
[…] And so today starts out with me reading a well-explained piece on what PalmOne Palm has done wrong with their Treo software, HotSync software, and firmware. As someone who’s still trying really hard to like Palm—I have an m500 which is slightly better than a Palm V, except the Palm V was completely metal and the m500 is half crappy-metallic-looking-plastic—I completely agree with the article. […]
check the poweron button. I see the same in my m515 and the problem were the poweron button had been blocked down.
good luck.
found this article randomly :p
just sharing my experience…i too bought a 2nd hand m500 few days ago, also was having the problem get it upgraded to OS4.1, notice that it doesnt work on XP nor OS X, i was going to leave it like that but then i found a way to upgrade it without using that software from palm to flash my m550. instead, i used FlashWrite (JackSprat), for those who dno whts that, its a Palm side software which flashes the ROM, downloaded a OS4.1 image and i flashed it using FlashWrite, no need to use PC or Mac for that. Hope u guys can upgrade the OS without a problem :)
StyLe,
Is it possible you can forward me the palm os 4.1 file so that I may flash my M515 (corrupted rom). Thanks
kongluong
I google “m500 debug mood”, and reach here. In your article, you says “Palm added a new security mechanism to prevent unwanted Debug Modes—if you have a password set, the Palm cannot enter Debug Mode!” This is the right answer to my problem while I want to get my m500 into debug mode. Thank you!
please forward me a copy of palm os 4.1 file for upgrade in my smartphone.
Thanks