I was just about to post a question on these when the new upgrade came out. Great! Finally going to cure these wierd problems. Upgraded four 7000's that are getting programmed here, did 2 more in the field. STILL seeing these same 2 things crop up since the 7000's came out, arrrggghh.....

First, I randomly see this wierd thing where the charge lights start flashing on fully charged batteries. Try resets, pull out battery, etc. When it happens, the batteries are always very warm, too, unlike normal ones. Seems like they're being overcharged for some reason, and this ties in with it somehow. Sometimes they stop doing it for days or weeks, then start up again. It's happened on ones that were only days or weeks old, and some that have just been sitting around here getting minimal handling while waiting for their install.

Second one is where they just come on all by themselves, no one touching them, and lock up in the on mode. Only a battery pull or reset will turn them off and get them going again. Some have been in their chargers, others out. Some have very large programs, others almost nothing. The last one was only 2 weeks out of the box. It had the new upgrade done tonight. Was working fine for several days before, with a 1.117kb file. About an hour after the upgrade it did it. Had only been used to test codes for a few minutes, then was set aside off the charger. Was untouched for about 10-15 minutes. Others were sitting on my desk over night in the charger, out when I went to bed, on the next morning and very warm. All but one I have had replaced, and no more problems.
But.... makes you wonder, WASSUP!!
Obviously not anything in the upgrades. All have had the latest upgrade that was available at the time they were programmed. And, some were upgraded on my old laptop, some on my newer desktop, and some on my brand new HP laptop. All had their upgrade software downloaded from the web, it wasn't shared between them.

The one thing that did happen different tonight was that the flashing charger lights cropped about 6pm, played with the battery and reset, put it back in the charger and it was okay. About 2 hrs later is when it went solid on by itself. The other 7000 (customer has one in each room) was also being programmed in the same charger base, and it had no flashing lights. Put the bad boy in, flashing. Set the good one in, all's fine.
Now the others may have had the flashing lights prior, but I wasn't around to see it, so can't verify.

Kind of wish we could fix these gremlins sooner rather than later!
Any ideas ?
Thanks
Dan

The flashing light on the DS is an indication that the thing is overcharging. You may have a faulty battery pack (thermistor is not working) if this has been happening for long periods of time. I'd call the Pronto Exchange (search for 866) and see if you can swap a battery.

For your second issue, we can't get it fixed if we don't know about it. I personally, have never seen this problem. I think if either Peter D or I saw it, we would have reported it. Are you, by chance, using Timers? Any additional information about your PCF or the settings you use on the remote will hopefully help us narrow your problem.

Thanks,

Lyndel
Sent you a copy of the pcf, and message.
Thanks for the info.
Dan

Dan,

It sounds like something you are doing regarding programming (deleting items from the system area). I sent you an email on this subject regarding a merge.

Can you tell me exactly what steps you do to the System Page once you create a new PCF? What Items do you remove? Do you use Timers on these remotes? Cursor Navigation, etc... Please email me back with this info.

Lyndel

This message was edited by Lyndel McGee on 12/14/04 17:38 ET.

Lyndel
Thanks, I think you might be on to something. I'll get the info and get back to you. Got to get up early, everyone wants it done for xmas......!
Dan

Did this firmware fix the memory access issue?

Bear

Found it, guess I should have looked further down in the forum.

Lyndel
I haven't had time to try the merge, too busy finishing existing orders.
I did check the timer issue. When I had updated the firmare on the on you saw, it reset the clock to 00:00, so it had only been counting time for about an hour, never went to midnight before it hung. I turn off the cursor navigation.
The one thing that jumped out of your suggestions was that all my work stems from some modified form of an older one, to save time. I'm not 100% sure, but I bet they can all be traced back to some form of a 1000 ccf ! Wow!! Never really thought about it. Never had any lockups on the 1000, 2000, 6000 series like this where it turns on and just stays on by itself. I'll try a fresh workup for my boiler plate. Been wanting to do that anyway, since the 7000 has so many ways to simplify things.
Thanks again for the great idea. I'll try the merge, too, after the holiday.
Dan

The merge typically solves a corruption issue. The only thing I saw with regard to your PCF was the fact that you had almost everything removed from the System Page. I'm wondering if the lack of a clock has something to do with it.

Lyndel

Lyndel
Now that we have 16meg more memory, I don't feel the need to blow away all the parts that eat it up. I'll just leave the clock and other stuff in on the new fresh boiler plate and see what gives. What's frustrating, besides not being able to recreate the problem, is that some don't have the problem at all. I haven't had the chance to go around to all my users with 7000's yet for the upgrade, and they haven't called me with problems. And they would, if they did, trust me !!
I'll let you know what happens, either way.
Thanks again for the help.
Dan