I upgraded our iPAQ hx2110 from PPC2003 to WM 5.0 (German). While trying to do so for the first time the process failed and an error was displayed (ROM version wrong). The second try did the job then.
Now it seems that the PDA is a lot slower than before. E.g. if I open "settings" this can take up to 10 seconds (first time, then faster).
The real problem I have now is that we develop software that works with sequential file access. I read in the manual that WM 5.0 now offers permanent file existence (no data loss if battery's flat). Is it stored to FLASH memory now? Oh my gosh, this became so slow, our software runs into one timeout after the other!
Did sth. go wrong with the update (backround process trouble)? I can't believe that WM 5.0 is that horrible slow!
Any help is appreciated!
Greetings,
Christian
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Data is no longer stored in RAM and is now stored in ROM memory. So your correct that total power loss wont result in lost data. Your data will also remain after a hard reset.
Because ROM memory is slower reading and writing than RAM memory, the overall performance is degraded.
As a Microsoft mobile developer said that not losing data out weighs any performance issues.
In any case there are ways to speed up WM5. You have two options. Use a 3rd party program such as Tweaks2k or apply several registry tweaks.
This is bad news! I've downloaded the tweak tool but did not find the possibility to change file storage from persistent to RAM. Doesn't matter, because I do not want to change any global setting at the user's pda either with third party tools nor manually. If I cannot set a "ram parameter" for my dedicated files this won't be a solution.
Anyway, your help is really appreciated and many thanks for the quick and comprehensive reply! I will propably go for "substitute file access through buffer handling routines". At least I do not need additional RAM as the file itself is stored into flash ROM. Thus, I can even reach a increased performance due to no need of the slow file handling routines, which I had to go for due to the fact that 64 MBs are not too much...
Sadly, RAM and ROM arent user configurable. You also cant change persistent storage.
What I really miss in WM2003 is the way memory was dynamic. Your program memory and storage adjusted, so you always had some available memory to work with.
After installing all of my favorite software to ROM I only had just over a 1MB to store documents and such. I wound up moving all my programs to a SD card.
I have made the same update. While it is true that most programs start slower than with WM2003, the effect can be reduced.
First, since the RAM is more economically used than in 2003, you can keep more programs often at a time without stability issues. Therefore, I open my contacts, calendar, Mortplayer etc. just once a day, and they remain open as long as I use the unit. As soon as a program is fully loaded, performance is adequate.
Second, since WM5 uses Memorycaching, many programs will load faster the second time you open them. This seems to work as long as you don't perform a soft reset. I find myself resetting the unit much less than with 2003SE, where it made perfectly good sense to reset at least daily to free up memory.
The only program which performs really slow is my GPS-navigation, but as with other software, once it is startet, I can live with the performance. It was slow on 2003SE as well. The program is now available in a WM5-adapted version which works much better.
What's more: Though HP will probably not endorse this, the 2110 works very well with XCPUScalar, an overclocking tool. This is not software which I recommend for permanent usage, as it drains the battery faster. However, whenever I use my 2110 to navigate, I start XCPUScalar beforehand and set the device to 520 MHz, resulting in better handling of the menues.
Many thanks for your info. I have to admit that the features are nice for customers. But they are bad for us developers.
With PocketPC 2002 there was only embedded visual basic for rapid development, best to be combined with a C++ 3.0 DLL for the time critical routines. Then there was PocketPC 2003 that came without the eVB runtimes (but could be downloaded from Microsoft). Suddenly, file access became a lot slower, for some unknown reason. Then there was PocketPC2003 SE with additional problems. With WM 5.0 there are no runtimes available at all (but can be installed by your application - still works, lucky me). But Microsoft changed file storage a lot. Because in PocketPC2002 - 2003SE files where stored into RAM, we where using files for our databases, including changing the files every here and then. This is no more possible due to the timing problem we ran into! I started to hate Microsoft for doing that. Meanwhile we offer installers for PocketPC2002, 2003, and WM 5.0 (three installers for one application). They are nuts! Do they have any idea how complicated support is?
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