Ah! Such simple instructions. How could anything go wrong? Let me count the ways:

I clicked on the link. It asked if it should download the file to Main Memory - My Documents; I said fine - click OK.

Everything was fine until I tried to "navigate to the file {I} downloaded." I assume - yes I know - that "File Explorer" is what one uses to "navigate to" another file.

I could not find the file with File Explorer. I checked to see if there was an option for hidden or system files; didn't see one. I tried "Find" - not helpful. I tried using Pocket Word to see if that would show the file somehow. I looked other places - nothing.

Finally, I tried clicking the link again. It said the file was already there, so I told it to save it to Safestore.

Tried to "navigate to" the file again using File Explorer and nothing. Tried looking all over the place and found nothing. My Samsung i730 told me I was running out of memory and I told it to close all programs and then I started looking again. The PDA locked up. Did a soft reboot.

This resulted in a soft reboot loop; it wouldn't go away. Tried leaving battery off for 30 seconds, but no luck. It was hopelessly stuck in this loop.

At this point I am kicking myself because I should have done a Sync before hand to save my stuff. I know I should always do a backup before changing anything in the system. There's nothing I can do at this point & berating myself wasn't going to get things done.

I don't have a helper app that can start in Safe Mode. I searched this forum and I read the FAQ's. From all that I gathered the only solution was to do a hard reboot.

The good news: I just got an SD card the other day and moved all or almost all of my files there. However, I could not find the files that contain contacts and calendar, etc. so I did not copy them and I didn't think to use the backup program. I was going to check here for some info on this.

I haven't Synced in a couple of weeks so some data is going to be missing if I get my PIM information back this way. But wait, an answer on one of the threads that mentions a hard reset says data will be lost, but not what is in Safestore and don't worry about PIM info because it's not "something, something, active something" and "something, something" will restore it. [I can't find this just now; slight chance it may have been on another forum].

So, I hard rebooted. I'm out of the loop. The stuff I copied or moved to the Storage card or SafeStore, but there's nothing in contacts or calendar.


So, here are my problems:

(1A) Where's my PIM info? Nothing automatically restored it. Is there something I have to do to get it back - some program I have to open or am I left with going back to that last time I did "Active Sync" with my partner computer?

(1B) Reassurance needed: The stuff I read about how my PIM was safe didn't change anything as I still had to hard reboot to get out of the soft reset loop, right? Right? [It did raise my expectations and now I've spent time searching official guides and this site for how to get my PIM info.]

(1C) Other than doing ActiveSync more often, is there a way to copy the contacts, calendar, etc to safestore or the storage card? How does one find these files? Or should I use the backup program on the i730 i between syncs?

(2) What can/should I do to change to daylight savings time? I waited until today because I thought by then all the bugs would be worked out.

I have only myself to worry about re the i730. The "partner" computer I do ActiveSync with has a dead internal battery so its time and date settings are messed up. Each time I ActiveSync I have to remember to uncheck the option about syncing the time or manually restore the time.

(2A) I would have thought that the easiest thing would have been to just change the time manually now and again in the fall, but in reading the FAQs and related threads, I came across one person who said that the PDA just kept going back to the wrong time. So this isn't an option, is it?

(2B) There is another computer available to me which has Windows XP and which seems to have reset itself successfully, but it's not ours - it's my spouse's work computer and I wouldn't like it to be anything other than a guest for syncing. Will ActiveSync solve the problem if I use that computer was a guest? What if I temporarily use it as a partner computer? Will that solve the problem or do I still have to run the patch?

(3A) If I have to run the patch, or have to download any other CAB file, can I find the file with File Explorer (using Windows Mobile 2003 se) or do I have to download something else (a registry editor?).

If I know the exact file name and directory and I use the "Open" option will that work?

(3B) I read some instructions (by mrailing, I think) somewhere that suggest downloading a patch to the PC, renaming it to remove the CAB by changing it to TXT and then copying it to the device (i730). Perhaps this may have something to do with it, but other than this reference and another one where someone didn't really change the extension I couldn't find any info on why & when this is required and whether it's required for other file types that are downloaded or copied (for example .exe files)? Do I have to do this for all CAB files? Is this only for the 2003 operating system or does it apply to 5.0 as well? [I tried looking for this info in the FAQ's it turned out 20+ pages of results]

Is this the case for 5.0 also?

(3C) I just realized the problem may have been in how I tried to install the patch. Is it wrong to install programs or patches directly to the device by going to the internet page on the device's PIE and clicking on the install link? The MS instructions mrailing quoted and which are found at their link says to use the internet explorer on the mobile device.

Do I always have to use a PC & be in ActiveSync to navigate to the link & install, even for CAB files? For any others? Is this patch a CAB file?

Is this also the case with 5.0?

Help!!!

__________________
Ileana