M500 is driving me NUUUUTS!

[Guest gavingovinden]

Ok, I got an upgrade today from a C500 (sweet, trusty C500...) to this maniac of a phone called the M500. Here is the first problem I have. How the F**** do you turn it off and on? The obvious starting point would be the power on/off button right? WRONG!

Here's the deal, if I press the power on button once, the screen goes blank. No screen taps will bring it on again, the only thing that will is the power button, but when I press it again, it goes straight to the home screen. No boot up, therefore that says to me that it hasn't switched off at all, it's just been on standby. If I press and hold the power button it simply turns the backlight off.

THIS IS NOT WHAT IT SAYS IT WILL DO IN THE MANUAL. In the manual it says pressing it once will turn off the backlight and pressing and holding will actually turn the phone off.

The problem Orange haven't seemed to grasp is that in order to register my new simcard I have to turn off my phone. I CANT TURN IT OFF CAN I!!!!!! I can only put it in bloody, sodding, stupid standby!

I am calmly going to take the baterry out of this M500 and switch my C500 back on. I will then proceed to sacrifice this phone to the demons that created it.... :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x

[Guest Pondrew]

:) I want you to calmly step away from the M500...

Ok, the reason you can't turn the device off is because it's a Pocket PC Phone and they don't turn off. The closest thing to turning it off is to turn off the radio and put it in standby. I've no idea if or why the Orange manual would say holding the button turns it off, on most Pocket PC Phones this would just turn off the backlight rather then putting it in standby.

Why did you feel you had to turn it off to register it?

[Guest Palindrome]

It is a bit wierd. I believe the phone isn't designed to be turned off. The closest we can get to turning it off is a soft reset (pressing in the tiny hole at the bottom of the phone next to the headphone socket). Some programs specify they need a soft reset to work. Therefore, to register your simcard just soft reset the phone, or turn on flight mode and turn it off again.

[Guest Pondrew]

You'll probably want to do some reading around about the differences between Pocket PC Phones and Smartphones as they're very different animals.

One thing you'll need to bear in mind is that if you ever let the battery in the M500 run out you'll only have a short time on the backup battery before it runs out and hard resets the device...

[Guest gavingovinden]

Ah, I see. Right...

Ok so I've grasped the no turning off thing. The Soft reset button, I can't find next to the headphone socket. Is that where it should be?

The next few questions I have are pretty standard and to be honest I'm just too lazy to figure it out for myself:

1. Does this thing have switchable profiles like the C500 did? If so I can't figure out how to switch them.

2. How do you add your own words to the t9 dictionary for SMS?

3. Is it possible to customise the home screens etc like the C500? I presume that it is.

Cheers boys, you'll be glad to know that the phone is still in one peice. I tried to sacrifice it but the demons didn't want it either... :)

[Guest chucky.egg]

Soft Reset is a tiny little circular hole in the bottom-right corner of the area covered by the flap

1) Nope, no profiles by default. But there is a free app called PPCProfiles Pro. There's a couple of threads about it in the PPCPE section.

2) Not sure actually. Mine just seemed to get added as I used them, but there used to be a way of writing an email on your PC, syncing it with the phone and it auto adds the words in the email. I think. Something like that anyway

3) "Homescreens" are "Themes" on PocketPC. There are shed loads of free ones around, but none of them that interesting TBH. I got Spb PocketPlus which extends the functions of the Today screen, and there are some nice Themes for that. It's a good app, well worth a look IMO

[Guest gavingovinden]

Thanks mate,

Another thing I forgot was this:

1. How do you hard reset.

2. When you download apps does it give you the option like on the C500 to save to Phone or Storage Card? If not, how do you make sure it goes to Storage Card?

...18 hours later and the phone is still in one peice, things atre looking up... :)

[Guest Palindrome]

You can hard reset by holding the power button when pushing the soft reset button.

It does give you the option of saving to the Storage Card but it will install in the root of the card messing up any nice clean directory structure you might wish for. You can use CabInstl to specify a location.

[Guest gavingovinden]

So if I download this PPC Profiles thing can I use MP3 as a ringtone or SMS alert? With the updated ROM on the C500 I could use MP3 so I don't see why this phone should not allow me to. Then again, it is microsoft...

[Guest Xenzo1990]

Firstly, when I upgraded from c500, i left my m500 on standby and c500 on and it registered. Secondly, it says will turn the phone off, what it means is will turn it on flight mode, and that is also wrong, as it just turns backlight off.

There is no need to get so angry, all PPCs are like this. Its not a problem with the phone.

Everything stored on phone memory is stored in RAM, this 'RAM' needs power to be able to store things, so if the phone is denied power, all programs and everything stored in RAM will disappear. Which totally irellivent is why I use sprite backup.

Pardon the spelling mistakes.

Edited August 26, 2005 by Xenzo1990

[Guest akki007]

I am planning on upgrading my C500 to an M500 next month. But first, riddle me this.... (or answer)

Can contacts be stored on the memory card rather than the RAM?

Also, WTF is a sprite backup?

Ta

Aaron

x

[Guest Xenzo1990]

Sprite Backup basically backs up your entire phone, so if you run out of battery and ur 72 hours backup battery runs down, you can restore your phone with a backup.

I dont think you can store it on memory card (im not sure tbh) but you can store it to your SIM Card.

[Guest budgeuk]

Here is somthing i figured out, if u need to reset the phone or turn it off.

Just take the cover off the back and then replace it.

there is a sensor in the back. at first i just removed the battery to turn it off but then i noticed if you take the back case off the screnn acts like the batteryhad been removed.

so there u go ...

then to tourn it just hold the power key down.

this works on the M500 and the T-mobile one.

:)

[Guest chucky.egg]

Sprite Backup basically backs up your entire phone, so if you run out of battery and ur 72 hours backup battery runs down, you can restore your phone with a backup.

I dont think you can store it on memory card (im not sure tbh) but you can store it to your SIM Card.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Err, not sure it'll fit on a SIM card! :)

By default it backs up to your SD card, but you can backup to your PC if it's connected.

The best thing is the automated low-power backups, and the self-extracting files - so your phone backs itself up before it dies, and when you recharge it you can just run the backup file and you're back where you were.

Very neat.

BTW - Sprite does not erase your device first, so if you restore over existing files you end up with a combination. Generally best to Hard Reset before a full system restore.

[Guest confused and hungover]

Err, not sure it'll fit on a SIM card! :)

By default it backs up to your SD card, but you can backup to your PC if it's connected.

The best thing is the automated low-power backups, and the self-extracting files - so your phone backs itself up before it dies, and when you recharge it you can just run the backup file and you're back where you were.

Very neat.

BTW - Sprite does not erase your device first, so if you restore over existing files you end up with a combination.  Generally best to Hard Reset before a full system restore.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i still prefer the back up function in active sync... saved to my PC, personel preference though i suppose

[Guest chucky.egg]

I'm not sure what the backup in AS is, never knew there was one!

Sprite doesn't replace sync'ing, but it does mean that if your battery dies on the road (which is where you're less likely to have access to mains power after all) you can recover from it quickly... once you've found some power that is!

[Guest gavingovinden]

Hi All,

I'm back, two days later and the M500 phone is still with me. It's kinda growing on me I guess but there are still things that are driving me balmy! Why oh why do you have to go to three different places to sort out your sounds, one for ringtones, one for sms tones one for keypress tones, oh my god! The other thing is, I can't, no matter what I try I can't get the damn tone off the phone pad. I want it silent even when the phone is not in silent mode. How can I acheive this?

Second thing, I just can't figure out how to set a downloaded sound as an SMS tone. The preset tones that come with the phone are crap. Anyone got a solution?

[Guest chucky.egg]

Not sure what you mean. To set ringtones and SMS tones you go to "Settings - Sounds & Notifications"

What you can do is go to "Settings - System - Add Ring Tone" and it copies the ringtone from My Docs to where it's supposed to be (\Windows\Ring)

I haven't tried to silence the PhonePad, but I suspect it's in "Sounds & Notifications" as the Screen Taps option

[Guest bretto]

Hi All,

I'm back, two days later and the M500 phone is still with me. It's kinda growing on me I guess but there are still things that are driving me balmy! Why oh why do you have to go to three different places to sort out your sounds, one for ringtones, one for sms tones one for keypress tones, oh my god! The other thing is, I can't, no matter what I try I can't get the damn tone off the phone pad. I want it silent even when the phone is not in silent mode. How can I acheive this?

Second thing, I just can't figure out how to set a downloaded sound as an SMS tone. The preset tones that come with the phone are crap. Anyone got a solution?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

1) notifications and system sounds are in settings->sounds and notifications. Phone can be done there too as the incoming call notification or in settings->phone. So really its all in one place settings->sounds and notifications.

Phonepad screen tap sound is in its options. bottom right button (opt/sym) is held down till options page is displayed. Its all in the help :)

2) Copy the sound file into the windows directory and you should be able to select it via settings->sounds and notifications, go to the notifications tab, select "new sms" from the list and select your file. You can even preview the sound from there. If you cant hear it maybe the file is not compatable.

Or get PPCProfiles-Pro and it can be setup to do it all for you. minus the phonepad stuff.

[Guest gavingovinden]

Thanks guys, I stand corrected. Each day is getting easier...

[Guest sital]

Hi Guys...

I'm new to all this and this is my first EVER note on a forum!! :?:

I've read alot of reviews and all the notes on this forum about the M500 and i'm SCARED!! My upgrade is due to be delivered tomoro...

Just thought i'd post this note to say its good to know you guys are there if i experience any difficulties with my new phone

Sure you'll be hearing from me soon!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Guest bretto]

Sure you'll be hearing from me soon!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

evil laughter always makes me feel uneasy :shock:

[Guest penfold2k4]

Seriously though....this forum convinced me to get the m500 and now I have it, any question I think of will inevitable have been posted and answered here.....so so useful!