WM5torage

[Guest dddrko]

This nice software has been running nicely on my Wizard since 1.2x, but I find the recent updates a bit messy...

Can future releases be mark with beta, experimental or minor revision numbers so that users with usuable system knows when to update without going around with those having problems?

Also, can the automatic tmail.exe closing be replaced with a question for user to decide before taking the action? Best if there are settings to choose how the feature behave... I actually stopped at 1.47 because of the force closing function, :P

BTW, merely closing tmail.exe doesn't always clear the error, other action can activate some messaging components without starting tmail.exe. For example, using a shortcut to create a new SMS directly without going through Messaging.

In such cases, tmail.exe won't be started and WM5torage will not function properly, users will have to start Messaging to get tmail.exe running and then terminate it before using WM5torage.

Hopefully, the underneath components that is preventing WM5torage to activate can be traced and handle properly in future, ;)

I agree. I also stoped at v1.47 (working great at wizard), never try 1.48, 'cose don't want to mess with closing tmail.exe and getting troubles with messanging.

[Guest keryonic]

I installed WM5torage on a T-Mobile SDA (Feeler) upgraded to Windows Mobile 5 but it doesn't work. The hard drive letter doesn't appear wen I connect it through USB but strangely the drive letter appears for a moment when I unplug USB. I have tried it on another PC which doesn't have Activesync installed and I performed a soft reset after install, but no success. Any idea that could solve this problem?

[Guest keryonic]

I installed WM5torage on a T-Mobile SDA (Feeler) upgraded to Windows Mobile 5 but it doesn't work. The hard drive letter doesn't appear wen I connect it through USB but strangely the drive letter appears for a moment when I unplug USB. I have tried it on another PC which doesn't have Activesync installed and I performed a soft reset after install, but no success. Any idea that could solve this problem?

[Guest leethacker]

Please remove that "kill tmail" thing. ;)

[Guest Ingvarr]

This nice software has been running nicely on my Wizard since 1.2x, but I find the recent updates a bit messy...

Can future releases be mark with beta, experimental or minor revision numbers so that users with usuable system knows when to update without going around with those having problems?

I dont release "betas". Hovewer, I dont track every kind of problems with all different platforms around, so you'll have to do it for yourself. There are dozens of diff platforms around, each with own quirks and hacks needed, not to mention I actually have only 8310 to test it on.

So development goes for speed & usability on 8310/Tornado, and this was always written in the title page. Support for all other platforms is just a collateral. If it worked before on your platform and doesnt now, just stick to older version.

Hovewer I recommend always at least trying new versions, because sometimes significant improvements (ie in speed), or major (potential) probs fixed, even if you dont see it instantly.

Also, can the automatic tmail.exe closing be replaced with a question for user to decide before taking the action? Best if there are settings to choose how the feature behave... I actually stopped at 1.47 because of the force closing function, ;)

It only tries to close tmail.exe if it actually cant activate the driver. If it activates without closing tmail - very nice, wont close tmail. Also nor does it "forcefully" close it or kills a process - it doesnt do anything that you can't do manually by just closing the Inbox window. So I dont see how can it cause any "problems with messaging".

BTW, merely closing tmail.exe doesn't always clear the error, other action can activate some messaging components without starting tmail.exe. For example, using a shortcut to create a new SMS directly without going through Messaging.

There is no such ways on Tornado that Iam aware of. 1f error caused only by opened Inbox. At least unless you start trying to activate WM5torage with other programs that you've installed on memory card or that's use memory card in some "locking" way - again, I have no means to track them all, its up to you.

On Wizard ActiveSync does with system something on very low-level that prevents future activations. This is just example of particular platform that have quirk that prevents "nice" usage. Iam afraid, many platforms have such quirks, because their devs didnt actually intend them to work as Mass Storage.

Edited April 16, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest jShun]

I dont release "betas". Hovewer, I dont track every kind of problems with all different platforms around, so you'll have to do it for yourself. There are dozens of diff platforms around, each with own quirks and hacks needed, not to mention I actually have only 8310 to test it on.

So development goes for speed & usability on 8310/Tornado, and this was always written in the title page. Support for all other platforms is just a collateral. If it worked before on your platform and doesnt now, just stick to older version.

Hovewer I recommend always at least trying new versions, because sometimes significant improvements (ie in speed), or major (potential) probs fixed, even if you dont see it instantly.

I understand, but the recent rapid updates in a day to solve some user problems is too fast, quite diffcult to "try" the latest version at that rate... I means users with problems can try out experimental versions 1st, if it works, then include the fixes in a collactive version for the public... User without problem don't have to keep chasing the "new" releases if they are clearly marked...

It only tries to close tmail.exe if it actually cant activate the driver. If it activates without closing tmail - very nice, wont close tmail. Also nor does it "forcefully" close it or kills a process - it doesnt do anything that you can't do manually by just closing the Inbox window. So I dont see how can it cause any "problems with messaging".

I'm not saying that it will cause problem with messaging, it an acknowledgement so that users have a chance to cancel activating in case they are working with messaging at the moment, eg. recieving/sending e-mail in the background. In addition, the user will be more aware of what is happens when the WM5torage run.

There is no such ways on Tornado that Iam aware of. 1f error caused only by opened Inbox. At least unless you start trying to activate WM5torage with other programs that you've installed on memory card or that's use memory card in some "locking" way - again, I have no means to track them all, its up to you.

On Wizard ActiveSync does with system something on very low-level that prevents future activations. This is just example of particular platform that have quirk that prevents "nice" usage. Iam afraid, many platforms have such quirks, because their devs didnt actually intend them to work as Mass Storage.

It is possible to start messaging without running tmail.exe on Pocket PCs, simply by creating a shortcut. I can rest assure you that it wasn't due to "locking" of the memory card since I'm a programmer myself.

I understand that it is up to us to trace the problems ourselves, and I'd done just that, thus the feedback. I do appreciate your work a lot, and do understand the limitation and your intention, but seriously, wouldn't it be more satisfying if better version can be created in future to serve more people? ;)

Edited April 17, 2006 by jShun

[Guest jShun]

On Wizard ActiveSync does with system something on very low-level that prevents future activations. This is just example of particular platform that have quirk that prevents "nice" usage. Iam afraid, many platforms have such quirks, because their devs didnt actually intend them to work as Mass Storage.

I've done some quick test on my Wizard device, it seems to belongs to the same problem with some system/messaging component being loaded without starting tmail.exe. In my case, I just start Messaging, then stop all application and run WM5torage to activate again, it works everytime.

There is also a problem I forget to mentioned, that's after a call, WM5torage will fail too. Just wait for a few minutes and WM5torage will work again, and in most cases, just start Messaging and terminate if you don't want to wait...

So far, I have been able to activate WM5torage on Wizard without a failure, I think the reported faults are probably due to plugins or memory card locking instead of Wizard itself. I think you should asks the user to hard reset their device to verify if it is WM5torage or their setup fault.

Hope this help.

Edited April 17, 2006 by jShun

[Guest leethacker]

Hey, that read write Led thingy in 1.5 is pretty cool. But there is one thing that is really annoying. Now my vibration alarm goes off while data are transferred (everthime the led blinks the phone vibrates a bit). I have a i-mate SP5 aka Tornado.

Please look into that issue, because I dont want a vibrating flash drive. ;)

EDIT: Seems that this doesnt happen when I set Read LED = 0; Write LED = 1

but it happens when I set

Read LED = 1; Write LED = 0

-> definitely a bug

Also it would be cool if i could set that the normal green led is used a write led and the blue bluetooth led is used as write led.

Edited April 17, 2006 by leethacker

[Guest Ingvarr]

Unfortunately, HTC wired it that way:

first LED - green (on Tornado) notification LED

second "LED" - vibrator

So, if you dont want a "vibrating flash drive", just put both (read and write) to 0 and it will be fine.

All other LEDs are not accessible. They report that "system have 2 leds", even when it actually have 4 LEDs (and vibrator).

Kinda dumb, but that how they did it, cant do much about it.

I've tried to find OMAP documentation on how to program LEDs directly, but as TI's usual - no such in open access (definitely none on OMAP7xx/8xx multicolor LPGs).

Edited April 17, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest Ingvarr]

User without problem don't have to keep chasing the "new" releases if they are clearly marked...

Then don't install new releases, or save an old one before you try a new one, I dont clearly get what it the problem here. Maybe its the numbering scheme. From now on it will be X.YZw:

- first number X - major release, total revamp. Dunno if it will ever happen, maybe with new OS version, hehe ;)

- second number Y - significant performance and/or usability changes, UI changes.

- third number Z - minor functionality change, no changes to UI

- fourth letter w (ie 1.48b) - only bugfixes, no other changes. No need to install if you have no problems currently.

I'm not saying that it will cause problem with messaging, it an acknowledgement so that users have a chance to cancel activating in case they are working with messaging at the moment, eg. recieving/sending e-mail in the background.

If they are recieving/sending e-mail in the background, tmail wont exit until it will finish that process.

Really, if you so much dont want to close e-mail window - just dont activate WM5torage until you done with Inbox. Or other way, WM5torage just won't activate, I think that action based on actual latest user indicated intention is better.

Very many of apps around send close requests to Inbox as WM5torage does - they just dont even announce that and you won't even notice it in most cases.

Edited April 17, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest dddrko]

Killing tmail.exe doesn't fix nothing just making problems. I try 1.48b and what happend:

1. tmail.exe was terminated although NO app was running

2. afther that I was having troubles with ActiveSync

3. tmail.exe won't auto start after soft-reset

I suggest one more time to remove this option from WM5torage 'cose it is system process and killing it making the device unstable.

[Guest Ingvarr]

TMail.exe is not a system process. Its an Inbox application, you can clearly see it with any process viewer - tmail.exe always associated with "Outlook e-mail" window (even if you pushed that window to background, it still ordinary application).

Its not always running, nor does it need to always run - also, you can see with any process viewer - after "clean boot", there is no tmail.exe in memory, it will appear if you will open Inbox, or after any events, like incoming SMS - in that case system is perfectly able to automatically launch tmail.exe and process incoming message.

Also, WM5torage dont "kills the tmail.exe process".

It just sends a WM_Close message request to Inbox window - same as you do when you close the Inbox window by clicking on Close button. If Inbox in process of something (like sending mail or synchronizing), it will just ignore the message and won't actually close.

Since its actually can block Mass Storage activation (and, on Tornado, always does), request to close it is perfectly normal and needed.

Wizard have ActiveSync conflicting with Mass Storage pretty unpredictably on its own, no need to try tieing it to Outlook e-Mail.

Edited April 17, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest Ingvarr]

Anyways, I will see if I can add additional checks to not close Inbox unless it will really help WM5torage to activate. Not sure is there anything more can be done though.

BTW, why do you think that Inbox (tmail.exe) should be autorun on system boot? Never seen it doing so, and I never seen tmail.exe in autostart apps, at least on default system configurations.

If you actually can pinpoint startup autorun link to tmail.exe, tell me, with which command line parameter it should autorun, because if you just run tmail.exe, you get a Inbox/Mail composing window on screen.

Edited April 17, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest dddrko]

don't know, I must be wrong somewhere. Now testing 1.51, and looks OK so far.

[Guest Ingvarr]

Btw, can you try if it will turn power off/go to sleep in the middle of transfer?

Shouldnt timeout in this version, as I reset the system idle timer when USB device is used.

[Guest j8888h]

There is a bug with version 1.51. I turned on both LED and tried read and write on the USB disk. The phone began to vibrate. I have no way to stop the vibration unless I restart the phone. But if I don't turn on the LED, it seems ok. This was tested with T-mobile MDA.

[Guest Ingvarr]

There is a bug with version 1.51. I turned on both LED and tried read and write on the USB disk. The phone began to vibrate. I have no way to stop the vibration unless I restart the phone. But if I don't turn on the LED, it seems ok. This was tested with T-mobile MDA.

How many LED numbers do you see as available for choosing?

[Guest j8888h]

How many LED numbers do you see as available for choosing?

I can see two LED numbers: #1 and #2(Vibro). Does the #2 means vibration? I origially think it is Vibrio, which is a name bacteria family, so I'm very strange with the name of a LED.

[Guest j8888h]

Btw, can you try if it will turn power off/go to sleep in the middle of transfer?

Shouldnt timeout in this version, as I reset the system idle timer when USB device is used.

The phone will go to sleep when connect under USB mass storage drive without file transferring.

[Guest eddieywlee]

in hongkong and taiwan, many user solve the problem of 1f after upgrading to 1.48, and the sms function is still there, tmail will automatically come out whenever it is needed, for reference my player is 818pro(use the same cpu as qtek 9100, just with better camera and no keypad), which use the same , i don't know the other who question about the 1.48 have ever tried it or not..

[Guest j8888h]

It seems the version 1.51 has no the founction of killing the tmail.exe as the 1.48 does. I can get 1f error and find the tmail.exe is running after I press the activate at the second reconnection with USB storage. I hope the founction of killing the tmail.exe could be remained in the upgraded versions. 'cause every function works very well after killing of tmail.exe.

[Guest Ingvarr]

I can see two LED numbers: #1 and #2(Vibro). Does the #2 means vibration? I origially think it is Vibrio, which is a name bacteria family, so I'm very strange with the name of a LED.

Well, vibro is enginering slang for vibration. Maybe some tweaks need to be done there...

But it do vibrate when you choose #2, right? On #1 it should blink LED.

[Guest Ingvarr]

The phone will go to sleep when connect under USB mass storage drive without file transferring.

This is by design. If you dont use it, it will go to sleep. Mass storage or not - you still not using it, and its considered idle.

Why PDA goes to idle sleep when its USB powered, is an other question.

But it shouldnt go into sleep if you actually use it (ie copy files, etc).

[Guest Ingvarr]

It seems the version 1.51 has no the founction of killing the tmail.exe as the 1.48 does.

It does have the function. I've just tested it again - works ok for me.

Hovewer in some cases Inbox can refuse to be stopped.

[Guest ctrlbreak]

what a good program... thanks for share