Bit Choreography
|
|
|
DeskAlarm FAQ
Table of Contents
- How do I install/uninstall DeskAlarm?
- Why do I get an error message: Missing Table21.dll ?
- Why does DeskAlarm Crash?
- Why does DeskAlarm report the wrong time for alarms?
- Why doesn't the alarm I entered in to Palm Desktop get displayed by DeskAlarm?
- Why do some alarms appear on my Palm device but not on my PC?
- How can I tell if DeskAlarm is running
- How do I add DeskAlarm to the startup group / How do I have DeskAlarm startup every time I start the computer?
- Can I use DeskAlarm if I use a Outlook or some other PIM rather then Palm Desktop?
- DeskAlarm seems to prevent my screen saver from working what's going on?
- DeskAlarm crashes when I run it. What can I do?
Registration:
- What is registration?
- What information do I need to register?
- I received a registration code with user name "TempKey" what is this and what do I do with it?
- How do I enter the registration information?
- When I try to register I receive the message: "Registration failed! Please check that you entered the information correctly." What’s wrong?
- When I try to register I receive the message: "Registration failed! the Palm Username you entered is not valid!" What’s wrong?
How do I Install DeskAlarm?
If you are upgrading from a previous version of Desk alarm first please make sure it is not running. As of version 2.5 DeskAlarm is distributed as a self contained installation executable (exe file). To install or upgrade DeskAlarm simply run the distributed file. The DeskAlarm install program will walk you through the installation. Obviously if you want alarms to be display DeskAlarm must be running so it is a good idea to let the installation program add DeskAlarm to your startup group.
The first time you run DeskAlarm it will prompt you for a user whose alarms should be displayed please make sure to select the correct user name.
That’s it you are ready to go.
You can uninstall DeskAlarm from the Control Panel Add/Remove Applications window. Activate the Control Panel, double click Add/Remove Programs, and double click on the DeskAlarm list box entry.
Back to Top
Why do I get an error message: missing Table21.dll?
The file Table21.dll gets installed with the Palm PC 2.1 or 3.0 software. It can be reported missing for few seasons:
- You don't have the palm software installed. - Solution install it.
- You have version 2.0. - Solution: get 3.0 its free and available from the palm web site
at: http://www.palm.com/support/downloads/dt303.html
This is a worth while upgrade regardless of DeskAlarm. - You haven't installed DeskAlarm to the Palm directory. Please uninstall it and reinstall to the correct directory.
- You have installed DeskAlarm to the Palm directory but you are running a different copy of it. This commonly happens if you put a copy of DeskAlarm in to you startup menu instead of a shortcut to it. - Solution run the copy that is in the Palm directory by double clicking it or a shortcut to it. It is best to allow the installation program to add DeskAlarm to your startup directory.
Back to Top
Why does DeskAlarm Crash?
While it is very rare DeskAlarm may crash do to a corrupt datebook. Please see the separate discussion of corrupt datebooks.
Back to Top
Why does DeskAlarm report the wrong time for alarms?
This problem may occur with some users do to a BUG/Feature in Time Zone handling in the
Microsoft development environment that both I and Palm computing use. The problem
seems to be that while I am aware of it Palm computing is not and the difference in
handling causes a discrepancy in the alarm times.
To check this:
Open the about dialog, the next scheduled alarm is displayed (you may want to add an alarm
for testing).
If the time is not correct then the problem is probably the Time Zone problem.
This fix worked for one user maybe it will work for you:.
- HotSync
- Add the following line to you autoexec.bat (with out the quotation marks):
"set TZ=" - Restart your computer.
- Customize HotSync from Palm to overwrite Desktop.
- HotSync.
- check DeskAlarm again.
Please Let me know if this doesn't fix the problem.
Back to Top
Why doesn't the alarm I entered in to Palm Desktop get displayed by DeskAlarm?
As described in the manual DeskAlarm gets the information about alarms form the
datebook.dat file that is updated when you HotSync and when you hit save from Palm
Desktop. That is why there is an AutoSave feature. AutoSave is meant to prevent a
situation where you add an alarm but forget to save in palm desktop. If this happens
and AutoSave is disabled there will be no alarm since DeskAlarm will never see it.
Often when you set a test alarm you set it to go off quickly, often before the next
AutoSave, if you don't save then the alarm gets missed.
Solution: Save the information you enter in Palm Desktop. You also
should enable AutoSave with a reasonable interval. To test this try setting an alarm
in Palm Desktop and clicking the save button on the tool bar. Then right click
the DeskAlarm TrayIcon and select "About DeskAlarm". The next alarm that
is supposed to go off is shown in the about box. The alarm you set or one that was
set to go off before it should be shown. Note that the About box doesn't get updated
until you choose "About DeskAlarm" again.
Back to Top
Why do some alarms appear on my Palm device but not on my PC
There could be a few reasons for this.
- DeskAlarm is not running.
Obviously DeskAlarm can't display alarms if it not running. It may be a little difficult to tell if it is running if you have chosen the "Hide Tray Icon" option available to registered users. See How can I tell if DeskAlarm is running for more on this. It is recommended that you don't hide the tray icon until you are sure everything is working ok. If the Icon is showing the DeskAlarm is running.
Solution: Add DeskAlarm to your startup group so it runs when you start you computer. - You have not HotSynced since you set the alarm on you Palm device.
To check for this when an alarm goes off on you Palm device and not on your PC, open Palm Desktop on the PC and check if the alarm is there. If not you haven't HotSynced.
Solution: HotSync often! This is a important regardless of DeskAlarm so valuable data is not lost if you have a problem with you Palm device. Obvious there is no way for DeskAlarm to know about alarms until they have been Synced to the PC. - Alarms are going off but are hidden behind other windows.
If this happens the alarm dialog will cause an item to show on the Taskbar with the DeskAlarm icon. This has been fixed in version 2. Please upgrade to the latest version.
Back to Top
How can I tell if DeskAlarm is running?
If you haven't chosen the "Hide Tray Icon" option available to registered users the DeskAlarm icon should be showing on the system tray (the area next to the time on the task bar were a bunch of little icons are displayed). If you have chosen to hide the tray icon simply try running DeskAlarm. If the Properties dialog comes up then Desk alarm was running already, if not it was not. Now if you rerun DeskAlarm the Properties Dialog should appear.
Back to Top
How do I add DeskAlarm to the startup group / How do I have DeskAlarm startup every time I start the computer.
There are about 1,000,000 ways to do this, well maybe only 5-6 :) here is one way to do it:
- Open the folder that contains DeskAlarm so you can see the program file.
- Right click on the start menu button.
- From the menu that pops up choose open.
- A folder should open up in it you should see a folder named programs open it.
- Now you should see a bunch of folders that correspond to the program groups under programs in your start menu. Once of them should be startup.
- Drag DeskAlarm from the folder that you opened in step 1 on to the startup group. (since desk alarm is a program the default action that windows will take is to create a shortcut rather then moving the file)
That should do it. If you click on start and go to the startup group you should see an icon for DeskAlarm. And when you restart windows DeskAlarm should startup together with it.
Back to Top
Can I use DeskAlarm if I use a Outlook or some other PIM rather then Palm Desktop?
Yes! but it may take a little extra work on your part. DeskAlarm depends on the data files created by the datebook standard palm conduit. So if you have this disabled and use some other conduit you will need to HotSync with the regular datebook conduit as well as with your alternate conduit. Once that is done DeskAlarm should work just fine.
Back to Top
DeskAlarm seems to prevent my screen saver from working what's going on?
This can happen if you have AutoSave enabled in DeskAlarm and leave Palm Desktop open. The problem is caused by non standard behavior of the Palm Desktop application, a simple work around is to set your Auto Save to frequency to be longer then the time out for your screen saver.
Explanation:
The AutoSave feature in DeskAlarm works by asking Palm Desktop to save its data
every X minutes where X is the interval set in the DeskAlarm Properties
dialog. Unfortunately Palm Desktop behaves in a non standard manner
and saves its data regardless of there being any changes. So if you have AutoSave
enabled and leave Palm Desktop open every time DeskAlarm triggers an AutoSave
there is disk activity thus restarting the Screen saver timer. If you set
X to be larger then the time out for the screen save it should work O.K.
While you could disable Auto Save this is not recommended as you loose the added
safety it provides.
Back to Top
DeskAlarm crashes when I run it. What can I do?
If you aren't using the latest version of DeskAlarm available from this site pleaset download it and try it. There currently are no known problems that cause a crash. If you are using the latest version please report the problem immediately to us with as much detail as possible about your system and when the problem occurs and we will do our best to help.
Back to Top
Registration:
What is registration?
In order to use DeskAlarm beyond the 31-day evaluation period and to enable its full functionality you must register it. In other words you must pay for a registration code and then enter that registration code in to the program so it knows that you are a registered user.
Back to Top
What information do I need to register?
DeskAlarm uses registration codes based on you Palm User name. This is the name you selected to identify yourself on your Palm Device and can be found in Palm Desktop on the top right in the "User:" box. During registration you will be prompted for this name. Please make sure to enter the name exactly as it appears in Palm Desktop or the code that you receive will not work and you will need to contact me to generate a new one.
Back to Top
I received a registration code with user name "TempKey" what is this and what do I do with it?
In order to get registered users up and running as quickly as possible they are provided with a temporary registration code to use until I can generate a permanent code for them. Since this is a generic key it uses the bogus user name "TempKey". You should open the registration dialog and enter TempKey as your Palm user name in the appropriate field. Enter the Registration Key you received in to the Registration key field.
Back to Top
How do I enter the registration information?
Registration information must be entered in the registration dialog So you will first need to open it.
To open the registration dialog:
- If the about box is already showing simply click the "register" button.
- If not right click the DeskAlarm icon on the system tray and select "About DeskAlarm…" to show the About box. (The system tray is the place with all the little icons next to where you have the time displayed on the Windows Desktop)
You should have received a registration code in the following format:
Palm user name: Bill Gates
Registration Key: PQ4G-OG2A-U3G6-KM
Simply enter that information in the matching fields or the registration dialog
. So it looks like this:
Please make sure that you enter the information exactly as received or it won’t work. It is best to copy and paste to avoid error. Note that the registration code may have both Numeral Zero’s (0) and and Letter O’s the same goes for numeral one's (1) and Letter L's this can cause confusions if you decide to type in your code. You will need to enter your code exactly as received.
Back to Top
When I try to register I receive the message: "Registration failed! Please check that you entered the information correctly." What’s wrong?
Normally this is a sign that means you didn’t enter the registration information exactly as received. Please try to cut and paste the information as described above. Rarely this could mean that there is some problem with the registration code you received. If you are convinced that you entered the information correctly please contact support, and specify the exact error message you received, your registration code as you received it and your order information as you received it .
Back to Top
When I try to register I receive the message: "Registration failed! the Palm Username you entered is not valid!" What’s wrong?
The most likely cause for this error message is that you didn't supply the
correct Palm user name when you register. Please contact support and supply
the correct user name, please specify the exact error message you received, your
registration code as you received it and your order information as you received
it .
See also: What information do I need to register?