Corrupt Datebook

Unfortunately it seems a fairly common occurrence for users datebook to become corrupt.  This seems to be a problem with the Palm Desktop software or with HotSync and not DeskAlarm an assumption borne out by the fact that we have seen a number of cases of this problem on computers with out DeskAlarm installed on them.   As far as we can determine from information we have received from Palm support this seems to be caused by some incompatibility between DLL's installed by Palm Desktop and the same DLL's installed by other programs.  But then again it could be something completely different.

There are a few possible consequences to a corrupt datebook:

• Palm Desktop may crash when you try to purge old records.
• HotSync may crash while trying to sync the datebook preventing proper synchronization and backup.
• Rarely DeskAlarm could crash.
• There could also be no visible consequences for a while until the problem becomes more severe causing one to the above.

As of Version 2.6 DeskAlarm can detect some corrupt datebooks when this happens it will display an error message and provide and option to display each corrupted record.

Since this is not caused by DeskAlarm we are unable to provide a full solution for this but here are a few ideas:

• You can try using the datebook repair tool created by Tobias Oetiker http://oetiker.ch/dtbrc.cgi. It may solve your corruption problem.
• Palm sometimes tells people to download the latest windows update from the Microsoft site. This will probably not fix your datebook but may prevent the problem from occurring again. You can find the update on the Microsoft Website.
• Palm support has also told some users to reinstall Palm Desktop.  You can obtain the latest version from the Palm website. As above this will probably not fix your datebook but may prevent the problem from occurring again.
• To actually fix your datebook you can search for the records that DeskAlarm detects are corrupt and delete them manually one by one.
• A quick and dirty fix is to close Palm Desktop and delete your datebook.dat file. When you next open Palm Desktop it will create a new empty one that should be correct but you will need to reenter your datebook data.
• You may also want to try dbscan a free program by the makers of Datebk4 that scans your datebook for errors you can get this from:
  PalmGear H.Q.
  or
  http://www.gorilla-haven.org/pimlico/datebk3.htm (Look at the bottom of the page)
• See also: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/3216/faq_pg7.htm 

In any case its probably a good idea to complain to Palm support.  If enough users  complain they may actually fix the problem once and for all.  Please let them know that the problem was detected by DeskAlarm this may lead them to corporate with us in solving the problem.   

We will keep this page up to date with any new information we receive.  If you have any information that you believe could help others please let us know and we will post it here.