!gwes.exe = brick?

I think I just bricked my device
As fare as I can tell i have acidentaly destroyed the HKLC\init\launch30 = "gwes.exe" registry key.

Heres a few details that might help with posible solutions.

I have it set up to look for files in theis order
\sdmmc\Windows
\Resident Flash\Windows
\Windows

So any thing I put on the SD will be loaded instead of the in rom files.

in HKLC\init i have it setup to launch GpsMc.exe explorer.exe device.exe \resident flash\Destinator\Destinator.exe

The closes thing to hard reset i have been able to preformce is to remove the battery but the registry is presistant so that dosn't solve the issue.
The device runs CE 4.2 and is an ARM device

Is the gwes.exe specific to the device or would i be able to put one from CE builder on the sd and load it some how.

Some details about the issue that you might already know:
When the device boots up the splash screen is shown back light is around 75% then after 5 sec back light turns up to 100% and it stayes like that.
It does not show up in Vista so i have no access to the files on it.
this seams preaty logic to me as i read that gwes stand for the graphic and event sub system. It's just a bit sad that theas very importand taskes are in such a vonerable location

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to provide.

Edited by AJenbo 2007-09-29 6:47 PM

i'm sure you can delete the registry somehow. try in boot menu.

I don't see how a hard reset didn't do the trick. The machine shouldn't know to look on the SD card after the RAM is wiped.

Then again, my Netbook stores the user registry on the built-in FLASH; to do a hard reset, I have to reset it once, then reformat the FLASH, then reset again.

I don't think he actually was able to do a hard reset. As he said in the post the closest thing he was able to do that might be a hard reset is removing the battery for awhile. Depending on what device they have, it may not have an apparent hard reset method on the device itself (maybe this is also the case with all of those Windows CE GPS devices?).

this is device dependant. many of them cant even do a suspend/resume, they will hard reset instead
some others have a persistent registry on the other hand..in this case there must be a way to clear the registry. usually in bootloader or with some key combination, etc.
if you have an OS image you can reflash, you can also try erasing the flash in bootloader.
that reminds me, sometimes if there is an option to clear the registry it may also clear part of the OS requiring a reflash. this is implementation dependent..

deusexaethera: if the registry is persistent and the key is there to look for SD, then that's logical.

It does suspend/resume
My problem isn't that i can overwrite rom files if i so chuse (i would just remove the sd and change back the path if that was an issue). it's that it's no longer loading gwes.exe.

I don't know how to go into the bootloader/bootmenu, I tryed a good deal of key comboes when turning the device on and the most interesting was on+zoom in witch resultes in seamingly nothing (still looks like it is off), but you have to turn the battery off and back on befor you can boot again (there no responce from the on key).

Keys on the device, On/Suspend, d-pad, zoom +/-, enter (seams to be regulare keyboard enter), menu and a soft ware reset button. thers also a dipswitch for the battery witch i have to use each time i want to reboot as the reset button only works when windows works.

This is a WinCE gps device.

Yes it has a persistent registry, I don't have a rom image and it dosn't seam one exists, would i be posible to make one from a matching device?

Edited by AJenbo 2007-09-30 12:51 AM

it is possible if the device has the required ioctl API's. let me know if you find someone else with the exact same device

My dad had a few, I have to ask him if he has ny more left, else he might know some one who has some, and if not then i know a couple on the net that has one.
What would be the next stem of confirming this as a solution?

How come it dosn't just magicaly work when i rename a gwes.exe to explorer.exe and put it on my SD card, does it need to have the gwes.exe name to work and can't it be loaded of any thing othere then ROM.

In /hklm/init are also keys called "DependXX". They are needed to run files with the same numbers. Explorer has other Depend, that's why probably it don't work.

kitor is right - explorer must be dependent on gwes as gwes manages the gui and only then can explorer load.

and yes i would think it must be named gwes.exe as well (not confirmed of course). even the relevant apiset has that name (gwes) when stored.

Edited by cmonex 2007-09-30 10:10 PM

Just to be sure, you removed BOTH batteries, yes?

Cmonex : Will WinCE Run console app (without gui elements) without gwes? It's easy to write program which will run GWES and explorer itself. But just only one thing - depend is delay to run next app or what?

I'll look for a part of code to modifity registry, maybe I recreate gwes keys by it

Edited by kitor 2007-10-01 2:28 AM

It only has 1 battery.
I'm afraid you are right about the dependency keys, sadly i don't remember witch it contains.
My dad doesn’t have any more left but he will try to contact some on else who might have some.

A program to modify the registry or simply launch other programs would be fantastic tough I only have access to it via SD atm and it doesn’t do autoload (Why axxion, why! ), I haven’t tried writing a program in ages and would probably not be able to do so for a CE device not to mention one with no monitor feedback would any of you be willing to help me out with that I'm sure it could have other uses later on.

Could the power+zoom in be bootloader mode? It didn’t display anything on screen but other then that it reminds me of how my HTC devices have acted in bootloader mode.

Buy the way this all happened as the result of a bug in TREE (registry editor), I copied the gwes.exe key and renamed it to the same as the gwes.exe ("copy of launch30" -> "launch30" key (hit outside the text box by mistake) and then renamed it to launch90, launch30 was still in the list and pointing to gwes.exe so I thought nothing ill of it and rebooted, in hindsight I should probably have duple checked that the key was actually there .

yes if you write an app without any gui that may work.. not console app! just an app without ANY gui. (easiest to create anyway )