MP790 mystery alarm function???

I recently got a NEC 790, and it is displaying some very strange behavior early in the morning. It appears to have an alarm function that is set and I can't for the life of me of figure out where the control is or how to disable it. It survives a hard reset too.

Anyway, the symptoms are as follows:

at 7 AM it says *beep* *beep* beep* "It's 6 AM." *beep* *beep* *beep* [...]

Nothing appears on the screen while it is doing it's thing. Resetting the clock to 6:59 AM and waiting a minute won't make it re-occur later in the day.

What's going on here... why is my MobilePro possessed? How do I make it stop?

What? It's TALKING to you?

Try searching for ALL .WAV files on the MP and see if you can find any sound files that may contain the words - or just try playing them all to find the culprit.

Not nearly so simple. dir /S *.wav done from / reveals no .wav files at all.

I'm figuring that since this is able to survive a hard reset, it must be hidden, and on the internal flash rom.

Where in the registry would I look for processes that access the system clock?

Edited by cdh 2005-05-15 5:50 PM

Doesn't matter if it is stored in ROM you should still be able to find it. Make sure you select to show all files (including system files) when searching/browsing for sound files

I can't believe that this sound would be in ROM. No such thing exists on my MP790 and I've never heard of anybody else with that alarm.

Where did you get the MP790?

cdh meant the flash rom...

Verify that you performed a hard reset. That you took out the main battery and then pushed the little square button which resides behind the battery with the tip of the stylus, which in turn required that you recalibrate your screen when it restarted.

This is a new one on me.

Rich

Edited by Rich Hawley 2005-05-15 7:32 PM

Definitely did the hard reset just as described. So it is still a mystery... which means that I'm going to return it to the folks who sold it to me and get a replacement.

If this thing is an unknown to everybody here, then I don't want to get stuck with it.

I would have a little more patience with us, someone (not me) may know how to fix your problem, and they just haven’t been on this weekend. Just give it another day or so. If you don’t mind me asking, where did you buy it? How much was it?

Got it at Eagle computer online... cost about $250. Bought the extended warranty along with it, so somebody on that end of things should be able to fix it, I hope.

O.k., someone has to figure this one out. Wait for C:amie to reply (sorry C:amie, did not mean to challenge you personally.) He may know. It is good that you have a warranty though. Just wait. I am still trying to figure it out. If that is the only problem there is no reason to return it just yet.

As I said in an earlier post, no matter where the offending alarm is stored on the device you should be able to find it (best to search on the device itself and not using a desktop). If it's on the Internal Flash ROM you should be able to open that folder in explorer and see the file.

As Yoldering said, be patient and there will be a solution to your problem. Just because nobody else has experienced the exact same problem that doesn't mean that there is no solution. By being patient and following the suggestions in the posts here you may also be helping others who may later come along with similar problems.

Does the MP790 turn itself on, or at least have a light on, when you hear the alarm?

I cannot believe it is the HPC that is doing this. Could the sound be coming from another source?

Good point Takwu...or rather good question.

Are you sure it is coming from the Mobilepro? Even if there were software stored in the internal rom, it wouldn't do anything after a hard reset of the device. In order for the alarm function to be running, there would have to be some memory resident program active and running as well.

After a hard reset, nothing runs except for the clock, and the default clock on the MP has no active alarms set.

If it is coming from the MP, then I wonder if some additional hardware device was added to the MP internally.

Move the MP to the other side of the bed and make sure the sound is coming from it..you just have to wake up early tomorrow to check....and turn on the MP so you can watch the clock and see if the alarm is synced to it...see if the alarm comes on the exact second the clock turns over to 6 am.

Rich

Edited by Rich Hawley 2005-05-16 7:00 AM

Okey Dokey...

First thing I can think of until you come back is check the Alarms tab on World Clock and that none of them are active. Especially wake-up alarms.

and for the generic's...
...are you sure that you have set the correct time zone in the regional settings on the device. If it is wrong then the CE task scheduler refresh will occur at the wrong time of day.

Second have you ActiveSync'd the device at all yet?. If not clear out any OEM entries from the Calendar / Tasks and Contacts. Then sync the device and perform an overwrite of anything on the device.
That should reset the PIM database - or near as possible without scrubbing it.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice all-- the MP is cleared of all charges. It was not the culprit.

A watch-like gadget that arrived at the same time, and was sitting on the same table was the noisemaker. Quite a new world where a digital watch can do the talking.