USB Sync with Jornada 720 Solution

I haven't had a reason to post in a while because all the fine people on HPC Factor have helped get my Jornada working just as I need it to, but I recently fixed some USB connection issues with my Jornada I thought I'd share.

My wireless card broke recently, so I've had to USB connect to sync and ran into connection error 678. It must be pretty common since HP posted a page devoted to it with very lame "solutions" (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bpia2302&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=82118). After connecting once or twice, it would then refuse to connect about 20 times before being able to connect again.

Here's my solution. When you get a connection, go to the windows device manager and look for "Windows CE USB Devices" in the list. This will not show up until the Jornada is connected. Expand the entry and right click on HP USB Driver, Update Driver, Install from List, Next, Don't Search, Next.

There are 3 drivers listed for me: HP USB Sync Version 1.0.1.0 [4/20/2000], 3.7.1.3244 [9/1/2003], 4.0.4232.0 [10/6/2004]

The offending driver seemed to be the 2004 one and I changed it to the 2003 version.

Not exhaustively tested yet, but I've been able to connect and sync about 20 times in a row.

After several tries I Sync'd, but when I go to the device manager the only driver in my list is "HP USB Sync 1620", so I have no other choices. I use ActiveSync 3.8. Any suggestions?

No ideas I'm afraid. I made the assumption that the HP USB sync Drivers were put there by Activesync. Before I got my Jornada and downgraded to 3.8, I think I had been as low as 3.7 and had gone up as far as 4.5 because I also have an Axim X5 Pocket PC. I thought maybe the other drivers were left behind by the other installations and the 2004 version I had listed was causing problems.

All the versions refer to the same file: wceusbsh.sys and some quick research puts that file as part of Windows XP OS. So, I've had SP1, SP2 and now SP3 on my PC, and I have 3 versions of the file. Maybe that is the connection, but I don't treally know. There is a related file wceusbsh.inf. Perhaps someone else on the forum with more OS knowlege could shed some light.

I am not error free like I thought, however. Guess I should have tested it more before posting this "solution". But it IS more reliable than before, taking 2-3 attempts and reseating in the cradle instead of 10-15.

Maybe there's an answer in here somewhere.

Any post that stirs the grey matter is a good one...thanks!

On XP Pro and using a 720 with a 728 memory board, we get only the one driver option... the one you recommend changing from. ActiveSync is version 4.5.
I've recently had to re-install as it just refused to connect altogether and checking on one of the other laptops we found that the Jornada was not at fault. I suspect possibly dirty connections on the cradle though.

However the last time we had this I deleted the accounts in ActiveSync section on "my documents" and it cured it. Not this time though.

There seems to be a dearth of ordinary external I/O for the J72X. I know of only one third party useful implementation for the serial cable... a joystick driver. Pity, it would be useful to me as a controller device for several applications I have in mind.

If anyone knows a way... that otherwise-useless card slot, which must occupy some circuitry real estate as well as the space above the PCMCIA slot, might have been a prime candidate in days gone by.

I've recently solved the pretty general problem of interfacing digital and analogue audio equipment, using either a mini mixing board or a ground loop isolator to eliminate the consequent and frequently terrible line noise from equipment output... which is two thirds of the solution to an audible alarm system based on the Jornada.
The IO still defeats me though... even a PIR... there seems to be no way to get one to connect and start a program on the J720.

QF