64 Bit Windows7/8/8.1/10 USB drivers for Palm Desktop

[PalmT3]

Hello, I am new here, so if I am at the wrong spot, please correct me!

I have a Palm Tungsten T3 (also with 15 years data...), Palm Desktop 6.2, Hot Sync manager 7 and Windows 8.64.

On startup of the PC I get a message: "HotSync Manager serial connection failed to initiate (The selected port, Com 4, is not available at this time. HotSync manager will open this port when it becomes available)"

I downloaded and installed the Aceeca driver.

Installed Bluetooth and there is communication between the PC and the Palm.

When Hotsyncing, there comes a message on the Palm: "unable to initiate HotSync operation because the port is in use by another application.".

But, after hotsync, the files Address, Datebook, Memopad and ToDo of the Palm have been sent to the PC, and can be seen in "Documents-PalmOSDesktop-A", with file extensions ".mdb".

Nothing shows in the Desktop, however.....

I have been struggling with this already for almost a week, have tried all your good advice, but to no avail.

Would be very happy for the magic hint!

Best Regards.

[gabbawabba]

Hey,

i got exactly the same setup...T3, Palm Desktop 6.2 and Win8 x64

Know what you are going through, had been fighting with this for a week too...was about to jump off a bridge 🙂

The Acceca Driver is the bomb, this little puppy made it all possible...you have to have your Device Manager to be open when you connect the USB Craddle the first time so you catch the "Unknown Device" quick bevore it disappears and then right Mouseclick "Update Driver" and then install the Acceca x64 driver...the Sync should start right away when the driver is finished installing and after sync you should see everything on your Desktop.

I don't know if you will get it working with Bluetooth...i got the latest Sony S13 with native Win8...was no way to get the Bluetooth Sync working...

With me it would work only with Palm USB Craddle Sync!

Try following:

In Hot Sync Manager go to "Connections" and uncheck everything but USB!

If Serial Port is checked you get this Error Message  "unable to initiate HotSync operation because the port is in use by another application." ...serial has to be unchecked!

Make shure that under "Applications" in Hotsync Manager all Applications are checked

Then connect your Craddle by USB, install Acceca driver...you should get a flawless Sync...

Just in case you working with Outlook there is a dynamite Windows app to get all your Data from Palm Desktop into Outlook...it's www.companionlink.com ... Palm Device is listed under compatible platforms as "HP web OS"...works excellent with Palm Desktop 6.2 and Outlook 2010 or earlier.

Make shure you backup you Outlook PST file and the Palm Desktop user Data before you sync with companionlink...just in case you choose the wrong presets in companionlink  😉

[PalmT3]

Hello Gabbawabba,

Thank you so much for your advice. You made my day (week)! Works like a charm.

On other sites they said that USB did not work for Palm anymore and that BT was the way to go. Well, now I finally have this cute little BT stick, maybe can use it for something else....

The procedure to load Outlook with my Palmdata will have to wait a little bit. First I have to catch up with family life; they have been missing me for so many days.

When I have tried the Outlook thing I will come back to you with the results.

For now many thanks from a happy PalmT3.

[gabbawabba]

Glad that helped...my brother, i know what you went through!

My wife was considering a divorce when i went through this last month...LOL 

When i finally figured it out i ran through my house screaming in extasy for 10 minutes, it's a wonder the neighbours didn't call the police...

Happy Family Reunion 🙂

[bw61374]

Good Day WyreNut:

I have been directed to your post, here, as a possible solution to my challenge. My LifeDrive will not "HOTSYNC" on my new WINDOWS 8 computer. It never did anything but work flawlessly with my old WINDOWS XP machine (it crashed and died). In reading this post it is directed at VISTA and WINDOWS 7, nothing about WINDOWS 8. To when you visit the Aceeca website there is caution directed to "use it but at your own risk." To an older person, as me, that causes me to be anxious. Please offer any suggestion. As I mentioned, when I got this new computer, I loaded the LifeDrive program and it would not "hotsync," too there was a popup window that menitoned something about not being able to download something or connect to the Internet. After several tries, I took the machine over to the local computer class and asked to be helped in UNINSTALLING the LifeDrive program. And that is where I am at, at this pointt in time.

Thank you for you post and I look forward to any direction and advise.

Bruce

[WyreNut]

Bruce, the third post of the thread is from someone who has successfully used the drivers with Win 8!  Others in the thread report success also.  Sometimes it's best to read an entire thread to gain more knowledge before asking for help.

I believe the "LifeDrive program" will not work on newer OS's.  

My suggestion is to follow the directions, and install the driver.  It's 100% sure HotSync will not work without them on any 64bit system!

Since you've made an attempt at installing a program not supported by Win8, I'd suggest trying a "clean uninstall" and starting over again.

These instructions are not Win8 specific.  Since I don't own a Win8 computer, I can't offer first-hand advice... 😞

These instructions are for Vista but should work for Win7.

You should first make a copy of your data to have just in case something happens. You can find your data files by going to Start --> Documents --> Palm OS Desktop. Highlight your Palm Desktop username and right click and copy. Then go to your PC desktop right click on a blank spot and select paste.

If this is the first time you are installing Palm desktop and encountering a problem, skip the previous step. If you are not concerned about your data at this point, skip the next step.

Now you want to uninstall Palm Desktop and remove everything that has to do with Palm Desktop from your computer. Go to the following locations on the PC and delete the folders listed below. C:\Program Files\Palm or Palm One C:\Users\[Vista Login Name]\appdata\local\virtualstore\Program Files\Palm or PalmOne C:\Users\[Vista Login Name]\appdata *Note you may need to view hidden folders to get to appdata. To do that go into your control panel and open folder options. Go to view tab and uncheck hide hidden files.

When using Palm desktop 6.2, look in my documents or documents and delete the PalmOS desktop folder. This is the location of the PD 6.2 data files.

Once this is done you will need to delete some registry keys from your PC Operating System.

Word of warning, going here and deleting the wrong thing can cause your PC from starting up, crashing and deletion of programs and data. If you feel you are unsure of yourself, see if you have a friend that can help you or a PC technician that you can pay to help you. This procedure will show them everything they need to delete. To make sure we have a good copy of the current registry, we need to do a backup of the Registry.

Go to start on the PC, in the search field type "regedit.exe" without quotes.

Highlight COMPUTER, go to File --> Export. Should pop up with a Save As box. Current location is fine, should be in My Documents or save to a location you will remember. In the file name on the bottom type "backup[todaysdate]" i.e. backup07072008. Next, the hard part.

The easiest way to make sure your working with the correct key, highlight the key i.e. palm quick install, and press delete on your keyboard. It will ask you, are you sure. Say yes. Do the same thing for all keys below.

If you make a mistake, stop what you are doing. And call a PC technician. BUT do not turn off your computer.

The reg keys are as follows (Note: some of theses reg keys will not be here but if they are delete them)

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\U.S. Robotics\Palm Quick Install * HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\U.S. Robotics\PalmOne File Transfer * HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\U.S. Robotics\Pilot Desktop * HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Palm * HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Palm, Inc. * HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PalmDesktopAutorun * HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\palmOne * HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PalmSource * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\PalmSource or anything else that says palm

Next reboot your computer.

Then reinstall your Palm desktop from the CD and do a hotsync. If it asks you for a username, enter the name that is on your device in the upper right corner of the hotsync screen.

WyreNut

[bw61374]

Whew, WyreNut that is a lot to digest. Scary too. The 3rd post you refrence, is that the one from patticlark? Your constructive direction regarding reading the entire thread did not go unheard. You mention to do an UNINSTALL, I think I did that. Then you suggest "starting over," does that mean to reinstall the LifeDrive disc and then do the Aceeca thing? Or leave out the LifeDrive attempt at install and go to the Aceeca pdf instruction and go from there?

Also, regarding any data. When my old compter died it took with it my data. I have not been able to locate anyone that can retreive any data from that machine. All the data that is in this LifeDrive is sitting right inside of the unit. Speaking of that, do you happen to know of a unit I could consider upgrading to once I get the data out of this one? This LifeDrive and that computer have a lot of my life in them. So it is important to me to try what ever I can to recover, at least this data. Since there Palm is no longer around I should try and look for something to upgrade to, eh?

When the LifeDrive program was on this machine, I think I remember seeing that it was version 4.1.something. In your reply you mention a version 6.2.But when I click different screens on the LifeDrive I come up with one screen that has INFO; Palm OS Garnet v.5.4.8. And another that has APPLICATIONS v.4.5.2P. Are we on the same page?

By the way, I thank you very much for being so patient with me. Being 72 y/o and scared of computers isn't helping me. You and your knowledge are, for that I am very appreciative. I contacted the Activity Center, they have computer classes there. The instructor isn't up on WINDOWS 8 but has invited me up to go through everything that you have offered.

Bruce

[bw61374]

Good Day WyreNut:

I was able to HotSync the LifeDrive with this new computer. Phew! I love it when your instructions say to "unpack them." Me, I double clicked the file and thought that was "unpacked." Then when I kept reading through the thread, as you told me. I found a remark that mentioned that another file would appear. That hadn't happened to me. Until I right clicked the file and found EXTRACT ALL! Then things started to go according to instructions. Dummy me, I didn't know what "unpack meant." And a lot of other lil things that finally fell into place.

Hey, again, thank you so very much. And thank you everyone for being patient with me. I was just very anxious, very scared, and basically didn't know with to do. Thank you all. It seems like I have been at this challenge for ever. Phew! Anyone have any good suggestions to replace this LifeDrive with? There are not any places that service them any more. No parts to replace anything with. My screen is old. And I don't ever care to go through this again. So, I guess I need something current. I sure liked and will miss the Palm unit. Expecially the contact part. God, you could put anything and everything in a contact listing.

Be well,

Bruce

Brookings, OR

[WyreNut]

Glad things worked out well Bruce!

Next time I'm using a computer, I'll edit the original post from unpack to "Extract".   It was a slang term used years ago with .zip (compressed) files.

WyreNut

[bw61374]

You're an amazing person, very knowledgeable. I was very fortunate to have crossed your path. Like I said, you were helping me, I don't know diddly about computers - let alone a slang word. To me, when I saw EXTRACT ALL, I said, "let's  try it!" Badda Bang, Badda Bing things started happening. I'm sure the average person that knows computers will understand "unpack." There is nothing you need to address. The most amazing and wonderful fact is your are here and so willing to share your knowledge and help.

Be well,

Bruce

Brookings, OR