Psion Series 7 FAQ

Common problems encountered with the Series 7 mobile EPOC computer from Psion Digital Solutions PLC
Welcome to the Series 7 pages on oocities.com/epoc_32
Psion Series Seven Frequently Asked Questions
The Psion Series 7, back view, open The Psion Series 7, open

The Psion Series 7 FAQ

Known issues and other problems encountered with the Psion Series 7 (Build 754)
Series 7 FAQ
FAQ sections
Navigation
 
System

Some users find their Series 7 has to be soft reset quite often, sometimes at least once a day yet at other times not for days. It either hangs or suddenly becomes slow. The system screen is drawn very slowly and applications won't start properly. They attempt to run but seem to stop with a blank screen after a few minutes. In the, "Open files" list, OPL applications are listed under their application names rather than, "OPL" so the applications are starting correctly, but it's as if the CPU is running in kHz rather than MHz! Since the only way to cure this is to soft reset, I try to close as many files as I can to save losing data however it can take over a minute for the file to actually close. The file itself is not left corrupt by this however. I can't identify a specific circumstance that causes this, though it happens more often when using the browser. This problem doesn't seem to happen with the later "756" build.

There is a problem with ER5 printing that causes lines of text to be, "Overstruck" several times. On a dot-matrix or daisywheel printer the text will appear bold and on laser printers there will be no visual sign of this happening, however on an inkjet printer several times the required amount of ink will be put onto the paper resulting in pages with very wet ink coming out of the printer. Obviously not only will ink easily smudge or soak through the page meaning it takes longer to dry, but it will deplete the cartridge in a fraction of the time! There are currently no fixes for this although Psion have been made aware of the problem. In the meantime Canon Bubblejet owners can download problem free ER3 and ER5 drivers written by Andrew Johnson from his website.

Occasionally (if not often!), when the password is set to trigger once per day and a full day has passed, you turn the S7 on and it fails to ask for the password. If you turn it off and on again it then locks you out and asks for the password! Sometimes by quickly turning it on, off and on again you can see the System screen the first time and the password screen the second time.

This is a very minor security risk (Think what would happen if it was stolen before the 24 hours anyway?) and a thief would probably turn it on first just to have a look, then turn it on again later to try and get information from it... Still that doesn't stop someone casually having a peek while your back's turned!


Control Panel

Some users have found that when they try to access the Add/Remove application in the Control panel their Series 7/netBook spontaneously soft resets. The cause of this problem is a stray file (often a Word file) that finds it's way into the Add/Remove folder and confuses the app when it reads the contents of the folder and tries to bring up a list of installed programs.

To solve the problem go to *:\System\Install\ and look for any file that does not use the Installer icon (SIS). This file should be deleted or moved to a more appropriate location.


Web

Reloading a page using frames only reloads the page containing the frameset and not the individual pages that make up the frames. This means the only way to properly reload is to empty the cache.

The cache keeps growing no matter what limit you have set. Even when set to 4KB it retains all the files loaded by the browser. Also it isn't deleted when you exit Web, even if you have it set to do so. If you check C:\System\Wtldata\ after closing the browser you will see the file (Cache.wtd) still there though the cache appears to be empty when you next open it... however if you close again without loading anything the cache file appears again! This file can be a few megabytes sometimes, even if the cache size is set to minimum.

If you view a page with frames that has frame borders turned off and scrollbars are turned off, black lines will appear on the screen horizontally and vertically as you scroll using the arrow keys. This happens whether the scroll bars are turned off manually in the browser settings or if the frameset instructs the browser to turn them off. For an example of this, view the Series 5mx website on a Series 7.

Tables are rendered poorly. Cells do not line up properly meaning pages that use tables to align images as part of the design will appear broken and with gaps between images even though the HTML is correct.

Tables render background colour poorly. If a cell has no text content the background colour is ignored. This means that cells used for decoration won't be displayed making the table appear incomplete. Tables used to give a decoration that wraps around the outside of the screen are a good example. For an example see the website. Also the cellpadding area isn't coloured so the background colour stops at the top of the text. If the cell contains text over more than one line it seems that the background colour only affects the outline of the area where text appears. This makes the table look quite strange! See the table in the Series 7 Power FAQ for an example.

Occasionally when using the browser an error message suddenly pops up saying;

Program closed
Program: WTLServerThread
Reason code: USER
Reason number: 44 || 45

OR;

Program closed
Program: WTLServerThread
Reason code: KERN-EXEC
Reason number: 3

Clicking continue then produces another error, always with the URL of an image file;

Cannot open "image.jpg"
Server has closed

Clicking continue now produces yet another error, always with the URL of the webpage I attempted to open;

Cannot open "webpage.html"
Server has closed

The browser will no longer open any file, instead giving the, "Server has closed" message and I have to exit and restart the app. I do not have to disconnect from the ISP though.

Some GIF's always appear with bright pink or turquoise speckles and streaks through them, and the top row and left column of pixels in the image are lighter. Speckling sometimes appears around the outside of an image with a white background especially if the image has drop down shadow. This effect is random, so when repeatedly reloading a GIF that produces them, the speckles/streaks are different each time. This also happens to images that have been saved locally from the Web but this only happens to images that are downloaded using Web. Images that are Emailed or FTP'd to the Series 7 are usually displayed intact.

Some JPG's don't appear or if loaded as individual files will produce a, "Not supported" error. This usually happens if the file has been saved as a "Progressive" JPG which Web 2.0 doesn't support. On desktop browsers progressive JPG's are used to make the image appear instantly, but blurry, then as the rest of the file downloads it gets clearer. On a pre ER5 machine these same files produce a corrupt error.

Uploading files via an on-line form seems to be either partially implemented or not supported by the TCP/IP stack. In Web 1.x this feature was not included at all, however when <INPUT TYPE="file"> is used in a form with Web v2.00 a blank text field appears and you can type a full file path into it. There's no option to browse the folders but it will refuse to submit the form if the file path is invalid. So far I haven't been able to successfully send a file as an attachment, although I did try to send a TXT file and a HTML file which were then included in the main body of the form text when it arrived. The complete text of the files appeared without being truncated (They were over the 1K limit given to URL's). When trying with other types of files they seem to be sent but either never arrive, or occasionally arrive as gibberish text rather than an attachment even if you state MIME types in the form

When using forms in frames the target attribute is ignored meaning a form can only affect the frame it's in rather than the frames you wish to display the results or update- or even clear the frameset. This is also a problem with image maps that can only replace the entire frameset rather than targeting an individual frame.

Borders are always displayed in framesets even when the frameset instructs otherwise. Also at least one border appears that is moveable even if the frameset instructs the browser to use fixed frames.

iFrames are unsupported however when in "Show all frames" mode, the alternate iFrame content is not displayed either.


Email

If you create a new Email using a mailto link from a webpage and then abandon it by pressing Escape or selecting "Cancel" from the file menu, an empty mail is left in the outbox which is then sent the next time another mail is sent. Unless you start the Email app and delete the mail you will send someone a blank message! Also if you do want to send the message you have to start the Email app separately and send it from there rather than sending it from the editor. Clicking on a mailto only opens the editor not the Email app itself, so if you switch to another application while writing the Email you can't return by pressing the Email icon. Bringing up the list of open files is the only way to get back to the editor.

When replying to a mail the default mail account is used instead of the account the mail was sent to. This can lead to people sending you an Email to one address and getting a reply from another which can be confusing.

A very minor point that was overlooked, but in the ER5 Mail app some hotkeys have been reassigned. Instead of Ctrl+X to move a mail from the remote mailbox you now use Ctrl+Shift+I. However if you click on an Email while it's still in the mailbox you are told to use Ctrl+X to move it to a local folder. I don't count these things even as quirks and certainly not bugs, but it would be nice to see the hotkeys as consistent as possible

Another very minor point, but when replying to a mail "Re:" is always added to the subject when you reply even if the mail already has "Re:" in it so mails that get sent back and forth can end up with "Re: Re: Re: Re: subject" etc.


Word

You cannot add words to the personal dictionary when spell checking. This is because the default file that appears when the machine is first booted is for some reason write protected. To fix this, find C:\System\data\User.dic and press Ctrl+P to view the file properties. Then un-tick the write protect box and press enter. You will now be able to add words however the few words that are in the dictionary by default don't seem to be recognised by the spell checker. I don't know why it does this but it's probably best to delete the file and start again. The next time you add a word the file will be automatically created again though it won't be write protected and will be empty. Words like Psion, EPOC, Symbian etc, can be added by the user.

Some Series 5 files (ER1-ER3) are very sluggish when opened on the Series 7. Scrolling is painfully slow and things like paginating can seem to take forever on multi-page documents. Typing new text in these files can be slow too with a delay of up to a second between the keypress and the letter appearing on the screen! It's like trying to work at the bottom of a massive Word file on a S5, though this affects files that are only a few KB on the Series 7.

After a lot of playing around with various files I've discovered a strange quirk about the Series 7 which seems to be related to Word being a WYSIWYG word processor. Physically, the Series 7 screen is 25mm (1 inch) wider than the Series 5, however the resolution is the same (640 pixels). This obviously means that things look slightly larger on a Series 7, but when you open a Series 5 Word file, the S7 tries to render it on the screen to the same physical size in millimetres leaving a 25mm gap to the right! Fonts sizes may be the same according to the Style information, but they appear smaller than the fonts from a native S7 file. Also images are scaled down to the size they appear on a Series 5 screen, though according to the "Format object" menu, they are 100% to scale.

If you open the same file on both machines and offer up the S5 to the Series 7 screen you will see they are nearly identical in size. Even the line breaks appear at the same places and you can't type in the last inch of the S7 screen. This may apply to other applications too. I've noticed some Sheet files designed to fit the full width of a S5 have a 25mm gap when opened on a S7, or show extra columns.

Rectifying this is quite simple. Create an empty Word file on the Series 7 and then go back to the S5 file. Use "Select all" from the Edit menu and copy all contents. Then go to the empty S7 file and paste into there. All the text formatting should be kept and the file will now appear full size along with any embedded objects. This new file will now work normally without any delays in scrolling, typing or paginating, though the file size may be a little bigger.

If you embed an image and scale it to anything other than factors of 100%, the image will be reduced by 0.1% every time you re-save the file. So an image embedded at 50% and saved will reopen at 49.9%. Saving the file again will mean it opens at 49.8% and so on. This applies to both width and height values and has happened on all EPOC devices since the original Series 5.


Record

Alarms don't loop very smoothly compared to the Series 5.

Sounds stop playing with a click. This doesn't go if you crop the end of the file and makes apps that make use of sound (nICQ, games, etc) seem clunky!

If you open a Record file there are eight volume levels, however if you open a second file while another sound is playing, the second file has only 4 levels! The same thing happens with John Forrest's Soundstran program so it must be a system thing rather than a quirk in the program. Probably another throwback to the Series 5 (See FAQ about using the Notify button with the Record app).


Jotter

The "last updated" date actually displays the current date rather than the date the file was last updated. If you open a Jotter file then change the date using the Time application or the Control Panel, you'll see the date in the jotter file changed accordingly. This is despite the date in the file properties in the system screen staying the same.


World

Area codes for Spanish cities are omitted with only the country code of 34 being given.
(Note that certain other EPOC devices incorrectly list Spain's international dialling code as 99.)


Hardware

Shortly after getting the S7 I lost everything on the internal disk by simply removing the main battery for a few seconds. Since then some other users have had the same or similar problems even though the backup battery was in place and wasn't flat, in fact some users have had this happen without even remofing the battery so why does the S7's internal disk get wiped?

Well, the problem lies with a micro-switch located in the battery lock mechanism. When you slide the catch out to remove the battery this switch is supposed to turn the machine off so you don't lose your data (In case you pull the battery out before it's already off), leaving the backup battery to keep the RAM fresh. However sometimes this switch strangely turns the backlight on!

I have no idea why this happens but the result is that after you pull the catch away from it's locked position, the backlight comes on giving you an illuminated though still black screen. As you slide the battery out the sudden cut in power means that the RAM is lost. Obviously the machine's getting confused and powering up the backlight but not the system. I assume that then, without the system running (Or with the system thinking it's already off) there's noting making the machine instantly power down when main power is cut. The sudden power surge caused by the backlight is too much for the 3V backup battery and the machine just dies. When you put the main battery back in and turn on you hear the distinctive single beep that means it's cold booting and within seconds you're presented with the welcome screen and demo-files you get after a hard reset.

Anyway, this should be remembered if you remove the battery (Maybe you'll carry a spare when travelling?). Slide the catch back and look at the screen. If it appears to power up but stay black use one hand to keep the catch open and use the other hand to turn the machine off again. Then slide the battery out and your data should be safe. Luckily I hadn't put too many important files on the S7 because I was waiting for a RAM upgrade, but if it happened to a corporate netBook user they could be in serious trouble. Not only would they lose their work, which on the road could be disastrous, but the entire OS and apps too!

Another thing that adds to the problem is that one of the rubber feet the Series 7/netBook stands on is located on the underneath of the battery catch. By simply sliding the machine on a table or even carrying it loosely in a bag, some users have found this is enough to pull the catch open and cause a reset!


Some Series 7 users are finding that the touchscreen occasionally fails or accuracy drifts and it cannot be calibrated via the control panel. The only way to get the touchscreen working properly again is to perform a soft reset using the reset hole in the backup battery compartment. Sometimes this problem can reoccur within minutes of fixing, at other times it can take weeks for it to reappear. Many users don't encounter this problem at all.

The cause of this problem lies in the O/S and is not a hardware fault. For netBook users fixing it has been a simple matter of downloading and installing the latest O/S image, obviously for Series 7 users it isn't this simple. Presently there are no released software patches or ROM updates, and until this changes the Series 7 users affected by this problem will have to put up with it. - UPDATE: The later 756 build from early 2000 rectified this problem


A small number of users have found that Compact Flash cards sometimes fail to be recognised, with "Disk not present" being displayed when trying to view the D drive. Also, when the card is recognised it sometimes disappears from view when being read/written to, possibly resulting in the the entire card becoming corrupt. This seems to be caused by problems in the CF draw where the plastic stops that position the card while inside the machine don't push it firmly onto the contacts on the motherboard. There is around 6mm (¼") of play when a Type I CF card is placed in the tray which is normal as it allows for Type II devices to be inserted, and for easy access to the card. However it would seem that some machines have too much play in the draw resulting in the card not being properly secured. It may only be a very fine difference, but it's enough to cause problems. Without replacing the machine, the only way to get around the problem is to insert a small piece of card (maybe from a cigarette packet) behind the card as you close the draw. Users should be careful that the card doesn't come loose inside the machine, or that something too thick is used which could result in damage to the machine.


Many users find problems when using non-Psion Dacom (Renamed Psion Connect) card modems. The cards either work only at low BAUD rates or are simply not recognised by the Series 7. The most common reason for this is that the cards are "Winmodems" which are cards that rely on parts of the Windows OS to work. These are cheaper to produce but slow down the PC which has to do the extra work of the modem. Obviously, if you're not running Windows then they're not going to work. Another common reason is that the card is trying to draw more current than the S7 can supply so you either end up with a slow unreliable connection, or the card will appear dead. The makers of XTM, the PC emulator for EPOC, once suggested there may also be problems with the PCMCIA port of the Series 7/netBook as they were unable to get their software to access it.


Another common problem is with V90 (56K) PC-card modems which won't work at full speed- even Psion's own Gold cards. This problem is down to the high current drawn by the cards which the Series 7 is unable to supply and only occurs when the card is set to V90. It can be overcome by using V34 (33.6K) or lower. For a Dacom card;

From the Series 7 Control Panel, go into Modem settings and set the Data Init string to "AT+MS=11". This forces a V34 (33.6Kbps) connection on a V90 card and, at least on the Dacom cards, should help. Other cards may draw more current than Gold cards and you may have to go below 33.6Kbps. Obviously this problem in no way affects modems connected to the Serial port or via IrDA (Including mobile phones) unless there's a problem with that modem...


It isn't strictly a Series 7 problem, but the IrDA Psion Travel Modem would seem like a perfect companion for many users. Unfortunately many users, on both the S7 and other EPOC devices, seem to have nothing but problems with this product and have either returned the modem or only manage to browse a few pages before it locks up. No doubt Psion have many happy users out there but I personally wouldn't go anywhere near one. If you want a cheap, reliable travel modem, try looking for a second hand original Psion Travel Modem for the Series 3c. This only connects to a land-line, runs on two AA batteries, goes at 14.4K but connects to the S7 serial port and gives you a rock solid connection!

Psion Series 7 FAQ

Remember, not everything listed on this page is a "bug". Many of the entries are just quirks that appear in the S7/netBook port of ER5 and present no major problem for normal operation. The ROM board of the Series 7 actually contains Flash chips meaning it's possible for Psion to release an update that overwrites the internal ROM however I believe they have made it more than clear that this will never happen. They even refuse to accept that the machine doesn't have real ROM chips despite an upgrade for old ROM's being freely available from their servers, and unofficial comments saying the S7 shares both ROM and Flash memory for it's 'ROM'. An ER6 upgrade isn't going to happen and your best chance for colour printing (from your colour Psion) is to look for third party solutions.

Top

February 2000

Copyright notice

All material Copyright © 1999-2001.
Reproduction of content by any means prohibited.
Design Copyright © 2001 All rights reserved.

CSS2 validated HTML 4.01 validated

Symbian homepage


Download Opera link