If you have a Palm and use it regulally, maybe you could give me a clue to a technical problem...if you are good at that kind of thing.

I've owned a number over the years. What is your issue?

Well, the problem is with the sync feature. when I press the sync button, nothing happens, ZILCH.

The after a couple minutes the screen says "unable to establish a connection with your desktop."

It's so dead, it doesn't even make the "sound" when you push the button. Even the sync icon does not appear on my screen.

So I checked the connections and made sure I had good connections and such. I cleaned all the contacts.

Still nothing.

So I wondered if the problem is in my PC..easy way to find out; we uploaded the disc on my sons new laptop, and he got the same results. Dead.

So we put it back on my PC, and un-installed the disc, then re-installed it. Same thing.

That logically left only one thing: the cradle.

Solution? I go to Ebay and find a brand new cradle, and two weeks later (today)I have a new cradle..I set it up, plugged it in and ...you guessed it. Dead as a doornail.

I don't know what else it could be. I'm stumped.

Any ideas?

Need to know:

Your computer general info, and the exact operating system you are running.

Exact brand/model palm unit you have.

Need to know what the software installation disk says.

I guess the problem got solved? It could be a few things.

I use my PALM all the time. Not for magic though.

Actually, that would not be correct. It would leave TWO things...the cradle or the palm pilot itself.

Did you clean the connections with alcohol and a qtip?
Did you check the connections on the palm pilot itself?
Are any of the pins bent or look funny?

Lastly, have you actually tried another palm pilot or tried to sync with a friend's setup that you know works?

For all intents and purposes, you've done all the logical troubleshooting steps except for the pilot itself. It could be that there is an interface chip inside that has gone byebye. It's not an uncommon occurrence, unfortunately.

Also, is the Pilot still under warranty? If yes, get it repaired if at all possible. If not, well...you're just going to have to break down and spend the cash to either get it fixed or replaced. Sorry about that.

Usually its because of the connection cable. Make sure it is really tight and secured. Should be alright after

I've basically done all those things..even the resets...still doesn't sync. I
m still using it though...my life is in that thing.

I used to have a thousand post it notes everywhere...but that's history.

Did you try the "Trouble Shooting" menu? It could be the computer port, if you have a second connection option try that. Like Chessman said, make sure you are using the correct software. When I used PP's it always gave me a fault message; even when it synced with the software I was running, it couldn't link with what I didn't deselect in preferences.

I did the trouble shooting menu (the thing might as well be written in Greek!)...that's where I learned about soft and hard reset. I tried cleaning the port..I even purchased a brand new cradle on ebay..still same problem.

then I tried connecting to my sons PC..same thing.

I don't know what Palm you have but since you can't do a sync it would be a good idea to do a backup to an SD card.

The problem is that I have an SD card, but it will not allow a back up of the memo section, which is the MAIN information part of the pilot that I rely on most heavily.

You can back up games and such on the card, but it doesn't allow memo back up. That sucks.

What were they thinking?