[USEMAP] Navigation Tool HP 200LX Frequently Asked Questions Quick Scroll to HP 200LX Product FAQs HP 200LX Third Party Products and Accessories FAQs Knowledge Base If the FAQ still below does not answer your questions, you can access the knowledge base our technical support uses to answer online questions! HP 200LX Product FAQs Click on a question to view its answer. Q1 How do I increase the speed of the Appointment Book? Q2 What do I do with the to-do items I need to track? Q3 How do I reduce the size of the Appointment Book? Q4 How do I know if my Appointment Book file is corrupted? Q5 What causes these files to be corrupted? Q6 How do I recover my data from a corrupt Appointment Book file? Q7 How can I be sure that my Appointment Book file is really fixed? Q8 How can I check the amount of space available on the RAM Disk? Q9 How can I recover my data from a corrupt Phone Book file? Q10 How can I customize the columns displayed in the Phone Book? Q11 How can I get rid of the DataCard displayed in the list view of my Phone Book? Q12 How can I add new fields and delete unused fields from the Phone Book? Q13 How can I select a group of records in my phone book or database to display and report? Q14 What are the limits of the Phone Book? Q15 Where are the games and how do I run them? If your question is not found here, please refer to the Support Center in your region. HP 200LX Third Party Products and Accessories FAQs Click on a question to view its answer. Q1 Who provides technical support for third-party solutions running on the HP 200LX Palmtop PC? Q2 What are the parameters of third-party software that works on the HP 200LX? Q3 What are the email solutions available for the HP 200LX? Q4 What are the connectivity solutions available for the HP 200LX? Q5 How do I connect the HP 200LX to my printer? Q6 What modems work with the HP 200LX? Q7 Are there any modems that also have flash memory on board? Q8 What kind of flash cards can be used? Q9 How do I install the HP flash card so I can use it? Q10 What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Stacker on the flash card? Q11 What might cause the system be unable to access drive A:? If your question is not found here, please refer to the Support Center in your region. Q1: How do I increase the speed of the Appointment Book? A: Two ways exist to increase the speed of the Appointment Book. The easiest and most effective method is to reduce the size of the Appointment Book file. See the following section for specifics on the process of removing old items from the current Appointment Book file. A second method is to reduce the number of to-do items that have the "Carry-Forward" box checked. The system reads through this list of items frequently and the more items on the list, the longer it takes. The use of to-do items is described in the manual on pages 3-16 through 3-18. Change the to-do item default settings to leave the "Carry-Forward" option blank. This will avoid adding new items with the "Carry-Forward" option checked unnecessarily. To change the defaults, press [Menu] ToDo Defaults. This displays the settings dialog box. Press the spacebar to uncheck the "Carry-Forward" box. Finish by pressing [F10] OK. This procedure is described in the User's Guide on pages 3-21 and 3-22. Article ID: TECH20001 Back to Top Q2: What do I do with the to-do items I need to track? A: Some to-do items may not be naturally grouped with any larger project. These may be best managed by a review each day and carried over until completed. Input them in the usual way for to-do items. The impact of a small number of to-do items is negligible. However, for projects with lots of to-do items that are related, an alternative is described in the following procedure: Input all the to-do items for a project on a single day in the future. Use the priority code to group the items into appropriate sequence. Using the first few days of the next year makes the to-dos easy to find. For example, use January 1 for Home Remodel projects, January 2 for Marketing projects, and so forth. The primary objective is to avoid checking the "Carry-Forward" option. With this arrangement, these to-do items will only appear on the specific date on which they are input. This is a benefit when managing a project that spans several months. As the items are completed and checked off, they stay with the rest of the project items and are not spread across all the days of the project life. When you review the project, all the to-do items are found in one place. Because the to-do items are grouped on dates other than the current day, a quick way to access to them is needed. A short macro will do the job: "{Appt}{Esc}{Esc}{F5}1/1/98{Enter}{F10}". For instructions on creating a macro, see the User's Guide on pages 23-1 through 23-5. Article ID: TECH20002 Back to Top Q3: How do I reduce the size of the Appointment Book? A: One function in the Appointment Book will remove all appointments, events, and to-do items done before or after a specified date. This procedure is documented in the User's Guide on page 3-14. It is a wise precaution to make a backup of the whole file before making wholesale changes to your data. If you make a mistake, you might remove data you intended to keep. If you want, you can save the removed items in an archive file. The archive is useful if you need to occasionally review your schedule from prior periods. An example using this function to remove all 1996 transactions and save them in an archive file named APPT96.ADB follows: Start the Appointment Book application. Press [Menu] File Remove. The "Remove Items" dialog box will appear. Use the arrow key to select the "Before" option, then press [Tab] to position the cursor in the date field. Type in the cutoff date for the removal process. In this example, type in 1/1/97. Next press [Tab] to move to the check box labeled "Save Removed Items in Archive." Press the space bar to check the box. Press [Tab] to move to the field labeled "Archive to" and type in the new file name to which the specified items will be moved. For our example, type APPT96.ADB. (Caution, do not use an existing file name or its contents will be overwritten.) Press [F10] OK to start the process running. This could take a few minutes to complete depending on the size of your Appointment Book file. Article ID: TECH20003 Back to Top Q4: How do I know if my Appointment Book file is corrupted? A: The most common symptoms are error messages that say "Record not found," "File not found," or "File does not exist." These are messages from program modules having trouble reading the data from the file. Other symptoms are finding an appointment record that cannot be deleted or finding an appointment record that contains strange looking characters. If you have any of these symptoms, follow the procedure for recovering data as soon as possible. Data corruption is easier to fix when it first starts and the problems can get worse if ignored. Article ID: TECH20004 Back to Top Q5: What causes these files to be corrupted? A: Files can be corrupted in several ways. The most common way to corrupt data is interrupting a write to the file. One way to interrupt a write to the file is to lose power during the write process which could be caused by pulling out the main batteries or allowing the batteries to drop below the required operating voltage during the write process. Another potential cause would be an electrostatic discharge through the keyboard or PC-Card port or rebooting the system while it is writing to the file. Article ID: TECH20005 Back to Top Q6: How do I recover my data from a corrupt Appointment Book file? A: The best choice is to replace the corrupt file with a current backup copy. However, if you have no backup or it is also corrupted, there is another solution. A program called Garlic will read through your Appointment Book file and remove the corrupted sections. Follow the instructions that come with the program to cleanup your Appointment Book file. While this program is often successful, a good backup is the best solution. Article ID: TECH20006 Back to Top Q7: How can I be sure that my Appointment Book file is really fixed? A: After you are finished with Garlic, your file should be fine. As an extra precaution, merge the Appointment Book records from the file cleaned up by Garlic into a completely new Appointment Book file. The point of this exercise is that only the data records will be copied. The potential problems with corrupted database indexes will be left behind in the old file. Here is the procedure for creating a new file and merging old records into it: First, check that you have enough disk space to hold a new Appointment Book file: Start the Filer application. Enter the directory list that contains your current Appointment Book file. Typically the file name will end in "abk" and will reside in the _DAT directory. The third column shows the size of each file. At the bottom of the screen in the right-hand corner is displayed the amount of space left on the drive. If the amount of space left is not enough to hold another copy of the Appointment Book file, you may want to remove some unnecessary data files from the drive. Once you have enough space for the file you are ready to create a new Appointment Book file. Start the Appointment Book application. Press [Menu] File New and type in a file name for a new Appointment Book file. Do NOT use an existing file name or it will be overwritten. After creating a new empty Appointment Book file, load it with the data from the file cleaned up by Garlic. Press [Menu] File Merge. Type in the path and name of the source file. The source file contains the data you want to recover. After the source file name is typed in, press [F10] OK. The Appointment Book records will be copied from the old file and merged into the new Appointment Book file. It may take several minutes for a large file to be created. Article ID: TECH20007 Back to Top Q8: How can I check the amount of space available on the RAM Disk? A: To do this, start the Filer application. The top left-hand corner of the screen shows the current drive and path. (If the screen is split down the middle with a vertical line, both sides will show a drive and path. Use the arrow keys to move the scroll bar to the side you want to measure.) The bottom right-hand corner will display the amount of space remaining on the current drive. (The current drive is the side with the scroll bar.) Drive C: is the internal RAM Disk. Drive A: is the PC-Card Flash Disk. The Filer application is documented in the User's Guide on pages 22-1 through 22-16. Article ID: TECH20008 Back to Top Q9: How can I recover my data from a corrupt Phone Book file? A: Please refer to the previous explanation regarding corrupted Appointment Book files. The same process applies to Phone Book files as well as Database and Note Taker files. Article ID: TECH20009 Back to Top Q10: How can I customize the columns displayed in the Phone Book? A: To modify the columns displayed, press [F8] Columns. The display changes and the function key labels are modified. With these function keys you can modify the width, move the position, and add or delete the columns from the display. Use the arrow key to highlight the column to be modified, then press the appropriate function keys to make changes. To move the column to the right or left, press [F7] or [F8]. To change its width, press [F5] or [F6]. To delete the highlighted column, press [F3]. This removes the column from the display, but there is no effect on the data itself. To add another column, press [F2]. When you have the columns arranged as you like, press [F10] Done. Article ID: TECH20010 Back to Top Q11: How can I get rid of the DataCard displayed in the list view of my Phone Book? A: By default the Phone Book displays a DataCard that shows some of the information from the currently highlighted phone record. To remove the DataCard and display only the columns of information, press Ctrl-D. To bring the DataCard back to the display, press Ctrl-D again. Article ID: TECH20011 Back to Top Q12: How can I add new fields and delete unused fields from the Phone Book? A: The Database application has the tools to edit the Phone Book file. These tools are needed to add or remove fields and to change the position of fields in the detail view of a phone record. Chapter 4 of the User's Guide provides a complete tutorial on using these tools to develop a custom database. Before modifying your Phone Book file, make a backup copy. You may find you don't like the results of your modifications and want to return to the original. To make a copy of your Phone Book file: While in the Phone Book application, press [Menu] Copy. Type in a new file name for the backup copy of your Phone Book file and press [F10] Done. Do NOT use an existing file name or you will write over the existing file. Modifications to a Phone Book should only be done after a backup copy has been made. After the backup copy has been made, close the Phone Book application by pressing [Menu] Quit. Start the Database application, press [Ctrl] [Phone]. Next, load the Phone Book file to be edited into the Database. Press [Menu] File Open and type in the path and name of the Phone Book file you want to modify and press [F10] Done. After the Phone Book file has been loaded in the Database application, it is ready to be modified. To begin, press [Menu] Modify Database. Now you will see the template for the Phone Book records. These fields are displayed the way you would see them in the detail record view. To add a new field to the Phone Book press [F2] Add. This will display the dialog screen for creating new fields for your database. In the first field, enter a descriptive name for the new field. Then press [Tab] and use the arrow keys to select a field type. Press [F2] Add to create the new field. Continue adding fields until the last addition, then [F10] OK to finish adding fields. To remove a field, highlight it and press [F6] Delete. Be careful with the [F6] Delete key because when you remove a field, all of the data in that field is removed also. Use the [Tab] key to move the highlight from one field to the next. When you press the arrow keys, the highlighted field will be moved or its size will be changed. Press [F3] to toggle the arrow key effect between "Move" and "Size." Once the new fields are in the template display, move each to the desired position on the screen. When all the fields are placed correctly, press [F10] Done. Article ID: TECH20012 Back to Top Q13: How can I select a group of records in my phone book or database to display and report? A: Create a subset definition that identifies the group of records you want to select. When this subset is activated, only the selected records will be displayed or reported. This process is described in the User's Guide on pages 4-19 through 4-21. This is a powerful feature, capable of selecting nearly any group you can imagine. See the User's Guide for more complex selection criteria. To create a subset, press [F6] Subset. This displays the Subset dialog screen and lists the existing subsets. Press [F2] Define to add a new subset definition to your Database or Phone Book. This displays the record template of the current file. Use the [Tab] key to move the highlight from one field to the next. When highlighting the correct field, fill in the contents that define the group of records to be selected. After specifying the contents, press [F10] OK. A dialog box will appear, type in a descriptive name for the new subset definition. For example, to create a subset that selects all Phone Book records for California residents, tab to the State field, type in "CA" and press [F10] OK. Give the subset a descriptive name, such as "Californians" and press [F10] OK. Select the subset definition list "Californians" and press [F10] OK. The result is that only records with "CA" in the state field will be displayed. Article ID: TECH20013 Back to Top Q14: What are the limits of the Phone Book? A: The Phone Book uses the same database engine as the Database application. Therefore, the limits for each applications are the same. This information is available in the User's Guide on page 4-30. * Maximum size of a Phone Book file: Limited by the available disk space to hold it. * Maximum number of records in a Phone Book file: 5020. * Maximum number of data characters per text field: 1 ½ times the visible length, at least 10. * Maximum number of data characters in a Note field: 32 KB, which is about 30 screens of data. * Maximum number of choices in a Category field: 32 choices or 255 total characters. * Maximum number of fields per database: 99 fields. (May be fewer with longer fields) * Maximum number of pages in a database: 4 pages (screens) per database. * Maximum number of subsets in a database: 16. * Maximum number of Category and Note fields per database: 1 of each per database. Article ID: TECH20014 Back to Top Q15: Where are the games and how do I run them? A: The HP 200LX has two games built in for your entertainment. These games are documented in the User's Guide in Appendix F. The games are "Hearts & Bones", in which you try to capture hearts without stepping on bones, and "Lair of Squid," in which you try to escape an underwater maze while being pursued by deadly squid. To start "Hearts & Bones", press[&More], use the arrow keys to highlight the "Hearts & Bones" icon, and press [Enter]. Press [F4] Help and read the instructions. When you have finished the instructions, press [F1] Play to start the game. Press [Esc] to quit. To start "Lair of Squid", press [&More], use the arrow keys to highlight the "Lair of Squid" icon and press [Enter]. Press [F1] to see information on how to play the game. Press [Esc] to exit the tutorial, then press the spacebar to start the game. When finished with the game, press [Esc] to exit. Article ID: TECH20015 Back to Top HP 200LX Third Party Products and Accessories Answers Q1: Who provides technical support for third-party solutions running on the HP 200LX Palmtop PC? A: Technical support is the responsibility of the company providing the service or software that you are using. HP does not provide technical support for third party solutions. For example, if you are having trouble with the built-in Memo application, HP provides technical support. If you are having trouble using third-party word processing software that you have installed on the HP 200LX, call the vendor/manufacturer of the software. Article ID: TECH20016 Back to Top Q2: What are the parameters of third-party software that works on the HP 200LX? A: The HP 200LX runs thousands of DOS programs. Software that will run on a PC/XT style computer will probably run on the HP Palmtop. Most MS-DOS programs that do not require an EGA or VGA screen and do not require an 80286 CPU or higher will run. Article ID: TECH20017 Back to Top Q3: What are the email solutions available for the HP 200LX? A: The built-in solution is cc:Mail Mobile. This enables you to dial into your company's cc:Mail post office, download mail that is waiting for you, and upload from the palmtop any mail you have prepared. cc:Mail Mobile will support binary attachments to the mail messages. If you do not have access to a cc:Mail post office, ESPmail offers post office services designed for HP 200LX users. You can contact ESPmail at 408-450-3467. A more generalized email solution is to use the Datacomm terminal emulation program. This program enables you to send and receive email using Compuserve. acCIS from Shier Systems and Software makes using CompuServe email and the HP Handheld forum more user friendly than the Datacomm terminal emulator. Contact Shier Systems and Software at 805-371-9391 for more information. To connect directly to your Internet provider for email and web browsing, WebLX, developed by Shier Systems and Software for the HP 200LX, is a popular choice. For MS-Mail users, several customers report success using the DOS version of the MS-Mail client. Three wireless email solutions are available in the USA. HP 200LX compatible software and packet radio modems are available for RAM Mobile Data and Ardis networks. HP 200LX compatible software and cable for the Skytel two-way pager are also available. These systems enable you to receive and reply to email from your palmtop whenever you are in range of the appropriate antenna. All three systems have some coverage of all the US metropolitan areas. For more information, contact Ardis at 1-800-662-5328, RAM Mobile Data at 1-800-726-3210, and Skytel at 800-456-3333. For Europe and the Far East, a wireless email solution is built into the HP OmniGo 700LX. This palmtop has a built-in modem and software to access the Nokia 2110 digital cell phone. This digital cell phone works on GSM phone system. The HP OmniGo 700LX is not available in the US. Article ID: TECH20018 Back to Top Q4: What are the connectivity solutions available for the HP 200LX? A: There are several solutions available for the HP 200LX. The easiest solution is to download and use the free software from this web site. The software is called Transfile 200 for Windows. This software gives Windows users an easy way to copy files between the Palmtop and the PC. A solution for DOS users is the HP Connectivity Pack A fast file transfer solution for DOS or Windows PC users is available from Transdigital at 510-745-9777. The Trans PC Card adds a parallel port to the HP 200LX. The Trans PC Card can be used for file transfers to your PC's parallel port or to other parallel devices such as 100MB Zip drives. For Windows users who use other PIMS systems on the PC, PUMA Technologies offers IntelliSync for the HP 200LX. With this software you can merge or synchronize the data on the HP 200LX with the files of the many Windows-based PIMS systems. Call PUMA Technology at 603-888-0666 for information. For MacIntosh users, DataViz has a connectivity solution called MacLink Plus. MacLink Plus provides file transfer and translation capability for many popular Mac applications. For information, contact DataViz at 800-733-0030 or 203-268-0030. Article ID: TECH20019 Back to Top Q5: How do I connect the HP 200LX to my printer? A: The HP 200LX can print directly from the wire serial port to the serial port on the printer using the cable and adapters included in the HP connectivity pack, F1021B/C. However, since most printers do not have a serial port, the most common way is to use a serial to parallel converter. This device converts the wire serial signals from the HP 200LX to the parallel signals used by most printers. Transdigital's Trans PC Card adds a parallel port to the palmtop through the PCMCIA port. Aegis has a converter that receives infrared signals from the HP 200LX and converts them to parallel signals for the printer. Thus you can print to many printers just by pointing the HP 200LX IR port at the Aegis HP-IR receiver. These devices are available from palmtop accessory dealers or you can contact the manufacturers directly: Transdigital at 510-745-9777, Aegis Technology at 520-773-0189, or Greenwich Instruments at 800-476-4070 in the USA and 0-81-302-4933 in the UK. For those with an HP Laserjet 5P or 6P, a free solution is available. An IrDA driver for the HP 200LX can be downloaded. The IrDA driver converts the printer output from the palmtop into IrDA signals for the Laserjet. Article ID: TECH20020 Back to Top Q6: What modems work with the HP 200LX? A: Primary criteria for PC Card modems is that they require less than 150mA and do not require special software drivers. Two PC Card modem manufacturers have models designed specifically for the HP 200LX. Contact the manufacturers for information: EXP at 800-397-6922 or APEX at 800-841-2739. Most external modems will work fine but of course are not as portable. They do have the advantage of providing their own power and leaving the PC Card slot free for your flash disk memory. Article ID: TECH20021 Back to Top Q7: Are there any modems that also have flash memory on board? A: Both APEX and EXP modems include flash memory that is available for use by the other applications. These PC Card modems are available in a variety of memory sizes. Contact the manufacturers for information: EXP at 800-397-6922 or APEX at 800-841-2739. Article ID: TECH20022 Back to Top Q8: What kind of flash cards can be used? A: The HP 200LX supports industry standard Type II ATA format flash disks in 12 volt or 5 volt versions. Flash disks currently are available from HP in three sizes for the HP 200LX: F1215C 6MB, F1013C 10MB, and F1014C 20MB. Each of these PC Card flash disks have Stacker installed. Using Stacker file compression approximately doubles the stated storage capacity of the disks. Contact information can be found in the list of accessory dealers. Article ID: TECH20023 Back to Top Q9: How do I install the HP flash card so I can use it? A: To prepare the palmtop to use the HP Flash Disk, you must first close all the open applications. To do this, press [Menu] Quit in each application. When all applications are closed, the Top Card with the Owner's Information is on the display. Turn off the HP 200LX. Insert the Flash Disk. Turn on the HP 200LX. Because of the danger of static electricity discharging through the PC Card slot, it is advisable to turn off the palmtop before inserting or removing any PC Card device. After the flash disk card has been inserted, press the Filer key to start the Filer application. The screen should be split with drive A: on the right side. Press the right arrow key. Highlight the file named "sinstall.exe" and press [Enter]. Stacker will be copied to the C: drive and the config.sys and autoexec.bat will be modified. Press "Y" in response to the reboot prompt on the screen. After the reboot your card will be ready to store data files. The flash disk can also be formatted for use without Stacker. Please be aware that formatting will erase all files on the flash disk. Backup files that are on the flash disk before formatting. Turn off the palmtop. Insert the flash disk into the PC Card slot. Start the Filer application. Press [Menu] Options DOS. From the DOS prompt, type "Format A:". When formatting has been completed, the flash disk will be ready to use. Article ID: TECH20024 Back to Top Q10: What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Stacker on the flash card? A: The advantage of using Stacker is simple: you can store about twice as much data on the card if it is compressed. The disadvantage of using Stacker is in the overhead required to load the software in memory. It requires 44K in RAM disk space to store the software on drive C: and 42K in System RAM space to load it in executable memory. Differences in speed are negligible for most users. Turn off the HP 200LX. Insert the Flash Disk. Turn on the HP 200LX. Because of the danger of static electricity discharging through the PC Card slot, it is advisable to turn off the palmtop before inserting or removing any PC Card device. Article ID: TECH20025 Back to Top Q11: What might cause the system be unable to access drive A:? A: This problem could be caused by several situations. Because of the danger of static electricity discharging through the PC Card slot, it is advisable to turn off the palmtop before inserting or removing any PC Card device. Make sure that the card is right side up and that the end with the little holes is going into the slot. Make sure that the card is inserted completely. It should not protrude from the end of the unit more than a fingernail's thickness. It should go in without a great deal of pressure. Make sure it is a compatible card. The HP 200LX supports the industry-standard ATA format, type II flash disks. The best way to make sure it is compatible is to check for the HP label on the flash disk. For third-party flash disks, check with the manufacturer. If the card is stacked, then the stacker driver must be installed. If you have not installed the stacker driver, refer to the flash disk installation instructions. It may be that the boot process bypassed loading the stacker driver. Make sure that the config.sys and autoexec.bat files exist on drive C:\. Close all open applications and reboot the system by pressing [Ctrl-Alt-Del] keys at the same time. Watch the messages as the system reboots. It should display a line that proclaims, "Stacker Disk Device Driver NN" where NN is the version of the software being loaded. If you have trouble reading as the messages scroll past on the screen, press [Ctrl] and Q simultaneously. When you are ready to continue the screen scrolling, press [Ctrl] and S. If you are using a stacked card, then the file C:\config.sys should contain the line DEVICE=C:\STACKER.COM /P=0 A: B:". To examine the contents of the config.sys file, start the Filer. Use the arrow keys to highlight the file and press [F8] View. When you have finished viewing the contents, press [F8] Close. If this line is missing, then the install process may need to be repeated. See the previous section for instructions on installing the Stacker driver. The card may be full and have no room for addtional files. Start the Filer application, move the scroll bar to the flash disk. In the bottom right corner of the display is the message "Bytes Free on Disk: nnnnnn." If nnnnn equals zero, then you are out of disk space and will need to delete some files. The card may have a problem with its internal structures. Close all open applications. Start the Filer application. Press [Menu] Options DOS. At the DOS prompt, type CHKDSK A: and press [Enter]. The resulting diagnostic display may indicate a problem with the FAT (File Allocation Table) on the card. The third line of display may read "Errors Found." If errors were found, this message will be followed by additional information about the problems found on the card. Type CHKDSK /F A: and press [Enter]. It may ask to convert lost chains to files. If you want to examine the files that were corrupted, press "Y." The converted files will be put on drive A: at the root level. The files will be named "file000N.chk," where N is a sequential number of the lost chains. Highlight the file name and press [F8] View to examine the lost data. After CHKDSK /F has run, your disk should be fixed. Article ID: TECH20026 Back to Top Public Domain - Preliminary Hewlett-Packard Company shall not be liable for any errors or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this publication or the procedures contained herein. This publication is subject to change without notice. [USEMAP] [USEMAP]