Most of these problems will be in the form of errors, which normally manifest themselves as windows with a single box that says something like "Fatal Error" and "MemMgr.c, Line: 834, Invalid handle." These errors normally give you a single button to press to reset the machine. Depending on the severity of the error, this button sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. If you find that this button doesn't reset your PalmPilot, thenyou'll have to press the reset button on the back of the PalmPilot. On a rare oc casion, even this reset won't work, and you'll have to perform what is called a "hard reset" of your PalmPilot, which will reset the PalmPilot to an "empty" state. As you'll soon see, this doesn't mean you'll lose any of your data, as the PalmPilot routinely backs data up and will restore it on the first HotSync after a hard reset.

For more information on resetting your PalmPilot, refer to my FAQ page about Resetting the PalmPilot, located at http://www.pilotfaq.com/gen_07.htm.

Backing up and restoring data
The good thing about the way that the HotSync process works is that every time you run a HotSync, you're backing up all of the data, based on each database's backup bit setting, on the PalmPilot. What does this mean? Well, if you do have to perform a hard reset or send your PalmPilot away for repairs, restoring that data is easy. Just put the PalmPilot in the cradle and press the HotSync button! The only problem with this is that although the HotSync process backs up the data for third-party applications, it doesn't back up the applications themselves. So, in the event of a full restore, you'll have to re-install any applications you've installed. To help with this, the HotSync process does install any and all applications and databases found in the X:pilotusernamebackup directory ("drivename:Pilot Desktop 1.0:username:backup" on Macintosh). Using this knowledge, you should see that if you place all of your applications in this directory, they would be restored at the same time that their data is.

Deleting applications
To delete third-party application from your PalmPilot, go to the Memory application, and tap the "Delete Apps" button. From this screen, shown in Figure D, select the application you'd like to delete and press the "DeleteÉ" button and then tap "Yes" on the Delete Confirmation window that appears.

FIGURE D

The Delete Applications screen, found in the Memory application, is where you go to delete any application you've installed that you no longer want on your PalmPilot.

Alternately, you can delete applications by dragging their icon to the trashcan icon in the AppMan application and selecting "Ok" in the Confirm Delete window that appears.

NOTE: The built-in applications such as AddressBook and ToDo List can't be deleted. On the new PalmPilot models, this also includes the Giraffe, Mail and Expense applications (Mail on only on Professional models and Expense application isn't in ROM on the PalmPilot Personal units).