Having trouble with Palm Tungsten E2 and Macintosh

[Mirsky]

Hi. I just purchased a Tungsten E2 Palm device. I also own a Mac, a G4
Cube running OS 10.4.10. I am having trouble syncing the E2 with my Mac.
I have plugged in the USB cable for syncing the E2 with my Mac.
However, my Mac does not notice that the device is plugged in. The
Hotsync Manager does not notice it, nor does Apple's Isync software. I
tried adding the E2 as a device using Isync but Isync doesn't see
anything there. I ran System Profiler and that program also could not
see that the E2 was plugged in as well.

I am wondering: has anyone else had this problem with syncing the E2? I
am wondering if it makes sense for me to buy a cradle with the hope that
my Mac will be able to notice it better than it does the USB Cable that
came with the E2?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Mirsky

[Mirsky]

I just remembered--my Mac only has USB 1.1 ports. Is it possible that
the reason that the E2 isn't being recognized is that the E2 requires
USB 2.0 ports? Has anyone had success syncing the E2 with only USB 1.1
ports?

Thanks,

Mirsky

[Iguana]

Mirsky wrote:
> Hi. I just purchased a Tungsten E2 Palm device. I also own a Mac, a G4
> Cube running OS 10.4.10. I am having trouble syncing the E2 with my Mac.
> I have plugged in the USB cable for syncing the E2 with my Mac.
> However, my Mac does not notice that the device is plugged in.

I hope you tried to sync it. If I remember correctly, on the PC it can
find a new USB HW only after the sync-button is pressed for the first
time. Maybe the same goes for Mac, too.

> I am wondering: has anyone else had this problem with syncing the E2? I
> am wondering if it makes sense for me to buy a cradle with the hope that
> my Mac will be able to notice it better than it does the USB Cable that
> came with the E2?

No, I think it doesn't make sense. It should work with the cable as well.

Check out the contacts on your E2 connector and contacts on the cable
that plug into E2. There should be 5 pins on the cable plug. If any of
them are shorter than 2 mm or filthy or something, it might be there's
no contact between Palm ant the cable.

Also check the contacts on Palm E2. If they are blocked or dirty,
there's no contact.

Try to check the cable & Palm on some PC. Just plug it in and press the
sync button. If PC finds a new hardware, it's working OK and the problem
is in your Mac. (You can just cancel the "new HW found" procedure.)

[rqk]

We have 2 E2s in the family. Mine synced fine (we have a PC), the other
had a problem syncing some times and not others. We swapped out the
hotsync cable and now mine has problems syncing sometimes and the other
one doesn't.

I guess between different tolerances between devices and cables and
general wear and tear over time, this problem occurs.

[Mirsky]

Thanks to all who wrote a reply to my query. I feel a little dumb. I
had forgotten to press the Hotsync button. On my old Palm pilot, the
HotSync Manager recognized the device automatically when it was plugged
in. I connected the E2 tonight and hit the Hotsync button and the
syncing worked fine.

Thanks again,

Mirsky