Troubleshooting tips

[hwegener]

I play way to much and thought I would share my minimal experiences. Hopefully others will add to this thread so that when we play, we can recover more easily.

 

First, always have a backup of at least one copy of the whole flashdrive.

 

Once you apply a mod, and it works, make a new backup of the apl2/igo folder. This way you will be creating restore points in case you need them in the future. You will be able to go all the way back to stock if you end up not liking the mod you applied. Every time you try a "NEW" mod, start from stock. Everyone here seems to expect a stock starting point except for upgrading the same mod.

 

In my experiences with the system startup message not going away can be multiple things. Most recent, my ezrider.exe file in the apl2/igo directory was the wrong version. the mod I was applying involved changing out a few files, ezrider.exe was one of them. I simply put back the previous ezrider.exe and it worked again. The mod didn't, but my system booted again. Putting in the right version of ezrider.exe, fixed everything again. font files, map files, building files, poi files as far as I can tell will not stop your unit from booting, you simply won't have any maps, building or POI's.

 

Most threads insist on emptying the USER/IGO/SAVE directory except for the favorite.dat file if it exists. The reason is most mods include the replacing of the data.zip file in the apl2/igo directory. If your "saved" settings do not make sense to the new data,zip file you will have a problem.

 

There are also 4 files in the root of the flash drive, something like 0gps??????.???, 1gps?????.???, 2gps?????.??? and 3gps?????.???. (can remember the exact names, but they will be obvious) delete these if you have boot problems. They will be recreated automatically.

 

So in short, the only files I have had trouble with so far is DATA.ZIP, EZRIDER.EXE, the 4 GPS files, and the user SAVE files. Mostly due to my error.

 

Another word of advise... careful not to max out your flashdisk. I applied a mod that left me very little free space ont he flash disk. The unit started, but I could not save any settings and I could not get back into testmode to do anything about it. Not saving settings made sense if there is no room, but i am guessing that testmode also uses the flashdisk for temp files on boot. I had to reformat the flashdisk, reinstall Windows CE and copy back my apl, apl2, apl3, user and data directories.

[ovalball]

I think the above is good advice.I know when i first attempted to install my first mod it was a bit daunting,you can't have too much knowledge to help you through. Thanks for posting.