Recovering a Palm handheld from a crash

As I have shown you in my behind the scenes of this blog, I use a Palm handheld to write some of my reviews on the go. Once, though, I unwittingly crashed it when I installed an application that needed some sort of framework installed first. It was in the readme.txt the consequences, unfortunately, I don't usually read the readme.txt quite as often as I ought (shame on me!). This was a warning, however, that needed more than a humble readme. It should have been a file that said "WARNING, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, READ THIS FIRST!" That would have been a lot more helpful.

Image showing Reset button on a Palm Tungsten T|5

My device would crash whenever I turned it on, and I couldn't access any of the files I had on the device. It was a waking nightmare. With some Googling, I came across a support page that told me just what to do if I installed something that crashed my device: a warm reset. To do this, hold the 'up' button on your Palm and hit 'reset' on the back of your device. Depending on your stylus, the top may screw off to reveal a small rod just for this purpose. If not, use a toothpick. Be careful none of it splinters off inside your device.
Keep holding the up button until the progress bar crosses the bottom of the screen, and you see "Palm Powered". Now watch. If your device boots normally, go into your applications and find the app you installed most recently that you suspect is the culprit. Delete it immediately, and don't re-install it unless you know how to use it!
Now, do a soft reset on your by simply pressing the 'reset' button on the back. If your device crashes, perform another warm reset, and try to figure out the problem. If not, you've likely fixed your device.
If none of this works, however, there's the chance that you need a hard reset. WARNING!!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, READ THIS FIRST! A hard reset will erase all your data! Thus, your Palm will be wiped clean of any information on it you put. Your precious applications, contacts, memos, and anything you haven't backed up will be gone forever. Where to? No mortal knows.
To perform a hard reset, hold on to the power button and press 'reset'. Keep holding the power until the progress bar loads all the way to the other side of the screen. Your Palm will then offer you the opportunity to erase everything. Press 'up' to say yes, press anything else for no.
I assume NO RESPONSIBILITY for anything that happens to your device with this info. If something goes hidously wrong, contact your manufacturer.

Links:

The article that saved my Palm:
http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/common/article/887_en.html