Windows Vista and No Driver Software for Tungsten E2

Question

I have had my Palm Tungsten E2 for a few months. It works fine and did perfectly well with the Windows XP operating system. Recently I changed computers and have Windows Vista. I installed the program from the CD and then was alerted to go to the website to get the newest version to function with Vista. After doing all of this my Palm will not sync with the computer for it states that I need the driver software installed so that it can function appropriately.
I have done searches on teh computer and online looking for this "software" and it is nowhere to be seeen. Is it part of the Palm Desktop software? Is there a special place it is hiding? I followed the instructions on the Palm site regarding where to find the software manually, but could not come across it.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Post relates to: Tungsten E2

Answer 1

So you have Palm desktop 6.2? Go to help-about in Palm desktop and look for the version number.
The driver is part of Palm desktop.
You can try this method to see if you can load the driver.
Open device manager on your computer by right clicking on computer, go to properties, hardware and then open device manager. Look under USB devices and see if there is an entry for Palm OS handheld. If you see it, right click on the entry, select uninstall driver. Disconnect the handheld and reconnect. Look at device manager and see if the handheld appears. IF it does then try and Hotsync again.
If it doesn't work, you will need to do a "clean" uninstall of Palm desktop and re-install.
Here are the instructions. Bypass the first step below regarding backing up your data, since you don't have any on the computer.
You should first make a copy of your data to have just in case something
happens. You can find your data files by going to Start --> Documents -->
Palm OS Desktop. Highlight your Palm Desktop username and right click and
copy. Then go to your PC desktop right click on a blank spot and select paste.
Now you want to uninstall Palm Desktop and remove everything that has to do
with Palm Desktop from your computer.
Go to the following locations on the PC and delete the folders listed below.
C:\Program Files\Palm or Palm One
C:\Users\[Vista Login Name]\appdata\local\virtualstore\Program Files\Palm or
PalmOne
C:\Users\[Vista Login Name]\appdata
*Note you may need to view hidden folders to get to appdata. To do that go
into your control panel and open folder options. Go to view tab and uncheck
hide hidden files.
Once this is done you will need to delete some registry keys from your PC Operating System.
Word of warning, going here and deleting the wrong thing can cause your PC
from starting up, crashing and deletion of programs and data. If you feel
you are unsure of yourself, see if you have a friend that can help you or a
PC technician that you can pay to help you. This procedure will show them everything they need to delete. To make sure we have a good copy of the current registry, we need to do a backup of the Registry.
Go to start on the PC, in the search field type "regedit.exe" without quotes.
Highlight COMPUTER, go to File --> Export. Should pop up with a Save As box.
Current location is fine, should be in My Documents or save to a location you will remember. In the file name on the bottom type "backup[todaysdate]" i.e. backup07072008. Next, the hard part.
The easiest way to make sure your working with the correct key, highlight the key i.e. palm quick install, and press delete on your keyboard. It will ask you, are you sure. Say yes. Do the same thing for all keys below.
If you make a mistake, stop what you are doing. And call a PC technician.
BUT do not turn off your computer.
The reg keys are as follows (Note: some of theses reg keys will not be here
but if they are delete them)
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\U.S. Robotics\Palm Quick Install
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\U.S. Robotics\PalmOne File Transfer
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\U.S. Robotics\Pilot Desktop
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Palm
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Palm, Inc.
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PalmDesktopAutorun
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\palmOne
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PalmSource
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\PalmSource or anything else that says palm
Next reboot your computer.
Then reinstall your palm desktop from the CD and do a hotsync. If it asks
you for a username and you synced your device before, put in 'test" if you
did not sync before create a hotsync name.
Post relates to: Palm i705