Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The WM6 Endless Reboot Cycle

Apparently, I became a victim of a common Windows Mobile 6 bug today. A problem with using an SD storage card can get Windows Mobile 6 into a state where it continuously reboots.

A Google search helped me determine the problem was related to the SD card and removing the card allowed the device to boot normally. However, when I powered down and reinserted the SD card, the device went back to its endless reboot cycle again. (Not all users experience this problem after reinserting the storage card, but some do.) A little more investigation was required.

I decided to boot the device without the SD card - success. Without rebooting, I inserted the SD card and opened File Explorer. I noticed the storage card was labeled as "Storage Card2" instead of the usual "Storage Card". WM6 had created a "Storage Card" folder on its own when I booted without the card to store message attachments. I deleted the "Storage Card" folder (which only contained empty folders) and rebooted. I was back in the reboot cycle. Ugh!

I removed the SD card again and booted. This time I deleted the "Storage Card" folder before inserting the SD card. I inserted the SD card and WM6 recognized it as "Storage Card". I rebooted, and... The OS booted correctly.

It's quite strange that this happened in the first place, but I offer my findings here to help anyone else who may run into the problem with WM6 and SD storage cards.

No comments: