Subject: Any Ideas about this problem?

From: "musicalman77" <musicalman77@...>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:09:19 -0000

I posted in part about this in the reply to Patrick, but would like
your ideas on any way to fix this problem (and like him, I'm in OK and
the machine is in OH, but I may visit there mid-summer).

When I was visiting in December, I took the machine over to a friend's
house because she had an old parallel-port printer.  I wanted to print
out Mom's address book for two reasons: 1) a planned e-mail
announcement by my sister to Mom's friends for her 90th birthday card
shower, and 2) paper backup in case her machine ever got wiped, as it
did once before.  (You'd THINK they'd have a way to back up the
address book to the associated EarthLink webmail account, but that'd
be far too easy...)
  
Mom's only trouble is that she can no longer send to groups, and any
attempt to access her former groups freezes up the machine and it has
to be reset. We suspect a bad spot in the flash memory. I told her
to just live with sending individual e-mails or do her group people
from individual e-mail (I think you can do three recipients at a time)
and be glad the thing is still working at all, since she just re-upped
for another year on the service.

Well, in the course of printing out the address book, this idiot
friend ignored my advice and tried to stuff more paper in the printer
during the print job, jamming it.  I got it restarted, but this may
have glitched something in the MailStation, because once I got it back
to Mom's, one of her groups stopped working and would freeze the
machine.  We suspect a problem in the flash memory, like when you pull
your jump drive out of the USB port as it's being accessed.  I was
leaving that day and didn't have time to mess with it.  So, so she has
had two people look at it since - a young computer geek and an
old-time computer guru, and trying to fix it for her.  The young guy
had limited time but agreed with the "flash memory" diagnosis.  The
old guy spent hours, alone, and on the phone with India, trying to fix
the problem.  Now, apparently NONE of the groups are working at all
and they cannot set up any new mail groups.

Anybody have any ideas what's wrong or how to fix it without the
Indians being involved?

Thanks.

---

From: Patrick Forbes <patrickforbes@...>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:14:54 -0400

When I boot my MailStation and select 'Address Book' and press 'New,'  
a choice of Individual or Groups appears. Select 'Groups' and name  
it. It will then show the whole 'Groups' list to pick and choose  
from. Press 'Add' and the Address Book list will appear from which  
you may pick the Groups 'Members' you wish to add to that group.
Take a look.

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

On 21-Apr-08, at 20:43 , Jon James wrote:

They've tried resetting EVERYTHING (both remotely by the Indians and  
locally including the "pinhole" reset) and the groups still refuse to  
function, which is what leads us to believe in the "bad flash memory  
sector" theory.  Maybe the whole memory needs to be reformatted, and  
that's probably something only the Indians can do (if they even can).
--- On Mon, 4/21/08, Patrick
Subject: Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
To: musicalman77@...
Date: Monday, April 21, 2008, 7:21 PM

Her 'Groups' will most certainly need to be re-programmed, I'm sorry  
to say. Please remember the KISS Principle. I'm pretty sure she'll  
enjoy a fully functional MailStation a bit more than the Web on TV.  
Might be too many buttons to remember to push in the right order.

Yup. Mom is back on line. Just a stupid typo. Dumb indians!

So far, BasicISP is working with me to test their servers.......

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

On 21-Apr-08, at 19:51 , Jon James wrote:

Wow, Patrick.  Thanks for the tech info.  As it stands right now, the  
machine and service are WORKING for individual e-mails, just not  
groups, so she's content for now.  If I visit Ohio this summer, I may  
try this stuff.  I have an old WebTV box and may take that with me  
and set her up with that.  She would have e-mail AND full web access  
for the same annual service fee as the Earthlink e-mail thing.  Hope  
you got your mom all fixed up too.

Don't worry - I won't publish this anywhere, just print it out for my  
own use.

Jon

--- On Sun, 4/20/08, Patrick wrote:
From: Patrick
Subject: Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
To: [email-masked]
Cc: musicalman77@..., djgizmo1@...
Date: Sunday, April 20, 2008, 12:31 PM

Don't waste any more of your time with Earthlink. Attention (Product  
Life) spans are too short. No company wants to seriously support  
anything more than five (5) years old, nowadays. We're pretty much on  
our own here. I just learned Cidco, who made the thing, filed for  
bankruptcy this past January. My calls and faxes to them for their  
engineering assistance went unanswered and I expect the letter I  
posted to them a week ago will be coming back soon, too.

Regardless of your choices, chances you will lose all programmed data  
are pretty great. Please write down ALL programming information.  
Start with 'Extras', 'Settings' then 'Details' and ensure you've no  
typos. You will most certainly be asked to "Create New User" where  
you'll need to type it all in just as you saw it:

User Name:
Dial Up Number:
E-mail address:
E-mail Password:
POP3 Server:
SMTP Server:
ISP Account:
ISP Password:
Primary DNS:

I photocopied all the screens and filed the copies for posterity. Six  
years later I needed them!

Press FN, Shift and T with one hand and stick a pin in the Reset hole  
in the back. The Diagnostic Menu will appear.

Press the 3 for the F/A Tester. The five grey keys aren't  
operational. Select the test of your choice. Start with Fast Test.  
When it's done press the Reset again to get back to the Diag....  
screen. Press Q to return the machine to operational status

If anyone else has additional tricks to share along this line, please  
don't be shy. I have a working machine I can experiment with at will.

Verizon ($8.95/m), Look ($4.95/m), BasicISP and Mid-Maine have all  
said they 'may' be able to provide service. I'm waiting for more info  
from them to set up a trial with each on my machine.

More later.....

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

musicalman77" musicalman77@... musicalman77
     Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:56 pm ((PDT))

Good luck with getting any kind of help out of Earthlink's big-wigs.
I think they are trying hard to wash their hands of MailStation. My
mom, also 90, had a problem with her machine.  A friend who use to
work computer models four levels down from the (U.S.) President was
there the other day trying to remedy the trouble.  He also spent about
3 hours on the phone with..."those fools in India" (nicely put!) and
all to no avail.  When pressed for information on repair or
replacement, they got rude.

So, I tried the online chat with Earthlink CS.  After confirming the
persistent rumor that there are no NEW MailStation accounts being
established, they just kept referring me to the 800 number (aka "fools
in India") and ASSURING me these folks would help.  I kept insisting
we'd already tried that, and the argument became circular and a
standoff.  So, I asked, "Well, what about repair or replacement"
(which they have done in the past) and was told, "She can buy a new
unit on her own."  When I said that I understood that accounts were
not being transferred to new machines, I was referred to... you
guessed it... the fools in India.  I finally gave up and told her
"Thanks for nothing."

I guess if the thing breaks, I'll hook her up with my old WebTV unit
(which is now MSN TV) and hope she can learn to use it.

--- In [email-masked], "Patrick wrote:
>
> An update:
>
> 3 hours on the phone with about a dozen attempts got account turned
back on despite
> those incompetent fools in India and MailStation resumed operation.
That was all that was
> wrong with her original unit.
>
> Anyone have an actual address, telephone number and a bigwig's name
of Earthlink's HQ
> wherever it is? I need compensation for these many months of no
service, grief and
> frustration at the hands of those imbeciles they insist on calling
agents.

Messages in this topic (10)
________________________________________________________________________
1b. Re: Mailstation 5 months off line
     Posted by: "Marcus Herrera" djgizmo1@... djgizmo1
     Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:26 pm ((PDT))

Talk about dealing those people. I was doing a system board replacement.
I called and was transfered to them. I was getting upset because I
couldn't understand what they were saying. They could understand my
name, asked me to spell it out several times. Getting it wrong. I ended
hanging up on them and call back hoping on getting a different person.
Man how can't you not understand the name "marcus". Off shore call
centers sucks!!!
gizmo on sidekick

Messages in this topic (10)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. Any Ideas about this problem?
     Posted by: "musicalman77" musicalman77@... musicalman77
     Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:09 pm ((PDT))

Thanks.

---

From: Patrick Forbes <patrickforbes@...>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:18:59 -0400

Whoa! That sounds a wee bit fishy, if you don't mind the Canadian  
vernacular. If a 'Group' worked, the others should if the others  
still have 'valid' addresses with no defects (typos) in them.  
Possible? Remember, it's only a computer. It's not that smart, eh.

Yeah, I understand. My Mom is back in Florida (but now on-line) and  
I'm in Toronto. But I have amy own MailStation to play with, now. And  
I am.......
Hey, I'm our organization's Guru and this is testing ME. And I beat  
you with a 2,182 km separation. Ha!

Patrick Forbes
121 Lafayette Boulevard
Whitby, Ontario
L1P 1S4
905-666-0378

On 21-Apr-08, at 21:34 , Jon James wrote:

I'm 900 miles from the machine.  However, I recall she had three  
groups set up.  Two of them still worked, but any attempt to access  
the third locked up the machine, requiring the "pinhole" reset.  I  
suggested she just abandon the "bad" group, rename it something  
similar, and start the bad group over.  Apparently, it wouldn't let  
them set up any new groups, and after the tech friend and the Indians  
finished messing with it, NONE of the groups would work anymore and  
it won't let them set up new groups, only individuals (which had to  
all be re-input manually - apparenlty the Indians wiped everything).   
As far as what they are telling me, groups just "don't work"  
anymore.  It's hard for me, from here and dealing with a 90-year-old  
non-geek, to tell exactly what's going on.

"Who am I that You are mindful of me?"
   (Based on Psalms 8:4)

--- On Mon, 4/21/08, Patrick Forbes <patrickforbes@...> wrote:
From: Patrick Forbes <patrickforbes@...>
Subject: Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
To: musicalman77@...
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Monday, April 21, 2008, 8:14 PM

Patrick

Patrick

Jon

User Name:
Dial Up Number:
E-mail address:
E-mail Password:
POP3 Server:
SMTP Server:
ISP Account:
ISP Password:
Primary DNS:

More later.....

Patrick

back on despite
That was all that was
of Earthlink's HQ
service, grief and
agents.

Thanks.

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