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Palm has posted an update to PalmOS 3.5 here: PalmOS 3.5.3 update. This system update appears to fix the leakage problem that Victor addresses. I am recommending that PalmOS 3.5 users download and install this update.
PalmOS 3.5, while being a wonderful improvement to the Palm universe, has a little leakage problem. If your handheld resets, either by your choice (pin in the back), or because a program crashes, some of the memory on your handheld will become what Palm calls orphaned and will no longer be available for use by you, applications, or application data. These poor orphans will end up as children of the System application, and you will see System's memory use grow with each reset. This memory can add up to a significant amount. Plus, it gets backed up with each HotSync, and so syncs can get really slow.
When things go bad, bring in a cleaner.
Victor, the cleaner (Victor 3.5 for short) is a simple utility for cleaning up this orphaned memory. Simply put, Victor shoots the orphans in the head - freeing up the space they were using on your handheld.
Launch Victor by tapping on the guy with sunglasses and a hat icon in Launcher.
Victor will tell you how much memory is locked up in orphaned memory. No changes have been made yet. If the number is big, tap on the Clean memory & Reset button. If things look OK, just return to the Launcher by tapping the home button.
After doing a cleanup, launch Victor again. You should see a good drop in orphaned memory. You will never see zero orphaned memory, so don't waste your time trying to get back that last few hundred bytes.
I have a lot of questions about Victor sent to me, and there has been a lot of questions in newsgroups. While I never thought Victor was complicated enough to warrant it, here is a FAQ with some of the questions answered.
Who needs Victor?
Anyone running PalmOS 3.5 who seems to be losing available memory.
Why do I need PalmOS 3.5? Why doesn't this work on older
versions of PalmOS?
Victor fixes a problem that exists in PalmOS 3.5,
the problem does not exist in older versions of the OS. Lucky you!
Has anyone reported problems using Victor?
One problem report in 200,000 downloads. I believe, in this
case, the handheld had badly corrupted memory - Victor
stepped on a land mine. This is an extremely unusual
situation - see below. Most users should have nothing to
worry about. Turbo-super-mega-power users that have 87
Hacks, install and de-install apps 43 times a day, overclock
to 200% and have personally upgraded to 8megs using nothing
but a Swiss army knife should be afraid - but these guys
should always be afraid and they are not. I live in awe.
What kind of results can I expect?
It depends. If you use a lot of apps, and you have reset or
crashed your handheld many times, Victor may have a lot to
cleanup. One user reported freeing up 1500Kb! More typical
is around 50Kb.
How often do I need to use Victor?
Only after a reset. So if you are running an application and
it crashes, or you reset your handheld by choice (pin reset),
run Victor after the handheld starts again. You can run Victor
any time just to check the state of the universe. If things look
good, just exit back to Launcher.
My Palm has the German version of PalmOS, will Victor work?
Yes. The parts of the system that Victor exercises are
independent of the locale, so in theory the particular
locale ROM you have should make no difference. Just to be
sure, Victor has been tested with English, French, German,
Japanese, Spanish and Italian ROMs, with all memory and CPU
configurations that support PalmOS 3.5. No problems have
been found with any version of the ROM.
So there is no risk running Victor?
No, I didn't say that. In particular, there always some risk
involved when you reset your handheld. How comfortable do
you feel sticking a pin in the back of your handheld? If
your handheld's memory is badly corrupted, Victor will
expose that corruption and you may (may, very teeny, tiny
chance) find yourself having to restore with a complete
HotSync to the desktop. So, just to be safe, make sure you
do a HotSync before running Victor. Note: normally
it would be the PalmOS reboot procedure which would expose
the corruption. In 3.5 that procedure is not happening,
hence the need for Victor.
Does Victor fix the "DRAM problem"?
No. The DRAM problem
is a hardware problem that is unrelated to the problem that
Victor addresses. Get more information and a fix
here.
My handheld is running 3.5.1/3.5.2/3.5.3, do I need Victor?
No. Victor fixes a problem in PalmOS 3.5. This problem was
addressed by Palm in the 3.5.1, 3.5.2 and 3.5.3 updates.
Is Victor compatible with 3.5.1/3.5.2/3.5.3?
Yes, but you no longer need Victor's help. Get the
PalmOS 3.5.3 system update.
Is Victor compatible with 4.0?
Yes, but you no longer need Victor's help.
Victor fixes a problem that exists in PalmOS 3.5,
the problem was fixed in the PalmOS 4.0 release. Lucky you!
Is the FAQ now larger than the actual program it attempts to
explain?
Yes, I believe it is.
Warning: Victor 3.5 is an experimental program. Use at your own risk. Backup your data before use. Victor 3.5 is unsupported by anyone on this planet.
© 1995-2001 David Williams <djw@djw.org>