Solution to apparently very rare error 0x1212

[laundryczar]

Good afternoon:
I hope this helps someone.
For several weeks, my Cingular Treo 650 would give me an error message every time I tried to use Blazer. Error 0x1212.

Background:
If I was already connected to the Cingular data network when I asked Blazer to go to a web site, I would get a message that said "Service Connection progress..." and "Cancelling" within the same message box. If I wasn't connected, I would see the "Signing on..." message briefly and then the cancelling one.
Versamail continued to work regardless of whether I was connected to the network when I fired up Versamail or not.
The messaging service continued to work.

Palm delegates initial service or tech help calls from Cingular cutomers to Cingular and Cingular can, if baffled, transfer a customer to Palm. My first call brought me to a Cingular person whoi said the answer was to do a master (or hard) reset and the problem would go away. I asked that person to check with Palm before I took such a step. Palm agreed and I tried it. It didn't work. Same problem.
The next call after that failure was transferred to Palm and the fact that VersaMail and messaging worked while Blazer didn't baffled them and I was transferred to a service manager who explained that error 0x1212 was rare in cases where the Treo was used a a modem for a PC, it was unheard of when Blazer was trying to connect on its own and never had it occurred where Versamail or any other internet service would continue to work. I was told that even a master (hard) reset was a waste and that the Treo must be replaced. They then called Cingular and after few more short calls a replacement treo was on its way.

However, something didn't make sense to me. Blazer is part of the ROM and while it isn't impossible for it to become corrupted, it is unlikely that anything I could do with any software, would be able to mess with it in this way. Destroy it maybe, but not corrupt such a tiny part of it without damaging more. It occurred to me it had to be a corrupted file of mine that was messing with the ROM, not actually dmaging it.

Solution:
I did another master (hard) reset and this time before synching I tried out Blazer. It worked fine. I wish I had tried this before but both Palm and Cingular told me to synch right away.
I then went into my back up folder and deleted five files
1. CarrierProfiles
2. Conectionmgr
3. CurrentCarrier
4. NetwrkDB
5. NetworkProfiles.

Then I synched. With all my files and apps restored it continued to work. I don't know which of these five it was, but one of them wasn't playing fair.
So, the answer is a master (hard) reset and removing these files.

Given the alternative, this seems a simple answer. I have called Cingular and explained and Palm and explained and while it may be a very nice pack of lies, both said they would make a note of it and add the solution to their archives for future calls. Maybe they just wanted me off the phone but throughout this I dealt with nothing but polite and seemingly interested customer service and tech service reps.

Thats it. I hope it helps.

[Perry Gonzalez]

Thank you laundryczar and welcome to MTDN.
Quite an experience. Glad you got it worked out.
One of the mistakes people make is doing a hard reset, then syncing back to their PC/Mac without making any changes. They end up putting back a possible offending app. You figured it out though. It's good experience. KFY.

[AllGamer]

good to know, never seen that error message before.

yes, it's true, a lot of problem can be resolved with a Hard Reset, and then test if the phone works properly without Any additional software installed.

99.99999999999% of the times problems in the Treo is always related to problem with files, version, coruption, preferences, etc...

[bubbatex]

I actually saw this error code this past weekend I believe.  I mean it looked familar enough for me to read this link!  Anyway, I did a ESN swap and got this error when trying connect to the network on the new number.  Sprint technical support had to do some computer changes on their side and also send down changes to my Treo.  It took 2 calls, but it worked after the second call.

[laundryczar]

Thank you for the welcome. I've posted before and always had great and helpful responses. This is a great well meaning group.

Checking before reloading is the obvious thing to do, but I was specifically instructed not to. I suppose I should have questioned it, but I was so wrapped up in the terror of having to replace my otherwise perfect Treo that I guess I wasn't thinking. Furthermore, the replacement idea wasn't mine. Both Cingular and Palm gave that as the only solution until I pressed for more. (Politely, of course.) They were sure it was a defective ROM and when I called back and gave them my solution, for the same reason I posted it here, they both sounded stunned it worked.  "Really?"  was the  response.
I don't mean to imply they were idiots. Both groups (I spoke to many at both places) seemed very conversant on the inner workings of the operating system and the accessibility of the ROM. We talked about the architecture of Blazer, Versamail and the messageing software and the data network. It didn't sound like TelePrompTer verbage. They seemed genuinely convinced that this had to be defective ROM or hardware. In fact, I would go so far as to say they sounded as if they were humoring me by even talking to me.

My Treo and and I are fine. All is right with the world. Thanks again for your interest.

[samykovac]

Hi,

it worked for me, many thanks!  I suspect that I messed it up when trying to visit a WAP page in Blazer. That is when the problems started ...

Thanks again, you saved me hours of trouble,

Samy