How I solved the blue screen problem on my ASUS MyPal A639 pda
Problem description
Without doing anything special, the ASUS pda start up with a blue ASUS screen
(solid as a rock). The screen stays like that. Nothing is possible! Soft reset
has no effect, hard reset (press and hold down job selection button, sound min
button and than press and release reset button with stylus) has also no effect.
Backup of PDA rom
Just after buying the pda (which came with Windows Mobile 5 dutch and was 6
months old), I made a backup of the ASUS memory using
pdocread.exe and dll itsutils.dll. Both part of
package itsutilsbin-20070705.zip:
1. attach PDA to the PC with USB cable and wait for ActiveSync to sync
2. open a command prompt
3. run pdocread -t
4. run pdocread -l
5. run pdocread 0x0 0xXXX nk.nb0 where 0xXXX is the size of the rom returned in
the step 3 (for my WM5 is was 0x2A00000)
6. wait until the process finish
I stored the nk.nb0 file on my harddisk. I think it is also possible to download
it. If not, send me a mail and I send you the 42 Mb file (mail address
myname@zonnet.nl where myname is the first letter of my fist name and the first
5 letters of my last name).
First blue screen -> warranty
After 3 months using the pda, I had my first blue screen. I had the luck, I
received also the original bill with the second hand pda and contacted ASUS for
repair. The PDA was picked up home and after 1 to 2 weeks, it was returned to my
home, without any letter (and without the original bill I send with the pda) I
received it back. Windows Mobile 6 (dutch again) was installed and the machine
was working again!
Second blue screen, solved at home
This week I had the same problem, blue screen, but no warranty anymore...
I opened the PDA with a colleague to find a bios reset button or something like
that. Nothing found of cause...
Today I was thinking about the backup of the rom I made. I found the tool
USBLoader.exe which should able to store the
image back on the pda. Steps taken to restore the image:
1. uninstall Active Sync
2. connect USB cable and power supply to PDA and computer
3. press POWER-ON - ENTER - RESET on the PDA. The USB mode is started on the PDA
4. run USBLoader.exe nk.nb0
5. wait until the process finish
After it finished, I saw the blue screen again. But 10 seconds later, Window was
starting. I received a very short tutorial about WM5 and than, the PDA was up
and running!
Upgrade to WM6
After restoring the original rom to the machine, it had again the Windows Mobile
5 software. To upgrade to Windows Mobile 6, I downloaded from the ASUS site the
update "A639 V01.0733.00 Dutch version". I followed the upgrade instructions and
a few minutes later, my pda was running WM6.
Backup of PDA rom
Just after upgrading the pda I made a backup of the ASUS memory using
pdocread.exe and dll
itsutils.dll. Both part of package
itsutilsbin-20070705.zip:
1. attach PDA to the PC with USB cable and wait for ActiveSync to sync
2. open a command prompt
3. run pdocread -t
4. run pdocread -l
5. run pdocread 0x0 0xXXX nk.nb0 where 0xXXX is the size of the rom returned in
the step 3 (for WM6 0x3b00000)
6. wait until the process finish
I stored the nk.nb0 file on my harddisk. I think it is a part of the big image
file I downloaded to upgrade the pda from WM5 to WM6. When I have time, I will
check it. If you have a blue screen and need a rom, I can send you the 59 Mb
file (mail address myname@zonnet.nl where myname is the first letter of my fist
name and the first 5 letters of my last name).
Anton Bunschoten