Something has to be done to ActiveSync to make it more robust and resilient. Definitely not the current way it tries to.
It has been over an hour since I should have left my house, yet I am still stuck here for the sake of transferring a few files over to the slotted SD card.
First attempt appeared to be just the "usual". The ActiveSync sound chimes in both Windows and the 818pro, and I thought it would quickly sync up and I could copy the files. No, the disconnected sound pipes out of my computer speakers, while the PDA still thinks it is synchronising. Cable and USB PCMCIA card reconnections were in vain.
Seems like that dealt a fatal blow to my OS; the restart process was excrutiatingly slow taking well over 20 minutes (or maybe even more).
Unfortunately for me, the quick-disconnect phenomenon still happened after a fresh reboot. What the heck is going on here? This time round, I swiftly powered the computer down; who cares about "clean shutdown" now.
Third time round, i took out the PCMCIA card that offered USB 2.0 speeds, and just plugged my hub direct to the only USB 1.1 port existing on my laptop. It could connect and transfer files now, but ActiveSync was forever trying to match up with Outlook. Forever. And now reconnecting has Windows looking for it, while the PDA is entirely ignorant of the connection.
I think I should've filed this under my Curses.