Reboot

Intro

Reboot reboots your Nokia 9200 series communicator without having to remove and reinsert the battery. Err.... that's it! For why rebooting is important, read on...

Why is Reboot needed?
No operating system is perfect and there will always be memory leaks of some kind or other. Symbian OS is great in many ways but rather fallible when it comes to holding its own on the memory front. As third party software in particular is started up and perhaps closed again, memory gets gradually allocated and messed around.

Now, to a certain degree, the operating system copes with being messed around, with firmware versions 4.xx and above containing built-in routines that kick in when the free execution memory drops below a certain point, optimising memory and closing down built-in applications until there's enough room to breathe again.

Sooner or later though, mainly on the older 9210 and 9210i, it's time to consider a reboot, clearing execution memory right down and reloading the operating system into execution memory. After a reboot, a 9210 communicator should have around 3MB of RAM free (well over this, in fact, on a 9210i). The process of rebooting only takes about 30 seconds and no data should be lost.

No data lost? Are you sure?
Yep. In fact, the Communicator is outstanding in terms of data integrity. Everytime you switch an application away from the foreground or close the communicator's cover, its data is automatically saved into flash memory inside the device or onto your expansion card, as appropriate. So, even with Sheet or Word files open, you can reboot the communicator and you won't lose a thing. Honest.

So why not just remove the battery then?
Partly to save wear and tear on the battery catch and contacts, partly to save time. With a complete battery removal cycle, the phone side of the communicator gets turned off as well, so you have to power it on manually and then re-enter your PIN and other security information. With Reboot, you just use it from the Extras bar and after the operating system is up and running you'll be pleased to note that the phone's on and ready to use as normal.

How often should 9210 owners use Reboot?
It depends on what you use your 9210 communicator for. Light users who mainly use the built-in applications can probably get away with running it once a month. Moderate users who use the 9210 heavily and have some third party applications will probably benefit from using Reboot once a week. And heavy users, especially game players, will need to use Reboot or similar as often as once a day, to free up execution memory for large games or street maps, etc.

Downloading

NOTE: this release doesn't appear stable on the 9500. Please use this app instead (external link).

You can download v1.0 of Reboot for the Nokia 9200 range here as reboot10crystal.zip (5k). Once grabbed and unzipped, please read my README.TXT file if you're unsure about installing software on the communicator.

Thanks to OPL and Symbian guru Rick Andrews for his help with Reboot, which was written in C++