Dell Axim Nightmare

I have the misfortune to have owned a Dell Axim x50v.  I upgraded to Windows Mobile 2005 based upon a CD-ROM Dell sent to me.  The upgrade was a disaster.  The battery of the handheld unit routinely drained until dead even though the unit was turned off and locked.  Active Synch never worked properly even when I upgraded to version 4.1  The unit would also freeze and require routine soft resets.  The screen would spontaneously go out of allignment requiring soft resets.  The processor slowed down to the point that it took 4 or 5 seconds to switch functions.  I called Dell repeatedly and was told that Microsoft was working on a patch but they did not know when it would be forthcoming.  The only suggestion Dell had was to uninstall Windows Mobile 2005 and reinstall Windows Mobile 2003.  

When I followed their instructions the unit would no longer synch with the desktop so I had to uninstall Active Synch 4.1 and reinstall ActiveSynch 3.8.  After doing so I had to reestablish a partnership and when I attempted to Synch the desktop suddenly had two copies of all of the calendar entries as well as my hand held unit.  I called Dell and was told by one technician  that Active Synch 4.1 worked with Windows Mobile 2003 and 2005.  Another technician told me just the opposite.  The last advice I received was that I needed to uninstall Windows Mobile 2003 and ActiveSynch 3.8 and reinstall them. 

After having spend countless hours trying to get this piece of junk to work and hundreds of dollars in technical service through my IT guy I told the technician that I wanted to trade in the Axim x50v for an Axim x51v now that they had completely destroyed the usefullness of the device.  I was told NO! 

I told the technician that the Dell Axim x50v's lack of reliability was exceeded only the lack or reliability of the Microsoft crappy software and that I was going to throw the device in the trash can since it was worse than worthless - it was a source of constant frustration and inefficiency.

The  problem is that Microsoft is a monopoly that produces crap software on a regular basis and forces manufacturers to include their operating systems in their finished products resulting in a nightmare for all of us.  I would recommend that all of us refuse to purchase any device that uses Microsoft Windows Mobile 2005 and maybe they will get the message.