I still use a Palm Tungsten T3. Last week, when I went to back up its contents, nothing happened when I punched the button on the cradle. This happened once before, and was corrected by reinstalling the software. * Well, the reinstallation didn't work, and I wound up with a Palm I couldn't back up. Mildly scary.
Repeated de- and re-installations didn't work. I finally decided to bite the bullet and edit the Registry. This isn't dangerous if you're cautious. (I'd done it many times before, and never fouled up anything.) Anyhow, I removed every reference to Palm -- both direct and indirect (ie, those related to other software), then reinstalled the software. Everything now works correctly.
Conclusion? If you reinstall software that used to work, but won't after reinstallation, it might be because of crap floating around in the Registry. Just be vehwy, vehwy kehful when you edit it. And don't forget to restart after the edit.
- It turned out the cradle itself was bad. I bought two for , shipping included, from an eBay dealer. They came with two 5V switching supplies.