Support Page

Installation and Runtime issues

Various documented problems in downloading, installing, and running the various versions of the Rules are on the individual download pages whose links are provided here. Note that the files linked to by these pages will not be able to be downloaded without first purchasing them!

Version for PC Desktop

Version for Blackberry (discontinued, Internet version now available)

Version for Pocket PC

Version for Palm and all MIDP devices (smartphones, Symbian) (discontinued, Internet version now available)

CD Installation (all platforms)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. I paid for the program last September, and was promised a free upgrade when the 2008-2009 updates were completed. Where is my upgrade?
   We've been integrating the changes, testing, and debugging since August. Updates became available December 1, and notification emails began then. Unfortunately, many customers didn't receive it because either:

   • Their email inbox was full, or
   • Their email account at the time of purchase changed in the interim, or
   • Their spamblock or spam-filtering software deleted it or placed it in their "junk", "trash", or "spam" folder and they didn't see it.

   Contact us for the download directions if you didn't receive your email.

2. (Refers to obsolete version)
   On all 3 of the Palm units, I have to delete the old Rules program before I can install the new one. When I try an install the new without deleting the old program it looks like it installs, but the old program comes up when accessing the program.
   This seems to be some flakiness with HotSync. If your Palm has wifi, you may wish to try OTA installation instead, by navigating to your download directory on the Palm itself; when installing a PRC file, it will ask if you want to overwrite the previous version (answer yes). Otherwise, use your Palm desktop software to delete the previous version before upgrading.

3. I just installed the new PCDecisions on my laptop. When I click on the "Rules of Golf" icon, I get an error message from Internet Information Services.
   You need to shut down Microsoft IIS. Our new PCDecisions for Desktop and laptop computers is a webserver, and this is causing a port conflict similar to what IBM describes on this webpage, scroll down to the topic Disabling Microsoft (R) Internet Information Services (IIS) and follow the instructions. Or, on Windows Vista, it's even easier:

   1. Click Start and select Control Panel.
   2. Click Programs.
   3. Under Programs and Features, click Turn Windows features on or off.
   4. Select Add/Remove Windows Components.
   5. Click the box beside Internet Information Services (IIS).
   6. Click OK

4. I installed PCDecisions on my new Dell Axim, and when I attempt to run the Rules of Golf it prompts me for a username and password.
   The newest Axim and many newer PDA's are running Windows Mobile 5.0 instead of Pocket PC 2003. WM5 has a known bug accessing 127.0.0.1, see http://www.eggheadcafe.com/forumarchives/pocketpcdevelopernetworking/dec2005/post24784377.asp .

   I know that PIE is broken connecting to 127.0.0.1 but I thought localhost worked in all scenarios (I hadn't heard complaints at least). Our apologies for this continued issue.
   

   -- John Spaith, Microsoft Corporation

   The quick fix is to use http://localhost/. We now have a corrected shortcut for you to download to your machine. Download and save the file Rules of Golf WM5.lnk. Change the name of the file to anything you want, but leave the ".lnk" extension as is; whatever you name the file is how the shortcut will appear on your PDA. The following instructions assume you saved it to My Documents. Note: if your Windows system doesn't show the full filename (most don't unless you change the options), you won't see the ".lnk" extension. Just make sure it appears as a shortcut after saving.

   If on the other hand, you installed wm5install.exe on a Pocket PC 2003 system, you need Rules of Golf.lnk instead.

   Connect to your Pocket PC using ActiveSync Explore. Navigate to My Documents, right-click the file saved above (Rules of Golf WM5.link), and select Copy. Then navigate to My Pocket PC | Windows | Start Menu | Programs. Point the cursor to a blank spot below the list of existing files, right-click, and select Paste. You now have a corrected shortcut for your Windows Mobile 5.0 device. You may also right-click on the old "Rules of Golf.lnk" file and delete it, since it does not work on your PDA.

5. I can't run the Rules of Golf on my Blackberry without turning on Wireless access, yet my golf course prohibits use of cell phones.
   Turning off the ringer should be sufficient to stay in compliance with the course's rules.

6. How can I uninstall and free the system resources being used by pocket pc rules?
   1. Connect to your device with ActiveSync and start up ActiveSync Explore.
   2. Navigate to My Pocket PC -> Windows -> StartUp and delete the "Rules of Golf server" shortcut.
   3. Soft-reset the device to shut down the server, by pressing the stylus into the recessed button on the side (location may vary according to the PocketPC device).
   4. Reconnect using ActiveSync Explore, and navigate to My Pocket PC -> Windows -> Start Menu -> Programs. Delete the Ewe folder and the "Rules of Golf" shortcut.
   5. Navigate to My Pocket PC -> Program Files -> com. Delete the rulesguide folder. If the com folder is now empty, navigate up one directory and also delete the "com" folder. All traces of the PCDecisions installation have now been removed from your PocketPC.

7. I purchased the rules and paid via paypal last week. I have placed the alx file in the directory with the other blackberry apps and placed it in my c directory where it could be found. When I try to install it using the application loader wizard, hitting next and then the "add" button, I get the following pop up message:

   "No additional applications designed for your handheld were found"

   You may need to install some software from your service provider in order to get third-party applications to install. Please reference this article at jsmart.com for details and links. Some of the links are broken but the carrier-specific downloads seem to be available as listed.

8. I paid for the downloadable PCDecisions, now where is my program???
   After paying with Paypal, you should have been presented with a button labeled Continue. Clicking that button should have taken you to your unique download page. If that didn't work, or you didn't notice it, email us at the address shown below and we'll email the link to you.

   In some cases, if you have a Paypal account without sufficient balance and without a credit card tied to your account, the order will go through as "pending" and the automatic download will not work. In that case, we recommend proceeding as if you don't have a Paypal account, and using a credit card instead. Otherwise, we will need to enter the transaction manually once the payment clears.

9. On the iPAQ, when I back out to the main screen, I get the splash screen and have to either click it or wait a few seconds before I see the main Rules index. How do I bypass this?
   On the iPAQ and Blackberry, the device's web browser is being used as the user interface to the Rules engine. With it, you can do anything of which a browser is capable, such as bookmark the main screen (screen0.html) or make it your Home page, so that you can not only bypass the splash screen, you can reach the main index instantly at any time by using the Home icon.

   Using Pocket IE on an iPAQ, once you are at http://127.0.0.1/screen0.html, select Tools, Options..., Use Current under Home page. Alternatively, click the star icon, then Add, to add the home page to your Mobile Favorites. Then you can just click the star, followed by the bookmark for Rules of Golf, to reach the home screen.

10. (Refers to obsolete version)
    Palm just issued, and I just installed, the latest update for the Treo 650. After I reinstalled the Rules of Golf, it balks and asks for "IBM's WebSphere Micro Environment Java VM" to be installed. That piece must have been lost in the process. How can I fix this?
    From Start -> Programs -> IBM Websphere Everyplace Micro Environment 5.7.1 -> WEME for Palm-MIDP Help:

    Follow these steps to install a runtime environment on your device:

    1. In the Start Menu, select Programs | Palm Desktop | Palm Quick Install to launch the install program.
    2. Select File | Add Files and browse to the C:\Program Files\IBM\WEME\57\PalmOS50\arm\MIDP20\prc directory.
    3. Select J9JavaVMMidp20.prc and j9pref.prc and click Open to add the files to the Quick Install window.
    4. Verify that your device is placed in the cradle correctly.
    5. HotSync the device. If you are prompted for a user, select the correct user.
11. When I "zoom" an image, I only see part of it. How do I see the rest?
    It depends on the device. On the Blackberry, the thumbwheel scrolls up and down, while Control-O and Control-P scroll back and forth. The iPAQ and Palm devices can use either the stylus or the scrollwheel. Tap the stylus in the direction you want to move.

12. I read your instructions for disabling IIS, but I couldn't get into the MS web page, and couldn't find IIS on my machine, so I didn't do anything with it. However, I went into the Windows Firewall settings and included your program as an "exception" and restarted. All of a sudden everything works fine. I changed nothing else. -- GC

    I followed your suggestion and first I added the program 'Golfserve' to the Exceptions in Windows Firewall (it was not defined there), then I granted authorization to the Program in the 'Norton Internet Security / Settings -> Web Browsing / Personal Firewall -> Configure / Program Control -> 'Golfserve.exe' -> Access = Allow' and that's all. Later on, when I rebooted the system, it started to work just fine. -- LB

13. Hi. I just purchased the PCDecisions product. I downloaded the windows mobile 5 version for my Dell Axim X51V, pocket pc with windows mobile 5. All goes well until after the soft reset which is supposed to run the server. I get an "Error loading DLL" titled window, with the message "Could not find DLL:" on one line and on the next line "Ewe.DLL".

    I tried to build a shortcut to "Ewe.DLL" from the "ewe.dll" I found in the ewe folder. No luck. I then removed the programs as per your FAQ page, and then I reran the wm5install.exe program. Same problem with not finding the dll file.

    Go to your download folder and fetch Ewe-PocketPC2003.arm.CAB. Using ActiveSync Explore, copy it to a folder on your Axim. Then using File Manager on the Axim, locate that file and touch it with the stylus. That fixes the registry so it will associate the Ewe program with the proper DLL. You will need to soft- boot again after this to start up the program. On this device, you will not be able to do anything else after bootup until the HTTP server has started.
14. I downloaded the rules of golf as instructed. I can open up certain rules and read them but on about 95% of the decisions and topics I get the message that says " Cannot Connect. Unable to connect. You have not modem entries created, and no network card present. " underneath this it has a blue highlighted settings. I think I am just missing a few activations. Can you give me any suggestions?
    That can be caused by several different things. First, make sure that you installed the correct version of PCDecisions for your Pocket PC; if it's running PocketPC 2003, you should have used ppcinstall.exe. If it's Windows Mobile 5.0, wm5install.exe should have been your choice.

    Another possibility, on a PocketPC 2003 device, is that the "localhost" entries didn't get created properly. That happens on some devices for an unknown reason. In that case, download localhost.cpf and, using the Explore option of ActiveSync, copy it to \Windows\Temp on the device. Then disconnect the device from the computer, locate localhost.cpf using File Explorer, and touch it with the stylus. It will disappear after it loads, and after a soft-reset you should be able to access PCDecisions with no problems.

    If the problem is not solved by either of these, then it is possible your device is too low on runtime memory (RAM), and the operating system is terminating the server process. If that is the case, you will need to restart the server after running the program which caused the RAM shortage. The easiest way to restart is to soft-reset the device.

15. What are the two new icons in the latest download? One is a left-arrow but takes me all the way back to the start of the program.
    This icon, , indicates "back to the beginning" by an arrow pointing to a barrier. The other icon, , binoculars, is a standard icon meaning "Search".

16. Why does my computer need to access http://127.0.0.1/ to reach the Decisions? I thought I was buying something to install locally to my computer. This won't work for me if I need an Internet connection.
    This address, 127.0.0.1, is known as the "loopback" address. It doesn't need any kind of internet connection, except on certain broken PDA operating systems made by Microsoft, and we have fixes for that. It's simply a way of connecting your browser to PCDecisions on your own laptop or Pocket PC. We chose this method so that our customers wouldn't have to learn a new user interface, and almost everyone is familiar with a browser. All the rules and decisions are indeed on your computer, and are being served by a program called "GolfServe.exe" which is in your Startup folder and runs whenever you login (or on a PDA, each time you restart).

Help us help you!

For customers running the desktop/laptop version, here are a few things you could do to make it easier for us to locate the problem.

• Check if GolfServe.exe is in your Startup folder: "Start | All Programs | Startup | Golfserve.exe"
• Now check if GolfServe.exe is running: Ctrl-Alt-Del, click the Processes tab, and see if GolfServe.exe is in the list.
• Send us the logfile: \Program Files\com\rulesguide\syslog.txt
• Make a screenshot of what you see in your browser after double-clicking the desktop link to PCDecisions: hit the "Prnt Scrn" key; then Start | Run | mspaint; Edit | Paste; Save As: screen.jpg

This information and the two files will help us tremendously to locate the problem. Thank you!

Contact

PCDecisions, a product of the United States Golf Association®, was developed by Rulesguide. Rulesguide is the licensed manufacturer and distributor of PCDecisions and operator of this website. We want to make sure the product works for you! John Staver, owner of Rulesguide and domain expert in the game of Golf, and John Comeau, senior programmer, are always available in case the first tiers of support staff are unable to solve your problem. Reach us at support@rulesguide.com.

For non-technical issues, you may call us at 561-379-7851.

Our mailing address is:

RULESGUIDE
8801 SE Riverfront Terrace
Tequesta, FL 33469