I have owned a Sony Clié for nigh on a year and have enjoyed it, except for one problem: It refused to sync with my desktop. No matter how much I tried to convince them of the value of communication, they refused to talk. Eventually, I gave up.

A few evenings ago, fueled by renewed determination, I declared war on the syncing process. Once again, I found myself face-to-face with an electronic foe that I should have been able to conquer. I thought the problem out from a logical perspective, read the manual and tried the same thing over and over again. Nothing worked.

I was about to admit defeat when it dawned on me that the BIOS might have the USB ports disabled. That would certainly explain the apparent vow of silence between the two devices. Sure enough, the BIOS showed both USB ports disabled. Why anyone would want to have them disabled by default is a mystery, but the sweet taste of victory reduced the frustration. Once they were enabled the syncing process worked without a hitch.

Moral: if anyone is having a problem syncing a palm pilot with a desktop, make sure the BIOS has the USB port(s) enabled.