If your HotSync crashes whenever you try to sync your Palm Desktop with your Palm Pilot, the reason could be a broken datebook.dat file. The Palm Desktop for Windows has the tendency to sometimes slightly alter the dates of certain entries in your DateBook. This will make HotSync crash as soon as it tries to look at these entries. The most vicious thing about this is, that you will only realize it once the particular entry needs syncing. This happens for example when your Palm Pilot has crashed and you try to restore it from the Palm Desktop. Retrieving an old copy of your datebook.dat from backup will not help, as it is possible that the damaged entry has been sitting in your DateBook for months.

Website: http://oetiker.ch/dtbrc.cgi