Palm suddenly can't hotsync

[Daruma Chan]

Okay, I need help, I screwed up badly.

1. I have a Palm Zire71 that I regularly hotsync with my eMac. My father 
has a Treo600 that he hotsyncs to his PC
2. I've been having problems with Camino the web browser crashing, so I 
was in the process of trashing preferences and seeing which one would 
improve Camino
3. But then my father's PC went on the fritz, so I tried to hotsync his 
Treo on my eMac
4. Treo won't hotsync.
5. Searched the net, the only advice I found is to delete the V3.5.3 
folder in Palm\updates
6. Tried again, still no dice.
7. I tried logging out and then back in.
8. Suddenly I can't even hotsync with my Zire!?
9. Reinstalled Palm Desktop. Still nothing.
10. Transported to the state of confusion.

It can't be the cradle, because I just hotsynced but a half hour before.

I'm on an eMac 700mhz, System 10.1.4, 384MB, PalmDesktop4.0

Any help? Please?