Database Develop

PDA2K: upgrading ROM with a Mac (and Virtual PC)

I've stuggled on with the unreliable ROM that my PDA2K came with because I have been unsuccessful at upgrading using my Mac and Virtual PC 7 (Windows XP).
I don't have access to a PC, and wondered whether anyone could give me any guidance.
Is it possible to upgrade the rom directly from the device itself, or are there ROM installers for other Blue Angel phones that would work via Virtual PC?
Any help very welcome - but please give as much detail as possible if telling me to install or change things manually. I've read posts about 'extended roms' and taking bits from here and there and I've no idea what this is about.

hello fellow mac user
What exactly is the problem?
ANy error messages? are you trying via BT or USB ?

HI,
When I tried to upgrade previously the PDA2K's screen showed USB but I got an error (sorry I cant remember the number code; radio upgrade error or something).
Recently, and I don't know what's changed, I just get Error 101: Connection Failure. When I try to run the upgrade the device does a soft reset at the beginning, then there is a long pause then I get the error. It seemed to manage more previously (may be that was an earlier from upgrade, but it never worked anyway!).
Have you been successful from your Mac?

Just looked back at my old posts on the howard forums, and discovered it was Error 114 I was getting previously (with the first ROM upgrade). I presume I'm getting the 101 connection error now that I'm trying to use the latest ROM upgrade.
One thing I'm about to try myself is to switch off both the windows and Mac OS X firewalls just in case they are interfering with the process.

Just to be more specific:
It comes up with the info from the phone and the upgrade, then I click next to start the upgrade; the device does a soft reset then repeatedly the device says it's connecting to host, the PC says reading info from device; then after a while I get error 101. As soon as the ROM upgrade installer quits, then Activesync reconnects the device (as guest).

Are the ERK files supposed to be run from the device? Will this help me? I've just downloaded one, and downloaded a thing called WinRAR but the resulting files say they aren't Win32 applications; and most of the contents of the folder are .rar files even after I extracted it. Wierd. Please can someone help!

Oh well, it's getting late here in the UK, I will just have to try again another time. Going to have to reinstall everything again now (as I have after every failed attempted at a ROM upgrade over the past few months). This is the last time I buy anything with a Microsoft operating system!!!!

Can anyone help?

Anyone?

Hi
Sorry but I don't think I am going to be much help.
I too am a Mac user with VPC and happily ActiveSync every day using VPC 7.01.
HOWEVER I would never try and use VPC to do something as basic as a ROM upgrade.
I managed to borrow a PC from someone at work and used that for the upgrade. I went on the basis that a ROM upgrade is so basic to the device and would likely need real PC hardware that I would not risk it.
Is there no colleagure, friend or workmate that can help you out?
Regards.
Robin

Hi,
Thanks for replying. I had bought Virtual PC because I just couldn't find any other way of getting a lot of the software onto the iMate. Having made this investment I hoped it would work with the ROM upgrade too.
I did manage to get use of a PC yesterday, but unfortunately it didn't work either. The PDA2K reset itself at the start, then after a delay the updater gave error 101 connection error, exactly the same as with Virtual PC.
Later, I managed to get someone really helpful at i-mate on the live support (and for once it didn't time out) and I went through a few things, including pressing power-reset-record (so that USB is displpayed) and trying from there. It still didn't work, I got Error 114 after the updater sat at 0% for several minutes.
This leads me to the exact reason I didn't want to have to rely on someone elses PC: having access to it for a limited time I tried repeatedly the ROM upgrade yesterday with no success. Later, at home, I got help from iMate and some ideas that will be trying again with a PC, but now I've got to wait for another opportunity to use a PC. What concerns me, is if I ever get a major problem the phone may be unusable until I next get access to a PC. Worse still - if the phone locks up when I'm using the PC and I don't have the time/knowledge to resolve it, I could end up with a non-functioning phone. It's much easier to tinker with these things in the comfort of my own home when time is less of an issue.
I just received my K700i yesterday. I decided enough was enough. I'm going to sell the PDA2K as soon as I've got the ROM sorted out. I really did try to get on with this device but it's caused me more grief than I have ever had with an electronic device before. I learned a lot, setting up GPRS, wifi, bluetooth, found all sorts of useful software, used VNC to control my Mac remotely etc etc, but at the end of the day I just couldn't rely on it. Some days I could get email, some days I couldn't. Some days people would receive the SMS I sent, some days they didn't. Sometimes the people I was calling could hear me, sometimes they couldn't. Sometimes the phone would stay switched off, sometimes it turned itself on and drained the battery. The list of problems I had with this phone were endless. Hence why I was trying to get the ROM upgraded.

I understand your concenr and problem.
I actually have the latest ROM installed on mine and I STILL get someof the problems you describe.
Only Microsoft could get away with writing such a crap operating system to run a phone.
And i-mates issues just compund the Windows issues.
Good luck.
Robin

ive never bothered even trying to run activesync thru vpc. It was a bit hit and miss on my XDA1 so as soon as my xda2i arrived i just bought missing sync from mark space. Hassle free syncing and installing, plus the ppc gets mounted like a mass storage device too.

Trouble is I use Outlook at work and need to sync it to my PDA.
I cannot even use Entourage as we are a) running to old a version of Outlook server and b) Missing Sync will not sync with Entourage.
I am stuffed both ways.
Robin

Me again!
Just thought I'd let everyone know that I did indeed succeed first time on a PC today (having pressed power-reset-record to go into bootloader mode first).
So, as everyone told me, it was necessary to use a PC, and Virtual PC on a Mac just wont work.
I'm getting on ok with my K700i, although the email seems a bit limiting (doesn't seem to have message titles displayed, and a short limit to the length of the email).
My plan: use the K700i for a few weeks and see how I get on, then perhaps I might try the newly upgraded PDA2K for a few weeks, and see which I prefer.
The other complicating factor is that the SIM free Treo 650 has just become available, but I'm going to hold fire on that for now. Perhaps if I'm not happy with either the K700i or the upgraded PDA2K then I might consider it...

Cingular Sx-66 (Black sheep of the Blue Angels?)

I have a SX-66 that has already begun to do odd things, mainly show the GSM/GPRS WinPPC splash screen and then white screen until a hard reset. I upgraded to the newest rom from the SIemens site, but I could use some US Cingular Specific Guidance. While I have read the intro to upgrades, etc. herein, Cingular's version of the device is not mentioned. Can anyone provide som eassistance to me? What needs to be done to get this thing working properly. Before I set up my Socket BT GPS and BT800 handsfree, I want to make sure everything is perfect, then I will burn a pbackup and put the data from outlook onto the phone. Thanks in advance.

That happens to me on occasion.
I dont have to hard reset, I just soft reset, maybe a couple of times and it fixes itself. I usually softreset once, or twice every two or three weeks. Windows mobile has some issues, but the SX66 is not the only blue angel that has these problems
The best thing to do is this: Setup your SX66 the way you want it, then backup (complete backup).
What I did with mine was to backup everytime I installed a new app. Use it for a few hours make sure it does not crash, install another app , backup, test, install next app (etc etc etc).
I am at a point now that my device works great (with the few soft resets) and if something catastrophic happens I can restore it

Hello.
If you downloaded the 'legit' Siemens upgrade from either Siemens or Cingular's web site, there is NOTHING for you to do prior to running the backup.
Except the following...
Make sure your phone is fully charged. Activesync it first, to store all of your contacts, email, and calender data in Outlook. Reset the phone (push the reset button on the bottom).
Now, you're ready to begin. Connect the phone via the cradle, and run the installation program. Keep in mind, the upgrade will erase everything in the phone.
I also have a BT800 headset, and I can tell you from experience that it doesn't work too well with the Blue Angel phones (yet).
Don't worry too much about upgrading the phone. It should go fine. Just make sure the phone is directly connected to your computer, and not through a USB hub.

Excellent News
Glad to hear I am not too far off. I also replaced the sim chip which seemed to stop the phone from hanging up on the GSM/GPRS windows splash screen. I backuped as soon as I had it working for a while, as you said and today cam into the office to find the Socket BT GPS with map software and my BT800 arrived. Hopefully the BT 800 issues will be solved so those of us with Blue Angels can rpove convergence devices really can do all those things... and do it well. Thanks for the help. This forum is extremely well versed. Lot of posts to read to get smart... :shock:

HELP!!! XDA IIs not functioning after upgrade attempt!!!

Basically I have an O2 UK XDA IIs that I was trying to upgrade to the 1.40 ROM. It started fine but once it said it was starting the upgrade nothing happened and nothing changed on either screens except the device changed into bootloader mode which I understand is normal.
Now I cannot get it out of bootloader and I cannot upgrade. I've read the posts on fixing this but they do not work for me.
The main problem seems to be that while Windows sees a USB device connected it does not know what type it is so I cannot get a connection to ActiveSync. All of the tools I have found on this site require a connection to ActiveSync so I am stuck!!!
Please help ASAP!!!

It's now working - see my solution...
I just got it to work - YAAAH.
Yes, I had read all of wiki but could not find the solution for me. Then while I was reading some other posts this morning I came across someone that said they had removed their battery and then held the hard reset sequence for over 1 minute and then replaced the battery. Since I was desperate I thought it couldn't hurt so I tried it.
Strangely enough, that was the solution!!!!
I'm now successfully upgraded!!!!

I Can't Connect my Tilt...HELP!!

I've searched for an answer in these forums and can't find one. I have tried some suggestions from here to no avail. Well...here's the problem. I've had my Tilt for a couple of months. All has been great and i love it...up until now.
I've put several roms on it and they've all worked fine. Got that down...I thought. I can't get activesync to see the tilt on any of my computers. It won't find it on the laptop I've been using to load. My desktop at work, that I've been using sometimes to load it, won't see it and it won't even connect on a new computer in my office with fresh ASync 4.5. Like I said....it has been working fine I just decided today to load a new Dutty rom and I can't even hook up. Wow....this is so aggravating. I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times. Activesync is still on the tilt too. I've killed the program in taskmgr. I've stopped all running apps in the tilt. I have 2 different cables also. By the way....I don't care to wipe it clean...if I need to. Any suggestions as to what I can do? If anyone's got any clues to what my problem could be I would be eternally grateful. Thanks in advance for responses.

Desparate!
Please help me....if you can. I know there's a tremendous amount of knowledge here. Surely someone's been through this same problem and was able to fix it. I've seen another post similar to this and he's not getting an answer to his problem either. If I we need to contact HTC....please recommend that. Some of you "tilt masters" please respond. Thanks in advance.

Also I had a similar problem and i had installed a blackberry program on my tilt. That created a connection problem between my tilt and the sync program and it couldnt see my tilt. I figured out that the blackberry desktop program thought it had dibs on my tilt because the bb was on my tilt. I removed the BB off my tilt it did a hard reset and then proceeded to manually remove every windows mobile device partnership there were many. Rebooted my computer and tried it again and it worked. You could try a hard reset and then and then use system restore to a few days before you had the problem and see if you can trick it.

I had this problem.
Hard-Reset fixed it

Thanks for the replies....I've tried the hard reset twice and that didn't work either. Have been on the phone with HTC support and we did several things. Still not working. He was supposed to call me back in 10 min but didn't for a couple of hours. Anyway...I've got to contact them back and take up where we left off. Surely we can get this thing going again. If HTC can fix it....no one can. When we get it up and going...i'll report back here for others future needs. The phone works great besides that!
Again thank....and anyone else have a suggestion.

Please respond to...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=362679
Thanks..

Check the USB pins on the unit, mine were bent down and did not make contact, i think from memory the 3rd pin in is the data connection.
Derek

[Q] Trying to unbrick Kaiser

Hi All,
I've been running the Orange (UK) WM6.1 ROM for months/years without problems and was messing around with some texts and somewhere along the line I have ended up with the standard 4 stripes down the screen and some text top left.
I have scanned the forums here and the wiki and they suggest connecting using USB and running Mtty.exe, however whilst I can connect the phone using USB Activesync won't recognise it and then I get an error from Mtty.exe because it won't recognise the phone.
I have also tried re-intalling the Orange ROM as well as newer roms, but none of them seem to be able to connect to the phone.
Active sync doesn't seem to be able to connect on Win 7 or Win XP despite them syncing fine this morning.
So, any suggestions out there?
I'll do some more searching, but any pointers would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Try a new USB cable, I went through 5 in one year, or try flashing via SD card.

Well I tried a couple of different leads and no luck.
I did manage to get some info from mtty.exe, but didn't make sense.
I took my SIM out to use in another phone and having left the battery out for a while, put it back in to try again at getting it to start and it booted fine without any problems.
After a bit of messing around it seems like that the boot problem is either down to a problem with the SD card, SIM or a foreign object in phones casing.
I keep the phone in a pocket of my overals that I use a workshop and occasionally iron filings from a grinder can get into it's working, which is what I think has happened.
ANyway, it's back and working again, only need to keep it going until Orange can get some Desire HDs in

Hi!
Read those threads again,the solution is there.
1.Disable USB connections in Activesync menu (right click on green icon on the tray)-->connection settings-->untick "Allow USB connections"
2.Put your device in bootloader mode (yours is in it)
3.Start to connect it with MTTY to do what you want or just run an official Orange UK ROM update
If everything is fine,your device will be alive again.
After that install Hard-SPL to avoid problems like this.
BR
Scootie
P.S.:Sorry,I didn't read post #3,but it can be useful later.
One more tip:check the camera button.

Thanks Scootie,
I'll try the Hard-SPL thing - the jumping into boot loader seems pretty random, has happened a couple more times and I find I have to pull the battery for several minutes and then try a restart.
The camera button doesn't seem to do much other than what it is supposed to.
Pretty annoying since I have had the phone for 3 years, but have not had signal at home so hardly use it, and now we have signal due to Orange/T-Mobile merger from the beginning of the month the phone fails me :-(