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

[bilbo--baggins]

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.

[AdmiralAK]

hello fellow mac user :D

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

[bilbo--baggins]

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?

[bilbo--baggins]

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.

[bilbo--baggins]

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).

[bilbo--baggins]

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!

[bilbo--baggins]

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!!!!

[bilbo--baggins]

Can anyone help?

[bilbo--baggins]

Anyone?

[Robster]

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

[bilbo--baggins]

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.

[Robster]

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

[maltloaf]

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.

[Robster]

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

[bilbo--baggins]

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...