XDA's from Hell. Help needed.

[Phiber]

Let me start out with a disclaimer; if you don't care, skip to the next paragraph: I like to consider myself fairly technically minded. I would like to think I am above average intelligence, especially when it comes to electronics. I am near my wits end with these two devices; they are very near ending up as expensive fish bowl ornaments! I searched, and as much as I have tried I cannot find the answers to my questions. The problem I believe is the slight language barrier this site displays; not that I view this as a bad thing, it is just a tad harder to get a point across if English is your second language. At least, if you're speaking to a native English speaker. End monologue.

1. How do I load the Special Edition ROM from an SD card? Yes, I've read the links. I have .exe file which appears as a ZIP file in windows. Unable to locate instructions on what to do with this particular file. I fully intend to write a walkthrough for dummies once I've finished this ordeal. Or perhaps there is already one out there?

2. The unlock program proved to be useless on BOTH PHONES. How's that for luck? Thus my above question.

Phone 1:
ROM Version A.20.17 ENG
Radio Version: A.20.10

Phone 2:
ROM Version: 3.14.03 ENG
Radio Version: 6.12

Thank you for your patience and time.

In an unrelated problem, it seems when I load the OSTools on my XP computer it is unable to run due to a missing DLL? How quaint. I will post exactly what it is missing later.

[doctor_j]

Got the same problem before with the missing dll. just install ACTIVE SYNC. it would solve the problem.

[Phiber]

I found my problem.

See, I had no interest in actually using these phones; they were gifts for others. I prefer to stick to my tried and true Treo 650 (which I have affectionatly named 'Princess,' for the main reason it's a whiny bitch.) It never occured to me that I would have to install Active Sync, especially when I was trying to unlock from an SD card. No where that I could find was it mentioned that you first needed to install active sync to run the ROM updater. One should never assume that the person reading an article of instruction would know this. Instead, most places I looked, it simply said 'install' the ROM. ;) I will have my Unlock for Dummies up shortly. :) Thanks all for the great info provided here on this site.