[MDA II, XDA II, 2060 General] sgmanohar:
I'm using - Dell laptop with integrated Dell bluetooth, XDA2 with original 1.03 rom, ActiveSync 3.7.1, Windows XP+SP2. I *AM* able to: synchronize fine with USB cradle, synchronize with IR, and beam files directly to the XDA2 from the laptop via bluetooth.

I have successfully: removed all traces of Widcomm, removed and reinstalled the plain old XP/SP2 BT drivers, have removed the pairings and re-created the device pairings successfully, removed and re-created the incoming COM port, renumbered my incoming COM port to 3, set ActiveSync to 'allow serial connection' to COM3, turned off XDA infrared, tried out "Pocket Bluetooth Tools" too, disabled my firewall. I moved my modem from COM3 to COM13. All the devices are 'working properly' according to control panel. Bluetooth switched to 'On' on XDA, once already paired. Bluetooth Devices/Options/Connections/Allow BT devices to connect is ticked.

Now I have tried to connect as documented in the many webpages on this subject, including GeekZone:

A. On the desktop - ActiveSync/File/Get connected... gives the message 'looking for mobile device on IR and COM3' but then nothing happens. After failing, it shows the list, and COM3 is 'available'.

B. On the XDA2 - Start/Settings/System/Bluetooth settings/Start activesync setup - gives message 'Please bond with device supporting serial port' - then takes me to the bonding screen. But I am already bonded successfully!

C. On the XDA2 - ActiveSync/Tools/Connect via BT with 'Laptop' - gives the message 'Cannot start communications with the desktop computer, critical error 608'.

As the pessimistic bobopopo recommended, I tried doing these last things repeatedly in every possible order!

Possible clues as to the problem:

1. I can't get the bluetooth icon to come up in the system tray. It comes up temporarily if I uninstall and reinstall the XP-SP2 drivers, then goes away next time I reset - even though the item 'Show the BT icon in the notification area' is always checked.

2. The first time I make a pairing, the word 'connected' appears below the icon for my XDA2 in the "Bluetooth Devices" dialog, on XP. Once it goes away, thereafter I am unable to get it to say 'connected' again. How can I get it to connect?

3. First time I bonded I got the Pocket Bluetooth Tools profiles dialog on the XDA2 - and ticked all the boxes, including serial port. Now I can't seem to get that screen back again?

4. On the XP machine, if I go to Control panel/Bluetooth Devices/Devices, select the XDA2 that is paired, then Properties/Services, I get only 'Dial up networking', and no exciting stuff like COM, OBEX, audio, PAN etc. - is this right?

5. If I go to Control Panel/Bluetooth Devices/COM ports/Add/Outgoing, and put Browse.., it searches for a while then says 'Windows cannot find any Bluetooth devices. Make sure it is switched on' etc.. although the device is clearly visible. So I can't create an outgoing COM port.

6. Can't beam files from XDA2 to Laptop: though XDA can see the other machine when you try to pair, it can't see it when you go to File/Send To/Infrared recipient - just empty dialog 'Searching...' forever. ('Accept incoming beams' is on and Bluetooth is on.)

????? Is it me or is it Microsoft ?????