[JAM, MDA Compact, S100 Software Upgrading] jedm72:
My upgrade story - please read all it might help you.

Hi to Cotulla and all here.

I give this info purely to show what happened to me - for information purposes - in the hope it may be useful for others.

After successfully upgrading to the 3.03.00 version last year I thought I would have a go at this new one last night. Understanding that I had already managed to follow Cotullas implicit instructions once before - I did so again.

DL'd the new file from his site, unarchived it to new folder, read instructions for 100th time just to make sure. Ran the update.exe - waited some 30 minutes at least for a response - clicked continue - waited possibly 40 seconds - application error message with a memory address. Ok being that I am persistent & a masachist - I tried 3 more times - each time shutting down more stuff out of memory in Win 7. 3 times more - same problem.

So I try same thing in Safe Mode - making sure to untick all the not required services using msconfig - but leaving the one dealing with usb comms and the new Microsoft version of Active Sync - in MSCONFIG it is called Selective Startup. Ran Update - Instantly got a connection message - clicked continue - application error - memory address - different address this time.

Ok so by this time 5:30 in morning I am stuffed so I go to bed leaving phone plugged in & PC ON - to keep connection. I wake up this morning to find phone has automatically reverted to the old rom - the 03 version. So even if you potentially have failures - as long as no actual data has been altered in the phone - leave it plugged in and it seems to sort itself out and goes back to the old version after + 4 hours. Phone not dead - no old data (other than SIM contents) - but I backed up on the 16Gb mem stick and did a data dump to the PC. I think I got one bit of RAM that is not quite 100% - so I was going to turn off machine quickly - pull RAM out and then try upgrade again. I am just happy today to not have a dead phone and I think I will leave it be for now.

Thank you again to Cotulla for providing this to us for use. My above situation is a good example if you follow his instructions 100% and it does not work - it has to be machine related or drivers/software in memory. I suggest everyone do this in Safe Mode - but use selective settings - if you know how under msconfig - your configuration will be different than mine - but go into services and essentially get rid of all items other than the Active Sync - and possibly keep all items that say USB. Again my config is different than yours - & I appear to have busted memory stick. I did NOT do the original update in Safe mode however - and that worked - even though it too took a long time to communicate with phone. Certainly remove / temporarily shut down Anti Virus software - I think this made a big difference to the speed. Anyway - hope this helps some of you to speed up the process - or avoid a busted phone if it does not work as suggested by Cotulla.

My scenario, hardware, software config will be different to yours - I put the above into here just to hopefully assist those who try the process - get error messages they do not understand and then unplug the phone from USB because they think it is dead, DO NOT UNPLUG PHONE FROM USB & PC - if an update/upgrade HAS NOT taken place. Leave phone plugged in and go away for 4-6 hours and it will revert to the old rom you had prior to trying to update - at least that is what happened to mine. So you will be no worse off - and you can try the process on another PC - and you do not have to pay for getting phone fixed. :)

Don't shout at Cotulla if you get it wrong. His process WORKS - if it does not work for you it is because you or the PC/Software you are using got it wrong. No one forced you to try and upgrade your phone - if you don't like possibly having a broken phone - if something goes wrong - don't try it.

Remember if it was not for Cotullas hard work this would not be AVAILABLE for us to try.

Good luck to all. Sorry for long post. But I believe in more information - rather than saving your eyes.

J