[Networking] ducklord:
Howdy guys and gals.

Although I pretty much... err... hate my Touch Pro (feels sluggish, GPS is worthless), the final insult came when I upgraded to Windows 7 64bit. The phone just couldn't sync through WMDC. It wasn't a ROM issue or a problem on the phone itself, since I'd kept my old XP 32bit instalation on another disk and checked it there, through Activesync - that worked fine. I thought it was a problem with some program I had installed on Windows 7 (firewall, antivirus, whatever) and since I had a lot of work, I tried only occasionally to fix it. Once, twice, thrice... After some months, I got bored with having no sync and thought I'd finally reinstall Win7 64bit and try, bit by bit, to find the offending software. Guess who's the culprit?

Windows 7 64bit

There can't be no other explanation but a problem on the OS itself, since after a complete wipe of the HD and a reformat, with no installations whatsoever, with Microsofts official updates of the system (yeah, ORIGINAL Windows 7, no "you have a pirate copy" problems here), it 'still couldn't sync. I tried different roms (different NRG versions, TAEL and a bunch of others), different cables, different USB slots... Nada. Zits. Remember, I'm talking vanilla installation of both Win7 64bit and the phone (wiped storage, original ROM flash and then upgrade to cooked ROM). N-o-t-h-i-n-g worked.

I must have spent more than 50 hours troubleshooting both, installing, reinstalling, changing cables, heck, even trying different hardware combinations (had some spare parts and changed almost everything apart from the motherboard and the CPU). It-doesn't-work.

My version of Office WAS 2007. I used the exact same software with WinXP (but jumped to some 64bit versions of programs like Photoshop), but that doesn't matter anyway - since I tried syncing with ONLY Windows 7 64bit installed and no software. On XP everything works fine - so, no "hardware problems on the PC or Phone".

So, I've finally reached the point were I have to... beg for help. Really. Please, somebody, any ideas? At the moment I've upgraded to Office 2010 and I know that "I can't sync with it", but, hell, I couldn't sync with the previous version as well. Microsofts official forum offer no help whatsoever on the issue, and mention the same'ol "tricks" to make WMDC work (I'm sorry for the language, but after spending seven hundred bucks on this piece of crap phone and another couple of hundred on original version of the newest version of Windows, as well as tens of hours of my time, well, **** you Microsoft).

I'm really sorry for the rant, I wrote it more or less for people in the same position as me, as I've read messages from some other users that also cannot sync their HTC phone through WMDC, even after reformatting. Microsoft plays dumb, looks away and whistles like it's somebody elses problem. If you're thinking of upgrading to Windows 7 64bit, keep an image backup of your previous system. I'm not saying that EVERYONE has the same problem as I, many people seem to be syncing just fine. It seems there's some strange... Dunno... Hardware configuration problem on Win 7 64bit and WMDC communications, on specific motherboards. I don't know what else to think.

So, does anyone, anyone at all, have any idea, however strange it might be, of what might be the problem? Can somebody help if I post logs and info and whatever else? I bought this brick first and foremost for syncing tasks and notes with my PC, and since I can't do this, it's totally useless for me - just like a "dumbphone".

And even if you don't have any idea of what's the problem, does anyone know of a way that I could sync Outlook "on the net" (for free, I ain't paying no more for doing what I already paid for) and then on the phone, and vice versa? I don't need only "calendars", thank you very much, but the full monty: calendar, contacts, mail, tasks and notes. Outlook MUST be "in the mix" - I can't move everything to Thunderbird, nor switch to Linux, as you probably understand. I need some kind of Outlook-Internet-Phone syncing solution. And, no, I cannot afford to buy another phone, not at the moment at least.

Anyone? I'd be grateful...

Thanks in advance

Ducklord

P.S.: I should add that I tried with and without "advanced USB connectivity" on the phone side. I should also mention that Windows DOES "SEE" the phone, it just doesn't sync. At some point it -did- manage to sync, but only notes - no contacts, mail, tasks or calendar. Activesyncs log (on the phone side) mentions some codes that I don't remember at the moment, but that correspond to "cannot find the server", "cannot find the data source" or something like that. It's like the phone and the PC are connected, Outlooks existance IS recognised, but the phone cannot "find Outlooks data" (if I'm making any sense). I've come accross 3-4 different Activesync problems in the logs, when trying different setups/solutions to my problem, that all, more or less, translated to "cannot find the data source from which the phone should sync". And, yes, the phone IS accessible through Windows, I -CAN- copy files to its SD, I can even install new programs through WMDC and sync its photos with Windows (well, at least, I could before I upgraded to Office 2010).