March 2007 - Posts

• ActiveSync 4.5 Installation Problems - When Less Means More Progress

  I have been installing the latest version of ActiveSync (version 4.5) on various machines recently. You can download it from the Microsoft Mobile web site here. I have installed ActiveSync 4.5 on many of my Windows XP machines and its been working fine, with the caveats mentioned in my previous post. All that is except for one Windows XP machine. So the saga begins... During the ActiveSync 4.5 install,  it tries to install a hotfix for the RNDIS protocol.  On this specific Windows XP machine, the install just hung indefinitely with an empty progress bar and no error messages. Eventually my system became completely  unresponsive and the only cure for this was a machine reboot via the power switch - ouch. I tried again - same result. I must have tried this twenty times over several days with the same result. Uninstall Is Not An Option So I thought - I'll uninstall ActiveSync 4.5 and go back to 4.1.  Unfortunately the ActiveSync 4.5 installation  is not an in-place upgrade for existing versions of ActiveSync 4.x. It actually uninstals the previous version at some point during the install. So depending on the type and time of install failure you may be left without any version of ActiveSync at all.  Potentially there could be nothing there to be uninstalled. To uninstall ActiveSync 4.5, the ReadMe (in C:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync by default) says to do the following: To successfully uninstall ActiveSync 4.5 and reinstall a previous version of ActiveSync on your desktop PC, do the following: 1. Uninstall ActiveSync 4.5. 2. Open Windows Explorer, navigate to the System32 directory in your Windows directory, and then manually delete the dynamic-link library Rapi.dll. 3. Reinstall the previous version of ActiveSync. Which is all fine unless the installation failed where mine did. I had no uninstall option in Add/Remove programs or a rapi.dll present. My install was failing so early that nothing was being recorded as having been installed. Feeling nervous about installing a previous version over a broken newer version I decided to try to fix the 4.5 install instead. Troubleshooting The Devices I knew that ActiveSync historically was very sensitive to the activities of other attached hardware, particularly USB devices, so I began to disconnect devices that I thought might have an effect. First to go was the sync cradle for my IPAQ (even though the IPAQ wasn't cradled during the install). This made no difference. Next to go was the Creative Zen PMC (Portable Media Center) sync cradle. Still no effect. Next were all the external hard drives. Still no difference. Each time I tried a different hardware configuration I had to do a hard reboot to recover control of the PC. Eventually I disconnected all the external USB devices (hubs, printers, the lot). As if by magic the RNDIS patch updated successfully and ActiveSync 4.5 installed successfully. I plugged everything else back in, rebooted and after installing a few drivers again (for the previously unplugged devices)  everything worked fine. Success! Bluetooth Gotcha But what caused the issue? I examined all the external USB devices attached to the machine and realised that one of them was a Belkin external Bluetooth Adaptor. This was the only networking type device I had on the USB connection. Previously in the past it had been used for synching with ActiveSync over Bluetooth. It shows as a Local Area Network Connection under Windows XP as well.  I can only assume that the networking protocols it was running were blocking the install of the RNDIS patch. Once unplugged and ActiveSync 4.5 installed,  the Bluetooth adaptor was reconnected and has run perfectly since. Installation Tips and Tricks So if you are having the same issue of hung ActiveSync 4.5 installs I would do the following: -  Sync the device so it has the latest versions of your data and applications in case the worst happens... -  Make sure you have a full backup of your device. Windows Mobile 5 users may need a third party tool for this. -  Close all other applications and save data so you wont lose anything if the machine hangs.   - Unplug or remove any USB devices (such as Bluetooth. WiFi adaptors) that might be running expected network protocols.    - Disable any network configuration tools (WiFi, network monitors etc) prior to installation of ActiveSync 4.5 Del.icio.us Digg It Share on Facebook Stumble It! Posted Mar 22 2007, 11:33 AM by rogerw with 34 comment(s)

• Windows Mobile Device Synchronisation Software: Disconnecting The Ageing Device

  Microsoft has just released ActiveSync 4.5. You can download it from the Microsoft Windows Mobile web site.  ActiveSync 4.5 offers some great stability and functionality improvements. The much better USB synchronisation stability and linkages to Exchange Server  SP2 alone justify it's installation for me. It also has a troubleshooter utility to help diagnose the often cryptic ActiveSync connectivity issues. Windows Vista now has its own dedicated Windows Mobile Device Center software instead of ActiveSync. You should not even try to install ActiveSync on Vista. I anticipate these two software utilities will run on somewhat parallel feature paths in the future.  The significance of both of these software releases is only really revealed when you look at their readme files however.  Both these pieces of software no longer provide synchronisation support for Microsoft Handheld PC or any PC running Outlook 2000 software clients. This effectively confines such owners to Windows XP 2 and Active Sync 4.2 (possibly ActiveSync 4.0 if they want to backup devices using Active Sync), for as long as they continue to actively use these devices or software clients.  So What's The Big Deal Here? Surely some of these Handheld OS devices are confined to history and not used in significant numbers? True enough in consumer terms terms these devices are up to 7 years old. They are certainly bigger, heavier, and slower that the sleek devices of today, with poor battery life and even poorer connectivity. In software support terms these are indeed legacy devices. Yet many of these devices continue to be in productive use today, predominately in vertical or niche applications for industry or commerce (surveying, data collection etc). Many may even be running pure Windows CE rather than Pocket PC or Smartphone variant platforms, and using ActiveSync to upload data when cradled. How many parcels do these kinds of devices still deliver or how many meters do they still read? The developers of these bespoke legacy mobile appications now have some interesting choices to make. If they upgrade the desktop PC aspects of their solutions to Windows Vista they may lose connectivity support for the device. If they upgrade the devices they may need to rework the mobile application for the device and re-equip or  retrain the workforce etc. In some cases the resultant solutions may not offer significantly more functionality for the cost incurred. In many cases this breaking change may allow inclusion of significant technologies such as GPS and GPRS support but for some it may be purely to remain operational. Some Admissions... I admit I too was caught out in the rush to upgrade to the new shiny ActiveSync 4.5. Readme's are usually the things I read AFTER I've installed the software and usually only if I'm having problems.  Well this time it came to haunt me. I rushed to install ActiveSync 4.5 without looking at the system requirements. I had a major struggle to install it on one XP machine (more of this in a later post). Then I discovered I had lost connectivity to some of my own devices. I still have a working HP Jornada 720 mobile device. It runs the Microsoft Handheld PC 2000 OS based on Windows CE. Yes its big, clunky and support for it ended officially four years ago. However it is no slouch and it has a great keyboard. I often used it for writing simple stuff on the move before I got the Orange M5000 (Htc Universal) device. It has Microsoft Word, Excel, and Pocket Access built-in and even Microsoft Powerpoint for creating simple presentations (remember this is long before the Powerpoint viewer functionality in Windows Mobile 5). It is also one of the few devices I know even today that has a built-in SmartCard reader, a PC Card slot (which still works with certain Wifi cards) and a PCMCIA VGA adaptor for hooking up to projectors etc. In its day it truly was "state of the art". A great device and if portability is not a big concern, one that could still be actively used today, by someone with limited demands. There is still an active community for this device and you can even buy fully refurbished devices and related accessories at the dedicated UsedHandhelds site.   Disconnecting a Dinosaur... Well after ActiveSync 4.5 was finally installed, I got Support Code 800703fa and was unable to connect or synchronise the HP Jornada 720. I'm still trying to work out why this is and following up on the support code. One thought is that the move to RNDIS network support from PPP which started with Windows Mobile 5 may have helped to obsolete the Handheld PC. I suppose I could uninstall ActiveSync 4.5 and revert to ActiveSync 4.2 as I know this worked previously (the readme has good instructions for this!). Right now however I have no compelling reason to do so and I can probably live without synchronising the HP Jornada. Watch Out For Microsoft Outlook 2000 Perhaps more concerning for many is the lack of support for synchonisation in Outlook 2000. This probably has a much much higher installed base than those still using legacy mobile devices. So if you can't upgrade to Microsoft Outlook 2003 or the new Microsoft Outlook 2007 then I would strongly recommend staying at Active Sync 4.2. Further Advice & Info For more advice and information on Active Sync 4.5 I'd suggest looking at the following MIcrosoft Web Page. Del.icio.us Digg It Share on Facebook Stumble It! Posted Mar 13 2007, 12:21 AM by rogerw with 8 comment(s) Filed under: Mobile Devices, Active Sync, Windows Mobile Compatibility, Windows Mobile 5.0