Windows Mobile 6 Upgrade for FSC N560/C550

[bruisah]

Hi all,

I just stumbled upon the following thread:

Fujitsu Siemens Computers - Forum :: View topic - WM6 on FS560 not "official"

It looks like our Russian friends have been busy working on a way to flash WM6 onto an N560/C550...

My Russian isn't too good, so I can't work out exactly what's going on, but if this is possible to do, (and it is worthwhile) I'm very interested in upgrading (albeit, unofficial).

Mind you, I'm not sure about the legal aspects...

Anyone here know about this stuff?

Regards,

Andy B.

[windows]

Good news indeed that someone has cooked a WM6 ROM for the machine. It's got to be better than the last ROM FSC produced.

[Timmy]

Originally Posted by bruisah

It looks like our Russian friends have been busy working on a way to flash WM6 onto an N560/C550...

My Russian isn't too good, so I can't work out exactly what's going on, but if this is possible to do, (and it is worthwhile) I'm very interested in upgrading (albeit, unofficial).

Hello Bruisah,

Hope, you can read (or translate) this:
Loox mit Windows Mobile 6 ? - PPC-Welt

You can read here much about the pro's and cons.


Succes!
Timmy

[cyclist]

Quick summary of the thread:
jonny72 has done the WM6 update from XDA Developers. He reports:
- more free program memory because Windows Live and a few other things aren't included
- he's seen a white screen a couple of times when overclocking with XCPUScalar, but soft reset fixed it
- his upgrade was on a device in English to start with
- GPS functions without problems
- GPS locator is missing
- GPS Tuner and TT6 run
- no increase in speed
- after installing all Spb products, Coreplayer, Resco, PInformant, GPS Tools, and so on he still has 46Mb free

There's a discussion of how to get the English upgrade onto devices that are currently in German, how to return a device to official WM5 in German in order to resell it, the flashing process.

That was only the first page of comments, sorry I'm out of time to do the remainder.

[bruisah]

Hi all,

Merry Xmas and all that!

Good news!

Today, after much searching, and researching, I decided to update my Loox N560 to WM6. So far, everything has worked perfectly. What I did:


[Edit: I forgot to stress that this was all done on a standard English language FSC Loox N560. You can do this on other N560s, but there are complications, so don't follow my steps without first finding out what else you need to do!]


Preparation steps:

1. Download and install ActiveSync 4.5 (earlier versions are not supported)

2. Download and unpack N560.C550.WM6.Pups.777_Team.0.0.4.rar archive. This contains almost everything you need to perform the flash. I don't want to post the archive as I'm not sure of the legality of this, but a quick 'Google' for the above file name will get you what you need (or see step 3., as the required file is listed in that forum posting).

3. For the OEM FSC utilities (you don't really need them except for one file), browse to this forum article and you need to look for the 'OEM.zip' archive (again, I don't want to link directly to it)... This acrhive provides the FSC utilities that were built in to the standard WM5 version of the N560 (VoiceRecorder, lock, etc.). These utils have been taken out of the WM6 ROM...

4. I also downloaded itsutilsbin-20070705.zip which are a suite of utils for various PPC related tasks. It includes pdocread.exe which allows you to dump the contents of your current ROM to your PC - I used this as a precaution so that I could 'roll back' to WM5 if needs be - so far, there's been no need! See this XDADeveloperWiki page for details and download...



Flashing (cross legs and pray!):

1. Made a full backup using Sprite backup - it purports to support backup/restoring between ROM upgrades, but I didn't like what it did - more on this later. Interestingly, you can use the demo version of the software (which is what I did!). So you don't need to worry about owning it!

2. Made sure I also had a full backup via SPB Backup (which I do have a full version of).

3. Hard reset the device (Power-Calander-reset three button juggle!). This is worth doing to make sure there is nothing running that could interrupt the flashing process.

4. Cradle the device and wait for active-sync to connect - I made sure that my cradle was powered, and the USB was connected directly to my PC - normally I go through a USB hub, but this is not recommended.

5. Next I double clicked on the unarchived 'PocketLOOX5xxFlashTool.exe', which took me through several screens of "Check this, check that" to ensure everything really is as safe as can be!

6. The flashing happens in two stages:
a) Transfer ROM image to the PDA
b) Flash ROM image into ROM

Each step takes roughly two minutes - it's worth closing your eyes, or going to the toilet at this point!

7. PDA reboots into WM6! Hurrah!

As a further precaution, I did a subsequent hard-reset (three-button juggle) just to be sure. Everything looked fine. The next steps are to reload everything:


Reloading:

1. I first tried to use the Sprite Backup, selecting the ROM upgrade option. This worked fine, but there appeared to be a lot of wasted storage space, and I wasn't too happy that the restore had been performed intelligently. So I did another hard-reset...

2. With the unit clean, once again, I manually did the following:

a) Reinstalled the Broadcom Bluetooth stack (fine)

b) Installed the 'FSC Reg.cab', found in the OEM.zip archive, which I'm not sure was really necessary - it puts the FSC certificate back in place so that software will be recognised as signed or not...

c) Reinstalled my useful utilities (keylightoff, KeyLockRes, VistaHide Battery Gauge) - all worked fine!

d) Reinstalled all of my software (including SKTools, Pocket Informant, Opera, TomTom Navigator 6 (W. Europe and US&Canada maps), Maspware Automanager) - all are working fine).

So far, I've not found *any* software issues.

e) Finally, I used my SPB Backup file and performed a custom restore:

- PIM Data
- Emails
- My Documents
- System Data (but customised to only restore a small number of files - definitely *not* restore Databases, the registry, or any /WINDOWS/* files!)

Everything appears to be back to 'normal' with two significant bonuses:

1. WM6 includes DotNet Compact Framework
2. WM6 includes the new version of Office Mobile.

You can install both of these (legally, for free), under WM5 on your loox, but they'll take up quite a bit of storage space (>10MB), whereas, under WM6, they're stored in ROM!

Other nice features I've noticed:

1. If the device is locked, you get a nice, full screen keyboard to type in your pin (I've just set mine to a digit PIN rather than a complex password), see the attached screenshot.

2. The GUI 'seems' to respond faster - this is a claimed benefit, but I'm being subjective on this one.

3. WiFi now differentiates between ESSIDs that are hidden, and those that are broadcast.

4. Again a subjective one, but Skype calling seems to have less jitter...

5. Unless I've missed something, I've 'released' about 9MB of internal storage memory. Under WM5, I was typically running with ~11MB free (after deleting emails, and emptying my Opera and PIE caches), now I have ~20MB free. Almost certainly down to DotNet now being installed in the ROM, amongst other things...

I've installed:

- TomTom (Maps are on the SD card though!)
- Pocket Informant
- SKTools
- Automanager
- PHM Tools (including RegEdit)
- FSC Voice Recorder (now in Storage, not ROM)
- Free FTP Client
- Key Lights Off
- MS Reader
- XPDF
- MSS Converter
- GPS Navigator
- NoniGPSPlot
- Opera
- Port-Splitter
- Skype
- SmartFlash (play flash movies outside of browser)
- SPB Backup
- TCPMP
- WiFiFoFum
- XnPocketView
- ZaTunnel
- ZaTelnet
- SunMoon
- GSFinder
- Broadcom BT Stack
- Adobe FlashPlayer
- TouchPal VGA (SIP)
- VistaHide BatteryGauge

In addition, my 'My Documents' folder on internal storage is taking up 3.96MB!

All this on internal storage, and I still have 20MB free!

So far, everything is working swimmingly. I'm back to the state I was in before the upgrade, and the device seems to be working fine - time will tell!

If someone were to ask me if they should do the same, and upgrade their N560 to WM6, I would recommend it, but I can't stress enough that if you do try to upgrade your device, you do so at your own risk. Theoretically, you won't physically damage your device if it all goes wrong, but you may wind up in a whole world of frustration if it breaks and you're not techie enough to work out how to sort it...

Also, bear in mind, I'm not entirely sure of the legality of this. My thinking is that the WM6 upgrade (from WM5) has been offered by MS to vendors for free. It's up to the vendors as to whether or not they bundle it up for their devices and make the update available to their customers. I've simply by-passed FSC (seeing as they are not likely to provide any upgrades!) and used an upgrade provided by a 'third party'...

A very big thank you goes out to freepk and his '777' team! A fantastic effort, and I for one am a very happy chappy!

If anyone out there does fancy doing this (at their own risk!) I'm happy to give advice so long as sensible questions are asked - bear in mind that my upgrade has gone without a hitch, so I'm not likely to be able to help troubleshoot any problems, but help with instructions, or help in finding files and such, I'm happy to oblige!

And finally,

If you do find any of this useful - a 'Thanks' wouldn't go amiss!

Kind regards, and happy flashing,

Andy B.

[windows]

Very good news Andy, congrats on the upgrade and welcome to WM6 - glad it went well for you!

[bruisah]

Hi All,

Minor update:

So far, everything is still working fine!

WiFi - Check
Bluetooth - Check
BT Dial up networking - Check

Interestingly, some of you may remember a while ago when I first got my N560 and I was having trouble getting it to dial up a BT to GPRS data connection via my P800. The only way I could get it to work at the time was to manually enter the dial string as I was connecting (a bit of a pain, but it worked) - find the thread here (Bluetooth Dialup Modem connection to P800 (GPRS) Problem...).

Pleasantly enough, this problem has now been resolved as a result of my WM5->WM6 upgrade!

On a slightly different note, I also upgraded my wifes N520. It has worked, but it was much more of a pain to do (my restore procedure didn't work, but active syncing did it fine).

So, that's two Looxs updated to WM6.

A merry Xmas indeed!

Regards,

Andy B.

[windows]

Good news indeed Andy so both of you are now happy WM6'ers.

Even better news that the BT GPRS dialling works!

[Timmy]

Hello Bruisah,

I'm interseted in your opinion, after you updated your LOOX N560. Is everything working slower? Faster? The same as before? And is there a difference in the use of memory? Did you notice other significant diferencies?

Greetings,
Timmy

[bruisah]

Originally Posted by Timmy

Hello Bruisah,

I'm interseted in your opinion, after you updated your LOOX N750. Is everything working slower? Faster? The same as before? And is there a difference in the use of memory? Did you notice other significant diferencies?

Hi Timmy,

The definite benefits to me (so far) include:

- More free program memory
- More free storage memory

WM6 is more efficient in its memory management (for RAM) hence the first benefit, while the ROM now contains dot net and the new version of Pocket Office which means you don't have to have them installed in the storage area.

- Pocket Office includes Pocket Notes (this is new).
- My bluetooth dial up connection now works properly (see earlier post)
- I like the new PIN entry keypad - you can enter your PIN using your fingers now!
- Selecting different SIPs is definitely faster! I used to have to wait up to a second or so for the SIP selector to come up (i.e. for changing keyboards). This is now significantly faster.

- Another improvement is the battery icon - it now has four (25%) segments, instead of two (~50%) segments. This is not really important to me as I'm using the Vista Hide Battery gauge (coloured line across the top of the screen - see the screen grabs earlier in this thread).

Subjective, perceived improvements around performance. I can't state any definite performance improvements. There are claims that the GUI rendering is more efficient, therefor faster, and I have to admit that my PDA seems to run faster, but that could be my imagination.

In addition, I now have the option to install the SDHC driver, allowing me to use high capacity cards (8GB). However, doing so will nobble the wifi (they can't coexist). I'm considering having the CAB file available on a normal SD so that I can install and remove as and when I want to use an SDHC card (e.g. when I'm traveling, and I want to watch movies)

I've already installed the SDHC driver on my wife's N520 (it has no WiFi), but I don't have an SDHC card to test - it still works fine with her 2GB Kingston SD card though...

There is a claim that there are improvements to the bluetooth stack (A2DP is supposed to be better but I have no compatible devices to test with). Also, WPA encryption on Wifi is improved, but I won't be able to test this until I go back to work, and I'm not in a hurry to do that!

The new look for WM6 is quite nice too!

So far, those are the biggest changes I've noticed - I'm sure there are others, and I'll add to this thread as I find stuff out...

Regards,

Andy B.