O2 XDA Orbit WM6 ROM Upgrade Process - 4WinMobile FAQ
This FAQ is for all our loyal members of the
OOC or the
Orbit Owners Club but the principles within apply to all variants of the HTC Artemis 200 chassis as used by O2 for the Orbit.
Supplier: O2 UK
Web site: O2_XDA_Orbit_Microsite
Product: Windows Mobile 6 Professional ROM Upgrade
Cost: £FREE
OS Version: Windows Mobile 6 Professional (CE OS 5.2.1238 Build 17745.0.2.3)
Please note the O2 website detailed above requires you to submit your device serial number in order to obtain the ROM
WARNING!
Upgrading from one ROM to another is not something to be taken lightly. It requires planning and preparation otherwise you could end up with a non-functioning device. This FAQ should alleviate some of those anxieties and allow even novice users to enjoy the benefits of Windows Mobile 6 Professional on their lovely O2 XDA Orbit!
| REQUIREMENTS |
|---|
| O2 Upgrade File - 'RUU_Artemis_O2_UK_3.4.206.2_4.1.13.28_02.67.90_Ship.exe' |
| Orbit Battery Charge Condition must be >50%, I tend to use a fully charged device |
| USB Cable for connection to PC - DO NOT USE USB HUB FOR CONNECTION |
| Full Backup of all your files and PIM information - do not consider starting this process without as the device is wiped clean! |
| Full access to all your applications AND Serial Numbers for re-installation - see 'Backing Up' section below |
| ActiveSync V4.5 and Outlook 2002 or later (see notes below) or WMDC V6.1 under Vista |
| Windows XP PC or Windows Vista PC |
| Ability to read instructions - they are given for a reason! |
Note: The screenshots and process have been undertaken using a Windows XP Professional SP2 PC. I have also tried this under Vista Ultimate 32bit using Windows Mobile Device Centre (WMDC) V6.1 and all appears to work the same. Should you be using Vista and WMDC the ActiveSync screenshots will not be relevant, you will see the WMDC screens.
Where to start?
Well the first thing to do is to check and double check the
REQUIREMENTS above. Do not start without having any of these in place as the device will be wiped squeaky clean by the process that includes all your data, applications and PIM information.
You have been warned!
You now need to obtain the upgrade file from O2 - be warned, the filesize is just over 44MB so downloading could take a while.
The O2 XDA Orbit Microsite referred to above will ask you to accept the terms and then ask you for the serial number of your Orbit. Once confirmed, you will be passed through to download the file. It may be presented as the 'exe' noted in the requirements section or it may come zipped, either way you just extract the file from the zip and you are ready to roll. Place this in a clean directory on your hard drive ready for installation/upgrade.
Backing Up
I won't spend too much time here as each individual user will have their preferred method of maintaining their data.
What I will say is that using a backup program such as Sprite Backup or Spb Backup will not help you greatly here as we are changing from one Operating System to another. Although Sprite claim to be able to restore data and apps under such circumstances it is at best patchy and usually unsuccessful which is why I recommend you do an ActiveSync connection to get all your data synchronised and any other data copied off the device safely to your PC. I refer you back to the requirements here also - make sure you have all your data
OFF the device and make sure you have access to all your applications and serial numbers/registration keys ready for re-installation after the upgrade.
Finally, check Outlook on the PC to verify the data has synchronised! You don't want to think it has only to find it didn't!!!
Preparation
Having made sure you have all the data securely off the device, it's time to start preparing for the upgrade....
Upgrading ROMs can be a nervous time but there are ways to minimise any risks. The first is to get the Orbit into a known state as everyone configures their individual device to some degree and some applications may cause unforeseen issues. I also switch off the device and take out the SIM Card and any Storage Card so they can have no effects either. Once these are safely removed we can then proceed to do a hard reset.
The most common 'known state' is the one fresh from a hard reset, so that's the route we shall take here (hence the need for a backup!). On your Orbit you will be looking for the
'Clear Storage' icon on the
Start/Settings/System page. Tapping on this brings up a second chance page asking you to type '1234' into the box and tapping the 'YES' soft key before the device is wiped.
Do as it asks and your device will reset back to Factory Condition. Let it come back up and do the usual preliminaries as you would do from any hard reset such as aligning the screen etc. Skip all the other stuff such as setting a password and setting up an e-mail account as the upgrade will wipe the device again anyway!
Now we need to create a
Guest partnership in ActiveSync so we can run the upgrade itself. This is straight forward and done by connecting the Orbit and when activesync detects it and asks for you to create a partnership, click
Cancel and ActiveSync sets the device up as a 'Guest'. (see screenshot)
We are now almost ready to run the upgrade as we now have a device in a known state with an established connection via ActiveSync/WMDC. Leave the Orbit connected to ActiveSync/WMDC and proceed with the next step....
Running the Upgrade
There now follows a run of screenshots with not much text and I apologise for that, however, I have included them for completeness....
Important Note: If using a Laptop make sure you are running from the Power Supply and
NOT the battery. Do
NOT run any other programs whilst running the upgrade on the PC. Whether using a Laptop or Desktop make sure you
disable all Hibernate and Standby modes otherwise you could end up with a paperweight if the PC powers down during the process!
This where we now need to run the upgrade itself. The file downloaded earlier 'RUU_Artemis_O2_UK_3.4.206.2_4.1.13.28_02.67.90_Sh ip.exe' should be sitting safely on your PC.
Double click on this file to expand it and get to the start screen as shown left.
It will need you to accept the terms before it will allow you to continue. Notice its not just me giving you warnings prior to upgrading!
As you can see they reiterate some of the requirements I included at the start!
Tick the necessary box once you have completed the actions to allow you to continue....
Here you are given details of your current ROM build, nice of them!
Click on the
Update button to continue, don't worry we are still not at the point of no return
Now we are shown the current ROM version and the version to be flashed onto the device.
(In the screenshot from my device these are the same - yours should be different - because I was running a Test ROM from O2 and it picked that up!)
Click the
Next button to continue
This is the point of no return!
By clicking on
Next here you will not be able to stop the process.
Clicking
Cancel backs you out of it.
Take a deep breath and
go for it!
After a few seconds the progress bar should come up on the PC screen.
You should also have something similar in the upper left of the Orbit screen too
Guess what? Yes, that's your Orbit being upgraded!!!!
It states it can take up to 10 minutes, mine took considerably less....
This is the screen at which you can start to breath again!
Your Orbit should be in the process of doing a reset and you can disconnect it from the USB cable now and proceed to post upgrade items below.....
Post Upgrade
The first thing to do is to allow the Orbit to complete its reset and any customisations. If you do not want the customisations then do a soft reset before the Orbit starts them. This prevents them from installing.
Once the Orbit has come up with the new Windows Mobile 6 Professional Today screen (as shown) you are now safely on the road to starting to re-use your device!
Windows Mobile 6 requires ActiveSync V4.5 (or higher) which brings with it another problem - in the beta phase of V4.5 synchronising with Outlook 2000 was supported. When the release version came out this had been withdrawn and the supported requirements were Outlook 2002 or later - tut, tut, Mr Microsoft for forcing more upgrades on unsuspecting users!
There appears to be an unsupported way round this, however, in that ActiveSync V4.2 does support Outlook 2000. I discovered that by starting from a position of having ActiveSync V4.2 installed I could upgrade to V4.5 to get access to my WM6 device
and it appeared to retain sync options with my laptop's Outlook 2000 installation! Please note this only works on upgrading from V4.2, a clean installation of V4.5 will NOT work with Outlook 2000.
Now we need to re-establish the ActiveSync connection having installed (or upgraded) to V4.5 if not already running it.
As seen earlier, by connecting your newly flashed WM6 Orbit you will be presented with the Partnership screen as usual. In the section above under Preparation we clicked on Cancel to get a Guest partnership. We don't want to do that here, we want a full fat, super sized partnership to get us back up and running so we click on
Next and get the following screen....
This screen allows you to reset all your synchronisation options for your partnership and device.
Click on the appropriate option and use the 'Settings' button as applicable and then click on
Next
For the purposes of the review I didn't click on any options and this is reflected in the screen below....
If you've done everything correctly you should have a fully configured partnership and re-synced Orbit!
Now switch off your Orbit and re-insert the SIM Card and Storage Card as applicable.
Once the device has re-booted you are now at the point of being able to re-install all your applications and customisations.
AND THAT'S YOU DONE!!!
Conclusion
4WinMobile Rating : 95%
I won't go into the benefits of Windows Mobile 6 Professional over Windows Mobile 5 but there a couple of points worth raising.
The upgrade to WM6 brings a more coherent feeling to the operation of the devices and definitely sees a performance improvement. There are many minor improvements which add up to a major improvement overall....
Recommended for all O2 XDA Users!
Linear Mode
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