newBBie.com

“You will receive a warning that after upgrading the OS your phone will reset and have its radio turned off. You’ll need to turn it back on and re-register your phone. (I think just making a phone call will get that done.)”

No such luck for me! When I restore the connection (make a call, or via the connection manager), I just get a time-out. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Kevin L,
The process may depend on your wireless carrier. With Verizon Wireless, I can also dial *228 and follow the voice instructions to activate (register) the phone. To activate/register, I press a 1. In all my playing around, I’ve done it numerous times and it didn’t cause a problem when I repeated it.

The directions for activating my phone came with my wireless account paperwork and with all new phones I bought (at my carrier’s store), so you may have to look there.

Sorry if this article caused you trouble.
Kelly

The solution…a battery pull. I should have known, the battery pull seems to cure all problems the blackberry has. Also, I noticed that I didn’t immediately have HTML support for my emails. If you have your Service Books re-sent, you can then go into your email options and turn on HTML support…much nicer looking!

Kevin L,
You’re right! The ole Battery Pull works miracles. The other day my car wouldn’t start, so I pulled the battery on my BlackBerry. Car started right up…not really.
Kelly

I have a Blackberry Pearl 8120 with T-Mobile. Is there any way i can upgrade my OS via OTA. I have a mac and cannot install the blackberry software to upgrade the OS. any suggestions?

Aaron,
No, you need to find a PC and use Desktop Manager to upgrade your OS. Sorry if that offends you.
Kelly

P.S.–Or you can use one of the newer Macs that allows you to run Windows.

I am running Desktop Manager 4.6. I downloaded the update 4.5. The files are in the folder you described. When I run the Application Loader, it does not see the 4.5 files. Any suggestions?

Dean,
So, I think you mean that you ran the downloaded (EXE) file, and it installed to the proper folder. That was the correct process, if you did.

Also, the phone must be connected and detected. Else DM won’t know that the phone needs an update.

Hmmm. I would try restarting the computer and see if DM sees the new OS afterward. If not, remove the installed file (see if Control Panel will do that–I don’t remember), and reinstall from the download (hopefully you kept it). I’d still reboot before trying again with DM.

Let me know how that works (or doesn’t work).
Kelly

Hi. Well not much success. I tried rebooting with no change.
Uninstalled (control panel), rebooted, then reinstalled.
Rebooted, plugged the phone into the PC and ran DM. It did find the phone, but still only showed verison 4.3.

Perhaps this makes a difference, I am runiing Vista and the phone does connect to a BES.
Do you think it would be worthwhile to uninstall 4.3? Does it look everywhere to find possible applications?
Dean

Dean,
BES is a magic word–that potentially makes all the difference. Typically, a BES administrator disallows end users from upgrading their own phones. You need to check with that administrator. Sorry.
Kelly

I got with IT and they said we do not have any restrictions on app updates. They suggested this website:
http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-8100-series-discussion-pearl/156668-latest-os-8130-4-5-0-122-4-5-0-89-multilanguage.html

I followed the procedures and have completed the update. So far so good.

Thanks for all of your posts. I enjoy reading them.

Dean

Dean,
Great news! Sounds like your IT department is more flexible than most.

Stay in touch!
Kelly

What is your opinion about upgrading the handheld software before my wireless carrier has an autorized version? Will my phone quit working? Or should I just be patient?

Thanks,

Rick

Rick,
Generally, I don’t recommend doing an upgrade unless you have a problem you have to fix, or unless there is a new feature that you really need/want. I’m assuming that you have a good reason to upgrade. If you upgrade and it doesn’t work, you can restore your original OS…IF you do the following: (1) Read over all my articles about doing an upgrade to make sure you are aware of what’s involved, (2) with Desktop Manager installed, also make sure you have your current OS version installed on your computer, and (3) do a full backup of your phone. After downloading and installing the new OS, search for, find, and delete the Vendor.xml file. Then go for the upgrade.

Let me know how things go.
Kelly

I’ve tried to upgrade my pearl 8110 to 4.5 3 times. Every time i do, it erases applications, then installs system software, But then why it goes to reconnecting to JVM, it never connects, the phone just blinks its red LED. and the computer keeps beeping like the phone is connecting and disconnecting. I have ATT service. ive spoken with their tech support, they don’t have any idea what the problem is. Please help.

Chris,
First, make sure the download is correct. I, myself, accidentally installed an OS for the Curve on my Pearl. Make sure the download is exactly correct for an AT&T 8110.

A while back I wrote an article about upgrading the Pearl: http://newbbie.com/2008/03/08/how-i-upgraded-my-blackberry-operating-system/. Toward the end of the article, I explain about how it might go wrong, and referred readers to here: http://www.crackberry.com/blackberry-101-lecture-12-how-reload-operating-system-nuked-blackberry. See if that helps. Let me know.
Kelly

I’ve tried all of that. I still get the same result.