Author Archives: ayn

Treo 650 ROM update with MissingSync in OS X

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I just upgraded the firmware of my Verizon Treo 650 to the latest version. I could not find any instructions on how to do the upgrade with MissingSync, so I am going to document the steps I went through to get it to work.

  • Make sure you have about half an hour of free time
  • go to Palm’s knowledge base to find out if there is a ROM update for your Treo
  • Download the .dmg file
  • Open Missing Sync, go to Conduits, make sure the Backup conduit is enabled. Also make sure the other conduits such as iSync, Media, Mark/Space MemoPad or MemoPad are enabled
  • Perform a HotSync with USB since it’s faster
  • Now follow Palm’s upgrade instructions to perform a Hard Reset, and then a Soft Reset.
  • In Missing Sync, click on the Current Handheld pulldown menu, and select Edit Handhelds…
  • Add a new handheld by clicking New… name it whatever you want
  • Click on the Install plane, remove MissingSync.prc, we don’t need it
  • Drag the new ROM prc image to the Install list
  • Perform HotSync, when prompted for which Handheld, choose the name of the one you just created
  • On your Treo, go to Applications, and click on Treo ROM Updater, it will then perform the ROM update, it takes about 5 minutes. If your haven’t plugged in the power supply to your Treo, it will ask you to do so before it would initiate the update
  • Perform a Hard Reset followed by a Cold Reset
  • In Missing Sync delete the new handheld profile you created
  • Choose Install profile
  • Edit the Backup Conduit settings to perform a restore to Palm
  • Perform HotSync
  • Perform another HotSync with All Conduits enabled
  • Turn the phone on (the phone app, the Palm is always on), dial *22899 to download PRL

Now, this is supposed to be it, but my contacts and calendar didn’t get sync’ed correctly. You have to tell iSync to overwrite the Treo. To do this, following this KB article at Mark/Space’s website. Basically you have to go into iSync, remove the device. Then go back to Missing Sync, double-click on iSync Conduit, then perform another HotSync.

If you have any Bluetooth devices, you will have to re-pair them.

I’m pretty impressed that it worked so well, all my settings on the Treo were restored, including the wallpapers, media data like ring tones, pics, videos, etc. Only problem I found was if you added pictures to some of your contacts (for Picture ID or just for fun), you will have to re-associate the pics to the contacts. iSync did not automatically do that for me.

Just switched wireless plan

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I had 1k local minutes with 1k off-peak and 1k mobile-to-mobile (m2m, actually Verizon calls it IN-calling, LOL) for $50, plus 250 TXT messages for $2.99. I did a good amount of roaming recently so I asked if they would backdate it to a national plan.

Turned out VZW released new national plans, and cancelled all the local plans. I switched to 900 mins national plan for $60, unlimited m2m and off-peak, plus unlimited m2m TXT messaging + 50 out-of-network TXT for $5. They didn’t even extend my contract, awesome!