how to revert to 2002 from 2003 beta's

[megamart100]

To revert your ipaq to PPC 2002

1. Download and run the latest ROM upgrade from HP (currently sp23479.exe).

2. This will unzip a bunch of files into a specified directory.

3. From that directory open the file NK_Windsor21010WWE.nbf in a hex editor such as hex workshop.

3. Remove the header information from the file, this exactly the first 32 bytes.
How?
In hex workshop click on edit then select block, in the resulting dialog box click the 'Dec' radio button and enter a value
of 32 in the box labelled 'block' and click OK. When you've selected the 32 bytes pressing delete on the keyboard will
remove the file header.

4. Save the file

5. Rename the file to nk.nb0 then follow the original instruction that came with the beta wm 2003 ROM image upload the
file you've just modified.

hope this helps anyone out there it helped me all is ok now with everything

[DavidW]

These instructions are, I believe, for an iPAQ 3970. You follow them at your own risk - if something goes wrong, including if the installer from the (illegal) beta ROM that you had installed being different to the one that this poster found, you may 'brick' the iPAQ leaving it unable to start up at all, which would probably need service centre attention to fix.

There is no guarantee that after beta and modified ROMs have been installed that the asset details are intact. You can check these on an iPAQ using the Asset Viewer, which you find under Start Menu, Settings, System tab, Asset Viewer, and open the Identity option. Both Asset Tag # and Serial # should be the serial number on the label on the back of the iPAQ. If they're blank, you will hit trouble with software that activates using the hardware ID of the Pocket PC, including TomTom Navigator 2 or 3, and Microsoft Reader. This requires HP service centre attention to fix.

The various Pocket PC 2003 ROMs available for (illegal) download on the Internet seem usually, judging by various forum posts and newsgroup posts, to be beta versions, not the released version, and may well contain various bugs and problems. They are neither licenced software, nor can you acquire a legal licence to use them. These betas were not publicly available, and leaked out from the beta programs somehow. Most of the beta versions for the iPAQ 3970 have non-functional Bluetooth. Other beta ROMs can be expected to have various problems, which is why they're beta.


The only legal, supported and 'safe' (as safe as a ROM upgrade ever is) way to upgrade a Pocket PC 2002 machine to Pocket PC 2003 is to buy an upgrade kit from the Pocket PC's manufacturer. The cheap offers for people who bought machines just before 2003 was released have all ended now. These kits are chargeable because Microsoft charge the Pocket PC manufacturers an extra licence fee for Pocket PC 2003.

If you finish up with the asset details wiped and/or a defective ROM installed that you can't sort out through the use of illegally distributed beta upgraders, you may find that a service centre will either charge a lot of money to fix the problem, or will refuse to help at all.


It's important for purchasers of second hand Pocket PCs that were upgraded to Pocket PC 2003 to check that a released and paid for upgrade has been used, and the asset details on the Pocket PC are intact. At least once we've had someone posting in the forums that the seller of a second hand Pocket PC offered to do a free Pocket PC 2003 upgrade. When the buyer received the machine, it had a beta ROM installed with wiped asset details - so it really needed service centre help to sort out. Fortunately, in that case, the buyer was able to get his money back.

If you buy a Pocket PC with a Pocket PC 2003 upgrade, you should get the upgrade kit with your purchase. Certainly the HP kits I've seen are in a CD wallet with a Microsoft Outlook 2002 licence label on them (the upgrade includes Outlook 2002 so that those who only got Outlook 2000 with their Pocket PC can upgrade Outlook if they wish).


Finally, any instructions that tell you to hex edit a ROM image are especially dangerous, and some may be illegal. Most are to do with forcing a ROM onto a device that it wasn't intended to take. I don't wish to elaborate here on why you may want to do this - I just want to remind people that, when you buy a Pocket PC, you are only licenced to use the version of Pocket PC in the language that was factory installed.



David

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