Frustration upon frustration after OS update - giving up

Question

I'm afraid I have to give up. I've been at this for days now. Researching discussion groups, knowledge databases, downloading and reinstalling, backing up and reinstalling again, chasing for the elusive bit of information that might show what I'm doing wrong, if anything, what I might have missed, whether my laptop (Vista) is the culprit, etc. I've tried everything, from tweaking my user and file sharing settings on this device and PC,  to changing cables. The problem? After I installed the OS update here in Canada, certain functionalities went away. Email disappeared for a while (but did come back inexplicably) But the worse is, when connected, the Blackberry Device Manager shows thie unit as connencted and indeed reads the IP address of the Playbook, but the desktop software is stuck in a continuous "connecting" loop. Nothng happens. It can't sync media or any files. I can't see the unit as a seperate drive or folders on the PC for file transfer, even though the screen on the unit itself says it is connected and file transfer is enabled. Nor can it charge from the the PC. It's just driving my fricken nuts! All this to say I have indeed given up. I am resigned to the fact I can only use this Playbook as a browsing / downloading device. All my media will have to be dowloaded, not transfered from my PC.
It should not be like this folks. Who has time for this? The amount of valuable time I have spent to date, trying to fix a post-OS installation mess is worth more, in dollars, than the cost of buying a new and more device with a well-designed less buggy OS. This discussion forum is filled with post-OS upgrade installation problems from typical users. Why do we put up with this? I love and like to support RIM. But there are limits to our patience. I've reached mine.

Answer 1

I feel your pain. You can get your paid apps back in app world by going to "my world" and where it shows you installed there is also and uninstalled and all your apps will be there. If you cannot get anything to work on your playbook, then I would suggest a "debrick"  method that takes you back to factory and then updates from there. you will have to do a search for the exact details of debricking, it is basically, opening DM and plugging a turned off playbook into your computer and then an option pops up in Desktop manager to update or ...... ?? can't remember the other. Then you just follow the prompts and let it do its stuff. 
here are the directions I got off of crackberry.com:
Before beginning, I should note that this process will completely wipe all of the data from your PlayBook. If you're planning on downgrading the OS or rooting your PlayBook, you should first create a backup of your tablet's contents. Personally, I skip this step because none of the data on my device is irreplaceable. If your situation is otherwise, make sure you make a backup copy. Of course, if your PlayBook is bricked, I hope you already made backups, because there's no way to recover that data at this point. Sorry.
To reset your PlayBook, you'll need the latest version of BlackBerry Desktop Software, a micro USB cable, a computer, and - of course - your PlayBook. Start Desktop Software on your computer and turn off your PlayBook. Yes, turn it off. Use the USB cable to connect your PlayBook to the computer and wait. After a moment, you should get an error message saying Desktop Software cannot connect to your PlayBook.
Click the "Update" button that's in the middle of the other two buttons, follow the on-screen instructions, and wait. Desktop Software will take care of downloading the OS and installing it to your PlayBook. The process could take up to an hour; make sure you keep your PlayBook connected until told it is safe to disconnect. Once finished, you'll be required to choose languages, set the time, sign in with your BlackBerry ID, and make final updates to the operating system - just like you did when you first received your tablet. After you're done, you'll once again have a working BlackBerry PlayBook.
hope that helps. cheers
Smile, it makes people wonder what you are up to.