PC Suite 6.85.12.0 with a Nokia 6230 Doesn't Sync ...

Question

My phone is a Nokia 6230.
My computer is an IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad T42 running Windows XP Professional SP2.
I'm using a Bluetooth connection to synchronize the phone with Outlook.
The system info is:
Operating system:
Microsoft Windows XP
Build 2600
Service Pack 2
Language: English
Language for non-Unicode programs: English
Locale: English
Input language: English
Nokia PC Suite:
Version 6.84.10.3
Language: English
Connectivity Cable Drivers:
Version 6.84.4.0
PC Connectivity Solution:
Version 7.22.7.1
Microsoft Outlook:
Version 11.0
Build 8169
Bluetooth stack:
Microsoft Bluetooth stack
Version 5.1.2600
Build 2180
Yesterday I received the message informing me that there was an upgrade available to PC Suite 6.85.12.0. I've had no real problems with 6.84.10.3 but it has a few quirks:
When I synchronize PCS 6.84 with Outlook I have to do it twice. The first time I get a message "Connected to (computer)" on the phone display. The synchronization then ends with a warning message in the last report
PC Sync information.
The mobile phone has not responded.
Possible Solution
Please ensure your phone is in the standby mode, then restart the Synchronization.
If I sync again within a minute the synchronization succeeds. After a minute of no activity the phone displays a message "Disconnected from (computer)" and I am back in the original state.
I can live with this. I just have to hit "Synchronize now" twice about five seconds apart.
The second problem I had was with transferring a largish music file (6 Mbytes) to the phone. I tried several times and it got truncated but I got enough of it (a minute's worth) to be a useful ringtone so I left it at that.
I thought I'd give PCS 6.85 a try and see if a release that promises stability fixes would clear up these quirks. What I ended up with is a release that wouldn't synchronize at all. Every time I tried to synchronize it failed. I would get the "Connected to (computer)" message on the phone follwed about one second later by "Disconnected from (computer)" and the same warning as shown above in the report log.
I then tried to back out to PCS 6.84.10.3. This version, and an older one as well wouldn't work now either. It took me many hours of hair pulling, head scratching, Googling, and experimentation to get back to the version and behavior I had started out with.
Since I didn't see this procedure stated explicitly anywhere let me describe the steps it took.
1) From the control panel remove PC Suite.
2) From the Control Panel remove Cable Connectivity Drivers.
At this point I thought I could just install an older version but the older versions didn't work now either. I then read about PCS Cleaner. So I downloaded that (version 3.6) and tried to run it and got the rather confusing message:
"PC Suite Cleaner does not support this version of Nokia PC Connectivity Solution (version number). Please contact Nokia support."
I then tried manually cleaning PCS files and registry but I only made things worse. Finally after many futile attempts it dawned on me that the above message meant "First remove PC Connectivity Solution" so:
3) From the control panel remove PC Connectivity solution.
4) Now PCS Cleaner 3.6 agreed to launch and I was able to scrub the machine.
5) Finally I could reinstall PC Suite. Reinstalling PC Suite 6.85.12.0 gave me the same no synchronization problem. Repeating the whole procedure with PCS 6.84.10.3 brought my system back to its original state.
I have since again received theadvisory message that a new version of PC Suite is available. Needless to say I am now studiously ignoring it. I do not have the time or patience to work on this again until someone offers a workaround/fix for this problem.
Any ideas?
Sam Gamoran
NDS Technologies Israel

Answer 1

SOLUTION AT LAST!! (as dumb as it may be)
-- This posts refers to an older version of PC Suite than mine, but I suspect the situation (and the problem) is very similar.
Hey everyone!
It's been hours of forum searching and reading million of suggestions how to make my 6230 sync with the *several* latest versions of Nokia PC Suite (HELLO! NOKIA ARCHITECHTS! You have some serious recurring problem here! Don't abandon the veterans in your client base, it reflects really bad on you service-wise! At least post an official message that you acknowledge the problem and that you're working on it!)
Seems that tons of people encountered my exact problem:
Connection works, pairing works, file copying works, synchronisation doesn't work.
Well, the forums mentioned that the older older versions of PC Suite had a very quick timeout problem, so one had to synchronise twice, fast, in order for sync to succeed.
Now, it seemed like the timeout was reduced to almost "0", and disconnection immediately followed connection.
So, even though I did not see any second confirmation message (normally the phone shows a request to "connect" and then a second request to "transfer data" ) - I thought maybe it was there only disappearing very fast. So I decided to simply click twice fast, and I mean REALLY FAST, on the main button to accept, hoping that the connection will be kept. And VOILA! The connection was kept, and the sync was successful.
I know it's not a permanent solution, but for me, for now, considering how hard (why is it hard, Nokia??) and annoying it is to revert to a much older version of PC Suite - it's at least a temporary solution that works. And the only one I've found so far.
================================
Specifications:
Phone: Nokia 6230
Firmware: 04.44, 21-09-04
PC Suite: 6.86.9.0
MS Windows: XP SP2
MS Outlook: 2003 SP3
================================
I wonder if that would work for everyone.
If so please spread the word, seems that lots of people would like to know that. At least until a decent fix will be released for the PC Suite, that is.
Cheers,
Ohad