TIP for Bluetooth, Vista 64-bit, and PalmZire72

Question

I'm indebted to all the folks who have added so much to the discussion and hopeful solutions to the VISTA 64-bit problem for those of us who desperately want to keep using our dependable PALM devices. (Too bad that Palm as a company is not so dependable!) 
I got a Palm Zire 72 back in 2004 and it has become a vital part of doing business and living life since that time.
I've always synced to Outlook2003 for my Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, & Notes.
When I bought a new laptop with VISTA 64-bit, I had forgotten my previous determination to NOT go with 64-bit. However, the price was too good on a last display model HP and I grabbed it, 64-bit VISTA notwithstanding. 
Then I did research here on this forum and I knew I needed a bluetooth adapter that had at least SOME success with VISTA 64, but I didn't read far enough to steer me to the Iogear adapters that seem favored here.
I bought an off brand AZIO from NewEgg after reading of others having some success with this adapter.
I hope my observations can help others, either with these or other brands that may have the same problems.
I already had my MSOffice installed on the HP, and had backed up my full Personal Folders from the old Compaq and then pointed the new installation to a copy of the PST file, which brought over everything including emails to the new PC.
This was probably not the best way to go because I got myself into a pickle because I used the new PC for downloading emails, but I could not sync to this PC with my Palm
I also downloaded the latest PalmDesktop, version 6.2 by Access and installed it to the PC, telling it that I wanted to sync to Outlook for my Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Memos, and some other things I'm unsure of now.
Anyway, once I got the AZIO adapter, I installed it to the PC and tried to address the various issues before trying to sync.
I made sure the name on my PalmZire72 matched the name PalmDesktop used for me.
I checked my Device Manager and it listed my Bluetooth Device (with about 5 line items showing as various Toshiba Bluetooth devices, since the AZIO uses the Toshiba Bluetooth stack for its drivers. There was also a bluetooth radio listed there.)
I tried to setup my devices with the Palm device, turning on Bluetooth, making it discoverable, but I got no Bluetooth option listed when I looked at the possible HotSync methods. I could only choose USB or Network or Serial, but no Bluetooth option.
I selected Serial and tried to use a Port that I could see in Device Manager on the PC under Ports. I tried using all the ports showing as connected to the Toshiba device but none of them allowed a HotSync to work.
I created a port using the Bluetooth Local COM program listed at the bottom of my programs within the Control Panel on the PC. I pointed the Palm Serial Sync to that port but still no luck.
The weird thing was that I KNEW my PC and PALM were talking because they each would discover the other and know the correct name I had given the other device. I knew the Bluetooth device was connecting somehow, but every time I ran the Setup Devices on the PALM bluetooth setup, it would end with the "port being used by other application" message.
I ALSO noted that even though Device Manager knew I had the bluetooth device installed, I NEVER found any such devices listed in the Bluetooth Devices program that I could pull up from either the tray icon or from Control Panel. It would always be empty and I couldn't get it to discover any device on my computer.
I tried various uninstall/reinstalls of both the PalmDesktop and the USB Bluetooth adapter, but nothing changed anything. Each time I could verify that the Palm and the PC would identify the other one by correct name I would assign, but I could never get a device listed in the critical Bluetooth Devices program and HotSync would fail.
FINALLY, after giving up and buying a new Iogear GBU421 WM adapter tonight when I found one at WalMart, I came home and began the battle again.
But I couldn't quite give up on this AZIO without ONE more try at it. I had read about installing Generic drivers in place of the ones given with a device, and I don't even think these were in the same setup as mine, but I wanted to give it a shot. These were on the "Vista 64 Hotsync solution found" thread that has so much info on it. I posted a new thread simply because I hope this specific piece to the puzzle may be found a bit quicker in its own thread.
I went to Device Manager, looked at the various drivers, wondered which one to change first, and decided to change the Bluetooth radio driver first. I don't know why. Lucky guess? :-)
It seems to me it may not have had a Toshiba designation as did the other various ones listed there.
Then I also changed the Toshiba RFCOMM listed, and pointed it to something different. It was guesswork at best, but I was searching for generic drivers.
After this, the other Toshiba Bluetooth devices mostly disappeared from the Device Manager list of Bluetooth devices. It now also divided them into TWO categories, Bluetooth   and   Bluetooth Radios.
Bluetooth only shows a Bluetooth RFCOMM.
Bluetooth Radios shows a Generic Bluetooth Radio   and a  Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator. 
None of these shows a red X or other problem mark.
In my Systray, however, I show a normal blue/white icon for Bluetooth Devices and a blue/red icon for Bluetooth Manager.
The Devices window will show my Palm Zire listed with my assigned name.
The Bluetooth Manager window, identified as Bluetooth Settings, shows nothing. No connections are listed and if I click on New Connection, I'm told that "Bluetooth is not ready." 
Nonetheless, I am Hotsyncing successfully!!!
The first try, (after going to generic drivers and thus actually being able to "Pair Devices" via the Bluetooth Devices window) seemed so slow that I may have given up prematurely. 
I finally hit "Cancel" on the Palm device, which seemed to hang forever and not be able to get out of that loop, so I forced a shut down via the power off button.
Then I also had to to a Ctrl-Alt-Delete to force the HotSync to shut down on the PC as well.
I did a soft reset of the PalmZire and I restarted the PC after that. The next time I tried to HotSync, it didn't hang on Step 1 (of 12) even though it WAS VERY SLOW. I have a LOT of appointment info etc that I save and there was a lot to have sync for the first time on this PC.
I got a message that this device (the Palm) had synced before on another PC, and did I want to allow this to proceed since it might create lots of duplicates. I chose to let it go ahead. It did create a fair number of duplicate appointments, but mainly on in the repeating appointments type. I just went through these in Outlook and deleted one of each duplicate, deleting the whole series when I did. The next HotSync went very fast, and cleaned all these duplicates up on the Palm as well.
I have not restarted again yet, and I am not sure all is going to remain in place, but I know now that I can probably make it work out. The lack of anything listed in the Bluetooth Settings window on my PC does concern me, but I'm hopeful it won't be an issue. I don't expect to use Bluetooth for anything else, at least for now.
After all the hours I have fussed and read and griped, I am hopeful I have it worked out. I strongly suggest reading the thread mentioned above about HotSync solution found, but in addition to the other factors you have to address, remember to try changing drivers if your bluetooth doesn't work right away. (If it does, consider yourself HIGHLY BLESSED!)
Well, I gotta quit this short novella and go to bed, but I hope this helps someone else manage to set up bluetooth on a 64-bit VISTA system.
How in the world does anything as helpful as a PALM go out of business? It must have taken a lot of concerted effort by management to destroy the future of such a helpful piece of hardware!
Hang in there, Zire; I need you to keep working till a suitable alternative comes along. I doubt it'll be a Crackberry!
Dale
Post relates to: Zire 72

Answer 1

Further notes: When I allowed my PC to come back up from a Hibernate state, there was an error message waiting for me that said something like Port 5 is busy; Will wait till port is open" or something like that.
However, the Port I had been using (that I created for HotSyncing) was Port 8, which had worked. I don't know why this happens, but it seems to repeat itself if I do not do a clean boot.
As long as I restart the PC or boot from a shut-down state, my adapter seems fine and Port 8 is available and does work for the HotSync.
It was VERY slow on the first HotSync that had to run MANY procedures and lots of calendar stuff, but now the HotSyncs are SO FAST. Much faster than they were with the USB and Windows XP.
I have now turned my Firewall ON and it does NOT affect the HotSync. (I DID go into the Firewall setup and added Bluetooth Settings, HotSync Manager, and Palm Desktop to the exceptions list to ALLOW these through the Firewall.)
My antivirus program also does not seem to cause any problems for the HotSync, even though it does have to interject itself each time the Outlook data gets accessed. It just verifies that there is no virus activity going on, so it makes a momentary pause as Outlook info is updated.
I also have found that the HotSync runs fine whether Outlook is already open or not.
So far, I'm quite happy things are smoothing out!! Let's hope it continues.