Vista 64-bit and Treo 600 Hotsync solution that works!

Question

I too searched many, many forums and sites for a solution to this problem. And I have found it.
I have an HP dv9260 laptop with Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit and Office Pro 2007, which I bought in June this year. And I have been unable to sync my Treo 600 to it - until now. (I had even resorted to syncing to my older Toshiba Tablet PC (WinXP Pro, Office Pro 2003) via standard USB sync cable, connecting the Tablet to the new HP with a Belkin Easy Transfer cable, exporting my updated Contacts, Calendar, and InfoSafe records to .vcf, .ics, and .txt files, then transferring between the HP and Tablet, and then importing them into the appropriate app - Whew! man what a pain.
Now I have found a far more elegant and simple method. I found an Infrared USB 2.0 adaptor (dongle) at the Chunwai_1996 store on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-USB-2-0-IRDA-ADAPER-4Mbps-SUPPORT-VISTA_W0QQitemZ110164766509QQcmdZViewItem) for $8.33 USD + $5.67 USD S&H (total $14.00 even) (I believe that the price is now $12.49 USD + $5.67 S&H.) , which said it supported and supplied drivers for 64-bit Vista. It took a little over two weeks to receive the device from Hong Kong (received yesterday, 08-31-2007).
I checked the mini CD that shipped with it but found no Vista drivers. So I just plugged it into a USB port on the laptop. Vista immediately recognized the dongle and installed generic Vista 64-bit drivers from Microsoft. I tested the unit by placing the Treo near it. The unit recognized the Treo as a legitimate device! Next, I followed the directions I found in another thread that had been successful with USB 2.0, Vista 32-bit drivers, and the Treo 600, with one slight modification. Here is a repost from the Vista-Help.ca blog by Kerry Brown, verbatim except for a couple of modifications and few additional steps.
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Palm Treo 600 with Vista and Office 2007
I've had a lot of people ask about how I got my Treo 600 phone to sync with Outlook 2007 in Vista so I thought I'd write up the procedure. Hopefully Palm will have new Vista compatible software soon but in the meantime here's how I got it working on two computers so far. First you have to use Vista x86. I couldn't get it to work with Vista x64. If you've already tried to get it working then you have to clean up all the leftover stuff before continuing.
1. Uninstall Palm Desktop
2. Insert the CD that came with the Treo but don't let it autorun.
3. Navigate to the correct language folder on the Treo CD and right click on setup.exe
4. Set the compatibilty for XP SP2 and Run as administrator.
5. Run setup.exe
6. During the install the initial sync may fail. Just tell the installation to continue.
7. If you want to sync with Outlook make sure you pick this option during the install
8. Once it's finished close the Hotsync System Tray application.
9. In Windows Explorer go to the Palmone folder in Program Files.
10. Right click hotsync.exe and set it to run in administrator mode with XP SP2 compatibility.
11. Do the the same for palm.exe.
12. Start the Palm Desktop and change the Hotsync settings to manual start.
-and- 12a. ******* Check the Infrared option to make it active and available *******
13. Exit Palm Desktop and reboot.
You should now be able to sync the Treo 600 with Outlook 2007 or Palm Desktop. You will have to manually start the Hotsync application and deal with a uac prompt because it is set to run in administrator mode. The sync only works when Outlook is not running. You also have to sync twice. The first time you will get errors about the default folders for Outlook. Ignore the errors and press the sync button again. If it still doesn't work reboot and try it again. Good luck. Let me know if you find an easier procedure.
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After rebooting the laptop, I performed the following additional steps:
A. Manually started the Hotsync app (you can put it in the Startup folder to auto load at Startup).
B. Set the Custom options to "Desktop overrides Handheld" for Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, and Notes - this may help avoid duplicates from the first Hotsync. Also, this is just a temporary override from the default setting "Synchronize the files" for each selection.
C. Selected Hotsync on the Treo and enabled the Infrared option.
D. Pressed the Hotsync 'button' on the Treo and placed it pointing at the Infrared dongle.
The Hotsync ran to completion without errors! Though it did take a good deal longer since it only runs at 115.2 kbps vs. the 480 Mbps of USB 2.0, I am happy.
Hope this helps others with Vista 64-bit systems and Palm OS handhelds.
Cheers.
-Robert
Post relates to: Treo 600 (Verizon)

Answer 1

Will this solution work for the Palm Treo 755p?
Post relates to: Treo 755p (Sprint)