Step by Step Instructions for upgrading a COMPAQ IPAQ 3870 from Pocket PC 2002 to Pocket PC 2003 ( English )

The following instructions should help you perform this action in under 20 minutes on Windows XP  ( see notes about Vista later )

• Download the Upgrade/Patch files from http://blog.crowe.co.nz/attachments/nk.nb0.zip  The file to download is called nk.nb0.zip and is ~16 MB in size
  
• For those who think this is not legal see this message posted on the original forum where I found the details
  
  
  
  Now lets continue.
  
  
• Download UltraEdit-32 ( 30 day trial ) from here  ~ 11 MB, or use any other HEX editor
• Unzip the contents of the NK.NB0.ZIP file to a folder such as c:\temp
  • There is two files in this zip file, host11.exe (389 KB) and nk.nb0.bak (32 MB)
  • Rename the nk.nb0.bak file to nk.nb0 ( IMPORTANT )
• Install UltraEdit-32
• Load UltraEdit-32 and load the file nk.nb0 as shown below

• You will be presented with a display full of 0's like this:
  
   
• We need to make two changes to this file to include details of your serial number from your IPAQ device.
  
  With the file open in UltraEdit press Ctrl-G to open the GOTO dialog and enter the address 0x01ff000a and hit enter
  
  
  
  You will be taken to an area that contains a number similar to your Serial Number. We need to change this number with your serial number which is on the back of the IPAQ
  
  To do this we must use the hex values of characters and enter them.
  
  For example the serial number in the image below contains the following (note: The actual file you download is different)
   

  Digit	4	G	2	7	D	W	3	4	9	1	6	G
  Hex value	34	47	32	37	44	57	33	34	39	31	36	47

  For digits 0-9 just prefix with 3, so for example a 5 is actually 35 in hex

  For letters A-Z it is not as simple but an A is 41, B is 42, C is 43, D is 44 etc...
  
  When entering the values make sure the cursor is flashing the two digit values area. Also make sure you do not change any of the 00
  
  There is only 12 characters in your serial number and they normally look something like this 4G27DW34916G
  
  
   

• We need to repeat this again exactly for a different area, this time we press Ctrl-G and enter the address 0x01ff0e0a and hit enter
  
  
  
  Again we change the values shown to what you have for your serial number.
  
  
   
• When you have completed the two changes you need to save the file and exit Ultra Edit.

• We now need to tell our 3870 to go to Upgrade Mode and we perform this with the following steps:
  
  We need to hold down a number of keys and force the device into update mode.
  
  We need to first press and hold button 2, then while holding button 2 also hold down button 4 (some flickering will occur on the screen), now while those two buttons are held down we need to hold down the power button. At this stage the screen will dim a little.
  
  We then need to press the soft reset button which is recessed into the bottom of the device. So while holding the #2, #4 and Power Buttons press the stylus into the Soft Reset button and hold for 3-5 seconds.
  
  You should then see a screen similar to the following:
  
  
   
• At this point make sure your USB cable is plugged in to your computer.
• We now need to make sure that the ActiveSync tool is disabled so open Task Manager and go to the processes tab and find the WCESCOMM.EXE process.
• Select this file (if it exists process list) and select End-Task - this is to stop Active sync taking over.
• You now need to run host11.exe which will perform the actual upgrade of the Firmware of the device.
  
  
  
  It will take about 5 minutes to perform the upgrade.
   
• At the end of the upgrade I was told to remove the battery - I am not sure if you really need to or not but I did, not a Simple matter either. Some people have said to do the following so maybe this is to get around the remove the battery prompt.
  
  Perform a hard reset by holding down the #1 button + the #4 button and click on the recessed Soft Reset for a few seconds.
  
  Remember, I have not tried this option I removed the battery.
• At this point when your device loads you should see on the main startup screen that it is running 4.0 and if you go to Start - Settings - System - About you should see the following screen.A
  
  
   
• I performed the steps above on a Windows XP laptop since I was a bit unsure about these weird files HOST11.EXE and NK.NB0    They appear to be fine and my virus scanner did not wing and they do appear to do what they are suppose to.

The only reason I actually went through this process was to be able to use Synchronization on Windows Vista which does not support Pocket PC 2002.

So after I upgraded an plugged in my IPAQ 3870 Pocket PC 2002 and went to the Windows Mobile Device Center all I got was this:

I then went to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter.mspx and downloaded the latest version of the Windows Mobile Device Centre and installed it. When I rebooted I found that when I went to Windows Mobile Device Centre I got the nice version of it as shown below and it does synchronise properly.

If you want to go back to Pocket PC 2002 then there is a firmware available here

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=0&prodSeriesId=96481&prodNameId=100777&swItem=PSG_I14999-37465&swEnvOid=231&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=3

I found the details of how to do this in the following forum.

http://www.mobileplanet.com/ft.aspx?i=101823&thread=111&page=1