Can I Upgrade to Windows Mobile 6?
Okay, I’m getting a little frustrated with my cell phone right now. For some reason when I went to SXSW and changed the time on my phone it’s been screwed up ever since. Now it won’t remember the Daylight Savings Time setting and keeps resetting itself to an hour earlier than it really is supposed to be.
I went to the UT Starcom site and updated the patch and loaded it but it didn’t seem to change or fix anything.
I then went to the Windows Mobile website to see if maybe there was a separate patch I needed to install from them as well.
I couldn’t find anything but now I’m really wanting to upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.
I couldn’t find any information on whether or not this is even a possibility for me on my device, a PPC-6700 from Sprint running Windows Mobile 5.
Does anyone have an answer for me?
Image Source: Windows Mobile 6 website
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POSTED IN: Errors, Hardware, Windows Mobile
4 opinions for Can I Upgrade to Windows Mobile 6?
Robert Aitchison
Mar 26, 2008 at 5:02 pm
You are probably out of luck. This is a common issue for Windows Mobile devices.
Updates for Windows Mobile OS (including patches) have to come through the carrier that the “device” is made for. So even if you have a device made by HTC with a Microsoft OS you have to get your updates from Sprint.
For their part, they have a disincentive to give you the update, they would much rather you go out and buy a brand new phone (and extend your contract), there’s no money in it for them to give you Windows Mobile 6. It’s very rare for a carrier to provide an OS upgrade for a WM device. Sprint wants you to toss your phone and buy a new HTC Mogul (PPC-6800) which is already year-old technology.
You may be able to work around it though, you can find an equivalent device that is offered by another carrier (usually outside the U.S. where the carrier-lock is not nearly so strong) you could download that carriers update and then load it on your device. This is problematic though, you may need to hack some of the files in the update so it will install on your device, you will likely lose any carrier specific features on your device, and last but not least if something goes wrong you could brick your device completely.
Windows Mobile 6.2 will probably be coming out this year, what I might do is try a factory reset on your device to get it working again for the time being and then wait till you can get a new device with WM 6.2.
Jason Bean
Mar 26, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Robert thanks so much for that insight. It makes sense. A friend of mine just showed me tonight his new HTC-6800 Mogul. It was sharp! Don’t see myself upgrading anytime soon though.
Daniel
Apr 24, 2008 at 11:06 am
Jason,
I bought a 6700 on ebay this week with an esn that checked out for cellular south. However, upon turning the device on, I found a sprint rom image running windows 6.0. It was clean, and I liked it. The problem is that I am a cellular south customer, but i thought I would give the programming a shot anyway. Of course, the device failed to program. After this, I went to the utstar website and downloaded the cellular south rom image which unfortunately runs 5.0. This time, however, i was able to program the phone. I am currently perusing forums looking for anyone who has successfully upgraded a cell south to 6.0.
I just wanted you to know that it IS possible to run 6.0 on sprint on a ppc6700, I have held it in my hands before..
You might can find the image on thepiratebay.
Not that im advocating piracy, just the rapid share of information.
Best of luck
Mike Sharp
May 2, 2008 at 1:33 am
Well, I just bought a Sprint PPC-6700 from a guy on craigslist. It had WM 6 on it, but the lady at the sprint store couldn’t get it to program to my account. After a conversation with their advanced tech support, she was told that it’s not possible to reprogram the phone once WM6 is on it. So, the moral is: get the phone working on their network first, then update it with WM6, if you’re so inclined.
In my case, there’s a happy ending. I get to exchange my 6700 brick for a nice new 6800, at no cost. I’m convinced this is a karma kickback from all the nice things I’ve done for other people! ;^)
Mike
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