7250 undetectable

[catapultdavid]

Greetings All,

New to the BB world, and went a bit older technology to save $$ before I decided if this was to be my life... 8-)

Here's my weirdness: BB 7250, OS 4.0.0.204, recently acquired from e-bay and it is working fine on Verizon's network. Laptop & desktop are running XP.

I simply cannot detect this phone with any of my computers.

BT: I cannot use BT since my OS is back-level. I cannot update the handheld OS until it is detected - a vicious circle indeed. I can pair the computer and the phone, but the desktop manager won't see the phone.

USB: The BB is seen as 'unknown device', and I have tried drivers from everywhere to get this phone to be recognized.

Serial: I purchased a cable from BestCell Distributors (bestcelldist.com/rim_blackberry_7250g_serial_data_cable.html) as my last attempt. Hook the phone to the cable, still not recognized on my serial port.

I realize buying old contributes to issues like this, but as a former network admin of 7+ years, former college CS instructor, and over 8 years of developing training on software, I figured I had a good chance of working through issues like this. Alas, to no avail.

Any suggestions?

[soupandsandwich]

Forget Bluetooth and Serial connectivity entirely. Definitely barking up the wrong tree there.

USB is the way to go.
What version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager are you running on the PC?

[catapultdavid]

4.3, but I have tried everything from 4.0 to 4.6 in my odyssey. 4.3 is the 'official' desktop I downloaded from Verizon

[soupandsandwich]

Maybe just a defective device? COuld be a blessing in disguise.
Starting out with a 7250 is one heck of a way to get introduced to BlackBerry devices.
Your user experience wouldn't have been much.

I'd absolutely recommend starting out with some type of 8000 series device, just so you can have the opportunity to use handheld OS 4.5

[catapultdavid]

OK, so let me get this straight: the 4.0 OS SHOULD be ok to use and detect using USB?

All I really wanted to do was combine my phone & PDA functionality so I can go with one device. The e-mail is an occasional thing that is nice-to-have, but not absolutely critical. I did not want the typical 'smartphone' with all the doodads that are unecessary. I do not use the web on portable devices, nor do I want camera/video/music. The camera thing is a huge issue, as I visit some places that will not allow me to enter with a camera phone, or else I have to leave at the receptionist, defeating the purpose of having a cell phone in the first place.

[soupandsandwich]

OK, so let me get this straight: the 4.0 OS SHOULD be ok to use and detect using USB?

Of course. USB is its native connection method.

[catapultdavid]

so do you know exactly what drivers I should have? I've stumbled through so many, perhaps I have some conflict there...

[soupandsandwich]

so do you know exactly what drivers I should have? I've stumbled through so many, perhaps I have some conflict there...

The driver is part of BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
I think it's rimusb.sys, or something to that effect.

Also, with an ancient device such as the 7250, you might also want to downgrade Desktop Manager to an earlier version. I would go with DM 4.2 instead of 4.3.
Uninstall DM 4.3 and then do a fresh install of 4.2. You might have better results.

[catapultdavid]

Ok, tried 4.2.2 with same results. the BB is detected as 'unknown device'. Try to install drivers for the device, point to the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\USB Drivers\RimUsbNT.inf file, get the message "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware."