When attempting to synch my 8700C v. 4.1.0.377 with Microsoft Outlook 2003 (11.6359.6360) running on Windows XP Professional I get the following message when attemting an addressbook synch:

"Unable to write or update application data"

This occurs only with the addressbook. My calendar items synch appropriately. What did I do to deserve such a problem? How do I fix this so that the addressbook entries synch?

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Look in you Desktop Manager, Synch, and find the Error Log. Examine it where it failed, and you will likely find some record in Outlook that does not have any data or a bad character in the First, last or company name field. Fix that in Outlook and you will be good to go, very very likely.
The Error Log will give you a record # that failed, which may or may not help. You may just have to look through Outlook to determine.

I'm getting the same message with calendar entries. There was an entry dated 01/01/20 that seemed odd, I found it in outlook and deleted it but I can't find it on my Pearl address book, even though it shows up every time I synch. How can I find it, and if not, how can I delete all calendar entries and start over?

you will need to create a "creation date" view in outlook. the rim log for calendar entries go in order of creation date. to find the bad entry, see where the log stops and it's the entry right after it that's most likely the bad one. if you want to delete the entire calendar on the device then use the backup/restore option to wipe the calendar database or set calendar sync to NONE (sync pim) then set it back to wireless (this will wipe all previous entries from the device and put them all back on from outlook again).

I tried clearing the calendar with backup restore, got message saying "The data was not recognized by device." In my version of outlook, there is no date created option.

you will need to use the "advanced" option to choose the calendar database, highlight it then click clear. you should be able to create a view in outlook (the parameters should include creation date).

By now you must think I'm really stupid, but this ain't working. I went as far as deleting everything from both calendars manually, I still get the "data was not recognized by device" message.

I tried removing and re-installing the program, that didn't work.

I now have two empty calendars that won't talk to each other. After running the synchronize program and checking the log, it shows records read and added that don't exist anymore.