Reviving a bricked 3650

[hubertus]

Calling all experts! I have finally managed to paralyze my old and trusty 3650. The screen is dark with faint lines and it is not recognized by Activesync, and no buttons work except the hard and soft reset switches. The battery is new and well charged. I remember once reading a thread on how to reflash the rom for Linux that involved accessing the device by Hyperterminal. Do any of you recall anything similar? Any advice on how to bring back to life this ancient but well loved thingy will be appreciated.

[AnswerDude]

If your unit does not suffer from hardware problem (ie. dead screen, broken motherboard) , you can try flash the ROM from HP, you don't need activesync connection to flash rom.
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/family/model/1231.html

[hubertus]

Thank you, Answerdude, for your quick reply. Im still puzzled. All the HP Rom upgrades etc ALL require an activesync connection. As I said, my desktop does not recognize the PDA and therein lies the problem. My dead PDA also does not recognize any storage cards. Im desperate.

[AnswerDude]

Have you tried it? Rom upgrade does not require activesync, when the upgrade process start, it shuts down activesync and turn it back on when it's done. Usually if the unit went bad during the previous rom upgrade, the recovery process is to shut down activesync and rerun the rom upgrade again and hope that it can finish the process. Again if your unit suffers from other hardware issues then this will not work. See this thread for more information.
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61439

[hubertus]

Tried it till Im blue in the face! Keep getting Error 101:Connection Error. Looks like you need Activesync at first although the update does not need it. Another brilliant Microsoft invention! Open to other ideas. Thanks for the advice so far.

[AnswerDude]

Have you tried what this user did from this thread?
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61439
He had the same "connection error" you had and ended up blocking all activesync connection out and finally the rom upgrade finished. Another thing is to try it on a desktop without activesync installed.

[hubertus]

Yes, tried without Activesync but to no avail. Thanks for your help anyway. Do you know of any outfits that will reflash the Rom for a small fee?

[AnswerDude]

http://www.ipaqrepair.com/
http://www.pocketpctechs.com/main~unit~HP_Compaq_iPAQ_h3650-122~area~repairs-Full+Service+Repairs~item~IPAQROMREPRG.htm

[hubertus]

ThankYou, Answerdude.