Sprint 8830 OS Upgrade...FINALLY?

[stevetaz]

Well, RIM has posted a 4.5 OS upgrade for Sprint, but of course the Sprint support site still has the 4.2 OS as the most current.

I think I will be trying this out later, when I get on the company laptop where my BB is installed...

Oh boy...

[Sav]

You've been like a kid in a candy shop with no money this entire time, haven't you?

Weren't you saying before that you weren't allowed to upgrade because of an IT policy of some sort?

[stevetaz]

You've been like a kid in a candy shop with no money this entire time, haven't you?

Weren't you saying before that you weren't allowed to upgrade because of an IT policy of some sort?

Close...It was because the available upgrades were not "official". At least this one does appear to be branded Sprint, so I will have an excuse if something goes wrong.

I will be installing later...

[Sav]

Oh okay, understood.

Good luck with the upgrade, and let us know what you think.

[stevetaz]

Well, if I had an "Easy Button" I would press it now....

All I can say is that was easy....

The entire process, including the time to download the update, do a manual backup, remove the old OS from the PC install the new OS to the PC, install to the handheld and then wait for the restore was a whopping 45 minutes. Very nice...

I followed the detailed instructions in the Upgrade Sticky (oh yeah, I wrote them ) and there really were no surprises. From the point of connection to the PC via the cable after installing the new OS to the laptop, the process was just about automated. The upgrade was detected and I was asked if I wanted to do it. No muss, no fuss....

First impressions....
-I like the HTML email. This part of the upgrade went well with no need to resend service books or anything. Our BES server had been updated so it just worked.

-I like the updates to the BB Browser. While it is not Safari (what is?), it is much improved to my eye. I like having a cursor/pointer to move around instead of just scrolling to make links highlight and then select. The front page of EB is rendered MUCH nicer (as is the front page of ET) as if a tru mobile version formatted for the BB screen is automatically pushed. However, the Forum page seems to load what is titled EB Mobile, but my default text size choice is ignored and the text is huge. Very odd, but I have to play some more.

-DocsToGo installed fine, I registered and I was advised an upgrade (free) was available, which then gave me SheetsToGo (Excel).

-All of the third-party programs (only a few) reinstalled and were available. However, SoftReset is not working. I get the message asking if I want to make it a trusted app and no matter what I answer, it kicks off an Uncaught Exception java error so the program is unusable. I am going to delete and try reinstalling fresh. I think I recall that it was not definitely compatible with anythig higher than 4.2, but I know there are many users it work fine for. Actually there is a disclaimer stating the author knows it won't work with 4.5...<sigh>. And the reinstall didn't. Time to try QuickPull.

-The Dimension "L" theme is nice.

A few things I don't like...
-Memory...At best I am seeing 13.6mb free. This is a concern and I hope I am not going to have to remove DocsToGo, which is using 2.2-2.3mb. I have to see how stable it is and what it does over a period of days.

-Five minutes of web surfing (EB and ET) and I am down to 11.6mb. Not what I hoped for, but time will tell.

-The OS included a few useless bloatware items from Sprint and I wish carriers would stop that. I am sure it isn't just Sprint.

I have to put this down now...More another time.....

[stevetaz]

Oh yes....A BIG shout out and thanks to member braxtoq for his directions on upgrading the OS for a BES device post #8. These helped to complete the upgrade without losing my BES registration forcing me to crawl to the BB Admin at work and beg to be reregistered after explaining why I had to upgrade...

Thanks braxtoq....

[Sav]

Nice to see you're satisfied and everything went well.

I have one question though.. How are you able to check app memory on the 8800 series on 4.5?

[stevetaz]

How are you able to check app memory on the 8800 series on 4.5?

I have been seeing this term "app memory" and I am not quite sure where it came from or if it means something different than I thought.

The free memory, which is used by apps, caching, documents, etc. can be checked by going to Options > Status > File Free

[Sav]

I have been seeing this term "app memory" and I am not quite sure where it came from or if it means something different than I thought.

The free memory, which is used by apps, caching, documents, etc. can be checked by going to Options > Status > File Free

I think it does mean something different than what you're thinking. Being on the 8800 series, that doesn't have OS 4.6 or 4.7, you probably have never seen this screen. My 8800 doesn't have it, but the Bold does. Ex: The Bold has 128MB built-in app memory. You've heard of terms like that before right? Well, from what I understand, it's what the phone uses for apps, themes, etc. If there's a leak, this number will get smaller and smaller, eventually causing the phone to perform very sluggishly. Get it?

[stevetaz]

-All of the third-party programs (only a few) reinstalled and were available. However, SoftReset is not working. I get the message asking if I want to make it a trusted app and no matter what I answer, it kicks off an Uncaught Exception java error so the program is unusable. I am going to delete and try reinstalling fresh. I think I recall that it was not definitely compatible with anythig higher than 4.2, but I know there are many users it work fine for. Actually there is a disclaimer stating the author knows it won't work with 4.5...<sigh>. And the reinstall didn't. Time to try QuickPull.
.....

Well, QuickPull had the same Uncaught Exception error and was also unusable. A search of the Internet and here is the resolution that worked for me so I can now use SoftReset. Note that it doesn't seem to work for all so you would have to try it. I also saw that this helped some Storm users that were having trouble with SR:

Options > Advanced Options > Applications > Email Setup Application > BB Menu key > Edit Default Permissions > Change all to Allow > Save your changes and try SoftReset again.....This may also help to resolve QuickPull, but I didn't go that deep as I have been using SoftReset for awhile and wanted to continue.

I like the cosmetic changes in the Calendar, but they still have a long way to go to catch up to Palm on this one. Not sure if I like the Address Book changes yet. Seems that I could view more in the main listing before. The individual contact information is clearer and almost looks like an HTML email setup.