not so much a plea for help, but a this is how I fixed it, I made extensive use of the links on this and many other forums to at least understand what I was looking at.

This was intensly frustrating and the steps I went through are listed below, but I can't tell you how many times I went round the loop and what specifically fixed the issue. I have an HTC Advantage (7500), and install was easy apart from the fact that the USB connection crashes my networking on my IBM Laptop, and the only way to fix it was to restore to a working point. So recommendation 1, before you start, if your system is working, fix a restore point. So as the USB connection didn't work, I went to bluetooth, first time install perfect and it worked, followed the instructions in the help with Activesync on setting up a bluetooth connection.. Sync'd great and installed applications.

However, day 2, its stopped working. I think this was due to me sticking my Belkin F8T003 in the second USB port I have, rather than the one I installed from. I have read elsewhere in the forums that each USB is viewed differently by XP, and so XP thinks this is a different device. Someone may like to confirm that for me. Also trying to get the Mac to work at the same time so I could sync from iPhoto and iTunes.

So I set to to fix.

1) Read about the fact XP hides devices not in use documented here http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=8&TopicId=422

2) Found out that Belkin count ports based on a registry entry documented here http://hardware.mcse.ms/archive35-2004-5-12948.html

3) Tried looking at this to see if this made any difference http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=8&TopicId=2200. Didn't work for me, I have SP2 installed.

At this stage I have a com port 9 (<10 anything greater than 9 and the device doesn't even show the serial port entry) listed on the PC as an incomming port, and activesync showing its listening to it in the connections menu, the devices paired, but just a serial port rather than activesync showing on the device so no ability to sync.

4) Re-installed the bluetooth stack and activesync several times and deleted pairings, tested the order of setting things up etc etc

5) Looked at whether Windows Firewall was the problem, and started to wonder about whether activesync was actually listening to the port found this thread and started following it http://hardware.mcse.ms/showthread.php?s=29a29a85553d7afda6091dc5f002f56f&threadid=282111&perpage=10&pagenumber=1. Notice there are three pages to this thread, it threw me the first time I looked at it, and I only went back to it later, to find when you get to the end of it, the guy completely resets his device just to see the problem fix. So, I went for it, used the clear storage options, and still the same issue.

By this stage I realise that com9 always appears at the bottom of the list of ports, I have a nokia phone and a blackberry that pair with my PC, and I also have a list of older devices that still have their pairings listed. I finally delete everything from everywhere, in the bluetooth menu, the devices menu (only Com1 and LPT1 showing even after selecting show hidden devices), check the registry entries, make sure any associations are gone and reboot the PC. Bluetooth stack and activesync installed, activesync complains about the port not being there on reboot. Now follow instructions again in help on activesync, bingo, it works.

My final setup is one device in the bluetooth menu, my HTC Advantage, one incomming com port listed in the bluetooth menu, com9, entry in Devices on the Advantage for the laptop with Activesync selected, no COM ports listed on the device. Also due to the fact that I can't connect via USB, I don't, so I can state that you don't need to sync first through USB to get bluetooth sync working.

I cannot claim I know what I did. But now it works.

I now go to try and reinstall my other devices, and keep it all working. I am still confused by the USB issue, it seems to be as the RNDIS loads, my other networking fails, and as many others have said can Microsoft please make this easy to use.

Regards

Paul