Are you savvy enough?

I posted yesterday about trying to get my Blackberry 8703e connected to my TX750P via the Bluetooth connection. I haven't received one reply (little disappointed...where are the geeks? ). I initiated a chat session with a Sony tech and he instructed me to install the Bluetooth update from the Sony site. After I installed the update my SmartWi Connection Utility went totally haywire. Now when it launches it's just a blank gray box and no print or data. When I click the ? for help it says to reinstall. When I use the toggle feature it brings up a gray box about an inch square with nothing in it. When I try to uninstall the app in the control panel I get an error that says "An installation support file could not be installed". Weird when I'm trying to uninstall. When I try to reinstall the app (off the recovery DVD or the Sony site) it goes through the motions, says this may take a few minutes, and seconds later says it's finished. Upon reboot the SmartWi is still a gray box. I've tried to end the SmartWi tasks in the Task Manager so I could remove the entire directory and start over but a bunch of .dlls are still in use and can't be deleted. Can anyone give me some good technical advice on how to get this **** thing working again (let alone get my Blackberry talking to my notebook - that's a distant pipe dream now). Thanks in advance to those of you who take a moment to share your wisdom. I'm desperate and really appreciate it.

 

Sounds like a corrupted install. Perhaps a registry cleaner like CCleaner will help get rid of some of the left overs so you can try to install it again.

 

Nice to see at least someone tried to tackle a technical question. I'm starting to think these forums are just for people comparing contents of travel packs and comiserating about broken notebooks. I'll take what insight I can get. Thanks chrisyano.

 

Another thought on the subject: perhaps Sony has a scrubber program to take out any remnants as well. That would also allow you to take another shot at a clean install of the new driver.

 

A scrubber would be helpful indeed. My last conversation with Sony tech support ended with them saying their only recommendation is a total reload of the OS from the Sony recovery disks. They have no idea why their SmartWi app is failing or why the new Bluetooth drivers corrupted it. They're also unable to help me completely remove the application from the registry and hard drive. I'm always impressed with tech support who default to "just erase and reload". Brilliant solution.

 

Tech Support usually defaults to that because for the majority of users, a total recovery will bring back their system to factory settings and fix the majority of problems. When it doesn't then they can focus down more to what might be wrong with either the software or hardware.

 

Did you try downloading the Bluetooth Drivers/App and SmartWifi from the support site to do the reinstall?

 

Most certainly. I've tried the original files on the restore DVDs and the original and updated files on the support site. I've tried System Recovery and registry cleaning. The SmartWi app simply will not install or run correctly no matter what I do. If I hadn't loaded a ton of personal software on the machine I probably would wipe it clean. I can't help but find it utterly stupid that a Sony app stops working when you apply an upgrade from their site. Boooo!