Blackberry Pearl 8100 firmware upgrade
14 04 2007My thanks go to Ed_NYC on this one for flagging new firmware that has been released for the Blackberry Pearl. The solution is a bit of a hack, but I’m willing to share it here.
My device is a US T-Mobile Blackberry 8100. I haven’t tested this on any other device. Use this solution at your own risk.
The latest firmware to be released for the Blackberry Pearl is version 4.2.1.66, T-Mobile US are currently only offering version 4.2.0.64 on their website. Therefore, we need to get it from elsewhere if you can’t wait for T-Mobile US!
Again, as a disclaimer, I don’t suggest you do this, it’s just for information only. Also, if you have BES enabled (i.e. you use your device over a corporate network), you may need your Blackberry administrator to wireless activate you again after the upgrade. However, after about 5 minutes after the upgrade, my wireless activation seemed to just start automatically.
The only mobile operator that seems to offer this download at present is TIM in Italy. Here we go, but a word of warning before you get started, you will need to put a good uninterrupted two hours aside to get this working. Once you start, you can’t stop!
To give you a sense of timings I started at 22:43 and finished the update at 00:25.
- Download the new firmware, by visiting this page.
- Once you have the download, run it and install the Blackberry Desktop software.
- If you do not have an Italian TIM mobile device, you’ll need to delete the vendor.xml file after the install. This can be found at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader\vendor.xml
- Connect your Blackberry Pearl via the USB cable and run the Blackberry Desktop software. On syncing, the Desktop software recognises that an update to the firmware should happen and will take you through the steps with the Blackberry Application Loader
- Just step through these selections, I would suggest taking the time to backup your device when the installation suggests you do
- After an eternity (around 40 minutes) the update should be complete. Your Blackberry Pearl will take time to reset and reboot - and that’s the hard bit done. You now have firmware version 4.2.1.66 on your Pearl - congratulations!
Once this update is done, you’ll see changes to the areas of core functionality, supplemental SureType wordlists (financial, legal and medical terms), better attachment handling, Blackberry Maps, Blackberry Messenger, BrickBreaker and the embedded US PST patch
One of the best updates is that you now have a Desktop View on your Browser. If you switch to this, you get an arrow to move around with the trackball. In the options of your browser, you can switch to the Default of Desktop View and you can also set minimum font size, image quality and enable JavaScript Location support.
If you use the T-Mobile Zen theme, when you hit the Blackberry key, it no longer comes up in the list format, it is now a page of icons, just like the 8800 version. I like this!
SureType also now seems more accurate and some fonts, icons and signals bars look more polished. I have also noticed there are new sounds available (like the ones on the 8800), which is great, also a new looking calculator. Seach is slightly different as you can opt to search your encrypted messages.
When I find out more, I’ll post it up here.
It is my hope in the long run that this firmware upgrade will solve the problem of my Pearl syncing with my TomTom for Plus services. Until I figure that one out, enjoy the new functionality.
Hi David,
I wonder if you could please help me, I performed the OS upgrade on my Pearl and now the browser cannot connect to the internet, I only get the message:
‘Unable to connect to the Internet, Please try again later. If the problem persists please contact your service provider’.
I also have Opera intstalled and that won’t connect either. All other connections on the Pearl are OK, I can receive emails ect.
Tried changing the APN/TCP settings to no avail, it just won’t connect to the Internet since the upgrade. I am with T-Mobile UK. Any advice appreciated.
Many Thanks
Simon
Wonder if you made tomtom ONE working with your pearl. I tried and could not do it. Any help would be appreciated, Nick
I upgraded today and noticed that when I got a call from one of my mayfaves the device would drop the call and then when I tried to call them back I didnt have any audio on the phone at all. had to remove the battery and try again, then the issue went away.
Has anyone tried doing the OS upgrade with an O2 pearl in the UK? and if so did it resolve bluetooth connectivity issues with tomtom one new edition?
I will upgrade mine as soon as the 70 odd mb download finishes (sat in a hotel in Manchester with a wireless 20K download speed!). I have paired the 8100 to my TomTom One New Edition but can’t get traffic going etc. Like you, I won’t be defeated, and whoever Ed_NYC is - he’s a smart cookie that needs to get everyone else to whack TomTom’s and RIM’s heads together!
Does this firmware support the A2DP protocol for Bluetooth? I would so love to be able to listen to music over a bluetooth headphones.
frankly, this is the only reason I would upgrade.
i just got the new jabra and it wont play music over the bluetooth headset is there a upgrade or some way to force it to play over blue tooth
tomtom One works with this upgrade; my only nit is the loss of the bluetooth on/off icon which is very handy if you use it at all … now you have to enable it from either options or from bluetooth setup
bummer
You should be hired by Blackberry. The install went exactly as described and did improve/upgrade all of the functionality you mention.
Only question is, how does one enable JavaScript to watch movie trailers at Yahoo Movies for example? I understand it’s capable but I have no clue as to how to do it.
Does anyone know where I can get 4.2.1.66 of the Pearl software?
can you direct me to where I can find the T-mobile Zen theme for the Blackberry 8100 Pearl.
Thank you very much for this!!! it worked like a charm!!!
I upgraded my BB Pearl to 4.2.1.66 of the firmware from Italy and it all went bosoms up! However, I deleted all data, used ACB Blackberry to get the backup I took before updating and re-synched with Outlook and voila, it all worked fine. I then tried the BB in the car with my TomTom ONE and it worked perfectly. I am so chuffed but there are still a couple of down-sides. Every now and then I get a ‘java exception’ error in something and sometimes after making a call on a headset, the TomTom needs to be re-connected via the blue-tooth. These are very minor for me but niggles nonetheless. Vodafone will no longer support my phone though (like they ever did?).
I have two 8100 Pearls. One is a T-Mobile handset (with the Zen theme already running) and the other is a Vodafone handset. Sureley there must be a way of moving the theme from one handset to the other. I’m absolutley desperate to use the T-Mobile Zen theme on my Vodafone handset.
I would really appreciate anyone that could assist.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Thank you
First let me congratulate you on an excellent blog David. It’s very readable!
I’ve got a couple of tips for the Blackberry Pearl 8100 OS (that’s written for Google searches!)
Firstly, I’ve found that installing the TIM version of the OS caused one or two of my games to freeze (most notably the excellent Midnight Casino by Gameloft). The only way to get the Pearl operational again was to remover the battery. Not good! I’m using a UK T-Mobile handset incidentally.
I was able to completely resolve these issues by installing T-Mobile UK’s Pearl 8100 OS release. With this in mind, here’s the link to the global Pearl OS download page:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/download_sites.jsp
Hope that works for everyone.
Secondly, I’ve been able to make great use of the Pearl’s video function. I’ve got several full length movies on the unit by using an excellent (and free!) application called iRiverter. No post-convertion work or reformatting was required and the movies play perfectly. iRiverter is designed to create movies from DVD for iRiver’s U10 and Clix media players. Both fantastic products and well worth a look.
Here’s the link to iriverter:
http://iriverter.sourceforge.net/download.shtml
Remember to choose the device type as U10 and it should be okay!
Iain
Hi David thanks for such a great blog! You’ve just solved my only real hassle with The Pearl, by explaining the firmware upgrade which has finally fixed the backlighting. Even pre-warned me on the very worrying lonnnnnng wait for the 2nd initialisation!
Questionette, how do i scroll to the beginning of a just entered “once only” telephone number from the home page, to correct or enter a dial code for example? Rolling the ball left doesn’t work?
Thanks again, you’ve done all us BB users a big favour!
Cheers
Phil
Hi,
By doing this firmware update, can the berry be unlocked? it is now locked to TMobile USA. and i want to use it with Hutch in India.
TMobile is not ready to give the unlock cod for the same and other vendors on the site asks for huge lot of money (for me) pls help
Hi David
I have just upgraded from my HTC pda phone (T-Mobile MDA III) to blackberry 8800, I have tomtom software on the micro sd card, how can I get this to work on my blackberry?
Good article… like the emphasis on some of the advantages obtained by the firmware upgrade. I used the Rogers 4.2.1.94:
http://williamfaulkner.co.uk/wordpress/archives/category/blackberry-pearl
and now my Pearl is ‘the business’ - the media player is also vastly improved.
Just sent my 10 month old Pearl off for warranty repair (screen had developed a dim area) and it’s come back fine, resplendant in brand new shiny bodywork, despite being way over O2s accredited firmware version.
In the two weeks it’s been away :o( I’ve used a HTC Touch - very flash, but not a touch (lol) on the Pearl for practicality or ease of use - when my contracts up in a few weeks I’ll be upgrading to the Curve methinks…
Incidentally, my GPRS bandwidth usage quadrupled on the Touch whilst performing just about the same tasks as I did with my Pearl… it seems that RIMS compression algorithms really are as good as they say.
There is acredited o2 UK updates availavle here: http://www.my-blackberryfromo2.com/BlackBerry_handheld_software.asp
Seems to be the 4.2.1.x version
FYI. Not sure if you guys know but T-Mobile in the US has an official upgrade to 4.2 for the phone and their desktop application. I’m a Blackberry Pearl 8100 and Tom Tom ONE V2 user (insert Google jingle here) and am trying to get data services thru my BB Pearl. I’m hoping the official upgrade lets my devices pair. I’ve tried different initialization strings as suggested on pinstack to no avail. If this doesn’t work then I’ll try and downgrade to .66. There’s got to be a way to pair the ONE and Pearl for the data services! More GPS manufacturers should have this type of thing enabled for people that have unlimited data plans - which is probably going to be pretty standard as time goes on.
Thanks for the blog. I’ll keep watching it.
4.2.1.107 (the latest firmware for T-Mobile in the US as of Sept 16, 2007) didn’t work when pairing with my TomTom One (not sure which version it is [v2 new edition?] but it has a SD card slot and 1 gig internal RAM with maps in the RAM - not on SD - and is not the newest one out right now). I’m going to downgrade to 4.2.1.66 and see what happens. To tell you the truth, I probably don’t care if I can get traffic and stuff via my bluetooth but something is keeping me from quitting
HOLY FRIKKING CRAP! IT WORKS!!
I downgraded my BlackBerry Pearl to the Italian 4.2.1.66 and used the information located here
http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/29883-tomtom_one_wireless_data_connection_settings.html
Which I’ll praphrase
BlackBerry:
options –> advanced –> TCP –> apn to wap.voicestream.com
Id & pwd=blank/nothing
on tomtom one:
APN: wap.voicestream.com
Username:
Password:
Dial: *99***1#
Connection string: AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”wap.voicestream.com” (case and whitespace sensitive)
for the tomtom, do a manual setup… disregard the 4 tmo options and use auto ip and dns settings.
I just got it working so I’m not sure if I screwed up the phone part of my blackberry or not
I am on UK T-mobile. I tried the latest firmware from the UK t-mobile support site (…106 I think) and it did not work. Finally I downgraded to the Italian 4.2.1.66 and it works fine. In fact I didn’t even change to the above settings (I don’t think unless the TomTom held in memory the old settings - which I don’t think it does).
My APN on the blackberry was automatically set to Internet.com on install and it seems to work fine with the 510 I have?!
Link to Italian site for Firmware:
https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/browseSoftware.do;jsessionid=yrlcH0Wm29MTh+DX0H3JUw**
have just upgraded from my HTC pda phone (T-Mobile MDA III) to blackberry 8800, I have tomtom software on the micro sd card, how can I get this to work on my blackberry?
can you help?
I can confirm that it really only works with the Italian 4.2.1.66 in Switzerland as well. I have tried the latest one (4.2.1.101) and it doesn’t work. Not sure what the difference is between these versions and why only the one version works.
I have an AT&T Blackberry Pearl with T-Mobile service. If i upgrade the phone will it interfere with my service?
Can this solve the A2DP problem for wireless headset?
looks very interesting. this is my problem though, i got a Tmobile pearl last summer while in the states, i got it unlocked as i moved back to ireland. everything works fine except for a few things. it still seems set up for america, as in it still uses edge instead of GPRS and if i get a missed call and try and ring it back it puts a +1 infront of the number as it assumes it is an american number.
how do i go about fixing this?
the carrier that im on in ireland doesnt release any firmware for the phone
I have an AT&T 8100 if i upgrade the firmware will it work and does it support a2dp stereo blutooth???
Hey i have an unlocked T-mobile bb and i need to get the bb messagener working… can i do this with your instructions and will it still be unlocked???
thanks
Hi, wanted to thank you for the messages on the site. Have been a godsend.
I have a Nokia N810 and have connected to a blackberry Pearl 8100 after downgrading to 4.2.1.66 version.
Anybody needs any help then drop me a mail @ barry.newman@sainsburys.co.uk
Hi,
I have roger 8100,
1) I want to debrand, remove all rogers applications in 8100, If i install new Firmware will help this to remove all rogers related stuff.
2) If i install Asia Firmware, will it unlock the sim and can i use any other services.
Please help me out
Hi,
I have rogers 8100.
1) i want to remove all rogers related stuff from my 8100, if i load this new firmware will it remove.
2) At present my 8100 is locked to rogers and i want to use in INDIA, if i load Asia Firmware version, will it unlock the sim code.
Please help me out
Hi there,
I recently came back to South Africa after a stay with some family in the UK, while being there i purchased a pearl 8100 which is on vodafaone UK, now being back in South Africa it does not read my SA sim card, does anyone perhaps know where i can find a OS update that will work in South Africa?
Hi,
I have rogers 8100.
1) i want to remove all rogers related stuff from my 8100, if i load this new firmware will it remove.
2) At present my 8100 is locked to rogers and i want to use in INDIA, if i load Asia Firmware version, will it unlock the sim code.
Please help me out
hi,
i need help.i updated with the firmware. now,i can’t find the map .please someone help me
i have a blackberry 8100 and i want to flash him but i haven’t any think to flash this black berry and please help me please.thank you