also you can check out microsofts help for activesync... it talks about how "Since Windows Mobile 5.0 and ActiveSync 4.0 now utilize the Windows system TCP/IP stack for communication, the device connection will appear as a network interface and can be interrupted by a Network Connection Manager utility. Some utilities may mistake the ActiveSync connection as a valid internet connection and shut it down in favor of Wireless LAN connection."

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/hel...nc/default.mspx

kerrynia, I had the exact problem you are talking about the first few times I tried to sync the mpx200 with wm5 to activesync 4.1. It would say connecting... indefinately. I uninstalled and reinstalled 4.1, no luck. I tried opening activesync on the phone and having that application running on the phone while plugging it in. Eventually I started playing around with plugging the phone into different USB ports. Once again it seemed completely random, but I plugged it into a different one and let windows automatically install the ms smartphone drivers, and it worked. I hope this helps.

Yeah the white screen took some 7 min for it to go away for me... if your waiting longer than that perhaps you are having a SD card compatability problem... sorry I can't help any more

Dumb luck my friends... I was trying to SIM unlock the phone incase my wm5 upgrade on my SMT5600 bricked the SMT5600. When I found some chinese site detailing how to SIM unlock without killing the IMEI, I tried mpx200_backup along with another tool they provided to mesh the fix.img and a backup from your phone. Then I started searching boards, like this, one for info about wm5 on the mpx200. When I found the three .bin files I noticed the bin -> img function on mpx200_backup and figured I'd give it a shot. If i bricked the 200 I still had my SMT5600. Also what encouraged me is that the instructions in the three part bin installer stated you needed the key before ever even flashing any of the .bin's to the phone meaning the key probably had nothing to do with phone's "hardware fingerprint."

The only thing of note so far is that ActiveSync 4.1 will occasionaly never sync with the phone...it just says connecting for 10+ min. Unplug and plug back in and it works fine, don't know if any other users are seeing this with wm5.

I've also got WM5 running on my mpx200. I've got sluggish response sometimes. Probably due to my use of a 64MB miniSD card. I'm going to invest in a SanDisk 1GB card in the next week. Overall I havn't seen much difference in battery life or signal, but I've only had it up for a few days now.

OK, I got WM5 to load onto my old MPX200. I'll describe the process I used but I won't provide any links. Basically the WM5 rom distro that I found was three .bin files, a flash program, and a process with which to flash these to the phone. Basically the instructions state that you need a key to run the flash program, and you have to pay someone through an ebay auction. But what they don't tell you is that you can use the motorola mobile upgrade wizard to flash these files to your 200. The key is converting them from .bin files to .img files using a chinese tool called mpx200_backup. Then just follow the process laid out in the instructions included with the distro. Here is a summary:
1. remove SD and SIM and connect device
2. flash with part1.img
3. disconnect and remove battery
4. replace battery
5. master reset
6. device ID should be displayed along with an error message
7. remove battery
8. replace battery
9. put in SD card (you need at least 32MB) and reconnect
10. flash with part2.img
11. flash with part3.img
12. disconnect device and remove battery
13. replace battery
14. master reset, but options are different now (choose clean reg hive and format storage)
15. wait until complete
16. enjoy

Note: I came across the mpx200_backup utility in a search for away to SIM unlock my phone without paying anything or screwing up the IMEI. I'm sure everyone here knows about the fix.img file that will SIM unlock your 200 but will also screwup the IMEI. Well using the mpx200_backup you can choose to backup the 256K part of the phone that holds the SIM lock and IMEI information. If you find the appropriate tool online to combine your backup and the fix.img file you can then flash that to your phone and remove the SIM lock without damaging your IMEI.