Oh and I forgot to mention IN my step by step... I also took my mogul to work on day 2 or 3 and hooked it up to work computer. It is an XP home machine. I knew before hand that I would need active sync, so I downloaded it and then hooked up the mogul... almost the identical issue.... the dialog boxes were worded differently, but the result the same... like a usb device in sys tray, and active sync wouldn't sync. Also files could not transfer off or onto the hand held, at that point is when I bought the new usb cable, at lunch, and tried and as previously mentioned above, had the same issue.
(also an afterthought
Lastly the most recent change to my mogul, before it quit connecting, is a legit install, of pocket quicken. I am in the trial stage, but do like it so I intend to buy it at the end of the trial. I don't have quicken on any of my home or work machines, so in the wizard i told it not to sync quicken. I did try this option both checked and unchecked but I thought I would mention it as it was the last program I installed over USB.
Other mods to phone, in order:
Installed Google maps
Did the sprintTv install from Nov. 28th post here, roughly Dec. 3rd or 4th. watched 2-3 times, (comedy central and discovery) it didn't work after Dec. 12th or so, I uninstalled it.
Installed Microsoft live search.
Did the steps to make full you tube / Google video sites play on Mogul and installed TCPMP (works flawlessly)
Reg edit: battery life upgrade. (Cody's?) ( downloaded and used phm regEdit)
Downloaded free ware "castle wolfenstein 3-d" (looked like it was designed for WM 03 maybe for I-paq, but it works ok.
Installed VJCandlela (flashlight program) trimmed all but the Lite version out, and mapped it to the camera button.
Quicken pocket 2.5
All of these were done one at a time, with a day or more in between installs, and lots of use with no errors, until it stopped, after the quicken install, last Monday.