[haus]

On the no ringer issue, sounds like a software incompatibility. Something you installed (or restored from a backup) maybe? Otherwise just a WM quirk, though I haven't heard of this one in particular. Best troubleshooting is a hard reset, install nothing, don't restore a backup, and see if it continues to happen. These kinds of things aren't hardware issues - a new Intrepid is not going to fix what is obviously either a bug in Samsung's implementation of WM6.5 or something user-installed that caused the problem. Different story if the phone plays no sound at all...maybe the speaker is broken...but if it plays sounds other than a ringer, a new phone is only going to "fix" the problem until the user reinstalls the same software or the bug resurfaces.

No firmware updates exist, that's why you're getting the "error". It simply means there are no updates available, and it's nothing to worry about.

Opinions on Samsung ever doing anything to update the Intrepid? Sure: Nope. Granted that's just an opinion, and I'll spare you my detailed reasoning, but I would not expect anything from Samsung at this point. They (and the other mfrs) are in the business of selling you new devices, not providing free upgrades to old ones so that you can save your money. HTC planned to offer the WM6.5 upgrade from 6.1 from the moment the TP2 was released. That expectation was placed up front. I think the plan there was not to allow Sprint's flagship WM phone to be running 6.1 for any longer than it had to, hence the planned upgrade. I haven't followed the TP2, so I don't know if they're upgrading those devices yet; my guess is that it is or will be an older build of WM than most of the community ROM chefs are working with. Probably newer than the Intrepid's build, but not as good as what you can get here and on xda.