How to uninstall hotfix?

[oofangus]

Howdy,

I recently installed the SMS timestamp hotfix on my U.S. Cellular HTC Touch (downloaded from HTC; can't post URL due to forum rule). Since installing it, however, my phone shuts off its bluetooth radio every time I hang up a call. Naturally, this disconnects my headset and warrants about a half-minute long process of clicking lots of buttons and rebooting my headset.

I don't send/receive too many text messages, but I do spend a lot of time on the phone. So, I'd like to uninstall the SMS hotfix in the interest of getting the bluetooth to work properly again. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to uninstall the bloody hotfix. At the risk of asking a really obvious question:

Q: How can I uninstall a hotfix from my Windows Mobile 6.1 phone?

I do run a full nightly backup using Sprite Backup. So, if there's really no way to uninstall this hotfix, I can restore an old backup. While Sprite restore works well for almost everything, it does kill my speed dials and voice dials, requiring that I set them up manually again. Having done that like 40 times in the last year, I'd like to avoid making it 41.

Thanks in advance for your help.

-Michael

P.S. I see from reading the Sprint forum that you're supposed to enable airplane mode before installing their version of this same patch. The installation instructions on the HTC site for the U.S. Cellular version of the patch, though, do not mention this. So, I had airplane mode off (i.e. bluetooth on) when I ran the install. -M

[horndoctor]

Well, if you have done a backup lately I say just do a hard reset.
Then restore your stuff with your backup. That will take care of it.
Might be the quickest fix.

[oofangus]

Thanks for the suggestion, Doc. I'm going to see if anyone else has a recommendation that avoids restoring from backup.

Realistically, I could have restored a backup and manually repaired the messed up pieces in the time it's taken me to research this issue and post to this thread. If this was a one-shot deal, I'd just do that.

The ancillary problem, however, is that the cumulative time that I've spend restoring from and repairing Sprite backups is ridiculous. The Sprite Backup product is pretty good, but their support, though friendly, is effectively useless. As such, I'm trying to learn how to fix things in-place - such as uninstalling this SMS patch - to reduce my overall dependence on the lengthy Sprite restore/repair process.

Make sense?

[horndoctor]

Sure. Well, I am wondering if you used a cab to install this fix. If so, then maybe if you used an app like SKTools it would "see" the hotfix as an installed app and therefore allow you to uninstall it. Don't know.

[oofangus]

This hotfix was distributed as an executable (TIT_S01294.exe) that runs on the device, itself.

As far as uninstalling, I tried looking at Start > Settings > System > Remove Programs, but don't see it in that list. I was hoping that it would show up as an installed program, like hotfixes/patches/service packs do on big Windows. No such luck.

The thought had crossed my mind to contact U.S. Cellular for help, then I came to my senses. To be fair, I have become a loyal U.S. Cellular over the years because they treat me so well. Good plans, fair rates, and excellent customer service have been the norm. They are slow, however, to adopt new technologies. In turn, their technical staff know little/nothing about EVDO, GPS, tethering to a laptop, etc. Correspondingly, the level of support they are able to provide for the HTC Touch, even for basic operations, is effectively none.

This being only the second mobile phone I've ever owned, I'm still not entirely clear on the OS-level differences between providers that use the same underlying hardware. I presume, however, that the SMS issue this hotfix addresses isn't U.S. Cellular specific (the Sprint users seem to be discussing the same thing on their forum), nor is the method of distribution/installation. I'm hoping that there is some generic Windows Mobile way of uninstalling hotfixes.

[horndoctor]

Well, that's why I suggested SKTools because it sometimes will allow users to uninstall things that you can't uninstall using the standard WinMo Settings/System/Remove Programs. It's worth a try I guess.

[whitey10tc]

SK Tools or Memory Maid, or search and destroy. Search it down and delete it but you would need to know every file and registry edit it created and that would just be insane or back everything up and do a hard reset.

[oofangus]

Man, this sucks. I can't believe that there's no simple uninstall for a bloody OS patch. Or, that I'd need to pay for a third-party program to uninstall it.

At any rate, I decided to manually rebuild the phone from scratch. Like big Windows, I find that Windows Mobile only behaves well for about 6 months before spurious errors begin arising. In this case, there was an annoying beep whenever I pressed the hardware END button. I'd been avoiding doing a rebuild just for that, but the hotfix/Bluetooth issue was a good enough excuse to take the plunge.

The good news is that my Bluetooth functionality is working again. As a test, I also explored the phone's Bluetooth immediately after reinstalling the OS, and again immediately after installing the problematic hotfix (with no other customizations in between). I did the test twice: in both cases, Bluetooth worked after installing the OS, then failed after installing the hotfix. So, I'm convinced that this is a generic problem with the hotfix (or possibly hardware?), not a configuration problem specific to my phone.

I've notified HTC about the issue, and a representative replied that he'd forwarded my message "to the right department".

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions along the way.

-Michael