Help please: Titan stuck on bootloader screen

[bayhill]

I was attempting to update my phone via the "Step by step tutorial for unlocking your device and cooking your own ROM!!!" thread. (My laptop runs Windows Vista, and I was trying to install this via a USB cable.) I downloaded and installed Olipro 2.40, but when I was finished, the phone displayed the red, green and blue bootloader screen with the words:

TITA100 MFG
SPL-2.40.Olipro
CPLD-9

I've since read the "Stuck in TITAN bootloader? Read this!" thread (and several other bootloader threads on this site and others) and tried to run the titan-exitbl.exe program, but I get the error:

Cannot open USB port. Please make sure, that USB connection in ActiveSync is disabled. Also make sure, that your USB cable is properly connected.

When I connect the phone to my computer with the USB cord, the word at the bottom of the phone changes from Serial to USB, but the phone doesn't appear as a drive on my "Computer" folder. (It was Drive F when connected to my computer via USB before I started this process.)

I also tried to run the DisconnectActiveSync.exe, but it appeared to have no effect on trying to run the titan-exitbl file.

Then, I reformatted my microSD card to FAT32 and copied over a custom radio (renamed TITAIMG.nbh) to the card because I read that flashing a radio would get it out of this screen. However, after removing the battery for a minute, replacing it and turning the phone on, it simply goes back to the three-color screen and doesn't attempt to load the file on the micro SD card. And the same thing happens when I try a hard reset, as it goes to a white screen and asks if I want to erase all user data. If I answer either yes or no, it returns to the three-color screen.

So far, I've spent more than three hours on this and am getting nowhere. If someone could help (because I'm guessing it's something I'm overlooking), I'd be grateful and would be more than happy to send a $25 paypal payment your way when the phone is back in a usable state. I've fixed my big-screen TV with parts at Radio Shack, so I'm not afraid to try something new to fix this, but it's getting very frustrating.

Thanks again.