Hi, I worked on this a while and finally figured it out.

No having to do system restores or anythin else silly.

I will show you how to install the real IOGEAR drivers in SP2. and how to make it so the COM port is low enough and compatible with MS ActiveSync.

It is tested with IOGEAR GBU201 and GBU301 on two separate PCs with XP Pro SP2. I ActiveSync with my IPAQ 4150 via bluetooth with no problems.

Parts of this technique could be applied to other Bluetooth adapters (mainly the COM port resetting). The updating of driver will probably work with other Bluetooth adapters, since I had gotten the idea initially from a post pertaining to another BT adapter other than IOGEAR.

Sorry if the formatting is a bit funny... I cut and paste from notes I did in notepad.



Steps to install IOGEAR USB Blueooth adapter on Windows XP SP2. These instructions will also make it use a low Bluetooth Communications Port COM# below COM10 for support with MS ActiveSync.




Step 1. Uninstall IOGEAR Bluetooth Software

- In Add or Remove Programs, remove IOGEAR Bluetooth Software
- Remove all COM ports from Device manager above COM4 (may require a reboot)
- Unplug IOGEAR bluetooth device from USB
- Unplug any other USB serial device (you have to reinstall after)




Step 2. Plug back in IOGEAR BT Adapter.

XP SP2 will auto-detect it and add the following in Device Manager:

-Bluetooth Radios
- Generic Bluetooth Radio
- Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator

-Ports (COM & LPT)
- Standard Serial over Bluetooth link (COM5)
- Standard Serial over Bluetooth link (COM6)
- Standard Serial over Bluetooth link (COM7)

NOTE: the above COM ports may be numbered higher (eg. COM9,10,11). Don't worry about this for now
because these are just temporary.




Step 3. Install the IOGEAR BT Software from CDROM or Download.

- Just click OK to the Driver Signature Notice.
- Click Continue Anyway to the Logo Testing prompt.
- It will take a while to install... sometimes it just sits there for a couple minutes and
appears to do nothing. Just be patient.




Step 4. Make XP SP2 use the correct driver.

- Even though we installed in previous step, XP SP2 still insists on using its own crippled drivers.
- Go into Device Manager...

Expand the:
-Bluetooth Radios

and right-click on:
- Generic Bluetooth Radio

Select Update Driver..

- At connect to Windows Update prompt, select No, not this time and press Next
- Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) and press Next
- Select Don't search. I will choose a driver to install and press Next
- Select/Highlight IOGEAR USB Bluetooth Device and press Next


Afterwards, if you look in the device manager, you will see that the Bluetooth Devices has been changed and now contains IOGEAR USB Bluetooth Device. Also the COM Ports that XP2's native drivers installed are gone (from Step 2).




Step 5. Reconfigure COM ports

NOTE: These instructions presume you do not have any other serial devices installed other than COM1-4. If you do, then you should have uninstalled in first step.

We want to keep COM1-4 reserved in Windows.
ActiveSync only recognizes COM1-COM9. If you have a higher COM Port assigned to your Bluetooth adapter then it will not see it.

When adding serial ports for a device, XP will just assign the next available COM Port.
It remembers previous ports, even if you uninstalled, and keeps incrementing the numbers. If you
add/remove lots of ports then you will have a high COM port number such as COM11, COM12 etc. for example.


So edit registry...

My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlS et\Control\COM Name Arbiter

There is a key called ComDB, edit it and make sure the first value is 0F and the rest are 00

Quick explanation:

Each byte represents a com port which is free or reserved. Convert to binary and you get following:

$0F = 00001111

Counting from right to left is COM1 to COM8. Here we reserve COM1-COM4. Windows should assign the
next serial device it finds as COM5

FYI, the next byte in the ComDB key would be COM9-COM16 and so on.




Step 6. Run the Initial Bluetooth Configuration Wizard.

If you select a Serial Port as one of the services (default), it should add it as COM5.

You can now go into Microsoft ActiveSync and select COM5.

There are other instructions posted how to ActiveSync via Bluetooth on IPAQ, so I won't get into that here.


Step 7. Reinstall any other USB serial devices.

- Reconfigure software to use with these devices.

The other devices will grab higher COM ports.

Basically what we did here is install the IOGEAR bluetooth serial adapter first so it is guaranteed a low com port.