virtualbox.org

Hi - first post, so go easy!

I'm trying to upgrade the BIOS on an iPaq 4150 so that I can have access to WPA wireless encryption.
The iPaq has BIOS version 1.00.14, and I need to upgrade to version 1.10.
The OS on the iPaq is Windows CE 4.20.
I'm running a Windows XP (SP3) guest on a Debian Lenny host using VirtualBox 2.2.2
USB in the VM is set up properly, since I can establish a connection to the iPaq using MS ActiveSync 4.5.

What happens:
Power up the VM
Attach the iPaq using the supplied USB / power cable
Make the device available to the VM
ActiveSync automatically establishes a connection
Start the BIOS flashing utility (downloaded from the HP site)
The flashing utility correctly recognises the iPaq and the existing BIOS.
The flashing process starts, but halts after about 30 seconds with an "Error 260 - Connection Lost" message from the flashing utility. The connection via ActiveSync drops at this point too.
The iPaq is left frozen and requires the battery to be removed for a few minutes in order to reset properly.

I've searched for a solution, and found various suggestions, including
- not connecting through a USB hub (I'm not)
- use XP rather than Vista (I am)
- uninstall ActiveSync and start again (I have, several times)
- press and hold various button combinations to enter 'flash mode' before connecting the iPaq to the USB port (tried that too)
... none of which work.

I can find no definitive solution on other forums other than 'keep trying and it works eventually' ... I must have tried this about 20 times now, so I'm wondering if the problem is that I'm using a VM rather than an actual box running XP, or whether there's some arcane setting down in the guts of VirtualBox I'm not aware of ...

Any help hugely appreciated ... I really don't want to have to install XP on an old box to do this!

Flashing a BIOS is a dangerous task that can bork your system if done incorrectly, or some connection is lost. It's best to do this on a direct hardware system. Virtual systems can have too many issues with these things.

Quick update: was unable to find a way to make this work, and so borrowed an XP laptop to do the job. Worked first time on XP, so I can only assume that VB was the source of the problem ... exactly what the problem was, I have no clue.