Category: Nokia E71x

Some problems you may run into with the Nokia E71x phone

Based on the scores of comments left on my series of Nokia E71x posts, there are people using this phone actively. I am no longer one of them. Reason: over 6 months ago, I cracked the screen (not the plastic covering, but what’s underneath said plastic covering). I’m now an active ATT Tilt user albeit with a ‘cooked’ ROM from XDA Developer’s forum). With that in mind, my instructions are 6 months old and your mileage may vary.

That said, I recently received correspondence from a commenter about a sound issue he had been having with his Nokia E71x device. Specifically, there was no sound in the Ovi Maps 3.0 application. Now, I’m not sure why this happens because the steps I’ve written about are exactly the steps I took for installing the Maps application on my device. However, please be aware that Nokia’s not necessarily supporting the E71x phone because it’s custom-made for ATT.

Update (06/10/2010): If you’re having trouble installing the Ovi Store App on your Nokia E71x phone, please visit this ATT wireless forum. Here’s a direct link to the Ovi Store app .sis file for downloading & installing to your phone. Thanks to BobE71x for bringing this to my attention!

In a nutshell, if you have no sound in the Ovi Maps 3.0 application on your Nokia E71x device & your maps version is v3.0 09wk03b02MW OpenGL LM MN, then, please go post-haste to these two websites:

  1. Visit this on the Nokia website about no sound in the Ovi Maps application. The instructions from the user, “Iktus”, were what this commenter followed to resolve his problem.
  2. If that doesn’t work, go to Spanish-language website (translated via Google Translate) by the user, “Tzar” who documents how he resolved the “no sound” issue on his N82 device.
  3. For other weird problems, feel free to comment or visit the same Spanish-language website (translated) for in-depth tutorials, etc.
  4. If you are unable to access the website for some reason, here’s a translated page of the website here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32544281/Nokia-No-Sound.

One last thing:

  1. Please note that there is still NO free turn-by-turn navigation on the Nokia E71x device. My guess is because this device comes bundled with AT & T’s Navigator program so Nokia doesn’t want to compete with the cellphone provider. Only newer Nokia devices are getting the free goodies. Sorry.

Installing Ovi Maps via Nokia’s Ovi Suite software

The influx of searchers looking for info on installing Ovi Maps on their E71x phones is strong. This is good. 🙂 Sadly, the post that they typically hit upon first is this monster about installing Nokia Maps 3.0.1 on the Nokia E71x. That information is out-dated and I have tried to redirect people to a much easier way of getting Ovi Maps installed and functional on their devices. The entire point of this post is:

  • You don’t need to download the Nokia Maps 2.0 version as I had had to do with Nokia PC Suite software & the older versions of the Maps software available.
  • If you are using the Nokia PC Suite software, transition to the excellent Ovi Suite software which is now at v. 2.1.0.87. Ovi Suite now syncs your contact with your Ovi.com account! There is also better support for Microsoft Outlook and Windows Contacts syncing.
  • With Ovi Suite software, installing Ovi Maps is significantly less tricky and quite unlike this post which gets a lot of hits from people interested in Ovi Maps on the Nokia E71x phone.

Here are the updated instructions for installing Ovi Maps to your Nokia E71x phone:

  1. Have your USB sync cable ready. Have a recent backup of your phone’s contents (either using the old Nokia PC Suite software, Ovi Suite software or through the “Control” option when you rightclick the “Nokia E71x” icon under “Devices and Printers” in Windows 7. See the embedded images to see more about this 3rd option.)

  3. Download the most recent version of Nokia’s Ovi Suite software (v. 2.1.0.87). When installing, you will have the option of setting up your phone with the software. I connected my phone via the USB cable first. I recommend you do the same to avoid any potential issues with bluetooth. You can always set up your connection via bluetooth later. Follow the installation prompts and I would recommend making a backup of your phone before attempting anything else.
  4. Fire up the Ovi Suite software and navigate to the ‘Maps’ tab. The software will actually prompt you to install Ovi Maps on your device! If you aren’t able to install maps via the Ovi Suite software, then keep reading. 🙂
    Download the latest Ovi Maps .sis file for your device. In the case of E71x owners, we’re SOL because our device is not officially supported for use with Ovi Maps! However, I used the installation file (Nokia Maps 3.0_0302_3.2.sis) for initially installing Ovi Maps to my E71x. Once you have successfully installed Ovi Maps using that version listed above, fire up the Ovi Suite software and check up for updates. Please remember to have your 8GB microSD card inserted in your phone before you begin downloading any maps. If no updates are detected, start up the Ovi Maps application and check your file version. My Nokia E71x which is currently running the v3.28 firmware version has the following version information for the Ovi Maps software: v. 3.01 09wk44 b01.
  5. If all goes according to plan, you should be able to run the Ovi maps software. If you not, leave a comment and I’ll investigate. 😛

For what it’s worth (FWIW), here’s info on Ovi Suite and some items it installs on your computer. In order for me to help you, make sure you are running the later Ovi Suite version.

  1. Nokia Ovi Suite 2.1.0.87
  2. PC Connectivity Solution 10.5.1.0
  3. Connectivity Cable Driver 7.1.27.0
  4. Nokia Ovi Suite Software Updater 2009.46.1.60264
  5. Maps Service API 3.0.38.0
  6. Nokia mPlatform 2.6.86
  7. Ovi Desktop Sync Engine 1.1.0.80
  8. Ovi Maps on Jane’s E71x: v3.0109wk44b01 MW

You can access this same info by navigating to the ‘Help’ tab and clicking ‘About Ovi Suite’. Then, click on “System Information” and voila!

Cheers!

Getting bluetooth profiles working with the Nokia E71x phone

This is one of the several posts I’ve made since I obtained the Nokia e71x phone. As you know, connecting the Nokia E71x phone to your computer via USB is a piece of cake. Pairing the Nokia E71x via bluetooth to your computer is also very easy.

However, due to reasons I’ll expatiate on in this post, installing the correct bluetooth drivers for the E71x phone was a headache. If the services offered by your computer and phone look like this image below, the chances are you don’t have anything to worry about: bluetooth profilebluetooth drivers

For proper context, my laptop was running the default bluetooth drivers. HP will not be officially supporting my laptop’s model (dv9700t CTO) for upgrades to Windows 7 and as you may know, I’ve been running Windows 7 since late October 2009. So, if you purchased a laptop recently with Windows 7 already on it, you may not have run into this issue where Windows is unable to install drivers for the Bluetooth peripheral device when you first connect your Nokia E71x phone to your PC. Please note that despite Windows throwing up the driver installation failures, I was able to use all the functions of Ovi suite software with the phone. So for all intents and purposes, getting the extra bluetooth profiles to work as they should for the E71x on your computer may just be icing on the cake. Basically, all I did was install updated drivers for my bluetooth device from HP.com. I installed the DriverCure program and it was able to let me know exactly what driver version I was looking for. Through a process of trial and error, I was able to visit HP’s website and type in new laptop model numbers in order to bring up their “Software and Updates” page. Again, driver installation can be tricky so please ensure you have a working backup of all your files (like I did).

bt

My current bluetooth driver version is: 6.2.0.9405 and the advantage of installing these latest drivers is the ‘unlocking of the following services in the screenshot below:

  1. Bluetooth hands-free audio:- This lets you listen to audio stored on your phone through your computer’s speakers!
  2. Bluetooth L2CAP interface
  3. Bluetooth remote control
  4. Bluetooth AV source
  5. Bluetooth AV Remote control target
  6. Bluetooth headset AG:- This lets you use your computer’s speakers as the ‘speaker’ for your phone. So you can sit back with your computer headset and just talk into the phone!
  7. Bluetooth OPP
  8. Bluetooth FTP:- pretty self explanatory. There’s now an icon under “My Computers” that allows you to browse the files on your phone.
  9. Bluetooth Imaging Responder

This might not be a big deal to a casual user, but for web workers, these bluetooth profiles are pure gold. 😛 Okay, maybe I’m the only excited, but here’s *the* money shot that I was hoping to unlock by installing the updated bluetooth drivers:
phoneop.png
I’m now able to remotely ‘control’ certain functions of my phone like initiating a phone call from my computer and backing up my contacts/appointments through my computer! it comes with obvious risks and you aren’t guaranteed to have the results I’m showing, but it won’t hurt to give it a shot after considering the following caveats:

  • You have backed up your computer’s data
  • You have backed up your phone’s contents
  • You accept full responsibility for any data/equipment carnage that may happen.

Cheers!