So, you were brave or stupid enough to purchase a cable. Following these steps will determine which!

Upgrading your Peek consists primarily of basic Windows troubleshooting. If you have any issues with the below instructions, restarting your computer and starting out fresh is never a bad idea!

******For a visual walk through of the Peek upgrade process, you may download the Power Point here: http://drop.io/PeekFiles and download: Peek Updating.pptx

Before you upgrade your Peek, you MUST reset your Peek to factory!!!

1. First, go to Peek Manager > Device Info > SW Version > Take note of your current Software version.

IF YOU HAVE 1.09.15 ALREADY AND ARE UPGRADING FROM PEEK CLASSIC YOU DO NOT NEED TO REFLASH YOUR PEEK! Just go to http://boutique.getpeek.com/peek-pronto-upgrade.html

If you have software version 1.04 - 1.08, we will upgrade your Peek to Peek Pronto for free. This DOES require sending in your Peek to Peek HQ or purchasing a special cable from the Peek Boutique to do it yourself. Call or email Customer Care at 877-677-PEEK (7335) or care@getpeek.com

2. Go to Peek Manager > Device Info > Reset Peek > type getpeek Your Peek will then restart. When it comes back up and shows the welcome screen, take the battery out, put it back in and leave your Peek off.

3. Charge your Peek's battery to full to avoid any complications during the upgrade process

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PL-2303 Driver Installation:

1. Attach the cable to your computer, windows should detect new hardware. If it does not, try another USB port.

2. Tell Windows to not try to install new hardware. (Bad Windows!)

3. Go to http://drop.io/PeekFiles

4. Download the 10518 driver

5. Run the installer and unplug/plug in the cable when it is complete

6. On the Windows Start bar (typically at the bottom of the screen), click Start > Run, then type "devmgmt.msc" (without the double quotes) in the text box.

8. Expand - Ports (COM & LPT) > Look for Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM#) ***Take note, reference with later.***

9. If you get an error message stating that you need a file called "ser2pl.sys" you will need to do the following: Go to Device Manager > Right Click your Prolific Serial-to-USB coverter and select Uninstall > Re-Run the driver installer to uninstall it > Unplug/Plug in Cable and repeat driver installation.



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Peek Handset Updater:


1. Plug the Peek into the cable. The keypad should become illuminated at this point. If it does not, unplug everything, take your battery out/in, and try another USB port.

2. Go to http://drop.io/PeekFiles

3. Download the PeekUpgrade10918.exe

4. Run the updater. It will create a directory in C:\Program Files\Peek 1.19.18 (typo)

5. The updater will then prompt you to turn on your Peek. Click "Done" when your Peek has FULLY loaded to the welcome screen.

6. The updater will then prompt you to turn your Peek off. Click "Done" when the Goodbye screen is gone, and the Peek is dark.

7. The updater will then prompt you to press and hold down the power button. If this is successful the updater will begin clearing your Peek's memory, and loading the new software.

8. After the updater has finished, close the updater. Unplug your Peek, take the battery out/in, and try to power it on.

9. If your Peek turns on, you have successfully updated your Peek!

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Activation Troubleshooting:

10. During activation, if you get an error message stating "Sorry, we cannot seem to communicate with the Peek Servers" please try activating 2-3 more times, and also power cycle your Peek in between by turning it off/on a few times.

11. During activation, if you get an error stating "We're having trouble validating your Peek Account" please try activating 2-3 more times, and in between also power cycle your Peek by turning your Peek off/on a few times.

12. If you still cannot get past the above error messages, you will need to erase all fields. Go to the email address field. Type in #peek-cit#

13. This will take you to the CIT menu. Scroll 1 notch up on the wheel, and go to "Default Setting". Choose "Clear all user data" first (nothing will seem to happen). Then, click "Reset all to default". Your Peek should turn itself off/on at this point...if it does not...power cycle it.

14. When your Peek has come back up, try activating again!

15. Any issues, call 1-877-677-7335 (PEEK) OR email Care at getpeek.com, or tom at mypeekmail.com for further assistance.


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Things to check after your successful upgrade:

1. Go to Peek Manager > Device Info > Device Type > It should show Peek Pronto. If it reads Peek Classic, go to Peek Manager > Device Info > Reset Peek (to reset your Peek).

2. Once your Peek is reset, re-activate and check your device type. It should now read as Pronto.

Thanks for this. Got a Peek a month ago. Liked it but ended up giving it to my mother. I've moved to an iPhone 3G. I ordered the cable a few weeks ago and it arrived today.

Mom needed a way to e-mail me so Peek works well for her. Am upgrading to 1.08 right now. With these well laid out instructions it's made the upgrade easy. Bet you wrote these since the upgrade cables have been backordered for weeks and now people are getting them. And no, I couldn't subject my mom to being a crash test pilot, sorry. If I were primarily using the Peek I would have done it.

Again, thanks for writing this. Looking forward to 1.09.

If you happen to use a laptop, be sure to plug the laptop into and AC outlet.

I was performing the 1.08 update to my Peek and after about 5 minutes my laptop decided it was time to sleep because of the Power Save settings when running on battery. When I attempted to wake up the laptop, the darn thing froze. I had to reboot the laptop. And to my dismay, the Peek was now a brick*.

Luckily Tom Z. from Peek offered to help me out. He replaced my Peek with new one. Thanks Tom Z. and thanks Peek.

So I suggest that you plug your laptop in. And perhaps disable any screen savers before running the updater program.

* means it was dead. its memory was completely erased.

-Dan K
San Diego, CA

Is this advisable ok to do in a VM? I'm pretty tech savy and willing to try this once I get home tonight, just picked up a peek today and it's running 1.04, so would love to upgrade to 1.08.

Cool, I'll post an update after I teach tonight and let you all know how it goes.

Oh and if anyone's in Colorado that needs an upgrade hit me up!

Is there any way to see if your usb cable does have this chip? I have a cable of the right tip conformation, but it came from a plantronics discovery 925 bluetooth headset.

Easiest way is to plug it in and listen for "Ding Dong" that windows plays when a USB device is added. A regular USB cable would not do this. But the special cable does.

Also when you connect the special cable, Windows will show it as a COM 'device' in the Device Manager.

Right click on 'My Computer' ----> Manage -----> Device Manager-----> Ports (COM & LPT ).

It will be listed there as a new COM port. It may say: " Prolific USB-to-Serial comm port (COM4) "

Thx, dan.
Unfortunately, no dice.
Peek cable ordered and en route!

Doesn't matter honestly, XP might cooperate better though!

Sucessfully upgraded to 1.08.11

initially after i pulled the battery up and powered up - i got an oops - please turn off and turn on again.

but its looking good.

@tonyjk3 - No.. that information is retained at Peek's servers, and the upgrade does not cause it to change.

Cable arrived, email sent to crashtestpilots@getpeek.com and waiting for response. w00tz0rz, of course.

AS a note, mine would not work untill I rebooted the computer. I have a feeling the cable driver requires a reboot but does not request it.
1.07-1.08 going smoothly now. Thx pam etc for the cheerleading tonight!

For those who want to upgrade to 1.09.xx during this test period, there is still the prerequisite of working with Gabe to ensure one's IMEI is registered with Peek's test server. Else, an upgrade to 1.09.xx will leave you with a nonfunctional Peek... no fun at all!

yeah - i can't wait for 1.09 Pronto

How bout a step by step Pronto 'how to'?

The user needs to make several assumptions along this path(in conjunction with the Pronto upgrade).

Hmm...

Sean

Hey Pambudgie!
With software you have to be painstakingly anal. Assumptions are dangerous when you're dealing with firmware. Nuke the flash process? Lose the device. ouch!

Okay, so i assume:

Assumption #1:
You need: "PL-2303 Driver" AND "PeekProntoUpdater.exe" version 1.0.0, to upgrade to Pronto.

Assumption #2:
Perform procedure "PL-2303 Driver Installation:" first. THEN "Peek Handset Updater:" via "PeekProntoUpdater.exe" 1.0.0 binary.

Can someone from Peek comment if both these assumptions re correct?

All Peek needs to do, is copy/paste what i have written, along with excerpts from Tom's post and you have a complete 'how to'. :-) And the next logical sticky needed on here. :-)

Thanks,

Sean

Here's a video with the upgrade process, if this helps anyone:

http://www.geekypeek.com/?p=161

Nah, I'm just one of many volunteer Peeksters. That's actually one of the magical things about Peek (aside from the product itself).. its community.

@cjanzow - That's the problem. Comm24. You need it on a port lower then 10.

What file is it missing?

Small note: I'm going to clean up the instructions a bit tomorrow and make it a tad easier to follow. :-)

It doesn't show up - and it doesn't specify a file unless there is a log for driver intalls somewhere.

So i restarted again, and got the cable to properly recognize by pointing to a 2.0.0.19 version of the driver. Then instead of re-running the peekprontoupdater.exe i ran the peekdesktop.exe from the program files\peek directory. I've set it up sucessfully it seems. Thanks again.

I have the upgrade cable. I am running Windows Vista 64 bit and have upgraded 5 Peeks with no problem.

I agree with others that the process needs to be written up a little clearer as to the steps.
Hallster above summarized the steps as:
1. You need: "PL-2303 Driver" AND "PeekProntoUpdater.exe" version 1.0.0, to upgrade to Pronto.
2. Perform procedure "PL-2303 Driver Installation:"
3. Perform "Peek Handset Updater:" via "PeekProntoUpdater.exe" 1.0.0 binary

I understand that the upgrade process is still a "beta" process and requires some technical knowledge.
However, to me the process is only slightly more complicated than updating to a new version of firmware on an Apple iPod. There are a few iPod users out here and almost all seem to upgrade the firmware on their iPods with no problem. The upgrade cable is your iPod cable and the upgrade firmware is freely available on Apple's website. If all iPod users had to send in their iPods for every firmware upgrade, Apple would be out of business. I would assume that your average iPod user is somewhat technically literate but not a super technoid geek.

I believe that with clear and simple upgrade instructions available in the Learn > User Support section of the Peek website and better availablity of the upgrade cable, Peek users could freely update their firmware as easily as Apple users update their iPod firmware.

On the plus side, I believe the Peek works great, the customer service is excellent, and is an outstanding value in this crackberry world. I wish Peek continued success and with time they will be the Apple of the email world. I will continue to buy their products and support them.

I am a software developer in the IT department of a large electric utility with over 10,000 PCs. We use Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) to distribute new new versions of software and updates to PCs particulary anti-virus defintions. If you had to go to every PC for every software and anti-virus update, the task would be impossible. Software is constantly evolving and new versions are continually being updated. All the major software companies (e.g. Microsoft, Apple, Norton, McAfee) distribute their updates electronically.

I have 5 Peeks and am very satisfied with the product. However, there is always room for improvement with at least 5 versions of the Peek software (1.04,1.05,1.07,1.08,and 1.09 so far).

Based on the discussions in this thread, obviously upgrading your Peek yourself is prone to problems and it is easy to "brick" it. That is my whole point: the upgrade process needs to be made more robust and easier and needs to be done by Electronic Software Distribution (via a USB cable).

Both Apple and Zune players can be easily updated via their cables and firmware updates available from their respective web sites.

According to Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod ) Apple has sold more than 173 million iPods. If Apple required you to send in your iPod for every firmware update, they would sell a lot fewer iPods and Steve Jobs would be looking for a Job. Assuming that it takes about 1 man-hour to update 1 iPod manually, including preparing the iPod to mail, effort required by USPS to deliver the package, actually performing the update, and returing the iPod. That is 173,000,000 man-hours which is about 20,000 man-years. So it is definitely worth it for Apple to come up with a better solution which they have. I am no Apple fan; just using it as an example for when numbers get large.

I wholeheartedly endorse the Peek concept for email, keeping it simple and economical. I just feel that this is one area that needs some improvement.

Appple uses a similar arrangement for their iPods:
USB Power Adapter Plug:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB352LL/B?fnode=MTY1NDA4NA&mco=MjQzMzEzNw
Interface Cable:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA591G/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0OQ&mco=MjE0NTAzNg
which has a USB plug on one end and proprietary Apple Dock Connector on the other.

I recommend that with every Peek include the following:
USB plug to micro USB plug cable
USB Power Adapter Plug similar to the Amazon Kindle 2 Replacement Power Adapter:
http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Kindle-Replacement-Power-Adapter/dp/B001NIZB5M/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=fiona-hardware&qid=1239734642&sr=8-8

The Amazon Replacement Power Adapter is $15.
The Peek Extra Charger is $10 from the Peek Boutique:
http://boutique.getpeek.com/extra-charger-for-peek.html
So the Amazon Replacement Power Adapter is only $5 more.
In fact, theAmazon Kindle 2 Replacement Power Adapter should be able to be used.

You cannot compare to Apple since their accessories are way over-priced.
According to:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/06/05/24/ipod_how_big_can_it_get.html
Apple makes 60% profit on iPod accessories.

An adapter with a USB plug and a USB socket with a Prolific PL-2303 USB-to-Serial Bridge Controller in the middle. This would have to be supplied by Peek. Wholesale cost should be less than $10.

This method would allow one cable to be used for charging and for upgrades.
The USB Power Adapter would be used for charging.
The adapter with Prolific PL-2303 chip would be used for upgrades.
Cable would be used for both purposes.

The Peek and the Amazon Kindle 2 are similar:

Both offer electronic delivery:
Peek: electronic mail
Kindle: electronic books.

Both operate over cell telephone networks:
Peek: T-Mobile
Kindle: Sprint

Perhaps there is some synergy between the two.