Hello,

I got my Mio 168 about a month ago and badly wanted to change the splash screen that appears when it started. So i started thinking to make a firmware update and replace that image with one that i like more. I opened my internet browser and started flirting around to get brief information of where and how to start.

I was shocked to realize that there are almost no pages at all where you can find such information. All i was able to find is a couple of dutch forums, 1 in italian and a 16 pages forum post in english at mtekk.com.au that contained some information but badly unorganized. And as on all forums, all those places were full of beginner’s posts that made the thread look more like a beginner’s FAQ more than a real tutorial.

In less than a ccouple of hours of reading, i was able to do the firmware update. I needed those couple of hours to make sure to do everything correct, i can now do it again in less than 15 minutes. So, what i mean to say that if you do all steps right in the first time, it will then be easy to repeat it every day. Just make sure not to forget any step.

So, let’s go..

Step #1 - Collecting the needed tools:

Getting the needed tools will take more than 50% of all the time needed. For a good start, make a new folder on your desktop and save all the files you will now download in that folder. Whenever we will need to use on of those, just extract the archive and go on.

Now that you have all the needed software needed, lets start the actual firmware update of your handheld PC. The firmware update will take no more than 5 minutes but should be done only after making a backup of the current firmware, in case something goes wrong.

Let’s do the backup of your current Mio 168

And so, we need to make a backup of the current firmware (ROM) that is already in your Mio’s brain. For me personally, i had bad history with updating my mother board’s BIOS earlier, and my Nokia communicator firmware also. So i won’t pass on the backup and will do everything possible to have a backup before playing with EEPROM files.

While there are quiet a good number of web pages explaining how this can be done, the best was at lesswire.info, i liked their way of explaining it for different software (backup tools). The BosstBlaster version they provided did not work on my Mio and as i far as i know it won’t work at all. So i stuck with the osLoader you downloaded before.

The OSLoader is the utility you will need to backup your Mio ROM, which is 32MB in size. And as the OSLoader does not support backing up to and type of MMC/SD cards, you will need an alternative. The alternative is backing it up to the storage device of the Mio itself. Yeah i know it does not have that amount of free space but the OSLoader utility has a special way around this.

Upload the OSLoader file to your Mio PocketPC and remember where you uploaded it. It does not need to be installed, just connect your PPC to your PC using ActiveSync, browse to your PPC and drop the OSLoader file you downloaded somewhere so that you can find it after a couple of minutes.

Now, (keep the PPC connected) browse to that location using your file manager and run the OSLoader file you just uploaded. The application will open with nothing special to notice. It will look similar to the screenshot shown below:

Go to Tools -> Flash -> 32 Save to files

A warning message will appear, tap the OK button and keep waiting until you hear a beep from your Mio PPC, do not try to do anything with your PPC even if it seems it froze, it didn’t. Just keep waiting until you hear the beep.

When you hear the first beep, a warning message will show up on your PPC screen, do not touch it. Go and browse your PPC from your computer again. In the root folder of your Mio device there will be a file named flash_00000000.bin - cut and paste that 4MB file to somewhere safe on your PC.

This 4096KB (4MB) file is the first of 8 chuncks that OSLoader will generate. 8×4=32MB..

Now, and as you have removed that file from your Mio’s root folder to your PC, there is enough space again for another 4MB file, correct? That’s rights, now you can tap the OK button on your PPC warning message and PSLoader will start generating the second chunk that will also be 4MB in size and will hold the name flash_00400000.bin - Again, you shall be idle and wait for the beep that the device will play to alert you that a new chunk is ready.

Keep doing that operation until the OSLoader application finishes generating the 8 chunks, that will hold the following names:

  1. flash_00000000.bin
  2. flash_00400000.bin
  3. flash_00800000.bin
  4. flash_00c00000.bin
  5. flash_01c00000.bin
  6. flash_01400000.bin
  7. flash_01000000.bin
  8. flash_01800000.bin

When all the eight chunks are safe on your computer, you still need to compile them (actually compress them) into one EEPROM file, which can be dome by issuing the following command from a DOS window:

copy /b flash_00000000.bin + /b flash_00400000.bin + /b flash_00800000.bin + /b flash_00c00000.bin + /b flash_01000000.bin + /b flash_01400000.bin + /b flash_01800000.bin + /b flash_01c00000.bin /b ROM_Image.ppcrom

If you are unfamiliar with DOS and/or you feel a little unconfortable with the command above, just create a new file in the same folder and call it makerom.bat, and enter the line above in that file, save it, then just double click it. A new file will appear in that folder called ROM_Image.ppcrom and it will be exactly 32MB in size. That is 33554432 bytes.

Congratulations, you just backed up the original EPROM of your Mio 168 and can go ahead to play with it as you want or just head straigh to firmware update without fearing that it might become unusable. In such case, you just need to reprogram it with that backup you just did and start over.

Now, let’s move to the actual upgrade instructions ..

The actual firmware update can be done using different methods, and it actually all depends on the version of your ‘Update Tool’ embedded in your device. I will tell you know how to get that version number easily, but before that i’d recommend making sure to get out all the important information from your PPC and save it to somewhere on your PC. The backup we just did was for the EPROM content and not the actual content (music, movies, contacts, notes, etc..) that you have on your OOC. So if you have anything valuable there, just make a backup copy of that.

Remember the SD Format Utility that you downloaded? Great, double click it’s icon and install it on your PocketPC, that utility is needed to format the SD card and prepare it for the update procedure. After you install the utility, run it, and format your SD card using the FAT file system. For those who are wondering why didn’t we use windows to format the SD card using a card reader or some digital camera, my answer will be straight, it wont work.

Just as a tip, if you were unable to download, install or run that utility, you will then need a digital camera to format your SD card. Insert your SD card in the digital camera and do a format using the camera file system itself as it also uses the RAW FAT file system format. IT MUST BE FAT16 - NEVER USE FAT32
So far so good.

Now we have a backup, a clean SD card and a formware version (didn’t you download one?) so i think we are readu to do the upgrade. I had my Mio displaying 168WWER22 so i did an upgrade with the 168WWER27 version.
PS> WWE = World-Wide-English version

Extract the firmware file you downloaded in some folder, there will probably be 2 files:

Copy the WinCEIMG.bin file to your SD card and make sure NOT TO RENAME the file in any way. It shall be called WinCEIMG.bin and the name IS case sensetive. Disconnect your PPC from your PC (physically) and insert the SD card in the slot of your Mio device.

Take a deep breath, its the critical moment now.
At the back of your Mio device, there is an (On-Off) small hidden reset switch, can you locate that?

Oops, what am i seeing?

This is the ‘Upgrade Tool’ i talked about a little earlier and i am almost sure it is displaying version 1.1 - If the version is preior that 1.1, i do not recommend going on with the update as i did not test that pocedure at all. With version 1.1 and above the update will go nice and smooth.

The menu will look like:

And of course, we will need to go with option #1 which is updating the firmware image using the SD/MMC card. Scroll down using your joystick and press it once, if you did everything described in this document right, the update progress will start and shall take 3-5 minutes. After that, you will need to reboot your device again from that hidden reset button (no need to hold the joystick this time) and uraaa….. you have a new Firmware and a brand new operating system.

At the final step. if you chose the WinCE Image (SD/MMS) update and a vilet progess bar did not show up, this means your SD card is not formatted using the correct FAT file system. This was the only problem i faced while i did this all myself.