Ericsson 520 Drivers and Software Update

  

    The Ericsson R520 is a really nice GSM/GPRS cellular phone. When this product is used as a modem, it can connect to a computer by either a high-speed Infrared port (IrDA 1.1) or Bluetooth^TM. The only drawback of using the Infrared port instead of Bluetooth^TM, is that picking up the phone to answer an incoming voice call usually results in loosing the IrDA connection, thus dropping the connection to the Internet.

    However, when using GPRS data, an upgrade to the Ericsson modem driver was required to get the same performance from the IrDa port as was obtained using Bluetooth^TM. Doing this upgrade was not as obvious as it should have been, so below are my notes on doing so:

• The sonyericsson.com site required a current version of the Macromedia browser plug-ins to work. So be prepared to upgrade your version of Flash to use this site.
• Any Internet advertising prevention-- such as the WebWasher program, or the pop-up blocker in the Google tool bar-- could prevent this site from working. (The needed pop-up window is prevented from opening.)
• To locate the needed drivers & software update:
  1. Go to www.sonyericsson.com/support/
  2. Using the new (pop-up) window that opens, scroll down if needed, and in the Product finder search box enter "520"; then select the link for R520m or R520mc. (Depending on which phone model you have.)
  3. Again scrolling down if needed, down in the Software section select the link for Synchronization.
  4. Now you need one of the General Component Upgrades. Whether you need the General Component Upgrade R5A01 to R6A02 or the Language + General Component Upgrade R4A04 to R6A02 will depend on which version of the Software CD came with your phone.
• I needed the first update, because on my Software CD "R5A" was located at the end of a sequence of digits in two places:
  • The last line of "small print" on the front of the CD.
  • The information laser etched into the center hub on the underside of the CD.
  If you instead have an older CD that says "R4A", then you would need the second update patch.

  

• The update download is a patch program. That means it contains only the changes that are needed to the software you have, to create the current version of the software. So this downloaded file, using the files on the CD that came with your phone, will create an updated copy of the program to install both the Windows modem driver and the other software.
• Then once this updated install program is created, the installation will run, to actually update the drivers and phone software on your computer.
  • This update install will not permit you un-install anything. However, any of the optional programs that were not originally installed can be selected and installed while doing this upgrade.
  • While the original CD is still required, the Update Patch program can also be used to directly install the newest version of the drivers and software onto a computer.