It’s recommended that you contact O2 with regards to any data charges if you’re worried about any possible costs before continuing with the setup described below. The steps taken assume that you are using the O2 network and using Windows Vista OS.

1. Ensure you have Desktop Manager installed (v4.2 is recommended) and running, then connect your handset via the USB cable.
2. Click Start > Control Panel > Device Manager. There will be two RIM devices shown under the ports section. Make a note of the ones in use (e.g. COM13, COM14).
3. Click Start > Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Set up a connection or network.
4. Select Connect to the Internet and click Next.
5. We would like to Connect using a dial-up modem or ISDN (Dial-up).
6. The modem we want to use is a Standard Modem.
7. Enter *99# as the Dial-up phone number (Phone number your ISP gave you).
8. Enter faster as the User name (Name your ISP gave you) and password as the password.
9. You may want to check remember the password and give the connection a name at this point, such as BlackBerry.
10. Go back to the Network and Sharing Center (See step 3), select Connect to a network and choose the connection you have just created (e.g. BlackBerry Dial-up connection).
11. If it doesn’t work at this point, head over to your Control Panel (Start > Control Panel) and select Phone and Modem Options. Select the Standard Modem with the relevant comport from earlier (COM13, COM14), then click Properties > Advanced. In the Extra initialization commands box enter: at+cgdcont=1,”ip”,”mobile.o2.co.uk”.
12. Finally, try re-connecting following the directions in Step 10.

I was unable to find any additional debugging information on the error, which was also preventing the SMS and MMS application from displaying or even functioning. Any messages that were sent to me didn’t appear to be reaching me, even read receipts were stating that the message had been delivered.

In an attempt to salvage things I attempted to delete the last installed application – no luck. I then attempted a hard reset by pulling off the battery, leaving it for a minute and then replacing it and turning the phone back on – still no luck.

I then decided that it might be a good idea to carry out a factory reset…

Factory Reset Instructions:

I recommend starting the process by backing up any existing data – contacts, photos etc – using the Desktop Manager software.  Now we can move on to the actual reset process.

1. Press the menu key, the button to left of trackball, select the “Options” folder.
2. Scroll down and select “Security Options” then “General Settings“.
3. Press the menu key and select “Wipe Handheld“. A warning box will then appear to tell you that all application data will be lost. Select “Include third party applications” and then “Continue“.
4. Another box will appear asking you to enter the word “blackberry” to confirm the wipe. Doing this will restore the Bold to the factory settings.

If you decided to make a backup earlier, you may want to restore your data at this point.

You can now continue to use your Blackberry as before, without any additional applications installed. Some functionality may however have been lost, for example when trying to use the web browser you may get the error “This is a wi-fi service. Please ensure your device has an active wi-fi connection and try again.“.

This can be resolved by carrying out the following action:

Options > advanced > host routing table > menu (button left of trackball) > click on “Register Now.”

If at this point it is still not working, you should ensure that the default browser is set to “Internet Browser“:

Options > advanced > Browser > Default browser configuration > set to “Internet Browser”.

This process appears to have got everything back on track for me – relief.