Microsoft being less than perfect? NEVER!!!
ActiveSync 4.1 was allegedly bought out to try and plug some of the howlers that people were reporting in 4.0 and even then, MS seem to have nobbled a lot of sync features with wireless and Bluetooth. As far as I can see, with MS Windows Mobile 5 anyway, you have the option to sync fullly on the cradle or not at all. I did read some waffle from MS saying that their customers preferred it that way due to security issues. There is apparently, a plus here for those NOT running Win Mobile 5. Simply consign 4.1 to the bin and install 3.6 which is a lot more flexible when it comes to syncing via Wireless or Bluetooth. Sadly for us WinMob 5 users, you have to use either 4.0 or 4.1
4.1 gave me the heeby jeebies and I can't wait to find a product that does the job better, but Win Mob 5 is still fairly new and we might have to wait for a short time, before competitors come up with the goods.
Whilst there are self help and support groups, if you are running WinMob 5.0 then your device is most likely supported under the guarantee and I suspect that the PDA manufacturers themselves, are more likely to be able to walk you through some procedures to fix it. Dell, certainly do an excellent job in this respect and were it not for them, I would have been another frustrated
user myself.
Now that 4.0/4.1 works ok on my own PC, I can report that emails and tasks run seamlessly, though I did have to move from Outlook Express to Outlook 2003 which was bundled with the Dell. If it is trying to synchronise with the PDA then it knows of its presence. Try setting up another sync "Relationship" and see if that works, or works any differently. You can always delete that relationship if you crack the problem,
My heartfelt advice however is to hotfoot it to HP, or whoever, for they will be fonts of wisdom on the peculiarities of WinMob 5 and Active Sync 4.0/4.1
Conan
I still find the most offensively miserable exercise is trying to sync the awful Windows Media Player. There are other, better, solutions. (Unless you love the Satanic pleasures of Windows Playlists, that is...)