Dell PDA

How to Upgrade your X51v to Windows Mobile 6

Aug 23

If you are a Dell Pocket PC X51v owner like me, you know what I am talking about: I love my X51v, but it is getting old…

I take my PDA with me everywhere: on my morning commute to work everyday, on the 17-hour flights to Asia and to the local library. I listen to music, watch TV shows and movies on it, check emails in a hotspot, make Skype phone calls and take notes on it, the X51v has been an amazing digital assistant to me.

However, it has been two years since Dell stopped development on their PDA product line, and the X51v is in dire need of a refreshment, especially after Microsoft updated their Windows mobile OS to version 6 earlier this year.

Dell does not provide the upgrade for the X51v, but you can do it on your own, here is how:

1. you need to get a copy of the customized WM6 ROM for X51v by following this link:

Béta00Cp, download link

Unzip the downloaded file, create a folder on your PC hard drive and save the uncompressed files in it.

2. Get a SD card, format it to FAT32 file system on your PC.

3. copy the two files you unzipped in step 1 to the root of the SD card.

4. Connect your X51v to external power, insert the SD card. Press the on/off button (top front), Wifi button (on the side) and the reset button (on the back) all at the same time, the ROM files on the SD card will run.

5. A file will show up, double click action button (front bottom, center of the d-pad) to run it, the new ROM image will be loaded, it will take a while, so be patient.

6. After the image file is loaded successfully, do a hard reset on your X51v by holding down both the on/off button and the reset button at the same time.

7. After the system boot up and guide you through a brief calibration process, you will see screen like this: