ActiveSync fails on connect - Communication error

[portus]

I tried to install an application last night while forgetting to keep my e740 in the cradle. So the add/remove wizard repoted that the app will be installed on the next sync. Good. I drop the unit in the cradle and it starts the file transfer. However, the file system on the PPC reported that some components are in ROM/ in use so I cancelled the installation. Then I softreset the PPC and started another installation this time with the unit in the cradle. The file transfer process started but suddenly the connection between my laptop and the PPC got dropped. After that, everytime I tried to sync, the connection get dropped immediately upon the conneciton process monitor on ActiveSync starting to appear. Tried to uninstall/reinstall both the USB driver and ActiveSync 3.5. No luck. After several tries, the error message becomes "Cannot communicate with the desktop computer. Remote Networking could not start due to a critical error (Error 608)." Then it recommends soft-reset. Problem still exists.

I wonder if anyone knows how to deal with this so I can avoid doing a hard reset?

Thanks,