Well, I did it. I got my 7100t yesterday and things were going great... and then I attempted an upgrade to 3.8.0.142 (download from T-Mobile). It went throught a number of steps; the step before last was reconnecting to the device. The BB sat there with an hourglass for 15 minutes, so I lost patience and took the battery out, then put it back in. The BB came back with a white screen with a little black icon in the middle, like a "No go sign" with a little window graphic in the middle and a number underneath "543". Like a firmware error message. That's it. Can't go any further.
The app loader can still connect to the device, and shows 3.8 system and core software installed. I was able to remove all other software (like the browser, etc.), but the system stuff is shown as installed with the latest version, and the app loader does not allow changing the action from "None" to update on these items. T-mobile tech support could not help.
Before I send the 7100 back to T-Mobile, does anyone know how I could force a reinstall of the system/core software? Perhaps try to bring it back to 3.8.0.112? Any help would be greatly appreciated.