So here are my helpful tips
I've seen the unregistered crap and seen my phone connect but the software didn't see it...so here's what eneded up working...
btw...this is on a win7 64 bit, so it does work..
plugged in the phone, found it in device manager, and selected it, then did an uninstall of the device and told it to delete the driver...
since I had previously tried Kies 2.0...I had to completely uninstall that...
plus the entry for samsung usb drivers...
since I don't know how restricted mini is..some say to certain models, I got it from here...
How Do I Update The Software On My T-Mobile SGH-t959 (Vibrant) Phone To JI6 Through Kies Mini?
since I'd seen everything from unregistered to kies not seeing it, and the update would wipe out my phone anyway...I just backed it up with mybackup..and then did a factory reset...
btw...I too have seen that if you use launcher pro, kies mode will not work.
so...started from clean phone and computer.
installed the kies mini software that I got from teh link above...and rebooted when prompted.
ran kies mini, not doing the run as admin option..otherwise it tries to install an update..which not sure if that helps or makes things works...
plugged in the phone after kies was up and running...and selected the kies mode on the phone...
windows started looking for drivers...if you click on the little balloon popup that says it's installing drivers, there's an option to tell it to skip getting drivers from windows update..which I did...
this way I had the kies version that's supposed to work with the vibrant and using the drivers that it installed.
after all that crap...it worked...
though not sure if it gets cranky with too many disconnects, but at one point it stopped seeing the phone again, so I just restarted the computer and the phone...and then it started working ok...and I got my update..
hopefully you all don't have to go though all this, but if you're getting desperate like I did, maybe this will help...
btw...after you do the update...double check avatar still works..
mine no longer had a license, even though it worked right before the update...
had to do this to get it working again:
After I installed the update, I can no longer access the Avatar movie as I receive "File Locked" message. What can I do?
The license will need to be reacquired. You may need to backup information as a reset will erase all device data. A full reset will need to be performed by dialing *2767*3855#. The device will restart afterwards. After a few minutes has passed, you should be able to play back the movie.