NEC MobilePro 900c - Help!

Greetings,
I am new to the group and new to the world of HPCs, hence my questions are legion!
I have a new (to me) NEC MobilePro 900C running (of course) WIN CE.NET 4.2. I am trying (very hard) to compel it to be recognized
and synced with a Dell laptop (Inspiron 8100) running XP, sp2.
Following the owner manual instruction on installing the USB driver off of the Installer CD (IF that driver is even on the CD-it is not clearly identified) proved fruitless.
Downloading the NEC's offering of the WIN XP driver also proved fruitless; so did the install of MS ActiveSync 4.5 - nothing. All hardware has tested to be known-good to the best of my ability.

So, can anyone be of assistance, some in-the-know MobilePro users who can guide me on the right path?

Also, how does one make the USB port (standard A style) "come alive"? Does the MP 900c recognize flash drives attached to it?
How does one get new software ONTO these things?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide - I am pretty clueless about this all.
Thank you again,
dlcatftwin

Welcome.

Although it's not particuarly relevant to the issue, I would get that updated to XP SP3.

So you plug in the USB to the back of the PC and the min-USB into the MP, what happens on the PC and what happens on the MP?

Get rid of AS 4.5 and install AS 3.8 (Caveats: http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/s/0093.asp | http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/c/0029.asp )

The MP should recognise pen drives in its current form.

You normally use AS to get software onto the device.

Have a look at H/PC:Update in support for ROM updates and other bits.

a) Get the NEC manual and then look at Rich Hawley's NEC webpages.

b) Why do you want to sync? I have to admit that I don't bother to try to coordinate my calendar/contacts apps between machines (laptop, desktop, HPC's, and cell phone). I know, heresy, but that's my compartmentalized world... I use Internet-based apps for those machines that can talk to them (i.e. Google Calendar).

c) The USB port should work out of the box. There are no drivers that should need to be loaded unless somebody has been fooling around with "cleaning up" the /Windows directory. A hard reset should reload everything from ROM anyway. I'd seriously consider getting Cmonex v.2 ROM if you're willing to take the (minor) risk of re-flashing the ROM. I think it makes for a more pleasant interface and adds some files and apps if you are trying to get some non-CE4.2 software to go.

d) I just use(d) mine more or less as-is after the Cmonex ROM upgrade. I only needed a portable writing machine with access to a Bible (Olivetree) and minimal Internet use. So, your mileage may vary. It is still kicking in the hands of my daughter (where, strangely enough, it is being used as a portable writing machine...)

HTH,

Greetings to all who responded - I so appreciate the assistance and advice. Here is an update:
after uninstalling ActiveSync, shutting down the laptop, rebooting, and reinstalling ActiveSync with the MobilePro on hard power and set not to sleep (probably a strategy error on my part first time around), and after a couple of reboots from both devices, I was finally able to achieve connectivity. Yay! Not knowing how the device would act in conjunction to a host PC was admittedly part of my concern (I was hoping it would mount simply as a flash drive on the PC - wouldn't that be easy!); as for syncing (Online's question), it became apparent that this is the way to get additional software on the unit, yes? So, that part is well, thanks to all.
Now I proceed with other questions:

1) as far as i can tell, the USB port does not work - so, is there a size issue (less than 1Gig, for ex.)? Is there a format issue? If the USB drive does mount, where do i look to see if it there? Does the MobilePro have to format the drive itself for compatibility? etc.

2) Since I have successfully synced, if I do a hard reset (again, Online's suggestion), and I re-sync, do I regain the little bit of personal work I have done on it?

3) I notice that added items copied onto the MobilePro via syncing get deposited into the "My Documents" folder. What I've been doing is copying these items, proceed to the chosen destination, and paste them (I can go back and delete the originals then) - is this the way to do it, or is there a (better) way that more closely emulates drag and drop?

4) Multiple windows appears to be a no-no (i.e., single window folder operation only) - is that functionally correct?

5) Finally: any 3rd-party apps available for this unit? From what I've read, it looks like CE.NET 4.2 did not receive the attention that HPC 2000 did, but i did want to try some before mucking into ROM replacement, etc.

Thank you again, I have downloaded the owner's manual (not very well written) and am reading up; and I'll visit Rich Hawley's page as recommended.

Thank you! My first experience on this site was quite positive!

Happy New Year,
DLC

1. I forgot to mention that I just load programs (CAB's) on the CF card.

2. A USB flash drive is recognized as a "hard drive" under "My Computer." It's USB 1.1, so don't expect it to load or transfer data quickly (in addition to the machine being "only" 400 MHz). If you have a stick that has a LED on it, it's abit reassuring. Some portable hard drives draw too much power for the USB port to provide.

3. A hard reset is *erase* your personalized settings. A soft reset (using the inset button) will deal with an hangs.

4. Look at the HPC software repository (msdex maintains it) as well as the software on this site under downloads. Those will lead you to free/shareware. If you do a search on this site, you'll see that Rich still reviews/tinkers/posts on MP900C software gems that he comes across. I'd have thought that he'd already jumped in on this thread, but hopefully he's enjoying the holiday.


BTW, the username here is in the light green bar in dark green letters. So, I'm hmascience.

Update #2.
A quick one - isn't the MobilePro 900/900C supposed to have 16-bit color? In my MobilePro settings the display color choices are only 256K and 4-bit.
Is there somewhere else I should look?
Thank you,
DLC

Rich is on the gulf coast enjoying being out of the snow...wo wo!

dlcatftwin, the USB port on the 900 series does support mass storage devices..without any user input. Things to remember: large drives will take longer to show up than smaller ones. Those usb flash drives that have security encryption on them often will not work at all. Not all usb flash drives work with the 900C. Make sure that the flash drive is formatted to FAT (fat 16) and not NTFS. With some usb drives, I can plug them in and thn the drive will take as long as 30 seconds to show up in the "my computer" window.

The color settings on the Mobilepro is automatic and not configureable really. Other settings only apply to the VGA output port when using an external monitor.

If you do hard reset your Mobilepro, you will have to delete the old Activesync setting from your desktop/laptop computer, or assign the mobile device a new name when it reconnects.

There are no shortage of 3rd party HPC2000 apps that run on CE.NET...you just have to remember to install the HPC2000 drivers to make them run...basically the mfce300.dll and the olece300.dll libraries. You normally copy them to the Windows folder. You can see on my website screenshots of well over 500 apps running on my 900c.

Hello Richard,
Thank you for the response and information, most helpful. I'll give the USB a 2nd try.
You shared:
"If you do hard reset your Mobilepro, you will have to delete the old Activesync setting from your desktop/laptop computer..."

Any place special where this is?
Thank you,
DLC

Try a USB mouse in the USB port, you can't get much more generic to test if it is the port.

If you look in my computer on the host when connected you will be able to drag files around like flash drive.

Greetings, again.
Ah, success! And without hard resetting. I was able to mount a USB drive (512Mb, FAT32 formatted) after a long time - had to "jumpstart" it by plugging in the adapter partway through but it got there, so the port is a-ok. Colors are back to 64K setting, and .. I was even ale to install a wifi adapter driver and surf the web (more like wade the pool, but hey..) w/ a spare CF wireless adapter. Woo-hoo!
I found browsing in the drives accessible in the "explore" folder that created by the ActiveSync utility, and was able to copy, read and write to the device via that.
Now, if only I can get multiple folder windows on this...

Thank you very much all, for your assistance,
DLC

P.S. Any recommended sites for 3rd party apps? (end user stuff, not necessarily developer tools - am especially looking for a calender/contacts utility that is Outlook friendly)

http://www.hpcfactor.com/qlink/?linkID=129
http://www.hpcfactor.com/qlink/?linkID=83

http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=13090&posts=15&highlight=resco%20radio&highlightmode=1#M122462
http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=14327&posts=9&highlight=nitrogen&highlightmode=1#M132183

Thank you both for the suggestions." Agenda" looks way cool - went to its download site - which version should I download (CE 4.x was listed as a supported OS, then there wasn't a version to match it - I suspect I'll come across this often, so I am looking for a syntax. i.e. "when CE.net 4.x is not listed, look for.......".
I got the older Nitrogen off of the link offered at your website Rich - thank you!

BTW, apps that need installing....is the normal procedure to mount them on the host PC directing its install towards the HPC while ActiveSync is engaged?


Thanks again,
DLC

Usually any ARM version of an application from CE 4.2 .net all the way back to CE 2.11 will work. (There may be a few exceptions.) So you can try H/PC 2000 or H/PC Pro if there's no CE 4.x .net version available. (Pocket PC versions may work, but usually require some Pocket PC DLL files that aren't natively on H/PCs.)

You don't have to have the device connected when running the installer. It'll almost always place the CAB files you need for installation somewhere in \Program Files on the PC (usually \Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync), and you can copy those over to the device manually and run the CAB files on the device to install. (This is useful to know as ActiveSync won't install many Pocket PC programs on H/PCs, saying they're not compatible, even if they can work on the H/PC.)

Hello again,
Rich, you mentioned this link to represent "Nitrogen"
http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=13090&po...
http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=14327&po...
I downloaded from the link offered on your website (mentioned that it was modded for use on the 900C) - alas it does not work; any other way to obtain this item?
Many thanks.
Oh, anybody - does our forum site offer a web link to a repository of applications, where one can browse to see what is available?
Thank you in advance,
DLC