Problem With Cmonex Version 2 OS

Whenever my NEC 900C goes to sleep it locks up when I wake it up. Is there a patch for this problem or is it a problem with my hardware?

I'm surprised your post didn't get answered. I have a similar issue. I did the Flash V2 thing, didn't backtracked because I couldn't get my HPC2000 software to work properly on my new-born 900C. Although I subsequently found out that I had to copy over some HPC2000 libraries (DLL's), I haven't yet tried the flash upgrade. But, the problem you're describing, I also have, even though I backtraced to HPC2000 OS. So I think the problem resides in the Bootloader 2.1 ... maybe not. One thing for sure, I didn't have that problem before, now I do.

Do you have a CF or PCMCIA WiFi card remaining in its slot when the machine goes to standby? If so, that's the problem with some card/driver. A soft reset is required then.

Edited by CAuser 2008-09-26 6:11 PM

I don't think so CAuser. I always used the same two CF cards before and after. Never had to soft-reset before with the two cards left inside when the 900 went to sleep. Now I do.

Edited by Uncle Ben 2008-09-26 6:13 PM

I thought MP Homer asked this question already; perhaps in a different forum -- a side joke was whether he was using his shoulder-mounted hardware to put it asleep.

I can only give you a datapoint that my MP900 converted to 900c and flashed to Cmonex v2 a week after it was released hasn't had any problems waking up. Nor did I have issues with having to copy *.dll's from one library or another. I only followed Cmonex's directions on her website.

I keep a CF card installed in the CF slot 100% of the time. It sounds like you are also using a PCMCIA-CF card. I don't know if a driver is required for that beastie. If so, try a sleep/wakeup without it installed.

wrong, you don't have to copy hpc2000 files, they are included in v2.0.

but i'm interested, which HPC2000 software would not work ? please tell me.

there is no bootloader 2.1, what do you mean there? if you mean hpc2000 OS can't read the proper version out, well, that is totally unrelated.

so, you probably just installed some software or similar that is causing this. also, when people hard reset (rom flash involves hard reset, yeah?), they tend to forget about some things, such as some setting is different, this might be a similar case.

if you don't believe me, and if you want, you can request the full downgrade, to restore it to exactly the same state. but tell me what your original bootloader and rom version was.
(though I'll be betting it will still have the sleep problems unless you manage to change the culprit setting or program)

Edited by cmonex 2008-09-27 12:05 AM

First of all, let me make one thing clear - the amount of work you've done on this over the last two to three years is nothing short of phenomenal; and if the flash upgrade didn't work as expected, I'm the one who probably did something wrong. I will give it another shot over the weekend and see what happens.

The second point is that I reverted to a straight 900 last weekend... and since then, I'm having to reset every time it goes to sleep, an issue that I didn't have before.

Now to your point about Bootloader. I was working with Rich to get through this, my first attempt at trying anything like this. After reverting the 900C back to 900, when I click on NEC Frimware Information in the Control Panel, here's what I get:
Firmware Version P530 V6.0
Build Date: Oct. 4 2004
PIC Firmware ID 4.15.7
Bootloader Version 2.1

What software didn't work. I didn't install everything I had - I just quit after a few installs - here's what I got:

Resco Picture Viewer 2003 would freeze the system
SoftMaker PM and TM - both worked, but the first row of icons below the menu line were all empty square boxes...
Sentry 2020 - Crash.
Cash Organizer - Crash.

I don't think there's any need to worry about this right now. You have 100s of testimonials here that your Flash script works ... so there's no reason it wouldn't work for me. I probably tried to install too much in one shot. What I should have done is install one application; reboot, try, check, verify...and on to the next one. Now I know better so hopefully my next attempt will be successful.

Hope this clears things up a little. I'm curious about your comments on the Bootloader version though. If Rich is reading this, perhaps he can comment. I'm also curious about the frequent resets.

Thanks for your help.

Can I pick your brain for one more thing. On a 900, not a 900C, but a just a 900, when you want to run some PPC software, you have to copy over some PPC DLL's for the software to work with the HPC2000 OS - right? If these files can chew up a fair amount of space on the MP900. Am I to understand then that all these DLL's are already included in the ROM flash, plus all these other aplets you've got in there, then saving an awful lot of RAM space on the MP900?

One more naive question from an old fart - what would happen if, after I do your flash upgrade this morning, I restore with a backup done on the 900 HPC2000 platform? Would it work - since you have all the DLLs, wouldn't all the software work? I'll tell you why I am asking this stupid question. When I tried this last weekend and had to revert back to a 900; I had to bug certain software providers twice for new keys. As you know, some software developers, like SoftMaker and Inesoft (Cash Organizer), require a new key every time you install their software - and they provide the second part of the key by email. I had to this once when I installed on the 900C; and again when I reverted back to the 900.

If I do this flash thing one more time this weekend, it means I'll have to bother them again one more time; perhaps two more times if I run into problems.

TIA for your help - much appreciated.

I just caught this one ... Yeah, sorry, I'm slow, comes with age, just never paid attention to the Avatar until I started reading this thread over again. Love it. Thanks for your help once again. Have a good day.

Hi there cMOneX - you can disregard this one. Thanks to Rich, I now know better!

hey.

don't worry... I'm interested to see the cause of the problem, maybe it is something special in your case, then we need to fix it.

does the 900 do it even if you have nothing installed? how do you put it to sleep? you press the poweroff button?

as for the software that was crashing..

well textmaker and planmaker works fine here, which version were you using? I use the HPC version of 2006, but 2002 textmaker/2004 planmaker HPC versions also ran fine.

for resco, did you use the ce.net version?

which versions of sentry and cash organizer? can I have the CAB files of these?

as for the DLL's, that's correct, you do not need to copy them on 900c v2 rom.

also, textmaker (2006 and older) definitely does not need a new key on reinstallation. how come it did for you?

Hi, CMONIX. Thanks for taking timeout to deal with this. A lot has transpired since I did these posts. First, I reflashed my 900 and brought it back to its original state, except for the latest version of bootloader. About the strange version number of bootloader that I'm getting, upon checking with Rich he tells me that "When you flash it back to HPC2000, it cannot read the new bootloader properly, so it reports an erroneous number...2.1 in your case. Not to worry since the HPC2000 OS is only attempting to read the file but not act on it....

The strange behaviour is after I reflashed back to 900 and restored from a recent backup. Two things I've noticed - when the 900 is allowed to go to sleep on its own, say after 2 min. of inactivity when no connected; and power back on, it's as dead as a door knob and nothing will get it going except a soft reset. Another annoying thing is that the screen often goes out of calibration, a condition that did not exist before I did this stuff. Googled the problem a bit and apparently others have or are expriencing a similar problem:

http://www.pocketpcmag.com/cms/forum/topic/30383

I was using SoftMaker 2006 TM and PM - but the second time I tried it, both workd OK, so we can set that aside. Sentry 2020, once I DL'ed and installed the correct version, not the HPC2000 version, also worked OK. The one application that was causing the 900 to completely crash, or so it seems, is Resco Photo Viewer v.5.20 for HPC2000. This was purchased as part of a Utility Pak that included Resco Explorer 2003 v5.13.
Explorer worked fine, the picture viewer didn't. Again, Rich came to the recue and, with the help of SOTI Pocket Controller Professional, he found out that the 900 was not really crashed but the screen was dead. It didn't matter how many soft-resets you did, the screen was simply dead. Once connected to his desk top via SOTI, we tapped the backlight in Control Panel/Display and bingo, the 900 screen was back to life and Resco Photo Viewer worked OK from that point onward.

Cash Organizer - version is 2000 for HPC. With the HPC2000 DLL's in ROM, I dind't think by newborn 900C would have any problems running any HPC2000 software. I didn't have a chance to try again on my second attempt, Resco's Photo Viewer stopped right in my tracks!

I don't know why the Softmaker software required a new key ... it just did. Perhaps Softmaker changed their modus operandi in mid stream, who knows. All I can tell you is that unless I restore from a backup, if I have to install from scratch, I need a new key.

Where do I go from here? Well, I'd like to give this ROM upgrade another shot, but until I find out what's is causing this onslaught of soft-reset and screen calibration issues. Also, I'm having these problems now that I have reverted the 900 back to its original state. What I do not know is whether or not I would still have the same issues if I was on CE NET 4.2?

Thanks for your help. Much appreciated.

Cheers!

Happy Clicks! Surf Safe!

That looks like a problem of the ribbon cable which connects the display to the motherboard of the 900. I had a similar problem, both the calibration problem and the 900 switching off by itself problem, then discovered that the 900 didn't really switched off but the ribbon cable was not just plugged properly and that caused the display to become black from time to time.

Can you point me to a link,if there's one, that would show/describe how to check if the ribbon cable is properly plugged in? It's just strange however that the problem only showed its ugly face AFTER is did the flash and reflash ... And I'm not suggesting that the cable is NOT the problem, just making the observation that if the cable was at the root cause of these issues, one would think that I would have had them all along, no?