Fairly new to the handheld world *NEC 790 upgraded from a 780* some guideance needed.

HI!

i have only had this bad boy a few months and i'm realy amazed at what it can do and hopeful it can do more in the future.
i've been scanning the various forums, and ..not being as tech minded as some, i'm just not getting it.

firstly my main issue is and mind i've no $$ to buy anything. my desktop pc for some odd reason the serial port isn't enabled. and Goddess be my witness i've been looking for 2 weeks to figure out how to fix the ruddy thing, enable it? yeah. so, i am looking at having to go get a serial to usb adapter. now, thats cool. a freind of mine allowed me to borrow her serial/usb adapter. it was plugged in cause the light was on, and the C D worked fine, it said it was on "COM4" now..could i get it to bloody well work? nope. so..
does anyone know how i could tranfer the programs i want using CF cards? active sinc *SP?* recognised the adapter was there, but wouldn't let me use it. it's so bizarre!

also, any one know of some realy good free to inexspensive programs for the NEC 900 ?


at some point in the near future i was thinking ogf getting a 2gb CF card, but then i heard about the microdrives..which is better? either choice whats the max size i can realisticly use in my NEC 790?


i am a student so i do alot of word processing on this as well as needing a few games to keep me from wigging out during finals week, whatever qrtr that happens to be.


as for programming, specificly for the NEC /WinCE /handheld 2000. where do i begin? is there a good program preferably freeware *college student and single mum, yeah $$ is a big ole issue with me* to test and run the programs on my desktop that won't bugger the whole shooting match?


and lastly at some point come say end of oct. i will be getting my student aid check. anyone know of somewhere i could pick up a good used NEC 900 reasonably cheap?

PHEW!! thats it for now,
Thanks for your time!
Ciao!
Scarlet

PS: one last question, if the 780/790 is similar to the 900/900c, is it possible to upgrade the 790 to a 900? if so, then how? if not why?
~*HUGS*~ all around!!

Greetings,

(Please don't put a spell in me).. or may be you did already?

Anyway, welcome to the community.

OK!, on the serial port issue.
Assuming that you're using Windows 2000 or XP here...
Start > Run > devmgmt.msc > OK
Expand the 'Ports' tree
Do you see any "Communications Port (COM#)" where # is a number

If you do it's an ActiveSync issue, if you don't we have a BIOS issue (in all certainty).

Using a CF card...
First you need to be familiar with how to install apps to CE - there are three ways to do it covered in
http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/s/0046.asp
http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/s/0047.asp
http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/s/0048.asp

Then there is this one on obtaining CAB's from Host installers:
http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/s/0049.asp

Whoa there, we've jumped from 790 to 900. These are completely different kettles of fish. Apps for the 900 will not run on the 790.
Handheld Attitude maintains the premier app's listing for HPC2000, just be sure to grab programs for MIPS CPU's:
http://www.yetanotherhomepage.com/j7xx/

CF card size...
Realistically anything up to 32GB.. but they don't exist yet.
MicroDrives are a far greater drain on the battery, they make use of mechanical parts and are shock sensitive. On the flip side they can be faster *in some situations* because they can buffer data, if you ever want to play with Linux it's the way to go... and so long as you don't bash it around it will last a lot longer than a CF card.

Programming... alas the news there is that there is no HPC2000 emulator for the desktop... which is a blinking pain for everyone concerned. The VB and VC tools are free. You need eVT3 and you can get it from the developers page
http://www.hpcfactor.com/developer/
The board also has a developers forum, where you can get help on starting up.

900, pretty uncommon device if you're out side of North America (you can add your location in the Control Panel). Assuming you're in the USA. The inevitable answer is eBay, Used Handhelds (www.usedhandhelds.com) or putting a request on hpcBay on this forum (please read the rules first).

RE the PS, the 900 uses a XScale CPU, where as the 790 a MIPS one. Just as with PC and Mac software, you can't run a XScale app on a MIPS CPU and vice versa.

One cannot run a Mac software on a PC, not just because of the CPU difference, but also because of the difference in OS!

EXCELENT!! thanks folks..had a bit of a blonde moment there! *HEH* MIPS versus xscale. which is better?
i had meant good freeware tyope programs for the 790. and i will be going into my pc and enabling those danged ports!! i am still kinda thrown for why it had the cable recognised on com 4.
Windows is screwy. okies. i am in the U.S.A. and yes my pc runs XP home version. came preinstalled.
ok..so fat 32, so 32 GB. yeah? or am i completely off my rocker here?
so price wise and power wise even if slower than a microdrive, i am thinking i shall go for 2 512 MB CF cards and a 2 gb CF card. that should do quite nicely for what i am wanting to do.
you do realise Camie that i am going to be following these instructions closely? thanks for your time..i realy appreciate it. i love my 790, but i know it is capable of more than what i have used it for.
why would a Pc company **E MACHINE** saqle a machine with a butt ton of prots/coms, and not have all the bloody thigns "enabled"? *shaking head* doesna make sense.


Mac? huh? what? hmm...tease!


once again thanks for your time!!
Ciao!
Scarlet

PS: any witch worth his/her salt, unless one of the ones who worship chaos, would not do a spell on an unwilling/unknowing person. bad karma backlash there. even if the initial intention is good. i've not found a harsher task master so to speak than the "An it harm none, Do as thou will" rule. seriously..that ingrains a level of self responsibility it has taken me decades to even begin to undertstand..and dammit..i'm babbling again..sorry...go on about your business! nothing to see here!!

firstly, my apologies C:amie it's late and i missed completely the 2 itty bitty lil dots the first time round.
ok..i popped up the device manager and it said "com 1" enabled and it appears that the USB ports are open as well.
Goddess knows what it is. it had actualy occured to me that it might be a bios issue. active sinc seems to work fine, just not quite getting the fact that the com ports are open. and the usb ports have power as well..i checked. yeah i know jsut enough to get me arse in trouble. *smirk*
oh well, i shall find a way. at least i can still transfer my papers for clash to my deskstop via the CF cards. it'd be night on worthless otherwise.
have a great night everyone!
Ciao!
Scarlet

Simplify Snappy!, simplify

Scarlet,

In my view, XScale is. In the view of Microsoft and one could inferr the main OEM's it is too - as they only release XScale devices these days. There is also more software written for XScale as it's backwards compatible with StrongARM CPU's (Similar CPU subsets).

It put the USB cable on COM4 because 1 & 2 are usually reserved by Windows, and that is probably where the driver's first choice for virtual resource assignment was.

Isn't that otherwise known as the boarder land between Malebolge and Cocytus?
Greetings from Little Britain anyway.

The FAT32 boundary is correct. You shouldn't see any speed related issues on normal use.

I was teasing, I'm not worth wasting incantation's on

On the device manager front.
It's good that we have a COM port listed.
First off, I'm assuming that you're running ActiveSync 3.8, if not please grab it from the Sync Software area in the top navigation - resist the temptation to try AS4.
Once you're at that level, please head back to device manager and right click the COM1 item, select uninstall and reboot the PC. Windows will reinstall it when you log-on.
Head into ActiveSync's File menu and to Communication settings. Ensure that the COM ports are enabled and COM1 is selected from the drop box.

If you still don't see COM1 in the drop box.... humm

<p>well this is completely buggered...so going to try again in a sec....</p>

Edited by Scarlet~Witch 2005-07-24 1:54 AM

<p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">*wave*   </font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">     ok, i did as you had said, so the it could be 1 of 3 likely things, </font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">1. the actual cable is bad. </font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">2. active sync if F.U.B.A.R. </font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">3.  the bios settings or some such on my desktop is a blivet  (10 lbs of shite in a 5 lb bag.)</font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">getting realy mcbummeed about it. but, going to try my Best freinds cord and adapter tomorrow, and see if it doesna work. </font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">   thanks for your help!! i will let you know if & or WHEN i get this baby running smooth. </font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">   Ciao!</font></p><p><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">       Scarlet</font></p><p /><p>PS: hope this works this time, either way i am hitting the bed, so decipher it amongst y'selves!</p>

As you've probably spotted, we don't allow HTML in the message body.
There is a forum subset:
http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/help-mbbscode.asp

Which you can use to format your documents.

I'm sorry that this wasn't a quick fix software related issue. If I can be of further assistance, let me know.

<p>*wave* alrighty then. guess what? borrowed me freinds cable and usb adapter. *giggling like an insane fiend* diggit, tried the serial cable w/out the usb port, and it worked!! BOOYAH!! check it out! so it's not the pc or the ppc!!! it was the stinking cable!! ARGH!! </p><p>   so alls well, and when i get the $$ *fallin all over meself laughing* i shall buy a new one. if i can even find one of the bloody things. isn't everyday life such an adventure? </p><p>   thanks for your help C:amie...you realy did help me narrow down what the issue was with what i had available to me at the time. </p><p>   have a great day y'all!! and keep cool!! hotter'n a snakes butt in a wagon rutt !! </p><p>      Ciao!</p><p>       Scarlet</p>