New user looking to get started

Hello. I'm a newly registered user with Aspergers syndrome, looking to find software for an HP620LX I ordered off eBay a few days ago. I was referred by Interweb who pointed me to your site for support for their Orinoco wireless PC card , but I'm unsure if it's safe to download the proper drivers for this card yet.
I am not here to spam anyone.

I've already donated over $20 to this site - one of which before registering, so I am unsure when I will be able to download these drivers.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome here. C:Amie, the owner of this site, is based in London, so there can be time lags of response. But he should have your donation duly noted in short time.

In the meantime, I can't follow your Amazon link. Which model of Orinoco do you own? (you're already on the right track with Orinoco--it's a good card for WinCE)

The HP620LX is a good machine as well.

Your card and device will soon connect via drivers here. Your trouble could be the security level. Unfortunately, your device/card is WEP, meaning that the today's security (WPS and beyond) will prevent your set-up from connecting to the internet.

Also, there is a lack of updated browsers for our device, meaning that when you do get on-line, there aren't too many sites that will load. It's the bane of legacy computing, I'm afraid.

Most people here use their devices for writing and other applications that don't need an internet connection. If you have access to popmail, you could conceivably check/send your email. For instance, I do this with my earthlink account, which uses the 110 port for receiving (that kind of email set-up would be available on your stock email application).

We're always glad to have new members, so please don't take these hardware/software caveats to be anything other than what we all have to put up with here.

Jake

Thank you for explaining a few things to me.

I realize now that I really have no need at all for this network card, as my only use for my device is to write and transfer files like you suggested, as I also found the docking cradle and serial cable which I intend to use with an older PC I have. (Dell Optiplex GX520, Windows XP with a Virtual PC of Windows 98 inside. Virtual PC can work with the serial port.)

I will be happy to look for other CE software if the need should arise.

Also, one minor question: Is it possible to change my screen name? I'd like that.

Oh, you're in great shape, then. For one thing, if syncing with Outlook is something of interest, and you have Outlook running on your XP machine, ActiveSync 3.8 will work very well. ActiveSync would also work very well for exchanging files, though you may want to go the easier route of swapping through a compact flash card (do you have one of those lying around?)

If you can indeed connect your Orinoco to your router, you can even sync via wifi, something I sorely miss.

If that's a no-go, with your cable, you can connect the HP to the internet through XP/mochasoft, and bypass all the security hassles:

http://www.mochasoft.dk/freeware/ppp.htm

You'll quickly see that getting on-line is more proof-of-concept than anything of true use, though you may find uses for the connection.

From my experience, XP/Activesync 3.8 provides the most robust connections.

As for changing your screen name, I am only the moderator of the Psion subforum, so I don't have too many super powers. But a change can be easily done. Especially for subscribers like yourself

Jake

Thank you for the advice. My palmtop hasn't arrived yet but I will test the card per your instructions when it comes.

BTW: The only reason I ever wanted to track down a Palmtop in the first place was because the adventure game "The 11th Hour: Sequel to the 7th Guest" had one called the "GameBook" as a plot point (model unknown). That was the first time I ever saw one of these things, even before John Connor's Atari Portfolio in Terminator 2.







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Very cool. I don't know the game, but I bet there are people here that do.

FYI: that mochasoft set-up will also work with Win10, as long as your rig has a serial port or the proper usb-serial adapter (one with the correct FTDi chip). I don't know which country you live in, but for the States, this is one I use:

If you get hooked on these devices and start to build a collection, a usb-serial adapter is very handy.

Jake

Edited by Jake 2021-02-03 3:33 PM

I'll be fine with my secondary XP rig for now. (Dell Optiplex GX520) because it has a serial port already on it, and the Virtual PC properly runs the native software on Windows 98, where XP does not.
I also negotiated with another ebay seller for the proper cable, and I have that already plugged in.
However, I do intend to swap files via CompactFlash to my Windows 10 tower (Custom rig), since I had an internal card reader installed that supports the format.

We'll see where this goes.

Edited by gregorymarshall 2021-02-03 4:05 PM

You can't go wrong with any of that. Your only rub might be file conversions on the Win10 machine. If you save docs in the CE 2.0 rtf format, conversion won't be necessary, though I'm not certain about other file types.

I think there's an illusive 3.0/32mb upgrade chip for the HP620LX, but I don't know if anyone here owns it. That would allow for Word *.doc swapping without having to go through rtf conversion.

Activesync on your XP machine will convert Pocket Word documents (*.pwd), and other file types, to be read easily on the desktop. Come to think of it, Softmaker's TextMaker for Windows reads/saves in *.pwd, if you have that handy. SoftMaker has a couple of free versions of its programs, but I'm not certain if those have the .pwd file converters.

I do believe that TextMaker is also available for CE 2.0, through Used Handhelds famous CD (reviewed here). I use it on my CE 2.0 devices. Not as speedy as Pocket Word, but infinitely more versatile.

Jake

@Insurgent has one, he keeps it in a draw and torments me with it. He's never let me have it

Right up there with Bigfoot and CE 3.0 upgrade for the Sharp Mobilon 4*00.

Jake

My mistake: as Richard Plume points out in 2011 post, https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=16157&st... the Sharp upgrade was WinCE 2.11, not 3.0.

Jake

Finally got my 620 LX and it turned on shortly after I unboxed it, though for reasons unknown it stopped turning on after I hit the "on/off" button while it was on. no matter how many times I push the button, it won't boot back up.

I will note that it doesn't seem to have a restart or shut down mode, as I saw some processes were still open when I unboxed the device.

EDIT: After pushing the reset button and re-settling the fresh backup battery I installed, the system went back to normal. I'm understandably new to this.

Edited by gregorymarshall 2021-02-04 7:10 AM

The method of pushing the reset button is called a soft reset.

There is another method, called hard reset, which will erase any changes and make the device factory setting state.
I think the hard reset varies a little from device to device.

Edited by stingraze 2021-02-04 9:20 AM

He does live in a geodesic dome in the middle of the woods... so... there's every chance that Insurgent is Bigfoot and has said upgrade too

Probably just RAM corruption if the power was cycled too quickly. It does happen. If in doubt, pull the main and backup batter, leave it for 10 minutes, come back.