Resurrected an NEC MobilePro 900, could use some beginner-level tips

Hi all!

After a lot of tinkering, I've managed to bring an NEC MobilePro 900 back to life. I bought it on eBay ages ago and it seems to be working nicely now although the battery doesn't last terribly long - probably no surprise for a device of this age.

As a total beginner to this device and platform, I'd appreciate some guidance with a few basic questions / topics:

1. The stylus and resistive display seem to work pretty well, but I notice that it loses calibration fairly quickly, sometimes after only 10-15 minutes of usage. I can go through the re-calibration routine easily enough, but it's pretty annoying to have the 'touch point' drifting so quickly. Any tips on making this work better?

2. I've been digging around online for cool apps and games to run on this thing, but I haven't made much progress. I was up late last night and managed to get Frotz working so I can play all my old favorite Infocom text-adventure games, which is pretty great. I also found and installed the "GAPI for Handheld PC's" package, and seeing the little graphical tech-demo apps running was really cool! However, I'm totally lost while trying to find more apps and games I can run on this thing. So many download links are long dead, and the ones I have found are for a huge variety of PocketPC / Windows CE / HPC2000 devices, I'm having no luck at all honing in on stuff suitable for this device specifically. Any tips or suggestions on this?

3. I've ordered a CompactFlash-based 802.11b card from eBay which old posts here indicate should work well enough (I should know in about a week, once it arrives). However, I'd love to find a serial cable for this thing too, but those seem to be almost totally unobtanium. Anyone have an idea where I might find one, or have a spare I could purchase?

I think that's it for now - thanks in advance for any beginner-level guidance you guys can offer!

Huxley

3-I highly recommend this one BUT only if you're running CE .net 4.2. Otherwise, the B card you purchase should be good as long as it's in the HCL to confirm it's compatibility https://www.hpcfactor.com/hcl/
2-check out our SCL for more programs! We're working on adding more titles every day! https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/
We have a lot to check out

Edited by torch 2022-10-15 10:56 PM

Great info, thanks!

Regarding the WiFi card: I typo'd myself in my original post above, and actually had ordered the exact one you linked to (802.11g, not the 'b' version I mistakenly cited above). Whew!

As for the software, that's a great suggestion. Earlier today I donated some funds to the site - hopefully that unlocks downloads for me soon. Excited to actually use this neat gadget for some fun stuff soon!

If I can add another question to my list: last night I changed out the '2032' backup battery with a brand new one, but the MP900 keeps alerting me that the backup battery is nearly dead and that I'm at risk of losing data. I have another 2032 I can pop in there, but I'm pretty sure the one I already installed is fine given that it's new. Is this a known bug or quirk of these machines?

Edit: I should note, I've tried both fixes here (the installable patch and the config settings change) and the low-backup-battery-power alert persists. I broke out my voltmeter and confirmed that the battery itself is fine - it's just the MP900 being weird

Huxley


Edited by Huxley 2022-10-16 1:27 AM

Wait are you running CE .net 4.2 on it or CE 3.0 (HPC2000) ?
That battery level patch is for HPC2000 and if you got that CF wifi card (the Ambicom WF54G) that one doesn’t work on HPC2000, only CE 4.2 .net.

Also for software, what kinds of things were you interested in finding ? I’ll rattle off some names I recommend you trying.

Also check this thread. Similar issue. Not exactly the same. But the part about checking the compartment is similar to your issue.

https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=20644&start=1

Could you also run a firmware check in control panel and tell us what version you are in everything?

Example : mine is

Firmware version P530_42 2.02
Build date Apr 30 2005
Firmware ID 4.15.7
Boot loader 4.10