Neta 980 Lost its Mind

Okay, this upgrade is not working.

I copy the 30MB nk.bin file to a clean 2GB CF card.
Disconnect AC.
Insert CF card.
Pull main battery.
Wait a few seconds.
Reconnect main battery.
Load Image (ATA) and progress bar appears.
Progress bar completes.
No further activity. Waited several minutes.
Pulled CF card.
Soft reset unit.
Boots with old 3.0 OS.

This image was made for my tablet according to the release note. I guess I can contact Viewsonic over this,but I doubt I will get anywhere.

Any ideas anyone?

The Neta Manual has the upgrade procedure:

It says:
1. Unzip the image file. You will get 2 files eboot.nb0 and nk.bin.
2. You need to copy the files to the root directory of the the CF card with a CF Card Reader.
3. Insert the CF card in the CF slot.
4. Reboot and .... (blah blah)
1. Upgrade reboot
2. Upgrade nk.bin
3. Unlocking flash blocks
4. Erasing flash blocks
5. Flashing downloaded image
6. Remove the CF card and press right-arrow button to reset unit.

(Note the right-arrow button. I wonder if this is common to the Viewsonic. If you do a standard reset with a stylus etc. can that interupt the final conversion? I don't know.... )


At least it didn't screw up your existing ROM image.

Ive tried all three files on the CF or just the two you mentioned - No joy. This image is supposed to be for this model tablet. The only thing that appears at the initial boot screed is a Load image (ATA) message under a green progress bar. After the progress bar shows a full load, thats all the unit does.

Ive even gone so far as to use the hardware reset button. It is obviously reading from the CF, but I do not know why it stalls.

Oh well...

I was hoping that someone would try them and give a favorable report. I am sorry they haven't worked for you.

My old Neta gave me some problems a few months ago in the ROM "brain-dead" department (This new unit as performed well to date.) With the original Neta ROM problem that started this thread, I don't get a "warm and fluffy" feeling about the future.

I've made copies of my ROM image. I don't have any idea how to put it back in the event of a future problem.

I had hoped that the viewsonic flashes would offer a bit of hope in case the problem shows up after my warranty expires.

Maybe, someone will cruise this thread in the next few days and help with the answers.


DG

There is one other quirk I need to look into. I owned a NEC MP900 and upgraded its OS image as well. The image was originally shipped on a 128MB CF. I tried using the image from a 1GB CF and it would not run fully, but stall. I finally ran it from a 128MB CF and the upgrade ran properly.

Considering that this image was designed for my tablet, this is the only thing I can think of. If I can get my hands on a 32MB to 128MB CF, Ill rerun the image.

MP900... that too has problems with ROM image corruption. sometimes they get corrupted. i know of three or four cases. only solution is to get the cenet upgrade if the unit was hpc2000 (all the ones i heard of were hpc2000). i really don't know if the cenet upgrade can be flashed onto a unit that's already cenet. hopefully it can.

DataHaunt, interesting.. oh i thought you used a microdrive but maybe that was someone else? anyway the original upgrade CF is indeed 128 mb! can run from 64 mb too (tested). i would NOT try it with anything lower than 64 mb though (i read some interesting things about the flashing process). (the 64 mb was all free before copying the upgrade onto it.)

Good memory. Actually, I tired the upgrade with a 1GB CF and MD before using a 128MB CF.

The instructions of the image file seems to suggest that 32MB is the minimum for this image. I may have access to a 256MB CF. Ill see if that works.

I've got a NETA 980, and would like to try some of these other images, but I would like to back up my existing ROM first. Is there a way to do this? Any chance I could get a copy of someone's?

Ideally, I'd want to put Linux on this, but first I want to make sure I understand how it is reading the nk.bin's, etc.

Ok, I made the plunge without a net, and without mixing any more metaphors, I can report that the viewsonic "Communicator" image works on the NETA 980. What I've noticed so far is maybe some slightly faster performance, in terms of UI responsiveness. Also, the installed software is slightly different. All the hardware seems to work, and I now have a "permanent storage" area on the c: drive.

I tried this with a 256MB CF card, and it did not work. A 32MB worked perfectly, so there is apparently some upper limit to what it can address at that level.

One problem I still have is that the built-in PDF viewer does not work -- just like it didn't on the NETA rom. I'll try Acrobat 1.0 tomorrow, but that didn't work on the NETA rom, either.

WOW! You got more guts than I have.

The PDF viewer on the Neta 980 works... Just barely


It great to know that the Viewsonic stuff does work. It may be a way to restore my unit if it goes "brain dead" in the future.

Questions?

Does IR work?

I would miss On-Schedule and PTAB. Otherwise based on what I've read the rest of the software is the same. Is that a fair statement?

Glad the install worked. Nice to know to keep the card size small.

DG

Does the Active Sync work fully and support more than just the sync of files?

I was able to get Neta to sync using both USB and WIFI by making a few changes to the registry and adding a small file.

See the thread: Neta 980 IR Port / Neta 980 Bugs if you want to add that capability.

Let me know if you need any more information.

DG

Yeah, but I'd like to rely on MS AS to sync contacts and all. I thought you used the On-Scheduler.

That I do.

I agree that it would be great to have the other standard CE PIM apps. Are the standard Contacts, Tasks, and Calendar applications available on any CE 4.X . net devices?

On a side note: I tried cePIMs for a while. Best I can remember, it worked pretty good through Active Sync. There is a version at:
http://www.moreio.com/moreio/www.nsf/p/cepim/$file/cePIMS.exe

DG

A quick reply to my own post.


It was easy to copy the PTAB executable from my Neta. I put a copy on my CF card on my Jornada 720. It runs fine.

With that in mind... I guess that I wouldn't miss PTAB

TOGONET: Does the IRDA work OK?

Thanks

DG