Neta 980 Lost its Mind

I'm assuming that the company that built the NETA was Abocom. Their FTP site allows for anonymous login but there were no images there.

I know a guy who works with flash roms for many types of devices. I'm going to pass the file from you to him when i get it and see if he has any thoughts.
If you do still have it I can setup an FTP to my home server so it would be easier to send.

Hello again,

Mike tried a FlashBin.exe from my ViewPad 100 CE 3.0 on his Neta 980 (presumably CE 3.0 too) and got a "memory allocation error".
It means 32MB vs 64MB ROM _DOES_ make a difference (or it may be any other design/OS difference too).

Is anybody out there willing to "check for presence/share with less fortunate" of a similar utility on their AirPanel 100?

My direct mail will be vkudley_AT_yahoo.com

WE ARE NOT DONE WITH THE TEST MARIX YET!

Stay Strong,
Vadym

P.S. Did anyone have a dumpnkbin.c compiled for Windows? (If not -- I'll do it in Linux, but it will take time too. Ohhhh this pesky #include <unistd.h>!)

Latest Update....

I tried the flashbin.exe with a known working Viewsonic 4.1 image on my Neta 980. I got the same memory allocation errors. Are there perhaps some other files or dll's that this application needs?

ok, just let me know if you indeed need hosting.

I've built a ce.net 4.2 image to try on my airpanel but I cannot flash it. I put nk.bin in a cf card, the airpanel bootloader sees it, writes on screen "downloading image" but the progress bar doesn't start. Any ideas?

What size cf card? There seems to be a need to keep the CF 32mb (or as small as possible) based on some earlier posts...

I think... well maybe....

DG

Yeah, there's definately a maximum size CF you can use to flash the ROM. On my Viewpad 100, reflashing the CE 3.0 ROM worked fine with a 64MB card, but didn't work with a 160MB card or larger. 32MB is kind of the minimum, since the ROM image is 27MB or so.

If you need a small CF card, try a local drug store. The Walgreens down the street from me sells 64MB CF cards from Kodak (which are OEM Lexar, I think), along with 4 AA batteries for something like $19.99 or so in the photo processing section.

I use a Crucial 128mb CF card for flashing my Neta. I think in a previous post I discussed formatting the CF card properly. A windows format does not always work correctly. There is an HP Tool I use that works great for formatting CF cards to use in rom flashing. I'll see if I can find it and post it here.

Cmonex, if you can post David G's rom file for me somewhere I would appreciate it very much. I'm having server issues and cannot seem to get FTP working on my home server.

Mike g

I have the file. I don't have enough web space to post it.

I could try to send it to you through an instant messaging link (AOL, MSN, or YAHOO)...

Drop me an email and I'll try to set it up.

(Unless CmoneX beats me to it. She probably already has it on her site.

DG

OK so should i upload it or you'll sort it out on msn anyway?

choose what you'd like to do... if you'd like me to upload the file to http, i can do that too. (i don't think i deleted the rom images from my hdd)

Any luck in your endeavors mikegrimsley76? The less I have to rely upon 21st Century for support, the better.

I also own a Neta 980 device, and I'd love an upgrade.

Here is my cent, I can give to the Neta980 community 150MB on my hosting.

http://www.kote.cl/

Anyone interested, drop me an email.

jrio at gridex cl

Good Job !

kote

please register on HPC:Factor, then create a new thread in the 'HPCBay' section... Also, be sure to read the guidelines, BEFORE posting...

tenjeangosi, why should he/she create a new thread? and why in hpcbay? i dont see the point
and what rule did he/she violate?

Hey, all:

I don't know if this thread is still being read, but ....
I just picked up a NETA 980 at a swap, $30, with prism WiFi card, VGA adapter cable, USB to backside cable, cradle, and PS. The cradle is hosed, opened it up, connector solder connections broken, flex cable broken - but I think I can fix it.

Seems to run fine, connects wirelessly, etc. WinCE.net, 4.1 ...
I, too, was wondering how to put Linux on this machine; I even tried re-flashing it
with ViewSonic Airpanel 100 flash image, but the thing simply won't boot with the CF card in it.
Maybe it needs a specific low-level re-format of the card to some FAT 12/16/32, # of sectors, etc.

Anyway, while I had it torn apart, I noticed a button near the Flash ROM - I guess this is a "hard boot" button, as opposed to the "soft-boot" button on the top.

ALSO, the 12 holes, 0.10" spacing - pins 1,3,5 are obviously ground, so I examined a little further and found out that pins 9 and 10 go to a serial to logic converter inside - a MAX3221E - so maybe there is some hope after all. Pin 9 is RS-232 FROM the device, to your PC's RXD line, and pin 10 is the NETA's RS-232 input, from your PC's TXD line. So, I suppose I'll have to wire something up in the next few days. Serial Port! Console! Hyperterm! Maybe even Linux, or NetBSD!

ANyway, I hope others can have fun like this, too.