mp780 intermittent CF slot

Hi! I just got my first hpc, a rather beat up (but cheap ) MP780 from ebay, but the only thing giving me trouble is the CF slot.

Upon inserting a cf memory card, I get the "do you want to run on battery power?" message, then after pressing okay, it says "Unidentified PCCard Adapter / Enter the name of the driver for this PCCard," and in the entry box there are often differet names such as "unknown card in socket 2" or "network card", etc.

I've ruled out the cf memory cards, because I've tried several, and they all work fine in the 780's PC card slot with a cf-pcmcia adapter. Also, in netbsd, the error given is "bogus CIS." Since it doesn't work in netbsd, I don't think it's a windows driver problem, though I tried entering 'atadisk.dll' in the driver message box, as well as installing the OS update from nec.

Strangely enough, two or three times I've put in a card, and it has shown up in My Computer like normal, but 90% of the time, I get the error message.

As far as repair, I've tried cleaning the contacts with rubbing alcohol, which didn't help too much.. but I guess trying more cleaning would be a good plan. The pins don't appear bent either.. so I'm kind of stumped. any ideas would be greatly appreciated

But anyway, thanks for the great resource that this site is.. I've found so much information already

Really sounds like a hardware problem...I'd guess a cold solder joint with the connector...

But you might try performing a hard reset and then checking out the cf slot. Always possible some installed software or something is messing up on you...

Rich

Have you tried more than one CF card? I know that some older ones don't work in every device - though I don't know if that includes H/PCs.

sorry cant resist this: looks like no one read properly through the original post.

Misinterpreted the question?

As I understand it, when the user inserts a CF memory card, 90% of the time it is giving him/her various error messages, but not always, just most of the time. The user has several cards, and has thus ruled out that the problem is related to a particular faulty CF memory card. User has also tried all the cards in the pcmcia slot using an adapter, and they work fine there. So that rules the problem down to not the cards, but the handheld, particulary the CF slot.

Am I in error?

Rich

you're not in error but the prev posts were hehe. (sorry for mentioning it though, it was just so funny! )

Thanks for the responses
Sorry, I guess it may have been a bit pointless to start this thread, since I've got it pretty much narrowed down to the CF slot. I'll try looking inside again. One suspicious thing I found the first time I opened the 780 up was a rather large quantity of metal filings stuck to the front of the speaker, so perhaps a tiny shard is shorting out the CF circuit somewhere.

But aside from this.. I'm loving the device! It's so much better for me than having a laptop.. easy to just put in my backpack, and the keyboard is so nice!

You're right, cmonex - geez, how did I make such a silly oversight? Well, I was up pretty late checking out the new and improved site, so I think I have half an excuse.

My problem is that now that the site is so much faster I am having a hard time speeding up my reading to match....

Edited by Rich Hawley 2006-02-16 6:20 AM