Mobilon HC-4500 & Proxim Orinoco Gold

I recently rebuilt the battery of my Sharp Mobilon HC-4500 (CE2.0, MIPS4000) with some NiMH 2600mAh cells, and now the battery life is amazing! I wanted to begin using this device again, so I checked this site's HCL & bought a Proxim Orinoco Gold 8420-WD (non-Cardbus) card. I loaded the CE2.0 SP1 for my device, the Network Service Pack, and the 4.06 drivers from this site. When I insert the card & input the driver name (wvlan46.dll), I get this message:

WAVELAN: Install_Driver PnpId
Agere_Systems-Wireless_PC_Card_Model_0111-595B Regpath
wvlan46.dll RegSize 256

When I click OK (the only option) to this message, nothing happens. No lights on the card, no program, nothing. I tried removing 4.06 & installing the 4.04 driver - same thing. Please help!!

P.S. I also have a HP Jornada 690 (CE2.11) that I tested this card in. The card works fine in the Jornada, but it won't connect to my 128-bit WEP network from my Linksys WRT54G. It connects to my network just fine without WEP. No one on this site could help me fix it (and I don't want to take down my WEP), so I'm really trying to get the card working on my Mobilon.

Sorry, I really don't have any clue about this, but I looked on Google and I found this link to another forum where this message was brought up:

http://forums.pocketpcfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=2262&sid=8739203a526cc498a28c238daefad029

It appears that the problem wasn't resolved, so it probably won't help, but I thought you might want to know.

Yeah, I saw that when I searched Google last night. It also looks like the "Agere_Systems-Wireless_PC_Card_Model_0111-595B" is an identifier burned into the firmware of the card. If no one can help me get this stupid card to work, I'll probably put it up on ebay & look for another card. It just sucks cause I spent all this time on these forums looking for a decent wireless card.

If I can't get my Proxim card working, does anyone have any suggestions about what wireless card will really, truly, 100% work with my device? Lucent/Agere cards are goin for around $50 on ebay. It's a lot to spend for something that may or may not work when I get it home. I would especially enjoy someone's opinion who has a HC-4500 connecting on a WRT54G network with 128-bit WEP (like me).

Striker,

On the back of the card, what is the number across from "agere systems"?

Is it PC24E-11-FC/R?

Jake

proxim & avaya: AVOID

orinoco & wavelan: OK

Jake - the card says "Agere Systems 0111-PC"

cmonex - this is a "Proxim Orinoco 802.11b PC Card." I think Orinoco & Wavelan are card models, not manufacturers. Do you mean "Agere & Lucent?"

Striker, Agere, Lucent, Proxim. They're all the same devices - just at different stages on who owns the rights to the chipset. It has been sold around a lot.

It seems to be attempting to force register the driver to mount the Agere_Systems-Wireless_PC_Card_Model_0111-595B
The question is, what is your devices ID.

Agere_Systems-Wireless_PC_Card_Model_0110-C4ED
Agere_Systems-Wireless_PC_Card_Model_0111-595B
Agere_Systems-Wireless_PC_Card_Model_0114-CD2A
etc

If you stick it in your 2.11 device and look through the HKLM\Drivers area you should be able to find it.

Chris,

Earlier in this post, Cardboardcruiser posts a link to another forum discussion of this what-card-do-I-have dilemma. At the end of that thread, a gentleman says a "genuine" Orinoco card will be seen by the Mobilon.

Is he on the right track and does that tie into your own thinking?

I remember buying Orinoco cards several years ago to do an ad-hoc between my J-720 and laptop and wrestling with the same issues.

Jake

Jake,

I don't really know what he says when he referrs to "genuine" Orinoco's. Either they're agere orinoco chipset based or they're not.
Having had a look at the driver, the Agere_Systems-Wireless_PC_Card_Model_0110-C4ED ID it's giving you in the dialogue is the ID of the card you're putting into it.

The 4.06 driver up for download from the HCL is specifically designed for:
Lucent_Technologies-WaveLAN/IEEE-C908
Lucent_Technologies-WaveLAN/IEEE-364C
NCR-WaveLAN/IEEE-6D1E
Cabletron-Roamabout_802.11_DS-1B09

The 4.04 driver is coded to detect:
Lucent_Technologies-WaveLAN/IEEE-C908
NCR-WaveLAN/IEEE-6D1E
Cabletron-Roamabout_802.11_DS-1B09


If you run the control panel applet, what happens?

If this is a problem with the 2.00 drivers, this further complicates an already complicated situation.

I'll be interested to hear if Striker can resolve this. My cards are different than his, but I did just break down and buy a Mobilon. If it ever comes, I'll post with my results with my own cards--which do not have Striker's model, etc.

Jake

Thanks Jake, that will be useful.

I own a Mobilon HC-4600 and a Lucent Technologies PC24E-H-PC (HP badged Lucent Orinoco Card).

After reading your post, I brought out my unit and naturally found it to be totally battery dead...

After replacing the backup battery and charging up the unit , I activesync'ed the unit and found that I no longer had a backup.

Being just as brain dead as my Mobilon, I immediately reloaded the Wavelan 4.6 driver. I inserted the card enter the wvlan46.dll.

The card didn't work.... I looked at my drivers again and remembered to install the network updates and SP1.

Things started looking kind of normal, except I could not get a connection.

Finally, I pulled all the batteries and started over. I installed in the following order the SP1, then the Network update, and finally the updates.

I inserted the card and set up my network parameter. The card works perfectly.

When you've done all you can and it don't work... Clear it off and start over!

(Note: After following the proper installation order the system fully recognized the card with no request for driver .dll name.)

My install files: "WLWCE406.exe" (I installed the "NETSETUP.exe" and "SETUP200.exe". <- Netsetup.exe was the network update that I installed. The service pack file is "SP1.exe".

The Driver came from this site. I believe I downloaded my SP1 from the Sharp site: http://csdsupport.sharpsec.com/public/validated/mdl_Filesearchform2.cfm?ProdID=5




My question to Striker: How hard was it to rebuild the battery? Any pointers?

Thanks.

mm yes agere and lucent, sorry, confused them.

but proxim... that 8420 is no good...

Striker, either hard reset the machine and install SP1, NSP & v4.04 in that order. If it does not work try skipping SP1.

If you do not want to do a hard reset may I humbly suggest trying the fix that worked for me, reinstalling all the files again in order. The problem is that WinCE won't let you reinstall SP1, so try what I did:

http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=3247&start=16&posts=20

to see if that helps.

WinCE 2.0 & WiFi networking is a major pain in the butt!! But if you are very, very stubborn it's possible to get it working (after you tear all your hair out when it decides not to cooperate...)

C:Amie - I will check the device ID for the card tonight

David - Rebuilding the battery is pretty easy. I'll create a "how to" post later & link to it here.

Snake - I'll hard reset tonight & install the packages in the order you suggested.

Everyone - Thanks!!