pencentra 200 and orinoco gold MIPS

I am working on a pencentra 200 (hpc version) (ce 2.11)
From spec's online, it should have a toshiba tx3922 mips proc, but I have not verified this. Wince just says '3000 family'.

I was trying to load the later versions of the lucent/proxim/agere/orinoco/wavelan drivers. (v7.82 build 881 is available thru this site. I also have (v7.62 build 632). I cannot get these versions to install on the pencentra 200. I was able to get the earlier 4.04 and 4.06 versions to install, but the control applet is not very good, there is no tray icon, no site survey, no link meter, I was not able to connect to my network, and rather than fight with this version, I would like to get the later version to work if possible. I have used the later driver with this card (orinoco classic gold) on other devices (non mips) (J680,J820).

When trying to install, the driver pack has 2 cabs, labeled either 3000 or 4100. The 3000 version will not be accepted by wceload "setup failed, the application cannot run on this device type. Please install the application specific to this device type." The 4100 version will get to the point where it asks where to install (defaults to windows dir), I click ok(or yes, whatever), and the next popup box opens with the progress bar, and it hangs. There is a cancel button but it does not respond. The system is not completely frozen, as I can open some other apps. I generally have to soft reset at that point.

The same result happens when installing thru active sync.

I also tried running wceload from the command line with some switches. I put the cabfile name and install path into the registry under (hklm...apps/microsoft application installer) and I used the switch to not ask for a path (I dont remember the command). It read the install info from registry, but it hung up at the same point.

Has anyone been able to install a later version of the agere driver on a pencentra 200 hpcpro?

If this is really a tx3922 cpu, shouldn't I be using the 3000 versions instead of the 4100? (I have installed some other software with same situation where the 3000 version was not accepted, but the 4xxx version did install and work)

Can I hexedit the 3000 CAB to allow wceload to try to install it? (wceloadext does not seem to run on this machine probably b/c it is mips)

I examined the first few lines of hex code from several cabs for several cpu's, and I cannot find a consistent byte that seems to imply the cpu type.

If anyone is using the 4.04 or 4.06 version with an orinoco gold card, can you confirm if you can connect with 64bit wep?

Is there another dirver package that can run the hermes chipset which I can try?

well these mips cpu's always had problems with wlan drivers. either the mips cpu's are too different from each other or the compiler sucked at that time.
the orinoco is no exception from this problem, nor are the prism cards.

anyway, the tx3922 is better off with a 4000/41000 cab, it isn't a true 3000 series IMO. 3000 would be like the old 54mhz mips cpu in the nec 700, velo's and palmsize pc's etc..
the best would be a 4000 (not 4100) cab though. do you have one such cab?

try mips version of ministumbler (after OS version edit) to get a site survey, maybe you get lucky and it will work with 4.04. vxutil will provide you with the IP info, and who cares about a tray icon and link meter if the wlan connection itself is working at least?

but, i can see you say not even 4.04 worked, what did you try to get it working? vxutil is a must to troubleshoot it. does the pencentra have any pcmcia updates?

wceloadext is ARM, of course. not "propably". but yes you can hex the drivers for 3000, let me see the exact numbers, i don't remember these by heart. though i doubt the 3000 version will run better. worth a try if nothing else works.

don't worry about wep, even 4.04 should support it.

here is / will be my own experience if it helps anyone. i do have an agere based card (buffalo), but i only used prism on mips machines so far. on the tx3922 (and on the vr4132), the trick for me was to load the senao pcmcia drivers, nothing else worked. that senao driver even has a site survey utility!
the lesson learnt here is to try other drivers too that are based on the same chipset, ok i know you already did that

i'll go and try the buffalo later, this is interesitng. sadly i can only experiment on hpc2000, my tx3922 is hpc2000 (intermec)


edit: one last thing. how could i forget? you do not need the cab to actually install the driver. you can extract the files and put them on the device manually. the downside is that it is going to ask for a driver on first insertion of the card but that should be all you need to get it working.

Edited by cmonex 2007-05-30 12:05 PM

This is exactly the same problem I've had on my PenCentra 200, though mine is the H/PC 2000 version. (I recall quiche having the same problem with her H/PC Pro PenCentra 200 too.) It's the only CE device I have that I can't get my Agere card to work in.

I agree with cmonex about 3000 v 4000 versions; for example, when I first installed the Clik! USB driver on my 6651 a long time ago, I first tried the 3000 version since I knew that the 6651 has a TX3922 CPU. The 3000 version of the driver wouldn't install, but the 4000 version did.

I've generally stuck with Agere-based cards in my devices since I've had very good results in every device other than the PenCentra. But it looks like Prism-based cards are the only option with the PenCentra.

well thats an advantage of prism cards, they have more versions of the driver than agere. there are disadvantages too of course, it can get confusing for a newbie.

OK, I am slightly confused about one statement



Are you saying that you did get a senao driver to work with an agere/hermes card? or are you saying that you used the senao driver to get a prism card to work on a mips machine? I was looking at available senao drivers and they all seemed to be prism based, and I could be wrong, but I didnt think that would work with my orinoco gold card at all. I also looked around for other manufacturers of agere based cards, but I didnt see any that made wince drivers. (I looked at buffalo, and Dell).

Now for the good news!


I should have asked sooner. I spent way too many hours fooling with this and some simple advice really helped. I have now made some progress. When you said that I really didnt need to use the cab file, and I could dump the contents manually, that got me going.

I didn't know what was the simplest/best way to extract the files, so I got a demo of CABWUZ 2.0 from ocpsoftware (they make ce cabmanager too). It is nice software. I wish it wasn't a timelimited demo. If there is another software solution, please mention it and i will add it to my collection.

So I extracted the 4100 file from the latest agere driver available on this site (782.881). Internally the cab id is 4000. I dumped everything into the windows dir. I tried to use all of the dll's, but none of them would take. I deleted everything.

Then I extracted the 3000 cab file from the "v7.62 build 632" version. I dumped this into the windows directory. I used the WLLUC46.DLL file, and it worked. The later driver distribution (782) uses a dll named WLAGS46 or WLAGS46b. I had seen the filename WLLUC46 before, probably on another device, so I felt better going with that. I dont know if the 3000 cab from the later distro would work, nor do I know if the 4100 cab from the earlier (7.62) distro would work. None of these files would install properly from the cab, with or without activesync. There may be some stupid error in the inf file for the setup with a bad path or something, but I am not familiar enough, or motivated enough to figure it out.

So that is where I am at. I was able to connect to my router with wep64 (although the utility does not generate passkeys from a phrase, you have to manually enter the key). The software/OS took care of the required registry entries which were not made becuase i bypassed the cab setup. I just did a quick test to see if I could get online, and have dhcp assign an ip, and that much worked, and I was so excited I just had to share.

If there is something else I should do to help out the community with info, or files, let me know. At this point I cant be sure where I got the7.62 file version. I dont think it was available here. I spent too much time searching high and low for any and all versions so I cant remember where it was. I dont even see the original filename on my system right now, but if it necessary, I can try to figure it out.

Thanks for the helpful responses. Now I can toss this pencentra in the trash where it belongs. I bought it for the reflective screen, but it really aint all that great.

well sorry if i wasnt clear, it was for my prism card (it IS a senao even though CF. but i hated their ARM drivers so this MIPS one was a pleasant surprise. and the only one that would work.)

yes i too use ocp to dump the files. to determine which file is the driver name, you need to look in teh cab (again ) to see what registry entry belongs to "miniport", that'll say the dll name to you. but glad to see you got the later distribution going! this cab extracting is a cool trick i guess.

could you email me this 7.62 version? the cabs for all OS versions. contactchan at freemail.hu thanks

...finally, am sorry to hear you don't like the pencentra but maybe selling it would be a better idea than the trash

Edited by cmonex 2007-05-30 11:04 PM

I have it working well on my Pencentra HPC 2000 but not the HPC pro version.
Will try again.

S/F<
CEYA!

Nice to hear from you again, Ceya. Are you talking about the Agere driver? How did you get it to install?

I agree with cmonex, captainvideo - I wouldn't toss it in the trash. Personally, I like mine a lot. Sure, the reflective screen isn't the greatest, but it'll easily do the job in bright sunlight, which works for me since I want to use it while off-road riding in the desert - where WiFi won't be available but GPRS is.

ok, I mailed the drivers to cmonex. If they don't get there, let me know and I'll try again.

This pencentra is probably going to make it into the trash, or maybe it will become a doorstop. I wanted it for the directsun ability, but while it can technically be seen, it just looks terrible. I also find that I have to adjust the contrast/brightness (hottab buttons) very carefully, and readjust them after a few minutes of sun exposure. The image gets lighter, and I have to keep adjusting it darker, until it maxes out. When I restart it later, the screen is black and it looks like it is not working untill you adjust it back to midrange.

To make matters worse (beter?) I bought 3 of them! There is someone on ebay that has been selling lots of 3, for $80 (starting bid), and no one will bid on them because the description is 'as-is' and they say they all have bad cmos batteries. It turns out the cmos batteries on the pencentras are rechargeable. You just have to charge them for a long time, and the cmos batts recharge and the errors clear up. So I was planning to make one good one, and instead I get 3 more pieces of crap to put on the charger every month.

Since I am sharing info, I picked up a fujitsu 3400 tablet pc (400mhz mobile celeron) with the transflective screen. I find this one of my best purchases. It eats batteries and you can only find used batteries to replace them, but the screen is good enough for the shade, and it is a full pc, it weighs about the same as the pencentra.

ok, you probably will not hear from me for a while, unless (until) I run into more problems.

CE Geek: you don't read

captainvideo: sorry to hear they are no good for you. maybe they have a screen problem, i dunno, never saw any of these. and yes, i got your email, thanks. (replying to it just now)

Edited by cmonex 2007-05-31 10:43 AM

What didn't I read, cmonex?

nvm it was a joke.. i meant captainvideo presented the solution and then you ask Ceya how he got it working, but i understand you just wanted to hear his solution too. it just sounded funny

btw, i'll upload the drivers on my site soon so anyone can get them.

Edited by cmonex 2007-05-31 11:18 AM

I saw captainvideo's solution - I was just hoping Ceya found a simpler way.

i just downloaded the driver from HCL and that was it. Agere driver Gold card.

Cisco driver works also in HPC 2000.

S/F,
CEYA!

That and your magic touch. I'm stumped why it isn't working for us then.