RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
A little more information I found while digging. It should have dawned on me
when the card info is displayed in MCE.
The cards are AMD Type D P/N FAD004
http://www.psism.com/flashfad.htm
More info here too:
https://www.synchrotech.com/products/linear-flash-pcmcia-card_01.html
The prices for these are crazy. Though the 4MB is EOL, the 16MB is listed at
$445.00! Even if I could get a new 16mb at a much reduced price, it wouldn't
work.
There is an old discussion (among several) here:
https://www.copytechnet.com/forums/ricoh-savin-gestetner-lanier/23407-ricoh-field-service-card.html
Don Resor
-Original Message-
From: cctalk On Behalf Of Glen Slick via cctalk
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2022 3:18 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 7:51 PM Glen Slick wrote:
>
> I'll have to boot up again the Linux system I had set up for this and
> refresh my memory on some of the details. If I remember correctly, one
> of the things I had to do was to rebuild the pcmcia driver with the
> CONFIG_MTD_PCMCIA_ANONYMOUS option enabled. Some of the linear flash
> cards I have might not have a separate attribute memory plane and no
> valid CIS, so the card wouldn't get recognized without that option
> enabled. Pretty sure there was something else I had to change to get
> things to work with some of the cards I have. Just don't remember now.
>
Maybe no one else is interested in this detail, but just for future reference
reference, it looks like one of the changes I had to make to get the MTD driver
to work with some of my linear flash cards was to this read_pri_intelext()
routine in this source file:
drivers / mtd / chips / cfi_cmdset_0001.c
from:
if (extp->MinorVersion >= '0') {
extra_size = 0;
/* Protection Register info */
extra_size += (extp->NumProtectionFields - 1) *
sizeof(struct cfi_intelext_otpinfo);
}
if (extp->MinorVersion >= '1') {
/* Burst Read info */
extra_size += 2;
if (extp_size < sizeof(*extp) + extra_size)
goto need_more;
extra_size += extp->extra[extra_size - 1];
}
to:
extra_size = 0;
if ((extp->MinorVersion >= '0') && (extp->FeatureSupport & 64)) {
/* Protection Register info */
extra_size += (extp->NumProtectionFields - 1) *
sizeof(struct cfi_intelext_otpinfo);
}
if ((extp->MinorVersion >= '1') && (extp->FeatureSupport & 128)) {
/* Burst Read info */
extra_size += 2;
if (extp_size < sizeof(*extp) + extra_size)
goto need_more;
extra_size += extp->extra[extra_size - 1];
}
The problem with the original code is that without checking the Optional
Feature and Command Support bits, it assumes that if the Intel CFI Primary
Vendor-Specific Extended Query Table exists then the flash device has OTP
support, and if the Minor Version is >=1 then the flash device has Page Mode
Read support. According to the 290606-015 datasheet for Intel 28F320J5 and
28F640J5 StrataFlash devices the Minor Version number in the Intel CFI Primary
Vendor-Specific Extended Query Table is 1, but those device do not have OTP
support nor do they have Page Mode Read support, which causes the
read_pri_intelext() fail or hang while trying to parse the Intel CFI Primary
Vendor-Specific Extended Query Table.
I must have some linear flash cards that are based on Intel 28F320J5 or
28F640J5 StrataFlash devices that encountered this issue. Without going through
my stack of cards I don't remember which cards those might be.
Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 7:51 PM Glen Slick wrote:
>
> I'll have to boot up again the Linux system I had set up for this and
> refresh my memory on some of the details. If I remember correctly, one
> of the things I had to do was to rebuild the pcmcia driver with the
> CONFIG_MTD_PCMCIA_ANONYMOUS option enabled. Some of the linear flash
> cards I have might not have a separate attribute memory plane and no
> valid CIS, so the card wouldn't get recognized without that option
> enabled. Pretty sure there was something else I had to change to get
> things to work with some of the cards I have. Just don't remember now.
>
Maybe no one else is interested in this detail, but just for future
reference reference, it looks like one of the changes I had to make to
get the MTD driver to work with some of my linear flash cards was to
this read_pri_intelext() routine in this source file:
drivers / mtd / chips / cfi_cmdset_0001.c
from:
if (extp->MinorVersion >= '0') {
extra_size = 0;
/* Protection Register info */
extra_size += (extp->NumProtectionFields - 1) *
sizeof(struct cfi_intelext_otpinfo);
}
if (extp->MinorVersion >= '1') {
/* Burst Read info */
extra_size += 2;
if (extp_size < sizeof(*extp) + extra_size)
goto need_more;
extra_size += extp->extra[extra_size - 1];
}
to:
extra_size = 0;
if ((extp->MinorVersion >= '0') && (extp->FeatureSupport & 64)) {
/* Protection Register info */
extra_size += (extp->NumProtectionFields - 1) *
sizeof(struct cfi_intelext_otpinfo);
}
if ((extp->MinorVersion >= '1') && (extp->FeatureSupport & 128)) {
/* Burst Read info */
extra_size += 2;
if (extp_size < sizeof(*extp) + extra_size)
goto need_more;
extra_size += extp->extra[extra_size - 1];
}
The problem with the original code is that without checking the
Optional Feature and Command Support bits, it assumes that if the
Intel CFI Primary Vendor-Specific Extended Query Table exists then the
flash device has OTP support, and if the Minor Version is >=1 then the
flash device has Page Mode Read support. According to the 290606-015
datasheet for Intel 28F320J5 and 28F640J5 StrataFlash devices the
Minor Version number in the Intel CFI Primary Vendor-Specific Extended
Query Table is 1, but those device do not have OTP support nor do they
have Page Mode Read support, which causes the read_pri_intelext() fail
or hang while trying to parse the Intel CFI Primary Vendor-Specific
Extended Query Table.
I must have some linear flash cards that are based on Intel 28F320J5
or 28F640J5 StrataFlash devices that encountered this issue. Without
going through my stack of cards I don't remember which cards those
might be.
RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
To make sure there are no loose connections, I opened up the box and checked the ribbon cables of which there are four. I could see that one seemed to be not quite seated completely. Checked to make sure there are no bent pins and reseated. Looked inside at the PCMCIA sockets to also check for anything obvious, no bent pins. When I insert a card the LED for the slot in use does momentarily flash and the card is seen to be in the socket.Now I get a pop up Window which notes "CARD OPERATION Un-Identified Error". Sigh Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of D. Resor via cctalk Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2022 12:26 AM To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' ; 'Glen Slick' Subject: RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 Upon trying to read, write or compare I am getting chksum error "Failed to Chksum after Erase! Error type = Un-identified Error" Digging further reveals in the Device Manager the card shows an error of MTD-0002. Upon searching online I found the answer to be: If the problem persists or you receive an MTD-0002 error or other unknown PC Card issue: The BIOS is unable to allocate the required memory resources for the card. A mis-mapping has occurred causing the PC Card to be mis-detected. A BIOS upgrade that addresses this issue will be required from the OEM/Computer manufacturer." So I am probably hosed. Don Resor -Original Message- From: D. Resor Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 9:32 PM To: 'D. Resor' ; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' ; 'Glen Slick' Subject: RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 Seems I forgot the PCMCIA card must be inserted before you start MCE. Now it sees the card in Slot #1 as AMD C/D Flash 4MB. Geez do I feel stooopid. Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of D. Resor via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 8:44 PM To: 'Glen Slick' ; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 Here is the link to Ricoh Memory Card Explorer's support page. There is a links to download the different versions. http://support.ricoh.com/mcericoh/home.html Here you will find towards the bottom of the page the user manual for Elan's Memory Card Explorer (MCE User Guide). https://www.synchrotech.com/products/software-pcmcia-pc_cards_01.html What happens is, MCE shows "Slot X, No PCMCIA card in slot" No matter which slot I choose to include/exclude. The software will not allow all 8 slots to be excluded. Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of Glen Slick via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 7:33 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 5:48 PM D. Resor wrote: > > Memory Card Explorer can Exclude/Include up to 1 through 8 PCI card slots. > This is to prevent the software from "killing" the operation of other plugged > in cards such as modem, network card, etc. > That doesn't make much sense that it would care about PCI slot numbers. I found a Memory Card Explorer for RICOH XP DEMO screenshot online which shows a dialog box for including or excluding PC Card Slot 1 through Slot 8. I assume that is referring to the physical PC Card slots into which you insert PC Cards, which is a completely separate numbering space than the PCI slot into which the adapter card is installed. Most likely you would only ever have one or two PC Card slots, controlled by a single adapter card. I suppose you could get as many as 8 PC Card slots if you had multiple adapters installed. > The mother board I tried it on and was able to actually get the program to > start under Windows XP with no memory hurdles is a Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H. > Unfortunately for some reason the PCI slot closest to the CPU socket is > marked PCI Slot #12. There weren't no way I could configure MCE to find the > Elan P423 Card Reader/Writer. Again, that doesn't make much sense to me that the adapter driver or the software would care about which PCI slot that the adapter is installed in. > I don't have to buy the Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software as there is a > full working 30 day trial version (which I have). Not a problem. Is the Demo version of Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software available to download somewhere on the net? I might be curious to try installing it some time to take a look, instead of just making guesses about how some of it works.
RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
Upon trying to read, write or compare I am getting chksum error "Failed to Chksum after Erase! Error type = Un-identified Error" Digging further reveals in the Device Manager the card shows an error of MTD-0002. Upon searching online I found the answer to be: If the problem persists or you receive an MTD-0002 error or other unknown PC Card issue: The BIOS is unable to allocate the required memory resources for the card. A mis-mapping has occurred causing the PC Card to be mis-detected. A BIOS upgrade that addresses this issue will be required from the OEM/Computer manufacturer." So I am probably hosed. Don Resor -Original Message- From: D. Resor Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 9:32 PM To: 'D. Resor' ; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' ; 'Glen Slick' Subject: RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 Seems I forgot the PCMCIA card must be inserted before you start MCE. Now it sees the card in Slot #1 as AMD C/D Flash 4MB. Geez do I feel stooopid. Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of D. Resor via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 8:44 PM To: 'Glen Slick' ; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 Here is the link to Ricoh Memory Card Explorer's support page. There is a links to download the different versions. http://support.ricoh.com/mcericoh/home.html Here you will find towards the bottom of the page the user manual for Elan's Memory Card Explorer (MCE User Guide). https://www.synchrotech.com/products/software-pcmcia-pc_cards_01.html What happens is, MCE shows "Slot X, No PCMCIA card in slot" No matter which slot I choose to include/exclude. The software will not allow all 8 slots to be excluded. Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of Glen Slick via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 7:33 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 5:48 PM D. Resor wrote: > > Memory Card Explorer can Exclude/Include up to 1 through 8 PCI card slots. > This is to prevent the software from "killing" the operation of other plugged > in cards such as modem, network card, etc. > That doesn't make much sense that it would care about PCI slot numbers. I found a Memory Card Explorer for RICOH XP DEMO screenshot online which shows a dialog box for including or excluding PC Card Slot 1 through Slot 8. I assume that is referring to the physical PC Card slots into which you insert PC Cards, which is a completely separate numbering space than the PCI slot into which the adapter card is installed. Most likely you would only ever have one or two PC Card slots, controlled by a single adapter card. I suppose you could get as many as 8 PC Card slots if you had multiple adapters installed. > The mother board I tried it on and was able to actually get the program to > start under Windows XP with no memory hurdles is a Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H. > Unfortunately for some reason the PCI slot closest to the CPU socket is > marked PCI Slot #12. There weren't no way I could configure MCE to find the > Elan P423 Card Reader/Writer. Again, that doesn't make much sense to me that the adapter driver or the software would care about which PCI slot that the adapter is installed in. > I don't have to buy the Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software as there is a > full working 30 day trial version (which I have). Not a problem. Is the Demo version of Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software available to download somewhere on the net? I might be curious to try installing it some time to take a look, instead of just making guesses about how some of it works.
RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
Seems I forgot the PCMCIA card must be inserted before you start MCE. Now it sees the card in Slot #1 as AMD C/D Flash 4MB. Geez do I feel stooopid. Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of D. Resor via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 8:44 PM To: 'Glen Slick' ; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 Here is the link to Ricoh Memory Card Explorer's support page. There is a links to download the different versions. http://support.ricoh.com/mcericoh/home.html Here you will find towards the bottom of the page the user manual for Elan's Memory Card Explorer (MCE User Guide). https://www.synchrotech.com/products/software-pcmcia-pc_cards_01.html What happens is, MCE shows "Slot X, No PCMCIA card in slot" No matter which slot I choose to include/exclude. The software will not allow all 8 slots to be excluded. Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of Glen Slick via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 7:33 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 5:48 PM D. Resor wrote: > > Memory Card Explorer can Exclude/Include up to 1 through 8 PCI card slots. > This is to prevent the software from "killing" the operation of other plugged > in cards such as modem, network card, etc. > That doesn't make much sense that it would care about PCI slot numbers. I found a Memory Card Explorer for RICOH XP DEMO screenshot online which shows a dialog box for including or excluding PC Card Slot 1 through Slot 8. I assume that is referring to the physical PC Card slots into which you insert PC Cards, which is a completely separate numbering space than the PCI slot into which the adapter card is installed. Most likely you would only ever have one or two PC Card slots, controlled by a single adapter card. I suppose you could get as many as 8 PC Card slots if you had multiple adapters installed. > The mother board I tried it on and was able to actually get the program to > start under Windows XP with no memory hurdles is a Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H. > Unfortunately for some reason the PCI slot closest to the CPU socket is > marked PCI Slot #12. There weren't no way I could configure MCE to find the > Elan P423 Card Reader/Writer. Again, that doesn't make much sense to me that the adapter driver or the software would care about which PCI slot that the adapter is installed in. > I don't have to buy the Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software as there is a > full working 30 day trial version (which I have). Not a problem. Is the Demo version of Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software available to download somewhere on the net? I might be curious to try installing it some time to take a look, instead of just making guesses about how some of it works.
RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
Here is the link to Ricoh Memory Card Explorer's support page. There is a links to download the different versions. http://support.ricoh.com/mcericoh/home.html Here you will find towards the bottom of the page the user manual for Elan's Memory Card Explorer (MCE User Guide). https://www.synchrotech.com/products/software-pcmcia-pc_cards_01.html What happens is, MCE shows "Slot X, No PCMCIA card in slot" No matter which slot I choose to include/exclude. The software will not allow all 8 slots to be excluded. Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of Glen Slick via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 7:33 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 5:48 PM D. Resor wrote: > > Memory Card Explorer can Exclude/Include up to 1 through 8 PCI card slots. > This is to prevent the software from "killing" the operation of other plugged > in cards such as modem, network card, etc. > That doesn't make much sense that it would care about PCI slot numbers. I found a Memory Card Explorer for RICOH XP DEMO screenshot online which shows a dialog box for including or excluding PC Card Slot 1 through Slot 8. I assume that is referring to the physical PC Card slots into which you insert PC Cards, which is a completely separate numbering space than the PCI slot into which the adapter card is installed. Most likely you would only ever have one or two PC Card slots, controlled by a single adapter card. I suppose you could get as many as 8 PC Card slots if you had multiple adapters installed. > The mother board I tried it on and was able to actually get the program to > start under Windows XP with no memory hurdles is a Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H. > Unfortunately for some reason the PCI slot closest to the CPU socket is > marked PCI Slot #12. There weren't no way I could configure MCE to find the > Elan P423 Card Reader/Writer. Again, that doesn't make much sense to me that the adapter driver or the software would care about which PCI slot that the adapter is installed in. > I don't have to buy the Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software as there is a > full working 30 day trial version (which I have). Not a problem. Is the Demo version of Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software available to download somewhere on the net? I might be curious to try installing it some time to take a look, instead of just making guesses about how some of it works.
Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 4:58 PM Jonathan Chapman wrote: > > > I ended up getting a PCI bus PC Card adapter based on the TI PCI1131 > > PCI-TO-CARDBUS CONTROLLER UNIT chip. I set that up in a Linux system > > and eventually managed to get some MTD (Memory Technology Devices) > > software installed so that I could read and write to a variety of > > linear flash cards. > > Careful doing this, always flip the write protect switch! Default behavior, > when the kernel/pcmcia-utils is trying to figure out what's in the slot is to > run down a list of identification steps. The final one is to scribble on the > card's memory space to see if it's writable SRAM! Blasted a card just by > inserting it a few years ago, fortunately one I already had backups of. > > If you don't wish to futz with expensive commercial software or rolling your > own, you can almost certainly use the Data I/O card utils with a generic ISA > to PCMCIA adapter. I have their actual branded hardware, and it's a Vadem > PCMCIA chip that follows whatever the early Intel standard was. Software is > available on the Data I/O groups.io file archive. The Data I/O software > includes basically "dd for Flash cards." > > Thanks, > Jonathan Not all of the linear flash cards I have on hand have write-protect switches. I would be somewhat surprised if a card identification probe could unintentionally write to a linear flash card. All of the linear flash cards that I have looked at require specific command sequences to be sent to the flash to enter programming mode, or to erase blocks. Writing random data to the flash address space wouldn't do anything, unless the random data just happened to match the programming command sequence. I'll have to boot up again the Linux system I had set up for this and refresh my memory on some of the details. If I remember correctly, one of the things I had to do was to rebuild the pcmcia driver with the CONFIG_MTD_PCMCIA_ANONYMOUS option enabled. Some of the linear flash cards I have might not have a separate attribute memory plane and no valid CIS, so the card wouldn't get recognized without that option enabled. Pretty sure there was something else I had to change to get things to work with some of the cards I have. Just don't remember now. I'll have to take a look at the Data I/O card utils sometime. Didn't know that was a thing. I also have a PC Card adapter for my BP Microsystems device programmers. Unfortunately the supported device list is rather limited.
Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 5:48 PM D. Resor wrote: > > Memory Card Explorer can Exclude/Include up to 1 through 8 PCI card slots. > This is to prevent the software from "killing" the operation of other plugged > in cards such as modem, network card, etc. > That doesn't make much sense that it would care about PCI slot numbers. I found a Memory Card Explorer for RICOH XP DEMO screenshot online which shows a dialog box for including or excluding PC Card Slot 1 through Slot 8. I assume that is referring to the physical PC Card slots into which you insert PC Cards, which is a completely separate numbering space than the PCI slot into which the adapter card is installed. Most likely you would only ever have one or two PC Card slots, controlled by a single adapter card. I suppose you could get as many as 8 PC Card slots if you had multiple adapters installed. > The mother board I tried it on and was able to actually get the program to > start under Windows XP with no memory hurdles is a Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H. > Unfortunately for some reason the PCI slot closest to the CPU socket is > marked PCI Slot #12. There weren't no way I could configure MCE to find the > Elan P423 Card Reader/Writer. Again, that doesn't make much sense to me that the adapter driver or the software would care about which PCI slot that the adapter is installed in. > I don't have to buy the Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software as there is a > full working 30 day trial version (which I have). Not a problem. Is the Demo version of Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software available to download somewhere on the net? I might be curious to try installing it some time to take a look, instead of just making guesses about how some of it works.
RE: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
The Ricoh version of Memory Card Explorer uses a proprietary file format. This also requires their approved PCMCIA card which is also in their own proprietary file format. The PCMCIA card which Ricoh uses P/N 803-6701 is a 4Mb Linear Flash Card. It has no write protect switch like other PCMCIA cards. When you insert it in the Elan P423 slot it is identified as "PCMCIA MTD-0002". Whereas other PCMCIA cards might be shown as SMART Modular Technologies. Memory Card Explorer can Exclude/Include up to 1 through 8 PCI card slots. This is to prevent the software from "killing" the operation of other plugged in cards such as modem, network card, etc. The mother board I tried it on and was able to actually get the program to start under Windows XP with no memory hurdles is a Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H. Unfortunately for some reason the PCI slot closest to the CPU socket is marked PCI Slot #12. There weren't no way I could configure MCE to find the Elan P423 Card Reader/Writer. I don't have to buy the Ricoh Memory Card Explorer software as there is a full working 30 day trial version (which I have). Not a problem. I am upgrading the Firmware of a Ricoh 5510L MFP, for which I also have those files. At that time Ricoh equipment didn’t have serial or USB ports, only a universal PCMCIA slot which is used for memory storage expansion, and updates, etc. Keeping this piece of equipment viable will postpone spending $3K plus shipping and sales tax to upgrade to a much newer (slightly used) MFP. I will say that Windows XP x32 boots practically in the "blink of an eye" on this Intel i5 in Legacy mode with all of the many XP updates too, wow. Don Resor -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of Jonathan Chapman via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 4:59 PM To: Glen Slick ; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423 > I ended up getting a PCI bus PC Card adapter based on the TI PCI1131 > PCI-TO-CARDBUS CONTROLLER UNIT chip. I set that up in a Linux system > and eventually managed to get some MTD (Memory Technology Devices) > software installed so that I could read and write to a variety of > linear flash cards. Careful doing this, always flip the write protect switch! Default behavior, when the kernel/pcmcia-utils is trying to figure out what's in the slot is to run down a list of identification steps. The final one is to scribble on the card's memory space to see if it's writable SRAM! Blasted a card just by inserting it a few years ago, fortunately one I already had backups of. If you don't wish to futz with expensive commercial software or rolling your own, you can almost certainly use the Data I/O card utils with a generic ISA to PCMCIA adapter. I have their actual branded hardware, and it's a Vadem PCMCIA chip that follows whatever the early Intel standard was. Software is available on the Data I/O groups.io file archive. The Data I/O software includes basically "dd for Flash cards." Thanks, Jonathan
Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
> I ended up getting a PCI bus PC Card adapter based on the TI PCI1131 > PCI-TO-CARDBUS CONTROLLER UNIT chip. I set that up in a Linux system > and eventually managed to get some MTD (Memory Technology Devices) > software installed so that I could read and write to a variety of > linear flash cards. Careful doing this, always flip the write protect switch! Default behavior, when the kernel/pcmcia-utils is trying to figure out what's in the slot is to run down a list of identification steps. The final one is to scribble on the card's memory space to see if it's writable SRAM! Blasted a card just by inserting it a few years ago, fortunately one I already had backups of. If you don't wish to futz with expensive commercial software or rolling your own, you can almost certainly use the Data I/O card utils with a generic ISA to PCMCIA adapter. I have their actual branded hardware, and it's a Vadem PCMCIA chip that follows whatever the early Intel standard was. Software is available on the Data I/O groups.io file archive. The Data I/O software includes basically "dd for Flash cards." Thanks, Jonathan
Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
On Tue, Jul 5, 2022 at 6:31 PM D. Resor via cctalk wrote: > > Does anyone have past experience with Memory Card Explorer and the Elan P423 > BUS to PC Car Reader-Writer 2 Slot Internal unit? > > https://www.synchrotech.com/products/card-rw_33_p423_elan_pcmcia_pc-card_rea > der_slot.html > > Memory Card Explorer has certain compatibility rules for the Motherboard it > is installed in. The software seems to be a bit picky. > > Which mainboard/motherboard is best suited for the task and using Windows XP > x32 SP3? If you are trying to use a PCI bus PC Card adapter on Windows XP, my guess is that most of those system restrictions don't really apply, as long as the system has a PCI slot. I have never used Memory Card Explorer, nor do I have a copy of it to try. Seems too expensive to justify buying a copy (if it is still available for purchase) for anything I would do with it. What do you actually need to accomplish with the PC Card adapter and software? In the last year or so I wanted to read and write to some linear flash cards, which were used to store firmware for some older devices (e.g. DECserver 900TM, NCD Explora X-Terminal). I ended up getting a PCI bus PC Card adapter based on the TI PCI1131 PCI-TO-CARDBUS CONTROLLER UNIT chip. I set that up in a Linux system and eventually managed to get some MTD (Memory Technology Devices) software installed so that I could read and write to a variety of linear flash cards. It was not trivial to do so. I think I had to rebuild the kernel at some point to get some of the drivers to work. I'd have to dig up notes I might have about it to remember the details.
Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423
Does anyone have past experience with Memory Card Explorer and the Elan P423 BUS to PC Car Reader-Writer 2 Slot Internal unit? https://www.synchrotech.com/products/card-rw_33_p423_elan_pcmcia_pc-card_rea der_slot.html Memory Card Explorer has certain compatibility rules for the Motherboard it is installed in. The software seems to be a bit picky. Which mainboard/motherboard is best suited for the task and using Windows XP x32 SP3? For instance, from Ricoh's version of MCE: Computer Hardware Desktop or laptop computer with Intel 82365 compatible PCMCIA or CardBus controller At least 1 PC Card slot At least 1 CD-ROM drive Must meet the operating systems' system requirements. Card Services Operating system's built-in card services are supported. 3rd party card services are not supported. Applications A standard web browser for on-line Help. Adobe Acrobat Reader for User Guide. Memory Window A 16 kbyte memory window (d000 - d3ff at default) required Flash Memory Card A Ricoh supplied flash memory card is required. Before you start MCERICOH - XP, you may have to adjust your BIOS and OS configurations. BIOS Setup Check Make sure that: * Shadowing between d-d3fff is off. For ISA connected PCMCIA hardware: * Any ISA Plug-n-Play options allow a shared block from d-d3fff (or greater). * The ISA bus is set to run at 8MHz max (i.e. not enhanced mode). By default, MCE requires the exclusive use of a block of real mode memory at linear address dH to d3fffH. If MCERICOH - XP does not detect the flash memory card with the default memory block settings, this indicates that the default memory block is already in use. Try one of the following settings: . (D0) D000-D3FF (default) . (E0) E000-E3FF . (D4) D400-D7FF. (E4) E400-E7FF . (D8) D800-DBFF. (E8) E800-EBFF . (DC) DC00-DFFF. (EC) EC00-EFFF System config.sys (found in c:\ & applies only to Windows 98SE installations) -If the himem.sys & emm386 drivers appear in config.sys, add the exclusion block x=d000-d3ff as shown in the example below. If they do not appear, you do not need to do anything. device=c:\windows\himem.sys device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems x=d000-d3ff Windows system.ini (found in c:\windows & applies only to Windows 98SE installations) -The installer should have added the EMMExclude line to the [386Enh] section of system.ini. [386Enh] EMMExclude=d000-d3ff Once you have changed the setting, reboot the computer and start MCERICOH - XP using the /w command line option. Refer to section "7. Troubleshooting" for more details. Etc. etc. etc. It also requires that you exclude cards in other I/O slots but can only exclude up to 8 slots. I was looking at a intel d945gnt motherboard as it doesn't have ISA slots which I do not need, but as an added plus it will except a SATA HDD. If that not viable, I will probably need to find a working PIII motherboard instead. I've uploaded the full manual here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cqzuviwl9mnv9t9/MCERICOH_UserGuide_XP_V1.01.pdf?dl =0 Either I am not very good at this or, I lack the extreme patience needed to make it work! Thanks Don Resor
