Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423

[D. Resor]

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 <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of Jonathan Chapman via cctalk
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 4:59 PM
To: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com>; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
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