Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423

[D. Resor]

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 <organlists1 at sonic.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 9:32 PM
To: 'D. Resor' <organlists1 at sonic.net>; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; 'Glen Slick' <glen.slick at gmail.com>
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 <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of D. Resor via cctalk
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 8:44 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

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 <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of Glen Slick via cctalk
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 7:33 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423

On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 5:48 PM D. Resor <organlists1 at sonic.net> 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.