Memory Card Explorer for the Elan P423

[D. Resor]

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 <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of D. Resor via cctalk
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2022 12:26 AM
To: '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

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.