Sharp PC-3000

[wintermute]

Great work man! Can't wait!

[Kyodai]

OK, i tried it out on my XP laptop and the good news is that the transcend driver is much better than i expected. I was able to directly access the SRAM card in the windows file explorer and read/write to it without any other tools.

So at least in my case i didn't need the cardware driver at all...

I have made an image with WinImage 8.1 of my 2MB card.

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1479409597.zip


When you install the transcend driver make sure to read the readme file. You will have to delete (or rename) the 2 memcard.xxx files and copy the transcend memcard.inf to c:\windows\inf... Then just reboot and insert the SRAM card. In my case the card worked immediately, so just forget about the other steps in the readme.

I once had a bluescreen upon opening winimage, but i think it was because i had a file open from the SRAM card when winimage also wanna read it, so if you get a bluescreen just reboot and only use winimage (Don't open explorer or so).

[wintermute]

Fantastic work dude, this works!!! BUT! I am not out of the woods yet...

So, I downloaded http://www.tankraider.com/DOSPALMTOP/SUNDRVi.ZIP and put it on my SRAM card to which I installed the image you made using my Thinkpad T42 running Win XP. Inserted into Sharp and -- yeah! --- for the 1st time was able to see the files!

YEEEEESSSSS!!!

Ran the SINSTALL.BAT and followed the instructions. Rebooted Sharp. Verified CONFIG.SYS and it contains the driver and it is also now advertised during the boot. Then inserted an original SanDisk 32MB Compact Flash card via PCMCIA adapter into the left slot (drive B).

dir b: ... General Failure
format b: ... Format not supported on drive

Fair enough. God knows what is on the card and I am not supposed to use the Sharp's format. There is a SFORMAT.EXE next to the driver files...

sformat b: ... Genral failure accessing card

Not good... But maybe 1st time some low level formatting is needed. I see SDISK.EXE...

sdisk b: [ENTER]
All data wil be lost, Proceed with SDISK?
[ sounds good... Y ]
SDISKing...

Drive no ready

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Then I repeated the same process with my other PCMCIA slot just in case (drive a:) -- the same.

So basically I can transfer files now but the 30 day period is looming and need to find a way to use the CF card. Maybe I need a smaller one? Can you please try something like this in your Sharp and let me know? I am really grateful to what you are doing.

[ EDIT: tried to use non-Sundisk 128MB card which I use with my Amiga 600 and Sharp says "only use sformat with Sundisk cards" so it clearly works and recognizes the manufacturer. Maybe a smaller card is needed? ]

[ EDIT 2: actually, this software seems to be only €60 for the XP version which is reasonable if that's gonna be the only option ]

[Kyodai]

OK, at least we are now a bit further.

So from what you write i assume you needed the cardware trial version?


At least you now have a working SRAM card.


Generally speaking - only CF cards up to 32MB work. Maybe some larger cards work if you create a primary partition of 32MB or less, but i only had "small cards" (16, 32MB) work in the sharp.

Here is a guy who tried loads of cards and made a list:

https://kogs-www.informatik.uni-hamburg ... 00.html#cf

At first check if your card is mentioned on the list.

You can also check the card with FDISK to see if it has some weird partitioning or so. The card works fine in your Windows computer? DId you format it in WIndows (Pick FAT16 if possible).

[Kyodai]

OK so here are instructions about how to use FDISK with Flash/CF cards:

Partitioning a SanDisk FlashDisk or CompactFlash.

Click on My Computer
Click on Control Panel
Click on System
Click on Device Manager
Click on View Devices by Type
Double Click Disk Drives
Double Click on GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE 80
Choose the following settings:
* Removable
* Int 13**
**IF Int13 is already checked, un-check the box, then re-check the
box.
Choose OK
Close Device Manager by choosing OK.
The system will prompt you to restart. Choose YES.
Reboot your system by shutting down (Click on Start)

After rebooting, go to DOS.
Click on Start
Point to Programs
Point to MS-DOS Prompt

Partitioning your SanDisk Card:
At the DOS prompt (C:\>), type FDISK <ENTER>
Type 5 for Change Current Fixed Disk Drive <ENTER>
"Enter Fixed Disk Drive Number (1-2)"
Type 2 <ENTER>
Type 4 for Display Partition Information

WARNING: MAKE SURE THAT THE "FIXED DISK" YOU HAVE CHOSEN IS THE
CORRECT ONE (I.E., MAKE SURE THAT THE CAPACITY AGREES WITH THE CAPACITY OF
YOUR PCMCIA CARD). IF YOU ACCIDENTLY CHOOSE YOUR MAIN (C:) HARD DRIVE AS
THE "FIXED DISK" YOU WANT TO PARTITION, YOU WILL LOSE ALL OF THE DATA ON
THAT DRIVE!

Now partition your SanDisk Card as you would an ordinary IDE hard
drive.

Formatting your SanDisk Card:
At the C:\> prompt in DOS, type FORMAT D: <ENTER>
Note: The above command assumes that your SanDisk Card is
seen as drive D:. If your situation is different,
substitute the appropriate drive letter.

Now go back and make your SanDisk Card removable:
Click on My Computer
Click on Control Panel
Click on System
Click on Device Manager
Click on View Devices by Connections
Double Click on PCIC or Compatible PCMCIA Controller
Double Click on SanDisk ATA FlashDisk
Double Click on GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE 80
Choose the following settings:
* Removable
* Int 13
Choose OK
Reboot your system by shutting down (Click on Start)

[wintermute]

So from what you write i assume you needed the cardware trial version?

Yes. Otherwise I see a "cannot start hardware, error 37" (or something like that). I have two XP profiles now: the cardware one and the plain one and the SRAM card works in the cardware one.

Now, I am not able to see what Sundisk card I have, I only see " SDCFB-32" but not the numbers after that (i.e. dunno if it is SDCFB-32-455 for example).

I tried formatting like you explained and get the following behavior:

- sharp is now not complaining about the card during the boot
- I am able to switch to it with b: (!!!)
- label i gave it after dos format is not visible
- sdisk b: says "drive not ready"
- sformat b: says "general failure accessing card"
- copy xxx.xxx b: says "file creation error, 0 files copied)

This all was with an empty formatted card. I tried putting one file on it on Win and that makes Sharp stop recognizing it...

Pulling my hair again...

[Kyodai]

OK, unfortunately not all cards work for the Sharp. Even for the HP 200LX which is less picky not all cards work.

If you have a bigger CF card you will need to make a 32MB partition and format it with FAT16 (FAT32 will NOT work). At least SOME old 64, 128 and 256 cards work that way. However - you can only access the first partition (32MB or smaller) from the Sharp, all others will be ignored.

If i have time then maybe i can try out some and make a list which cards work fine.

[Kyodai]

OK, tested some cards - in brackets is what these cards were reported as in Windows.

Kodak 16MB R0207MT (Kodak SD) OK
Canon 32MB FC-32M (Hitachi XXM2.3.0) Did not work
Canon 32MB FC-32MH (SanDisk SDCFB-32) OK after SFORMAT
Hitachi 30MB HB286030C2 (Hitachi CV5.1.1) Did not work

I need to do some more testing. Unfortunately the sdisk/sformat tools don't work with non-sandisk cards. I think maybe some problems are related to partition/format.

[Kyodai]

On a side-note - did you try a "format" (Not to be confused with "sformat") in the Sharp?

[Kyodai]

OK, i had the glorious idea to make an image with winimage of the working Canon card and write it to the non-working one and it didn't work.

I still upload the image here because i think your card is technically pretty much identical to the Canon one (SanDisk SDCFB-32), so maybe it works?

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1479620764.zip