Software CD for MobilePro 400?

Factual Questions
1

I just acquired a pair of NEC MobilePro 400 palm top computers – the peak of 1996 technology for the on the go. :wink: Out of curiosity I looked them up, and just the computers themselves sold new for $650 apiece back then. I paid about $15 for the pair, plus two docking stations, data cables, a/c adapters, and one padded case, and shipping from side of the US to the other. Despite their age, they are in physically great condition, and seem to run perfectly.

The WinCE OS and PocketWord (and some other software I don’t care about) are built in but what I’m missing is the cd that used to come with them that had the desktop program (programs?) to handle synching your files back to your pc.

I’ve tried googling, and searching about on the NEC sites, with no luck. Does anyone else have an idea where to look for one of those CDs or some archive where I might be able to dl the files?

If I can’t figure out how to get what I write back off these cute little machines…well, at least they were cheap.

2

Drivers & setup inst

Services applet

3

Here’s the latest (free downloadable) version of H/PC explorer from Microsoft

4

Thanks, Astro!

That last one, especially, looks like exactly what I need for getting word files back and forth. :slight_smile: I’m DLing it now, but I’m very hopeful.
Now, I just have to decide how to deal with the computer having just a single serial port and two devices that want it hurdle… Add a serial port? Get some a/b switch? Is there such a thing as serial to usb connector? Hmmmm.
It’s always something, ain’t it?

5

Okay, so it’s not exactly hunky dory.

I dled and ran WCES21.exe. Part way through installation, it wants to remove and reinstall RAS. I told it to go ahead. A little time later it says it has failed and I must remove it manually, then rerun the installation so it can install the RAS it wants.

After much poking about, I find under control panel/performance & maintenance/administrative tools/services/

there are two applicable looking names:

Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
and
Remote Access Connection Manager

Clicking on the former gets a blink as if its done something, but I don’t know what. Nothing obvious happens.

Right clicking on the later offers no ‘remove’ but it has ‘stop’ – clicking that gets you a ‘failed’, something about 'returns no error, maybe be an internal windows error or an internal services error. Contact your system administrator.

Uh huh. Didn’t find one o’them when I unpacked this computer, unfortunately.

Going back to installing the Winces21 program, you have the option of continuing without doing the RAS thing. When I do this, and after a bunch of installation stuff, in the end I have a new folder called “Mobile Devices” and clicking on that gets me a window about Waiting for device to connect, and an overlaid window telling me to select the communications port and then connect the device to that port.

Well, I have only a single serial port, which is com1. (I am sure of this, because I use it successfully to synch my PDA, and that software is set to use com1.) However the mobile devices is set to com3 (where the internal modem is) AND the drop down box offers no other choices. It’s as if it is blind to the existence of com1.

And that’s where I’m stuck. :frowning:

6

Make sure your com one port in enabled in the MB BIOS and also check it in the Control Panel system hardware listing to make sure it does not have an exclamation point next to it.

FWIW you might be better off setting the onboard MB COM port as “COM 2” via the BIOS, as COM 1 and COM 3 typically share an IRQ (4) and this may be (somehow) confusing it.