Re: [iPAQ] Help me pleas

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Goetz Bock wrote:
> - if the parrot bootloader is still there, use it to make the system
> work again, if not you're lost. send it to compaq
> - use the parrot to replay a CE backup (needes seccond working ipaq, CF
> or better sleeve and 17MB or bigger CF card (16mb IS too small)

It should also be possible to restore the WinCE image through serial cable
if the Parrot bootloader is still there. I don't see this possibility
mentioned all that often, so thought I'd remind of it, even if I suspect
less people have serial cradle than CF cards these days ;) Since the
serial link is listed as prerequisite for Familiar install (And this is
one reason why) this should be useful ehre, though.

The general Parrot bootloader instructions can be found for example at:
http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/iPAQ/Parrot/debug.htm

The problem is that the serial protocol used for loading new firmware into
the Parrot loader is apparently a non-standard one, since people have
reported x/y/z not working. Since these commands also except a special BIN
firmware-upgrade format, this isn't as huge a loss as it might sound like
in the first place - just use the Compaq firmware upgrade utility (for
Windows) to do the upgrade. Compaq used to have instructions for doing
this on their site, but after the merging it seems at least I can't access
the support documents anymore. I seem to recall the procedure was as
simple as booting to the parrot (With arrow-buttons in middle position)
and then starting up the upgrade utility with serial cable connected.

This should allow you to get from Parrot back to standard Pocket PC, from
where you can then use the recommend methods to upgrade to whichever OS
you're interested in.

 -Jukka Santala
Received on Thu Jun 06 11:44:51 2002