 DrTCPYours trulyPremium,ExMod 1999-04
join:1999-11-09
Round Rock, TX | reply to ignoramus
Re: Linksys WPC11 v1 firmware I did not give WinUpdate.exe on purpose. First, WinUpdate is not public. But you can find it on many manufacturer's website if you seach google 
However, the fact that Prism test utility cannot open your card means WinUpdate will not be able either. I gave this utility to see if there was any access from Windows.
You will need Prism DOS based utility which is even harder to get. I used the DOS utility to resurrect a dead Prism 2 card after a bad flash.
The following is a link to old Hawking WE110P driver package includes DOS utilities (see romcode directory). This is the only place I found these utilities. I think it was left there by mistake (lucky for me)
»www.hawkingtech.com/download/we110.exe
Unfortunately there is no documentation. I figured out the use of these utilities for a dead card of my own but I cannot guarantee that it will work for you.
There are some .bat files that you can use for "model" only as they are basically crafted for hawking cards. Do not use them!
First make a bootable DOS floppy. Copy the romcode directory contents to the floppy and boot from the floppy.
Legacy.exe is needed to get PCMCIA card services installed. You must run this after booting. It will hopefully recognize your PCMCIA chipset and card. If not you cannot recover on that PC.
You also need to know if your card is a 3v or 5v card. I believe Linksys cards are 5v. There are really few 3v PCMCIA cards around. Proxim RangeLan-DS cards are 3v for example.
Flash.exe is the DOS flash utility. If you just run the program with -? option you can get some information on options.
flash.exe -?
The .hex files are firmware files. The ones in the directory they are for Prism 2 cards only. While you can find Primary and Secondary firmware for Prism 2.5 and Prism 3.0 cards by searching the internet, I have not seen any RAM resident Initial firmware for Prism 2.5/3.0. I am not sure if the initial firmware would work for Prism 2.5/3.0. I have not tried. (I might try one day because it is ram resident and should not harm). You said you had Linksys v1 card. So, it should be Prism 2 card (Linksys v2.5/3.0 are Prism 2.5/3.0 respectively)
The .pda files are manufacturer related card information (like MAC address etc). If you have a working card you can retrieve PDA information using the Windows Flash Utility.
I assumed my PDA information on the card was still OK and just uploaded the firmware and it worked for me. You might need a valid PDA from a working like card and override the MAC address with -m (or -MP or -MI options) to the correct one.
To resurrect the card you need to download ram resident initial firmware to the card. Since this step does not require any working firmware on the card it should work.  Initial firmware files are I*.hex. Since I remembered the primary firmware version of my dead card was P40003C0.HEX before the upgrade I used I40003C0.HEX as initial firmware to download. The command was:
flash -5v -i I40003C0.HEX
Again voltage is important. At this point the LED on card would become active again. First sign of life! If it does not work unplug the card and try again using the other initial firmware. In my experience most Prism 2 cards use P4*.HEX firmware so this will most likely work.
Next, you need to download Primary (P*.HEX) and Secondary (S*.HEX) firmware to the card flash using the initial firmware just downloaded. Again there are two types of Primary firmware on the floppy. If you used I4*.HEX you should use P4*.HEX. If you used I1*.HEX you should use P1*.HEX.
flash -5v -g -d P40003C0.HEX
flash -5v -g -d S10007C6.HEX
After this you can remove the card.
Use vendor supplied firmware upgrade utility to to bring secondary firmware up to date. Or search the internet for later secondary firmware.
You could use later secondary firmware with DOS based utility but I suggest you use either vendor firmware upgrade utility or proceed with Windows based utility for that because I know it does model checking with firmware and will not allow Prism 2.5/3.0 firmware on Prism 2 card or vice versa. You can find this by searching as well.
As final remark, I'll just write down the Prism 2 secondary firmware files that I found available on the Internet.
S10006C2.HEX - Very old. Do not use (Upgrade immediately)
S10007C6.HEX - Very old. Do not use (Upgrade immediately)
S10008C2.HEX - Very old. Do not use (Upgrade immediately)
S10008C3.HEX - Good. Most Prism 2 cards.
S1010304.HEX - Recommend for Windows XP. Not recommended for Linux HostAP use.
S1010409.HEX - Hard to find. (I believe it has functionality comparable to Prism 2.5/3.0 card firmware SF010409.HEX)
Good luck! |
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| Has anyone successfully done this? I think I might have the same problem (firmware updates are failing, card isn't working) -- can i run the flash.exe program from within XP, or do I have to boot to DOS (I can't find my floppy drive! can i make a bootable CD?) |
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DrTCPYours trulyPremium,ExMod 1999-04
join:1999-11-09
Round Rock, TX | reply to DrTCP
It looks like my post has been useful for some more people to recover the Prism cards that has gone bad during flash update. I've found the following site that refers to the information I've given regarding DOS mode flash utilities.
Here is the quote at »linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism
quote:
Raffaele Raf described DOS-based flashing experience in his "success story" series. (Thanks to Elias Tsigoyannis, you can read the file in pdf format)
Here you can also find the original, my hand-edited raw text version).
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