Allfine Netbook WinCE 5.0

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if there is a solution to the problem I currently face, however I am extremely happy to have stumbled upon this great forum, where hopefully somebody maybe able to help with the issue I am having.

I have an Allfine Netbook which runs WinCE 5.0, 2GB SSD, 128MB System RAM, Arm 920 32 Bit Processor, SD Card Socket, 1 USB U-Disk, 2 USB Peripherals, 800x480 VGS WVGA Display.

Having worked around computers, laptops and various other devices through the years I figured this would be just as easy to work with, in terms of formatting and such.

I have formatted and now when starting up I am currently faced with the dreaded "System Initializing, Please Waiting" screen which I have read lots about via Google but found no actual solution.

I do not own the netbook as it is a friends, and I would have liked to have made it faster as best as I could, tweaking the settings, adding firefox instead of IE etc

I had tried to press F1 however it requires a password which I believe is unknown, is there anything I can do to bypass this?

If I cannot bypass this, would I be able to use a portable HDD to install a fresh WindowsCE or alternate operating system at best?

Currently I am in fear of having bricked this machine as I do not own it and hadn't realized the extremely limited capability of these machines.

I hope somebody can help as I am not sure where to start on said machine, although if it were a PC or Laptop I would be able to cope a whole lot easier.

Edit:

While doing a whole lot more searching and reading I have found the default password is ztk which is correct.

I am now faced with 6 options, of which I am not sure what option to select as I read that any one of these options could cause a problem.


System Upgrade:
1. Format Nand disk
2. Format XIP disk
3. Format Flash2 disk
4. Update XIP
5.Update Eboot
6.Reboot
ESC.Exit

Waitting for press key



If anyone could help with further information that would be great.

What was the original ROM version?

No need to worry it is not possible to brick these devices as long as you have a ROM which fits, the bootloader is embedded in CPU and is not overwritable. Sadly the only OS is CE which works for anyka CPU.
Also the options under password are of no use. How did you manage to format it without knowing password?

Oto wrote:What was the original ROM version?

No need to worry it is not possible to brick these devices as long as you have a ROM which fits, the bootloader is embedded in CPU and is not overwritable. Sadly the only OS is CE which works for anyka CPU.
Also the options under password are of no use. How did you manage to format it without knowing password?

Oto! Thank you for replying!

I seriously have no idea what to do with this machine at the moment and I'm extremely grateful you took the time to reply.

Honestly I don't know which ROM version it had before I formatted and currently don't know how I would find that out, even after reading what little information I could find on the netbook.

The exact steps I took (before realizing it wasn't as simple as a regular laptop) were to format the drive(s) I could see, so I clicked format, thinking it would restart and ask for an operating system. Of course I was totally wrong.

To start with it was passed on to me by a friend, who was asking for my help to remove the password as he was not able to access the internet due to children changing the password and forgetting it.

At current, the only options I have are the options when it boots after password ZTK and since I am led to believe there is no way to boot via USB I am left wondering how it would be possible to restore WindowsCE.

I'm hopefully you could reply and guide me further as you're my only hope, I had though that with all the options tested and tried from password screen (the standard 6 options), that it was bricked, but I hope you're right and maybe at least I can restore Windows CE for my friend.

And whilst I didn't know the password originally, it was the password for internet explorer, and I have since found out that the reboot password was ZTK, however this does not help now I am stuck at the initializing screen.

Of course you are stuck on initializing screen because flash is formatted and no OS can be booted.
You can see original version at boot time, it shows som information like RAM size and so on

Try one of these ROMs(firmwares) but I think none of these will fit Allfine:
1.9ROM - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zvzTvaK4kgVW5vVjZISjlRZWs/edit?usp=sharing[url][/url]
1.87ROM - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zvzTvaK4kgX3VyVnVZQm02SE0/edit?usp=sharing[url][/url]
1.86ROM - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zvzTvaK4kgX3VyVnVZQm02SE0/edit?usp=sharing

To reflash you need straight USB-USB cable. How to reflash you can read in other topics.

Oto wrote:Of course you are stuck on initializing screen because flash is formatted and no OS can be booted.
You can see original version at boot time, it shows som information like RAM size and so on

Try one of these ROMs(firmwares) but I think none of these will fit Allfine:
1.9ROM - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zvzTvaK4kgVW5vVjZISjlRZWs/edit?usp=sharing[url][/url]
1.87ROM - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zvzTvaK4kgX3VyVnVZQm02SE0/edit?usp=sharing[url][/url]
1.86ROM - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zvzTvaK4kgX3VyVnVZQm02SE0/edit?usp=sharing

To reflash you need straight USB-USB cable. How to reflash you can read in other topics.

Thanks again for replying, Oto!

I will have to buy an A-A USB cable, could you please point me to the best thread I could read as I have just used the search with very limited results for "how to flash", I'm willing to learn and read, a little push in the right direction is all I should need now and I will persist with reading some more.

Thank you for all of your help.

Here you go:

cable - https://mininetbooks.forumotion.com/t94-which-cable-is-needed-for-flashing

Reflash instructions - http://194.150.201.35/cnmlifestyle/cnmbook/CnMNB7SEfirmware.htm

Tool for connecting jumper - https://mininetbooks.forumotion.com/t214-windows-initalizing-forever#1284

Oto wrote:Here you go:

cable - https://mininetbooks.forumotion.com/t94-which-cable-is-needed-for-flashing

Reflash instructions - http://194.150.201.35/cnmlifestyle/cnmbook/CnMNB7SEfirmware.htm

Tool for connecting jumper - https://mininetbooks.forumotion.com/t214-windows-initalizing-forever#1284

That's great. Thanks! - I couldn't have found them without your help.

Oto wrote:Here you go:

cable - https://mininetbooks.forumotion.com/t94-which-cable-is-needed-for-flashing

Reflash instructions - http://194.150.201.35/cnmlifestyle/cnmbook/CnMNB7SEfirmware.htm

Tool for connecting jumper - https://mininetbooks.forumotion.com/t214-windows-initalizing-forever#1284

Hey Oto, I have managed to bridge the connection needed and I have the Upgrade folder necessary to install, however when attempting to search computer and select the correct folder M3_USBDriver I am told "windows was unable to install your unknown device" - I've come to a standstill not knowing what I can do next.

Could you help further?

Thanks again, Oto.

Hmm, maybe driver is not compatible with Windows 7 64-bit? Also try to manually install driver from device manager. Open device manager, locate unknown device and then install driver and provide it manually.

Oto wrote:Hmm, maybe driver is not compatible with Windows 7 64-bit? Also try to manually install driver from device manager. Open device manager, locate unknown device and then install driver and provide it manually.

Hey Oto, I figured that too so have now installed a virtual machine of Windows Vista so I am able to use it this way, as a work around.

Everything was going well, until the last minute when initializing the firmware upgrade, the error message is now "failed to init USB" of which I have been reading about but I have not found a solution as such.

I notice comments on the USB cable being not good enough or maybe the bridging is not connected enough, but everything is in place and working, up to this point where it is saying failed to init USB.

It should work for WinCE 5.0.

Check that RAM is set to DDR and that ROM files are in correct places.