The HP iPAQ hx4700 WM5 Compact Flash patch is here – now, you can really use your Compact Flash memory cards in your WM5-upgrade

http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/P11903_CF_initialize[1].sa.CAB

As I’ve announced some days ago, I’ve managed to find the reason for Compact Flash cards failing in the WM5-updated HP iPAQ hx4700 Pocket PC’s after two suspensions. The folks at HP haven’t been lazy in the meantime and have also come up with a really working (I’ve thoroughly tested it) solution to the problem. It’s still not officially on the patch homepage of the hx4700 (the latest patch they have online is the HP iPAQ Foldable Keyboard Driver Update, dating back to 17th May), but is already available through their e-mail support page. (Thanks for the excellent folks at the hx4700 forum on Brighthand for pointing this out!) As I’m not sure the .CAB file with the new PCMCIA (CF) driver can be publicly distributed, I don’t make it public either. I’ve, however, sent a mail to the HP folks to enquire about when it will be made public. Hope I get an answer with some usable information really soon. I will let you know as soon as I receive any information. In the meantime (before the patch is made public), you’re strongly encouraged to use their e-mail support form here. You will only need to fill in the S/N of your hx4700 (it’s on the sticker under the battery – you can safely remove the battery to be able to check it) and some personal info in order the request to be sent. UPDATE (12:09 AM CET, the next day): I’ve also received an answer from HP in the meantime (in addition to the other answers readable in the Comments section below and the people in this MobilitySite thread). They also say they don’t know anything of any CF bugfix. That is, so far, noone from HP have known anything of it. This and the tool’s installer being quite unprofessional and not HP/hx4700-related (the developer/appname is, for example, “Customization customize_tool” – HP wouldn’t have left it in a state like that) makes me think it’s not a HP product at all but, say, a hacked DLL from another WM5? Pocket PC with a CF slot. This isn’t impossible - as with, for example, the Widcomm BT stack, which can be deployed on other devices, it’s possible these device drivers can also be deployed on other models. The guy (whose identity I will not disclose) that sent me the patch said he received it from HP. He may have been wrong though – I think this is the case. As it’s not a protected HP driver but, seemingly, a home-made one (most probably, a simple ROM extract from another Pocket PC model) and, therefore, isn’t under any copyright restriction, I’ve decided to make it public. You can download it from here. Just execute the CAB file on your WM5-upgraded hx4700 and make sure you install it into the main storage. After a reset, you will no longer have problems with your CF card. Please note that I’m in no way liable for any consequences of the driver. I’ve tested it and found it excellent; you may have problems with it, though (albeit highly improbably). Make sure you backup your PDA with, say, Sprite or Spb Backup before applying the patch! Please also let me know if you do know where it's from. I've scrutinized the files inside the CAB file but couldn't really find any device-specific information. (BTW, I’ve quickly tested the driver on my Dell Axim x51v without any success – it rendered the CF slot useless (the device stopped recognizing inserted memory cards). It’s, however, possible it’s a, say, x50v or a hx2xxx WM5 driver – I haven’t had the chance to test it on those devices.) UPDATE (6:23 AM CET, the next day): this MobilitySite thread is also worth checking out.