E-200 in my pocket

[nox]

I want start this Topic for E-200 users and anyone interested in this device.
Some of you may know me from pocketpcminds.com , this E-200 forum will be basically the same thing. I think having two places to share ideas and comments is a good thing. I will not however bring previous E-200 Corner posts from pocketpcminds.com , you can read them there.

I about me ...

I've been a Palm user for about 3 years, I owned a Palm Vx, Palm V, Palm m100 all of which sold at ebay. And now I am a E-200 User.

Here are some of my specs

E-200 Casio
MMC memory 2x 28mb sandisk 1x 64mb sandisk ( Works Great )
CF memory 2x 256mb viking 1x 32mb kodak ( Works Great )
TrendNet 10/100 NIC (TE-CF100) ( Can't get it to work )
DLINK 802.11b wireless (DCF-650w) ( Works Great )
Casio 56k modem (JK-711MC56) (Works Great )
Casio Serial Cable ( JK-580CA) ( Can't work without JK-744CV )
20 Pin/USB Host Converter ( JK-744CV) ( Waiting for Casio to deliver )
( JK-864PU ) ( As soon as its out i'll get this )
Garmin GPS II+ ( Can't work without JK-744CV )
Aurora Solar Power Charger ( It's raining in California so ... )
Casio stereo headphones ( JK-840HE ) (works great )
Nokia 8290 IrDa modem connection ( worked but was to slow)
Ibiz Portable keyboard ( Waiting for Jk-744CV )
Lots of USB devices ( waiting on JK-744CV )
Extra E-200 Battery ( great for trips )
Casio Screen Protectors ( I dont want any scratches )
Casio Belt Pouch ( Easy way to transfer my PDA , when im not wearing my mobility pants : ) )


I'm thinking of buying a cheap 20GB portable USB Hardrive to connect to JK-744CV 20 Pin/USB Host Converter , i hope it works

Anyways these are some of my toys I use with the device. I would welcome anyone to this forum.
:P

[Tari Akpodiete]

just how bad is the backlight burnout problem with the e200? does anyone have a list of the range of serial numbers of the e200s to avoid? as this is a known problem, i wasn't impressed that Casio support pretended that my problem was an isolated case.

you know, right from when i got started with Pocket PCs, i preferred Casios to iPaqs. sure iPaq are stylish, but i felt, and still feel, that the lack of a backup battery is a serious flaw, so i am now considering buying one of the new HPs with my hard-earned money, rather than another Casio, because of the backlight burnout problem.

i really would prefer to stick with Casio, as i really like the specs, but i have read on other boards, how some people are on their 2nd, 3rd and even 4th e200.

[nox]

BLOD BackLightOfDeath

Its happened to me and its isolated to the first batch of Casio's

more specifically batches with serial #'s 1AP11B
in which I got the information from marauderz ( link down below )

http://www.marauderzstuff.com/showframe.asp?pageurl=/articles/e200/e200-p1.htm

This is from a previous post ppcminds ...

I just called Casio Techno and they say my device is on the way.

Below this line OPINION read at own risk !!!

-------------------------------

I personally agree with NLS , Casio E-200 At the moment is superior to any other device. The features it has meets my needs. specially the external battery : ) . Anyhow I think of it this way, when the I-PAQ came out , that device was IT , nothing came close to it. Many people bought into it , they where happy la la la , then THE PROBLEMS , which we could go forever talking about, the point is people are still buying IPAQ. Why ? Because compaq fixed the problems they had , I am not sure how fast they identified the problems as legit (like dust ), and how fast they asked for them back , and how fast they sent them back to customers . Casio on the other hand have been great they are FAST to Identify the problem FAST to ask for it back and FAST to send it back ( man I just sent mine this wednsday ). So guess what Im sticking with E-200 , The Support they give on this product is amazing.

REMEBER ALL THE DEVICES HAVE PROBLEMS, NOT JUST E-200

[Tari Akpodiete]

BLOD - black light of death. i like that one. reminds me of the Iomega click of death a few years back.

i haven't heard about that many problems with Jornadas, but maybe i wasn't paying attention being 1. fixated on Casios (since i have more than one) and 2. having iPaq info in my face all the time. plus, none of the Jornada owners i have actually spoken to have complained about anything, while the iPaqers have often gone on and on about their dust and stylus problems.

as for Compaq fixing iPaq problems, i wouldn't put it quite that way. the dust problem still reigns supreme. however, i would allow, from what i have read online, that they seemed to have responded well by quickly replacing the units of those who have complained. personally, i think it would be better to make units without dust in the first place.

i think the iPaq is visually stylish, until you put one of the jackets on (unless it is one of the now apparently hard-to-find SilverSliders), and it has a lot of accessories for sure, but i would never have gone for more speed over a suckier screen (4096 vs 65 thousand), no backup battery, no removable battery, and the need to spend more money to use a CF card or a microdrive. i am glad that there are places you can send your iPaq out to which will open it up and clean up the dust for you and also put in a new battery, but why should one have to do that?

with the new generation of Pocket PCs, i am now a bit worried that Casios and Jornadas may develop dust problems. i haven't yet heard about a dust problem with Casios, but i have heard two or three Jornada owners make reference to some dust under the screen.

i have yet to see an NEC or a Toshiba Pocket PC and i don't know anyone who has one. of course, I haven't asked Chris from CEwindows.NET who seems to have at least one of everything.

[nox]

Im sure Jordanas have had its share of problems, I would not know Ive never owned one. However , knowing all the features The E-200 has , I would not seriously think of getting an HP or IPAQ. Toshiba and that new Fujitsu/Siemens would be an alternative for me . HP and IPAQ just doesnt cut it for me , show me a device that has it all without using does dam sleeves, remeber its a "POCKET" PC , not a laptop.

n0x

[nox]

Tari Akpodiete

I was just over the JORDANA and IPAQ forum .

Ipaq new devices are also getting BLOD

Jordana has a few other problems.

Basically which ever route you choose your gonna get some kind of problem.

nox
:wink:

[Brendan Min]

:lol: What is the 'backlight burnout problem with E-200'? what you guys' symptom?
My problem is my casio spends all its main battery while i sleep. It just won't come back before i put it on the cradle in my company... why is it happening? any clue?

My spec is...
Casio E-200 without any accessaries....

Thanks...

P.S. it's saying now my backup bat. is low. should i replace it first?

[cbolvin]

We just became a Casio distributor and our support contacts have been saying the failure rate is around 3% or less. I have a unit that's been out on demo with one of our salesman for almost two weeks and the backlight is ok so far. I have faith they'll get it resolved.

[Tari Akpodiete]

wow, you haven't had that unit too long so how could the backup battery be worn down already with normal use on a unit that is not defective? doesn't sound good, but if it wants you to replace it, definitely go ahead. it does sound like you've got something wrong going on though.

and here are the links i sent to a few people at Casio who said they weren't aware of the backlight problem:

http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/forum/showthread.php?s=5f5c84d8784f35c49cdc89bffe4024fa&threadid=8118

and

http://www2.pdabuzz.com/Forums/forumdisplay.php?s=21fab1c159d742d4fb49c2f5c68eb871&forumid=7

and

http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/forum/showthread.php?s=5f5c84d8784f35c49cdc89bffe4024fa&threadid=8118

and

http://discuss.pocketnow.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=16

and

http://forum.pocketpcminds.com/showthread.php?s=fa7962de0079ea1b97e7b04e96a22ddf&postid=43#post43

http://www.joethielen.com/casio_e200/

[marauderz]

Well I've got an E200, and it's fine, no dust... no BLOD... the 'black light doesn't come back on after activesync charge' happened to me once, but was solved using a quick reset.

Overall.. great device, don't regret getting it over the iPaqs at all! Now if only they made a USB Mass Storage Device driver....

Oh and I forgot to point out that when I mailed Casio about how worried I was about the problems.. (Casio Japan I guess, since no Casio presence in Malaysia) They offered to PAY for my shipping charges via UPS or FedEx to send it to their offices in Japan for an exchange, As my device is fine I just thanked them. But am very impressed

[Tari Akpodiete]

i do believe that the Casio e200 is currently the best PPC2002 device readily available on the market.

previously, one had to chose between speed and a decent screen. most people went for speed (ipaq). i went for the screen (casio).

now with the playing field equal, accesories and reliability may end up ruling the day.

unfortunately, the Casio BLOD is not happening to just a few isolated units. although one serial number was mentioned, i would like to know the RANGE of serial numbers to stay away from.

the response from Casio, to this problem, seems to vary from country to country.

[DrtyBlvd]

Well, I am very happy to NOT have to be involved with the dust problem as a casio user.

Just thought I'd mention it. :)

[dena222]

Well, they should know about it NOW. Gary Rado, President of Casio, was alerted to how this matter was being handled, and changes are supposedly being implemented. Apparently, a transistor by one manufacturer is responsible for the burnout, but Casio has not issued a recall.

I sincerely doubt that the failure rate is only 3%. I had two units go south, and one develop a different problem. The rep I am dealing with seems quite sincere about eliminating this problem, as well as the tarnish on Casio's rep due to the way this failure has been dealt with.

My rep with Casio claims that this is the first product in all his years with Casio to come off the line with a production flaw. My EM-500 certainly never gave me a moment's difficulty.

[devmorfo]

Hello guys,

I have been reading about the burned out backlights on all PPC forums, and those have included Compaq, casios, HP's and many more. I would like to give you the details of one case that happened here in Greece with a E200. The backlight was burned while the PPC was on its cradle, off, charging. The incided started when the owner ofthe PPC noticed a small power surge. The lights of the house blinked and the speackers of his PC clicked. Since this is usual in Greece, and many of us have lost equipement because of those, he rushed to his new PPC to check it out, and as soon as he turned it on, he noticed that the backlight was dead. A few seconds later a smell of burned silicone came from the unit. Now since this is not unusual in Greece, he thought nothing more of it, packet it up and shipped it back for replacement, knowing that this was an incident comming from the power surge. He also measured the PS of the unit and he found out that its output fluctuated with the input voltage, so he started complaining about the poor quality PS of the E200. Avtually thats how he got my attention. Maybe, we should have all those people that keep loosing E200's backlight check their wall power for surges, and maybe we should complain about PS quality to Casio. As for me I have an E200 well within the series that have the most burned backlights, charging behing a UPS and a surge protecter at work, and I've had NO problems whatsoever. Needless to say that this could also be the reason why others with Compaqs and HPs have lost the backlight of their units, arround the globe.

[nox]

I received a new E-200 this tuesday. I hope the whole BLOD is finally done with. : ) ...

Anyways one key factor with this E-200 is that it comes with
Pocket PC 2002 SP1 ( I know this because my wifi card worked right away), probably the 1.01 update aswell ( havent checked yet). Im installing ALL my software which takes for ever , ugggh.

I also bought the Casio screen protectors , and an extra battery and the BELTX100 Casio pouch thing.

The screen protectors are strange, they are not like the typical screen protectors , these things have like curved corners , and top and bottom they slip into the ppc ( this is scary I wonder if dust can go beyond that point ). The screen protector does not stick to the screen it floats.

The Battery , I Charged it for like 3-4 hours , and force drained it until it couldnt run , and recharged it again ... ( this is suppose to extend the battery life I read somewhere). So i should be ok With 2 batteries and a Soalr charger., BTW I got about 3 HOURS the first charged LOOPING mariah caries GLitter cd and light at 3/4's way ( im scared of turning all teh way up now hehe ).

The Pouch , i think its very nice its all Leather and has a velcro holder , it also goes on your belt easily and comes of easily . Best part it says CASIO on the bottom of it , Looks nice.

Im still waiting for the USB and SErial adapter thingie , I hope so much crap to test.

[nox]

Well im happy to say " GOT USB ". :evil:


I was able to connect a USB floppy and Succesfully load WindowsCE drivers. THE BABY WORKS !!!!!

Further test showed that I could power the floppy disk VIA BUS.
No External Power needed , all running from the E-200 Battery.

At work we use MAC's , and Apple Abandoned the Floppy completely so we bought VST floppies for the Kids to use. Anyways I thought to myself hey lets plug it in , and of course it didnt work , it asked for the driver. So i went to the VST website "Smartdisk.com", and they have drivers for ARM (they call it HP driver), SH4, and MIPS. Anyways I Downloaded the ARM CAB file copied it to the e-200, ran it , then i opened the install file located in " MY documents " after this I reset it and There it was on the " My Device " list " Storage Card ". Even thought 1.44mb aint much , it goes to show people out there are making drivers.
Im gonna Email this company and see if i can push for Wince Drivers for there USB Hard drive im sure they know how to do it

I just got to say F*CK YAH !!!!

:lick:

[Tari Akpodiete]

well, i have received a SECOND dead e200. i am writing a book on pocket pcs and this has put me even further behind. Casio USA loaned me one that worked for a few days but then went on the fritz - BLOD. Casio Canada insisted on having my credit card number before shipping me a second loaner. this one was broken right out of the box. i had a long discussion on the importance of making sure that they sent me a working unit. i sent URLs to them that apparently were ignored. i am a big casio fan, and own an e115 which i paid for, but i am really unimpressed with this, both from a technical perspective and from a customer service one. on paper, this is a great machine, but in reality, it seems to suck. why haven't they withdrawn all the ones in the known-to-be-problematic serial range? if they won't ship a working unit to a journalist, there is little chance/hope for a regular consumer.

March 06 - in the interests of accuracy: i can't remember if it was HP or Casio that asked for my credit card. maybe it was both of them. right now though, i've got both bad Casio units on my shelf. i've got to send them back as they are useless like this. the HP loaner has functioned flawlessly as did the iPaq (except for the design flaw of no backup battery, but that is another issue).

i spoke with someone in the know (because they have a partnership with Casio for a large number of devices) who informed me they'd had some serious conversations with Casio on this. Casio stated that to them that this was an old problem and that it had been addressed. tat may well be true, but the problem is that while new units may be fine, there are all these ones already on the market and it is hard to avoid getting one. i mean, really, Casio itself shipped me two, one from the States and one from the Canadian office. if their own people can't avoid them, what hope is there for the average enthusiast to do so?

[ojlittle]

I just sent in my 2nd E-200 & I'm waiting on my 3rd. Both have had the BLOD. I'm more satisfied with the Casio than I was with the new Compaq & HP (I've had both, sold both). However, the backlight problem has got to go. 3 strikes & you're out!

[phr0ze]

All I can say from owning both the Ipaq 3635, and the Casio E200. (I've also tested the HP 560 series for a few weeks). The Ipaq is a solid machine. The screen on the Ipaq is far superior to the Casio and the internal speaker is much clearer and louder. But I obviously have the Casio for something ;). The casio has features the Ipaq and HP doesn't. The Ipaq being older doesn't have the internal slots for memory and devices, nor does it have swappable battery and backup battery. The HP I think is the worst. Yes it has the batteries, and it has a nice design. But WTF were they thinking when they only put a CF type 1 on it? You can't fit any new CF type devices because they are mostly typeII. So its only good for memory. Now what... If you buy the sleeve for it you have to swap out the battery with a bigger one and it takes up your CF slot entirely. So if you use CF memory its useless.

OK now for the casio. I love the features. They are the best. But the screen is crap. And I'm not just talking BLOD. The brightness isn't that great, it has a cheap feel when you write on it, and you can see the horizontal lines and sometimes even the refresh. Also with the Casio they made the connector on the bottom so bloody large and the ac adapter is so bulky its not as portable as I'd like.

HP's AC adapter is a nice size, and Compaqs screen is awesome!. If casio had those 2 things it would be a killer machine. All in all casio is the winner. I just wanted to say that there is room for improvement. And I'm not talking about difficult adjustments. Heh. I like the sleek fliptop HP's have too:


Finally all those bitching about lack of backup battery on the Ipaq. All I can say is in the 6 months that I owned the Ipaq I never lost my data! But in the 2 weeks I owned my Casio I've already had to do a hard reset and lost EVERYTHING. So whats the point of the BU battery if the casio forces you to reset.