How To Set Up an EXP Modem

To make an EXP modem/flash card work concurrently with other flash cards follow these simple rules:

Place any drivers that need to be loaded during start up on your C: drive and NOT on a removable A: drive. There has to be enough space to do so because you can't put ALL drivers on ALL cards in the same directory.

Load the EXP card driver LXMDRV.SYS on start up even if there is no card or another flash card in the slot. This prepares your system to accept the EXP card when needed.

Avoid any reference to the A: drive in your startup files CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Remove the lines SUBST E: A:\ or PATH=A: or DEVICE=A:\LXMDRV.SYS or similar commands from both files. That will avoid the error message "drive does not exist" or similar annoying messages during start up and makes your system "ready for all".

Get a copy of DOS-5 SUBST command (if you don't have it yet) to close the "gap" in the drive letter chain.

In AUTOEXEC.BAT add the line SUBST E: D:\.

LXMDRV.SYS, by default, assigns drive F: (or G: in case of a 32 or 64MB palmtop) to the flash memory part of the card and leaves the drive letter E: unassigned.

Closing the gap avoids the error message "drive not ready" because any request to E: drive is redirected to the D: drive, a drive which does exist as long as your palmtop is alive. (The usually recommended SUBST E: A:\ will break if no card is in the slot!)

If all drivers and TSRs are loaded from C: drive you have to reboot your system once. From now on you can swap your cards without rebooting. But don't forget to turn off your HP before swapping cards, at least while inserting a new card!

This solution to the problem with the EXP flash/modem card is really a group effort. Avi Meshar, Andreas Garzotto, Alexander Gutfeldt, Steffen Demuth, Daniel Legendre, Tom Rundel, David H. Fisher and a lot of others from HPHAND forum did most of the work. My part has been to put some order to the solution so that it could be understood<g>.

Gottfried Burckhardt