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Neoware Capio Firmware 

BIOS

The Neoware Capio has a standard PC Award BIOS - hit the DEL key repeatedly on power-up in order get into the BIOS setup screens. It will boot from flash, IDE drive or CDROM. There is no USB boot support. Specifically the 'Boot Sequence' can be set to:

  • C Only
  • LS120,C
  • A,C,SCSI
  • C,A,SCSI
  • C,CDROM,A
  • CDROM,C,A
  • D,A,SCSI
  • E,A,SCSI
  • F,A,SCSI
  • SCSI,A,C
  • SCSI,C,A

Firmware

The Capio runs Windows CE 4.0

WinCE display reset

The Capio supports a number of video resolutions from 640x480 through to 1280x1024. A lot of monitors don't support the 1280x1024 setting and, when you boot the standard WinCE system, all you end up with is a blinking "out-of-range" message or similar on your monitor. This is one of those catch-22 situations as, without a working display, you can't use the control panel to select an alternative resolution!

I'm not aware of any handy key you can hit on power-up to get WinCE to switch to a more monitor friendly display. However you can just type blindly with a degree of success.....

Originally, when I had this problem, I put a working example side-by-side with the knackered one and duplicated the sequence of key presses needed to get to the control panel and change the display properties. However, if you're happy with a 'factory reset', there is an easier way.

The following works for me on a Capio without any network connection - if one is present (or your terminal is configured differently) timings may vary. If you're slow about doing things you may hear a loud 'ching' from the Capio at some point. This is the terminal complaining that it can't find a DHCP server. Just hit the Esc key at this point to get rid of the error message you can't see. Alternatively, having switched the unit on, you can wait a couple of minutes until you hear this. That way you'll know the unit is up and running!

  1. Power-up your Capio. You'll get the Neoware starting screen and then maybe the neoware splash screen.
  2. Wait until WinCE is loaded and running. With my test unit this takes about 75(?) seconds from hitting the power-on switch.
  3. Hit F2 which opens the 'Appliance Properties' screen.
  4. Press Alt+R to 'tick' the reset-to-factory-default box.
  5. Hit Enter to say yes to the are-you-sure box.
  6. Hit Enter to save the changes and reboot the terminal.

It is as simple as that!...or is it?

Having run through this cycle a few times I got a change in the behaviour of the terminal. After the 75 seconds I got a silent error message about "Waiting for DHCP server". Pressing the ESC key at this time brought up the chime and the other complaint about no DHCP server. If you don't press any key the 'chime' comes about 80 seconds later. In that case you need to press the ESC key twice to get rid of both error messages. So maybe try....

  1. Power up.
  2. Wait 80 seconds.
  3. Type the following sequence: ESC F2 ALT+R ENTER ENTER.
...and see if that works!

Note: If you ever hear the 'chime' sound immediately press ESC to dismiss that error message.

The more adventurous can try the following which adjusts the display property but doesn't do a full factory reset:

  1. Power up and wait at least 80 seconds.
  2. Hit ESC in case there is a silent error message there.
  3. Hit F2 to get into the Appliance Properties screen.
  4. Hit the TAB key three times to get the 'General' tab selected.
  5. Hit the Cursor Right key to move to the 'Display' tab.
  6. Hit the ALT+D key to move to the 'Details' field.
  7. Hit the Cursor Up key a number of times to select a different resolution.
    The bottom of the list goes:
    • 1024 x 768 @ 75Hz
    • 1024 x 768 @ 85Hz
    • 1152 x 864 @ 75Hz
    • 1280 x 1024 @ 60Hz
    • 1280 x 1024 @ 75Hz
    so 3 or 4 presses will probably get you out of the danger zone. 15 presses (or the Home key) will get you to the top of the list (Default Resolution) where you can then do a single Cursor Down to switch to a safe 640 x 480 @ 60Hz.
  8. Press ALT+E followed by Enter to test the display setting. Hopefully your monitor will briefly show you a blue screen with a black box in the middle showing the selected resolution.
  9. Wait a few seconds after the display switches back and then press the Enter key to remove the confirmation box. If it wasn't fine you can go back to step 7 and try another setting.
  10. Press the TAB key six times to move to the 'ok' box.
  11. Hit Enter.
  12. Wait a few seconds whilst the new settings are saved and then hit Enter again to reboot the terminal.

 


Any comments? email me.    Last update October 2012