D-Link MP3 player

F.Y.I for only $50.00 (!) at Best Buy
Huck

My DMP-100 worked fine out of the box. It downloaded files just fine.
I haven't used it in a few days, but when I added a SmartMedia card
today, I went to move some files around, and it couldn't connect.

I tried the solution posted here to no avail...

-jde

Sent via Deja.com #
Before you buy.

Thanks for the very informative post. I guess I'll stop bugging the
D-Link people and just wait for the next software update (hopefully
there would be one soon). MP3 is not really their expertise, and they
do not make the DMP-100 hardware or software.

The (low-budget, barebone) software seems to have problems with laptop
ECP ports. Since all my ECP Zip/SyQuest drives and even old no-name
handheld and flatbed scanners work flawlessly with laptops, I suspect
lack of testing on their part.

BTW, OfficeMax did not mention in their flyer that D-Link has a $30
rebate for DMP-100 bought between July and September
(#).

...

I also have the DMP-100 (FYI, Office Max has it for $129 this week -
and you can have Circuit City match it (110%)). Also, this model is
actually made by Pine Labs - but they don't have any newer/different
software/FAQs on their website.

I have tried it on three computers. A Compaq Presario, a Trigem (now
eMachines) and a Toshiba Satellite 4030 laptop. The desktops were fine
and the laptop (also Toshiba) has the same problem as you do on your
Toshiba(unit says connected with host - but programs says can't
communicate-haven't seen the 1 in 30 thing though).
The D-Link people told me that they have seen some compatibility
problems where some ECP ports aren't 100% ECP compatible. They haven't
mentioned Toshiba by name. I haven't contacted Toshiba yet. On the
laptop, I've tried disabling the Infrared port (which has a vertual LPT
port) and disabling all the software in the taskmanager to no avail. So
far, I still can't get it to work there... IT installed so quickly on
the other machines, it was great (Especially if you want to use it to
transport files)!

FYI, the manual says that the device can't play mp3 files slower than
24Kbps. I've played files which are 8kbps with no audio problems (voice
files converted from RA files using WINAMP plug-ins where I wanted low
memory usage for low fidelity files). The display doesn't show the
elapsed time (shows \:12:15 instead) and doesn't REW/FF, unless I use a
hex-editor and tweak the second byte of the file to be fb (to make it
MPEG 3 Ver 1) (the first mp3 header - if all headers are changed, then
the file speeds right through). Then FF/REW work and the elapsed time
moves - but at too slow of a pace (since mpeg 1 and 2 re-use the same
bits to signify different speeds/sampling rates). It seems that, at
least for the display, it only support MPEG 3 version 1 and not 2 (or
unofficial 2.5) which support lower bps rates. This unit doesn't have
flash updatable firmware. (But for $27 + tax on $127, I can't complain!)

the

Sent via Deja.com #
Before you buy.

The same thing happened to me ... I emailed D-Link tech support and got
the following reply:

start reply
D-Link Reference ID: TSE00811-065200
(This is NOT an RMA number. It is for e-mail response tracking
purposes only.)

This is in response to your email. First uninstall the D-Link
manager
software then boot into Safe Mode in Windows and check in Device
Manager under the Com and LPT category. Check to see if the ECP
for
LPT port is listed more than once there. If the ECP for LPT port,
remove all listings of LPT and ECP for LPT. Then reboot back into
normal Windows, and Windows will reinstall the ECP for ECP for LPT
port. Then reinstall the D-Link Manager software.

... snip ...

To: < Subject: HELP: DMP-100 cannot connect to laptops
Assigned: Quoc H.

I recently purchased a D-Link DMP-100 MP3 player. However, when I
try to use it with my 2 laptops, the D-Link MP3 Manager software replies
with "Can't communicate with Player." message.

Laptop #1: Toshiba Tecra 8000 PII/300: when trying to connect (by
pressing the MEMORY or DOWNLOAD button), the DMP-100 LCD displays
"CONNECTED" but after a pause MP3 Manager pops up the "Can't Communicate
with Player" message. (Without the DMP-100 connected, there would be no
pause before the error message, so I guess MP3 Manager was trying to
communicate with the DMP-100 but failed in the middle). About one in 30
tries, pressing MEMORY did succeed in reading the "Memory Total:
32669KB" and occasionally I could start a download but it would fail
within 5 seconds (and only a short part of the song would end up in the
DMP-100).

Laptop #2 Compaq Armada 1700 PII/300: when trying to connect, the
DMP-100 LCD does not change (it still shows "NO SONGS") and as with the
Toshiba, pops up an error message after a pause.

The parallel LPT1 ports on both laptops are set up to ECP mode with
standard IRQ=7/DMA=3/IO=378,778, and Device Manager indicates so. I do
not run memory-resident Zip/scanner port-probing programs that might
interfere with the DMP-100. In fact, I killed all programs using
Ctrl-Alt-Del except Explorer and SysTray, and MP3 Manager still gives
errors. I've been using ECP parallel webcams, ECP Zip drives, Direct
Cable Connect, ECP scanners with these 2 recent-model ('99) laptops
_without_ any problem. I am suspecting parallel port timing/signal
problems? Perhaps the MP3 Manager programmers tested the software on a
couple of PCs (probably identical DELL's :-) and thought it would work
with all parallel ports on earth?

UPDATE: When I tried it on an old '97 desktop Pentium 233MMX clone,
everything works perfectly and MP3 Manager can connect to the DMP-100
without any pause. Downloads/Uploads work flawlessly (not a single
connect error was encountered). The parallel port settings on this PC
is identical to the laptops, and all are running Windows 98 (original
version, not SE or ME). The desktop has a small hard disk and an old
CD-ROM drive that doesn't support audio ripping so I would not want to
use the DMP-100 with it.
end reply

I'll try the remedy once I get the DMP-100 from my sister (it's not
mines).

Matt.