I recently purchased the Toshiba PDR M5 and cannot figure how to get the upgraded firmware version which I downloaded from the Toshiba website onto the Smart Media card in my camera. I am not sure which setting I use on the camera when connecting to the computer through the USB cable.

Can any other owner of this camera walk me through this process? Any help would be appreciated. I know this is a simple process, I seem to missing something here.

-- Richard Faber (rfaber@hotmail.com), August 13, 2000

Answers

You use the same setting on the mode dial that you use to transfer a file to the computer: the icon that looks like two arrowheads pointing in opposite directions connected by a cable or line.

I'd advise you to take a few pictures and get the USB connection to work so that you can first copy images off the smartmedia to the computer. Print the directions out and go from there. When I did this before I used a card reader or a pcmcia adapter so it was basically the same thing only not via the USB port.

Once you have your images on the PC, erase them from the smartmedia and then open Window's explorer by right clicking Window's [START] button and picking Explore. Find the directory you stored the update in and left click the file(PDR_M5.bin). Then pick EDIT and COPY. Then click on the Drive Icon or Letter that appears in Explorer for you camera and open it. Left Click the mouse in the box on the right side of the Explorer window then go up and click EDIT, then PASTE. That should copy the PDR_M5.bin file to your smartmedia via USB.

I suppose you could do the above with a click, drag, and drop operation and get the same results.

Then just carefully follow the instructions you printed out. Shut the camera off, and disconnect the USB cable. Be especially careful to remove the battery from the camera and use the adapter as indicated in the instructions. Also make sure you pull the plug as instructed during the update rather than switching the power off.

Just be careful and it will go fine. I've done it a couple times.

It's a cakewalk. Good Luck!

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@surferz.net), August 13, 2000.

Thanks for the quick response. It worked just fine. The missing part was the "paste". Thanks again.

-- Richard Faber (rfaber@hotmail.com), August 13, 2000.

Glad to help. Even happier it was something simple. Most of the time I end up "banging my head against the wall for hours" it turns out to be something excruciatingly simple... ;-) In some cases, so simple I'd not care to comment.

Enjoy your camera.

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@surferz.net), August 14, 2000.