A short wile ago I posted a message to why I had a flashcard showing up as read-only on a 1600. I have since figured out a few things that might be useful.
I have 4 flash cards ranging from 6 meg to 8 meg and non are "intended" for the 1600 per say. If you place the card in the router and load an IOS, it locks the card to read only and thats it.. for all you can see, you can not change it again. Not exactly true.
Load an IOS onto the NVRAM of the 1601-1604 ( have not tried the R series). Boot the router WITHOUT the flashcard in place. Once you have booted up, insert the supposedly read only flash card. The IOS will see the card being inserted and be quite happy with it. If you do a "Show flash" now, it's read/write. Go ahead and erase the flash and now you load whatever you like on the card.
I tested this for the following cards.
sm9fa3063IC280 ( dont know what it came out of)
sm9fa208-c7500 ( 7500 flash) I tried 2 with success
sm9fa2043IP280 ( normal 4 meg doesnt need special boot)
sm9fcs4m001 ( 2nd normal 4 meg doesnt need special boot)
Anyone else have different part number of flash they could test? The advantage is these 7500 flash cards tend to be cheaper then the "correct" 1600 flash cards on the used market. Many people also will tell you that you CANNOT use them in a 1600.. wrong! It just takes the "trick"
Mike S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin
I have 4 flash cards ranging from 6 meg to 8 meg and non are "intended" for the 1600 per say. If you place the card in the router and load an IOS, it locks the card to read only and thats it.. for all you can see, you can not change it again. Not exactly true.
Load an IOS onto the NVRAM of the 1601-1604 ( have not tried the R series). Boot the router WITHOUT the flashcard in place. Once you have booted up, insert the supposedly read only flash card. The IOS will see the card being inserted and be quite happy with it. If you do a "Show flash" now, it's read/write. Go ahead and erase the flash and now you load whatever you like on the card.
I tested this for the following cards.
sm9fa3063IC280 ( dont know what it came out of)
sm9fa208-c7500 ( 7500 flash) I tried 2 with success
sm9fa2043IP280 ( normal 4 meg doesnt need special boot)
sm9fcs4m001 ( 2nd normal 4 meg doesnt need special boot)
Anyone else have different part number of flash they could test? The advantage is these 7500 flash cards tend to be cheaper then the "correct" 1600 flash cards on the used market. Many people also will tell you that you CANNOT use them in a 1600.. wrong! It just takes the "trick"
Mike S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin