cisco1600 router with ?read only PCMCIA flash card

[dbrosig]

I've got two sites for which I was preparing to do a code upgrade. Both have Cisco 1600s in them, and both have the original 11.3(5)T code provided when they were purchased. I intended to erase the flash / tftp down the new files, when I got a message:

%dev_open: PCMCIA flash not writable

It was then that I looked again at the "show flash" display I'd done in more detail, and saw sure enough that it had:

12288K bytes of processor board PCMCIA flash (Read ONLY)

Every other Cisco flash card I've seen has had a write protect dipswitch on the outside edge, and I figured maybe these cards were sent out with them write protected.

I then engaged my contact at one of these remote sites, had them remove the flash card & look at the outer edge for the dipswitch. My contact tells me "I do not see one, I must have the dinosaur model, but there is a sticker on that says Cisco... 11.3(5)T... (C) 1998".

Is this right, that Cisco has sent out purely read-only flash cards with some of these older model routers? And then do I have to send a replacement one which doesn't have this issue?

[thisisshanky]

Is the router booting the image from the PCMCIA flash card ? I think all 1600s are run from flash routers, so they lock the flash card from any erase process, when booted into normal router mode. To make it read only, you will have to reboot into Rxboot mode, after changing the config-register to 0x2101

Router(config)#config-register 0x2101

Router#reload

Once the router reboots you will be in

Router(boot)> mode.

This mode accepts most commands (enable, config t etc) except that the router has no routing functionality. If you do a "show flash" you will see that the flash card is now in read only mode. You can upgrade the IOS in this mode by assigning an IP to the ethernet interface and do a "copy tftp flash" command to perform the upgrade..

Router(boot)>

Router(boot)>enable

Router(boot)#

Router(boot)#config t

Router(boot)(config)# int e0

Router(boot)(config)# ip address <> <>

Router(boot)(config)# exit

Router(boot)#show flash

Router(boot)#copy tftp flash

Dont forget to change the config register back to 0x2102 after the upgrade

Router(boot)(config)#config-register 0x2102

Hope that helps!