Quickies: Handcam, Vx, m500 Upgrade, S300, Poll

Posted By: As Listed Friday, January 4, 2002 8:32:33 AM

The Targus Handcam Springboard module is available from PalmGear for $100. -skoty

The Palm Vx, once the company's top-of-the-line handheld, is no longer available from the PalmStore. -Ed

TWPDA can now upgrade a m500 or m505 to 16 MB of RAM for $80. (Click on Service on the left). -nXt

Sony has posted a WinXP update for its desktop software that clears up problems the S300 had with that new OS. It matches the ones for later models posted last week. -Ed

There is a new poll available on the PIC home page asking what the most anticipated feature of Palm OS 5 is. -Ed

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TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/4/2002 9:00:24 AM #
TWPDA's site says "m505/m500 32 RAM upgraded"

But then later is says 16MB. I'm guessng the 16MB one is correct. I was about ready to ship mine today when I saw 32. That'd be nice.

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
popko @ 1/4/2002 2:43:52 PM #
Yeah, I'm sure they messed it up on the English page. If you take a look at the Chinese page, http://www.twpda.com/c_index.htm , it tells you that it's a 16MB upgrade.

But I've found something intresting tho. On the same Chinese page, they say that they had successfully upgraded a Palm V to 16MB on the OS Emu software. What the hack? I mean, how does OS Emu prove that the actual hardware will take it?

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/4/2002 3:20:42 PM #
If I was rwady to send mine off, where would I send it? Address...phone number?

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
Altema @ 1/4/2002 3:42:25 PM #
You contact them via the website and they will send you the shipping address info. I've dealt with them before about upgrading my former IIIc, but changed my mind and went to the 505. They seemed very polite and reasonable despite the language barrier. I may take them up on the 505 upgrade myself, if Palm manages to get me a device which works properly...

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/4/2002 5:06:23 PM #
couldn't be a 32meg upgrade; the Motorola Dragonball family has a 24bit memory address bus which only supports up to 16 megs of RAM.

FUI: the upgrade can be performed locally by
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/4/2002 7:03:04 PM #
http://www.palmpilotupgrade.com
They upgraded my PalmV a couple of years ago and it still runs fine.
I beleive they are about to introduce the 32Mb upgrade but I'm not sure for what model.
Sam

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
SilliconMan @ 1/4/2002 7:43:56 PM #
Quote from post above last:

"couldn't be a 32meg upgrade; the Motorola Dragonball family has a 24bit memory address bus which only supports up to 16 megs of RAM."

That is correct, there won't be 32MBs of RAM on an m505 anytime soon. Unless maybe they upgrade the processor too that is, but I doubt they would go that far.

Palming away.....

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/6/2002 12:25:56 AM #
This isn't a flamebait, I'm truly curious: why would you upgrade a 505 for 8mb of ram when you can shop around and get a 64 mb SD card for under $50? I can't think of an app to run or database that would benefit from the increased RAM and that also couldn't be used on an SD card. What am i missing, and thanks for your info -DB.

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/6/2002 5:29:49 AM #
There are still lots of program you cannot put into SD card. e.g. Avantgo, Epocrates - if you want to upgrade/refresh regularly; other programs like Chinese OS system may not run properly if put on RAMS

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/6/2002 8:19:29 AM #
Native RAM is always best. Any program on the card must be dumped into Native RAM in order to run. If you don't have enough native RAM left, your program won't run - it it doesn't matter what size SD card you have - be it 256K+ or whatever.

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/6/2002 5:15:00 PM #
Thanks - OK - I can see there are possibilities though I wouldn't choose them - getting a few
mb of Avantgo now takes so long to sync that I wouldn't want to get more, and I can guess
there are other DBs that are huge that aren't designed to go anywhere else than
native ram, the PDA's version of C:\ - I remember when many PC-based apps had similar
drive-dependent shortcomings. I suppose that will change with time.

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
CLB @ 1/29/2003 9:26:23 PM #
The MC68VZ328 data sheet is available on Motorola's site. The memory controller section details address line connections to a 256 megabit (or 32 megabyte) SDRAM chip.

I pulled the processor off a dead M500 board and checked continuity of the processor address lines through the address jumpers and to the 54 pin TSOPII SDRAM chip.

Next, I pulled a 16Mx16 chip off a PC133 laptop DIMM and reflowed it onto my M500 board. I used an Infineon HYB39S256160DT-7.5.

Seems that all you need to do to the M500 to correctly address a 32MB SDRAM is to move the 4 conductor jumper to the position shown in the link below. The jumper pads are just to the right of the scroll keys.
The jumper is now soldered to the located on the lower 8 pad array.
The jumper was factory located on the upper right 8 pad array.

The result?
The processor recognizes 32MB but thinks it's half full. Either an OS issue or the address space is shared with FLASH. Anyone with the answer can feel free to let me know. If not, it kept me entertained for a few hours...

Disclaimer: Don't hack your hardware if killing it would upset you. I obviously have no respect for the hardware.

http://www.hevanet.com/clb/32MB_M500.jpg

CLB

RE: TWPDA's 32MB, or rather 16MB upgrade
gartak @ 11/9/2003 8:41:50 PM #
CLB,

I did the hack you described on my m505, but I had a different result: it shows only 4Mb available, all empty, not half full like you described.

I did it with two different SDRAM chips just to be sure, and I'm using PalmOS 4.1.

I would love to have 32Mb on my Palm, but I'm going to undo the hack tomorrow: I still prefer 8Mb than 4Mb :)

Eduardo

XP on a Clie?

Edward @ 1/4/2002 9:50:55 AM #
"Sony has posted a WinXP update for the S300"

My immediate thought was even Sony couldn't fit XP onto a Clie ..

:)

RE: XP on a Clie?
Ed @ 1/4/2002 10:12:41 AM #
David Pogue from the NY Times made me smile by asking if we could implant computers into our bodies, would skinny people be able to use Windows XP?

I'll rephrase the S300 quickie so it's a little more clear.

---
News Editor

RE: XP on a Clie?
Coyote67 @ 1/4/2002 1:37:04 PM #
Or maybe Windows ME. Would anyone volunteer to have something that would give them the equivalent of turrets syndrome implanted into them? :)

---------------------------------------
When you have a Clie shoved up your mouth, you can only talk in vowels.

No more Vx? Hmmm.

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/4/2002 11:04:32 AM #
Does this mean that the m500's price will come down to something close to what the Vx was? Lots of coworkers here have a Vx because if its price and form. The rest seem to have a m505, or the odd VII or IIIe. (Mine's a HE330).

RE: No more Vx? Hmmm.
Ed @ 1/4/2002 1:17:00 PM #
I think it will be a while before you see the m500 selling for close to $200. Palm still had plenty of Vx's in stock after the snafu with pre-announcing the m500 series and so reduced them to rock bottom just to get them off the shelves. While the m500 hasn't sold well, I think they've avoided making too many of them.

---
News Editor
RE: No more Vx? Hmmm.
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/5/2002 5:36:03 PM #
I agree. It's time for Palm to look at their range again.

The m500 is the ideal unit for most corporate/business users. It makes much more sense to position this unit in the mid-range, in lieu of the m125. (The latter simply looks too much like a toy and I doubt anyone would want to carry one around the office.)

Taking this approach would be the final mail in the PPC coffin. Look at it from an IT managers perspective: (a) do you go for a unit which uses the de facto industry standard OS (and huge 3rd party software support), which synchronises well with desktops and which is reasonably priced (ie the m500); or (b) do you go for a unit which comes with a lot of bells and whistles (many of which are useless in a business environment) for twice the price?

Palm IIIc Memory Upgrade?

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/4/2002 3:34:39 PM #
Does anyone know if the Palm IIIc memory is upgradable? I would like to have either 16 or 32 MB
of memory for my beloved Palm IIIc (I would buy a new Sony, but I can't afford to replace all the
accessories I currently have for my IIIc and I love the screen on my IIIc).

Thanks!

Dave

RE: Palm IIIc Memory Upgrade?
Altema @ 1/4/2002 3:49:43 PM #
I was told that they do not do 16Mb RAM upgrades for the IIIc, but they can upgrade the ROM from 2Mb to 4Mb. I don't know if there is an OS problem with the IIIc preventing the RAM upgrade... It may be possible, but I was not able to locate someone who would do the RAM upgrade. I hated to give up my IIIc, I loved it except for the RAM limit. That thing held a charge so well that I could not possibly kill it in a day no matter how hard I tried, and I could signal planes with that bright screen. I had a lot of accessories too, but the store gave me a refund on the keyboard. I gave away the auto/air charger to a friend, but still have the modem (lost the receipt!).

RE: Palm IIIc Memory Upgrade?
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/6/2002 9:52:07 AM #
Hi Dave!!!

Yes i believe the 111C is upgradeable? pls check on
Gadgeteer's site for info regarding ram upgrades from
times 2tech. She(Julie) is also very good at returning
e-mail requests for info as well.

Good luck!

Regards

George

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