Upgrading the 700W to 64MB RAM

**dreborn** · 01/10/2006, 08:22 PM

ppctechs.com

**Pearl_Diva** · 01/10/2006, 08:28 PM

Thanks!

**dreborn** · 01/10/2006, 08:51 PM

np...they are located in SoCal if you wanna drop by...nice people over there

**Zorn** · 01/10/2006, 09:05 PM

Originally Posted by Neospazzy

According to some reviews about the RAM upgrades done by PPCTechs, they saw an IMPROVEMENT in battery life! Figure that out!

If their upgrade gives a performance boost in general use, and also improves battery life, I'll gladly have it done.

**Cartman** · 01/10/2006, 09:57 PM

Yup, me too!

Received my first out of memory dialog box today.... I was IMing, browsing (PIE), emailing (both Exchange and POP3), streaming audio, and checking out my RSS feeds (newsbreak) when it happened

**dreborn** · 01/11/2006, 03:04 AM

not a bad combo but yeah, i hope it works and doesn't cause any long term problems. it'd be so nice if verizon/palm/microsoft offered two versions, one with an upgraded memory

**Neospazzy** · 01/11/2006, 04:34 AM

Originally Posted by dreborn

not a bad combo but yeah, i hope it works and doesn't cause any long term problems. it'd be so nice if verizon/palm/microsoft offered two versions, one with an upgraded memory

Palm should have never even considered using only 32MB of RAM in the first place! They should recall all the units and replace them with 64MB of RAM at least!!!

**Neospazzy** · 01/11/2006, 01:57 PM

They need another day. The wait is killing me!

**dreborn** · 01/11/2006, 01:59 PM

bummer...hang in there. i was going to send mine in but i wanted to wait and see if they could get yours working.

this would be a sick device if it had 64mb of ram...i just hope the upgrade doesn't make it unstable/etc

**HobbesIsReal** · 01/11/2006, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by Neospazzy

They need another day. The wait is killing me!

At least they haven't said No yet!

Also have you asked them if the 64 mb upgrade works, is it possible to do more?

**Gaurav** · 01/11/2006, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by shadowmite

The 650 upgrade didn't work because the 650 uses the ram chip ONLY for dbcache and pagefile use from the doc chip partition. Remember, NVFS!

The 700w is also a NVFS style system being wm5... However windows manages it's memory much better and should see it provided they do it properly. ASK them if they can change a DOC chip (Disk On Chip), the OTHER chip in the 650...

Yeah, all NVFS palmos devces have default 32MB voitile ram. However, they could have tried to upgrade the nand chip (disk on chip) to higher capacity so that it could be recognized as internal storage heap aka similar to the T5 though...

**Gaurav** · 01/11/2006, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by Neospazzy

Palm should have never even considered using only 32MB of RAM in the first place! They should recall all the units and replace them with 64MB of RAM at least!!!

I think Palm used 32MB volitile ram for purely financial and reasons for economies of scale since it is quite probably that the PalmOS version of the treo 700 will most likely have the same memory architecture as the 700w.

Recall, the all PalmOS devices with NVFS have default 32MB volitile ram divided for dbcache (10MB), uncompressed rom, etc. All palmos NVFS devies be it the Lifedrive, Tx, or T5 have the same 32MB volition ram regardless the size of the nand or HD.

Thus it is quite logical to assume that the Treo 700p will also have 32MB volitile ram with with probably the same size nand chip as the 700w which would mean the Treo 700p woud probably have something approx "128 MB ram" usable to the user. This setup looks extremely simiilar the the Tx mem architecture imo and may be the same used in the 700w and 700p.

Perhaps Palm found it economically wise to use the same memory architecture (32MB ram + 128 nand) in all three major devices (Tx, 700w and future 700p) to save costs whic woudl not be a bad idea on their part of course....

**snovvman** · 01/11/2006, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by Neospazzy

They need another day. The wait is killing me!

Agh! I've been waiting right along with you. I hope they succeed.

**surur** · 01/11/2006, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by gfunkmagic

Yeah, all NVFS palmos devces have default 32MB voitile ram. However, they could have tried to upgrade the nand chip (disk on chip) to higher capacity so that it could be recognized as internal storage heap aka similar to the T5 though...

Disk on Chip means Disk ON Chip. Its part of the processor. No upgrade possible.

Surur

**Gaurav** · 01/11/2006, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by surur

Disk on Chip means Disk ON Chip. Its part of the processor. No upgrade possible.

Surur

Actually I think DiskOn chip refers to the M-System Nand chips:

http://www.brighthand.com/article/M-..._Ready_Program

http://www.m-systems.com/site/en-US

Whether it is upgradable or not separate from the proc, I'm not sure...

**Neospazzy** · 01/12/2006, 12:44 AM

Got my 700w today. PPCTech broke the news to me that after they reassembled the unit back together and fired up the Treo ... the display never fired up. Everything else was working ... the lighted keypad, the intro chime, the dialing, MS Voice Command, voicemail, etc. Just no display. They are pretty certain that something may have shorted on the board, but they don't know what. There wasn't another 700w board to compare it to (to look for possible missing capacitor, mosfet, etc). They felt really bad about it but assured me that after doing more than 2,000 of these upgrades, this is the first time they ever seen the display die upon reassembly while everything else worked. PPCTech also assured me that they will replace the phone for me if Verizon gives me an issue if I plan to return it for warranty repair. Luckily I have insurance on the phone so either way ... I am covered.

Call it bad karma or something. Maybe I should've been a nicer person and bought the freaking bag of oranges from that poor guy off the off-ramp. Maybe I shouldn't have cut that old lady in the Chevette off yesterday. I don't know. Crap like this seems to happen to me all the time. Or maybe ... today just wasn't my day.

I don't blame PPCTech at all for what happened. I volunteered to be the first one brave/crazy enough for this experiment and I guess it wasn't meant to be. Lloyd at PPCTech was really nice and assured me that I will not spend a single penny on a replacement unit. For all we know, the memory may have been a success! We just didn't have the damn display to show us the result. And yes, I did mention about "piggy-backing" the power and ground off of another another part of the unit, but PPCTech didn't want to risk further damage due to the fact they didn't know what the voltage limitations were on the lcd display. Too much and the unit could fry.

I will be returning my unit tomorrow to the Verizon store. Once Palm fixes the display and resells the unit, one lucky new owner may have a 64MB RAM unit. But know this, I have not given up. Once I get a hold of the replacement unit, I will be awaiting PPCTech results to see if the RAM upgrade becomes successful on someone else's unit. If it is successful, my new Treo 700w will be back in the hands of PPCTech for a rematch. And this time ... I will buy the oranges (number 64 on my list).

**Stihl** · 01/12/2006, 12:52 AM

Good show, soldier.

**darkorbz** · 01/12/2006, 12:59 AM

sorry to hear about the display, quite a disappointment. is it possible to check the memory indirectly by connecting the treo to a computer via activesync then running some kind of app? Perhaps some diagnostic software tool?

Did you ask them if you can reveal how much it would cost to perform this operation? Would they be willing to give the same guarantee to other users?

**Cartman** · 01/12/2006, 01:31 AM

Yes... hook it up to your computer and use the remote display power toy!!!!

You can give me a call if you want... come to my work even

**Cartman** · 01/12/2006, 01:35 AM

Windows Mobile Developer Power Toys

ActiveSync Remote Display - Display Pocket PC applications on your desktop or laptop without needing any device side configuration.

Should work with WM5
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

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