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Memory Problems (And Fixes) For Palm-OS Devices
Stonent writes: "Palm computing has just announced that a number of 8MB units produced between October 1999 and May 2000 may have some faulty memory. They are currently working on a patch for the IIIXe and have one for the Vx and IIIC. You can read about it on the Palm Computing site. I'm just wondering why they are supplying a software patch for a hardware issue. Intel tried this with the FDIV bug and look where it got them."
And those of us who went with The Other Company aren't off the hook either. An Anonymous Coward writes: "There's no mention of it on their main webpage, but apparently some Handspring Visors shipped with faulty DRAM. See if you're one of the unlucky ones, like me, by running the test program included here. I found out mine was faulty and called 'Customer Care' -- after a brief runaround I learned that the unit wouldn't be replaced, instead a patch would be out in *mid July*. Gee, thanks Handspring. Blinded by the allure of Springboard modules, I took DRAM over FlashRAM in the Palm IIIxe. With bad DRAM and substantive Springboards (wireless ethernet, bluetooth, 6-pack) looking more and more like vaporware, I'm regretting my decision."
Interestingly, it was TRG that found the bug, and told Palm and Handspring. These guys are really on top of their game. This is probably why the TRG fix is out first.
Also, TRG released yesterday their AutoCF enhancement, that lets many applications and databases reside on the compact flash. What this effectively means is that you can now have a palm with hundreds of megabytes of effective memory. They did an outstanding job on it.
As for other comments on the lack of flashable roms on the handspring (and some palms like the IIIe), the only real disadvantage is that patches must be layered back on in the event of a total system rebuild, and take up just a little more memory. Neither of these things is even remotely a big deal in real world use.
Palmstation has a lot more information on the topic, complete with some appearences from at least one of the TRG folks to answer questions.
The actual bug had to do with one of the ways you can instruct the DRAM to self refresh in sleep mode... the hardware was buggy. There was about a 1/8000 chance that it would corrupt some random memory location, and it got executed once a minute. This translates to something being nuked once a week, which may or may not be used memory, and may or may not cause a problem.
The patch was simply to use a different self refresh mode, that is almost as good, and has the added advantage of not being broken.:)
Hats off to TRG... these people continue to amaze me, from the days of custom modifying their 8MB upgrade cards to boot linux to the current crop of TRG-Pro compact flash enabled Palm units.
Bill
Mathematically impossible requirements are technically not against policy.
Check out these details about the memory problem from the TRGpro website, a maker of another Palm-OS PDA. They have a FAQ explaining in pretty good detail what the problem is and how they plan to go about fixing it.
to the fellow who was sorry he chose Handspring over Palm because he was stuck with a faulty DRAM: The IIIxe has DRAM too. You're right in saying that the Handspring units have no Flash, but thats an unrelated issue. Both have DRAM for the system memory/storage. The Palm units (most) have Flash memory where the OS is stored. This allows for OS upgrades and such. The handspring units don't have this, which makes OS upgrading a bit harder.
As for the bug and why it was corrected with a software patch, you can get all teh details (including the technical version) here. The technical faq is near the bottom of the page. They just changed the mode that the DRAM is in during refresh, since one of the refresh modes did A Bad Thing[tm].
-Hal
-Hal
This is bullshit. I paid good money for a working computer, and I expect it to work.
The path effectively removes one of the power-saving features of the Palm hardware, which readily fixes the bug, but causes increased power consumption when the unit is powered down (although you can't truly turn one off).
No thanks. I have no intention of sacrificing my batteries to Shub-Hardware. I've signed up to receive the memory test and patch for my IIIxe when it's available. If my memory tests bad, then I'm RMAing the unit, just as I would any other defective unit.
This is similar to Intel's FDIV fiasco. Palm is using a performance-damaging software workaround to cover faults in their hardware. I will not go along with this.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I just meticulously checked the memory in my PDA... it's still all there, it's still college-ruled. The nice thing is that it's persistent, and though WORM technology and limited to 90 pages, once that runs out you just buy another spiral notebook...
If you're not wasted, the day is.
I've got to say that this is getting a little bit ridiculous. This is not very well-known, but some of the current Palm III XE units in stores are shipping with defective (improperly wired) cradles. That is, if you plug them into a Windows 95/98 machine, they will do all sorts of bad things, even lock up the computer. (No, this is probably not part of a Pro-Linux conspiracy on the part of Palm.) But the real kicker is that they have not issued a recall for these units, instead relying on the individual customers to call them up complaining of a non-functional cradle (in which case they send you a new one (one of the older grey ones)). Combine this with the RAM problems and it looks like Palm has some serious quality control problems on its hands.
This is really not the way to build loyalty in their userbase.