PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide, Second Edition

Memory Upgrades

Just because your PalmPilot came with, say, 2MB or 4MB of RAM doesn’t mean you’re stuck with that little. Believe it or not, the circuitry is designed to accommodate up to 12MB of RAM on 256 different cards (although you’ll have a tough time getting them to fit in any current model). In fact, the OS is designed to handle a theoretical limit 4GB of memory—that’s a lot of Doc files.

If you’d like more RAM, and the FlashPro trick described in Chapter 17 isn’t enough, the next step is to buy a memory upgrade. For example, Technology Resource Group (TRG)’s catalog includes the Super Pilot upgrade, which brings the memory total of a Pilot, PalmPilot, Palm III, or WorkPad to either 3MB or 8MB (for $200 to $250). For the Palm IIIx, there’s the Xtra Xtra upgrade, which gives you a total of 8MB (for $150). (The company ships you a complete memory/ROM card; you install it yourself. Visit http://www.trgnet.com for current deals.)

The Palm V is a tougher nut to crack, because its circuit board has no memory slot, and the ultra-slim case itself offers very little interior room. Still, EFIG (http://www.efig.com) is willing to cram 8MB into your tiny palmtop (for $250). The result isn’t perfect — tiny traces of white glue are visible around the seams of the case, and your battery charge gets used up almost twice as fast when the machine is not in use. (The storage capacity of dead batteries drops, too—when the Palm V is out of juice, your data is normally safe for another week; ...