Upgrade modules [Archive] - PDA street forums

yiati

03-19-2003, 05:00 AM

Sita International, the good source for MBooks, listed a 32Mb DIMM chip as an accessory for $156.00. I purchased a MBook and ordered a DIMM. Turned out that what they thought was a DIMM is in fact a ROM. So anyone who wants to upgrade the Series 7 to the MBook can buy a DIMM and get a ROM, replace the ROM chip in the 7 and have a 7MBook. The sales lady I dealt with is named Vanita, and through a series of e-mails, I explained to their technical staff what they were selling. At first they insisted that the chip was a memory module, but later conceeded that although the chip had 32Mb of memory, it was not the memory upgrade. I was able to upgrade my old Series 7 without a hitch. The problem is I didn't want to do that, I only wanted to juice the MBook to 64Mb. so I am happy to sell the 'Malaysian Personality Module' for what I paid for it, or you can order from Sita.

Yiati

netBookBabe

03-19-2003, 05:14 AM

Good grief, the plot thickens!

Julie

diem

03-19-2003, 06:13 AM

Maybe these are what David Lowe has for sale? This would tie in with the Foxpop picture showing no machine name label as per MBook...

netBookBabe

03-19-2003, 08:11 AM

Exactly what I was thinking, Yan.

Hmmmm...
Julie

andyahern

03-20-2003, 09:44 AM

Hi,
I was concerned when I read the above, as I have ordered an upgrade for my 7 from David Lowe. I emailed him to ensure that the Personality modules were not sourced from Malaysian Netbooks (non upgradable).
He emailed back immediately saying "I GUARANTEE they are upgradeable - in fact they come with Psion Teklogix
latest OS release - the one with opera 5.14 built in."

I hope this info is helpful for anyone thinkking about making the same upgrade.

Cheers,
Andy

wanman

03-20-2003, 10:00 AM

This does seem to be the case as another thread is also discussing Mr Lowe's great sounding offer.

The sales blarb confirms that these are netbook personality modules rather than mbook modules. Mind you, when you purchase them, they are on the agreement that you return your 7 module first. If you want to hold onto your module untill you receive the netbook module, you have to pay a £50 deposit on top of the asking price. When you return your 7 module, this is refunded.

Could he have come up with a way of converting them to netbook modules?

Regards

Si

diem

03-20-2003, 10:29 AM

Originally posted by wanman
Could he have come up with a way of converting them to netbook modules?

I don't think so - the chipsets are significantly different. Also the nB module has 32MB RAM on board as opposed to the Series 7's 16MB. Thus if the nB OS was loaded onto a 7 personality module, you will end up with only a 16MB C drive (utilising only the motherboard RAM).

wanman

03-20-2003, 10:31 AM

True, Shame he is not a member here as I would love to know what he is doing with them? Perhaps he works for Psion and they want to start making 7's again but have run out of modules !!! lol

Regards

Si

fladda

03-20-2003, 05:02 PM

Originally posted by diem

I don't think so - the chipsets are significantly different. Also the nB module has 32MB RAM on board as opposed to the Series 7's 16MB. Thus if the nB OS was loaded onto a 7 personality module, you will end up with only a 16MB C drive (utilising only the motherboard RAM).

Just to clarify.

Netbook personality module has 16Mbytes of DRAM on board. Plus a 2Mbyte? boot loader flash ROM.

Series 7 personality module has 0Mbytes of Dram on board. Plus 3 ROM chips - 4Mbytes? of flash ROM, and 8Mbytes? of mask ROM.

Netbook motherboard and Series 7 motherboard are (almost?) identical - both have 16Mbytes of DRAM on board (plus unfitted solderpads for an additional 16Mbytes of DRAM).

There is insufficient *flash* ROM on the Series 7 personality module to store Netbook operating system. I think.

Interestingly the Series-7 16Mbyte RAM upgrade board is actually the same base PWB as the Netbook personality module. However the 2Mbyte boot loader ROM is not fitted on the Series 7 personality module.

I'm sure that you know all this Yan. However your post might have been read as though the Netbook personality module had 32Mbytes of DRAM. It does not.

I also cannot see why David Lowe wants to have the returned Series 7 personality modules ?? These are really no use to man or beast IMHO.

Ralph

ps. Some of these ROM sizes might be incorrect.

fladda

03-20-2003, 05:08 PM

Originally posted by wanman
True, Shame he is not a member here as I would love to know what he is doing with them? Perhaps he works for Psion and they want to start making 7's again but have run out of modules !!! lol

Regards

Si

Thought just occurred to me.

I suspect that David Lowe is removing Netbook personality boards from some of his Netbooks - and these are being sold for 80 quid.

Will soon end up with a load of Netbooks without personality modules.

I predict that David Lowe will then put the returned Series 7 modules into these Netbooks, and then sell them as Series 7s at some future date. Watch out for a load of Series 7s at around 280 GBP:-)

Ralph

diem

03-20-2003, 06:24 PM

Ah, yes, my bad!

I had mistakenly convinced myself that a netBook had a 32MB C drive once you've loaded the OS, when of course it only has a 32MB 'C drive' before you've loaded the OS (at which point of course the concept of 'C drive' is meaningless :o)

BHP

03-22-2003, 03:22 AM

Task: Malaybook ROM upgrade
Risk: Rather worrying
Need: Some reassuring message or URL pointers to how this can be successfully achieved.
Outcome: New UK OS, fit and healthy Netbook, Happy and relieved owner.
Response : Information from you if you are reding this please.

Thank you

wanman

03-24-2003, 04:02 AM

Hi BHP,

All you need to do, is get hold of one of these UK netBook personality modules. I say 'all you have to do', but getting hold of these little golden nuggets is very difficult although there are a few still circulating around.

The install is quite easy and pretty much risk free. The only real damage you can do to these is by handling the personality module too much (especially if you are statically charged at the time !!). Once installed and working, you should be able to install the latest netBook OS (158) without too much trouble.

If you require any further info, then please ask, although you will find most of it already on this Forum. Check out the 7Book section, which has a lot of info on upgrading a 7 to a netBook. This is identical to what you will be doing.

Regards
Si

Flipper

03-26-2003, 10:44 AM

I think Fladda (Ralph) is probably right. David Lowe is now advestising Psion 7s on ebay which are wrongly badged as netbooks.

See:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3409279171&category=14405

wanman

03-26-2003, 10:54 AM

If this is the case, then it is a bit naughty of him, advertising them as 'wrongly badged' when he should have said they are netBooks with 7 series personality modules installed.

As these were previously netBooks, I wonder if they will support the higher powered cards? Would the Ethernet Drivers patch for the pre-158 build netBook OS work on these machines? If not, perhaps this adds proof that power supplied to the PCMCIA port IS restricted by the 7's personality module in some way? This may explain the results of later version 7 owners who have upgrade the personality module to that of the netBook and then being able to run higher powered cards greater than the 300mA limit.

Regards

Si

fladda

03-27-2003, 06:07 AM

We need a new discussion forum for these Netbooks that are fitted with series 7 personality modules. And while we're at it, how about another new group for Mbooks :-)

Earlier Series-7s provided less PCMCIA power that the first Netbooks. However, later Series 7 motherboards are identical to the Netbook, and provide the same power thought the PCMCIA slot. I read somewhere (on the old board?) that the max power was stored a register in the PCMCIA controller chip ? However this might just be to trigger the warning message when the PCMCIA controller reads the max power specifications from a PCMCIA card upon initialisation ?? I read something in a Netbook? FAQ on the Psion Teklogix site about this ??

Ralph

MikeMcC

03-27-2003, 11:29 AM

We need a new discussion forum for these Netbooks that are fitted with series 7 personality modules. And while we're at it, how about another new group for Mbooks :-) As neither of these products should even be on the open market, it is my view that there certainly shouldn't be a dedicated forum for them!

If netBooks are being sold with S7 modules in them, there is something very far wrong indeed. The Malaysian netBooks were a specific product geared towards the education market in Malaysia and these should not have become available generally.

wanman

03-27-2003, 11:49 AM

Hi Mike,

I can assume from the tone of your post that you do not necessarily agree with the butchering of Psion machines then.;)

In any case I do agree with your rejection of a seperate forum topic for these netBooks sold as 7's. These will operate as 7's and there there shouldn't be any net7 (or whatever we are going to call them:rolleyes: ) specific problems.

I disagree in respect of the mBooks. If the number of forum members with these is sufficient, it may well be worth having a seperate topic as they currently have very specific issues and problems which are currently being mixed in with the existing netBook topic chat. Creation of an mBook topic would be no different to the 7Book topic that was created, several months back.

Kind Regards

Si (owner of a blasphemous 7book....and proud of it :D )

MikeMcC

03-27-2003, 03:17 PM

Si,
I can assume from the tone of your post that you do not necessarily agree with the butchering of Psion machines then I have serious concerns that there are currently certain products being advertised and sold which may not be what they purport to be. I do not believe that we should do anything to support or encourage the trafficking of those particular products.

What people do with their own machines in terms of upgrading, modifying, improving or even annihilating is an altogether different matter :)

As far as the Malaysian products are concerned, these were not released by Psion for general consumption and arrived on the market "by the back door". It is my personal opinion that we shouldn't accord them the status of a recognised Psion product by devoting a dedicated forum to them, notwithstanding there may be issues specifically related to that particular machine. I'm sure others will disagree.

amitchell

03-27-2003, 04:10 PM

Originally posted by MikeMcC
As far as the Malaysian products are concerned, these were not released by Psion for general consumption and arrived on the market "by the back door". It is my personal opinion that we shouldn't accord them the status of a recognised Psion product by devoting a dedicated forum to them, notwithstanding there may be issues specifically related to that particular machine. I'm sure others will disagree.

Why by the back door? The project in Malaysia fell through and the machines are now being sold - this kind of thing happens all the time. Many people here have these machines (myself included) and I think they are as much recognised as a Psion product as the 7book.

I know, however, that there does appear to be a somewhat dubious market in cannibalised machines. There is nothing wrong with such a market if the machines are advertised and sold with the correct descriptions.

Austin.

wanman

03-28-2003, 03:32 AM

Hi Mike,

I accept what you are saying and your point of view although some (including those at Psion Teklogix) might say the same of the netBook. This was never designed or sold to be a private user machine and Psion Teklogix has never advertised or actively sold these machines as such. Ok, so we are blessed in the fact that the internet has enabled us to have access to such a great machine but as Psion Techlogix has already confirmed, they do not recognise the private user as one of it's customers and in the same way as the mBook, do not provide real dedicated private user customer service.

Obviously this is a discussion that could go on and on. Perhaps one compromise could be to, if the number of modified machines members warrants such an activity, change the title of the 7book forum to something like 'Modified 7/netBook'. This would then be a catch all forum where all us deviants could gather and discuss the ritualistic torture and mutiliation of our beloved Psion machines :D

Kind Regards

Si

diem

03-29-2003, 08:08 AM

Nice idea Si, I'll put it to 'the Board' :D

donkeyontheedge

04-03-2003, 06:13 AM

Originally posted by fladda

Interestingly the Series-7 16Mbyte RAM upgrade board is actually the same base PWB as the Netbook personality module. However the 2Mbyte boot loader ROM is not fitted on the Series 7 personality module.

I tried to buy a NetBook module from David Lowe but didn't want to send back my s7 module in return (just in case). He eventually withdrew the offer so he may well be requiring the module be returned which makes it even more likely he is modifying them somehow.

My s7 has 32Mb RAM. The s7 personality module is indeed very different to the 16Mb DIMM. I can't see what David would want the s7 module for unless he is indeed putting them into NetBooks he has already sold the personality module from.
Perhaps he's figured out this makes him more money than selling standard NetBooks and Series 7's!

Looking at the 16Mb DIMM, is it possible to solder on a 2Mb boot PROM flashed from another netbook module? How easy would it be do this to my 16Mb module? Those solder pads are very small!

wanman

04-03-2003, 06:20 AM

My s7 has 32Mb RAM. The s7 personality module is indeed very different to the 16Mb DIMM. I can't see what David would want the s7 module for unless he is indeed putting them into NetBooks he has already sold the personality module from.

This does seem to be the case, and some of these netBooks with 7 modules installed are starting to hit the ebay market. I can understand his angle on this as he must have quite a stock of netBooks lying around. Luckily for us, he is willing to sell just the netbook personality module, but that leaves him with an empty netbook shell which he will only be able to sell as parts, but if he insists on you returning the module, he can then sell the shell on as a complete 7's. I don't see any harm in this, as long as that is how he advertises them and makes this clear to potential purchasers.

Regards

Si

andyahern

04-08-2003, 03:59 PM

Hi,
I've just installed my personality module sourced from David Lowe. I can confirm that they definitely are taken from a standard Netbook rather than the Mbook.
Cheers,
Andy

walkerp

04-09-2003, 12:11 AM

Thanks for that post Andy....I also have a NB personality module on order from David Lowe.

I was going to use it to upgrade my Psion 7, but since I've just purchased a Malaybook I will use it to turn the Malaybook into a Netbook.

Then...I will be looking for a buyer for my Psion 7... 'upgraded' to a Malaybook....

P.S. Anyone wanna buy a 16MB DIMM for a Psion 7 ?
(or a licensed copy of Opera 5.14?)

cshandley

04-11-2003, 08:02 AM

Originally posted by walkerp
I was going to use it to upgrade my Psion 7, but since I've just purchased a Malaybook I will use it to turn the Malaybook into a Netbook.

Then...I will be looking for a buyer for my Psion 7... 'upgraded' to a Malaybook....

Errr, wouldn't it be wise to keep your Psion 7 as a back-up machine? Esp. given the notorious ribbon cable problem?

Given the scarcity of Psion7s & Netbooks, and that I am in it for the long haul with my 7book (unless the Netbook 2/Pro turns out to be totally compatible), I have a spare unit for any disasters...

andyahern

04-11-2003, 08:08 AM

Errr, wouldn't it be wise to keep your Psion 7 as a back-up machine? Esp. given the notorious ribbon cable problem?

What is the situation regarding the 7 / Netbook ribbon cable. I know that the 5 series is very prone to ribbon cable problems, but I though that this was mainly due to the holes drilled in the cable and the tight angles necessitated by the 5's smaller case.
Does anyone have any info on how likely the 7 / Netbook is to be prone to the same faults, and what the MTBF is for the ribbon cable ?

Andy

diem

04-11-2003, 08:44 AM

I wouldn't have said the 7/netBook design has a 'notorious' ribbon cable problem - its the 5 series that suffers in this way, since the cable is forced into too tight a curve radius as it is opened and closed. There's more room in the 7's case, so I think the MTBF will be much longer.

The only known problem relates to touchscreen calibration, which IMO is to do with increased resistance at the edge connector, and can be sorted every time in my experience with a bit of gentle pressure on just above the logo above the keyboard.

andyahern

04-11-2003, 08:50 AM

That sounds reassuring. :)
I had hoped to leave screen cable problems behind when I upgraded to the series 7.

Andy

cshandley

04-12-2003, 04:42 AM

When I said "notorious screen cable problem" I was of course refering to the ribbon cable becoming loose from the Series7's motherboard - causing the calibration to vary wildly (and eventually the screen display may have problems).

While the problem can often be temporarily fixed by pressing down on the logo about the 6 & 7 keys, I would be worried this *might* eventually damage the ribbon.

A better fix is apparently to (slightly) dismantle the Psion 7, and remove then reinsert the ribbon from the motherboard. But not everyone will be happy doing this.

The permanent fix (at least I hope it is) requires a modification by Psion - which they did to mine when it was repaired.

I would be very keen to find out at what date they started manufacturing Netbooks with this fix already built in...
---
Chris Handley