Sandisk 128MB SD Card w/ m500

[haiyu]

I bought a m500 recently and I'm looking to expand the memory with a 128MB SD card. It seems that Sandisk comes up often when I search for such a card. I read some reviews (there aren't many) and one or two said that it didn't work well with their Palm. I was wondering if anyone has experience with a Sandisk 128MB SD card and m500. Are there better options? Thank you so much.

[djmangen]

I believe that you will have to update the Palm OS to 4.1 to allow it to work with a acrd larger that 64 MBytes. From what others have said, this is not a bullet proof operation. Would 64 meg be sufficient?

[haiyu]

Thanks for the reply. I really would like to get a 128MB SD card, especially since it is at a good price and it gives me 2x more space than the 64MB. But since I'm currently overseas, this is a one shot deal (I'm having a friend who's visiting bring it over to me), so I can't take too much risk. And because of your advice, seeing that upgrading to OS 4.1 might be a pain (would you know where could I find out more about this?) I'll begin looking at the 64MB card.

So do you know if Sandisk, as a brand, usually gives out quality products as it claims? Well, or does it work well with m500 (the 64MB card)?

I'll wait to hear yours and other's opinions. Thanks!

[djmangen]

I believe that the upgrade is available from Palm, and if done carefully can work. Some folks have reported no problems at all -- I suspect those are the folks who read the instructions and follow them precisely! If you do that, you will probably have success.

As for SanDisk, they are a reputable company. You can comfortably purchase one of their products.

I know what you mean about the extra space. It seems like you can never have too much storage, or too fast of a processor.

[jacques]

Since You are overseas, take a good look at Your M500.
Is it an US-english model or an EFIGS? (International model)
If it is EFIGS, Palm is not providing the upgrade - not now more than two months after the US-english version, and I begin to doubt very much, that they are coming out at all?
Conclusion: You can only upgrade, if Your Palm is US-english, otherwise stop at 64 mB card, which I have myself and is very satisfied with.

[haiyu]

Thank you, djmangen and jacques for the replies and help. My Palm is from the US (another friend had brought it to me from there), but thank you for the warning. I upgraded my Palm OS to 4.1 this morning with no problems (the upgrade went smoothly, we'll see if there are any quirks along the way).

Since I feel more confident now about using a 128MB card (Palm explained that 4.1 has a file to allow memory > 32MB and better expanded memory management) I will purchase a 128MB Sandisk SD card. Thank you for the advice on Sandisk being a reliable brand...I hope I don't get an exception.

I mainly plan to store data (bible, docs, pics, books) and not apps in the SD card. A real bonus is if I could use this SD card interchangeably between my palm and digital camera. Anyway, thank you for your help. I'll post something to let the forum know how well the card works once I get it.