Psion Series 7 upgrade

[Nicholas Murray]

I am interested in the discussion of converting a Series 7 to a Netbook. The steps to do this are clear enough from what people are saying here but does it work? Does the Series 7 have enough memory to cope with the change? And is it worth doing, notwithstanding the point about someone's converted 7 having crashed?

[donkeyontheedge]

I've done it (I'm typing this on it now) and I can't recommend it highly enough. The series7 and netBook motherboards have 16Mb RAM on board and no ROM. The Series7 module consists of 16Mb ROM. The netBook module consists of 16Mb RAM and a small (2Mb) boot ROM. This 2Mb ROM is not mapped into the netBook memory space once the OS is loaded.

What this means is a Series7 upgraded to a netBook ends up with just a few Mb more RAM (about 19Mb free after the OS is loaded) but is about 60% faster and has loads of extra features thanks to the upgraded OS. Also from a personal point of view the netBook OS is much more stable. I constantly had KERN-EXEC errors with the S7 which disappeared after I upgraded.

Summing up, the S7 is effectively a crippled netBook - putting the netBook module in sets it free again :)

John

[netBookBabe]

Hi Nicholas

I've moved your thread into the 7Book forum, where it is more likely to be seen by those who have already made the conversion you are considering.

Mine is a "born and bred" netBook, so I have no personal experience to offer, but I have yet to come across someone who regretted performing this upgrade.

The main problem I see at the moment is the sourcing of the netBook personality module - if you can get one, I would say definitely go for it! :)

Julie

[Nicholas Murray]

Thanks for these quick replies. I'll do it. Except - aaargh - what is a "netbook personality module". is that necessary before I follow the download steps?

[donkeyontheedge]

Just under the screen of the S7/netBook are two expansion slots (you'll have to have the case half-open to get at them). Although you can apparently put the modules in either side, traditionally the "personality module" is in the smaller right hand slot. A memory expansion module or DIMM can go into the left hand slot.

The personality module for the S7 contains the S7 ROM. It is flash upgradedable, but NOT to any version of the netBook OS.

To convert a S7 to a netBook, you must remove the S7 personality module and replace it with a netBook personality module. Obviously these are not easy to come by unless they come from dead netBooks or from Psion themselves. Psion sold all of their remaining modules to eXpansys who sold out of them very quickly some time ago.

Your only hope is finding a dead netBook and removing the module from there, or buying a module from somewhere like eBay. A reliable chap called David Lowe has one for sale on there at the moment, but he wants around £150 for it. I bought mine from him for £75 plus my old S7 module, so you may want to get in touch to see if he will accept the S7 module in part-ex.

One thing - if you do go ahead with this, please ensure you have the OS.IMG downloaded onto a CF card before you install the netBook module otherwise your new 7Book will have no OS!

Any more questions, ask here or feel free to PM me.

John

[larsa]

Originally posted by netBookBabe

The main problem I see at the moment is the sourcing of the netBook personality module - if you can get one, I would say definitely go for it! :)


Just wondering if a MalayBook personality module would work :) Anyone tried that one?

Lars J

[donkeyontheedge]

Apparently it does. One of the reasons (I believe) that David Lowe was only selling netBook modules with a part-ex S7 module is that he had a job lot of netBooks from somewhere and found it more profitable to cannibalize the netBooks for their personality modules, then sell the netBooks with S7 modules as Series7's.

If anyone part-ex'd a MalayBook module, he would sell that as a cheaper upgrade alternative to S7 users. They would then have a "7MBook" (confused yet?) which was a S7 running 60% faster and with the non-upgradeable Malaysian netBook OS.

Without the personality module, the S7, netBook and MalayBook are effectively the same beast. Some motherboard variations and differing case badges etc but basically the same. It is the personality module that is the key.

Hope this clears things up

John

[Nicholas Murray]

So until (or unless) I can locate a personality module I cannot take this any further. Thanks for all the advice.
NM

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by Nicholas Murray
So until (or unless) I can locate a personality module I cannot take this any further. Thanks for all the advice.
NM Nicholas

Yes, that is exactly correct. I apologise if my earlier post was not sufficiently clear.

The comment from donkeyontheedge that the personality module is the key does sum up the situation in a nutshell.

Julie

[larsa]

They are apparently not as hard to get by as one would believe (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=S7NBUPG), but they are not cheap (from an upgrading-from-an-MBook point of view)...
Maybe if I was an S7 owner...

Lars J

[netBookBabe]

Although Expansys do appear to be showing stock of the modules, they also display the following statement:

"We have no more availability of these items, we will try to fulfill all back orders but we cannot take any more orders."

The last time I enquired, they confirmed that they do not expect to receive any more into stock, so it is highly ambiguous.

Julie

[Nicholas Murray]

I have now spotted apparent availability on Expansys site. The key question for me, however, is very simple. If I do this will i be able to use the Web browser to access sites which I can't at the moment on Series 7 because lack of Javascript prevents it. Otheriwse I might as well go and get an ordinary laptop. Any ideas? What exactly can the netBook browser deliver?

[andyahern]

If you upgrade your Personality module, you will need to run the Netbook OS. This is available for free. The latest build of the OS comes with Opera 5.14 built in. This lets you access more features than Web on the series 7. It is not equivalent to the browser on a Laptop, with many sites not being accessible. It also has many bugs (see Yans site).
You can use Grandrapid browser on the 7Book which is Java based. It allows access to more sites but is sllloooowwww !

I thought the compromise on the broswer was worthwhile because of the 7Book's many other virtues, but if your main intention is to surf, then a laptop will probably be more suitable.

Hope this is helpful,
Andy