RAM upgrade

[twomules]

I recently bought (on ebay) a 32mb ram upgrade for my series 7. Can I just install this straight into the machine and if so will it improve the performance? (I haven't done anything with it yet as it hasn't yet been delivered)

At the moment I can't really afford to buy a netbook personality module but having read through these discussion boards I'm not sure if I should be going for one of those first, while they're (possibly) still available on Expansys.

I'm really not very clever about these things so any advice would be welcome.

Cheers,

twomules

[wanman]

Originally posted by twomules
I recently bought (on ebay) a 32mb ram upgrade for my series 7. Can I just install this straight into the machine and if so will it improve the performance? (I haven't done anything with it yet as it hasn't yet been delivered)


Right first of all, the 7 Series RAM expansion was only 16mb. This took the internal memory up to 32mb. If you have bought a 32mb DIMM card from Expansys then it will not work. This was designed for the netBook and upgraded the netBook's 32mb up to 64mb. If you install it into your 7, it will be ignored and hopefully not cause any damage.

Regarding performance, additional RAM on the 7 and netBook does improve performance. RAM is used as storage only on these units and will not improve speed as is the case on a normal PC. The only difference you will notice is that you have more space on your C: Drive.


At the moment I can't really afford to buy a netbook personality module but having read through these discussion boards I'm not sure if I should be going for one of those first, while they're (possibly) still available on Expansys.


Expansys only have a very limited stock of these and may already have sold them all. Once these have gone, getting hold of a netBook personalit module will be very very difficult. If you have already bought a 32mb DIMM card and cannot get a refund, the only way to use this is to get a netBook personality module too.

The benefits of purchasing one of these are as follows:
1) Easy to install - Just replace the existing 7 personality module in the right slot with the netBook one.
2) Operating system is upgradeable. Although the latest version 158 will probably be the last they produce. But it includes all the apps from the 7 including Opera 5.14 as the default browser. Java is part of the OS now rather than an additional install. Also you get additional built in drivers for restricted wireless/wired ethernet cards.
3) Applications will run alot faster on with the netBook personality module than the 7. The reason for this is the processor speed is governed by the personality module and for the netBook, you processor will run at 192MHz as apposed to 131MHz. It may not sound a lot, but you definitely won't regret the upgrade.
4) Standard memory for the netBook is 32mb as apposed to 16mb on the 7 although some of this 32mb is allocated as memory for the OS so you end up with the same. With your memory you have just bought, this should give you a C: Drive size of approx 50mb as the OS takes up about 14mb.

Drawbacks:
1) The netBook personality module does not come preinstalled with an operating system unlike the 7 module. The OS has to be installed manually, rather than the instant switch on and go you get with the 7. This is done when you first install the netBook personality module and once done it will not need doing again, unless you remove all batteries or perform a hard reset. Backups are therefore essential.
2) battery life is slightly reduced due to the increased processor speed. This is not that noticable as I still get between 6 and 7 hours good use out of my netBook, with a wireless network card on the go too.

To ensure you can full benefit from the upgrade to a netBook (or 7Book as we called upgraded 7's) check the current 7 OS version by clicking shift+ctrl+q Software version should have either 751, 754 or 756. If it reads 756, the you should have the later motherboard that will support more of the network cards supported by the netBook. If you have an older 7, there MAY be problems with some network cards not working. Help is available for all this.

So probably not what you wanted to hear about your purchase but if you get hold of a netBook personality module, you should be glad you did !!! But be quick, or alternatively return the 32mb ram module and stick with the 7 as it is.

Kind Regards

Simon

[Lewis]

In haste, 2mules!

With due respect to all the good advice/info Simon has provided, I think he might be mistaken in one important regard; and one which probably will be what you want to hear! ;)

Although it was marketed as being intended for the netBook, the 32Mb DIMM should indeed work in your otherwise standard Series 7 - if you do a search on these forums you should find relevant threads, including a posting of mine which contains a transcription of Psion's own instruction leaflet for installing the memory upgrade. This makes clear that it may be fitted to a Series 7 or nB. :cool:

The most important thing to remember when fitting the extra memory is to remove all power sources, including batteries first (after performing a full backup, of course!), otherwise you most definitely can cause serious/fatal damage!

A nB personality module will certainly transform your S7's performance, but the RAM upgrade alone will give the benefit of being able to keep many applications (especially Opera) running at once, without running low on memory.

Apart from some apps like WinEpoc which benefit (speed-wise) from being installed on the C drive, you're best off installing extra apps to a CF card and also using it to archive large/infrequently accessed files. The upgraded internal RAM can then be reserved for storing your more frequently used files (Agenda, etc) along with access-speed-critical System files like the E-Mail app's Mail folder, leaving plenty of free, program execution memory. :)

L

[wanman]

Interesting post Lewis!!

The reasoning behind the 32mb compatibilities is really down to the OS. It was understood (and explained to me) that ER5 OS only recognises certain memory configurations; and these are 8mb, 16mb, 32mb and 64mb. People that have tried installing the 32mb dimm module on a 7 discovered that it was just ignored.

I only confirmed the information that I had gathered over the years and am interested in your new info as I would any new info on Psions. Have you succesfully installed a 32mb dimm on a 7series yourself and got it to work? Fantastic news if that is the case. Can you also post the link to the other thread that you referred to so that I can follow this up.

Cheers

Si

[JKC]

Hi All,

I have successfully installed the 32Mb Netbook Ram module in a series 7, and it works just fine!

Jo

[wanman]

Excellent news. Well at least that answers one question and twomules can safely use his new dimm upgrade whether he goes for the netBook room or not.

Cheers JFC

Si

[Lewis]

Hi, Si! :)

Was posting somewhat on the fly (afraid I've been unavoidably rather out of circulation for a while) but, assuming my memory ;) was serving me correctly, I wanted to reassure 2mules before he possibly returned his precious DIMM!... I haven't tried a 32Mb-S7 upgrade on my Seven (stuck it straight in my nB!), but just had a quick check and hopefully these threads should be of interest to you. :)

Cheers for now,

L

http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19062

http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18682

http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19480

[netBookBabe]

Hello Lewis, LTNS! Glad to see you finally surfaced from that very long, dark railway tunnel. ;)

Like wanman, I was under the belief that the 32MB RAM module was only suitable for the netBook, until you pointed out to me the VERY small print in Psion's installation instructions which mentions the S7 as well.

Never noticed it when I installed mine!

Julie

[donkeyontheedge]

This is what I had gathered recently too. Apparently the only conbination that certainly doesn't work is the 16Mb DIMM in a netBook.

If you think about it, it's strange that the 16Mb DIMM works in the Series7, as this gives 32Mb RAM + 16Mb ROM = 48Mb which EPOC apparently shouldn't support.

Makes no sense to me!

John :confused:

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by donkeyontheedge
Makes no sense to me! Me neither, but I long ago suspended my policy of expecting this kind of thing to make sense! :rolleyes:

Julie

[fladda]

Originally posted by donkeyontheedge
This is what I had gathered recently too. Apparently the only conbination that certainly doesn't work is the 16Mb DIMM in a netBook.

If you think about it, it's strange that the 16Mb DIMM works in the Series7, as this gives 32Mb RAM + 16Mb ROM = 48Mb which EPOC apparently shouldn't support.

Makes no sense to me!

John :confused:

16Mbyte RAM card not working on the Netbook might not be anything to do with EPOC. I believe this is a function of the hardware design.

Well here's a technical explanation :-

Netbook personality module and the Series 7 16Mbyte RAM module actually share the same raw PWB. Each board contains the same 2 8Mbyte DRAM chips, mapped into the same EPOC address space. Netbook personality module has a few extra components fitted, mostly a 2Mbyte? flash ROM.

As far as I know, the right-hand and the left-hand expansion slots on the Netbook/Series 7 are identical. Both slots have the same address, data and control lines connected to the same connector pins. You can put the Netbook personality module in the left-hand slot, and the Netbook will work just the same. On a Series-7 you can fit the 16Mbyte memory expansion card into either slot.

So fitting a 16Mbyte RAM board into a Netbook will mean that the 2 *Mbyte DRAM ICs are physically mapped at the same memory location as the two DRAMs on the Netbook's personality module. Both expansion boards would effectively have their DRAM ICs connected in 'parallel'.

So the Netbook cannot 'see' the extra 16Mbytes of DRAM.

I guess that you would also get the same effect if you fitted two 16Mbyte DRAM expansion cards into the two expansion slots of a Sereis-7. Series 7 would only see 16Mbytes of extra DRAM (i.e. 32Mbytes total).

Hope this makes some sense,

Ralph

ps. I'm not 100% sure that the two expansion slots are use absolutely identical pinouts. I think that I bussed them out some time ago, but cannot remember for certain now.

pps. This same 16Mbyte DRAM space is also mapped onto the two unused DRAM sockets on the motherboard.