My Palm problems continued, perhaps for the better

I had won a Palm Pilot Professional on eBay which I got today, I started by installing just a few games to try and one of them said "Out of memory" which I found strange since I barely put anything on it. I then see in the Memory app that it only has 480 K, I flip it over and see it's the Personal model which has half the memory.

I notified the seller which quickly refunded my payment in full so I ended up getting it free but with 480 K RAM its mostly useless as only the most basic games have enough RAM to run.

So i searched eBay for another Palm Pilot Professional and the cheapest one was $25 which is quite a bit, but it was new sealed in box as if I bought it at the store in '97-'98 so I got it. It also turns out the serial cable I got fits very tightly in the Palm Pilot Professional while it fits properly in the Palm III series, so it'll be good to also have the cradle.

It's gonna be kind of fun opening a sealed Palm Pilot box in 2012 and reliving opening my Palm Pilot all over again lol.

By the way the Palm III from that kit I got which I modded with the reversed backlight from the Palm IIIxe sold for $15 (kind of funny considering I paid the entire lot $11).


Edited by aab 2012-08-10 7:00 AM

I'm gonna have to put a toothpick in the Palm Pilot Pro's (Palm Pilot Personal for now) battery compartment too, it's ridiculous how often Palm OS crashes. Without a toothpick in the battery compartment it will become a useless battery draining paper weight until it self destroys by draining itself dead and cleared of all data (you can't even turn it off when it's frozen).

So not only does this OS crash if you look at the screen wrong, they didn't even make the stylus fit the reset hole, leaving users to rush for a pointy object before the battery dies and they lose all their data, it's really an absurd design. This silly design continued at least until the Palm III series (I remember at some point they made the tip of the stylus unscrew to reveal a reset needle).

I'll admit that SOME of the crashes are related to the fact I have 465 of 480 kb used and I'm trying to run those games with awesome graphics, you know the ones with whopping 2 bit graphics lol (all 1 bit games run fine though).

This is why I need the Pro model with twice the RAM, already 1 MB is very little, 480 KB is mostly useless considering I want to use it for games.

Funny how Windows CE devices are the opposite, the reset button is very easy to press with the stylus on all models I've seen, but you almost never need to use it because Windows CE is pretty much uncrashable, while Palm OS is pretty much un-uncrashable.


Edited by aab 2012-08-14 8:57 AM

Some of the Palm stylii actually have removable ends so that you can use it as an ink pen, or you can use the end to reset the device with.






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Do any of those fit the Palm Palm Pilot or Palm III? I personally prefer the Palm Pilot's stylus because it easily slides out of the device while on the Palm III series it's quite hard to get out.

Thanks

The Palm III stylii were the first to unscrew and had the reset pointer. The Palm Pro and earlier models did not have the reset pointer. There were special reset devices made that would fit the hole. Most people used an unbent paper clip.

A Palm III stylus will fit in a Palm Pro (and earlier) silo. However, you may find it hard to get out as the top part of the stylus is almost flush with the case side. It will also stick out a touch. A Palm Pro stylus will fit a Palm III silo but it's too long and won't lock into place.

Rick

I had 3 Palm IIIs (counting the TRGpro as a Palm III, but only have 2 now that the Palm III is sold) and none of them have an "unscrewable" stylus tip, it seems like one solid piece of plastic to me.

Or was this new stylus only in the Palm IIIc which I don't have? Or did you mean the Palm III is the first model for which other companies made compatible pens with a built in reset needle?

Anyway I think I'll stick to a toothpick in the battery compartment.


Edited by aab 2012-08-15 4:34 PM

My Palm V and VX had a metal stylus with removable tip with a reset pin on it. My old Palm (forgot the model name) had a flimsy(ish) plastic stylus. Maybe it was the first Palm Pilot.

Seems to me that I remember widening the hole is some old handhelds so it would accept the stylus tip...was a matter of simply drilling out the case a little bit...

The stylus that I'm talking about is the one that shipped with both the Palm III series and the TRGpro. It has a light grey metal barrel with darker grey plastic end pieces. Both end pieces unscrewed. The top one had a thin plastic reset tab built in. If you have stylii that are all one shade of grey plastic then you have the replacement stylus that was sold separately.

Rick

Edited by Richard Plume 2012-08-16 12:00 AM

All my Palm IIIs have/had the flimsy all plastic stylus.

In any case, the seller from which I hot the new sealed Palm Pilot Pro listed 5 more yesterday, one sold, but I bought the 4 others (for $25 each) because I saw one seller sold one for $237, if I sell just one for that price I end up making money, if I sell all 4 for about $40 each I end up making money, so I think this was a pretty good deal with more potential than those 8 Jornada 720s for $160.


Edited by aab 2012-08-22 6:49 PM

lol I just came across a Palm Pilot Pro review on youtube done in 2012 and as he explains every part he says "...there's also a reset switch which you're going to need a lot if you actually use it because these are notorious for crashing a lot."

You must really be lucky Richard, you seem to be the only one who's Palm device doesn't crash at least 3 times per hour of use (if anything that's a big underestimate), I guess it's the apps you use, but I think I've seen built in apps and even hotsync crash the device.

Edit: lol he then goes on to say "you see this is pretty common a lot of times, when your device wasn't crashing you'd get error messages"

Edited by aab 2012-08-24 7:22 PM