Do palm pilots have a "backup battery"?

[SickBeast]

I've noticed that once the batteries go dead in my palm pilot I lose all of my saved information. Is there any way to replace the backup battery? Is there even one? I was under the impression that flash memory could save data even with no power input. Any info on this would be really helpful. Thanks.

 

[JknowWhat]

how old is your palm pilot? the palm should be able to maintain charge long enough for you to change the batteries at least. if you are talking about a rechargable palm then no there isnt a backup for as soon as the lith ion batt dies everything in ram is gone. everything in flash though stays.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: JknowWhat
how old is your palm pilot? the palm should be able to maintain charge long enough for you to change the batteries at least. if you are talking about a rechargable palm then no there isnt a backup for as soon as the lith ion batt dies everything in ram is gone. everything in flash though stays.

It's a Palm IIIxe. And the batteries have been dead for awhile. The last time that this happened I lost all of my data, so I'm trying to look for a way to prevent this in the future.

 

[amdskip]

here ya go

 

[fr]

I had a Palm IIIx and even if the batteries no longer had enough power to turn it on, it would keep the data saved for a couple days before losing all data.

As long as you sync frequently, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: fr
I had a Palm IIIx and even if the batteries no longer had enough power to turn it on, it would keep the data saved for a couple days before losing all data.

As long as you sync frequently, it shouldn't be a problem.

I do sync frequently, but I recently formatted so I'm out of luck

Do you know of a way to backup hotsync data onto a cd or something? Thanks

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

My dad's M100 had the LiIon battery die after only about 8 months. Thats the battery that keeps your info from being erased when the AAA's are being changed. It got dead enough that even *with* new batteries in, it would still lose all info after powering on or off.

If you don't want to pay for repair, you're going to have to open it up and replace the battery. It is a small (maybe .5mm) 3V watch battery. Do not attempt this unless you have a soldering iron, as the battery is spot welded on to two contacts.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: NaughtyusMaximus
My dad's M100 had the LiIon battery die after only about 8 months. Thats the battery that keeps your info from being erased when the AAA's are being changed. It got dead enough that even *with* new batteries in, it would still lose all info after powering on or off.

If you don't want to pay for repair, you're going to have to open it up and replace the battery. It is a small (maybe .5mm) 3V watch battery. Do not attempt this unless you have a soldering iron, as the battery is spot welded on to two contacts.

I have a soldering iron and I'm pretty good at fixing computer hardware. How complicated is replacing the battery?

 

[zephyrprime]

I think the older models like yours have a button battery as well as AAA batteries. Palm's don't use flash memory so that's why it's being forgotten. The newer palms seem to use flash cards in conjuction with regular ram.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
I think the older models like yours have a button battery as well as AAA batteries. Palm's don't use flash memory so that's why it's being forgotten. The newer palms seem to use flash cards in conjuction with regular ram.

Older Palms will lose their memory within minutes of taking the battery out. No button battery AFAIK. Big capacitors keep the memory intact while changing the batteries.

When the batteries "die" (can't turn unit on), it's still OK, since there is enough power to maintain the memory. However, if they REALLY die - say you leave it for months - then you're SOL.

That's why it's good to sync often, and it's good to have a unit with a backup module/card.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I have a soldering iron and I'm pretty good at fixing computer hardware. How complicated is replacing the battery?

As long as you're careful taking the old battery out you shouldn't have a problem. the biggest problem is going to be making sure that you don't rip the contacts out when you're taking the battery out.

Also, when you're soldering the new battery in, you have to make sure you don't heat the contacts much at all, since the heat WILL travel through to the IC chips, and it is easy to kill them this way. If you don't hold the iron onto the contact for more than 2 seconds, you shouldn't have a problem, but you also want to make sure make a good solder joint. That shouldn't pose much of a problem to you if you've used your soldering iron a few times.

 

[fr]

Your Palm IIIxe does have flash! It's been a while, but when I used Palms, FlashPro and JackFlash were popular apps that let you store data in flash.

 

[0roo0roo]

yup capacitor. i've just copied the old palm install directory over my new one

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: fr
Your Palm IIIxe does have flash! It's been a while, but when I used Palms, FlashPro and JackFlash were popular apps that let you store data in flash.

Awesome! Thanks very much for the tip