Ron Nicholson's Short and Completely Unofficial FAQ on PalmOS Handhelds or More Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Palm Computing and other Palm OS connected organizers(tm) (mostly questions from the comp.sys.palmtops.pilot usenet newsgroup) This Short FAQ is kept updated on the web at: There are a bunch of links to other PalmOS web sites there. -- Q: Where's the official Palm FAQ? A: Palm's FAQ is on the web, at: There is also a keyword search function on that page. PalmSource's Support page is here: Several good Palm OS FAQ's are also on the web: Another comp.sys.palmtops.pilot FAQ is here: PalmGear's is here: Also see these FAQs on Palm communications: , and The Sony Clie Handheld Support page is here: Also, for the non-humor-impaired: More answers and their questions -- Q: What's a Palm Organizer or Palm OS handheld (Palm Tungsten, Zire, etc.)? A: It's an shirt-pocket sized electronic organizer manufactured by Palm(tm) (NASDAQ: PALM), formerly PalmOne(tm), Inc, formerly a subsidiary of US Robotics and then 3Com(tm) (NASDAQ: COMS), or by one of several other Palm OS licensees, including Garmin, Fossil and Alphasmart. Features: Easy to use and shirt pocket size. The built-in applications include a Todo list, a Datebook, an Address book and a small Memopad. Uses gesture recognition (Graffiti(tm)) for text input. Comes with either a serial or USB cable and software to backup data (HotSync(tm)) to a PC or Mac. The batteries can last from 1 week to a month or more given light to moderate use. They are also small handheld personal computers capable of running a huge library of 3rd party software, including spreadsheets, games, databases, programming language interpreters, timers, web browsers, and email applications. Several software development kits are available which allow people to write their own custom applications. The units have a display LCD of at least 160 by 160 pixels (more on many models), a pen digitizer, usually 7 (or more) buttons, an IrDA port, and either a 5-wire RS-232 serial port or a USB port. Optional modems (both wired and wireless) are available. -- Q: What advantages does a Palm organizer have over a paper organizer? A: Many: including alarms, ease of backups and searching for data, small size, quickly exchanging data with a PC/Mac, and password security. -- Q: What are some different models of Palm OS handhelds? A: There are many different models of Palm/PalmPilot handhelds available (brief summary): Z22 : lores color LCD, 200 MHz CPU, 32 MB RAM, OS 5.4, USB connector Tungsten E2 : 200 MHz, OS 5.4, 32 MB, Bluetooth T|X : 320x480 color display, Bluetooth, wifi, 312 MHZ CPU, 128 MB, OS 5.4, no microphone Treo 650 : & Bluetooth, 320x320 display, OS5.4, 312 MHZ CPU Treo 700p : & 128 MB, 1.3 megapixel camera LifeDrive : 416 MHz CPU, 320x480 display, 64 MB memory, 4GB hard drive, OS5.4, wifi, Bluetooth (the below Palm models are probably out of production) Zire : 2 MB RAM, less buttons, USB port only, OS 4.1 Zire 21 : 126 MHz CPU, 8 MB RAM, OS 5.2.1, USB HotSync connector Zire 31 : lores color, OS 5.2.8, SD slot, mp3 audio, 200 MHz, 16 MB Zire 71 : hires color, OS 5.2, 144 MHz ARM CPU, 16 MB RAM, digital camera, mp3 audio Zire 72 : hires color, OS 5.2.8, 312 MHz ARM CPU, 32 MB RAM, 1.2 Mpix digital camera, mic + mp3 audio, Bluetooth Tungsten C : 320x320, keyboard, OS 5.2.1, 400 MHz PXA255 CPU, 64 MB RAM wifi (802.11b) built-in, mono headphone jack Tungsten E : 126 MHz ARM CPU, OS 5.2.1, 32 MB, 320x320 color TFT Tungsten T (m550): 144 MHz ARM CPU, OS 5.0, 320x320 color display, 16 MB RAM, built-in Bluetooth, Graffiti under slide cover, OS 5.0, voice recorder, mp3 capable Tungsten T2 : above with 32 MB RAM + OS 5.2 Tungsten T3 : with 320x480 display, slider, 64 MB, 400 MHz CPU, OS 5.2.1 Tungsten T5 : 320x480 display, 416 MHz CPU, OS 5.4, Bluetooth, 64 MB (55 usable) RAM + 160 MB flash memory Tungsten W : OS 4.x, keyboard, built-in cellular telephone Palm m500 : 8 MB RAM, PalmOS 4.0, 33 MHz VZ CPU, Lithium Polymer battery, 1 SD/MMC slot, LED and vibrating alarm, USB connector & cradle Palm m505 : M50x w/ reflective 16-bit color display, 8 MB RAM, PalmOS 4.1 (slightly thicker and 0.9 oz heavier than M500) Palm m515 : + brighter display, 16 MB RAM Palm i705 : wireless, rechargeable, OS4.1, USB, SD card slot (the out-of-production Palm models below use AAA batteries.) Palm m100 : small, OS3.5, 2 MB RAM, plastic digitizer (instead of glass), 0.29 dpmm display (instead of 0.33), louder beeper, clock window, optional colored covers. Palm m105 : + 8 MB RAM & Mobile Internet Kit. Palm m125 : + USB connector, SD card slot, 33 MHz VZ, OS4.0 Palm m130 : + 12-bit color display, rechargable li-ion battery Treo 600 : CDMA or GSM smartphone, 160x160 color display, keyboard, OS5.2, 32MB, SD slot, VGA camera There are also PalmOS units built by other OS licensee companies: Alphasmart Dana - educational tablet with full size keyboard, wifi optional Garmin iQue 3600 : OS 5, GPS, 320x480 color, 150 MHz MXL ARM CPU, 32 MB RAM, li-ion, mp3 Fossil Sony (see for details) CLIE : Jog Dial, EL backlight, MemoryStick(tm) port, USB CLIE PEG-T615C : 320x320 color ,16 MB, enhanced Ir CLIE PEG-T665C : above with 66 MHz CPU + DSP for playing MP3's CLIE PEG-SJ22 : 320x320 color, 16 MB, 33 MHz, li-ion CLIE PEG-SJ33 : above with 66 MHz, mp3 audio CLIE PEG-TG50 : 320x320 color, OS 5.0, 200 MHz ARM CPU, 16 MB, keyboard, Bluetooth CLIE PEG-TH55 : 320x480 color, 802.11b wifi, voice recorder, 123 MHz CPU, OS 5.2.1, 32 MB RAM CLIE PEG-TJ25 : 320x320 color, 16 MB, OS 5.2, 200 MHz ARM CPU CLIE PEG-TJ35 : above with 32 MB (23 MB storage), audio jack CLIE PEG-TJ37 : above plus 0.31 Mpix camera & wifi CLIE PEG-NX60 : clamshell, 320x480 color display, wifi slot, 200 MHz ARM CPU, OS 5.0 CLIE NX-70V : NX-60 + 310k pixel digital camera CLIE NX-73V : 32MB RAM CLIE NX-80V : 32MB + 1.3 Mpixel camera CLIE NZ-90V : 2 Mpixel camera + CF wifi slot CLIE PEG-UX50 : mini-notebook, Bluetooth, 802.11b, 300k pix camera CLIE PEG-UX40 : UX50 without wifi CLIE PEG-VZ90 : OLED 480x320 display, 123 MHz HHE CPU, 64+128 MB (Japan market only) Handspring Visor's: Deluxe : 8 MB, AAA batteries, OS 3.1H, one Springboard slot, one USB port (instead of serial), OS in ROM, see: Neo : 8 MB, 33 MHz VZ, OS 3.5.2H3, " Platinum/Prism : color/16grey, li-ion, OS 3.5.2H, 33 MHz VZ cpu Handspring Treo's: 300 : color display 180g : GSM 900/1900 cell phone, flip cover, jog rocker, 16MB 180 : + QWERTY keyboard instead of graffiti area 270 : + 12-bit CSTN color display, PalmOS 3.5 90 : no phone, 12-bit CSTN, keyboard, SD slot, PalmOS 4.1 Symbol (1500 with built-in bar-code scanner and 17xx ruggedized), Kyocera - QCP 6035 smartphone series (CDMA) Samsung - smartphone Tapwave Zodiac - joystick, 480x320 color display, dual SD slots, OS 5.2 ... and other licensees (Acacia, Nokia, etc.) Sizes: Zire 4.4" x 2.9" x 0.6" ; 3.8 oz (112 x 74 x 16 mm, 109g), Z21 Zire31 4.4" x 2.9" x 0.6" ; 4.1 oz Zire71 4.5" x 2.9" x 0.67"; 5.3 oz Zire72 4.6" x 2.95" x 0.67"; 4.8 oz Zire22 4.06" x 2.7" x 0.6" ; 3.4 oz m500 4.5" x 3.1" x 0.4" ; 4.0 oz m505 4.5" x 3.1" x 0.5" ; 4.9 oz m550 4-4.8"x 3.0" x 0.62"; 5.6 oz Tungsten T and T2 T|E 4.5" x 3.1" x 0.5" ; 4.6 oz T|T3 4.25" x 3.0" x 0.55"; 5.6 oz closed, 5.12" long open T|T5 4.76" x 3.08" x 0.61"; 5.1 oz - T|X 5.25 oz LDrive 4.76" x 2.87" x 0.74"; 6.8 oz LifeDrive Mobile Manager T|C 4.8" x 3.07" x 0.65"; 6.3 oz T|W 5.43" x 3.07" x 0.65"; 6.5 oz Tungsten/W 600 4.41" x 2.26" x 0.87"; 6 oz Treo phone 650 4.41" x 2.3" x 0.9" ; 6.3 oz "" SJ22 4.13" x 2.88" x 0.66"; 4.5 oz SJ33 4.25" x 2.88" x 0.86"; 6.1 oz TJ35 4.38" x 3.0" x 0.47"; 4.9 oz (same as TJ25) TJ37 4.53" x 2.95" x 0.52"; 5 oz T665C 4.65" x 2.83" x 0.50"; 4.9 oz (same as T615C) TG50 4.96" x 2.8" x 0.64"; 6.4 oz (126 x 71.6 x 16.2 mm, 184g) TH55 4.78" x 2.89" x 0.62"; 5.8 or 6.6 oz (with flip cover) NX70V 5.5" x 2.88" x 0.7-0.9" ; 8 oz UX50 4.1" x 3.4" x 0.7" ; 6.2 oz (folded notebook) VZ90 4.3" x 3.4" x 0.86"; 9.5 oz (button slider closed) Zodiac 5.6" x 3.1" x 0.55"; 6.3 oz Tapwave game device 3600 5.0" x 2.8" x 0.8" ; 5.2 oz Garmin iQue Dana 9.3" x 12.4" x 1.9" ; 32 oz (full-sized keyboard) Older Palm models (may be out of production): m10X 4.66" x 3.12" x 0.72"; 4.4 oz (with Alkaline AAA batteries) m125 4.82" x 3.1" x 0.87"; 5.3 oz "" Palm V : thin, rechargable Li-ion battery, 16 MHz MC68EZ328 OS3.5 in flash, 2 MB memory Before Feb 2000, Palm V units came with OS3.1, Vx with OS3.3; both with a quieter speaker; Palm Vx : PalmV with 8 MB RAM, 20 MHz DragonBallEZ (MC68EZ328) annodized in several fashion colors after Aug '00. V/Vx 4.5" x 3.1" x 0.4" ; 4 oz (114 x 79 x 11 mm, 115g) Palm IIIc : Backlit Color display, darker & taller case than IIIe, Li-ion battery, OS3.5 in flash, 8MB RAM, 20 MHz EZ IIIc 5.06" x 3.17" x 0.67"; 6.8 oz Palm IIIxe - OS3.5 in flash, 8MB RAM, dark case, no expansion slot Palm IIIx - OS3.1 in flash memory, 4MB RAM, expansion slot Palm IIIe - OS3.1 in ROM(non-upgradable), 2MB RAM, AAA batteries IIIe 4.7" x 3.2" x 0.65"; 5.5 oz (117 x 79 x 16 mm, 155g) Palm i705 - VIIx replacement, 4.7" x 3.1" x 0.6" ; 5.9 oz Palm VIIx : tall Palm III with BellSouth wireless data networking. (OS3.5, dark case, 8 MB RAM) Palm VII - wireless, OS3.2, 2 MB RAM. (all the above have IrDA and improved high contrast displays) Palm III - IrDA, OS3.0 in flash, 2MB RAM, slightly tapered case. PalmPilot Professional - 1M PSRAM memory, OS 2.0Pro+TCP/IP in 1MB ROM PalmPilot Personal - 512k PSRAM memory, OS 2.0 (no tcp) in 1 MB ROM (all the above have backlit displays) USR Pilot 5000 - no backlight, 512k PSRAM memory, OS 1.0 in 512k ROM USR Pilot 1000 - no backlight, 128k PSRAM memory, OS 1.0 in 512k ROM (announced in January, shipped in May 1996 for $299) Handspring Visor 4.8" x 3.0" x 0.7" ; 5.4 oz Edge 4.7" x 3.1" x 0.44"; 4.8 oz (119 x 79 x 11 mm, 136g) 90 4.2" x 2.8" x 0.65"; 4 oz (108 x 71 x 16 mm) Treo 90 Prism 4.8" x 3.0" x 0.8" ; 6.9 oz (120 x 75 x 21 mm, 194g) Treo 4.3" x 2.7" x 0.7" ; 5.4 oz (Treo 270 5.5 oz) Qualcomm (with a CDMA cell phone), TRG: TRG Pro - Compact Flash slot, louder speaker HandEra 330 - 240x320 display, SD and Compact Flash, 33 MHz VZ Futures: The periodic introduction of new units with more features or performance is extremely likely (as is the norm in the computer industry). PalmSource has announced 2 new OS families: Garnet (an upgrade to OS 5.3), and Cobalt (formerly OS 6.x) a multithreaded, protected memory OS with many new API's. -- Q: Is a PalmOS handheld better than a PocketPC (WinCE Palm-sized-PC)? A: Don't ask this question on usenet! You'll just start a flame war. Lots of people buy Palm handhelds (70%+ US retail market share in 2002; Palm did a lot of work on human factors to make them fast and very easy to use as organizers.); but some people buy the other palmtops as well. Many people think that whatever product they paid for is the best and will strongly argue the point. -- Q: Do I need a screen protector? A: Most Palm displays (except the m100) are glass covered by a plastic digitizer layer. This surface won't be scratched by an absolutely clean plastic stylus. Unfortunately many kinds of dust particles are hard enough to scratch the screen. If any of these particles get under your stylus, they can cause visible scratches on the display. How likely this is to occur probably depends on how clean your environment is, how close you live to a dormant volcano, etc. Several companies sell screen protectors. You can also make your own by cutting thin sheets of clear plastic to just the size of the display, plus a little bit extra to tuck under the bezel (overhead transparency film, cut to 64 x 86 mm, with notched corners). Some people use standard fabric store 4 mil clear vinyl, which clings to the display, but slightly tricky to cut and apply without bubbles. Several people have reported that 3M PostIt(tm) tape flag material, or Scotch 811 tape, makes the Graffiti area feel more like writing on paper, as well a protecting this area from wear. -- Q: How long will the AAA batteries last in a Palm IIIx or m100? A: Depends a lot on usage. A lot of people use up their first pair of batteries much faster than subsequent use. Many people have reported getting between 2 weeks and 2 months battery life with alkalines and "moderate" usage. Shelf life while sleeping may be over 6 months. But, continuous use (actions games, for instance) can drain the batteries in less than a day. At 50 mA from 900 mAH AAA Alkaline cells, the battery voltage will drop below 1.1 V per cell after around 18 hours. A typical PalmPilot has been reported to use (approximately): 80-90 mA on, backlight on, CPU busy, serial port active. 50-60 mA on, no backlight, CPU busy, serial port active. 30-60 mA on, processor busy (pen down, playing a game, etc.) 15-25 mA on, idle but displaying data (calendar, for example). 1.2 mA off, serial port DSR line terminated(~3K Ohms). 0.5 mA off (sleeping), Palm modem attached. 0.13 - 0.3 mA off (sleeping) & out of cradle. dividing into 900 mAH we get around: 10 hours continuously on with backlight and serial port active. 2-3 days always on, using memopad. 120-280 days off (sleeping) and unconnected (e.g. shelf life). There are also reports that if 'Beam Receive' is left on in IR "noisy" environments, the battery consumption rate might be higher. -- Q: How long will the Li-Ion batteries run in a Palm Vx or m505? A: It depends on usage. The range is hours to weeks. V or Vx: Palm claims around 1 month of "typical" usage, or about 1/3rd to 1/2 the the battery life of a Palm III (maybe 300 to 400 mAH, or 5 to 24 hours of "on" time). A Palm V/Vx can be kept in the cradle continuously without danger of overcharging. The lifespan of the Li-ion battery will be greater if it is not fully discharged. -- Q: Is the built-in battery gauge accurate? A: It's not very linear. It may drop to 80% very quickly, stay there for days and then suddenly drop rapidly again. -- Q: How do I change my Palm m100's AAA batteries safely? A: According to the Palm documentation, you have one minute to change batteries, which should be easy if you the new batteries unwrapped, correctly oriented, and within easy reach. Make sure you put the batteries in with the correct orientation, one + terminal in each direction. Many Palm units will hold data for a lot longer than 1 minute, but don't count on it. If you cannot change batteries at all without losing data (repeatably; absolutely under 1 minute; and you've made sure the batteries are actually good by testing them with a voltmeter), you could have a damaged Palm (might be a dead backup capacitor, maybe a dynacap DSK-3R3H224-HL ( 3.3V .22F ) made by Elna; a 0.10F 5.5v SGtype; Panasonic EECS0HD104H or Digikey part number P6952-ND or P6972-ND, depending on which model of Palm/Pilot). The Palm V's Li-ion batteries are not user removable (the case is glued shut). -- Q: What's with the backlight on some old monochome Palm handhelds? A: On the oldest (PalmPilot) units both ambient light and the backlight illuminated the background pixels; therefore turning the backlight on could only make the contrast better. On some newer Palm units, ambient light illuminates the background pixels, but the backlight illuminates the foreground pixels (usually the text). Therefore, in dim light conditions, both sets of pixels can get lit the same amount, which renders the display contrast quite poor (unreadable). -- Q: How many PalmOS handhelds have been sold? A: Over 30.1 million PalmOS units (including licensees), according to Sept 2003 Palm Inc. financial reports; with over 22 million total USR/3Com/Palm or Palm Solutions Group branded units shipped (over 4 million per year). -- Q: Can I use my PalmOS handheld on a commercial airline? A: U.S. Federal Regulations (FAA FAR 91.21 and 121.306) require you to turn off portable electronic devices, such as your PalmOS hanheld or Nintendo GameBoy(tm), during takeoff and landing. FCC rules section 22.925, 47 CFR Part 22, may also require you to turn off a Palm VII or Treo 600 (etc.) radio in while flight. Whatever the reason, that's the law. Other countries may have similar legally binding restrictions. -- Q: Will airport "X-ray" machines or metal detectors harm my Palm? A: Plenty of people send their Palm handhelds through airport security every day without problem. The trip to the airport probably presents a greater risk of damage or theft than does any security detector. -- Q: How good is the built-in security? A: It isn't (except to prevent casual or accidental snooping.) Private records are stored in plain text, both on the handheld and on the desktop. Available debugging tools can read any record out of your Palm handheld. For better data security, use one of the many encryption applications. There are hundreds listed here: http://www.tranzoa.com/html/compete.htm -- Q: What are the upgrade possibilities? A: PalmOS handhelds with flash ROM (Palm V, T|T3, etc.) might be upgradable to newer versions of PalmOS if and when a licensee releases them. Sometimes there are OS patch updates which can be found on the licensee's web sites. Palm used to make upgrade modules for PalmPilots and Pilot 1000/5000. These can sometimes be found on the used market (ebay?). OS 4.x and older models are NOT upgradable to OS 5.x or newer, since they use completely different CPU's (68k vs. ARM), e.g. just as you can't ungrade a Windows PC to Mac OS X. -- Q: Where are all the cool third party applications? A: There are many web sites for PalmOS applications. Here are a few web sites where one can find thousands of PalmOS applications: -- Q: How do I remove applications? A: Delete is under the App menu in the Applications launcher (PalmOS 3.0 and newer). If you remove any application that uses alarms (e.g. DigiPet or BugMe), you should do a soft reset afterwards or an OS bug might cause your Palm unit to crash. You cannot remove applications that are in ROM (e.g. the "Welcome" app). -- Q: What are ".pdb" files? A: Instead of storing files on a disk, the Palm units store databases in memory. When those databases are stored on your PC, they use the "pdb" extension. Each application has it's own database. Some of the most common pdb files are "Doc" text reader files. See for other common pdb database file types. The "prc" extension is commonly used for applications and libraries, although sometimes Doc files mistakenly use this extension. -- Q: What are "Doc" files? How do I read long documents on a Palm handheld? A: The Palm MemoPad has a 4K size limitation per memo to lessen memory fragmentation problems in low memory situations (Pilot 1000). There is an alternative pdb document (Doc) file format that allows longer documents to be read (and that also compresses the text around 50%). A Doc reader is not included in the built-in Palm software. There are several Doc readers for the PalmOS, and also several conversion programs for Win9X, Mac and linux in the various application software archives. Developer info on the internal Doc pdb format may be found here: -- Q: How do I read (Adobe Acrobat) PDF files on my Palm handheld? A: The free ghostscript utility (available for Win9x, Mac and linux) will convert pdf to plain ascii text; then a Doc converter (see above question) can be used to convert long text files into Doc format pdb databases. Also see: -- Q: Can I HotSync using the IrDA port? A: On many current OS versions (and PalmOS 3.5 or later), you can just select IrCOMM in the HotSync Manager. For older Palm OS versions, try IrSync+, which uses the HP Serial-IR protocol. -- Q: Can I use the IR port on my Palm handheld to control my TV and VCR. A: Depends on which model. A commercial app is available (Omniremote); but the IR output on some models has an IrDA pulse shaping filter which severly limits the useful range and angle. Other models (Sony) have an added enhanced IR transmitter designed for IR remote control use. -- Q: I use Unix or linux; can I still connect to my Palm handheld? A: Yes. Here are some web pages on using a Palm handheld with Linux: Source code and info about the portable pilot-unix tools are here: -- Q: Can I run linux on my Palm III handheld? A: Yes, but it's a developers release with almost no applications: -- COMMON PROBLEMS -- Q: My PalmOS handheld makes a sound. Is something wrong? A: There are 3 sounds a Palm handheld normally makes. There's a very quiet hiss or switching hum caused by the DC-DC 3.3V voltage regulator, usually most audible when the CPU is busy (doing a Find, for instance); but it can be audible in some units even when in sleep mode. The system battery voltage check watchdog event routine also causes a key click. This makes an audible tick every few minutes if you have System Sounds enabled. A 100V AC (!) voltage converter also makes a hum when the backlight in on. (And if you hear a Palm sound that isn't loud enough, it's an appointment alarm going off. :-) -- Q: What are these oily looking rings on the display? A: If the rings go away under sunlight or under wide spectrum incandescent light, then they're just optical interference patterns (also called Newton's rings) and do not indicate any screen damage. -- Q: On my 16 MB PalmOS handheld, the Info command reports only 13 or 14 MB of memory. Is something wrong? A: The dynamic heap (RAM used by the OS and running programs) takes from 32kB to 3MB of memory, depending on the model (up to 12 MB on some models). What's left is the reported storage memory. -- Q: "FIND" doesn't find strings in the middle or at the end of words. A: This is a documented "feature", not a bug. Only looking at the beginning of words makes the built-in Find operation run faster. -- Q: Using the "FIND" button causes my Palm to crash! What's wrong? A: Several 3rd party applications break the "Find" function. (incorrect use of global variables.) Try deleting applications one-at-a-time until you find the one that crashes when you try to do a "Find". -- Q: My Palm Vx is always turning on and running the battery down. A: There is a common problem with the Palm V and Vx. The front four application buttons turn the unit on and can easily be pressed by the flip cover or just by pressure inside your pocket or purse. Several people report success using spacers inside the flip cover keep it from pressing the buttons. -- Q: I'm having problems with one of my Graffiti(tm) letters... A: There are several alternative gestures described in the manual for many of the letters and numbers. One of the alternatives may work better for you. Also try drawing the letters in a drawing program or GrafAid, and see what they look like afterwards. It's easy to get in the habit of curling or lifting the pen near the end of a stroke without even knowing that you're doing this. Some people have also reported that writing bigger and using a heavier stylus helps their Graffiti accuracy. -- Q: Are there any Graffiti 1 charts online? A: http://www.yorku.ca/mack/GI97a.html http://www.ee0r.com/proj/grafcheaty.html http://home.earthlink.net/~ahecht/graffiti.html -- Q: My Palm handheld locked up. Or I can't turn it on or off. Or I get this screen with something flashing in the upper left corner. What do I do? A: There are 3 ways to reset your Palm handheld. Try them in order. First try a soft reset by using a dull paperclip to firmly press the button inside the little hole marked "RESET" on the back. The Palm III and Palm V come with a little reset pin screwed into the back of the metal stylus. If you did a soft reset because your Palm crashed during a HotSync, the best method to not end up with lots of duplicate entries is to choose "Desktop overwrites Palm" (or "Palm overwrites Desktop", whichever you are sure has most recent/important entries) in the Custom config menu for the first HotSync after the crash (remember to change back to the default afterwards). A soft reset is mostly harmless (AFAIK), although, if some of your new entries end up missing on the desktop after the next HotSync, you may have to do a "Palm overwrites Desktop" HotSync afterwards. If you had a crash during a HotSync, you should empty your \install directory before HotSyncing again. If your Palm is still locked up, and you suspect an application or OS update that you recently installed is causing the problem, then try an extensions-off reset. Press the scroll UP button while simultaneously pushing the recessed reset button (you may need 3 hands) and keep the UP key held down for several seconds. Go into the Memory app and delete the offending application; then soft reset once again to reboot with extension and updates installed. If all else fails and you don't mind losing ALL data on your Palm, then do a hard reset (press the reset button while simultaneously holding down the green power button until after the reset dialog appears, etc.). You will then need to reload all your data from your PC by doing a HotSync. -- Q: I dropped my Palm handheld, or put it in my back pocket, and cracked the screen. What do I do now? A: Palm is said to repair broken handheld's for about $100 (USD), or possibly under warranty, depending on the problem, with just a few days turnaround. Try contacting Palm at . -- Q: Where can I get parts if I wish to try repairing an out-of-warranty PalmOS device myself? A: Try: -- Q: Is there a digitizer problem with some older Palm models? A: There appears to be a tap problem in some Palm models. Tapping in the upper right with just the right pressure (may vary with the type of stylus) appears as if there was a tap in the lower left. There also are reports that extensive Graffiti use will eventually wear out the digitizer, which requires sending the unit back to Palm for repair. -- Q: Is there a problem with static electricity? A: As with most electronic equipment, one should touch the case of your PC to discharge static from your body before touching any IO port such as the Palm cradle. Some Palm m5xx unit may forget how to use USB if zapped, see Palm support for details. -- MORE INFO -- Q: Is there a PalmOS Emulator (for my PC/Mac/Unix box)? Where's the ROM? A: Yes, POSE. More PalmOS Emulator (POSE) information is here: You can download the ROM from your handheld. OS 5.x and newer can not be run on POSE, so don't bother asking for ROMs. Use the PalmOS Simulator instead. -- Q: Are there any Palm handheld related magazines? A: Yes. Check out these commercial publications: PalmtopUser -- Q: Is there a PalmOS/PalmPilot newsgroup or other related sources? A: There are several usenet newsgroups that have Palm related info: news:comp.sys.palmtops.pilot news:alt.comp.sys.palmtops.pilot There is sometimes a PalmOS chat on irc.oftc.net: #palmchat . Try Wednesdays or Sundays around 6:30 PM PST/PDT (0230 UT). PalmOS news websites: http://www.palminfocenter.com/ PalmOS User Groups: http://www.palmsource.com/community/user_groups.html -- Q: Why are there two palm newsgroups? Why are they named "pilot"? A: Palm lost the "Pilot" name in a trademark lawsuit; the newsgroup was named before this occured. The new "comp.*" newsgroup has much wider distribution, so it's the preferred one; however, it's impossible to get rid of old "alt" newsgroups. -- Q: What tools are there to develop PalmOS Applications? A: For info on PalmOS application development tools, look here: Other shareware/freeware software development tools include: There is a free C compiler (gcc), Java development tools (IBM Visual Age Micro Edition), a few Basic interpreters (HotPaw Basic), a Forth compiler, and several forms based IDEs as well as Scheme and Smalltalk. You need to know how to write small event driven programs that can run in a limited environment (as little as a 14Kb data heap, 2Kb stack, 0.5 to 1.5 mips CPU). Some PalmOS application source code: The PalmOS developers mailing list info is here: Archived: -- Q: Are there any PalmOS Programming FAQs? A: -- Version 1.89(b0) - 2006-May-18, Copyright 1999-2006 All Rights Reserved. Ron Nicholson rhn at nicholson dot com http://www.nicholson.com/rhn/palm/ #include // only my own opinions, etc. Product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. (And there is no warranty that *any* of this FAQ information is correct!)