Upgrading the Libretto RAM to 96Mb

And here is the proof. It can be done. I've surprised myself at how easy it was to do this upgrade, but you will need some familiarity with a soldering iron and the case modifications are not for the faint of heart.

The memory module can still be sourced here. Which is linked to in the original How-To here.

 

You may be able to find one elsewhere and please let me know and I'll put the information here, but the link above seemed to be the best price from what seemed to be one of the few legitimate looking sites, so I went with that. Be wary of postage and import duty if ordering from outside the U.S. though.

 

Anyhow, I struggled with the explanation in the original how-to, but took the plunge anyhow.

 

Firstly you need to make room for the PA2067U module inside the casing.

 

WARNING: please do not attempt this if you are not familiar with the basics of electronics, soldering, and how to use a Dremmel (or similar) and remember to use anti-static measures. 

 

To get the memory module bay, remove the battery (and the power), and carefully lift the strip at the top of the keyboard from the right-hand side. Once fully removed, you should be able to lift the keyboard up and away from the bottom half of the machine.

 

You should be able to see the memory slot in the bottom left area where the keyboard was. If you had the official memory upgrade for the Libretto, you could just slot it right in, put everything back together and boot-up with a full 64Mb RAM in your machine. Unfortunately, the  PA2067U is not really intended for the Libretto 110CT, but will  work with the correct mods.

 

To do this, you will need to take the machine apart further. Remove the keyboard completely by removing the two silver screws at each end of the keyboard recess and then carefully push open the securing clips at each end of the ribbon cable connector, so that you can slide the keyboard ribbon cable out and then remove the keyboard completely.

 

You will also need to remove the thin metal plate that is under the keyboard. Under are three connectors which must be disconnected: on the right side is a connector for the screen, another one at the top left (I think I remember this is the microphone connector or something), and one near the bottom which is for the CMOS battery.

 

Turn the unit over and remove all the screws from the underside. To be on the safe side, remove the hard disk from the bay on the left side of the machine and place safely to one side.

 

Once this is done you should be able to gently prise the screen and the top half of the main unit apart from the lower part of the main unit and motherboard.

 

Now the tricky part: there is a silver strip along the bottom edge of the keyboard area which is in the way of our new memory module, and the only way it will fit is if we remove most of it. By trying the module for size you will easily see how much needs to be removed. I snapped the silver strip away with some long-nose pliers and smoothed it off with the Dremmel tool, but I can't emphasise how carefully you need to do this bit as you could really ruin the casing of your Libretto if you are a bit too heavy handed with this. See the picture below and compare with your own to see where I have removed the silver plastic from mine.

 

You also need to remove some of the plastic over the screw hole just to the bottom right of the memory slot. Not only that, but the connector for the CMOS battery gets in the way of the memory too. This is quite easy to snap off from the motherboard, but this will mean that you'll have to solder the wires from the CMOS battery directly to the motherboard as you can see I have done above. Some insulation tape will be needed over this, as the module will sit directly on top of this.

 

With this all done, and the plastic halves of the lower half of the unit put back together the memory module should snap into place nicely. If not, then you may have to trim away a bit more of the casing until it fits.

 

Now I won't pretend to understand why, but to get the Libretto to recognise the full 64MB (and not just half) you need to select the middle jumper on the upper left side of the module. I did this by putting a small blob of solder between the two jumper contacts as shown in my photo below.

 

 

Now put everything back together! Don't forget to reconnect the connectors under the keyboard.

 

Once you have your Libretto all in one piece, hold your breath, boot-up, and check your system properties, and if all is well the memory should report 96Mb instead of 32Mb!

 

Whew!

Well, here it is: my latest ebay purchase is the Toshiba Libretto 110CT.

It occurred to me that for some of these older gadget to properly work with Windows it might be a good idea to get a computer that runs an earlier version of Windows.

For example, I am considering getting a Psion 5MX Organiser, but the Sync software (Psywin, I think it's called) will not run on my Windows 8 PC nor will it run under Win7.

I had always wanted one of the early Librettos. This was in the days before netbooks, and these were touted as small, super portable but powerful little machines.

Well, it is a lovely piece of vintage tech, and I'll be writing more about it here over the coming weeks.

So far I have boosted it's RAM to 96MB which I will detail on these pages. I will also be attempting to make it into a solid state device with a mod I have read about, but before I can proceed with that I need the PCMCIA floppy disk drive, which I don't have yet.

Anyhow, please stay tuned for more soon.

Keyring

I have been using mSecure password manager software on my Android phone for ages and more recently on Windows 8. It's a great piece of software, but since abandoning Android and embracing PalmOS, I needed to find a suitable alternative.

Keyring fits the bill nicely, and is simple and easy to use for storing all your passwords securely.

If, like me, you have at least 10 different logins which you are forced to change regularly, then something like this is a must.

ToDo2

I've been looking fo a nice simple ToDo program for use on the UX-50:
something similar to the built-in ToDo but with with alarm capability and
no other bells or whistles.

ToDo2 is that program. It is still available to register with the developer
here, although I had to email my Hotsync ID in order to get the reg code.
There is also a downloadable demo to try for yourself.

Photography: Then and Now

I am on holiday in Devon for a few days so won't be testing out any software for a while.

Also, for it's Sat Nav abilities, I have had to revert to using my Samsung Galaxy Note for the duration of the trip.

However, while out walking in Torquay this morning, I thought it might be a good idea to take a few comparative shots with the camera on the Galaxy Note and on the Sony Clie UX-50.

Unsurprisingly, the UX-50 camera doesn't do well compared to the Galaxy Note.

See the evidence below (UX-50 photos first):

 

 

 

Snappermail Enterprise

I have been having problems with Agendus Mail. It works fine with GMail over Wi-Fi, but via IR to my Samsung E700 it continually gives time-out errors.

The only other email program I could find that has the required SSL settings to support GMail was Snappermail Enterprise Edition, and it turns out this works just fine. So as a functioning piece of software I'd recommend it.

There are a couple of problems though. Firstly, this was an expensive shareware app at the time, and is nearly impossible to find now. I did find a cracked version, but as such I will not be making it available for download.

The other problem is the Codediver settings to make it work fullscreen. I
have played around, and it will run fullscreen, but every time a dialog
opens in smallscreen, it stays that way until you tap the expand button on
the side bar. Irritating, but it still functions properly, so I guess I'll
be sticking with this for now.

If anyone reading this has any suggestions, I'd gladly try them out and
share on this blog.
___
Sent with SnapperMail
www.snappermail.com

Observations of Battery Life

Having lived with The Sony UX-50 for a few weeks now, although I love it, I have to comment on the absolutely awful battery life.

When designing the UX-50, Sony obviously wanted to keep the size down. They succeeded, because the unit is very light, slim and portable.

The obvious sacrifice to achieve this, was battery size. I certainly noticed that today, as the buttons at the edge of the unit kept getting pressed while in my pocket at work today, and I got it out when I got home to find the battery completely drained.

Suffice to say, I have now found the switch to lock they keyboard, so hope for this not to happen again. Nevertheless, I find myself putting the Clie back on the charging cradle at every available opportunity.

I read my eBooks on this for about half an hour in bed at night and find I have to charge it again first thing in the morning to give myself confidence that it will last the working day. If you want to use Wi-Fi on this thing, you better make sure you use it for long, or it'll waste the battery in no time.

It's okay though, I can live with it, but I'll definitely looking into the extended battery if I can get one as well as doing the USB charging hardware MOD I have read a bit about on 1src forums. Why Sony didn't include USB charging out of the box I'll never know.

It got me thinking in more general terms about battery life. I have pretty much got used to daily charging of previous iPhones, tablets, and Android blowers, and battery life these days seem to be slowly getting better, despite that battery technology seems to have hit a bit of a developmental brick wall. It is probably more to do with tech becoming less power hungry and more efficient.

In total contrast however, is my Samsung E700 which I am using as my main phone now. It has a tiny battery and easily lasts three whole days on a single charge!

This was the advantage of having lots of different gadgets: separate batteries for separate t functions. My phone has a battery, my PDA has a battery, my Satnav has a battery, my eBook reader has a battery and my iPod had a battery. Collectively, they probably have a week or more worth of charge between them.

I guess, the point of this ramble is that while convergence in technology has added the convenience of having everything you need in one device, battery technology simply hasn't caught up yet.