This one is for all people who are in the retro corner of the Palm computing sector. Out of pure boredom, I stuffed my HP 1GB SD Card into my old Palm m500 after installing the update – and tada, it worked:
The Palm m500 operates extremely slowly when accessing the memory card. A smaller SD card with less files would probably be a better choice – the Palm m500 can’t do much with the 1GB of capacity anyways.
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I found this out a few weeks ago myself, when I got my hands on an m500. Threw in a 1gb card, formatted it, and started throwing e-books on there. It’s a lot of e-books. Want me to try the 2gb card? I’ll do it! I’ll stuff it in there! There’s no stopping me, baby!
– Louis, who runs an x51v every day and an m500 lately because it’s good for e-books and the battery life is killer.
Hi Louis,
just have a good backup handy in case the m500 screws the file system up…
Best regards
Tam Hanna
I own a Palm m500
and I would like to know what is the largest SD card it can take
Could someone please test it with 2 and 4 Gb cards – thanks !
Hi Michael,
I am sorry, I only have a 1gb card here – so no chance!
Anyways, I think that a 1gb card is a bad idea for a m500 – its simply too much files for the machine!
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Dear Tam
Thanks for considering this issue.
I have tried my 1 Gb SD card (that I normally use in my digital camera) in the m500 and as far as I can see there is no problem. I can access the files on the 1 Gb SD card and there does not appear to be any slowdown relative to using a 64 Mb card (if anyone has any experiences contradicting this please post). I have even accessed the 1 gb wikipedia tomeraider file on the m500 and it works (though the screen is a bit small for reading such long articles).
Message to Louis: could you please put your 2 gb card into the m500 and see if it works. If it works, I plan to buy a 2 gb card to put wikipedia onto.
I am not a wealthy person: I bought my m500 second-hand for next to nothing and it is really good.
Thanks, Michael.
Hi Michael,
the m500′s slowdown seems to be relative to the amount of files on the card. Less files = less slowdown!
You could maybe try to negotiate out with the seller a return right for the card if it doesn’t work – that could be very helpful!
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Hello everyone
I have obtained a 2 Gb SanDisk SD card and carried out extensive testing with the Palm m500. Conclusion: the 2Gb card is INCOMPATIBLE with the m500.
1. when you put a 2 Gb card into an m500, it recognises the card and correctly reports its size, and remaining memory. You might possibly even be able to wander around the filesystem and see all the file/folder names. However, if you try to actually access any of these files, you get gibberish. My theory is that the m500 is able to read the basic structure of the card, but can’t cope with the way the underlying data is stored.
2. The 1 Gb size card is totally 100% compatible with a Palm m500 that has had its operating system upgraded to OS4.1 In fact it’s also compatible with an m500 running OS4.0 as long as you ensure that FATFS.prc is installed.
3. In fact Palm Corporation is the authoritative source on this issue. See http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,kb=PalmSupportKB,CASE=obj(34080),ts=Palm_External2001
The above URL is correct at the time of me writing this post. If it disappears, try searching for “Maximum SD expansion card” on palmone.com. It says that the Tungsten E2, T3, T2, T | Zire 71, 31, 21 | Palm m125 m500 m505 m515 are all totally COMPATIBLE with 1 Gb cards, but INCOMPATIBLE with anything larger than 1 Gb. All of my experiments totally support the official information from Palm Corp. All us users of the above devices should get ourselves used to accepting this limitation. It’s time we got the wikipedia folks to offer custom-made text-only wikipedia subsets so we can make 700 Mb wikipedia dump files of our own choosing. The Tungsten E2 was released as recently as April 2005 and is subject to the 1 Gb SD card limitation, so there are stacks of people out there who need a smaller wikipedia dump file.
4. My experiences support your theory, Tam, that the slowdown is about the number of files on the card. More precisely, the slowdown seems to be related to the number of files in the directory that the Palm is attempting to access. You can therefore make a program such as “Tomeraider” access the card really fast if you simply change the default directory it looks for eBooks in to a dedicated directory where you keep you eBooks.
The slowdown is just a bad on a small card such as 64 Mb as on a 1 Gb card, if you have a lot of files. As far as I can tell, the size of the card is totally irrelevant: the m500′s slowdown is solely related to the number of files in the directory you are attempting to access. Please post here if anyone has any experiences which contradict my findings.
Thanks, Michael
Hi Michael,
whew, cool post!
I took myself the freedom to “recycle” it as a new post – thank you for talking back and sharing your results!
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Thanks Tam & Michael,
I too have purchased an m500 and considering the SD upgrade for more memory.
Your comments are exactly what I was looking for in the the way of maxing out this gadget with the least personal pain to me. After all, the whole point of buying secondhand is that the bleeding edge has been worn down through experience and the safety limits are now known. (… although it takes a web site like you have here to be honest)
I was going to buy a 2Gb SD card but after your warnings, the 1Gb “will do fine”.
Any additional comments regarding how much main memory should be kept free for transfer from SD card to onboard RAM / flash? Theoretically, 1Gb to 7.7Mb doesn’t really seem like it should matter (full is full) but your experience may be illuminating.
Does the swap eat up cpu cycles?
ps. I’m a past owner of the original USR pilot 5000 back in ’96 and couldn’t resist the similarly titled m500. Call me nostalgic or visionary…
Hi Brian,
thank you so much for talking back!
The Palm OS CAN NOT swap – please refer to the article below for information. The amount of free RAM needed depends on your app of choice…
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2004/11/26/the-treo-650-sd-card-giveaway-mysteries-of-memory-explained/
All the best
Tam Hanna
Is it possible to use several smaller cards and swap them out. Like have a game card. A utilities card etc? Thanks
Hi,
.
it is – but you then need to swap cards
All the best
Tam Hanna
Hello i,m looking for some good free software for the Palm m500 and IBM c500. can you please list some web sites thank you
micro sd card of 1GB with adaptor not working in palm m500. please provide the solutions.
Hi,
what card are you using?
All the best
Tam Hanna