With regard to the article Go East Young Man (Pg.7, Vol.3, No.6, 94), can you tell me how I can increase the operating speed of my HP 200LX? Also, how can I increase my 1MB RAM to 4MB or more?
Donald T. Dolin
Naperville, IL
[We have had numerous calls and letters asking for more information about the clock double speed upgrade I wrote about in Vol.4, No.6 when describing my trip to Japan. I promised a follow up, but serious HP concerns and general unavailability caused me to delay saying anything else.
Doubling the clock speed of the 100LX or 200LX definitely speeds up CPU intensive operations. It requires installing a software device driver after taking the Palmtop apart and soldering a new custom oscillator crystal. Naturally, doing so voids the HP warranty. HP has expressed additional concerns since there is a significantly higher than average failure rate on double speed units. The HP lab has thoroughly tested these units and they do not pass HP's internal specifications.
My experience is both positive and negative. On the plus side my unit definitely ran faster with less wait in my PhoneBook and Database searches. On the negative side I had to send my unit in for repair. I was charged nearly $300 and lost my double speed upgrade. HP also could have refused repairing it when they saw the double speed upgrade. So... consider yourself warned.
As for increasing 1MB of RAM to 4MB, that voids HP's warranty also. The process is available only in Japan and is quite expensive.
For more information on the subject of clock speed, see the article Internet Resources for Palmtops, page 14 of this issue Hal.]