OK, I've never owned a PDA nor used one. But I was given one by a friend who got it from his dad. His dad said he used it a couple of times but never really liked the PDA thing, so he drawered it for a couple of years. My friend couldn't get it to work and was going to throw it away so I asked for it.

For starters, I figured out he had the batteries in upside down. So at least I've been able to get it to power up, but that's about it. When I do power it up, I can hear the faint squelch of a modem and the screen backlight comes on. After a minute or so, the backlight goes off and the modem sounds continue for a while longer. However, nothing I do with the stylus seems to make anything appear on the screen.

I'd be happy to mail this thing to any of you that think you might can get it to work for me. Oh, it does have the serial port connector cradle, too.

Thanks in advance,

Billy

Well since a Palm III doesn't have a modem build in, the fact thatit makes sounds like one makes me think it has serious problems.

-----
Some of those that wander are lost!

I know batteries in backwards is very bad for the GPS. I would imagine the same holds true for a PDA, though I'm not sure.

I'd say if you don't get any takers, bring it with you to the GGA meeting this month and somebody might see the problem.
It's been a while since I had a Palm III, but there is a reset button somewhere (maybe on back near bottom) that you push with a straightened paperclip.
Might try that.

kennethpruett


------------------------------

View All My Posts

I've tried the reset button on the back, with no result. If no one on the board has an idea, I'll bring it with me to the meeting, but it'll probably be the March meeting before I can get to another meeting.

Thanks for the input.

If a Palm III gets really confused and does not respond to a reset, a hard reset will usually work, unless the unit has a problem. To do a hard reset, hold down the power button as you push the paper clip into the reset hole on the back, and when it asks if you really want to do this, punch yes. After a hard reset, all user data is erased.

FWIW,
CharlieP

Here is a link on the various resets

http://www.palmone.com/us/support/helpnotes/hardware/resets.html

-----
Some of those that wander are lost!

Thanks for the ideas on the different resets. I'll try them when I get home tonight. It looks, however, that this Palm III is very dated. Only 2Mb of memory???? Looks like it might not be much good for anything but names, addresses and phone numbers. Maybe I should consider getting a new/used one for my birthday.

I've never shopped for a handheld, and there seems to be so many out there. Looks like just about everybody makes one now. What are some suggestions for a model that I could use for paperless caching that would be in the $200 or less range? I did a quick search on Amazon and see they have some Tungsten E's for under $200.

I would suggest a Palm. They have the most programs/software written for them.

A good place to look for a deal is the Palm Store Factory outlet.

Look at a m130, 505 or mid range Zire. All of those have 8mg and are under $150.00

Palm Store link is Palm

Thanks Trez.

Any other suggestions from the peanut gallery?

What about Sony's lineup? I already have several Memory Sticks since I use a Sony digital camera. It would be nice to be able to use the memory I already have in the handheld too.

I'm using a Palm 705 borrowed from a friend. I'm about to activiate the wireless on it, see how that works. For using Cachemate - works great, 8MB RAM, using only about 1MB with Cachemate w/500 caches.

For using Street Atlas HH - doens't work well at all since it's a greyscale screen, not color.

Really depends on what functionality you want to do - cache pages only, mapping... etc

quote:

---

Originally posted by Btouch:
It looks, however, that this Palm III is very dated. Only 2Mb of memory???? Looks like it might not be much good for anything but names, addresses and phone numbers

---

If you only used it for geocaching, and a few low memory apps like addresses and calendar, you could probably get by with the 2mb. My typical 500 cache file out of GPX2html/Plucker is only about 1 mb. But you can get a brand new 8mb Palm for $100, or as low as $50 on sale for some of the older models, and 8mb will hold a LOT of stuff.

FWIW,
CharlieP

Well the plucker viewer takes up about 1/3 of meg. So there wouldn't be much left for anything but a few plucker files. My III xe has 8 megs and I have plenty of room for several apps, as well as plucker files. I keep about 3 sets of caches as well as slashdot, cnet, weather and few other things in plucer format. But if you only used it for geocaching, 2 megs could be made to work.

-----
Some of those that wander are lost!