Archived from groups: comp.sys.handhelds (More info?)

Hi,

I'm totaly new to the pda/ppc world and there are a few things I don't
understand. Apparently, my device (Asus A620BT) has 64mb of sdram and
64 mb of Rom (of which 32mb is flashable as safe storage). Then there's
also the 512mb CF card.
Some stuff is pre-installed on the Rom (the O/S, Pocket Outlook, Word,
Excel, Pocket IE, MSN Msngr, Media Player, etc and a few Asus tools
like ASUS Smartkeeper).

Now, I've installed a few tools from the Asus cd and some stuff
downloaded from the Internet. My question: where are those tools
stored? I didn't put them on the CF card that's for sure. So are they
going in the sdram or in the flash memory? How can I check?

Also, when my main battery is almost down, the ppc asks whether I want
to use ASUS Smartkeeper to backup the system state to the Flash memory.
Yesterday I didn't notice the question and the pda turned itself off.
When I connect the power I didn't notice anything was missing or gone?
So I guess this backup is only for applications/data which are open at
the time? Is this correct? Or is this because of the backup battery?

I also wonder how long the backup battery can last before it's
completely without power?

Thanks and my apologies if the questions are rather stupid :-)

Kris

Archived from groups: comp.sys.handhelds (More info?)

I _think_ such questions are more appropriate in
microsoft.public.pocketpc. A little time using google to look in that
newsgroup will probably provide answers.

More below.


On 1 Jul 2005 04:43:08 -0700, kris.vandevijver@gmail.com wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm totaly new to the pda/ppc world and there are a few things I don't
>understand. Apparently, my device (Asus A620BT) has 64mb of sdram and
>64 mb of Rom (of which 32mb is flashable as safe storage). Then there's
>also the 512mb CF card.
>Some stuff is pre-installed on the Rom (the O/S, Pocket Outlook, Word,
>Excel, Pocket IE, MSN Msngr, Media Player, etc and a few Asus tools
>like ASUS Smartkeeper).
>
>Now, I've installed a few tools from the Asus cd and some stuff
>downloaded from the Internet. My question: where are those tools
>stored? I didn't put them on the CF card that's for sure. So are they
>going in the sdram or in the flash memory? How can I check?

File Explorer (either directly on the handheld or via ActiveSync)
should help. Flash memory probably has a distinctive root name (I've
seen two standards, so I don't know what the name is).


>
>Also, when my main battery is almost down, the ppc asks whether I want
>to use ASUS Smartkeeper to backup the system state to the Flash memory.
>Yesterday I didn't notice the question and the pda turned itself off.
>When I connect the power I didn't notice anything was missing or gone?
>So I guess this backup is only for applications/data which are open at
>the time? Is this correct? Or is this because of the backup battery?

Hardware has been changing recently, so what I'm about to "say" may be
out of date. Main memory for Windows CE/Windows Mobile devices is RAM,
which retains its memory only while powered. That means it loses
everything when the batteries drain. Flash memory retains its memory
even when the batteries drain. So the offer to do a backup to flash is
very neat. Flash memory is probably more expensive and slower than
main memory (and _may_ have a shorter write/rewrite lifetime) than RAM

>.
>I also wonder how long the backup battery can last before it's
>completely without power?

No general answer. Someone may have numbers for your particular model,
I sure don't know where.

>
>Thanks and my apologies if the questions are rather stupid :-)
>
>Kris

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