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Times2 Tech Upgrades for the HP 200LX

We are pleased to announce that we are the only authorized distributor for Times2 Tech in Europe and Asia. So far, we already installed hundreds of memory and speed upgrades, so don't hesitate to send your palmtop to us. We guarantee the most professional service and fastest turnaround!

Please use the links on the left to find more information about our upgrade products. We offer internal memory upgrades up to 96 MByte, and speed upgrades which double the clock speed of the HP 100LX, 200LX and OmniGo 700LX.

Of course we also offer to install all upgrades in your palmtop, ready to use.

Warranty issues are listed below, as well as hints about self-installing the kits and the required driver software.

TechRAM 1MB Internal Memory Upgrade for HP 200LX 1MB

For the users of the HP 200LX 1MB, we offer the possibility to increase the internal memory by 1 or 2 MByte. This is an unexpensive option for those who do not need the 4MB or 8MB upgrade but still want to get some more space on their C: drive.

Installation is done by opening the case, soldering a SMD socket onto the main board of the palmtop, and plugging the TechRAM 1MB board into this socket. The total memory of the upgraded unit is 2 MB: 640k system memory plus about 1.3 MB for the C: drive.

Warranty issues

By installing the TechRAM or TechSpeed upgrade, you will definitely lose any warranty that you may have with HP if your palmtop is less than one year old (or less than three years if you got the extended warranty). That means that if you need to send your palmtop in to HP for repair, you will either be charged for the repair even during the original warranty period, or HP may refuse to repair your palmtop.

We offer a one year warranty on the parts of our upgrade kits. If the TechRAM memory or the TechSpeed crystal fails, you can send it back and we will replace it at no cost.

If we do the installation of the TechRAM or TechSpeed upgrade, we grant a one year limited warranty on the upgraded machine. If the palmtop fails within this period due to the installation of the upgrade, we will repair or replace the unit at no cost. This warranty does not cover shipping expenses or physical damage of the palmtop, it only covers failures caused by the installation of the upgrade(s).

If you send an upgraded palmtop to HP for repair, we recommend that you at least remove the TechRAM memory board. Defective units are usually exchanged by HP, so you will most likely lose any upgrade that is installed in the palmtop.

Technical Stuff

Installing the TechRAM memory board connector:

The memory board connector is a very small SMD socket which needs to be soldered onto the motherboard of the HP 200LX. The space in that area is quite limited, and there are a couple of other components near the solder pads of the socket, which makes a very small soldering iron mandatory for the operation. You should also have very good soldering skills and experience with soldering SMD components. If the socket is not installed properly, the unit won't turn on any more, or beep when the batteries are installed, or corrupt the internal memory or the C: drive from time to time. Therefore, if you are in doubt whether you should perform the installation yourself, we recommend that you consider sending the machine to us. We have all the equipment that is necessary, and also have plenty of experience from the hundreds of upgrades we have installed already.

TechSpeed Installation:

After opening the case, the old crystal needs to be desoldered from the main circuit board. The new crystal is then soldered in at the same place. The software driver which is provided with the upgrade kit needs to be loaded in order to correct the timing for the serial and infrared ports, the PCMCIA slot and the display. If this driver is not installed, the timing of the ports will be wrong, and the display shows a flickering stripe of about 0.5cm on the left side.

TechSpeed Incompatibilities:

FlashCard driver software from ACE Technologies, Inc.: The TechSpeed upgrade is not compatible with the acecard.com memory card driver. If you use this driver and install TechSpeed, you must either upgrade your acecard.com driver to the latest version (acecard3.com), or remove the acecard.com driver from your config.sys file. This will be no problem as the driver is not really necessary to operate any PCMCIA cards in the palmtop, except one case: IBM Flash Memory cards won't work in the HP 100LX without acecard.com, so if you have an original IBM card (not an ACE DoubleFlash Plus, which are also made by IBM but don't have this problem) and a HP 100LX you should not install the TechSpeed upgrade.

Travel Floppy driver software from Accurite, Inc.: If the floppy unit does not work on your speed upgraded palmtop, contact Accurite by E-Mail to get the latest version of the Travel Floppy driver. The latest version works well with the TechSpeed upgrade.

Installing the TechSpeed driver:

When you send your pamtop to us for installing the TechSpeed upgrade, we put a copy of the TechSpeed driver onto your C: disk drive and also modify the config.sys startup file so that the driver is automatically loaded whenever you reboot your machine.

However, if for some reason you need to initialize your palmtop, or otherwise lose the driver, you need to copy it onto the palmtop again, either from a memory card (if you have one and have previously backed up the driver to the card), or by following this procedure:

Use the Connectivity Pack, the Laplink Remote Access or whatever software you use to copy files from your desktop to the palmtop, and set the transmission speed (the "baud rate") to 19200 baud.
On the palmtop, set the baud rate to half this speed, 9600 baud. You need to set this in different places, depending on which software you use for transferring the file:
Filer: Menu / Communications / Remote-Settings
Datacomm: Menu / Connect / Settings
Laplink Remote Access Control Panel
HP Setup: Menu / Options / Printer
Copy the file spd31.exe from the TechSpeed driver disk to the C:\ drive of your palmtop. We recommend putting the driver into the c:\speed subdirectory.
Insert your memory card and check if the file config.sys exists in the root directory of the A:\ drive. If yes, load this file into the Memo editor and skip the next step.
Check if the file config.sys exists in the root directory of the C:\ drive, and if not, copy it from D:\ to C:\ and load it into the Memo editor.
Add the following line at the beginning of the file:
device=c:\speed\spd31.exe
Or, depending on the version of the speed upgrade driver you have (in which case we would recommend updating your software):
device=c:\speed\spd31.sys
Save the modifications and reboot.

It's that easy to add more functionality to your palmtop.

Drivers and Software Tools

When you order an upgrade from us, you'll receive the latest drivers and software tools, like an EMM emulator and a memory test program, preinstalled on your palmtop as well as on 3.5" floppy disks. If you later want to update your software to a newer version, or if you lost or misplaced the driver disk, you can download the latest versions here.

TechSpeed driver (ZIP file, 10k)

TechRAM EMM driver and memory test software (ZIP file, 20k)

TechRAM 32MB, 64MB and 96MB driver and drive letter swapper (ZIP file, 7k)

To get you up and running quickly, we also have sample config.sys and autoexec.bat files available which should be copied into c:\. The TechSpeed driver files go into c:\speed, the EMM drivers into c:\tremm and the TechRAM memory drivers into c:\rd.

© 1996-2003, last modified 03-Mrz-05 21:03:04

© 2003 by Rundel Datentechnik, Germany.
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