What to do with Dell Axim x50v and Asus A620? - Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking

Well I was cleaning my closet and found my old Pocket PCs that I was using throughout high school and now I don't know what to do with them.
The Asus A620 was my very first Pocket PC i loved playing Emulator games on that thing when i first got it in high school but now that I got all these new Smartphones I don't know what to do with this old thing. I mean the 64 ram and 32 rom and lack of any internal wireless and only 1 CF slot makes this thing useless...
I also have an X50V and tried putting WM 6.1 on it but the filesys problem really slowed down the 624mhz cpu and the limited 64mb ram doesn't make things any speedier. I don't want to go back to 2003se because without persistent storage i'll have to keep the axim charged all the time. The only thing I use it for now is skype but even that is unreliable when the filesys problem kicks in...
What can I use these devices for? I worked really hard in high school to pay for these expensive things and would feel bad if i gave them away. i would try selling them on ebay but would probably get next to nothing now that these things are so old...
The Asus I know is probably worthless to try to do anything except use it as an mp3 player but is there something i can do with the axim?
i mean that thing has wifi and bluetooth and 2 slots for different flash memory. I was waiting for a port of android to use it as a PMP but it doesn't look like thats gonna happen anytime soon.
what do you guys do with your old pocket pcs ?

Related

This device is great

I just got an XDA Orbit after getting tired of my Universal constantly giving me trouble.
Somehow the Artemis has a fraction of the power but can do nearly all things better.
Today, I was streaming a podcast over my WiFi at home, to my Bluetooth Headphones (HT820) and it was working in clear stereo with no skipping! My Universal can't manage to play an mp3 via BT from the SD Card without skipping even in perfect conditions.
How can a device with only 200Mhz proc totally outshine one with a 520Mhz processor? This thing is like a speed demon compared to my lazy exec
It must be the dualcore power of the OMAP 850 processor.
we all know this is a great device, although some people have problems with it
Yeah, got mine yesterday after using a Prophet for the past year, the difference is a lot more than I expected, I couldn't be happier with my Orbit. It's just a lot easier to use, the call quality sounds a lot better, GPS is great and the look and feel of it is brilliant, like a proper phone!
My SD Card did corrupt yesterday as soon as I put Tom Tom on for the first time but fortunately I came straight here and found the fix.
Does anyone know how I can get rid of all the corrupted folders that have been left on my card? It doesn't seem to want to let me manually delete them, is there a way of formatting the card or something?
EDIT: I searched around and managed to achieve the above using Resco Explorer

Some thing to clear about BlueAngel

I have planned to buy O2 XDA IIs from my frnd (2nd hand for sure)
Does it comes under the name, blueangel???
also please tell me pros and cons about this dmobile device
I already own O2 xda exec, typhoon and voyager
what about this one???
cud U, experienced users please guide me....am i gonna upgrade its rom to WM6 or not??
It's a great device, you won't make a mistake It has Intel PXA263 400mhz processor (This is the only thing i don't like in blueangel. It is not so fast. If you plan to play 3d games it is not very good for this. But you can easily overclock it with pocket master to 530mhz. With this frequency it handles everything without Snow Rally - there's a little lag and you can't play Playstation 1 games even if you overclock it to 590. I got 21-23fps in Tony Hawk Pro Skater with @530mhz and Frameskip - 2), 128 ram (This is great! With so much ram you don't need real close button.But there are no applications that wants more than 32 ram, so this is not a big advantage), Big screen and the best design for games(The screen is perfect. It wouldn't be bad if there was VGA screen but QVGA is not so bad either. In web browsing the qvga resolution is a big dissadvantage. You have to scrool a lot. But now there are browsers now that supports Zoom function.With it the browsing is good even on qvga device. When Opera 9.5 comes out it will rock And the design is great for games. It's like joystick when you handle it in landscape position and there are many buttons), 64mb Flash Storage(It's not much but you don't need more. There are SD Cards for that), SD/MMC expansion slot( The bad thing here is that it doesn't support SDHC, there are no drivers for that and there won't be in future ), CIF camera (It is really badd. The image quality is similar. If you try to record video it lags. I don't know why :/ It does it wven in the lowest quality), WiFi( No problems here), Bluetooth (No problems here either), IrDA( It can't be used as a remote controller because the irda range is around 3 meters)
And finally the PocketPC comes with WM2003. You can install WM6.1 but I recommend you to wait for explode's WM6.1. His roms are the best With the new windows the pocket becmoes really fast and stable. That's all, it's a great device
dark_prince said:
I have planned to buy O2 XDA IIs from my frnd (2nd hand for sure)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice choice. I recently picked up a hermes and while it is very nice, there are some things I miss from the Angel.
dark_prince said:
Does it comes under the name, blueangel???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't quite understand this question. If you are asking if it was sold under the name of Blue Angel, no. Blue Angel is the HTC internal name for the phone. It was never sold by HTC directly, but to the various cell carriers who rebadged it with their own plastics and ROM/applications.
dark_prince said:
also please tell me pros and cons about this dmobile device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pros:
Good CPU speed (the keiser runs at the same speed, 400 mhz)
The CPU has been around for a while, so 3rd party apps that are designed for the CPU work well.
Good physical size on the screen
Lots of storage and program memory when the extended ROM is resized/removed.
Cons:
Since it is an older platform, any MW version after 2003 is a hack. The drivers are generally ported from other phones and there are various bugs that will probably never be fixed due to a lack of hardware drivers. Everything does work, there are just various quirks.
Radio range (bluetooth, wifi, etc) are not the best. Heck, they often tend to be down right crappy.
Unless someone is able to write and release a SDHC driver for the card slot, it will never support SDHC cards, which will limit the phone to 4 gig cards. 2 gig is the official spec for SD, but there are a few 4 gig non-SDHC cards out there.
dark_prince said:
I already own O2 xda exec, typhoon and voyager
what about this one???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still like mine and plan on passing it to my wife or using it for testing and development if she doesn't want it.
dark_prince said:
cud U, experienced users please guide me....am i gonna upgrade its rom to WM6 or not??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would. MW6 is a huge improvement over 2003 and 5. The latest ROM builds out there work very well, if not 99% perfectly, and are fast.
In my opinion, Hemli releasing wm6 for the angel breathed new life into the device.
Really, I wish HTC would revive the device, make an updated version of it. The form factor, while is a bit big for a phone, is great for usability as a PDA.
jdc said:
In my opinion, Hemli releasing wm6 for the angel breathed new life into the device.
Really, I wish HTC would revive the device, make an updated version of it. The form factor, while is a bit big for a phone, is great for usability as a PDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that! Just ditched my Hermes for my old trusty Blue Angel, which blows the pants off it! I forgot how much I loved the 3.5 inch screen!
Rookie as well with the Blue Angel
I am getting started with the Blue angel as well (O2 Xda IIs)
I like it a lot this will probably become my best buddy during my travels
I got a couple of complementary questions about it.
I intend to use it for business purposes, mainly Internet through
Wifi and GPRS, pdf and offices documents.
I saw on this forum that you advise to change from WM 2003SE to Windows Mobile 6 (the last published by Microsoft)
-My question is: This PDA is already a bit old now, is it going to work smoothly wit the very last OS, which is designed for more recent PDAs (i.e which should be more efficient).
I mainly want to use it for Internet, wich browser do you recommend ?
Internet explorer? Opera Mobile? Opera Mini? other browser?
By the way what is the difference between Opera Mobile and Opera Mini
you should go with opera mobile, as it is better suited for pda's. opera mini is suited for java based mobile phones.
jdc said:
Really, I wish HTC would revive the device, make an updated version of it. The form factor, while is a bit big for a phone, is great for usability as a PDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
man i wish they would do that, or release a device with the same glorious screen but with contemporary features, all in all the blu angel is still a killer device 4 years on.
Absolutely right. I had been using the subj for 4 years in nearly extremal conditions, uprading and downgrading firmware dozen times. But, unfortunately it died as hero. Really great gadget, legend of HTC platform challenging ages.
Hi
Well with WM 6.1 it does everything I need and thats for sure I have my pick of devices and always come back to this one - and the 11i which is just about as good
I cant think of a time I have been upset with what it does or doesn't do. I intend keep one for as long as it will run....
John P

128mb ram Uni Worth it?

I am debating if i should upgrade my uni to 128mb ram for around USD 120 , is it worth it, how much difference is there in speed stability, tomtom/I-go speed anyone trying to use his/her 128mb uni with gps software and media player running in the background along with direct push email service and voice command to make phone calls? how do you think that will go. should i just wait for a universal replacement and buy that at once or upgrade this and use it for another year hopefully?
Please post your feedback/advice
Your last thought is exactly my sentiment: As much as I want to see 128 MB in my Uni, 120 $ are just not worth it. Save the money for your next PPC if you don't really really need it (Opera 9.5 / Netfront 3.5 or Navigon would imho be good reasons) and buy yourself a nice 128 MB device that is up to it when it comes to connection speed, camera, GPS and all those nifty little extras that WM7 is going to require.
Falk said:
Your last thought is exactly my sentiment: As much as I want to see 128 MB in my Uni, 120 $ are just not worth it. Save the money for your next PPC if you don't really really need it (Opera 9.5 / Netfront 3.5 or Navigon would imho be good reasons) and buy yourself a nice 128 MB device that is up to it when it comes to connection speed, camera, GPS and all those nifty little extras that WM7 is going to require.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh cool, yea your right.. ppc have more integrated stuff that would be demanded in wm7.. our uni doesnt have the power ..
thank you for your input
Guys the pins that have to be shorted , are there 2 pins as in 2 pairs or just 1, in the wiki, it says shorten these pins but its not clear how many there are..
i decided to go with the upgrade since i got a bricked blueangel. and i found a guy who will make the switching for me.
can somoene please confirm if its 2 pairs of pins or just 1 pair what exactly are the 2 lines indicated in red ? (the diagram in the wiki
It worth it. You will find you can do more in your UNI, but no WM5 rom support 128M. Your UNI will lose Video call and comsume more power.
thanks
steveruan said:
It worth it. You will find you can do more in your UNI, but no WM5 rom support 128M. Your UNI will lose Video call and comsume more power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh ic, it makes sense . i dont use video call anyway coz there isnt any available in the states.. so we are good from that aspect i just wanna be able to run tomtom smoothly and listen to music without lacking memory in case of incoming voice calls or text messaging while other apps are running
dj_gabzz said:
oh ic, it makes sense . i dont use video call anyway coz there isnt any available in the states.. so we are good from that aspect i just wanna be able to run tomtom smoothly and listen to music without lacking memory in case of incoming voice calls or text messaging while other apps are running
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I donno if it worth $120, but it wort for 50€ and for speed you gain, no more Memory full with iGO recalculating. It is worth when you start iGO, Messenger, full today plugins...
Save it for the HTC Omni aka Universal 2
Please help!
i upgraded and thats what happened i posted it also somewhere on the 128mb forum.. any advice oter than shorting the pin 1 i took out the ram chips and reballed them again then soldered them back.. all i see is 64 mb.. is the 3rd pin with 51k resistor necessary?
i am using ranju 7.1 with no page pool i have around 13mb ram after sr
I PAID MONEY FOR THE UPGRADE AND I STILL DONT HAVE 128 RAM !!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by moiisse
dear mamaich, i did all the step to step to upgrade my universal ram to 128 MB : 1) get 2 chips ram 64mb of blue angel
2) install the 2 ram in their place by a professional technical engineer
3) connect the pins 1 and pins 3 <51 k> as mentioned
4) intall the Nk file that has a tweak to activate the 128 Ram
and still my universal 64 ram...
but today accidently i tried to install a normal rom ( ranju blue V5) that was cooked for a 64 ram universal device, my device didn't over come the boot screen, and a light blue rays was observed on my screen, i tried different rom 64mb based on same thing, BUT when i installed a 128 MB ram, rom it booted normally, but still 64MB
so i need plz your advice to activate 128MB ram

Axim x50v or x51 - which would you choose? (long post)

I'm not really sure where this belongs, so I'll put it here and ask for input and if a Mod decides it should be in another subforum, I've got no issues with it being moved. Also, this is a long post so, if you're so inclined to read it and you have some advice, I'd love to hear your opinions and thoughts.
I've been playing around with the x50v I got recently off Craig's List for $100: a nice little package deal, the x50v in immaculate condition with a screen protector, a "notebook" style leather flip case - not what I want however, the original 1100 mAh battery and cover as well as an extended 2200 mAh battery with extended cover, 2 cradles, 2 AC adapters, and a 1GB Patriot SD card + a 256MB SanDisk CF card.
It works great, I updated to the Dell WM5 A05 ROM then jumped directly to Lenny's L09 WM6.1 and I'm happy with it, but this is the second x50V I've owned in the past year and, well, I guess I'm sorta unhappy with the performance. I believe, based on reading a few thousand forum postings here and at Aximsite, Brighthand, and Lenny's HTCGeeks forum - and also everything I can find about the NOR memory issues with the x50(v) series Axims from Microsoft.
I know that the filesys.exe issue will always be there, that's a given, and based on how "slow" I think this thing is it just gives me reason to wonder what exactly is wrong. Here's my reasoning, based on experience:
I grabbed an HTC Wizard (AT&T/Cingular 8125) off Craig's List a few months back because the owner snapped the USB port off inside the unit. He had a wall-type charger for the battery, but obviously it couldn't be hooked up to a PC any longer through that USB port. I've contemplated sending it off to those PPC guys to repair the port but, it's like $100 or close to it and I really don't use the phone that much except as a cheap digital camera.
The reason I mention that Wizard is because I installed PointUI on it (www.pointui.com), a fairly cool but needs more development "touch" UI application. On the Wizard, the OS is WM5, untouched, I even reset the device recently and reinstalled the old PointUI I had (not the latest 1.5a version). The point I'm trying to make here is this:
PointUI on that Wizard is ridiculously fast and smooth as butter, almost like having an iPhone/iPod touch smoothness to it, really. It's that fast and smooth, at least to me. And the Wizard has no discrete graphics chip on it like the x50v does - the Intel 2700G GPU, basically.
So, here's my dilemma: when I install the older or even the latest versions of PointUI on the x50v (and yes I'm aware that it's not really designed for non-phones but it does work), it's slow. It's not fast, it's not smooth, and for a device with significantly more horsepower - running at 624 MHz full bore with the Intel 2700G working too, as compared to the Wizard running at a paltry 200 MHz or so with no video acceleration at all - I'm a bit disappointed in it.
Also, while I haven't tested it, I wonder if the issues are being caused by the slower NOR memory in the x50v. I have tried a few games like Enigmo which came with the x50v brand new and it seems to play pretty slowly as well on the x50v, even with the graphics acceleration working.
Blah blah blah... ok, here's my question:
I don't run at true VGA mode much, that's a given. I've installed a few apps that let me enable VGA mode on the device after a reset, but there just doesn't seem to be much out there taking advantage of it: 320x240 still is the order of business for the PocketPC universe, probably always will be unfortunately.
So, right now I've located an x51 (not an x51v which I really want but can't locate for a decent price, certainly not for $100 in a package like I just found with this x50v with a few cradles and chargers, maybe an extra battery or two, for about $100. It's not the x51v as I just noted, and right now I don't even know if it's the low-end x51 (416 MHz) or the mid-range model (520 MHz), I'll find that out if I choose to get it. Aside from the clock speed I think the low-end and mid-range models are identical - only the default clock speed (max) is what differentiates them; if I'm wrong and there are other differences between those two models, someone tell me, please, thanks.
The meat and potatoes: if you had the choice between the x50v with the slow and unavoidable NOR memory with the accompanying issues because of file compaction with filesys.exe that sometimes make the device so slow it almost makes you want to just reset it to start using it again, or...
The x51 which has no such issues, but also has no video acceleration but might not need it for simple movie/video playback, and most certainly can play audio files easily, and should theoretically run much faster than the x50/x50v because they're built with NOR memory and the x51 line uses NAND...
Which would you choose based on the following:
- the VGA screen in the x50v has 4x as many pixels so it's drawing 4x the power even when VGA mode isn't enabled - this is a fact because the LCD panel has 4x as many pixels. Just because I'm not running in VGA doesn't mean those extra pixels are "off" - they're always on, but it now requires 4 pixels to show what 320x240 would show on the x51 with just 1 pixel. It's weird but it's true, so theoretically the x51 should use less battery power. I can deal with 320x240, it's fine... movies still look fine to me on 320x240 screens.
- The slower clock speed at 416 or 520 MHz is fine also, movies don't really require that much CPU power to play with the encodings I've been finding and trying to make myself (limiting the bitrate to about 300 Kbps, 320x240 or whatever but 320 pixels wide max then the height is proportional based on the source content). Again, the slower clockspeed by default would mean longer battery life theoretically.
- Everything else between the x50v and the x51 are basically identical except for the Intel 2700G video chip. Same case, ports, CF/SD card slots, same Wi-Fi/Bluetooth hardware, etc, it's all the same save for the differences in clockspeed and the video, really.
So, which would you choose if you wanted the best performance with anything you're doing, without wondering if the device will suddenly just choke to a standstill while it's trying to process some information or store it in memory or whatever.
I'm leaning to the x51, actually. I still haven't had a chance to actually use an x51 or x51v, but if the performance of this lowly Wizard at 3x slower on average with no video acceleration at all is any sign, the x51/x51v should really be some damned fast devices.
Also, I just noted earlier today that MagLite is at work again and just released a test ROM for WM6.1 for the x50!!! Not the x50v, but the plain old x50 without the Intel 2700G, so this bodes very well that perhaps he or someone else could throw some stuff into their "kitchen sinks" and create a proper working WM6.1 ROM for the x51...
I'm pretty excited at the possibilities, and yes I'd still love to get an actual x51v or even an HP x4700 at this point with the 4" LCD, but at the moment the x50v I have is working, albeit slower than I'd like. With the factory WM2003SE on it it's very fast and snappy as expected, but put WM5 on it and performance plummets, and with WM6.1 it's even worse to some degree. I'm suspecting all of it is because of the slower NOR but I didn't think it was that slow - apparently is is because this little Wizard runs circles around my x50v... seems sad, really.
Thanks to anyone that reads all this and comments, I appreciate it.

Goodbye windows phone?

first of all, I think WP7 OS is great and i have my omnia 7 for about 18months now, so im in a great position to say what i think of it.
for the first time in 18 months, im starting too look at the Android OS. why?
WP7 Hardware STILL dosnt cut it and there not a single true wp7 high end device out there.
examples,
the aging low res
low memory (especially if you live in the UK 8 gb phones really?)
poor GPU (60 fps is the minimum standard and wp7 games seem to be struggling to hit 30 fps. only the games with poor graphics run at 60fps on wp7. its embarrasing. i wouldnt show my android /iphone owning friends these games on my phone.
single core - sure the actual OS generally is nice and smooth ( although mine has definately slowed down recently maybe as im running out of memory?) however try opening PDF files they slow right down and take an age to open
Skydrive, i use skydrive all the time, i log on today and now instead of my usual 25GB i see i now only have 7GB ? whats going on here, skydrive was the only thing keeping my phone running over since i have only 8, ( actually 7GB of storage on my phone........
like i said at the start, the OS it self is really great, i just wish i could have the OS on a device as powerful as the "old"Samsung galaxy s2 ( I say old but its still WAY more powerful than WP7 devices.) but the hardware is really letting WP7 Down... no wonder sales have been rubbish
Read this article:
http://wmpoweruser.com/skydrive-for-windows-now-available-to-download-features-as-promised/
It will give you a link to 'upgrade' your SkyDrive storage back to 25GB. I just did this yesterday for an account, so it should still be working. It also has a link for the new SkyDrive Windows 7 program, which makes SD now on par with DropBox (Better, actually since it now keeps the phone in sync with folders on the computer).
thanks for that .......should keep me ticking over until my contract ends. by then i expect ( more like hope actually) that there will be at least 1 wp7 htc device in 6 months?
davidebanks said:
thanks for that .......should keep me ticking over until my contract ends. by then i expect ( more like hope actually) that there will be at least 1 wp7 htc device in 6 months?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope they make something like the hardware used for the ONE S.
I was helping my friend get her very first ever smart phone (Lumia 710) yesterday. We were at Car Toys. The sales guy went to the back to get the ONE S to show it off. Granted, I'm in no way passionate about Android, but it is one sexy piece of hardware. Just the right thickness, but a great sturdiness and weight to it. I was really impressed with its feel. Were there no Nokia, I'd go w/ HTC. Samsung's all feel like plastic graham crackers to me.
Single core and all those things, do you really need it or just to say Hey I have dual cores. For me, I don't think dual core is needed.
About the GPU, yes I think the game graphics can be improved by a lot seeing those FPS games on iphone.
To the OP, glad that you have realised and awake about the drawbacks...
Have been using my mozart for 13months++, bought the HTC one X last month,honestly my 1st android device. It is great, don't listen to all those lagging&force close BS...give it a try...no regret on one X...
lol...smoked by WP7???who cares?i can play cut the rope: experiment,angry bird space, highlighting and add notes to my PDF lecture slides(this is the crucial one), cheaper apps and etc....
now my mozart is collecting dusk and work as alarm clock[this is where WP7 excel at (easy task)]
davidebanks said:
like i said at the start, the OS it self is really great, i just wish i could have the OS on a device as powerful as the "old"Samsung galaxy s2 ( I say old but its still WAY more powerful than WP7 devices.) but the hardware is really letting WP7 Down... no wonder sales have been rubbish
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you like the experience of Windows Phone but want more modern hardware, Windows Phone 8 might be worth looking at.
It will be based on the NT kernel and will support more powerful CPU / GPUs (including multi-core CPUs) and higher screen resolutions.
There are plenty of other threads discussing WP8 (including timing) if you want more information. I'd expect it to be out within 6 months, assuming you're on a 2 year contract.
OP, your post is useless as all your other 232 posts. Hope to never see you again in WP7/Win8 forums (you may also pick up a few andro-stupid-trolls with)
Get a phone to suit your needs end of line.
I'm also leaving windows phone for android.
I've been a huge windows phone supporter (went from windows mobile to windows phone) and i still think metro is the greatest thing on any phone. But i'm tired of not having key features that i find essential for any phone. I mean common, no way to turn off auto rotation? No way to view notifications other than live tiles? No way to lower volume without lowering ring volume? No way to turn off 3G (if you had AT&T in NYC you'd understand why)
These are things i consider very very basic and should be implemented.
I really don't care about the apps. That's not why i'm switching. I'm switching because i have a problem with the OS not having basic functionality.
Hi guys, lets try to keep the forum focused in DEVELOPMENT, in this section for WP7. Thread closed.

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