Registered: Aug 2002
Location: St. Louis
Posts: 108

"How to" on Prism 16 MB upgrade?

I know that several individuals are doing this upgrade. Send your 8 MB Prism and money to them and they send it back with 16 MB.

How hard can this be? Do you need a special 16 MB chip to replace the original 8 MB, or is it just another 8 MB chip wired in parallel and stuffed into the case? I need to buy another motherboard anyway ($40 from Get High Tech is a lot cheaper than buying a new-to-me refurbished Prism) because my clumsy fingers somehow broke off the IR unit when I opened the case to replace my battery with the new high capacity battery from Laptops for Less (www.laptopsforless).

If the memory upgrade is a simple piggyback operation, I can remove the chip from the old motherboard and solder it into the new one.

Can it be that simple?

__________________
The Prismer

"I am not a number, I am a person!"

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: OOB, ME
Posts: 176

unless you've got the equipment to do precision surface mount soldering, you'll just ruin your new board.

get in touch with Alex Wang. Ace service. $49 and he pays for shipping back to you. He sells them on Ebay.

__________________
Only in a Jeep.

Registered: Aug 2002
Location:
Posts: 4

Get in touch with Alex

How does one "get in touch with Alex Wang" at Ace Service?

I have a 12/2000 Visor Prism model. I would like it to have 16mb of memory. This Alex Wang fellow will upgrade it for $49.00?

Thanks.

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: OOB, ME
Posts: 176

just watch his auctions on ebay

here's a link for you

He usually sells the upgrade for $49.

Oh, and he's not at Ace Service - that's what he provides.

I had my prism upgraded by him. Got it back, and it didn't work right. He replaced it with a new unit that was upgraded - and he paid for all the shipping. Good communication too.

__________________
Only in a Jeep.

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Federal Way, WA
Posts: 19

More praise for Alex

I also had Alex upgrade my Prism. I'd accidentally left some Eyemodule2 images on it. I forgot that I took them.

Alex must have synched them off, then back on after the upgrade, because when I turned the unit on after getting it back - there were my pics. Nothing important, but it gave me a good feeling to know that he'd done that extra step for me.

For $49, I feel I got a great deal.

E-mail him through e-bay and ask him to post the Prism upgrade, if he doesn't have one up right now. He put 2 up for me because someone else beat me to the first one!

<C>

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 9

I also had the upgrade by Alex Wang.
Works perfect

Since he worked 3 blocks from me in Manhattan i got to hand deliver it to his office and meet him.
Nice guy and did great work.
Highly recomend

Registered: Apr 2002
Location: New York City
Posts: 234

I live in queens...

Where is his office??

__________________
Cheers

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 9

Hes in Midtown , i met him on the corner of 49th and madison
I didnt go to his ofice .
I dropped it off and next day he gave it back to me

Registered: Aug 2002
Location:
Posts: 4

Contact

How does one contact this guy? Thanks

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 9

Only on Ebay

He has 2 up for auction right now

Here is one

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...;category=15012

or use his ebay id to look up his auctions or email

alex2000y2k

hope this helps

Registered: Mar 2003
Location:
Posts: 16

Alex hasn't been answering email as of late. Does anyone know if he's still around, or if there is another place that does this at a reasonable price?

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 9

He only replys when he has an upgrade on ebay

you can also check out the following:

http://www.palmpilotupgrade.com/about.html

http://www.pdaspecialists.com/ccp5/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi

i think both are $99

Registered: Mar 2003
Location:
Posts: 16

Alex Wang 16mb upgrades

Thanks for the links. I saw those on the web, and they look to be the only people doing upgrades for Visors.

I just think $99 is a bit steep for an upgrade to dated technology.

Hopefully Alex Wang puts an auction up soon - he seems to have the best prices and very happy customer feedback on this forum!

Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Idaho
Posts: 4

Thanks for the Post.

I'm ready for an upgrade too, but I'm having trouble getting ahold of Alex.

I've emailed him through ebay about once every couple of weeks but as of yet...no reply.

I don't want to be too pushy though. I just wish I knew if he were still doing them, so I'd know wether to give up on him or not.

Registered: Jan 2002
Location: California
Posts: 5

Upgrades are back on ebay!

quote:

---

Originally posted by kalbster
I just wish I knew if he were still doing them, so I'd know whether to give up on him or not.

---

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 46

Prism 16MB Upgrade

I just had my Prism upgraded by Alex via eBay.

Seemless process and the price is right.

I had to reload all my apps via the palm app loader. Restoring from PiBackupII was a little funky. But otherwise it was a simple process and great to have the 16MB!

Registered: Jul 2003
Location:
Posts: 3

Does anybody have a link showing a step-by-step on how to perform this mod for those of us who don't mind risking VisorDeath?

Registered: Oct 2002
Location:
Posts: 10

16 meg upgrade/Targus handcam?

Hi,

i did a 16 meg upgrade with Alex, and all went well. He worked really fast (he agreed to meet me on street corners in NYC to speed up the process).

The only glitch I've noticed is with my Targus Handcam (I just bought one). It freaks out a bit with my 16 meg visor (I can't hit the scroll forward or back buttons without crashing the Visor, and it refuses to save VGA images, saying there isn't enough memory). When I use the module in my old 8 meg Prism, it works fine.

Hmmm. I can live with it, but it would be nice to use that memory. My Eyemodule works fine with it (I got the Targus Handcam to "use as a webcam for my PC," as I am trying to justify buying new modules for my Visor as fine, as long as they work without it ;-) ).

I highly recommend the upgrade and Alex.

Registered: Sep 2002
Location: lawrence, ks
Posts: 22

i've been looking for him to upgrade my prism since i got a treo (1 yr or so), but i had too many apps on my prism that i couldn't do w/out, and couldn't move so i didn't have him do it. i'd like to get 16meg on there and use it for a massive amt of maps w/ my magellan gps.

does anyone have any anecdotes as to how the upgrade reacts to the gps module? does anyone know how to get ahold of alex; i remember corresponding w/ him once or twice, and he was excellent to work with. heck, i'd be willing to pay more than $49 if i had to. i saw those links when i did a googlesearch for prism memory upgrade, and i didn't like the price at all. if their service is reputed (on this board) to be as good as alex's, i guess i'd pay it if i can't find him.

if i could get this upgrade and some active armour i'd be a happy camper! any help will be appreciated.

Registered: Oct 2002
Location:
Posts: 10

Hi,
I'm using the Magellan GPS since my 16 meg upgrade, and it seems to work fine. I did have one issue this week, where I used the GPS unit in Pittsburgh. It worked fine for about an hour, then I parked my car, got out, turned the visor back on, and pulled out the GPS unit and tried to plug in my Sprint phone. The visor got "stuck" showing a map, and when I reset it, I lost my data (luckily, I had my memplug unit handy). It could have been the fact that I unplugged the GPS unit too soon, or I had a hack or two running, or maybe it was the Sprint phone.

I have had more crashes lately, but that could be because I am using some launcher programs and more hacks. Normally, my visor runs for weeks or months without any problems, but since the upgrade, I have had it crash every week or so. I'm guessing it is related to the software I'm running. Normally I don't use any hacks at all, but now with my 16 megs, I'm inspired to be more daring.

I still think the upgrade is worth it.