PalmOne Offers Temporary Fix For Treo Memory Issue

PalmOne issued a statement last week acknowledging that early users of the recently-released devices may encounter problems related to how programs and data are handled in memory. PalmOne said that the problem is caused by the fact that the Treo 650 uses a non-volatile file system (NVFS) for storing data while the Treo 600 used volatile memory.

PalmOne noted in an online support article that the change from volatile to non-volatile memory offers several advantages. Most notably, users of the Treo 650 can swap out batteries without losing data. The older Treo 600 did not have replaceable batteries but the newer model does.

Still, the company did acknowledge the downside to the upgrade, although it said in a statement that the problem is limited, for the most part, to power users upgrading from the Treo 600 to the Treo 650.

"We believe there is ample memory in the Treo 650 for new users to store their contact and appointment information as well as email and other applications," the company said in a statement. "We do recognize, however, that there is a small percentage of Treo 600 owners who have almost filled the memory on their device, and they will likely have a problem upgrading to the Treo 650 because of the reduced effective memory size in the new file system."

The company said in its statement that it will send a free 128 MB SD expansion card to Treo 650 users who request it for use until the company solves the problem with a ROM update.

The company said NVFS was implemented using 512 byte block sizes into which all data must be fit. That means that data smaller than that amount still uses a 512 byte block while a 600 byte chunk of data require two blocks. The result is that the devices can potentially run out of memory more quickly than otherwise would be the case.

"For example, a typical address book will take about 800 KB more space on a Treo 650 than on previous devices," the company said in an online support article. As a result, Treo 650 users may encounter "Memory full" error messages. Besides working on a ROM upgrade, the company said it is working with application vendors to solve the problem.

The Tungsten T5 handheld also has the same problem, but the issue is more significant in the Treo because the handheld has 256 MB of RAM to help handle the problem while the Treo only has 16 MB. PalmOne acknowledged in the article that data takes up more space under the new method.