Installing software on SD card

[marljac]

I have a 2215 with a 1gb SD card. I'm running low on RAM and have heard that it's okay to install software on the SD card. My question is are there certain applications that should not be installed on the card. For example, i have the TomTom Navigator 5 software. My maps are on the card but will the software itself run as well if I install it on the card? What about my PIM (Agenda Fusion)? Are there any disadvantages to doing this to free up storage memory?
Thanks for the feedback,
Mike

[dlcartin]

I don't know about the TomTom pgm itself, but I have a Compaq iPAQ 3850 with a 1 GB SD card and I put nearly all my pgms on it and so far no adverse effects. It shouldn't matter though, for as long as the SD card remains in the socket it's accessible.

[marljac]

I guess my question is does it seem to affect the processing speed if it's reading the programs from the card as opposed to the internal RAM?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Storage cards are slower than RAM, and are initialised late in the boot-up process (even from standby). With these two factors in mind you'll see a couple of things - programs will load slower (but run just as fast), and today plugins may not work or load properly.

So the rule of thumb is: today plugins and programs that load at startup should go into RAM or your iPaq Store, otherwise anywhere is fine. You will see a performance hit as far as loading times are concerned if your programs are installed to SD, but they should run fine otherwise. Also, the 2215 has a pretty slow SD interface, the CF interface is way faster, so you may want to think about using a CF card instead.

[marljac]

Thank you for the feedback!!

[marljac]

Just out of curiosity, would it make a difference in the loading speed if I got a high speed CF card that seems to be marketed for digital camera users or is it limited byt the CF interface itself?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

With high speed cards, the interface is the bottleneck, yes. And if it conforms to the CFII standard, then for the most part you shouldn't have any compatibility problems - it's SD cards that occasionally give the 2215 the hiccups. You might want to check out HP's support pages to make sure you've got the latest ROM version, as there is a fix available for that particular problem.

[ipaqczar]

It isn't the same version, but I am running TomTom 3 off an SD card (along with the maps) without any problems on a 3950.

But just an FYI - I did have to install the GPS driver into regular ram because it involves .dll files that go into the Windows directory.

[skfny]

This is not consistent with my experience with miniSD cards on my PPC-6700, so I hope someone can help me.

When I run an app off the card, it loads fine (a little slower but barely noticeable for most apps) and runs fine.

However, when I power off the device, sometimes when I power back on, the apps running off the card are no longer open.

I'd love to run NetFront and FlexMail off the card without having them shut down randomly (probably 70-80% of the time I turn off the device).

I don't think I have any third-party conflicts. I have SmallMenu and Scary Bears Notification Check as the only utilities, and then a ton of large apps on the device and on the card.

I know a hard reset is in order, and plan to do one anyway as part of the Sprint ROM upgrade, but I wanted to see if anyone has experience with this. I've searched countless forums and found nothing relevant.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

However, when I power off the device, sometimes when I power back on, the apps running off the card are no longer open.


Storage cards aren't connected all the time - when you go into standby, the card controllers will go into deep sleep mode, effectively unmounting the cards. It takes about 1/2 second to reinitialise when coming out of standby - so if there are any calls by a running program to the card, it may crash (NetFront for instance keeps its cache in its installed location). Most other apps should be ok.

[skfny]

But thats the problem- it's NOT just NetFront.

I have NF in ram and the cache on the card. NF is fine (never shuts down).
EVERY app running from te card shuts down.
This doesn't happen everytime. Approximately 10 pct of the time, all apps on he card stay open, even if the device has been off for half an hour or so.
The other 90 pct, all card apps shut down on power off, even after 30 seconds. So it's not related to the length of time the device is off.

Is this a WM5 issue only? Did older versions of the PPC OS also do this?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I have NF in ram and the cache on the card.


Probably not related to your problem, but that's an odd configuration - and not exactly healthy for your card's FAT. Do you see this issue without NF installed?


So it's not related to the length of time the device is off.


I don't believe I said it was.


Is this a WM5 issue only? Did older versions of the PPC OS also do this?

No I haven't noticed this kind of behaviour in older versions, so it could be a WM5 issue - there were some drastic changes made to the way the OS manages writing to flash memory. This may be one side effect.

[skfny]

I think I may have spotted something.

I had the system password on to avoid the 6700's 'dialing from your pocket' probem. I turned that off and apps seemed to stay open.

Regarding the NF installtion, I don't know why that is so strange. NF 3.3 gives you an option to keep the cache on the card. I do the same thing with Egress (app in RAM, feeds on the card) and would do so with FlexMail also if it supported the card better (faster, more stable).

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Regarding the NF installtion, I don't know why that is so strange. NF 3.3 gives you an option to keep the cache on the card. I do the same thing with Egress (app in RAM, feeds on the card) and would do so with FlexMail also if it supported the card better (faster, more stable).

I find it strange because relocating a browser's internet cache onto a storage card is the number one reason for corrupt file systems on storage cards - aka "All my files are gone, but the storage card is still showing space in use!" syndrome.

[skfny]

Regarding the NF installtion, I don't know why that is so strange. NF 3.3 gives you an option to keep the cache on the card. I do the same thing with Egress (app in RAM, feeds on the card) and would do so with FlexMail also if it supported the card better (faster, more stable).

I find it strange because relocating a browser's internet cache onto a storage card is the number one reason for corrupt file systems on storage cards - aka "All my files are gone, but the storage card is still showing space in use!" syndrome.

I was actually not aware of that. I think I'll back up the card and change that storage location before my card goes kaput. Thanks for the info.

Update on apps closing: disabling the password helps a LOT but is still not perfect. I'll try to move the NF cache to RAM and see if that helps too.