question about e740

[-silent-]

I've saw that some of the e740s were recalled because of battery failure. And I see some threads here reporting faulty scandisk cards (or PDAs or both).

My question is: are these problems really bad (ie do a lot of people get these problems)? and are there other things going wrong?

Some of you may have seen my other thread trying to decide what PDA to get. I am also thinking of this one because of the $100 rebate.

To those of you who have them, how are they?


Lots of questions!! 8O

Thanks.

[bigkingfun]

I've got one and overall I'm very happy with mine. Mine falls outside of the recalled serial numbers, so I can't say how high a percentage of those people actually had problems. I haven't had any battery problems with mine.

I use a Lexar SD memory card (64Mb) and a Kingston CF memory card (128Mb) in mine and haven't had problems with either of them. I haven't tried the Sandisk memory, so again I can't speak to that problem.

I upgraded to the e740 from an iPAQ 3850 because of the integrated wireless and dual slots. I have to admit the screen is not quite as bright as the 3850 was, and is even less so compared to the newer iPAQs (39xx and 54xx). Having started out in the Pocket PC world with a Jornada 548, the Toshiba's screen is still pretty good though.

I like Toshiba in general, having had success with their notebooks in the past. They have been getting some bad feedback due to the problems you've mentioned, but in my own experience, they are pretty good at dealing with the problems. The EUU3 update they released fixed a few minor glitches I had been having and they were relatively quick to issue a recall for the battery problem. Other PDA manufacturers have been much slower to react to problems with some of their models, if at all.

I find people that have had problems are usually a lot more vocal than people who haven't, so sometimes the problems aren't as widespread as they seem.

There are a few things that I'm not crazy about on the e740 - the voice record button is too easy to hit by accident. I often find I've recorded a few short bursts of nothing by the end of the day just from hitting it accidentally. The wireless strength is not as strong as it would be with an antenna. I've got mixed feelings about this one - it's strong enough for the places I use it, so I like not having an antenna, but it could be a problem if you're on the outer edge of the signal area. I don't like the pouch that it comes with - I prefer a flip case. The Vaja case I ordered for it is great but it's also pricey. All in all, they're minor complaints though.

My suggestion would be to pick one up somewhere that has a reasonable return/exchange guarantee and try it for a few days to see if you like it.

[-silent-]

thanks for all the help!

I am leaning towards the e740 because of the dual slots. (and the price for that matter). The wifi is cool, but not necessary. I've read that you can turn of the voice recorder button if you are not using it. That might help.

I'll probably be picking one of these up tomorrow.

[newst]

Silent,

1. Most of the problems with the e740 were resolved with the ROM update. Units in the stores today should have the new ROM already. To be sure of yours just check the default Today screen. If it is 'Bliss', a take-off of the Windows XP theme, you have the upgraded ROM.

2. The battery recall was due to a faulty component used in building the PDAs in the recall range, although I think, from what I've read in the forums (fori?) that a few units from outside the identified range also had the bad part. The fact is if the unit you buy isn't in that range there is very little chance of your experiencing the battery problem. The good news is that Toshiba has reportedly been very good about accepting and fixing those out of range machines that experience the battery problem.

3. There have been a lot of reports of problems with the e740 using Sandisk brand SD cards. There have also been many reports by people, like myself, who have had no problems at all with Sandisk cards. The problem appears to be a combination of spotty quality control at Sandisk and a certain myopia in readers of these forums. If you own an e740 and naturally read from e740 discussion groups you can get the impression that the Sandisk problem is an e740 issue. It isn't, just browse through some of the other groups and you will see similar complaints with other PDAs and Sandisk.

The easiest solution is just not to buy a Secure Digital (SD) card made by Sandisk. There are other brands with good reputations, like Lexar. They may cost a little more but it's your choice.

4. You can't turn off the record button on the e740. What you can do is load a third party program (and there are some Freeware programs available) that turns off the PDA, and switch the record button to activate this program. Then, when you push the record button the e740 turns on, and the program turns it right back off.

In all I'm very happy with my e740 now that I have installed the new ROM. I hope you'll be happy with it also.

SN

[redifrogger]

I have an e740, and I turned off the voice record button. It still powers the machine on when pressed, but it doesn't record. You change any of the buttons to be whatever app you desire, including no app. This might help. :D