In 2001, Palm made a software patch available to address a faulty 8MB DRAM component identified in a limited run of Palm IIIc, IIIxe, and Vx products. Palm used multiple sources for these DRAMs in the manufacturing process. One of the suppliers of DRAM components provided Palm with a faulty component that can cause random data to be written on the Palm device. If a unit is determined to have the faulty chip, the software patch will provide a complete fix.

Affected Devices

A majority of handhelds are free of the defect, including all 2MB, 4MB and most 8MB units. Palm confirmed that only Palm IIIxe, Palm IIIc, and Palm Vx models manufactured between the period of October 1999 through May 2000 are affected with this faulty chip.

To confirm that this issue does not affect your handheld, please download and install the software test. This test will explicitly determine if your handheld contains the faulty DRAM chip.

Using the 8MB DRAM Test

WARNING: This test may corrupt data on your handheld. Please make sure you perform a HotSync Operation to back up your data before running the test.

If the test application discovers no errors on the handheld, a "No Problems Found!" message will be displayed. This means that your handheld is NOT AFFECTED by the 8MB DRAM issue.

If the "No Problems Found!" message is not displayed on your handheld screen, this indicates that your handheld is affected by the 8MB DRAM issue and that you need to download and install the RefreshFix software patch for your handheld.

Compatibility

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