I knew about the MagicRam Flash cards before I wrote the wish list and
I applaud them for their efforts but here are the reasons I wish for
Flash card support built into the OG:
First, I already have a 10MB HP Flashcard (SanDisk ATA type) which I use in
my semi-defunct HP200LX and I would like to use this in the OG
and the MagicRam Flash Cards are the Intel Flash type which wouldn't
work on the 200LX.
Also from my understanding (someone please correct me if I am wrong),
with the MagicRam card, you have to first copy the Flash driver
from a PC to the OG Ram disk (b: drive) and install it in
the OG's config.sys(?) before you can use the MagicRam card.
So the problem becomes, what happens if you have to reset the OG
back to factory conditions or for some other reason, loose all your data?
You would loose access to the Flash card until you can get access to a
PC and reinstall the driver to the OG.
Here is an extreme example: My serial port died last week (it is still
dead and HP still hasn't replied to my fax :-( ) and I reset it to
factory conditions to try to see if I could get it to work again. I
would have wiped the Flash driver from the OG RAM drive during the reset
and since my serial port isn't working it would have been impossible
to get the flash driver back onto the OG RAM drive. The Flash card would
still be unusable. (Well, to be truthful, I also have an SRAM card
so I probably could have used it to copy the Flash driver, but
what if I didn't?).
On the other hand considering the poor battery life of the OG and the
lack of and AC adaptor option, I can understand why HP left out
Flash support.
With the 200LX I could go about a week on Radio Shack high capacity NiCads
with heavy usage and a 10MB Flash card.
With my OG using the same NiCad batteries, I get a max of 3 days battery
life with similar usage and a 2MB SRAM card and a max of a week using
non-rechargeable Alkalines. Without AC adaptor support, it is a pain in the
ass to have to take out the NiCad batteries in the OG every two-three days,
put them in the 200LX to charge while replacing them with Alkalines until
they are fully charged.
This is why AC adaptor support was also high up on my wish list.
Wow, my apologies for this being so long!
William