Thinking of Purchasing Axim X5 Advanced had a cppl of questions.

[manwayvan]

Hello all.. I must say this is a great community for axim support. I am in the market for purchasing a Pocket PC and my boss has recently decided to sell his Axim X5. I am new to these devices and had a cppl of questions which I couldnt find answers to by searching.
1. I see that it is possible to upgrade the Operating System of these devices but will Windows Mobile 5.0 work on a Axim X5?
2. Is the Ram upgradable in these units? Not talking about installing a CF card just the internal memory?
3. Is the X5 a good buy at 100 since there are smaller and faster processor designes available now?
4. I mostly read ebooks, and do visual basic design with my laptop and was wondering if it would be capable to do both with the pocket pc givin i had enough space on a CF card
5. This unit does not come with a CF Wifi adapter and I am curious of what would be a good purchase for someone who is looking for the cheapest route with good output.
6. Would any windows xp program run on a windows mobile device?

All information would be greatly appreciated

[Drifter]

Welcome to aximusers.com

The x5 is a great little machine and as a starting point it is highly recommended,

In answer to your questions.

1)WM5.0 will not work on an x5. The highest version that this will support is PPC2003. You should check the ROM on this unit via START>Settings>system>about. If it is A05 then that is as high as it goes. If it is A04 or lower it is PPC2002. WM5.0 needs specific hardware and x5 does not meet the needs.

2) No it is not possible to upgrade the RAM. The advanced comes with 64MB and this is more than sufficient for most needs ( I suspect you are thinking PC... a PDA needs much much less working memory).

3) At $100 it is about right, but not really a bargain... providing it is fully working and has the charger cradle etc.

4) Ebooks, yes providing you have the software and it is PPC2003 compatible, but you may need to buy the software

5) Ebay is a good place for WiFi cards - CF is my preferred option as the cards are a little more robust. AVOID combined memory /wifi cards as these cause problems, but other than that, providing it comes with a PPC2002/PPC2003 driver, the lower cost cards work very well

6) NO... XP programs will not run on a PDA, special versions are need for this. Without knowing what you specifically mean, it is difficult to comment, but most common PC programs are available ( to buy) for the PDA also,

I assume you know it will already come with Pocklet excel and Word ??

If you can be a little more specific on the programs we will try to help

[manwayvan]

Thanks Drifter I appreciate the time you put in on my response. After doing some online reviews and pricing, I think Im going to try ebay and hopefully find an x51 for around 200

[Drifter]

OK, you may however think about buying the x5 either as a base for a car GPS or to offer less money and resell, putting the money towards the x50.

FRom what you have asked, I assume you know the X50 also does not have WM5 ( only the x51 has this). Plus, make sure you go for a 520Mhz unit as the 412MhZ ones do not have WiFi built in. Only the 520mHz x50/X51 have this ( plus of course the X50v/x51v)

[manwayvan]

Hey all I bought the X5 and currently in love with it..Im looking for software and ways to mod this thing to get everything I can out of it..Is this model overclockerble or is that only a desktop or laptop thing?

[Mahstah]

Pocket Hack Master is the most popular PPC OCing application and it offers lots of options. Pocket PCs are generally what is termed as "software clocked", that is, the software tells the hardware how fast it runs. Other programs are around like "Overclock for Pocket PC 1.0" (freeware, but not tested by yours truly).

The biggest must-have IMO is Pocket Plus by Spb Software. Pocket Plus gives the PPC all the stuff Microsoft left out in its mobile OS. And no, I don't receive any funds from Spb for saying that.

[CatchClaw]

Just a consideration - the X5 has both compact flash and sd card slot. I think the X50 came out next and did NOT have the CF slot but built in wireless (correct me if I'm wrong). Then came the X51v which brought back the CF slot, SD slot, AND built in wifi/bt.

It is handy to have BOTH the compact flash slot and the sd card slot sometimes. For instance - I put all my programs and data on the sd card. If I want to play music or videos, those go on the CF card. I can pop that out and in without losing my programs. I long for built in wifi/bt but if I had to sacrifice - I don't really do much surfing on my axim.

And for Ebooks - look at the Mobipocket Pro reader with possibly the Office Companion. If there is a better reader out there I haven't seen it. With that and the clunky Microsoft Reader that some books still are published in you'll be set.

[manwayvan]

Thanks everybody..Im kind of disappointed with this unit though..I dont know if its my lack of experience but I find this unit to have choppy processor speeds and plus I cant seem to find a way to save my ,tasks and owner information to external storage so when I hard reset I dont have to loose all that stuff..any ideas?

[Mahstah]

Owner information must be input after each hard reset. It's the same thing as reinstalling Windows on your desktop, but way easier. The tasks, calendar, email, contacts, etc can be synced after a hard reset so you don't lose anything. Even if you didn't buy the X5 from your boss and you got the X51v instead, a hard reset would do the same thing.

[Drifter]

Catchclaw, may I corrrect you.. The x3/x30 series came out after the x5. This only had an SD slot. The x50 and x51 had both slots and as you correctly point out, having both is very handy.