Will a memory card solve a slow Axim?

[MyDellAxim]

I have had my Dell Axim x51v for a little more than a year . . . I migrated from a Palm. I have been disappointed from initial ownership on the long pauses that occur during operation (looking up a contact, moving from one day to another, etc.). I have all latest firmware and application updates. I use no memory cards. My question is whether a memory card will speed up the Axim? I have perhaps mistakenly thought that memory cards are to the Axim what a hard drive is to a PC.

[thefiredude]

I'm not sure I have the total answer to your question, but I use a 2 GIG SD card and keep most of my stuff including add-on, programs and other stuff on it. I have no sluggish responses and the unit is not slow. I believe the more you install into the Axim's memory itself might cause some slow down. To me putting the stuff I have on the Sd card keeps the main system less tasked. It us like a hard drive to an extent however I also believe acts somewhat similar to memory as it keeps the Axim's "system" from being choked up with stuff. Make sense? I'm sure some of the veterans will chime in and maybe explain it better.

[Richard Haynes]

By default, Axim's processor speed is variable. Even if you have the 624mz version like I do, Axim won't always run that fast if it thinks the application you are running doesn't need it. However, you can click down to menu to adjust the speed so it always runs in fastest mode. I did and I think it makes a big difference.

[rohanch]

By default, Axim's processor speed is variable. Even if you have the 624mz version like I do, Axim won't always run that fast if it thinks the application you are running doesn't need it. However, you can click down to menu to adjust the speed so it always runs in fastest mode. I did and I think it makes a big difference.

If you do decide to do this though, remember your battery life may decrease a lot.

Unfortunately the x51v is always going to be slower than similar QVGA devices. It's because the VGA screen has 4x as many pixels as a normal QVGA one, so it needs 4x the work every time the screen is updated. As far as I know, until someone (e.g. Dell, although it's never going to happen) finds a way to fully use the 2700G graphics for screen drawing it will stay like this. On top of that, Windows Mobile 5 is more featured and therefore a lot slower than Palm anyway for most things.

Installing programs to SD cards does speed them up in my experience, so it may be worth it depending on what you have installed :)

There are other speed tweaks you can do. Closing programs fully when you stop using them (Start -> Settings -> System -> Memory -> Running Programs - or use a 3rd-party utility or Dell's switcher bar), turning off Cleartype, Disabling error reporting and avoiding today plugins and background programs as much as possible. All those things will help keep the speed fast.

[Ashton]

Acctually, as per the WM05 file system, it would not.

The X51v has 64mb of RAM, then it has the built-in-storage of 256mb ROM, unless you overrun the 256mb rom, then you're not touching ram at all.

the only exception is the compation thread that runs every now and then and slows it down.