Editing Psion Series 7 (section)

=== Why the Series 7 is slower, and what happens if you change that ===

The Series 7 and netBook are believed to use '''the same 190 MHz SA-1100 part''', because fitting one chip to both machines was cheaper than stocking two — the slower speed is imposed by software on the Series 7 ROM card.<ref name="faqgen" />

Owners who fitted a netBook ROM board to a Series 7 reported the machine booting as a netBook, with '''191.692 MHz''' shown in place of 132.71 MHz and software running notably faster. The reported ROM size drops from 16 MB to 13 MB and RAM rises to 19 MB, because the netBook card carries an extra 16 MB of RAM and 13 MB is then consumed by the loaded OS image. All batteries must be out before the swap.<ref name="faqgen" />

Two cautions are worth stating plainly:

* '''The safe direction is netBook down to Series 7.''' Upgrading the other way "may not work, as some Series 7 failed the test for being able to work reliably at the higher speed" — the parts were binned.<ref name="lindsay" />
* '''The Series 7 still cannot supply as much current to the PC Card slot''' as a netBook, and that does not change when the ROM board does.<ref name="faqgen" /> Psion Teklogix put a number on it: the '''Series 7 slot is limited to 200 mA''', against '''800 mA''' on a netBook built from September 2002 and '''300 mA''' on one built before that.<ref name="psionfaq" /> That is the whole explanation for why modems and radio cards that work in a netBook are dead in a Series 7, and no module swap changes it.

Only '''16, 32 and 64 MB''' memory configurations are accepted; 48 MB does not work, and a Series 7 memory upgrade will not work in a netBook.<ref name="lindsay" />