Psion netBook General Maintenance

A netBook is only a netBook while its CompactFlash card holds a valid OS.img. Look after the card as carefully as the machine.

Preventive maintenance for the Psion netBook.

The netBook is mechanically identical to the Psion Series 7 — same case, board, screen, keyboard and battery — so the general care, disassembly, battery and screen-cable advice lives on the Psion Series 7 General Maintenance page and is not repeated here. Read that page first.

What follows is what is different about looking after a netBook, and all of it comes back to one fact: the operating system is not in the machine.

⚠️ Safety

There are no mains voltages inside the machine. The external supply is 15.5 V at 1.5 A, and no other Psion adapter matches it.

The lithium-ion battery pack is the genuine hazard. Do not puncture, crush or short it, and read Battery Refurbishment before attempting to open one.

Watch the screen every time you release the battery catch. On some machines a microswitch fault turns the backlight on instead of shutting the machine down, and pulling the pack then wipes the internal disk — which, on a netBook, includes the operating system. The procedure is in the Series 7 maintenance page.

Everything inside is CMOS. Use an anti-static strap.

The card is part of the machine

At power-on the netBook looks on the D: drive for a CompactFlash card holding OS.img, loads it into a walled-off region of RAM and runs from there. Without that file it displays a message and stops.

So the maintenance rules that matter most on a netBook are about the card, not the hardware:

• Keep a spare copy of your OS.img somewhere other than the machine. On a PC, on a second card, on anything. A netBook whose only card fails is a paperweight until you find another image.
• Keep a spare, working CompactFlash card. It is the cheapest insurance available for this machine.
• Remember the partition must be marked bootable for the loader to take the image.
• Label the card. A netBook OS card looks exactly like a data card.

There is no inherent size limit in the hardware; 4 GB cards have been verified working.

CompactFlash or Microdrive

Choosing storage

	CompactFlash	IBM Microdrive
Power	Lower	Higher — it spins
Noise	Silent	A slight whirr
Shock	Solid state; cards have survived washing machines	Damaged by a drop
Write endurance	Finite, but it would take extensive repeated writing to reach	Unlimited in practice — better for Linux swap
Access	Instant	Short delay while the disk spins up and the heads settle

For everyday EPOC use, CompactFlash is the better choice on every axis except swap.

The personality module

The memory and bootloader sit on a removable card under the covers above the keyboard, and it is the part that decides what the machine is.

• Remove every battery — main pack, backup cell — before touching it.
• Handle it as you would any memory module. Anti-static precautions, edges only.
• Keep the covers over the slots closed when nothing is fitted.
• Only 16, 32 and 64 MB configurations work. 48 MB does not, and a Series 7 memory upgrade will not work in a netBook.
• If you are experimenting with modules, downgrade rather than upgrade. Fitting a Series 7 module to a netBook is safe; fitting a netBook module to a Series 7 may not be, because "some Series 7 failed the test for being able to work reliably at the higher speed".

Know what you have

Worth recording once, before you need it:

• Bootloader version — 11 for a netBook, 12 for a OneEd / "Malaysian" machine, which will refuse standard EPOC upgrades.
• Serial number, on the paper slip inside the CompactFlash slot. After the four letters, the first digit is the year (8 = 2000, 0 = 2002, 1 = 2003) and the next two the week.
• Board revision. Machines from week 35 of 2002 carry revision 10, which supplies more current to the PC Card slot than the revision 7 it replaced. It is the difference between a GPRS card working and not.

Backing up

The internal C: drive is RAM, and on a netBook so is the operating system. Back up before any battery change, any module swap and any disassembly.

A route that needs no desktop software: copy the whole of C:, including the System directory, to a folder on the CompactFlash D: drive (select all, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V). To restore, delete the whole of C: including System, then copy it back. Close every application that starts at boot first, and expect to reset the time, home city, sound and hidden-file preferences afterwards.

Batteries, screen and case

All shared with the Series 7 and covered in detail there:

• Batteries — including the charge LED cutting out at 70 %, and the battery catch that can wipe the machine if you pull the pack while the backlight is lit.
• The screen cable — the fault that ends these machines, and how to avoid provoking it.
• Opening the machine — the badge sticker, the single screw, the hinge pins and the sealed keyboard.

The netBook's case is plastic rather than the Series 7's leather, so it needs nothing beyond a barely damp cloth. It carries the same 15.5 V, 1.5 A supply requirement, and no other Psion adapter will do.

Pack rebuilding is on Psion netBook Battery Service.

If you run Linux on it

Two maintenance consequences worth planning for:

• There is no way to switch a Linux netBook off. The documented workaround is to reboot and switch off at the startup screen. Budget for the battery drain that implies.
• Nothing reports the battery level, so there is no warning before the machine stops. Watch the clock rather than the machine.

Keep your EPOC OS.img card intact and separate from the Linux one. Being able to boot back into EPOC is what makes experimenting safe.

Preventive maintenance checklist

1. Back up C: to CompactFlash or a PC.
2. Verify a spare copy of your OS.img exists somewhere other than in the machine.
3. Charge the main pack for a full three hours — ignore the LED.
4. Replace the CR2032 if you do not know its age.
5. Check the battery catch and the rubber foot mounted on it.
6. Press gently on the badge and watch the display for a change.
7. Clean both card slots; confirm the OS card and a data card are both read reliably.
8. Record the bootloader version, serial number and board revision if you have not already.
9. Store closed, in a case, away from vibration.

Recommended tools

• Cross-head and jeweller's screwdrivers, plastic spudgers, fine long-nose pliers.
• Anti-static strap.
• A hairdryer, for the badge sticker over the case screw.
• Isopropyl alcohol and lint-free and foam swabs.
• A spare CompactFlash card, and a copy of your OS.img on it. On this machine that is a tool, not an accessory.
• A fresh CR2032.
• A 15.5 V, 1.5 A supply with a 4.75 mm OD / 1.75 mm ID barrel.

See Recommended Tools for the general workshop kit, and Battery Refurbishment for the cell-work equipment.

Related pages

• Psion netBook · Psion netBook Troubleshooting Guide · Psion netBook Battery Service
• Psion Series 7 General Maintenance — the shared care and disassembly procedures
• Psion netBook Pro General Maintenance
• Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage · Recommended Tools