I’ve discovered why the Toshiba e740 Pocket PC I got for a great deal last month was perhaps available in the first place: It may have been removed from the shelf of the chain that was selling it due to Toshiba’s decision not to offer an upgrade to Windows Mobile/PocketPC 2003. Owners of this mode, many of whom bought the model only weeks ago (like me) , feel stuck. While I can’t complain about the price I got, I still find myself wishing I had seen this. I post it here as a warning to potential Toshiba customers of their PDA’s (and their other products as well, if this is the kind of support they give).
I’ve been loooking to see if there is an “unsupported” method of getting the Flash ROM 2003 upgrade anyway (I’d store a backup just in case). So far, all the posts I’ve found say that the OEM has to supply the upgrade. Surely someone has found a way?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/31558.html
This exposes the real problem ……..”Unfortunately, Toshiba may not be able to help even if it wants to. The e750’s PXA255 processor is a replacement for the e740’s PXA250, which we understand was not without more than its share of bugs, particularly with the CPU cache and PCMCIA support. When Intel releases a new processor, it usually continues to offer the previous version, often at a lower price. That’s not the case with the PXA255. As Intel’s developer site notes: “The Intel PXA250 processors are no longer available for new development and have been replaced by the Intel PXA255 processor.”
Indeed, what Intel markets as the PXA255 was originally to be released as the PXA250 stepping C1, according to an Intel Product Change Notification document seen by The Register. Not only does it fix the PXA250’s prime glitches, but adds some new, performance boosting features of its own.”…..”Toshiba denied that the issues surrounding the PXA250 were the reason for the initial refusal to offer e740 users the update. “To date Toshiba has not received any customer complaints around [the bugs],” said the spokeswoman. “The PXA 250 processor is not subject to any recall and is currently being sold by most Pocket PC device manufacturers.”
So, what we really need is a 2003 upgrade or a recall on the Intel PXA250. Contact Toshiba and request your upgrade or a recall and let them take their pick.
I would hope Toshiba reconsiders the firmware upgrade for the E740, I’ve only owned mine a year and my biggest complaint is the Wifi Utility. Pocket PC 2002 won’t auto-detect wireless networks. I have to enter the SSID etc. manually which on most public networks I don’t know.
I just recently bought the E740 on ebay then discovered this site and many other explaining that toshiba is not going to offer the wp 2003 upgrade I am ticked the processor is more than capable of handling the upgrade and to my understanding it would make some big improvements I promise you and toshiba this. The e740 will be my last purchase from toshiba and that includes any of their other electronics.
Same for me , too, Greg.