HotSyncing an old, old PDA

March 6, 2005 1:13 AM

Where can I find software to sync my vintage USRobotics Pilot 5000 to my Windows 2000 PC?

It was a gift from a friend who knows my affection for obsolete equipment: I've got the Pilot itself (in perfect condition! I could swoon), the pleather case, and the dock—but no software. I'd like to actually use the thing, but as it runs Palm OS 1.0 and ages of Googling didn't turn up anything for use further back than v3.0, I thought I'd turn to MeFi for help.

I gather from what I've read that Palm Desktop is what keeps your contacts, schedule, etc. on your PC and HotSync is the program that shuffles files between them. I need both, the equivalents thereof. Can anyone out there help me? Please?

posted by S.C. to technology (2 comments total)

I am pretty sure you can use the current software from Palm.
I believe it still has an option for serial port synching. I would check but don't have it installed on this PC.
I have the model after floating around, and I am pretty sure it last was used with current (certainly post version 3) software.
Both the Hotsync program and the desktop are installed from the same files (i.e, not separate programs).
If you have tried the current version with no luck, my next suggestion would be to lower the serial port speed, as I seem to remember an issue with synching via serial at higher speeds.
posted by bystander at 1:43 AM on March 6, 2005

You know, I never even thought of trying the modern Palm software—and surprise! It worked. Thank you very kindly.
posted by S.C. at 4:04 AM on March 6, 2005