SOME HANDHELD COMPUTERS from Palm and TRG Products carry a faulty memory chip that can damage stored data, a problem users can fix with a free software download, the companies announced separately on Wednesday.

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About 3 percent of Palm handhelds and about 90 percent of TRG handhelds have the problematic 8MB DRAM chip, which can corrupt data such as stored telephone numbers, to-do lists and address-book entries. The affected models are the Palm IIIc, the Palm IIIxe, the Palm Vx, and the TRGpro.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Palm has a Web site where users can test their machines and, if necessary, fix them with a software patch. The address is www.palm.com/support/dram/. The site has patches for the Palm IIIc and the Palm Vx and "shortly" will have one for the Palm IIIxe, the company said.

All users of Des Moines, Iowa-based TRG's handhelds are encouraged to upgrade their units' Palm OS to Version 3.5.1, which fixes the problem, a company spokesman said. The update is available at www.trgpro.com/support/update.html. TRG began selling the TRGpro handheld in January of this year.