- RE: Eee PC

- Blank mako screen

- battery life Asus EE PC 901

- RE: The Asus Eee

- Asus v. HP

- Asus v. HP 2

Date: 8 Jul 2008 02:40:04 +0000
From: Bob <address truncated>
Subject: RE: Eee PC

Thanks again Kate.  I appreciate your info very much.  I will give it a go. Thanks,
Bobby

Date: 8 Jul 2008 03:47:36 +0000
From: Melvin Woody <address truncated>
Subject: Blank mako screen

The screen on my diamond mako has abruptly blanked out.  The unit still shows that it is charging, if placed in the cradle - and eventually the red light turns off.  An alarm went off on time while it was mounted on the cradle,  so that function is working O.K.  I've tried both soft and hard resets, to no avail.  (It goes beep beep when opened up after a soft reset, but the screen remains blank.)  Does this mean that the battery has worn out?  (If left in the cradle, the red light does eventually turn off.  But the screen remains blank. )

Melvin Woody

Date: 8 Jul 2008 07:07:43 +0000
From: Gerrit Muilwijk <address truncated>
Subject: battery life Asus EE PC 901

Date:  8 Jul 2008 05:32:03 +0000
From:<address truncated>
Subject: battery life Asus Eee 901

Answering Allan Morris ('The most compelling argument I've heard in
favor 
of the Asus Eee PC is that the battery life is superior to the HP model,

something like 6 hours vs 2 hours, if I recall correctly. Can anybody 
confirm this?'): yes you are right.
The Dutch Consumers Organisation (Consumentenbond) recently has tested
both the PC 900 and the PC 901. Batterylife of the 901 is 6 hours while
the 900 will work 3,5 hours (magazine: Digitaalgids juli/augustus - in
dutch of course).
Conclusion of the test of 4 machines (EEE 900/901, MSI U100 WIND,
Dialogue Flybook V5-U76 and Vyenote S18) was: wait for the Asus EEE 901.

Gerrit

Date: 8 Jul 2008 11:19:41 +0000
From: Alan R Morris <address truncated>
Subject: RE: The Asus Eee

From: emai7s <address truncated>

} > Why buy an Asus Eee PC 900 for £293.74 inc VAT, when for
} £352.49 inc VAT, I can buy a HP 2133 Mini Note PC?
}
} That's a good question. The most compelling argument I've
} heard in favor 
} of the Asus Eee PC is that the battery life is superior to
} the HP model, 
} something like 6 hours vs 2 hours, if I recall correctly. Can
} anybody 
} confirm this?

That's a good point Peter.

Now is that 6 hours with Linux or Vista?  I'll bet there is a big
difference.

I find on one laptop, that XP reports a low battery and switches off.
Then if I reboot with DOS on a floppy and run a batch file that
continually runs the floppy motor to do DIR then a different DIR to keep
the motor running; then the battery will last for over an hour.

Then From: Jakfish <address truncated>

} I have no interest in Linux, so Windows users will find that
} the 2133 runs Vista slowly, with a long boot time, so XP Home
} is the only way to find speed on the machine, and that
} "downgrade" is more expensive than a Vista installation.

I've just bought the wife a laptop (with Vista), but chose one that came
with dual-boot XP.

I think that the "downgrade" is better!!!!

Alan

Date: 8 Jul 2008 15:47:22 +0000
From: Ajai Khattri <address truncated>
Subject: Asus v. HP

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008, Peter wrote:

> That's a good question. The most compelling argument I've heard in favor 
> of the Asus Eee PC is that the battery life is superior to the HP model, 
> something like 6 hours vs 2 hours, if I recall correctly. Can anybody 
> confirm this?
>
> I haven't used either of the machines myself, but am thinking of picking 
> up one or the other later this year.

Noone has commented on the quality of the machines themselves. The ASUS is your basic white plastic box. Next to the all-metal HP it seems pretty flimsy. The HP was designed for students, so it has a scratch-resistant screen and a spillproof keybaord. I should also point out that the hard-drive on the HP has an accelerometer that locks the drive head during
a fall to prevent data loss.

Aj.

Date: 8 Jul 2008 16:09:34 +0000
From: Ajai Khattri <address truncated>
Subject: Asus v. HP 2

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008, Jakfish wrote:

> When deciding b/w the ASUS 900 and HP 2133, I chose the ASUS b/c the > 2133's VIA processor has been very poorly reviewed

I own both machines.

The basic HP model runs at 1.2GHz. But there's also 1.4GHz and 1.6GHz available.

The original ASUS has a 900MHz "Celery" (i.e. Celeron) that was underclocked to something like 630MHz. But if I recall, you dont get 6 hours of use out of a single battery charge on the ASUS (closer to half that).

The ASUS 900 finally raises the clocks up to 900Mhz

VIA are quite well-regarded in the embedded and miniITX space in the market.

> the machine has
> mediocre battery life, and I was less interested in storage than
> efficiency, so was willing to go with smaller, SSD components over a > larger, traditional hard drive.
>
> On the other hand, the HP does have a better screen and keyboard.

Pretty important if you write a lot.

> I have no interest in Linux, so Windows users will find that the 2133 > runs Vista slowly, with a long boot time, so XP Home is the only way to > find speed on the machine, and that "downgrade" is more expensive than a > Vista installation.

One could argue, that Linux outperforms Windows easily, so if you just check email, use websites and write the occassional document, Linux is more than up to the job. (Im running full Ubuntu on it, but you could go with the bundled SuSE or a more lightweight flavor if you like).

A friend of mine bought one and runs Vista quite happily (and his previous machine was a netBook :-)

> I like HP, and still use two Jornada 720s, great machines (which is why > ASUS's smaller keyboard doesn't bother me)

I hate the spacebar on the ASUS - you must hit it in the center for it to register. They may as well make it smaller and call it a spaceKEY because that what it acts like to me.

>, but IMO, HP missed the boat on this mini-note.  It will interesting to
> see their next generation.

To be fair, the VIA is just fine for ordinary everyday tasks that most people use a computer for. But the Atom is coming and along with it,
rumors of Atom-powered Mini-Notes (or derivatives thereof).

Aj.