Fantastic Netbook except Touchpad
I was looking to buy a netbook for my travels to come because I did not bring my 14 “laptop and plan to do some outdoor writing.After much research and reading, I reduced to Acer Aspire One AO533 and Asus Eee PC 1015PED (there are so many models in Asus could become quite confusing.) Finding a Youtube video of over 500K + views on how to install 2 GB memory on a Acer definitely discouraged me that the ease with which it could break a wire, in addition to void the warranty automatically when you open the case.
I am aware of those who have problems with Asus customer service and buying a lemon. But usability and battery power very long really made me decide to take a chance / leap of faith.
The shell and a matte screen make the machine an ideal companion on the road, especially when used outdoors. There are far fewer fingerprints and reflections that are less suitable for the eyes.
The boot very quickly and has a very bright screen. At first I was a little worried about the chiclet keys, if there could be too much space between the keys but it turned the space was small and works well for me. The location of special keys is similar to my SONY VAIO so it does not take long for me to get adjusted to the small keyboard.
After successfully installing the last part of pre-installed Windows 7 Starter and confirming the machine worked fine (took about 10-15 minutes), I went ahead and downloaded all the drivers from Asus Download site, including the latest BIOS that I would be reformatting the drive and installing Windows 7 Professional. When you upgrade the BIOS directly from the Internet did not work, but downloading and installing the file is. Also note that the drivers are not always sorted by version and you have to look carefully at each of the latest version.
The machine works very well even with just 1 GB of memory, except with the hard disk access and more frequent.
Then I upgraded the memory to 2 GB Crucial DDR3 1333 with. Crucial Memory Advisor tool will guide you to the good memory and I like how the company ensures compatibility. I tried a few others (and Super Talent Hynix) and my machine would not be recognized and the start would not start after restarting the machine, or I had to wait a few minutes after shutdown before restart. The Amazon is “Frequently Bought Together” DDR2 poorly made as part of the package. It should have been DDR3 instead. There is a separate door just to the memory so that the level was a breeze and you just have to make sure you push the memory all the way into the slot (seating.) To confirm I have also affected F2 during startup of the machine to validate, it is loaded with 2 GB of memory. Additional memory does not significantly increase performance but it really reduces the use of the hard drive.
While the machine is working very well together for me (internet and some applications MS), I have not found the touchpad to be too sensitive. I downloaded and installed the latest drivers and ELAN Synaptics TouchPad and then was able to change the following setting in Palm less sensitive. The touch pad softness that causes the palm accidental and easily on the touchpad is almost useless unless you have how netbook sitting under your palm while typing.
Battery wise, it is about 7 to about 10 hours of normal use (surfing, documents, install and run the software, etc.) which is extremely good. Although I have not found the machine becomes hot enough, after about 5 hours of use and when charging the battery. The battery charger is also quite hot after a few hours of charging. The battery meter is somewhat accurate but the overall percentage fluctuates every few minutes and can easily move up and down + / – 10 to 20 minutes.
Here are the steps I had to install Windows 7 Professional that should work in general:
1) Use a 4 GB USB drive (any drive that has 3GB or more), it forms through Windows Explorer to NTFS
2) Download and install MBRWizard. Open the command prompt and type: mbrwiz / list
3) Find the number of disks belonging to the USB drive (usually 1 or greater than 0 is most likely your system / primary drive Run the command:. Mbrwiz / disk = 1 / active = 1
In this case, one is the USB drive. Type “Y” to confirm. Run this command again to confirm the drive is active: mbrwiz / list
4) Run the following command to set the USB to be bootable:
e: \ boot \ bootsect / nt60 D:
E: is the CD for Windows 7 and D: is the USB drive
5) Copy all files to Windows 7 Professional USB drive.
6) Copy the entire contents of the netbook current C: drive to the USB drive as a backup.
7) Download all drivers from ASUS download site to the USB drive. Also download anti-virus / firewall software like ZoneAlarm and AVG to the USB drive.
8) With the USB drive is plugged in, reboot and press F2 to enter BIOS setting. In Boot – Startup Parameters. ” You will now see Boot Device Priority and hard drives. Choose removable devices such as the first boot priority will not work because the USB drive is actually classified as a hard drive instead. Choose hard disk drive and you will see the USB drive and the C: drive. Move the USB drive to first priority and hard disk (C:) as the second. Keep the boot priority as first hard drive.
9) Follow the formatting and installing Windows. Make sure you unplug the USB drive when you restart Windows after installation and press F2 to change the BIOS setting back to using C: as the first hard drive.
10) Install all the drivers in particular screen resolution, Elan and Synaptics touchpad devices, latest BIOS, firewalls and antivirus programs.
11) Install the LAN driver and you should be good to go.
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