Noob eee owner questions

[biggeorge]

I just picked up an Asus eee 701 on ebay for what I consider to be an ok price, $250

It came with 8 gig of SSD and the default xandros software which I promptly ditched.
I also ditched the 512 ram chip for a $30 2 gig module. Anyone want to buy a laptop 512 DDR2 chip for 30 bucks??

Here come the stupid questions:
1. It appears to have a nuked pixel 2" from the right and 1" down from the top. Is this relatively normal? It bothers me, like Radar O'Reilly's forehead wart bothers me when I watch M*A*S*H
Said pixel is lit up the wrong colour when lit up, and black when black, so it's a minor annoyance. There is also another one on the same row at the extreme left of the screen.
I was told this unit is ex-demo stock but brand new. It came in original packaging looking brand spanking new, not a scratch on it but obviously opened and repacked.


2. I tried installing a trimmed XP 9-in-1 disk using a USB-IDE hard drive enclosure with the cables dangling out into a regular 52x CD-ROM drive. It worked but the bugger would not let me log in to windows saying password and domain is wrong. I have installed this disk many times with success. I tried ALL my xp password breaker boot disks with no success and so in desperation I do a repair install with a shift-F10 and did the control userpasswords2 thing in dos prompt and that didn't kick it. Finally I give up on a neat and trim xp install with this disk, go for the genuine article (sp2) with a genuine key and it took up nearly 4 gig installed leaving me 4 gig to live on, but it worked perfectly. Is there a way to now trim it down without re-installing another version like tinyxp or fandangling my own n-lite version?? I need to reclaim some turf here. Also tips and tweaks so I don't burn out my SSD with constant drive thrashing of swap files and stuff?

3. Battery life seems to be around 2 hours. Is this normal?

Yeah i've been reading the eeeuser forum but damn there's too much info there to absorb or search properly.

Suggestions on easy mods and tweaks please?
I'm thinking of installing internal bluetooth donglulator, touch screen and GPS. Then i'll be happy to leave it alone.

[Farmsky]

.... Is there a way to now trim it down without re-installing another version like tinyxp or fandangling my own n-lite version?? I need to reclaim some turf here.

This is a snap with nLite and really gives you the best outcome. Make sure u slipstream updates and enter your XP key and then the whole thing auto loads in one fell swoop. This provides a step by step. It is a bit 'too lite', but it works acceptably. Another but i have not used it.

Battery life seems to be around 2 hours. Is this normal?

Yup.

[GavinSV]

1. It appears to have a nuked pixel 2" from the right and 1" down from the top. Is this relatively normal?

Only one dead pixel!. You've done well. It's quite normal to have several dead pixels on an LCD screen

[Fernbay]

1. It appears to have a nuked pixel 2" from the right and 1" down from the top.

Try massaging it. Rub it with you finger & see what happens

[rob916]

There is WINDOWS XP sp3 Lite for ASUS eeePC on dem*noid, 170mb download.

[biggeorge]

Thanks Farmsky. I might see if I can ghost the existing install onto a SD chip, DVD or hard drive as a safety precaution, and have my first crack at n-lite.

I have never bought an LCD trinket with a dead pixel in the past. This is a new thing for me.
Will rubbing it really do anything or you just playing with me??

Rob, i'm not on demonoid but i'll see if I can get an invite off one of my friends and take a look.

So far the modifications are looking set to proceed. Ordered some of my wishlist from DX the other day so while I wait for that i'll have a sift through demonoid, fiddle around with n-lite and try to get the OS sorted out as best as I can.

This has got to be one of the most useful doohickeys i've ever bought. I thought a 900mhz computer would work a lot slower than this thing does so I will find all kinds of things to do with it.

Very happy with my purchase, but I did see a 9" model the other day and it really is 2 inches sweeter than the 701.

[Fernbay]

I'm not playing with you. I'm serious.

If you don't want to try it, thats fine. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I have never bought an LCD trinket with a dead pixel in the past. This is a new thing for me.
Will rubbing it really do anything or you just playing with me??

[biggeorge]

Well, I rubbed that sucker and it did sweet f.a.

Oh well. It's not too bad.

Did the Nlite thing from i64x website farmsky, and it worked like a champ. Got my xp install down from 4 gig to 700 meg.

Very happy with that. Now I can fit more star trek and torrents on it.
Do a bit of war driving and torrenting. Mwahahahha

Evil thoughts of using this thing for wireless voip calls as well. Oh this could be fun..

[rob916]

If wardriving is your game then Backtrack 3 on a bootable flash drive is a good thing.

[Farmsky]

Did the Nlite thing from i64x website farmsky, and it worked like a champ. Got my xp install down from 4 gig to 700 meg.

nLite is a sweet application.

... using this thing for wireless voip calls as well....

Piece of cake. The 900Mhz Celeron purrs along quite ok doing one job at a time.

[biggeorge]

Yeah, I was quite impressed with nlite. I thought it'd be too complicated and start asking me stuff that only super-geeks know, but it seemed pretty straightforward. Just look at it as though it's asking you a LOT of questions. Do you want to remove the ability to do this or that...etc.
Yep, you can jam media player and Internet Explorer, I'll take VLC and firefox thanks. Nice!!

The bluetooth GPS will come in very handy for war driving. I spend a lot of time driving thru ADSL2 areas while I only have ADSL1 at home so this should be pretty good fun!

[porkop]

I spend a lot of time driving thru ADSL2 areas while I only have ADSL1 at home so this should be pretty good fun!

just be aware that it is a federal offence to knowingly connectto a network without permission of the owner.

but then again what isnt a bloody offence these days.

it is amazing just how many people do nothing to protect their networks from intrusion. I reckon a person could make a tonne of money just leaving a business card in the letterbox of the house whose wireless network is unsecured, putting the fear of god into the unknowing householder