THE OFFICIAL: Dell Inspiron 9 (Mini I) Thread...

Hi folks -- long time reader first time poster.

I recently purchased an Inspiron Mini 9 in Australia (where only the Windows version is available). I ended up returning the unit, mainly due to the Broadcom wireless card.

Regardless, I was very impressed with the Mini overall -- and I hear that the Linux version (available in the US) might come with a different wireless card. Dell, however, will neither confirm or deny this.

Could someone who owns the Linux version of the Mini 9 tell me the model and manufacturer of the 802.11g mini-card?

Thanks in advance!

 

=( I am going to have a hard time getting rid of all those bloatware on the computer since I do not have an external disc drive I cant really reformat my computer... this is lame, hopefully uninstalling everything helps speed up the system

 

I remember reading an article about how access friendly the mini 9 is. Is it possible to upgrade manually to a Intel AGN card yourself, or Dell solder in their card?

 

do u mind posting a screenshot of the WEI?

 

Here you go:

 

Hi Gengerald,

The wireless card is definitely user-replaceable. If I do end up purchasing one from the US and it turns out to have a Broadcom card that's definitely what I'd end up doing.

 

nice!

how long does it take to boot up in vista vs xp vs linux?

 

i plan on running this thing on win 7 beta as from next month

 

I wiped the xp install as soon as I got it so got no idea with that. Vista takes about 30 seconds.

Linux haven't gone there yet. I probably only go for a bootable usb stick anyways.

 

so since its got no fan (which is nice)
i suppose it runs hot especially on vista
what has been ur experience regarding heat?

any chance for a hdtunepro3.10 http://www.hdtune.com/ benchmark on the ssd?

 

Hello All. I have been browsing this thread for some time and finally wanted to make a post about the Mini9. I ordered mine on 9/5 and finally recieved it yesterday 9/22. I got it in black with 1gb of RAM, 16GBSSD, and Windows XP. Also with bluetooth and 1.3mp webcam. I must say, the quality of this mini laptop is awesome! Typing is not to bad but Im getting used to it. I usually work on my Inspiron 1501 and my Demensions Desktop. Yeah, big Dell fan I am and dont have much problems with them.

The computer runs great. After I deleted McaFee also and a bunch of other crap on here, it runs smooth and I now have 10.5GB of free space. My biggest concern also was the HD size. As I like to take things on the go. I guess my biggest question that I might have is a simple one but I need a good answer. Now, I have all my computers networked together to run and share my Maxtor 500GB external harddrive that is on my desktop computer. I also have a Iomega 250GB external harddrive that I bought for my laptop and havent really used it yet. I dont mind carrying around a harddrive with me in my laptop bag. The guy at Dell recommended buying the external harddrive because SDHC cards are not as stable as the drive he said, plus I wanted more space. Now, lets say for instance that there are programs I want to download for this device. Would I save the download file to the external hard drive and then run the set up from there also? Would I let it create a folder on the external hard drive and be able to put all the files on it there? Now, then what would happen for me to run the program of whatever it is on the actual mini 9? The reason I ask this, is because I want to keep the primary space on the Mini at the highest possible and dont want to install much on the units harddrive. Thats why I have the external. But I never really used an external harddrive before? Any input would be seriously much appreciated. Thank you all and I am very happy with my selection. Im on it right now

 

What Activity does the battery charging light show? I ask because the light on mine does not work at all...

 

Hey, Terrigno ~ That was a nice little review you did there!
All these little mini-reviews help other potential I9 owners!

And, congrat's on your new I9 Enjoy!


Cin

 

Did you install the Chipset drivers? I couldn't find the drivers on Intel's site, but here is the link for the Intel Processor Identification Utility for the Atom Processor. Maybe this will download the drivers once it's run.

 

Thanks for the plug! Yes we are just starting out, all contributions welcome


- Oh and I can't believe someone actually put Vista on this thing!

 

Hey,

Feel free to *plug* NBR's forums, also!


Cin

 

I believe he was referring to the Aspire One. It's odd that Dell is the only manufacturer that is making a fanless Atom-based computer. I wonder why no one else is.

 

Looks like the Alpine White option doesn't cost anything now over black (was $25). I went ahead and ordered late last night the basic version with white and 1GB RAM as my only options. I'm hoping it will ship sooner then the estimate of 10/28.

 

Are there any pictures comparing a eee pc 901 to a dell mini, or even better videos? Im still deciding between the 2

 

Congrat's on your order! There is a good chance it could come sooner than the ESD..due to Dell usually over-projecting...to control potential problems during production.

The ESD is like a month away It must have something to due with the recent delays

Don't forget you can always check your order status online, or via automated phone..or even call the Dell reps (they like that)

Well, either way..time will pass fairly quickly, I'm sure ~ while you are waiting.

Cin

 

Have you tried youtube? lol

 

Size Easy has some comparisons between some of the netbooks here: Comparisons

 

Thank you. I did not install a chipset driver and I am pretty sure that there is not one in the Dell drivers folder. Strange that it is missing.

I'll post a screen shot of device manager later tonight, maybe someone with the factory install can compare my list to theirs and figure out what I am missing.

 

Got my Mini yesterday and I love it! I uninstalled a bunch of crap, installed Firefox, IE7, anti-virus and MS Word, Excel and PPT (2003).

 

I wiped the hard drive and installed XP Pro. A cold boot takes 22 seconds from pressing the power button to seeing the desktop. Then it takes about another 10 seconds to load some necessary drivers (wireless & video).

The boot time is certainly very fast and I attribute a lot of the speed to the clean install of windows, but the extra ten or so seconds for the drivers to load once the desktop appears is a little long. **I'm missing one device driver (unidentified) so that may be the problem.

 

To the guy who installed vista:
how much disk space did the install use, and how much ram is being used when idling?

General question:
how easy is it going to be to update the ssd. I have never dealt with a solid state disk before. are they more susceptible to static damage?

thanks

edit: oh and robby i think the driver you're missing is "the battery meter"

its not listed as a driver on the disk but rather an application. thats the one i was missing anyways.

 

Here is a great review of the Asus 901 vs. Mini 9...

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3399

 

Hey, DG...congrat's on your new I9 So, everything is working well, with all that you installed still! :yes:

Hi George! Per usual...Thanks alot for the linky with that great info!


Cin

 

Since the Front Side Bus on the Mini downclocks the RAM from 800Mhz to 533Mhz, is there any advantage to purchasing PC2 4200 versus PC2 6400 besides the price difference? Or should I be most concerned with the Cas Latency?

I'm considering the following sticks:

PC2 4200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231163

PC2 5300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231147

PC2 6400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134587

 

is it safe to buy one from a craigslist ad?

If it is then which 1 should I get?

1. Http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/sys/851641487.html

Or

2. Http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/sys/851558205.html

XD

 

I got home about 45 mins and have been doing the first boot and uninstalling all the crap. One thing I've found already that is a major annoyance to me is not having a HDD indicator. I'd like to know if the pc is locked up or just waiting for something to finish.

 

Thank you. I think you're right. Is the battery meter in the Dell folder rather than the drivers folder? I'll try pointing the unknown device to the Dell folder and see if it can find the appropriate driver.

Dell now shows drivers available for the Inspiron 910 on their support page, but the list of drivers is not comprehensive.

 

My unknown device was resolved by installing the Lite-on camera drivers. I know the USB camera was detected by some other install but I still had the unknown device. After the driver install, the camera now says Integrated Webcam instead of USB Camera.

All the drivers I used were off the Dell Drivers and Utilites disk, under Zip Files.
There are two installs for Battery/Wireless switch. I only installed the newer version. I'm not sure if both are/were necessary but I don't currently have a battery meter other than the Windows battery meter.

 

I just canceled my delayed order from Dell and swiped a Mini off eBay for the same configuration, new in box, and $30 less than Dell charged me. It will ship tomorrow so I'll definitely have it when I get in town next Wednesday.

In addition to that price difference, I'll also get $35 cash back from Microsoft through their eBay deal.

All in all seems like a good deal. I was careful not to choose an auction that was for an item that the seller doesn't have in hand and also careful not to buy from someone who doesn't have enough feedback to have $2000 in coverage from eBay/Paypal insurance

 

Nice... I thought maybe you would have it before you went on your vacation and enjoyed it whilst on the beach!!!

And, your saving money & getting cash back!!!

But either way, you will have it sooner!...Congrat's!

Cin

 

I have the G.skill 4200. Dont buy anything faster. The chipset will not use it over the 533. Also, the lower latency will theoretically make it faster but its probably not going to be noticeable.

 

Mine came yesterday.

It shipped on the 19th beating the estimate by 3 days.

I unistalled the bloatware and today installed Office 2007 (judiciously turning off a lot of options). So I have OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher installed. Everything seemed to be fast enough for this class of machine.

Looking forward to getting some real world experiences out of it now.

BTW, the timbuk 2 red back fits the mini and its power cable nicely. Very happy with that...

 

For those thinking of ordering, hold off a few days. I'm going to test mine out with all the software I normally use day to day. If I feel it's not up to par I would be more than willing to sell it to someone who wants it. You'd get it from me a lot faster than Dell at this point.

 

Thanks! Yes, everything is working well. I still have itunes and a few other programs to install and then I'll be transferring all my files from my other computer to this one.

 

I installed all my usual programs on my mini, but I kept all my files on my external drives. I set firefox to download to the 16GB SD card I plugged in which is where i am going to store all my files that i transfer onto this thing. I also keep all my school files on a 4GB usb drive so I can keep from using any SSD space except what is used from installed programs.

 

What would everybody consider bloatware to take off?

also if I decide to keep it, what is the way to restore to default setting?
I forgot with XP.

It's definitely cute. I'm thinking of keeping the one coming later from QVC as it has a 3 year warrenty and this only one. If I do keep it.

It's chunkier than I thought but cute!!!
Thanks for help or opinions.
Jane

 

I've got a random problem. Browsing pages (mostly forums), I can scroll down using the touchpad scroll area, but I can't scroll up. It's happens on this forum. It doesn't happen on MSN.com. I've tried it in IE7 and Google Chrome and both exhibit the same symptons so I'm guessing it's the touchpad software. I installed the version in the driver folder that originally came with the mini.
Anyone else having this problem?

 

I would just go with whatever is cheapest.... everyone has a lifetime warranty, and really the difference in performance from latency differences will be VERY marginal...

Hope this helps!

 

Thank you both, Jelli794 and shoelace_510. I went ahead and purchased the PC2 4200 with the lower latency and the Heat Spreader. Jelli794 confirmed (through PM) that this will works well in the Dell Mini and there are no problems with it fitting due to the heat spreader. It was a couple of dollars more, but I like the having the added heat spreader bonus. Here's the link again for anyone wanted to purchase it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231163

 

That's good news! Good luck with the remaining transfers!!!!

So did it arrive while you were out of town??? I know you were concerned about that! Oh, and congrat's on receiving it!

Cin

 

Who else has installed XP Pro?

I continue to see odd things, I'll probably re-install. XP Pro tells me there are two processors.

 

I think XP Pro shows two processors because the Atom N270, while being a single-core CPU, has Hyper-Threading enabled. Therefore, it would show two processors, even though they are "virtual" instead of actual cores.

 

Vista the I910 shows dual processors as well so I wouldn't worry about.

Got the Dell OEM Vista Ultimate 32-bit installed with updated device drivers and the 16GB SSD is showing 6.39GB free now. Haven't downloaded anything from Microsoft update yet but I imagine that would eat up another Gig of SSD space. This is gonna be tight...oh yeah put IE8 beta2 on too.

Vista seems to be snappier than the stipped down XP that shipped with notebook. Only got 1G RAM but put in a 4GB SSD set to ReadyBoost so that may be helping.

 

Actually I am running XP Home on my Wind (same CPU as the I9) and it shows up as a single core multithreaded processor.

Just thought I'd clear that up.

 

Yes, it ended up being the battery meter driver. Thanks to all for your suggestions.