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

Signature is required, unless you have have a signature release on file with them.

Woah! That's is very nice! And, BT

Thanks for sharing the information!


Cin

 

Thanks for the link. No HDD activity light was an issue for me too. I installed the app and it is working great.

 

So are there any more coupons for the newly released minis on the outlet? I sent mine back, but might just order another if I can get a good deal. Anyone get any of those mystery coupons? Mine was for Dell Home, but there are some floating around that are for the Dell Home outlet.

 

Hey there,
Here is one for 15% Off at the Outlet:
Post #1 in the linky

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=314829

Or, here it is:
To get the 15%, use coupon code $VX2$XLJR6TGDDj at checkout!




Cin

 

Actually that coupon has expired it doesn't accept as valid. I had tried it before and I think it said it was due to expire on the 28th or the 29th.

Scott.

 

Awww darnit! Sorry's guys....I thought it was good thru 10/31 for some reason....


Cin

 

It's alright, I appreciate the link. I would've jumped on the 15% off coupon, but none of the minis had bluetooth. Now that they all have bluetooth, there are no coupons except for the mystery ones that some people get in their email.

At at the $429 price point, it ends up being $10 more expensive to buy from the outlet than for me to order new thru my school..... not a good deal at all.

 

I have a mystery one. I doubt I'll use it, it's probably better if I didn't. PM me if you want it.

 

atbnet... Is it still available???

 

PM Sent atbnet... Thanks.

 

Nevermind, it is still available as well as this: Save 10%, 15% or 20% on any Outlet XPS™ PC!

PM me if you want them.

 

Got my Mini yesterday, formatted it with Vista and I can't get anything to work. All driver installs fail, all application installs fail, anytime I launch a program it fails. I have used the MSDN Vista DVD for install, installed off a flash drive, installed a vLite image off a flash drive and reinstalled XP. Only the original XP install and the second XP install work properly. Thoughts? Am I missing something in this incredibly long thread that would point me in the right direction?

 

Can anybody tell me what the program is that fixes the font
on the mini? True something?? I lost the information and i reformatted.
Thanks,
Jane

 

My mini should (finally) be on its way.

It is replacing an eee pc 701 4gb. Has anyone tried using the eee charger / adapter with the mini? From the pictures on the Dell site, it looks almost identical, except for the folding prongs. Dell wants $60 US for a second one, which is considerably expensive----I bought a second one for the eee for $15 from Asus parts site.

 

Cleartype?

Display Properties>Appearence>Effects

 

I think a better place to look is at these two sites:mydellmini and dellmini9.blogspot as they both have discussions on installing Windows Vista.

How to install Windows Vista. Written description
Part 1: http://dellmini9.blogspot.com/2008/09/vista-install-part-1.html
Part 2: http://dellmini9.blogspot.com/2008/09/vista-install-part-2.html
Follow up posts: http://dellmini9.blogspot.com/2008/10/missing-vista-driver-found.html and http://dellmini9.blogspot.com/2008/10/dell-touchpad.html
General Discussion: http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/windows-vista-f25.html

 

Agreed on MyDellmini and dell mini - I have found lots of useful information.

 

Talked to tech support and looks like it is going back. They didn't even offer to replace the defective parts or exchange the unit... Just a return. Looks like I will wait for the Mini 12 or the HP. Oh well

 

what parts were defective? You mentioned you had issues installing Vista on the mini, but didn't say anything about parts broken.... if something was wrong with it they should fix it or replace it.

 

Sorry I have been a little busy at work and was not able to explain more thoroughly.

The original XP install was sluggish however all the applications ran and I did not experience any issues. I followed the instructions for installing Vista and it will install. When it came down to installing applications and drivers they would all experience the same error (Memory Call, don't recall the error off the top of my head). I reloaded Vista a couple more times thinking I missed something however I had the same problem every single time.

At that point, I decided, what the hell, lets load Windows 7 beta. It actually installed, ran, installed the majority of the drivers and it was pretty snappy. Actually I would say it was quite a bit quicker than my Vista or XP installs (although they were flawed so not a good comparison). I plan on loading Windows 7 Beta on my Acer netbook to compare at some point in the future.

Due to the fact that Windows 7 is not stable and I could not get everything working 100% I decided that the original XP install was probably the way to go. I followed the Dell restore guidelines and experienced the same memory errors that I was getting in Vista however I was now getting frequent BSODs. I called Dell tech support and they had me run the diagnostics program. Everything passed. With them on the phone I reinstalled the operating system and again same errors. They said they were not able to narrow down the problem and the unit would have to be sent in for repair which they expected a 4 - 5 week turn time on or I could return the system. They would not perform an exchange and they would not send out new memory and a new SSD (Shouldn't they be FRU?).

I am a patient person however 4 - 5 weeks on a machine that was barely 3 days old is unacceptable. At that point I would rather wait for the Mini 12 (Considering I have an Acer netbook already) or pickup one of the other units that are being released in the coming weeks/months. There are to many options and many variables to wait that long. Maybe after a couple more months, more options in the outlet and another great coupon, I will pickup another Mini 9.

 

ahhhhh.... no problem! I can see now... blue screens definately indicate an issue, especially if you have installed three different OS's and still get them.

From what I understand, Win7 is going to have a smaller hardware requirement than Vista did, so I would expect the released version of Win7 to run pretty good.

Well, too bad all the troubles, I would do the same thing if they told me 4 to 5 weeks. Return it!

 

It will be on its way back tomorrow. Win7 looked and ran GREAT from the short time I had it installed. Some of the new features are going to make running a netbook even better. There are some rumors out there of a very lightweight edition which should only have a memory footprint of 400 meg and a hard drive footprint of under a gig. Can't wait for the mid 2008 launch.

 

Were you able to find anything on the net with folks haveing the same problem?

You mentioned that out of the box your mini with dell installed xp was sluggish - IMO that is by design. All of my mini's are sluggish with dell install of XP.

 

Yeah, at the keynote the one developer showed his netbook with VIA Nano running Win 7 and it had about 500 MB to spare out of its 1GB of RAM.

 

q - for folks with 16ssds how what is your hd capacity - mine are showing 14.3 GB.

 

I was wondering how the Dell Mini runs Photoshop CS2? Probably the most intensive program I have. Secondly, how do other netbooks fair (I'm assuming similar), and how will the Atom Dual Core's run Photoshop CS2 when they are released?

 

Mine is the same as yours 14.3GB

 

I expected a bit more - I unboxed another 16gb Mini and same so must be built size.

Photoshop CS2 Give it a shot and let us know how it turns out...

 

Hi guys. I noticed that the mini-9 has the same crappy right-shift location as many of the other netbooks do (right of the up arrow) and thought I would let you all know about my solution. I found that I constantly kept pressing up arrow, when I meant to press the right shift key and it was driving me crazy! It was probably the only major drawback of my EEEPC 1000h. Well, I solved the problem by remapping a couple of the keys so that the up arrow became the shift key. I also remapped the down arrow where the right arrow was. I then physically pryed the keyboard tabs and replaced them back to where they are remapped.

This was actually quite easy. Just pulled them right off by putting my finger on the top of the key and popping them off. Depending on the bottom innards (the white tabs that hold the keys in place), you may have to pull them sideways, instead of from the top.

I can now type MUCH faster and without the errors that plagued me before doing this little "mod".

Here's what it looks like:



Hope that helps.

 

Hey, thanks for sharing..and NICE job on that little *mod'* you did!
I'm sure this will be extremely helpful to others!

Cin

 

Actually, with the size of the keys having been adjusted on the Mini, the placement of the shift key feels pretty natural. My only peeve is the ' " key being totally displaced. I'm thinking of switching it with the ;: key simply because I use ' " way more. They really should have made the enter key a little smaller and left the ' " key where it belonged. Who uses the entire real estate of their *enter* key anyway? It would have been easier to adjust to that. Other than that and the slight offset of the number keys which throws me, being a touch typist, the keyboard is absolutely great for me.

 

Agreed shift is fine its the ' key that is killing me!!

 

Oh yeah. I forgot that the mini had smaller keys than the 1000h.

 

Well, some are sold on the Asus Eee series and some are not. It's not all about the keyboard configuration for me. If someone gave me any model of Asus free, I'd immediately sell it and buy another Dell.

I don't know about MSI or any of the others but I know first hand how Asus handles customer support. Early this year I bought an Eee 701. When I began having problems, I found out that Asus tells their resellers not to accept them back for any reason, even right away. Then, when I tried to get tech support from Asus, they would wait about 24 hours and close the case with the comment "Close!" in the response box as if the issue was solved. I tried to get an RMA from Asus and was told to get it from the reseller but the reseller reiterated the Asus' policy of not accepting returns. I reported both to the BBB.

I eventually got the 701 to restore to the factory settings, then sold it. I've sweated it ever since because I just knew something else was going to go wrong with it. It was not a well built machine and the version of Linux they had on it was horrible. Two days after I sold the machine, the reseller sent me an RMA in response to my BBB report but the machine was sold -- at an $80 loss overall -- so I let it go. I will never stop telling people how horrible they are though.

My Mini feels as well built as any laptop I've ever handled in my life. I bought the three year warranty because I know Dell's customer service and it will be honored. Dell may not have perfect tech support (in fact many of their tech support team are outright morons) but at least they take the time to try to help and if they can't they take the product back and either repair or replace it.

 

That is some great info! IAnd, I'm really glad the I9 is working for you...

The white, do you get any smudges on the lid at all??


Cin

 

Have 2 blk and 1 white by far the black gets the greasy finger print-smudges. If you want it to look cleaner get the WHITE -

 

Thanks! ....I never really thought about the white..but it's not so bad


Cin

 

Did you get yours yet Cin? I got fed up on waiting for colours and got the Vodafone 3G deal, good stuff but the SSD needs upgrading.

You're correct about the fingers print on the black model, tis a magnet for em!

Sadly the white is still not available in the UK...

 

The white is much better about smudges. I'm sure it gets them but they don't show like they do on the black. I'm eventually going to design a really cool skin for the lid but it's not worth the expense to me yet. Dell should have textured the lid like their other Inspirons but I'm sure there was some cost issue.

 

got my mini!
Got it yesterday, ordered during the 15% off outlet deal.
It looks like a QVC unit and has a web cam, but no Bluetooth.

I love it so far, but I do have some problems!!!!
The WAN only gets 2Mbps on my wireless B network. I usually get 11Mbps.
Hmm... Just tried at work and I'm getting 54Mbps, maybe time to upgrade the router. Anyway, will keep looking at this.

And.. it keeps getting stuck at the shut down window. What the heck is going on??? I see "windows is shutting down" and stays there.

I uncompressed the 16GB.

 

Have you updated the BIOS yet? Mine had the same problems, wouldn't shut down or come out of standby until I updated the BIOS.

 

What Bios version are you running? Where did you get the update? mini here shut down fine and hibernate fine on std load from Dell (3).

 

Had to update mine from A00 to A01 to resolve the shut down issue:
The release dates: A00 was released on Sept. 24 and A01 was released Oct. 02. Ordered my Mini Oct 6th and it still came with A00.

See this Post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3991196&postcount=1127

 

Late Oct for all 3 of mine all are running a00 and no problems so far. Wonder how the 01 bios fixes something that is not broken on some or most of the mini's. I'll hold on the update until I have a problem -- unless it adds some features - OverDrive on the CPU would be nice

 

Hey! Nope I didn't order it...Maybe, I am one of the last holdouts for the red?? I dunno. But I fear (not really)!...that an order is imminent!!

The white I think could potentially be nice..if it was *dressed up a little* or, maybe not! It looks good all on it's own!

My brother just got his in black..So tomorrow, hes gonna let me play with it ~ a little bit When will the White be availi' in the UK????

Hi! Thats great to hear that about the white! Do you happen to have a photo of it? If so, and you feel like posting it ~ I would love to check it out!


Cin!

 

Oh I adore the white... I wanted red too and waited but so glad I got the white. And maybe I will get the red too .
Go for it!!!! xoxox

 

Oh, you know I would *love* the red...but I can also find an appropriate skin or something to make the white look how I want it

We shall see..I have a feeling I will be *going for it* fairly soon!

Thanks for the feedback on the white, Jane!


Cin

 

I don't know. Dell called me a couple of days after I received the system to ask me if I was happy with it and did I have any problems. I told them about the shutdown problem and an issue with starting up when a SD card was in the slot. They recomended the Bios upgrade and it resolve both issues.

They did something silmilar about a month ago on a replacement battery for my M1730. They called me after to see if it resolved the issue and if there were there any other problems, along with asking me if I was happy with the system.

 

Has anyone tried windows 7 on their mini yet?

 

I ran it for a couple hours. I was impressed... It is somewhere in the thread. Maybe 3 - 5 pages back.