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

Yes, a 6 cell would! As long, as it looks good with Netbook..or what not!


Cin

 

Finally got around to flashing my BIOS to A04. I used Somm's utility and flashed from DOS on my thumb drive. Simple and fast.

 

Were you having issues that you suspected a BIOS update would fix?

 

Mine came with the AO3 but I had never heard about flashing the BIOS until I joined a Mini9 site. Is this a common thing or just specific to the 9. I don't think I would even attempt this myself.

 

It's common to notebooks and most computers. But as long as things are working properly you don't really have to do anything with it.

 

Well my mini arrived with BIOS A00. It is up to A04. I listed below what A03 & A04 fixes. I couldn't locate the change log for A01 or A02. The first couple of versions typically contain the big fixes. The BIOS updates are cumulative so I skipped 1,2 & 3.

Only flash your BIOS if you are comfortable. I have been building my desktops for years and have done this many times. This time I used a DOS version as folks were bricking their machines by flashing in Windows.

A04
1.Resolve the error message can't show after setting supervisor password and then using asset.com to delete service tag.
2.Resolve rotation setting with external LCD after resume from S3
3.Computrace support.
4.Display switch (Fn+8) on DOS mode (LCD ->CRT ->LCD )
5.Desktop icon position can't be fixed after PC re-boot
6.Display can't keep on extend mode after press Fn+8 to switch.
7.Battery performance improvement.

A03
1.Windows XP WHQL improvement.
2.Adjust maximum resolution to 1024*768.
3.Resolve hibernate issue.
4.Resolve resume issue with HDD password is set on Setup.
5.Resolve Wake on LAN issue.

 

my mini9 runs pretty hot after a while (about an hour) of usage, is there anyone with me?

 

This holds true with every netbook I've owned. There's a lot of stuff crammed into these tiny cases. Compared to most, the Dell Mini 9 stays, relatively, cool, especially considering it's fanless.

 

Oh no!

I haven't experienced this with my I9.....sorry.



Cin

 

Are you running any programs to monitor temp?

I am noticing temps as high as 64 C under load but still the outside isn't uncomfortable to touch. My MBP can get so hot that I can't touch it so I think the mini is just fine.

 

Mine gets warm but not really hot. My fingers are cold all the time so it's kind of nice. lol
But it is a little warm.. not hot.

 

Looks like next gen Mini 9 will stay fanless!

Pineview News

 

No problem with heat and my 9

 

Does anybody know if Windows 7 beta would work on the mini 9?

 

I can't see why not, as long as you have enough hard drive space.

The minimum spec requirements of Windows 7 include a requirement for 16GB of free hard drive space.

 

So essentially, 32gb would work then, don't you think??


Cin

 

Well I will keep you all posted. I'm putting it on my mini 9 now.
I got a 64 gb ssd recently. Remember Cin. Well I finally got the guts to try...
I only want it if it is fast though and smooth cuz the clean install of xp
on the 64 gb was smooth.

 

Oh cool! Let us know how it works out for you...*fingers crossed*

Cin

 

So far so good. It is booting up and doing it's thing......
Sure nice in that it recognizes everything on my computer..

 

Where did you get your 64gb? Did you do the clone method. I'm still trying to get my nerve up just to do this.

 

That's nice information for the other I9 owners!

How long is the bootup taking now??


Cin

 

Well I ended up taking it off because it was just too slow.
Maybe some tweaks would have helped it.
The drive is fast though...

 

Fast drive = good!
Are you going to tweak it anymore??


Cin

 

Just bought one of these on sunday, shipped monday, should get here tomorrow. I can't wait

Got it for $344 shipped, missed a 20% off coupon by two days, that was depressing.
Still, $344 for a 1gb ram 16gb drive XP running beast of a gaming netbook is pretty good imo.
Course the official justification for it is that my gf can take it to school with her to take notes on.

 

Nice! Congrat's on your purchase!

I hope it arrives for you on Thursday!

Cin

P.S. She will really enjoy the I9!

 

Same thing happened to me last week. I couldn't find a coupon that would bring the one I wanted down to a reasonable price, so I ordered an Eee Pc instead. A day later, the coupons popped up again.

 

If they come back i might just order another one.
Send this expensive one back as misconfigured or something


Had to do that with the last dell i bought from the outlet, listing said 7900 video, laptop had 7800 video. Big difference, and they weren't willing to fix it



I'm hoping that come 2Q intel will have the next atom ready and the mini9 will get a rebuild with it, hopefully for the same or lower price. It should be lower as the chip has the entire northbridge onboard, allowing less silicon to be used as well as reducing the number of layers from 6 to 4. It'll probably cost more to start out though, just because it's new.
I'd like a dual core flavor too Even if it knocks some battery life off at full burn.



I'm looking forward to trying all my old games out on this one, i have a big ole box of cds from the mid to late 90's and early 2000's, most of 'em will probably work.


I was very tempted by the MSI wind as it's in the same price range (though on ebay, rather then from a retailer), but i wanted the indestructibility of a SSD, that's one of the real selling points of the mini9 for me.

 

Has anybody put in a ssd hard drive bigger than 32 bit as I did? Thanks.

 

Not yet...but someone did..bah who was that???
Was it Mick?


Cin

 

Well Mine is slow or I maybe just jaded by "Pink" my 1530 which is so darn fast... with Windows 7. Feel like I'm not sure what the heck I'm doing..lol
If that makes any sense.

 

It's ok Jane, I'm feeling a bit the same tonight!

The 1530 has much, much more room..so it would run faster.

I dont' think my I9 is that bad....


Cin

 

Thanks Cin... I guess a down I 9 time huh??? I like mine too , it's
just like I've said I'm a speed freak..lol

 

Yeah, i am a speedy person wannabee, also!

I will be obessive with my I9 when I get the extra things I ordered!!!

Cin )

 

what extra did you order?? Now I'm having trouble updating it with new drive..
I need to be more patient I thin.

 

Nope. It wasn't me. Mine's still sitting at 4GB.

 

Oish...for some reason I thought it was you! That's ok.

We should do a little poll and find out what GB everyone is using!


Cin

 

Mine still isn't here yet
I expect it this afternoon though, another three hours or so hopefully. Or tomorrow, or monday. I really hope not monday, that'd be highly frustrating.


I had my hands on one a while ago with ubuntu on it (christmas, to be specific), it was 1gb 16gb flavor, and while not fast persay it certainly was usable. Kind of like win95 when it came out, or win3.1 on 386, or xp when it came out. Little delays here and there, largely i suspect due to the atom just not being a high power chip.
Of course it'd probably be fairly depressing to compare atom performance to my other laptop's 5xx flavor of P4, the P4 is definitely faster, but i suspect not by the amount i'd hope It also puts out 88 watts to the atom's 2.4.

In any case, i found it very usable, the main thing i had to get used to was the 1024x600 screen, that is a huge difference from the 1680x1050 i'm used to!
It's a higher quality screen though, less light leakage and much brighter and constrastier(new word, i like it).


I'M EXCITED AND I DON'T WANT TO WAIT! YARGH!



EDIT:
Just to continue randomly spewing thoughts out, the eventual plan in my house calls for a decently speedy desktop (priced one out by parts on newegg that would be quite fast for $517 shipped, good for a 70% overclock, too ) for a main computer for videos and games and such, and then everybody having a netbook for their personal stuff. My oldest kid is 4 now and is fairly proficient at computer use, not enough that he needs his own yet, but it won't be that long. Youngest is six months, so he's got a ways to go.
In any case, we really like the concept of small, durable, netbook type computers that you can just stick in a big pocket and rumble around with or do homework on or whatever (mine will have zsnes almost before anything else ). In this fashion we save on space otherwise dedicated to computer mess, and eliminate most of the need for sharing.

2.EDIT:
Ha! Just when i thought i was finished...
I want to get a little mini-bluetooth doodad for my netbook, and maybe one for my main laptop too, it'd be fun to be able to set 'em up to automatically synchronize a folder or three when they're within 30 feet. Once i have it i'm going to call dell up and see what they want for an internal BT thingie, and/or see if there is anyone in the For Sale section who doesn't want theirs.

Hey real question time: Any of y'all notice a difference between BT 2.0 and BT 2.1?

 

I made a thread but maybe I should have just posted it here...
Hello, I purchased a refurbished Dell Inspiron Mini 9 which has a built in web cam but I don't know if they gave me the 0.3MP or the 1.3MP one.
Is there anyway I can find out?

 

This biggest bottleneck on the I9 is the SSD. The Atom processor is, actually, quite capable.

 

Interesting, so replacing it with a higher speed one would help things out decently? That's encouraging. It'd be even more encouraging if the faster SSDs didn't cost half the price of the laptop to begin with!

 

No kidding. With SSD prices the way they are, I really have a hard time justifying the price. It kinda defeats the purpose of having such an inexpensive system. Prices are coming down pretty quickly, though.

I've used netbooks with fast SSDs, slow SSDs and hard drives. Of the three, hard drive ones offer the best combo of speed, capacity and cost. But, man, when you get a fast SSD, those things fly.

It's really a shame that most of them are so darn poky. Most people aren't experiencing what SSDs really have to offer, in terms of performance.

 

Yes, I understand..When I finally ordered mine...I had some anxiety until it finally arrived. I waited a long time to order mine the way I wanted it.

Glad I waited. When it arrives you will be ever so happy! That, is a given.

Cin

 

Bah, not today. Not unless it's coming fedex ground (doubt it) and they'll reeeeeeally late.

Ahh well, tomorrow i hope!

 

With the recent comments about the M9 speed, check this out...

I haven't run any speed tests but if you go into your power options and change it from laptop to always on you will notice an improvement in speed. It's noticeable! This zippy speed is only good if you are running on AC power for obvious reasons. So you want to swiitch it back to laptop before running it on battery power.

Found this tip at the mydellmini forum. Let me know what you think.

 

I hope so too for you! Then you can play with it over the weekend, and make it *your own*

Thank you!


Cin

 

Cin,

Did you try it? It's so much faster.

 

I'm going to very soon!

I'm excited to try it!


Cin

 

Nothing taxing, but opening My Documents for example is almost instantaneous.

Edit: If you have the hard drive, etc. set low, change the AC setting higher before it snoozes or to "always on".

 

No not yet but I've been thinking about it. What did you get and how did it go for you?

 

Oh then that will be easy!

Pickles...I'm ROFL at the moment on your Avy!


Cin