*HP Mini 311 Owners Lounge*

Hey guys,

Thought I'd start a thread for all models of the HP Mini 311 to share information about this amazing netbook. Most of the 311 threads I see out there include a lot of back and forth of which devices are the best value instead of stuff specific to it.

So I'll start.

My Mini 311 arrived last week and I immediately installed Windows 7 and upgraded the RAM to 3 gigs. Everything is working flawlessly so far and my impressions are very good. My only gripe is 2ch sound through HDMI which I hope will be fixed with a driver update.

The only real issue I had was that hibernate acted funning when resuming and hung indefinitely at a black screen. I prefer sleep anyway because the on/off times are so fast, but the netbook seemed to hibernate when slept overnight. To solve this, I disabled hibernate completely (which also makes the option disappear in Windows) by opening a command prompt and typing: "powercfg -h off" or you can do it through power options.

Played some 720p and 1080p MKVs using Media Player Classic Home Cinema or Splash Player and they played silky smooth. Make sure you enable hardware acceleration to take advantage of the GPU. On a related note, it's gonna be great once Adobe releases the flash 10.1 update so all of that is offloaded to the GPU as well. HULU is gonna rock on this netbook!

I've also been playing a fair amount of WOW on it lately, running the native resolution (1366 x 768) and all settings on low. Actually, I think my view distance is bumped up a notch. Running around in Northrend looks very smooth with frame rates for me around 20-30. Dalaran slows way down, depending on how many players are running around. The Atom processor seems to bog down with lots going on. I ran Ony and it was almost a slideshow when the whelps came out and all the aoe hit the screen. I think its a great machine for soloing and 5 man content where the CPU isn't taxed all that much. I wouldn't use this machine for raiding.

I guess that's all I have, how do you like yours??

-TK

 

Hi there, I just bought an HP mini 311
last week with the ION LE/ Win XP SP3. Should
I return this for the Win7/ full Ion netbook coming out
tomorrow? Or, should I just upgrade my current
Mini to Win7 and add RAM? Thx for the info
on Wow btw, anyone run AION on this netbook yet?

 

Yes, I like mine, but am a little dissapointed with the game performance. I didn't expect much to begin with and can certainly play old titles fine. But I was hoping it was a tad smoother with LOTRO.

Endurance is great though. Overall the machine is very respectable and head and shoulders above the rest of the netbooks at this point.

 

I'm in the same position. I ran the numbers and it would've cost me at least $110 more for the W7 option.

Windows 7 isn't a big deal to me, so I'm sticking with XP and just putting extra ram in myself. It's a much cheaper solution.

 

What's the cheapest reliable memory out there for this netbook by the way?

I picked up a Win7 home premium upgrade for $50 from a Staples deal this morning. Thinking about using that to upgrade my Mini 311 rather than to reorder from HP and have to wait for the netbook. I heard something about only Mini 311's with the N280 CPU can support Windows 7.. does anyone know if there is any truth to this?

Also, I know that the new Mini 311's have the full ION but after reading an article about it on the Internet, the only difference is that DirectX10 is disabled for the ION LE. I don't think I will be playing any taxing DirectX 10 games on this little netbook either as I'll be playing those on my ASUS G51Vx and desktop. Just want something for portability on trips to play a little light WoW or AION in addition to surfing the Net and watching videos. (I figure the Mini 311 will be a huge upgrade to my current netbook, the Dell Mini 9)

 

I ordered a Crucial 2GB Stick for $36.99 that is working great.

Looks like it's gone up in price though.

 

My parents bought my wife and I a mini, which is still in the box (just arrived a few days ago!).
So thank you for starting this thread!! I ordered mine with the XP, but was able to obtain W7 HP full for 29.99 due to being a student and now know I can add 2GB Ram for 40.00!
Please keep adding to this thread as I am quite the NOOB on netbooks!!

any other tips/tweaks will be appreciated!

 

Oh and one question re the fresh install of W7.
Do I need to back up any drivers or just go ahead with the install?
thanks!

 

If you already haven't checked out. There is a alot of discussion on this thread about HP 311.

HP 311 Drivers, for various OS.

 

Thanks!
so is it safe to assume the netbooks can only run 32 bit?

 

Not any current Atom based netbook. With the exception of those knock-off brands that put in the desktop version of Atom, the N230 and N330. The AMD Neo on the other hand is 64 bit compable, and I believe the CULV's are as well.

However, I do not forsee this as an issue anyway. At least for most users.

 

Thanks for the tip. I've gotten Crucial memory products before and they've
all worked out well for me. So I guess it's OK for me to stick with my Win XP netbook and just to upgrade to Win 7 Home Premium along with the memory upgrade huh? Anyone out there think I should return the Win XP Mini and buy a fresh Win 7 Mini?

 

I am in same position as you.. as long as you can get a better deal than the 50 W7 upgrade from HP (and figure your 35 or so dollars added in for a return) I would say just do the Ram upgrade and fresh install yourself...
if you are a student you can get W7 Pro for 29.99 (full)

 

I have been using my Mini 311 lately... I must say, my initial doubts were just that - doubts... I have really been enjoying this netbook a lot tonight. I have not had much time to use it since I have gotten it because I have been fixing up the house. However, playing LOTRO right now with it, did some bounties, having fun with a RL friend in the game and am having a blast on this mini. I go out of town Monday... So time to see how it will go at the airport and the plane ride.

 

So, how do you go about getting the W7 Pro (which I assume is even better than W7 Home Premium) for $29.99 through educational connections? My wife is at Columbia U. so maybe we can qualify for that discount. How many are you allowed to purchase at that discount pricing as I have a few computers that need upgrading and this sounds like an even better deal than the Family Packs I've been seeing on internet deal pages.

 

Nice to hear that you are enjoying your netbook. I think I would enjoy it quite a bit too as it can only be a HUGE upgrade over my old netbook (Dell Mini 9). I'm leaning towards just opening up the netbook and installing W7HP and a 2 GB RAM stick. It is good to know that it has some gaming capabilities because the old Intel GMA950 is truly a joke. Have you watched HD video on your netbook yet? I hear there are specific software designed to utilize the power of the GPU for video acceleration.

 

Ooh nice. Can't wait for the report.

I hassled with my 17" HP Laptop in the airport so many times that I can't wait to see what that feels like. Also got my mini a nice swiss gear computer backpack to call home and now I can throw my other electronics in there as well--so much easier!

 

Hi All,


Im thinking about ordering the Mini 311 today, what do I need to do to ensure that I get a full ION version and not the Ion LE version...do I have to order it with 7 to get the full Ion version?



Thanks!

 

Well the only diffrence is dx 10. But no one knows how to get the ion and not the ion le. The site says ion but if you change the cpu it will give oyu an error saying the ion le is not meant for that cpu but it will do teh same thing no matter what you set. If you pick the faster atom and change the ion to the right one and then change the cpu back you get the same error.

All I can do is give you this coupon code for 5% off SVX4305 also go to www.bing.com and use the cashback for another 3% off that you get like 90 days later , but still....

 

thanks for that, will the mini 311 run Aero on win 7 comfortably?

I have a copy of win 7 and would rather not pay hp $50 for it...


how do i get the bing discount, it just takes me to the search engine?


thanks

 

Yep, runs great.

 

I finally installed W7 Professional on my 311.

I'm enjoying it but this is my first time messing around with W7 in general. It seems to be very responsive. I upgraded from XP. The drivers seemed to transfer just fine with the clean install.

One question: I'm missing the driver for "Coprocessor." I have no idea what it is.. ..does any one know?

Through the student discount you are allowed to purchase only one copy of W7.

 

Go here and while ordering ask for Win Professional full version. (not upgrade version)

You need an university email id with the .edu extension and perhaps a student ID number.

 

I wondered that too since mine is the same way. It doesn't seem to be affecting anything as far as I can tell.

Did you orient the taskbar vertically? I saw that tip and tried it. At first I wasn't sure about it, but now I'm loving it. Seems to really work well now that the windows 7 taskbar apps are images by default (not words). I put mine toward the right sign of the screen since I'm right handed, and because I like the clock in the bottom right. Doing this maximizes the top to bottom screen real estate which is oh so important with a smaller 16x9 display.

 

TKNice,

To be quite honest this is my first time messing around with W7 so I am a little flustered because it is nothing like XP visually. So, I have not tried it and not too sure how to do that just yet. I am very surprised at how snappy W7 is on the netbook though. So, I'm looking forward to getting my copy to install on the gaming rigs in the house.

 

Yeah, I know the feeling. You can actually make the taskbar look just like XP if you like, but I think that defeats the purpose--especially on the netbook. If I could offer one piece of advice, it would be to use the search bar A LOT.

Click Start and you should see it down at the bottom labeled "Search programs and files". It's like the old run prompt. Indexing is very good in Win7 and you can pretty much rely on this until you find everything. You'll find not only files and documents on your computer, but also windows functions and help. Type "firewall" to get right to the windows firewall or "network", etc.

Also try right-clicking everything (like your desktop or applications in the taskbar). You'll notice lots of cool shortcuts by doing this.

-TK

 

Have you tried installing the official Nvidia's ION drivers from Nvidia's website? Not the video drivers but the whole chipset drivers package.
Here's the direct link for Windows 7 version:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista_win7_32bit_ion_15.51.html

 

Finally got mine today. Just doing windows update, 60 items lol. Going to leave xp on it. Since i don't see any benefit in changing OS for me. However i need to clean there install of XP or may be put mine professional version, after acquiring all the drivers.

Dam thing look nice, light and very ergonomic. Video is running perfectly fine. Most of the videos i have are 720p. Going to try 1080i vids later. Also going to install some FPS game i play alot. So far very happy with the purchase.

 

Actually there is questions whether the digital river is the upgrade or full.
I had better success calling Microsoft directly!

Call Microsoft's Store directly at 1.877.696.7786 which gets you a mailed DVD for $34.99 + local tax (Home and Pro available) (believed to be retail box) -Offer Available until January 3rd. Home and Pro same price. 32 and 64 bit options on the same DVD. Ask for FULL version.
Just have to give your edu addy. prepare to be on hold for 20-50 minutes but worth it

 

You dont have to necessarily purchase the 34.99 version. You just tell them you will download. then they will give u the 29.99 option and will send you the login info for microsoft store.

 

I remember reading reviews for nvidia ion and seeing low FPS's in CoD4 ( I remember one view saying an average FPS of 11, low settings, 1024x) this is bull. Using the ingame FPS monitor I'm getting 30FPS average on, mid 20's at lowest during combat, often going up to the 50's and 60's. This is on the netbooks native resolution, 1366x768, normal models, dynamic lights, high quality textures, depth of field on. Specular maps and shadows do cause a hit to the FPS however with high textures the game still looks excellent.

Admitidly, this is with a 2GB upgrade to the ram (For 3GB total).

I am very impressed with ion and pleasently surprised with the atom, I've yet to encounter any 'lag' or 'pausing' in the OS (Probably due to the ram upgrade, and the relatively high ram & bus speed of modern netbooks.

I haven't even begun to optomise the system yet however with some cleaning up and some tweaks this will definately make a nifty portable gaming system (When not note taking in uni :|)

Edit: Mind this is single-player, I'm not much a fan of multiplayer gaming.

 

just go to www.bing.com type in HP laptops . At the top of the page you should see the hp.com link with a coin graphic after it and the word cash back. Just click the link. Create a new account.

Some say if you use a coupon code it voids the bing deal. But that may have just been the 25% off coupon so its still worth trying. The 5% would still apply , the 3% from bing might just not work. Since it only takes a few extra minutes to do it you might as well try it. No one will know for 90 days. But the 3 % will be off the full price

As for win 7... you can install it , it all depends on what you want to do. The mini's with win 7 may come with the full out ion. At the very least the $50 bucks gets you another valid liscense key for win 7. It will also allow you to choose higher quanitys of ram for the system. The ion may not run areo well. It requires a 128 megs, but the ion shares its ram with the system so it could cause things to become slower. YOu'll have to ask someone who has the system.

 

This is still valid - you cannot use coupon codes combined with Bing's cashback for HP stuff:
http://www.bing.com/shopping/pages/faq.aspx#DoIneedtoknowanythingspecificwhenshoppingwithHP

 

Thank you very much for the link. I am downloading Win 7 Pro as we speak. Really appreciate it.

 

I just did the RMA on mine today. And i just got it today. LMAO

 

Why are you returning it? Any major problems with the netbook?

 

Just bad luck . My monitor got static issues. Next build that is now nov10. I will try to call HP and see if they can move that up . For the few hour it worked, i was impressed.

 

For everyone who is already using their mini: is it only me or is it really easy to notice the pixel structure/size on the whole display? What I mean is on my unit the display has a noticeable "screen door effect" where it is easy to see the dark spaces between each pixel (especially using the bright white background). I've used many laptops (and various LCD monitors) from many different manufacturers (including few netbooks) and it's the first time I've seen something like this

 

I've often noticed this on screens that have rather high DPIs.

 

I have had mine for a couple days and am concerned with non-video flash performance. it is a 280 and i added 2 GBs of ram running XP. Anyone else have these issues? will 10.1 ION support help all flash?

 

Flash 10.1 will be GPU-accelerated. No specific ETA has been announced besides "by the end of the year".

 

As i am preparing a flash drive for W7 install, do do the 32 bit or 64?
I have installed 3GB ram.
thanks!

 

The notebook versions of Atom currently only support 32-bit.

 

Thanks! Saved me wasting time on trial and ERROR!!!

 

Found the 2GB RAM (on sale) for 37.99 and you can get 5% CB from Bing!
States this price reflects 5.00 off instant rebate through 10/25.
http://www.jr.com/crucial/pe/CRT_2G25664BC10/

 

What are the specs on the HD in the 311? I was wanting to shop around for the upgrade to larger size...
i know there is the slot for extra RAM. no other empty slots for upgrade is there?

 

Techni you're stretching the thread out, could you please tinypic link the screenshots or something?

 

Very interested to know how well Football Manager runs on this, swithering between a full blown laptop or a netbook for now and desktop build next year.
Currently living out of a hotel for business 4 days a week so would love something portable for movies, music and internet but also with some basic game playing capability, only recent thing I want to play is Football Manager, anything else is fairly old like Red Alert 2 or Half Life 1
Or is there something else cheap and small I would be better with?

 

Just to give my quick 2 cents on spending time using my mini 311, by the way I have the Model with n270 and upgraded with 3gb ram windows 7 ultimate. Gaming wise you're probably only going to able to run fps games from before 2007. Tried one of the latest games released. The new wolfenstien on this machine. This is a taxing game to run. Minimum specs qoute pentium 4 3.0ghz and a decent graphics card. The ion chip with 256mb of vram runs the game at native res medium to low settings which seems very good. Here's the crutch, CPU usage is at 100 constantly. Meaning the game stutters along, firing had a one second lag. Rendering this unplayable. Ran batman Arkham aswell. 1024 x 768, low settings, stutters aswell CPU at 100% constantly. Conclusion I've come to is that with 3gb of ram the ion is quite capable graphically, just most modern games are unplayable due to how poor the CPU performance not because the graphics chipsets can't Handle them. Any ideas on if the atom can be overclocked guys? Hehe

 

Yup james , thast why i decided on the dm3z . Had to go up in size but the atom is just way to weak for these games.

YOu can over clock the atom btw and the ion gpu.