*HP Mini 311 Owners Lounge*

3dmark06: 1582
SM2.0: 646
SM3.0: 693
CPU: 484

 

anyone with 3gb notice any significant difference vs. 1gb?

i'm a broke college student wondering if that 2GB upgrade is really worth the ~$40.

any user experiences would be great!

--

the computer is slower than i expected it to be. i had to use a plain foobar2k skin as songbird was going slow as hell, and the skinned foobar2k wasn't as smooth as i'd like.

anyone try braid? i was getting ~20 fps. :|

overall, i really like the 311. movies run great. i was watching planet earth in 720p, and it looked great. i just wish music players worked a bit smoother on it.

 

Hey guys,

I just got a HP Mini 311 (XP version with ION LE) myself and things have been great so far with one little glitch that's annoying me! When I have a USB mouse dongle plugged in when I power up, it won't continue the boot! It will just freeze on the HP logo screen! I'm not sure if I'm the only one who has this problem? It just annoys me that I have to unplug my USB dongle every time I have to boot up. Any idea how to solve this issue?

As for performance wise, Left 4 Dead kinda struggles even with low everything res 10-15 fps, while Street Fighter 4 runs great, albeit native res with low everything settings except the background!

 

I have the same problem with my Logitech Revolution mouse. Haven't found a fix for it yet though.

 

Well glad to hear I'm not the only one with the problem! hehehe
Actually my mouse is also Logitech, although its an Anywhere MX

 

OK Owners - I have config'd my 311 with Atom 280/W7 Premium/2GB ram and a second battery for $548 on HP Home. I am going to pull the trigger tonight - but this post is an attempt to see if there are any disgruntled 311 owners who strongly recommend against it?? I have often wondered about the term 'disgruntled' - would happy/satisfied owners be gruntled??

 

More on How to enable Directx 10 support on LE

 

You might as well just go full out for the 3 gigs of ram.

ALso try this coupon SVX4305 it shoudl be good for 5% still

 

2gb or higher should make a bigger difference over 1gb, especially for windows 7. I'm using 2gb and it operates well for me.

I just tried the Braid demo, things are smooth for me. So I'm not sure.

 

Will a USB HDTV Tuner work with the 311?

 

I've been experiencing lots of stuttering during game play in even older games. I have the mini 311c with has the atom n270, upgraded the ram to kingston 2gb 1033mhz module and immediately installed windows 7 ultimate on my machine.

Indigo Prophecy, a game released in 2004, 1024 x 768, medium settings, surprised smooth for a couple of seconds then stuttering when it has to load things in memory like new interaction with objects. This has me to believe that its a memory access problem.

I turned off page file and it helped a little but its hardly a solution to this problem, I'd rather have the sability then just turning it off everytime i want to play a game. Still with pagefile off, still stuttering!

Took a screenshot of memory details and its says Dram Frequency @ 266.7mhz, that seems awfully slow considering I'm using a 2gb ddr3 stick at 1033mhz, and the soldered 1gb. Anyone shed any light as to what might be the problem here?

 

DDR 3 comes in speeds of 800, 1066,1333,1600. The actual clock speeds are as follows. 100mhz ,133mhz , 166mhz , 200mhz.

 

Would this effect performance in gaming? The fsb in the n270 is 533mhz so the so I guess the ratio of fbs:dram seems right. Anyone one else with the n270 atom and 2gb 1033mhz ram care to run CPUz and see if this is the same.

 

I noticed that if I'm in the BIOS and I plug in my Logitech Anywhere MX USB dongle, the Mini freezes as well... I wonder if that has anything to do with our current problem?

 

How is the fan noise and performance on your Mini 311?

I had mine for 10 days and the fan was never on. The machine was therefore extremely quiet and performed well. Then all of the sudden the fan came on and never turned off. One day later, the machine started to shut down autonomously. So I wonder if the 10 days of no fan caused overheating (which I did not feel) and resulted in a hardware failure.

I have since sent in the Mini to HP for repairs.

 

Hey guys - did anyone else order the Mini 311 during the Bing 25% cashback promotion?! I did, and I just got the computer today... however, I just got an email from Bing saying that my Cashback Reward has been cancelled.. seemingly out of nowhere. I followed all the 'Terms and Conditions' and am in shock at how this could happen. I might have to return the machine now The whole reason I bought it was because of the cashback deal...

 

Sorry to hear that NJDave...

(1)-how is the fan activity for everyone else?? OFF most of the time, ON all the time, high pitch, audible in quiet library, etc?? What are your temperature readings??
(2)-The mini 311 has an empty mini pci-e slot, right??? is it possible to put in an SSD so that you have both SSD and regular Harddisk?? Can i install the OS on the SSD??

 

You should send them a support ticket asking why. The cashback shoulde valid if you bought it around the 18th. I bought mine around 4am and originally they gave me a 3% cashback, but after a ticket. They gave me the 25% credit.

Now gotta way till Dec 18th o_o to receive it.

 

Did you use another coupon with the bing cashback ?

 

Lol... none at all.

Funny thing is that I could have used my "HP Academy" discount (I am a college student), but I opted for the Bing 25% instead since it's a significantly better discount... what a stupid risk that was. Now, I'm stuck with a computer I paid FULL price for when I am entitled to some form of discount.

I read all the "terms and conditions" BEFORE applying the stupid cashback - obeyed all the rules. I meticulously followed a 'step-by-step' method to make sure I did everything correct in the order process... therefore I made the order in confidence. Within several hours after the order the full cashback balance appeared in my bing account. All I had to do was wait the 60 day probation period before I could actually receive the cash... I got home yesterday, and my computer had arrived. Then I checked my email only to discover that my cashback had been canceled with no clear reason given... the same day I received the computer. Would have been nice if they had canceled it Before it shipped, so at least I would have a chance at a full refund...

So, no other 311 owners who used Bing cashback have had a problem?! I'm going to attempt to call Bing today, but I don't think I'm ever going to get my money. It's quite a cruel thing to give something, then take it away with no reason.

 

I had this issue with Bing (live.com) back when they had the 25 or 40% CB and I ordered the HDX18... they cancelled it with no reason given.. i contacted them and they stated I had cancelled the order.. i assured them I had emailed them from the VERY laptop I ordered... sent in some paperwork to them and they "reinstated" my CB with ANOTHER 30 day wait, but it was worth it!

In short, contact them as if you did not use any coupon or your education discount, you are owed the CB! the squeaky wheel not only gets the grease but the cash!!!

 

Thanks man, that's encouraging. Did you contact HP or Bing?!

 

Your ram is like that do to the following:

You got a stick of ram with weird or strange JEDEC profiles that dont match that of the built in ram. So the system and or bios is automatically defaulting to the profile its compatible with which is what your seeing in cpu-z. Return that ram and get a better brand that comes with STANDARD JEDEC profiles and timings of 7-7-7-20 cas 7 at DDR3-1066 get cosair/kingston/patriot.

 

Hey guys,

I just bought an HP Mini 311 with N280, but it only has the ION LE. I haven't received it yet, but I found this website after looking for a forum dealing specifically with the 311.

Anyways, after reading the post by solarnoise on how you can run full ION drivers for DX10 support on the ION LE, I went to the website yesterday (the MyHPMini forums), bookmarked it so I can refer back to it later when I actually get my 311.

But the forum is gone now! All I can remember from the instructions is that you need to modify the INF file and add some extra lines so the setup file has the ability to install ION Drivers and not just ION LE Drivers.

Has anyone done this yet? Maybe they could do a small writeup on this thread about it? or start a new thread specifically for the ION LE Driver mod?

 

I installed the modified drivers he posted and it does show directX 10 capable under gpuz. I don't really have anything to test it with though.

-TK

 

2 questions:
Does anyone know the capacity of the battery in mAh or Whr? (RMClock can show it if it's not printed on the battery)

Did anyone measure the weight? (or read somewhere the real world weight).

Edit: Laptopmag says 3.2 pound = 1.45 kg.

 

Mine shows 4910mAh

 

Thanks for the reply skyhawk, I purchased this exact ram from here:
http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfullat.asp?productcode=MME3427080#spec
Are timings are different on this stick, doesn't say in the specs?

thanks

 

I contacted Bing (Live)...

 

that stick of ram should not be giving you issues, i would take the ram out only after the battery is uninstalled for at least a minute with ac power disconnected, reseat the ram, without battery or ac power hold powe button down for 30 seconds, put battery back in and reboot. see if it changes, if not try another stick of ram, I had a mini 311 and in cpuz with ram upgrade for the atom n270 processor it should be 533 speed under memory tab with 7,7,7,20 timings. if not something is wrong somewhere..

You could also try running lavalys everest newest version and see what it tells you for your system and ram!

2nd NOTE ignore what i said about re-seating ram and cpu-z!!!! cpu-z on the ion chipset with intel processor reports wrong ram information. USE lavalys everest and go in there and it should show you correct ram information and timings!!! I forgot since i got rid of the mini 311 that cpuz is reporting incorrect information but everest shows correct info. so the pauses and freezes are coming from something else. STOCK windows xp was the best os to run on the mini 311 and got the best benchmarks scores once tweaked and had no skipping for me and could play fear (2005). unreal tournament 2, fs9, duke3d, prey, quake 4 and such games smoothly for me!

 

I have this problem as well.. Any ideas?

 

I bought a stick of 2gig patriot cas7 from frys. CPUZ shows JEDEC #2 533mhz 7-7-7-20-27 @ 1.5v.

Memory shows Dual channel 266Mhz FSB RAM 1:2 11-15-15-63-63-2T ? Why ?
I may try to reseat the memory and see if it is a bad contact but I guess I have to try another brand? I think frys only has patriot. Which brand of ram do you guys have? I use Gskill on my desktop and it seems to work well.

BTW the Patriot mem is Qimonda.
From newegg photos, super talent also uses qimonda.
Kingston and Gskill use Elpida (I like Gskill personally)
Geil and Corsair are rebranded but no idea whos.

Any one have any idea what ram is solder onto the board?

 

Hey guys,

Been playing around more with battery life and I installed a program called BatteryBar (which is actually very nice). I'm feeling pretty good about the algorithms he uses from reading the developers posts in the support forums.

Anyway, this program is reporting just under 4 hours of full life battery time and I manually recorded the battery drain time over the weekend and it slept at it's 8% critical power level at around 3hrs 50mins. This is a pretty far cry from 6 hours and I want be sure of what the problem is before I figure out what to do (if anything).

What have you guys been seeing for battery life during casual surfing?

-TK

 

I haven't gotten my 311 yet, or tried out Windows 7, so I may be totally off base here, but have you tried setting the pagefile size manually instead of letting Windows handle it? That may fix the issue, and speed things up in general - as opposed to constantly turning it on and off.

 

Aso has anyone had the chance to try out some Neo Geo emulation on the Mini 311? I'm curious how the Atom would perform.

 

I'm guessing but it sounds like the hardware is having problems initializing and reports a failure on one of the components. This would cause the bios to stop and wait for user response to this failure (like a keyboard) but in our current bios there doesn't seem to be any troubleshooting for these errors.

Usually if an error like this comes up pressing F1 will continue the boot.

Does this problem come up for other devices like a usb-drive or other?

 

I have a USB dvd burner and it didnt complain about anything for that device. It must be a usb keyboard/mouse legacy bios issue. The unifying receiver is considered both I guess whereas a VX nano is just a regular mouse? I may have to try and pick up the VX instead to see if it has the same problem.

EDIT: I decided to return the Anywhere MX and just get a wired LS1. It is definitely a nice wireless mouse.

 

Hello, I am sorry I dont belong in this area ^^

But I just created this thread to keep track of all of you HP users/owners on the experiences you have had with HP so far.

Feel free to post and PM me if you want me to add something.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5480884#post5480884

I have created this thread as a support for those who got disappointed by HP and are looking for another solution.

 

Have any of you had any success disabling the trackpad when typing? I looked all over the mouse control panel but have had no luck.

Other than that I've been very impressed with it for the few days I've had it. As reviews have said, it runs up to 1080p great using the installed players, with flash being the only issue, and I've talked to a friend that works at nVidia that has seen a demo of Flash 10.1 working great with the Ion.

 

I installed 2GB of RAM and then installed W7. I updated the drivers from HP and so far so good..

is there any software that is vital?
Is the above "installed player" referring t Windows Media Player?
Thanks!

So far this is a sweet little netbook and I look forward to the change with Flash 10.1

 

This looks like a great lappy, but this thread needs more information in the first post. Come on TKNice, put some more data, like battery life, pics, etc. in there. If you need to see an example, see my dm3 owner's thread first post.

 

Hey guys,

I recieved my hp mini 311 two days ago and it is really fantastic.


Unfortunately, I'm having some difficulties, maybe you can help me, I'd really appreciate:

I tried to install a fresh version of WinXP (purchased new CD), but it wouldn't let me do it.
I have a LG GP08NU20 external dvd-drive connected via USB and during the start procedure I press F9 (Boot Device Options) and select my dvd drive. However, nothing happens: just a short blinking at the dvd-device and then the WinXP on the HDD loads.

I also tried F10 and changed the boot order, moved the HDD at the end of the list and the "USB CD/DVD ROM Drive" right at the beginning, but that didn't work either.

Did anyone of you also install a fresh version of windows and could please tell me the trick?


I also found this, but as long as I can't even boot from the dvd-drive...
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=OS&thread.id=21718



Anyway, very nice little laptop, works even great outside in the sun! I've got another Laptop (Samsung X05), but it is impossible to recognize anything on the display if you sit outside, even in the shade. But the HP's display is really bright, although it is glossy.


Greetings

 

I installed W7 via flash drive

 

I still get at least 4 hours solid with it. I can go for much more but after 4 hours it'll be at 20% and I'll become paranoid with it.

My system is configured with 2gb of ram, which I think I should have gotten 3gb but still wonder about how much of a performance increase I would receive.

This is definitely my favorite notebook so far, handling any media. Unfortunately, games are mainly limited by the cpu...

I've loaded up M.U.G.E.N to try out neo geo emulation. I'm not sure if this was what was asked but I thought it was pretty close to what was in mind.

*I find this laptop nicer than the dm3 imo. Hopefully this will last me till the next gen of ion.

 

if u look around u can find a 1 gig dimm for the mini 311 for $15-$20 bucks

 

yeah, I finally did the same and installed xp via usb flash drive. Four hours wasted while trying to boot from cd...


However, I got two drivers missing:

- Nvidia chipset drivers (drivers from hp-homepage just say "file corrupt")
- LAN drivers (Qualcomm Mobile Broadband Drivers - Gobi2000 doesn't work, "device not found")

omg...


Any ideas?


Greetings

 

I am having the same problem with a logitech Nano plugged into the USB ports. I have tried with it plugged into all of the ports, no boot or posting with it in. However, it boots fine with a dvdrw drive plugged into the right ports.

 

I downloaded the Nvidia drivers from HP and downloaded. if you still need them i can upload via rapidshare?

Now I thought all the mobile broadband drivers were not needed? I guess I am not sure what they are for??

 

@darengibo: Everything works fine now, thanks.


Here's the solution:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=OS&message.id=20134&query.id=440818#M20134


Contains everything I needed...


At least I could also check the battery time: Mine runs about 5 hours while doing office stuff and internet (wireless). That's ok for me.


Greetings