got Mini-note 2133 today...It blows

so i got up today to the fedex dude dropping off my new mini note!!
its the 1.2ghz model with SUSE. all was well until it froze after second boot while viewing a web page. it has now froze 3 times during normal web browsing in the one day I have had it. I havent installed any software so i know its not some buggy unapproved program causing these lockups. when I reboot I see the hit f11 for recovery... DOESNT WORK!!!
HP support page NO OPTION FOR SUSE AS AN OS!!!
any other experiences similar to mine?

 

Do a mini review

 

im on it right now. I expected it to be slow as it is only $550. no big deal there, but I do expect a market ready product.
HP Toolbox (the hp device manager) doesent even open. not even as root.
I dont have much linux experience but have used SUSE and Ubuntu on other machines and know for sure this shouldn't be runnin vista.

on the plus side its a real pretty POS and it runs ok unless it freezes. 3 freezes on 1 charge is unacceptable.

also the bios appears to only support boot from HDD or LAN. I havent tried entering the bios with a flash drive plugged in but something tells me it should still have a boot from usb option if it can be done.

Edit: it does support boot from usb, just not an option from the bios for some reason...

 

I'd personally just wipe out SUSE and put Xubuntu on it.

 

Id love to. in fact my plan was to put ubuntu on it as soon as 8.04 comes out. the question is how if I cant boot from usb? plus this POS froze up again before i even got to open firefox. Im starting to think i should have waited for the 9" Eee. I sincerely hope i just got a dud because if all the linux based ones have my issues HP gonna have a mess on their hands. interesting that all the demo units made available were Vista.
I wonder if they said "we gotta make it available under $500 and before the 9" Eee, just throw a linux distro on it and we can cut out microshaft. drivers? who cares if it works right, as long as its out first"

4 hard freezes in less than 24 hrs and counting...

 

Hi, Please do a little Review of this Note. And you want to say its really slow? Please post some pics or do some test maybe .

Thanks !

 

Should try running memtest on the RAM.

As to booting from USB, did you try it out? The BIOS option may not be there, but it may actually work. Failing that, you can always remove the hard disk to install it, then plug it back in. However, this thing is going to fail so badly if it doesn't boot from a USB, which effectively renders any external DVD drive install useless.

 

@OP

WTF... are you dumb or something? Hating on a laptop that's clearly broken? You think that it's normal behavior for a laptop to freeze up while you're browsing web pages?

Well done.

 

I wasn't hating on it, I would love more than anything for it to work. I am hating on HP for rolling out a Linux system without having it ready for use and having no documentation on the support page that references SUSE. I think its a issue with the OS and not the machine. as I stated before, the HP toolbox device manager doesn't open. it doesn't freeze when I try it. I just doesn't do anything. I will try memtest if i can get a USB boot. I hope its just a bad ram module cuz I was planning on swapping it out anyway.

When I say its slow I am not saying its unusable by any means. I t should be, it was cheap and you get what you pay for... I think I paid for a pretty case.

lolmannz - I didnt mean to trash talk the device itself. As all the reviews say, its a pretty good device (nobody reviewed a SUSE version that I can find). Im just unhappy with an unready linux rollout. If your just here to chime in with a dipsh1t remark and insult my intelligence, you FAIL worse than this machine on linux.

 

USB boot does work, gonna put ubuntu 8.04 beta on in a few minutes. ill let you all know if it helps. also passed memtest86... by passed i mean ran for 45 minutes with no errors..

 

I would be hating too if I got a crap laptop. Like it or not, a broken machine is cause for concern. STFU unless you wanna publish your own glowing reviews of the Mini-Note.

 

thanks mark

so i just tried ubuntu and got a faded grey screen when trying the Live CD on a USB DVD burner. i think its gotta be a driver issue for the VIA graphis. i get to the run live cd or install screen just fine but after the ubuntu loading scrolls by for a minute or two it fails.

well on to XP...

 

test pc-3d mark on XP plz, , how is the performance on XP?

 

Thank goodness - there still isn't an "Official" Mini-Note owners thread - like the ones that continue to show up over in the Dell Section It a shame that its running so poorly - based on the un-boxing photos on Gizmodo - its a great looking little system. Thought I saw somewhere that the 3d Mark 06 was something like 90 in XP - Wowie - Solitaire at 15 FPS!

 

couldn't get to installing XP yet, my disc was at home and my USB burner is at work. first thing tomorrow. another interesting not is that if I try to install ANY software(with their preinstalled software installer I get a "insert dvd:/// DVD 1" with buttons for ok, abort, skip, and eject. completely crazy that a system would be sold without the ability to install any software. the only disc i got is a documentation CD that doesn't mention SUSE at all.
IF ANYONE ELSE HAS A SUSE VERSION OF THIS MACHINE PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW YOURS IS DOING...PLEASE...

 

Me thinks I'll wait to see what Dell will come out with!

 

Same here. Dell are much better than HP when it comes to drivers as well. Most importantly I would want my mini laptop to feature intel's Atom CPU. Besides that being an early adopter can be quite risky when it comes to new computers. It's often good to wait 1-3 months until the bugs and flaws have been ironed out.

 

I got mine yesterday (1.6ghz) model with Vista Business and it works perfectly. It's not a speed demon and i'll probably load XP once HP releases the drivers for it but for now it works fine.

normal video playback including Youtube are great but HD playback is a bit choppy.

wireless and bluetooth work perfectly.

screen is perfect and as a glossy finish.

keyboard is great for it's size.

no real complaints so far other than i can't figure out how to access the built in webcam.


P....

 

I have the 1.0ghz version and I get the same exact thing when I try installing any software in SUSE. It's completely ridiculous. I was considering installing Ubuntu but I guess that's not an option anymore either. I have brought it to class everyday since I got it, it's a nice little note taking notebook but it does get warm/hot.

 

finally got the camera going.

well this is a laugh but it works. apparently you need 3rd party software to use the camera.

go to http://tinyurl.com/3bhsfn and download that file.

it will direct you to download Sun Java runtime Environment 6
first then install the Yawcam software.

it's not exactly high quality but it works




P....

 

Mine seems to (mostly) work. I am relatively happy so far.

You must use the xforcevesa option to get X windows going in Ubuntu 8.04 beta. Also, the wi-fi drivers stop working after Ubuntu does a partial dist-upgrade. I'll blame that one on Ubuntu because it's apparently happening to other users with that chipset.

 

Has anybody tried installing Windows XP yet? I'm wondering if some of the Vista drivers on the HP support site might work with XP. If not, I'm a bit wary of installing Windows, since it will almost certainly overwrite OpenSUSE, and without a restore disc it seems that you could wind up with an unusable computer until HP decides to release the appropriate drivers and/or a restore disc image.

 

This thing needs Isaiah or Atom with equivalent graphics, until then it seems its a hopelessly crippled machine. What is the point of having a webcam when the graphics can't even handle video Skype?

I have been on the eeeuser.com forums for quite some time now, waiting for the 900's release, but I would rather have a keyboard usable with man hands, than the chicklet sized keys of the eee.

 

Ok, so I have tried XP and it works awsome!!-if you dont care about sound...
a few driver issues, but its alot quicker than I expected.
I got everything working except the sound. when I googled the driver I can only find references to the Mini-note, I think it must be a brand new sound card as it has stereo mic input. I downloaded the Ethernet driver from broadcom, and windows update custom found evething but the sound and one unknown pci device. I think the unknown device may be the SD or express card slot
I thought the wifi wasnt working, but I wasnt smart enough to figure out an orange light on the wifi switch meant it was off not on(hey, it was like 4am and I was pretty sh1tfaced). the device manager says evething was good except the items mentioned earlier. whats intresting to me is windows update found the webcam. I dont know if i can deal with no sound until a driver is made, so I installed a copy of vista business... on my 1.2ghz machine its fast enough for general web browsing but not much else. It might also be related to my 1 gig or ram minus what the shared video took.
My system properties say 894mb ram.
also on my $550 model my windows performance
scores are:

processor: 1.7 (lowest score)
ram: 3.4
Aero graphics: 2.9
gaming graphics: 2.4
hard disk: 5.3

I think a just found a compatible sound driver for XP. the card is ADI1984HD and i found a XP driver for ADI198x so Im gonna throw XP back on her and see i she will talk this time. I could care less about stereo mics, I just want sound. If I can get the speakers working ill just wait for HP to release a real xp driver as the mini-note should be available next month with XP.

Ill keep you guys posted.
happy 4:20 everyone

 

I agree, especially when one of the versions sell for $650. The idea and package is great but CPU is a big bottle neck, and stupidly enough HP choose to run resource hungry Vista on it. I certainly hope that it's going to get Atom this summer, until then I'm not interested.

 

jckaylis, did that last driver work?

 

So I just put xp back on and tried the sound driver i found. No luck
but the wireless does work with the driver i got from Microsoft Update. so as far as I know the only thing that doesnt work is audio. I dont know what the unknown device or PCI device is under device manager, but im guessing its the sd and express card readers (i probably wont have a use for them until proper drivers are released, if they ever get used at all). I have spent the past hour or so searching for a driver for sound, but cant find one that works. I also tried to manually update the driver with the vista version but it doesnt load.
If all I am missing is audio I think I can deal with it for a month or so. on the plus side the Mini-note is surprisingly quick when running XP and IMO should be the only OS shipped with this machine. at least the 1.2model, dont know how much faster the 1.6 is...
all in all im quite happy with the Mini-note running XP even without sound so now the wait is on for a driver. you listening HP?

 

That's great news (except for the bit about the audio driver). I'm waiting for my Mini-Note to arrive, and I ordered exactly the same model as you, with the hopes of partitioning the hard drive and installing XP and either OpenSUSE or Ubuntu.

Hopefully HP will get around to posting the XP drivers on their support site at some point. In the meantime, it's nice to know that almost everything works right now.

 

I received my Mini-Note today with the $550 configuration but wireless is not working in Linux. It can detect the card but it can't connect to my network. The wifi light is yellow and cant be changed. Anyone have ideas?? The internet is the main function of this laptop and if it doesn't work, then what's the point...

 

Hey guys, Mikez and I are trying to cultivate a dedicated community for the Mini Note at http://forum.cloudbooker.com/viewforum.php?id=12. I don't have much expertise, but I'm trying to bring in those that do. Please join up if you have questions to ask, or questions to answer. thanks . I did this in response to a dearth of knowledge about the linux edition of the mini note, the one I intend to buy. jckaylis this might be the place for you.

 

ill check it out, thanks for the tip.

 

Same with mine - got it today. Same configuration. SUSE detects the card, but the wireless switch does not seem to activate. I checked bios and wireless is enabled. Unsure what to do. It is new, so I need to start figuring it out.

I will try webcam and wireless tonight, but also doing XP on separate drive.

2G RAM upgrade and drive swap as soon as I confirm wireless.

 

Sound is working for me in XP. Need the drivers you found earlier for the SoundMax ADI 1984, and a patch (KB888111) for the audio bus. You can read about it here: http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=67522. Direct download for the patch is here: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=47079

Once the patch is installed, reinstall the ADI software. Sound will start working immediately. It also fixes the "other" missing device in the Device Manager - that is apparently the audio bus. Once this is all installed there are no more issues in Device Manager - everything is perfect.

 

On my Mini Note the wifi appears off if you go by the orange light on the switch but i get a signal... internet and everything.

On the whole the Suse seems finiky might switch to xp or xubuntu. Has any one got ubuntu working fully?

 

Hay All Got my 2133 today 10am,Sorry but I installed XPpro2,same prob as all,no sound,got the kb88 file now to find the audio driver.Any ideas helpfull.
Also of note,so far it runs very well,slower than my Eee,on web page loads,faster than Eee looks,comfort level and screen.Thanks HP.Any guess on how to get to ram,to upgrade,2g wont's to play.Linux fans Pupee works POB on thing,booting from USB live iso,net Mandrake. Will keep up the Tux.

 

I think I remember how I got it working ... install the KB888111 patch, and then go grab the Vista sound drivers for the Mini-Note off HP's website. Don't run setup, but go to Control Panel, click on the sound device, Update Driver, and point it to the Vista driver directory.

Sound has worked great all evening here, so it can be done. I just wish I had took notes while I was getting it all working!

 

One other thing - once sound is working you'll still have one "question mark" in the Device Manager. It turns out to be HPQ0006, which is the HP Quick Launch software. You can get a working driver here: http://notebook.free-driver-download.com/url.php?id=TXpNNU5qTT0&link=0

Device manager looks perfect on mine now - everything is recognized.

 

See attachment...

 

The link for the HPQ006 doesn't seem to work. And when I try searching for HPQ006 on the notebook free driver website, nothing comes up. Anyone have a working link for this?

 

Try this .... http://notebook.free-driver-downloa...ck-Launch-Buttons-6.00-D-Windows-2000-XP.html

Scroll down, click on "Official Site 1". I tried to put the direct link above but that does not seem to work.

Hope this helps.

 

That did the trick. Thanks!

 

Any of you guys try video skype with either XP or Linux? Is it choppy?

 

Hey guys, got mine this morning. I can't for the life of me figure out how to install Windows via USB. No option in the BIOS and it doesn't seem to just pop up during the boot process when the CD is in the drive either. I can see the disk while in SuSe however.

Any help?

 

Hook up the USB CD or DVD drive, put in a Windows XP install disk, and turn on the computer. If memory serves, F9 brings up a boot menu. From there you can choose your USB drive (or even an SD card or ethernet!)

 

I only have options for Ethernet and Hard Drive in that menu???

Do you have a 1.2GHz or something else?

 

1.2 Ghz - shipped with Suse.

Odd that yours is not showing up. I used a Lacie DVD/RW external USB and it was recognized right away. It showed up as a "Pioneer DVD/RW" in the boot menu.

 

Maybe it's some kind of compatibility issue with my CD-RW. Strange though because I can see it in Linux just fine and read the disk. Wonder if anyone else has this issue?

 

Thanks, to all on this thread. I have my HP2133 running XP SP2 with 100% drivers all-okay. Me follow instructions, me have success.

@bsumpter

Sound is great. Did you try "Sounds and Audio Devices", voice tab, Test Hardware? I had to turn down my volume to avoid feedback. Cool.
I guess those tiny holes L/R of the webcam are working microphones.

The HP Quick Launch Buttons are a nice, quick way to adjust icon and window fonts "on the fly" without setting DPI properties. Also, cool.

I noticed, before I loaded the S3 video drivers, there were additional display resolutions (beyond 1280x768) that I tested and they worked! They are gone now that I installed the S3 drivers, but interesting non-the-less.

I'm waiting for a bunch of XP Updates to finish now that the hardware is working. I also replaced my drive before loading XP and upgraded RAM to 2GB.

When running SUSE ($550 model) my orange wifi light did not turn blue, but on XP when I use the switch after loading the drivers the light turns blue when active and orange when disabled. Happy me.

 

mththomas, how easy was it to upgrade the RAM and hard drive? Did you have to open up the case?

 

Hey guys,

For those that can't connect to wifi using Suse, I used the wifi radar program and it connected instantly. A lot easier than NetworkManager. However, Suse was giving me too many problems in trying ot install other things (wanting the DVD, etc.), I uninstalled it and installed XP instead. I'm going to work on drivers tomorrow but seems like they're in the clear. I tried the LiveCD of Ubuntu and it worked so I might install Ubuntu on another partition. We'll see...