Possible ReadyBoost built into XP Notebooks

Hi, I recently stumbled-upon this site, http://www.eboostr.com/, which offers a software addon to XP that allows the use of a USB Flash drive to be used as quick access memory to load commonly used programs faster. Now while I haven't tested it, I'm pretty sure it does offer some benefits and there may quite possibly be more than one of these addons being developed. But, I never really like the idea of USB drives sticking out of a notebook.

However, recently, I installed a bluetooth chip (a separately bought component) in my Vostro 1500 and found out something interesting while installing it. It fits into a small rectangular shaped slot right beside the power button, underneath the easily removable panel. What I found out is that the connector is a modified, un-encased USB connector. So, if some modder would like to experiment, there might be a way to get a 4GB flash drive, striped of its casing into that slot connected to the internal USB connector without having to open the machine and it can be done completely in warranty since opening that panel does not void it.

Of course, this mod will force you to either have bluetooth or the flash drive connected.

If someone could verify this, it would be cool.

Thanks,
Mike

 

it sounded good, but the required personal info to be sumbitted to be part of the beta test team was a bit too intrusive for my taste (phone number and age). Heck, might as well asking for a credit card number for verification. I did not get that much quizzed beta testing for microsoft

cheers ...

 

Well I applied lets see what happens.

I have a 8gig Sandisk I've wanted to test out for a while.

 

My question is will it benefit weaker machines only?

Pentium I users rejoice!

 

got usb2? that is one of the "must have" requirements

cheers

 

tebore, are you just going to try the eboostr software or the hack I described as well? Also, can anyone confirm if the bluetooth internal connector in the Vostro is in fact a modded USB 2.0 type.

 

I'm beta testing the Eboostr proggy.

It works. Like Vista's readyboost it doesn't give a huge boost if you have a lot of RAM. Start up is a tad faster. Under heavy harddrive access the system remains highly responsive.

Batterylife seems to have picked itself up a bit.

It's still buggy like the cache file gets corrupted if you hibernate/shutdown or standby, but it's not consistent. Sometimes it's perfectly fine. I'm still tracking bugs and sending them feedback.

Hotswapping is something that almost always causes corruption to the cache. So Vista wins that round.

 

Nice follow up tebore. What system are you running?

EDIT: I looked into the system hardware ID's and discovered that in Dell Vostros (and probably other notebooks in other locations) when you open the panel directly above the keyboard, there is a connector that is either connected to a small chip (your bluetooth chip) or not connected at all, meaning you don't have bluetooth. That connector is in fact a USB 2.0 connector with repositioned pins. However, figuring out which ones are which shouldn't be too hard. If Eboostr does work well, then it will be possible to use USB flash drives striped of their cases and slightly modded to fit into the above mentioned USB connector allowing you to have ReadyBoost-like features built into the system without and protruding flash drives.

 

I would go in to more detail but I don't know if I'm bound to any Non-disclosures. I tried looking to see but I couldn't find one so I'm playing it safe and just reporting what anyone else can see on their blog.

The system is the one in my sig. I'm using an 8Gig Sandisk SSD card. It's Got a 2.5Gig Cache file on it and the rest I'm still using as my Bittorrent scratch pad. Using a SSD as a scratch pad is good for BTing on the good keeping heat down and power usage down.