eeePC 901

I thought I would get the eeePC 901 while they are available. It looks just like my 1000HE but a little smaller and just as UGLYeee. It has the 1.6GHz 270/16GB SSD/2GB 800GHz RAM/1024X600 screen/Win7 and an all day battery. The size of the SSD, the screen and keyboard are the only practical differences.

Right off it has some kind of problem booting with Win7. It goes into a black screen. It's probably a conflict with the BIOS or something. I have to sleep it and then it will come out of black screen.

However, Win7 runs well with Aero.

The same SD card with Easy Peasy runs on both computers if needed. Both play the same iPod Touch movies from an SD card using VLC.

[ThisIsNot]

Yes, it is a BIOS issue. Asus has solved this issue, just download their BIOS update and you will be fine. I am thankful that Windows 7 comes with the drivers for the GMA 950. I have a tablet that is pretty old running a GMA 800 series IGP. Windows 7 sees it as a generic VGA device (despite it being Direct X 9 compatible), the same thing happened with Windows Vista and Intel is not going back and providing drivers for their older chipsets and IGP solutions.

I don't know why Intel would leave out older computers as the tablet doesn't have any issues running Windows 7 Professional. It looks like older notebook users will be left in the dust when it comes to Intel drivers for Windows 7 and Vista.

Oh well, at least newer hardware is supported right within Windows 7, no need to install drivers.

Originally Posted by ThisIsNot

Yes, it is a BIOS issue. Asus has solved this issue, just download their BIOS update and you will be fine.

The only way I could get my 901 to work was with XP.

I couldn't get it done in Win7. I downloaded the updater utility and searched for a newer BIOS than my 1808 but it reported no appropriate image on the server. Did a little reading and eeeuser forum said to go back to an older 1101 BIOS. I downloaded the recommended one but the updater utility warned me to flash the BIOS with DOS first. Could not find what was needed or more likely did not recognize what I found as what I needed. After a couple of full installs in different languages, booting into Linux to see if I could find help there (would not mount the NTFS partition and allow me to delete it), creating a Windows 7 boot SD card (which does not allow deleting or partitioning I found unless you boot from that card, how uncool), searching for this and that, I quit. I was tired and did not want to do something dumb like decide to reformat the C: drive in a burst of frustration.

Workaround for black screen is hard boot, wait until black screen, put computer to sleep, wake computer and then the computer works.

[ThisIsNot]

That is strange about your Eee PC 901. It is probably best to stick with Windows XP on a 16GB SSD though. Windows 7 takes up a bunch of space, I believe that the installation requires a minimum of 16GB. Windows 7 took up 13GB on my tablets, I never paid attention to how much space it took up on my Gateway netbook.

I am even kicking around the idea of just staying with Windows XP when my HP arrives (build date is August 4, HP pushed it back due to high demands for their netbooks with Broadcom chips). Then again, it would be nice to run the latest OS with Aero (which actually works with the GMA 950 in Windows 7, Windows Vista struggled with it).

I hope that Asus fixes this issue on their older netbooks. Windows 7's release is just around the corner so it will only be a matter of time before drivers start rolling out.

Originally Posted by ThisIsNot

It is probably best to stick with Windows XP on a 16GB SSD though.

XP is at the end of its useful life for me. I've used and reused licensed copies enough. MS has indicated a 3-pack for Win7 so I'll buy a couple of those when they come out.

After work I'll stop and check out larger SSD prices for the 901. I'm actually good with what I have but maybe a larger upgrade will be even faster.

Last year's 901 and this year's 1000HE look a lot alike. Build quality is surprisingly good for both. No wonder there was so much netbook enthusiasm for the smaller size and cheaper price of the 901 last year. They both have the same 1.6 GHz Atom CPU (the 901 is warmer on the bottom), MLC SSDs (16GB Samsung, 64GB G-Monster), 2GB of 800Mhz RAM and the same 1024X600 matte screen resolution. Both have the same NE766 wi-fi chip. I like the same one door access to upgrades and the same trackpad click setup on both. It would be a stretch to say I am happy with both Elantech trackpads. Win7 will give me the same OS for both.

Just a note of update and none of it good.

I located the 901 BIOS choices in the ASUS XP section, unpacked them and loaded a newer one even though I'm running Win7. There were a couple of glitches. Once it finished and asked for a reboot the mouse and keyboard froze. I finally did a hard stop and booted.

I have the same problem of booting to a black screen. Same solution of putting the computer to sleep then out of sleep and it boots into a working screen. Also, every once in a while I get a momentary black screen with a message that the graphics accelerator failed but then recovered.

I've been going through the device manager looking to update drivers.

Just off the top of my head, with the newer BIOS settings that control the motherboard, Win 7 is going to have problems in the 901. Until ASUS releases a Win7 optimized BIOS I have to live with the problems or go back to XP. Going to have to wait I think. Let the big guys at ASUS solve the problem, if they even want to, and then I'll tag along.

I don't want to continue living with the problems of Win7 on my 901 so I got the same XP restore disk that came with my 1000HE and loaded the same software setup so both computers would be very similar.

I loaded Avir AV, Picasa 3, VLC, and FireFox 3.x. I updated Java and whatever wanted to update. Then I moved two sets of bookmarks to FF. Lastly I loaded .NET. Oh, yes, I deleted Star Office. Not for me.

After everything was set, including a check of the system drivers to make sure they were all good, I optimized the SSD by turning off defrag, indexing, restore, page files, cache and now Im good to go. Boots nicely.

[ThisIsNot]

Hopefully Asus will fix things. They came out with a BIOS update for the Eee PC 1005HA to fix the very same problem. Windows 7 is still in its infancy and manufacturers are barely getting it. It is only a matter of time before drivers, firmware updates, and BIOS updates are released. The good companies will be separated from the bad ones whenever Windows 7 is released. The good companies will release all of those updates for their current and older hardware, the bad companies will focus just on their current hardware.

Originally Posted by ThisIsNot

Hopefully Asus will fix things. They came out with a BIOS update for the Eee PC 1005HA to fix the very same problem.

This is good to know except that the 1005HA is new so fixed and the 901 is old so not yet fixed.

Windows 7 is still in its infancy and manufacturers are barely getting it. It is only a matter of time before drivers, firmware updates, and BIOS updates are released. The good companies will be separated from the bad ones whenever Windows 7 is released. The good companies will release all of those updates for their current and older hardware, the bad companies will focus just on their current hardware.

I figured I would have to wait until Win7 was out and give the company time to get a BIOS done. I'm not much on words like good or bad. I'm a what is type of guy. What is is no Win7 fix now so what is is go with XP.

All of the time spent trying to do this or that got me some good hands on experience with both the 1000HE and 901 using XP and Win7.

I look at the larger more powerful notebook computers as the gas guzzlers I'm trading in and the smaller less powerful computers as the fuel efficient models I'm buying. I'm not destroying the old computers though. That would be nonsense.

What has helped me are the many sources of information about managing the computer environment. I've listed a lot of my personal helps in the Taking Care thread as part of this forum.

The 901 has limited resources so it helps to manage unnecessary services to keep performance at a high level.