ASUS R2H - WiFi

The first thing I tried when I got my R2H was to connect it to my wireless network, and after a few unsuccesull attempts I realized that my router was configured to use channel 13, which is allowed in Europe but not in US. Once I changed to a lower channel (1 to 11), it connected just fine.

The second thing I noticed was the low signal if I was connecting from the ground floor (my 3Com wireless router is on the 1st floor). My Vaio notebook (Intel 2200BG chip) gets excellent signal from the same position - I'll contact ASUS on the issue.

Finally, it used to disconnect quite often, but once I have updated the Intel chipset drivers (especially the USB drivers) the issue was gone, although the signal is still low, but much more stable. See related article on how to update chipset drivers.

As a last note, I'm using Windows Zero Configuration tool to manage the wireless networs, not the one that ASUS provided.

ASUS R2H - Temperature

The ONLY thing that I don't like about my R2H is the internal temperature, according to Notebook Hardware Control it goes around 45-50 degrees Celsius for HDD and 55-60 degrees Celsius for ACPI after half an hour, which I find quite high (it may be just me, I'm a bit of a temperature freek since I spent the last couple of years doing a little bit of modding on my P4 Prescott Shuttle XPC for better cooling, and it never gets that hot, but of course that's a totally different story as it's actively cooled). Otherwise, on the outside, R2H feels just warm and i guess since everything is tightly packed on the inside these temperatures may be normal - I raised a technical query with Asus about this - let's see what they say...

ASUS reply on temperature query:
"The normal temperature for the HDD will be between 50~70 celsius and for the CPU will be 60~80 celsius."

January 12, 2007 update:Just bought this fan from eBay (as said before, I'm a bit of a diy-er, especially when it comes to fans - modded my Shuttle XPC desktop, my Xbox, soon my Vantec NexStar HDD enclosure :-), and the plan is to build some sort of a USB cooler for my "hottie" here - I'll keep you updated if it makes it to life.

Improving performance - Autoruns

I decided to stop some of the applications that were starting at logon, while having the option to put them back if I find later on that I really need them - to do just that, Autoruns from Sysinternals (now part of Microsoft) is the best tool I could find.

This doesn't include the applications I could stop from their respective options (like Windows Messenger, Skype etc).

Here is my tray icon area after the job:

Hibernating

There are a couple of ways of how to put your UMPC in hibernation.

The easiest way is by pressing the POWER button, but for that to work you will have to change the power setting. Go to Control Panel > Power Options > Advanced tab, select from the drop-down box Hibernate option, and dick OK.

The second option is by creating a shortcut that runs "%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState", that you can place either on your desktop or pin to Start menu.

PDF Reading

Here's a couple of screenshots of how reading a PDF book looks like in the native resolution (800x480) - this was one of the usages I had in mind when I decided to get a UMPC, and I can honestly say that I like what I see. The up/down buttons (left side) and the page up/down (right side) on the ASUS R2H are proving very helpful for navigating through the document.

Intel Inf Update

I have decided to update the Intel chipset divers, too see if it's going to improve thing - maybe is just me, but it seems that the system is a bit snapier and the CPU is not getting at 100% as much as it used to.

First of all, if you just want to try this, but still be able to go back, you should copy your current hardware profile, to create a test profile. I guess you won't he able to select the new profile when Windows loads without an external keyboard, but i just wanted to mention it, in case you want to be on the safe side. I'm not going to cover that in detail, but here's a kb entry from microsoft that explains houw to do it - HOW TO: Set Up Hardware Profiles for Laptop Computers in Windows XP

Download the latest version (I used version 8.1.1.1010) from here - go for the exe file andsave it in a temporary folder (e.g. C:\Windows\Temp). Open a command prompt window (go to Start -> Run, type "cmd" and press [Enter]), and type the following commands:

cd c:\windows\temp
infinst_autol.exe -A -A

Follow the installation steps, and once finished you should have the drivers installed in C:\Program Files\Intel\InfInst

Open Computer Management from Control Panel > Administrative Tools, and select the Device Manager from the tree on the left.

Now we will update the drivers for the devices (right tree) that have Intel as the "Device Provider", starting with Intel UltraATA Storage Controllers.

Double click the device entry, select the Drivers tab - note the 6.x driver version:

Push "Update driver..." button, and the Hardware Update Wizard will start. Choose "Install from a list a specific location (Advanced)", and push "Next"...

Choose "Don't search..." and push "Next"...

... click "Have disk"

type or browse for driver location (C:\Program Files\Intel\InfInst\xp)

choose "OK" to install the new driver...

Successful driver update - note the version 8.x in the driver property sheet.

You may be prompted to reboot once you click "Close" button - you can reboot each time you are asked to or you can wait until you have updated all drivers.

Proceed to update the drivers for the other devices, following the same steps:

Systems devices
- Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 2448
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM PCI Express Root Port - 2660
- Intel(R) 82801FBM LPC Interface Controller - 2641
- Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller - 2950

Universal Serial Bus controllers
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2658
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2659
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265A
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265B
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 2658

Note: If theHardware Update Wizard presents multiple driver choices, make sure that you select the driver name that you started to update in the first place.

Note: Most of all the new drives will be version 8.x, but some will be 6.x or 7.x, but that's just fine as Intel doesn't provide update for all drivers in the same package - but they will be definitely newer than the ones you had pre-installed.

Let me know if you have any problems when or after updating the drivers.

My first entry

I just got my Asus R2H tabIet yesterday and I thought, what the hey, i should start my weblog about it, using the actual thing for writing. Here i go...