Abby and Win’s Blog

Archive for January, 2009

After a few days with my netbook, I’ve decided to buy some upgrades to better my experience with it.

• Upgrade the 4GB SSD drive to 16GB (Super Talent FPM16GHAE). I could’ve bought a Runcore but size was more of a concern than the speed. So far it’s been fine. I actually found someone on eBay selling the Super Talent for a lower price than Newegg and free shipping.
• Upgrade the 1GB ram to 2GB (Kingston 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667)
• Buy a 16GB SDHC card (A-DATA 16GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC))
• A case (Case Logic HDC3) Good price at Best Buy if you can find it. Both netbook and plug fits very well with some room for other things.

Here’s the video I posted on YouTube on installing the ram.

I didn’t bother posting another video for installing the new SSD drive because it’s fairly the same procedure as the ram upgrade.

Here’s the video where I got the idea to use the Case Logic HDC3 case.

Here’s some pics and screenshots after the upgrades.

Cost for all the upgrades were around $100. With the price of my netbook, it still cost less than the average startup price for a netbook.

I just got my new 2GB DDR ram for my Asus EEEPC 900A. It was easy to install. Just remove 2 screws underneath the netbook to gain access to both ram and SSD drive. Below is the Youtube video I uploaded.

I just picked up an Asus Eee PC 900A from Best Buy. I wanted to pick up a netbook for a couple of months now but ended up getting an HP dv9999us last month. Office Depot it for a very good deal so I could not pass it up. Now Best Buy has a deal with this Asus netbook that I cannot pass up. After a week of use, here’s my initial impression and experience.

The netbook comes with Xandros OS. The desktop is grouped by tabs with applications in each group. After the software updates though, the system became unstable. There were times after boot up, the mouse and/or keyboard didn’t respond. I had to restore the system to factory defaults. That was easy to do. I just had to press and hold F9 as soon as the netbook started.

I then decided to install Easy Peasy via USB flash drive. The manual says to press and hold the ESC button to access the boot device selection. It didn’t work. What I found to work is pressing both ESC and F2 keys during POST. It only recognized my bootable USB flash drive when connected to the USB port closes to the right, Shift key.

I used Unetbootin to create the bootable USB. Once I booted off it, I got 3 options: Default, Help, and OEM. I selected Default and it run the Live CD version. Once Easy Peasy loaded, I installed it. There were some bugs after installation but this post http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=543 answered all my problems.

After installing a few more softwares, I still have about 800MB. I’m planning on getting a 16GB SDHC card and maybe a 16GB SSD drive to replace the 4GB. This netbook has an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB DDR2 ram, 8.9” WSVGA widescreen monitor (1024×600), Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, SD and MMC card reader, 3 USB 2.0 ports, and wireless connection (supports WEP and WPA/WPA2 security). This thing only weighs 2.2lbs and 1.3” thick. It’s very nice and portable. Another cool feature is the 2 finger scroll just like my MacBook Pro. You can scroll up and down using 2 fingers on the trackpad. I also was able to connect to my HP 2600N color laserjet.

If you will not upgrade the 4GB SSD drive, I highly recommend installing Easy Peasy (Ubuntu EEE). If not, do not update the software unless you are experiencing problems and even then be careful not to run out of drive space.

Only 2 things I wish it had, a webcam and an ExpressCard slot. I can live without the webcam but my Verizon V70 is an ExpressCard. Now I can only access the internet if I’m within a wireless connection. Many coffee shops now have free wi-fi access anyway so again no big deal.

So after a day of use, it’s a great machine with lots of potential uses and upgrades. If you can get your hands on one for around $200, jump on it.

Abby went home Friday after staying at the hospital for a couple of days. Aedyn is still in NICU but he’s doing better. He is no longer in an incubator and his IV has been removed. We brought his car seat in so that the nurses can monitor his breathing and temperature while on the car seat. If he continues to improve he will be going home sooner than we expect.
We also gave him a bath today. It was a learning experience, actually everything we do with him is a learning experience. We are getting better at feeding him and positioning him during feeding times. It’s a great feeling seeing him in front of me instead of an ultrasound.

12 hours after Abby’s water broke, we are blessed with a new son – born at 3:28pm and 4.8 lbs. I thought I knew how it would feel to be in this situation based on stories friends tell me and movies I’ve seen but the feeling is uncomparable, unpredictable, unbelieveable, and more amazing than I can ever imagine. As soon as I heard him cry it just brought tears to my eyes knowing that that sound tells me that he’s breathing on his own. We were a little concern since he’s 5 weeks early. But according to the doctors, so far he’s doing okay.

Here’s some more pics – http://www.flickr.com/photos/w1n78/sets/72157612505241216/ -  and a video. More updates to follow.