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Post by Jj on Jun 15, 2009 19:00:20 GMT
... Ive just been given one (off the daughter) that has barely been used. It has Xp on it, and its as slowwwww as 98 was with 64mb ram in it (not all the time but feels like something is always running in the background). Ive done all checks( always have done) and its as clean as a whistle. Have pondered putting Linux on it. Obviously it'll be a bit beyond my usual capabilities because it has no cd drive. So Ive been looking at doing it through the usb. now am not sure I can, will, or should try this yet but its a definite thought right now. Any suggestions for which distro? and any sites that walk me through it would be appreciated.
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Post by mikkh on Jun 15, 2009 23:13:51 GMT
There's a lot of tweaking you can do to XP to make it run more acceptably. It will always feel slow because the majority of these 'netbooks' either use an Atom or Celeron CPU which are quite frankly not good enough for much more than surfing or light office work. I don't know what 'checks' you have done, but you really need to be quite brutal with cutting out resource hungry services. type 'services.msc' (without the quotes) into the run box and get pruning Right click the entry you want to change, pick properties and change automatic to disabled on the following services. 1 System restore 2 Help ( that's the two biggest resource hogs out of the way) 3 Error reporting (pointless) 4 Automatic updates (do it manually at softwarepatch.com) 5 Security centre (annoying and insulting) 6 Fast user switching 7 Secondary logon 8 Remote registry (the last three are all security flaws waiting to happen) Give that a try first .... and the obvious way to get Linux on, is via a wubi style installer on a system with no CD. Then you can have both Windows and Linux on. Just download the Mint ISO, extract it with Winrar (free trial at and run the 'mint4win' file
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Post by Jj on Jun 16, 2009 8:06:53 GMT
All sounds easy enough Mikkh, thanks. and no I havent done any checks on it and I know theres lots of things running in msconfig. quite a lot to do with asus itself. I just left it alone till I decide what to do with the notebook. ill give ur trimmings guide a go and see how it pans out. cheers.
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Post by mikkh on Jun 16, 2009 8:25:12 GMT
Yes I'd forgotten about the all the crud major manufacturers put on, which probably includes some trial security software like Norton or McAfee too
Remove that, untick everything in msconfig/startup and replace it with Avast - you'll find you have a much speedier system
Or just concentrate on getting Linux on and save yourself a lot of bother
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Post by Jj on Jun 16, 2009 8:45:35 GMT
Hi Mikkh, i got rid of mcaffee when she got it, mistakenly put avg on it, which was far too much for it, so settled with avast in the end.
Ive done that with the services thing and it seems much better already. I really cant see whats so good about a notebook, they are so small theres not a lot id use it for either.
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Post by mikkh on Jun 16, 2009 8:58:41 GMT
It's quite a specialised market but I think a lot of sales have come from people wanting a trendy new toy at less than normal laptop prices. The days have long gone since laptops started at a four figure price, so the price point is still far to close to a budget laptop for my liking.
The enhanced battery life (and size) on some models makes it a winner for those doing a lot of commuting, but it is just a trendy toy for everyone else IMO
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Post by lazysod on Jun 16, 2009 20:39:07 GMT
Hi Jj I have the Eeepc as well l but I find it is fairly fast with both XP and Mint do as Mikkh says and download mint it works just great on here and now that you are used to mint you will love dual booting with XP as you will have more choice. I got this as I couldn't afford a laptop but I love it it is so portable ;D too portable really as my daughter tends to nab it a lot as it just fits in a wee bag. Mine boots up in seconds in either XP or Linux and I find it fast enough for most things I even have paint shop pro etc which runs fine on it as long as I am not doing too many other things. I know the screen is small just 10 inch but for taking it out and about I find it perfect. Ok it is a toy Mikkh:-) but I am sure I am saving on the leccy bill as well.
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Post by Jj on Jun 16, 2009 21:51:51 GMT
Oh lazysod, i wish this thing would work ok. at times its fine, then (usually while browsing) it seems to freeze, though its isnt because the cursor is fine. I get messages saying Firefox not responding. and it tends to hang now and then. what Mikkh told me to do earlier today stopping some services, it seemed fine, then i turned the netbook off and on a few hours later and they are all there again. considering it has 1 gig ram, it doesnt feel like it. Think Ill go for broke and just install mint on it.
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Post by Jj on Jun 16, 2009 21:53:40 GMT
Mind, i rather fancy a challenge too, getting it to work ok before formatting! or should I just dual boot? something Id like to do too, decisions decisions....
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