Further Optimize My EeePC

Whether you've an EeePC, a regular laptop or desktop computer, this post is useful for you if you've over 1GB memory (i.e. RAM) installed.

With the replacement of the original 512MB RAM with a 2GB RAM module, I believe there are some spare memory capacity in my EeePC and thus I looked around to find a way to make the best use out of it. I ended up installed Gavotte Ramdisk - a free small application with a simple user interface (download Gavotte Ramdisk ) - and created a 768MB RAM disk. With the RAM disk, I was able to tune my EeePC further and free up some hard drive space originally occupied by Windows. You may like to refer to eeePC 小報告(三) - XP 優化篇 to see what I exactly did.

Optimizing the EeePC

Seeing the previous posts and you'll that I'm kind of addicted to the new toy.

Having installed a slim version of Windows XP as well as purchased a high capacity SD card to increase the laptop's storage, I did the followings as well:

(1) researched online to find tweaks and optimization tips;
(2) sent an email to Asus to clarify whether my laptop's warranty will be voided if I remove the yellow sticker on the back of it to upgrade its RAM;
(3) installed Office 2003 + Firefox;
(4) configured Remote Desktop Connection to my office's PC;
(5) configured it so that it plays now.com.hk & MOOV smoothly.

But I was so impatient to wait for Asus' confirmation that I teared off the yellow sticker 2 days after sending the enquiry to them! I bought a 2GB Kingston notebook RAM last night in Wanchai Computer Centre at HKD320 (I was told that RAM price is dropping significantly recently) on my way back from HKCEC to my office in Wu Chung House. Again, couldn't wait any longer and thus "borrowed" a screwdriver from IT and replaced the RAM module right away. It worked "perfectly" immediately but then I noticed that it took quite long time to boot up, thus I checked and found out that the hard drive free storage dropped to an unusual level: 28MB!!! Spent a few minutes but still couldn't figure out the reason. So? I reworked everything from scratch (i.e. from removing the hard drive partition, install Windows again, repeat the 1-5 steps above) ... all problem solved. I believe the new toy is now configured optimally.

Finally spent 3 hours for the rework + watching Commercial Radio Music Award via now.com.hk at the same time. Went to bed at 3:30am last night!!!

By the way, I finally got an email reply from Asus confirming that removing the sticker and upgrading RAM myself won't void the warranty. You may also
read this from Asus US.

Another New Toy

I've got a new toy recently as a Christmas present - an eeePC mini laptop. This is my first ever laptop.

Though I've a desktop with a huge monitor at home, I've been looking around for a mini one that I can carry with me on the go - perhaps sometimes to be used in office for jotting notes and more importantly for use when I'm on trip. During the recently trips to Vietnam and Cambodia, I felt that having a laptop will be really good for writing blog entries and organize my pictures when I'm back to hotel.

To my surprise, I've got an ideal one effortless over Christmas! :)

I spent quite some time during my holiday time to equip the new toy with a slipstreamed WindowsXP + some minimal software applications that I think I'll really need when I'm on the go. And I've bought an additional SD card (it's called SDHC card, to be exact, a new version of SD card with are of higher capacity) as the secondary storage since the new toy only comes with 4GB hard drive - which is definitely not enough. But considering this mini thing is meant for real mobility, I'm very happy with its configuration already.

Just like iPhone in the mobile phone area, this eeePC has become a hot topic in the laptop industry with a lot of newsgroup, websites, forums and people talking about it (i.e. tips and tweaks, ways to upgrade and optimize it ...etc.). I can even see a number of groups already in Facebook!