MSI WIND U210 thread

No talk about this guy on the forum so here we go

Here is a video of the unboxing and a going over of it

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/14/video-12-inch-msi-wind-u210-gets-a-thorough-going-over/#continued

 

Awesome, i look forward to any reviews and tests that are to come, good post!

 

Yea, me too. I'm planning to buy one for my kid. Dad = MSI-1651, Kid = MSI Wind. Hehe.

 

Very interested in seeing this compared to acer 1410 and also if this can play youtube HD
edit: damn I found a post saying the neo 1.6 single core is about 10% slower than the core 2 solo in the acer 1410. I guess I have to wait for dual core netbooks if I want youtube hd, or I could get that hp mini 311 with ion and pray adobe makes hardware accel of flash work soon. ion will definitely get that but who knows if intel 4500mhd or this ati x1250 will work with it

 

My problem with the hp mini 311 is that it might be limited to 2 gigs. Not a fan of that.

 

Anyone know how that Athlon Neo MV-40 compares to the CULV SU9400?

 

I wouldnt expect the X1250 to be much better than the 4500HD at games,which means your probably getting close performance but at less battery life.

I would be interested to know if MSI is going to release any other Neo notebooks with a better GPU...

 

3.0 is better than 3.3?

 

I didn't write that just an fyi. bad quoting some wherei nthe thread

anyway depends on why the experiance index has it at a 3.0. Your limited by your weakest point. What if thats sound ?

 

I have one and have pushed and prodded it quite a bit. First, using setusb, you can push the neo to 2100mhz from 1600....yeah you read that right. I run comfortably at 2064 when i want to game. It costs you 4C in temp.....If you worry bout temps, running two instances of wow in a hot room i was almost able to push the core to 69C. I believe the chip is set to throttle at near 100C. The design of the exhaust vent makes it amenable to the use of one of the little clamp on usb exhaust fans for notebooks. seals very well, and works well on this laptop. It is well designed to handle heat. In any event, here's the numbers:

STOCK, I show a vista index of 3.2
3dmark06 495
3dmark03 1700
PCmark05 2564

As Pasta has pointed out in another thread, there are a number of competitiors due to be released in the immediate future, some of which *may* have 1. dual neo cores and hd3200, or 3400 based graphics, or 2. dual atom cores with Nvidia's 9400 Ion graphics, or 3. dual neo's AND 9400 Ion graphics.
And Win 7.

So the best advice at the moment is to sit tight for a few weeks and see what shakes out and at what prices. I can tell you, however, that I am exceedingly happy with the U210 and that it plays WOW perfectly well, has no problem with youtube HD , and that it CAN handle 1080 "i" (not p).

Batt life running on ecco mode is slightly less than 4.4 hours.

One thing to beware of if you get one. The included wifi comes default with some strange settings, apparently geared towards saving the battery. It will drive you nuts till you figure out that its set to disco', power down, cut transmission power etc. at the drop of a hat. Go to control panel, system, hardware, device manager, network adapters and set it to CAM and your quirky behavior all goes away. If you're into online gaming, set that flag also and you're good to go.

Seer.

 

do u have anymore settings? cause i too own a u210 and i get pretty crappy performance in Counter Strike Source and HL2 even at 640 x 480 and Cal's cfg and dx 8 im barely getting 30fps on Office Map. i havent been able to try out WOW yet but im guessing itll give me similar results im guessing maybe im doing something wrong? i do have all the latest drivers from msi's page and im using windows 7 lemme know what ur clockgen settings are for setfsb? have u done anything in the bios? Ram. IGP memory or anything?

 

I just bought my MSI U210 today, and I must say I am quite impressed! Anyway, where can i download the proper Synaptics driver for it's touchpad? I downloaded the one off of Synaptics' website and it won't open. It says that it's not meant for win32.

 

why wud u need to setup the touch pad? doesnt it work out the box?

 

Well, questions in reverse order. Stock the trackpad using the std MS driver which sux. Synaptics driver allows you to set all the usual synaptics mode settings which improves the trackpad's operation tremendously.
I used the driver from here: http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers.

As to performance issues, I use setFSB 2.2.130.96 and clock generator ICS951462AGLF. PLEASE BE CAREFUL USING SETFSB!!!!! IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING YOU WILL FRY YOUR PUTER.

Lastly, even after tweaking vista, i wasn't happy, (2gig is marginal for games in Vista and that's all we have to work with) sooo, I "downgraded" (that's a joke ) to XP PRO SP3 and ran my bench's from there. Before I did, however, I did load up RC Win7 (7100) and it ran fine, but Win7 is just Vista the way it should of been and since based on same engine, when you get down to gaming, it runs at essentially the same speed. Anyone telling you different is lying. So, go to Xp Pro Sp3, you WILL need to install the MS high def sound driver ( or you'll go nuts trying to figure out what the hardware is that keeps going yellow in Device manager) but other than that, Xp Loads right up without probs. Get the latest bios from msi and flash it, and you get the latest legacy drivers direct from AMD (tho you may have to mod em before they will install (google MobilityModder.net). Clean up your services, use the CCC to set your graphics to performance values, same with the OS, and if you're going all out, set your swap to a fixed value, tweak your system cache values, SET IT TO RUN CLEAR TYPE (makes a HUGE difference in readability on this monitor as this resolution) and you should be good to go.
Oh, and if you're feeling adventurous, download "Fusion" from AMD, and work your way SLOWLY thru the options. When you get all done, if you didn't already know you don't have a dual core under the hood, it wouldn't cross your mind. The Neo, especially when pushed up a bit, is substantially stronger than the atom and as long as you don't have a bunch of proggies running at the same time, you won't miss the second core.

HOWEVER, having said that, I see no reason not to expect msi to launch a dual core neo version of this box, perhaps even with the better 3200 based graphics. Their problem is going to be reconciling this with the thin and light line they are pushing but I hope they just DO IT!! because, if they don't, someone else surely will. Hp for instance, already has the more expensive DV2z version.

Seer

 

thanks alot of the generator now i can play cs source perfectly!!! running with all settings on high except AA wow i went from having to play at 640 x 480 wit all low settings and dx 8. to being able to play now with all settings on high! those 400mhz really made a huge difference! eat your heart out Intel Atom , also to get 1080p working i suggest u check out the mini pci e hd decoder card, its only 25 bucks on ebay and u get full 1080p support with MPC and some are reporting only 40-60% cpu usage while watching the movie

 

Also the mouse page drivers are heaven sent! i almost thought that the touch pad didnt support scrolling!

 

i forgot to mention that i have the AMD Neo dual core on mine. but i think it doesn't come with the synaptics touchpad. I can't enable the features when i install the drivers.

 

dug ? you have a 210 with a dual core neo? Where did you get it asnd what's the full model number? Can you run 3dmark03 and pcmark05 for us? Thanks in advance.

Fire, because the mem controller is onchip, using setfsb kicks up not only the processor but rocks the memory. Fortunately, tho the spec says 667 mem, my box has 800 speed Transcend and it can CLEARLY run at 1066 speeds!! thus the big o'clock. I wonder just how high the neo could go if we weren;'t stuck with the low multiplier. In any event, MSI has a swinging little piece of kit here.


seer

 

@seeratlas: I'm from the Philippines, the U210 models that came out here have these processors, L335 and Radeon 1270, 2GB ram, 250GB hard drive, wifi b/g (no N!), no bluetooth, comes standard with 9 cell battery as well (heavy sucker). anyway, I'm a complete noob in running benchmark tests. would you be kind enough to walk me through it so i can post the results and share it with you guys? I also don't know how to overclock, so I'll be asking you for help in the near future

 

Can someone tell me who makes the motherboard for the U210?
Thanks.
+rep for the first to tell.

 

Dug, ok get the 3dmark03 and pcmark05 from here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads4.html

they have an australian server so download speed should be acceptable.
All you do is install them and run them. PC Mark will ask you set your video to "best appearance" which is I believed found on the advanced tab then performance page found in control panel on vista (i don't use vista

so go to >start> then >control panel> then >system> then >advanced> then >performance> then click the "set for best appearance" button or something like that. If i'm remembering wrong, pull up help and it will tell you how to find it That's for Pcmark05, when you have finished running that, it will take you the ORB webpage where it will let you read results. you can save that page to your documents folder so you can remember what you got. You do NOT have to pay to use this program, they want you to pony up bux to get all the extra goodies and things they block out, but not necessary.

Next, don't forget to set your settings back to "set for best performance" before running the next program, 3dmark03. Again, just install and run.

On that page you'll find a ton of other benchmarks often referred to in various tests so if you'd like to compare to a particular reviewer's findings, often you can find the program he used.

As for overclocking, while it is remarkably easy on the msi, you do have to be VERY careful. First do a google for "cpuid hwmonitor" and download and install that. It's the first one I found that gives you an accurate reading on the msi board for temps. All the other favorites I tried gave erroneous readings.

Second, download the latest setfsb (the top one) from here:

http://majorgeeks.com/SetFSB_d5965.html

I would also download the amd Fusion utility from here:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_fusion.aspx?p=1


OK, some thoughts, b sure and read the information on fusion so you know what it does. it is a VERY handy utility, especially for those using the 7 series chipsets (unfortunately ours is the 6 series) the difference being that on *some* seven series mboards, it will ALSO automatically optimize the timings and o'clock the gpu. It will not do so on the 690 series BUT it WILL do some other very useful things, like nearly instantly reconfigure your system to maximize its performance for what you are trying to do, AND, more importantly, it can also nearly instantly Undo the changes it just made. So, if you're setting down to game off line and you're plugged in, it will turn off all the stuff you don't need until you finish your session and go back to whatever you were doing It comes with a number of presets which you can experiment with.

IMPORTANT NOTE: if for some reason you get your U210 locked up, you shut down and then it won't reboot, just sits their waiting for the windows start screen, here's what you do. Turn it off. unplug it from the wall, remove the battery, then hold the "start" button down for about ten seconds or so. Then reinstall the battery, plug it back in and start it up and it will fire right up. BTW, tech support for the U210 doesn't know about this procedure and will ask you to RM your puter to be fixxed. I told them, but they may not have believed me

Ok, now back to overclocking the 210.

Install setfsb, then run it. When it comes up you have the option in the aqua colored window to choose which clock generator you want to use.
I use "ICS951462AGLF"
scroll down in that window till you find that number
You want to be on the "Control" page.
Next there is a big button to the right that says "GetFsb"
click that and a whole bunch of numbers will appear
there are two sliders, one located to near center , and one lower and to the left of the first one.

You will b using the first one. you can either put your cursor on the slider and slide it to the right or use the two blue arrow buttons to the right of the slider.
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT!!!!!!
Move the slider slowly!!!!! and in small increments. Start up the cpuid HW monitor and keep your eye on it, it will read out the temps as you increase the equivalent of the fsb speed. So, you move the slider, then hit the SET FSB button to the lower right. At the bottom right you should see the new chip clock speed.
Some of the single core units can easily take values of over 260 where u see the "Select FSB/DDR/PCI-E/PCI Frequency" numbers in blue just above the slider HOWEVER, I would b very surprised if the dual cores can do this for technical reasons, therefore, GO SLOW and in SMALL Increments.
I would suggest going from 200, to 210, then 215, then 220, 225 etc. up to 230, then if all is still going well, go to 234, 238, 240...at 240, you're going to want to run some kind of program that will tax the system. Sign into WOW or some other game and make sure everything is working alright, and keep an eye on the HWmonitor to see how the temps are going. If everything works out at 240, then go to 242, 244, etc. to 250. If you get to 250 and all is well, you should have a big smile on your face You've just run a 25 percent overclock which will net you MUCH more than a 25percent performance increase because of how setfsb works with an amd processor. Now from 250 on up be VERY careful..Keep and EYE on the TEMPS!!!
With a great deal of luck you *may* be able to push on up in one step increments but at some point something will go screwy and you'll either get a freeze up, a blue screen, or a black screen. When that happens shut down immediately, and reboot. If you get to the point where the computer is waiting for the windows Boot screen and it just sits there, then shut down and go thru the procedure I outlined above. When it all reboots, give it time to sort itself out, then work your way back up to ten or 15 less than your highest point and call it a day. Run your programs and make sure all is working, check your temps, and you're good to go.

I strongly suggest that you only overclock when you need to, i.e. for accomplishing some task that the stock machine will not already perform well.
as the extra speed doesn't justify the wear and tear on the system.

for myself, I only overclock to run games. then scale it back down.

One thing about the U210. After you find your *sweet spot* for the overclock, you STILL can't just fire up setfsb and dial in that number. The system needs to be ramped up gradually. I run my system at around 258, and get there by going from 200 to 220, then 230, then 240, then 247 or so, then 250, then 254, then 258. Takes longer to type it than to do it, as you only have to let the numbers settle a second or so, then clock up to the next increment. If you try to make it all in one jump, you'll lock the system.

couple of other things, you might try different video drivers, and I would suggest the latest msi bios upgrade which you can find on their global site.
In fact, the fastest readings I've gotten were by logging into MSI's online driver update system and letting their online wizard update all the necessary drivers etc. I was AMAZED at how well it worked.

good luck, TAKE YOUR TIME AND TAKE IT EASY!!!,
then report back on what you find out


Seer

 

Well, that's an interesting question, according to ASTRA which is a VERY detailed system investigative utility for pro's , the motherboard vendor is...
(drumroll)................INTEL

Curious eh?
Board model is : Msi Ms-1241
bios is AMI Bios 080015 for intel
Chipset is AMD690G/V

sooooooo there u are

seer

 

////// EDIT: Felt like I should contribute a little.. /////

I picked up a full bodyshield for my vanilla u210 on eBay,
for those as conscious about protecting their netbabies I'll post reviews when I get mine.
I doubt quality will be identical to ZAGG's (helicopter quality) shields but we'll see.

///// Moving on to intro /////


Hi first of all, it is my pleasure to join the NotebookReview community =)

I own a MSI U210 (arrived yesterday) but my journey for research on this immature beast begun a month before when I heard about a netbook riding on AMD and ATI hardware. But unfortunately my first impressions were negative, HD videos on YouTube lagged, Counter-Strike Source could barely run on mid, and during 3DMax rendering there were a lot of black objects (vs actual graphics) I read on this exact thread about overclocking the cpu and ram and would like to know more about this.

My first reading was here: http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=130874.0
A user posted about adding a HP Mini110 BroadCom HD Decoder chipset to render HD videos smoothly @ higher FPS, with almost half the cpu usage.

Then I read elswhere it was possible to clock the CPU manually using SetFSB at a defined setting.
The complexity here is your settings will be reset (to default clock speeds) after every restart.
Also, SetFSB requires a donation of $500 YEN (~$5 US/CAD) in order to be activated.

http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=131695.msg992696

But ultimately, after reading a user on this forum post this:
I wondered, if anyone would be generous enough on shedding some light on the steps to oc'ing my u210.

And should I do RAM upgrade? I have 2GB atm @ only 400 mhz according to CPU-z.
What RAM do I need? I am using Transcend PC2-6400 (stock)..

If only, MSI released a BIOS (1.09) upgrade similarly to that of U100 for a 20% boost.... sigh


Regardless, your time is greatly appreciated,
Teryakii

///// Original quotes /////

 

Hi Ter, do a forum search on my name. You will find the procedure you seek. Especially note the reference to the Fusion utility.
gluck
Seer

 

Hey Seer,
Thanks for the response, just for an update I actually installed FUSION, but not sure how to use.

AMD FUSION:

Once I select an option (ie. Max Performance, Online Gaming.. etc) I still get similar FPS without noticing much diff (although all my other apps gets temp shutdown). I felt FUSION was really similar to GameBooster...

Current Hardware Upgrades:

Also I went ahead and purchased a 4GB (800 mhz) kit
Hynix 4GB PC2-6400 800Mhz 200pin DDR2 800:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Hynix-4GB-PC2-64...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item20adb80e77

to replace my stock Transcend 2GB (400 mhz) kit.. Hope when it arrives it will allow more room for oc'ing.

SetFSB:

In addition, I couldn't get SetFSB to work, as it always ask for a activation ID... which apparantly requires a 500YEN donation? Did you all donate? I thought SetFSB was free...

HD Decoder Chipset:
Any idea if this is a worthwhle upgrade to occupy my vacant PCI-e slot?

From my reading on: http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=130874.0
A user posted about adding a HP Mini110 BroadCom HD Decoder chipset to render HD videos smoothly @ higher FPS, with almost half the cpu usage.

=== Raw Conclusions ===

I mean after doing the following upgrades:
-Quality 4GB (800mhz) RAM upgrade - $55
-Braodcom HD decoder chipset (PCI-e) - $30
- 9-cell battery 7800MAH - $50

-AMD FUSION ( Online gaming)
-SetFSB ( 2-2.2)?? I have netbook cooler btw.. (I use speedfan but it gives inaccurate temp readings, what do u guys use?)

This beast seems pretty competent even on par with the duo-solo MSI X340 system (what i was going to buy). Now my u210 better beat the x340 base model, as after the upgrades the cost is nearly identical =(

I mean with the above upgrades I assume I should be able to handle most HD and games at mid/high settings.. no? (Games liike cs source all high, crysis, mid, gtaiv etc...)

 

2 notes from what i understand, msi u210 max supported ram is 2GB and 2ndly, idont think that the u210 even overclocked could handle crysis on high or even medium because the card is intergrated and has its limits, but i personally have been able to run cs source on high with my cpu at 2000mhz

 

@teriyakii: firemenace does have a point. was the 4gb detected on your OS? I'm also interested on installing the HP broadcom HD decoder as well. My U210 didn't come with BT, do you have any photos of your internals so i can see where the BT is supposed to be plugged in?

 

Thanks seeratlas, firemenace, and dugballs.
I really appreciate the enlightening..

Apparently I made a blind mistake.. I remembered 4GB maximum capacity (must've been confused with other netbooks during my research) but actually MSI u210 will only support max 2GB, however since by default they are 400mhz, I'm assuming with a 800mhz kit, it will perform much better under load still (and even better under oc'ing).

In regards to oc'ing, I am still pondering about with SetFSB, did you donate for the activation ID? Or is there another way to prove not being a " impolite user".

Here dugballs, the internal shot you requested.



Also, how do you confirm if you have BLUETOOTH? I have the bluetooth function/icon/light available from keyboard, but when I attempt to install drivers, it said I had no device activated?

 

@teriyakii:

Thanks for the shot!

Anyway, the MSI shop I bought my laptop from said there isn't any Bluetooth in the models released here. So, I'll take their word for it. Maybe I'll try installing the BT drivers and see if I get lucky. hehe But right now, I have a USB BT dongle. I don't use BT that much anyway

 

to the experts.. any idea where the BT module is in the picture above?

 

dug, mine doesn't have bluetooth, HOWEVER, if yours does, its *likely* that its a comined wifi/blue tooth module which is not visible in that picture. I *think* you have to pretty much disassemble the whole unit to get to the wifi module as I *think* its on the other side of the mainboard. I havn't taken mine apart to see but perhaps you can get to it under the keyboard. In any event, if your blue indicator lights up (mine does not) it seems to indicate that you have bluetooth.
What does your manual say? There *might* be a setting in your bios that you have to turn blue tooth module on before you can activate it from keyboard.

If it's not activated there, it won't show up in the harware devices screen, and therefore won't load drivers.

I like your version better than mine LOL. the dual neo would be nice LOL.

seer

 

Oh, one more thing, someone had asked about my netbook cooler, well here's the deal. this is one of the laptops that fits my cooler nearly perfectly (you have to rotate the cooler upside down to lay flat heheh) but even overclocked I get 4 to 6C lower temps using this fan. It comes in both white and black to fit your notebook. In white the blue neon matches the blue indicators of the laptop. looks like it was made for it

Anyway, here they are. A bit expensive, but if you make sure you get it snug, you get a good seal and it really pulls air out of the netbook thru the exhaust. It has two speeds, one is very quiet the other is louder but if you are playing games you'll have headphones on anyway

http://www.amazon.com/EverCool-Fair...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1256502158&sr=8-1#

http://www.dinodirect.com/LSY-LSY-NB01-USB-Cooling-Cooler-PAD-Fan-for-Notebook-Laptop/AFFID-37.html

One hint, since the slots on the side of the u210 are slanted, you can take a pair of needle nose pliers and *CAREFULLY* tweak the attachment prongs on the cooler so they line up with the slots. To do this twist them *GENTLY* in the right rotation so they line up, then it hooks up very well. If you want them to be VERY secure, you can also tweak the hooks at the end of the prongs to have more grab. When you screw mine down , it snugs up great against the cooler and you can feel how much cooler the air is coming out.
Oh, and you can also swivel the exhaust port around to direct the air wherever you want it. It's a sweet deal and in the right colors looks like it was built just for this machine.

seer

 

Ok, yet ANOTHER post...I've been fooling around with both setfsb and rmclock.
Here's the deal. Rmclock is a bit more involved so be expecially careful here. What it allows you to do is 1. set the p state values, 2. and in doing so, undervolt the laptop, 3. AND, replace AMD's own "quiet and cool" with something you can totally control.

It's a bit complicated if your new to all this as rmclock was/is written by a bunch of russian coders who really know their stuff and thus give you access to all sorts of settings that can blow your box up LOL. Plus they write their manuals for guys equally as tech savvy as they are...soooo...this is something I really should sit down and write a step by step guide on to keep everyone out of trouble. The end result, however, is that you can dial your machine up to 2000 mhz, but set it on "Power on Demand" which means that almost all the time you will be actually running at 1000mhz at reduced voltage. You can set the threshold values, but at say 40 percent cpu usuage you can have the computer automatically ramp up to the full 2000mhz in milliseconds, do what it needs to at full speed, then when usuage falls off again, it will immediately drop back down to the 1k range, saving energy, heat, with no discernable loss in full performance You can manually set all these values in rmclock, AND set it to do this all automatically, hands off, (except for the original setfsb set to 2000mhz. These *rooskies* have also been kind enough to incorporate some monitors onto the taskbar so you can see just when the jumps are taking place etc. which is very useful for dialing in the jump threshold that fits your usage pattern. This is soooooo much better than AMD's own Cool and Quiet which essentially downgrades the performance of your unit unless you leave your computer on "Always ON" all the time, which generates unnecessary heat etc, wastes power etc.

It's very nice, once set up, and I wish MSI would cut a deal with these guys and incorporate the technology into all their laptops. Would make them significantly more efficient and effectively more powerful at the same time.

Also, you can set for full MAX POWER, but also max battery too
I havn't run a full test on mine but I can tell you, i was fooling with undervolting on max battery settings and was on for almost 3 hours and had a chit load of battery still left....so, I'm feeling pretty good about this whole setup.

When all is said and done, using all the stuff we've discussed in this thread, you can have a u210 that is almost twice as powerful as stock, with lower temps , and greater endurance...nothing wrong with that

One bad thing tho, without direct access to the bios of the gpu, I can't get any closer to the HD3200 performance on pure graphics routines which irritates me no end LOL. havn't given up yet tho

Seer

Seer

 

Terriyaki, when you overclock your transcend memory chip is actually running at 800mhz, the std is 333, the multiplier is 2 so its at 667, till you overclock to 400 which x2 gives you 800mhz on the mem.
The stock mem is very good btw.

Second, I don't *think* the chipset will handle a 4meg module in its single slot but I haven't tried it myself so can't say for sure.

There are two things that you can do which will speed up the computer on 2gigs. 1. Install win 7 which runs VERy well on this laptop in 2 gigs, or do what I did, 2. Install win xp pro sp3 which runs like a rocket. In any event, I *suspect* we are limited to 2gigs of ram on this mboard.

I don't know what the deal is on your setfsb, I'm using version 2.2.130.96 and it doesn't cost anything....where did you download yours from?

Dug, that open slot at the top of the photo surrounded by red is a mini pci slot. You can buy several different types of modules to fit into that. However, now that you've brought this up, I may have to break down and open up the entire unit to see just what the deal is with the current wifi module as *usually* a netbook/ultra-mobile whatever will have the blue tooth incorporated into the wifi module so together they only take up one slot.
Since our present wifi isn't in the empty pci-e slot shown in the photo, it must be somewhere else LOL and i guess one of us is going to have to go looking for it, as blue tooth would be nice to have, especially if you have a tetherable cell phone with network data plan

I had a lot of fun with my msi u100 walking up to a bunch of geeks in the middle of nowhere and logging onto the net with no visible dongle or cell net card hanging off the laptop as with a bluetooth pan network setup, you can can have the phone in your pocket unseen by anyone hehehe.
runs the batt down pretty quick tho hehehe.

lastly, on the use of Fusion, what it does is free up a lot of usable ram, AND clock cycles by turning off a bunch of services you don't need to use 24/7. So, if you are going to do some on line gaming, it turns off everything you don't require to do online gaming which is a surprisingly large amount, especially in vista which has a ton of stuff running all the time that doesn't need to be running. In XP, it cleans it out down to practically nothing, thus freeing up the clockcycles that would have been used to monitor this or that, or toll something else, for use by your game program. Same effect as getting more clock cycles from speeding up the processor.

Plus, it does all this with a single click, and when you're finished, replaces them all with a single click. very nice

Now, if we had the 700 series chipset, it would ALSO overclock the gpu at the same time, but alas, it won't work on the 690.

Seer

 

To all: Windows XP SP3 FTW!! =)
I am using this btw.

I rarely use bluetooth as well so I'm not concerned with that at all. Although I am really intrigued to know the model# for the dual-core u210 you have. Also, I am much curious as to how much you payed? I payed approx $550 CAD shipped for my US version from eBay. Really unfortunate that it would've just cost me $480 CAD shipped after a week (considering the strong Canadian dollar)... =(

I suspect so as well, usually US versions would include bluetooth (high demand here) but unfortunately my light doesn't appear, only the icon's there (room for the light), I assume it was an optional upgrade that I don't have yet. I will try the BIOS settings for luck... although disappointing enough I think I don't even have that.

Do you mind kindly uploading the version you have for me?

Please keep us posted as to the progress and capabilities of RMClock, can we use use simultaneously with SetFSB?

I also had this thought (for a while now lol... just a voice would tell me not to ask because it would sound stupid) why couldn't MSI integrate or publish a BIOS version that would allow TURBO for our U210? Since there is none, is it possible to flash with U100's 1.09 BIOS.....? (stupid question eh??)

Any idea if this is worth it? I really am a noob when it comes to this HD decoder chipset. All along, I've thought of this to be a secondary or slave graphics card, somewhat extra juice for the integrated graphics unit. But apparantly it only takes the load of the CPU... hmm. Makes me wonder, is this decoder strictly limited to help play HD/Bluray movies (ie. MKV files) or does it also assist in gaming under 3D (ie. directx9/directx10)?

 

Anyone else having problems where running games that are less than the screen's native resolution do not stretch to fit the screen? Only happens in Windows 7

EDIT: needed the 8.12 drivers from here and it fixed the problem http://www.driverheavendownloads.net/ati.htm

 

but arent those 8.12 drivers older radeon driverS? dont they give less performance?

also i just tryed them out and still games liek cs source give me 640 480 with boarders

 

also quick question what does the bios 1.08 change?

 

You have to go into the Control Center and turn on the scaling in the notebook section to get ride of the borders. For some reason that option isnt on the newer drivers.

 

according to the change notice, it says it resolves a sleep state error when entering sleep state 3 when closing the lid, and also some problem with a loss of the previous brightness setting on the screen. I have not used this bios so can't tell you first hand if there are any more changes.

seer

 

what do you guys think of installing the HP Broadcom HD decoder onto the mini PCI-e slot? I've had ZERO luck enabling DXVA on my unit while playing HD movies. i can handle some 1080p movies with MPC HC with coreAVC, but having DXVA would be nice.

My laptop has the AMD Neo Dual Core L335. fast little thing even if i haven't overclocked it

 

I saw a few folks asking about internal Bluetooth (on the previous page), so decided to register an account and answer.

I spend a significant amount of time in front of a computer, so a mouse is a must (yes, even with a netbook). I liked the MSI u210, but couldn't find a vendor selling it with Bluetooth. Luckily, there is a solution.

A few people mentioned Bluetooth-WLAN combo cards in previous posts. While those certainly exist, most vendors use dedicated Intel/Broadcom/etc. cards for wireless and a separate card for Bluetooth (for those who opt for it). Long story short, you'll need to buy an adapter. eBay is a good place to go for one of these, and there are plenty available. I bought the QBTM300 that it used in the U100, although others are compatible as well.

Here is what it looks like (coins for size reference):


And here it is plugged in:


There might be a proper place to attach it in there, but I couldn't find it. As I don't have anything in the PCI-e slot, I ran the wire underneath the HDD and secured it using some electrical tape:


If you do have something in the PCI-e slot, there's still plenty of room to attach it elsewhere. Just make sure that it doesn't wobble around and that it is not touching anything hot.

Running fine on Windows 7. Hope this helps some of you

 

I've been seriously thinking about putting one of these in that pci-e slot,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001JRYH8Y

Assuming the bios can find it, would give you a lot of the functionality of the U115 and increase the battery life substantially if you shut down the harddrive, and increase the responsiveness of the computer greatly if you put the op system on the ssd, and use the hd solely for data.

I've seen the difference in a full blown lappie when you have the op system on a good ssd, and its substantial..

The question is whether the MSI has a controller that can recognize the drive. There was a post on here for someone who was trying to install one in a U210, but I don't know if he succeeded. Someone suggested that an ssd with an onboard controller might work and suggested the samsung unit. I'm looking into it.


thanks for the pics I'm convinced that the wifi module is on the other side of the motherboard from where the Hard drive is. Did you find a similar cable already running under the hard drive?
seer

 

No, access to everything under the HDD is separated by a film. My guess is that the networking card is attached to a port on the MB (no cable running from it) and that it is indeed on the other side.

 

have you guys tried installing a 4GB ram stick in your U210's? What OS did you use and how much ram was recognized?

 

im still waiting on the verdict on that i hope im wrong about 2GB being the max but well have to wait and see

 

Hmm, well that's very interesting because mine has a large (for a netbook) black cable running under the harddrive, i guess the point is not all assemblers are equal LOL.

seer