From: Bob Greschke (bob_at_passcal.passcal.nmt.edu)
Date: Thu Sep 21 2000 - 23:55:33 EDT
I figured since I ordered the goofy software a month before it was
released that I might as well go ahead and install WinME on my 600X.
Everything seems to work with whatever Windows installed for a driver.
The only thing a bit funny is the TrackPoint. When you turn the speed
of the "mouse" up to a reasonable level (almost all of the way) you
can't move the pointer just one pixel. Each movement is a jump of
about 3 pixels. I might just keep it that way, though, because the ME
mouse driver has a "SnapTo" feature (where the pointer jumps to things
like OK buttons when a dialog box comes up) that I've really been
missing since I sold my Toshiba.
There is no on-screen volume control indication, of course, but at
least the volume is still controllable from the keyboard -- which is a
bit better than my Sony PGC-F430 did at work when I switched it to ME
yesterday. The Sony's screen brightness is also controlled through
the keyboard -- it's stuck on high until I get the Sony utilities
installed.
Standby and Hibernate seem to work OK, but you can't use Fn-F12 to get
it to hibernate. Pushing the button just makes a beeping sound. You
have to go into hibernate from the Shutdown menu. Fn-F4 for Standby
works. So does turning off the display with Fn-F3. Don't know about
external monitor control with Fn-F7. Since the Power Management (now
Power Options) is minimal I'd guess that the faucet (Fn-F11) doesn't
do anything, and the battery fuel gage doesn't work, of course
(Fn-F2).
Funny thing I just noticed with the sound. Either I muted it, or it
didn't come back on after the Standby and Hibernate that I did, but
(all) I had to do to get it back was change the volume. I don't think
I ever used the mute (Fn-Backspace) with Win98. Is this normal? One
thing is that I didn't get that "click" before the sound played after
I came out of Standby. That's nice. I was getting that under Win98.
Hmmm, there's no "Exit Windows" sound. I guess I'll have to use my
Duckman, "Power's off. Let's go!" sound. :-)
I'd like to install the new Mediamatics DVD program, but it's too big
to get here at home, and you have to install the old version first,
and I don't want to get all of my shiny, brandy-new .dll's all dirty.
:-)
Which brings us to a theory of mine: Would making all of the .dll's
that are on the machine now read-only keep programs from writing over
them with old junk when you install something? And on a related note,
does anyone know what happened to the System File Checker? It's not
in System Information where it used to be.
Without any other stuff installed it seems
to boot up way faster than Win98 did -- about 56 seconds vs way over a
minute when I had a clean install of Win98. Shutting down takes about
10 seconds; going to Standby just a few seconds. I'm not sure why,
but ME said that it would take 130MB of disk space for hibernation...I
have 320MB of RAM. It was roughly half for my Sony at work too.
There only seems to be one problem in the Device Manager. "Intel
82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller" is causing conflicts. The
Properties sheet comes up with a button that says "Hardware
Troubleshooter" which does nothing. :-)
Overall I kinda like ME. There are several "little things" that have
changed just enough for you to notice.
Bob
600X
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