As mentioned in my earlier blog on the ASUS Eee PC 701SD, I would install Windows XP onto it since a few of the programs that I wanted to use (actually it was mainly 1 program) would not work under Linux. One of the functions that I wanted for this netbook was to be able to connect to my Slingbox. Installing Windows XP onto it was the easiest solution since Sling Media has SlingPlayer for Windows. During my research, I did find some instructions on how to get SlingPlayer to work under Linux but with the other Windows programs that I wanted to run, the easiest solution would be to install Windows XP onto it.
The first thing that I did even when I was running the preinstalled & customized Xandros Linux was that I upgraded the memory from 512MB to 2GB. The next thing that I did was to download all the Windows XP drivers from the ASUS support website. I also downloaded/updated the firmware on the ASUS Eee PC 701SD.
There are ways to install Windows XP using a USB memory stick but since I had my Windows XP Home DVD and I also had a portable DVD/CD drive (see my review on this *HERE*), I opted to do it the easy way and just install Windows XP from DVD. I connected my portable DVD drive to one of the available USB ports on the netbook and booted it. I then selected the option of deleting the existing partitions and used the entire 8GB SSD drive for the installation of Windows XP.
Windows XP installed without any issues. After the netbook rebooted, I ran each of the executable files from each of the driver files (since my Windows XP DVD did not have all the necessary drivers). After each driver installation, I rebooted the netbook. At the end, I had installed all the drivers and they all seemed to work.
During the installation of Windows XP because the netbook had 2GB of RAM, the virtual memory paging file was automatically set to 3GB (1.5 times the amount of RAM on the netbook). This left me with less than half of the 8GB SSD drive for my other applications. Before installing the other applications, I reduced the virtual memory paging file size to 2GB. I also went through the Windows Update process until the netbook was up to date with all the Microsoft security patches. I also downloaded Microsoft's Security Essentials (Microsoft's free antivirus/anti-spyware program) which is not part programs listed in the Windows Update screen.
After doing this, I installed the standard programs that I normally install (Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Flash Player, Mozilla Firefox, TrueCrypt, OpenOffice, Axcrypt, Google Chrome, and SlingPlayer for Windows). The important thing about installing these programs is to install them one at a time since I found that with less than 8GB to "play with," I also had to compress the hard drive.
In terms of the speed of the ASUS Eee PC 701SD, I found that it was very slow. I know that because of the hard disk encryption and the compression of the hard disk as well, this slows down the netbook but the netbook is almost unusable. The netbook would pause/buffer often during YouTube video viewing and the light showing SSD activity would almost be constantly on.
Surprisingly, SlingPlayer for Windows viewing is very good (better than YouTube video viewing). It does pause occasionally but not as often as it does during YouTube video viewing even when the netbook is accessing the Slingbox via the internet as opposed to the internal network.
With Windows XP installed, I did not experience the same problem with wireless access which leads me to think that my earlier problem is not a hardware problem but a driver issue.
I find that this netbook is usable for a light user but for heavy users, I would not recommend it. It is slow enough (even with a memory upgrade from 512MB to 2GB) that most people would find it annoying.
If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.
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I've been trying for weeks to install winxp on my Eee PC 701SD(xandros). I am a computer dunce, so hopefully my lack of knowledge will be understood. Using an external DVD, I boot up with the xp professional disk. Windows Setup runs for a while, then this message appears: "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart.....if it appears again, follow these steps..." Under technical information, it reads: 0x0000007e (0x0000005,0xF85490BF,0xF899520B,0xF8994F08) pci.sys-Address F85490BF base at F8542000,DateStamp 3b7d855c. Can anyone help?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteThe error message is difficult to diagnose (except probably by someone working at Microsoft).
However, my suggestion to you in order to better troubleshoot your problem is that you:
1) Use the same external DVD drive and the same Windows XP Professional disk on a different computer (if possible). Make sure that the network cable is disconnected when you do this. Do you get pass the point that you normally would get the error message? If not, there is probably a problem with either the external DVD or the Windows XP Professional disk that you're using.
2) If you get pass the point with test #1, it is possible that the Windows XP CD that you have does not support (or have the drivers) for SSD drives. I used Windows XP Home Service Pack 3 for my installation. During your installation, does it actually see the hard drive? Did you select the drive and delete the partitions and then recreate it?
I hope that these suggestions help and/or point you in the correct direction. Good luck.
Hi, I just install a slimed down XP into my 701sd, I also found that the SSD is constantly loading, and u mentioned its due to "HDD encryption and compression". Is there a way to solve this issue?
ReplyDeleteIf there is no solution to this, i might as well change back to linux..
Thanks Emmanuel for reading and commenting on my blog. Sorry for the delay in replying but I'm away on a trip and my internet access is limited.
ReplyDeleteDid you upgrade the memory on your 701SD? The only 2 ways that I know of speeding up Windows XP is to increase the memory and reduce the amount of programs that start up in your StartUp group as well as your registry. I upgraded my 701SD from the default 512MB to 2GB (maximum allowed) and I noticed a slight improvement in speed.
In terms of my mention of encryption and compression, it isn't something that happens during the installation of Windows XP. I manually encrypted the SSD drive and I compressed it as well since there was not enough hard drive space to install Windows XP, Microsoft Office, the service/security packs/patches, and the other programs that I wanted to use. You should not have either of these issues unless you've manually encrypted and manually compressed the SSD drive.
I has the same issue as MARWALK1. My computer eventually (less than 30 days) died an awful death.Thankfully it was still under warranty and have gotten an exchange.
ReplyDeleteHi there, so i bought a used asus eee 701sd netbook. It's original OS was linux but its previous owner decided to change it to Windows XP. Now I cannot open Microsoft Office files. What should i do? I have the cd for linux. Should i change the operating system to linux?
ReplyDeleteThanks tais1720000 for reading and commenting on my blog.
ReplyDeleteIn order for you to be able to open up Microsoft Office files, the previous owner (or you) would have had to install Microsoft Office on it.
I installed Microsoft Office on my Eee PC 701SD and it works albeit very slowly (just like the operating system).
You can also try to install "OpenOffice" for Windows on it. I haven't used OpenOffice but it is free and you can download it from http://www.openoffice.org/product/
In regards to changing the operating system back to Linux, the Linux installation CD that is used to install the 701SD netbook has an Office compatible program on it. I forget whether it is StarOffice or OpenOffice since after installing Windows XP on my 701SD, I hadn't gone back to the original Linux.
You can install Linux on it but you will lose the "functionality" and "compatibility" of Windows XP. It will also be more difficult to find and install programs on your 701SD since finding and installing Windows programs is generally easier than finding and installing Linux programs that do relatively the same thing (if they exist at all).
It is also a matter of personal taste in regards to whether you want to keep the Windows XP on your 701SD or reinstall the original Linux on it. For me, I much prefer having Windows XP on my 701SD because I'm able to install Windows programs such as SlingPlayer for Windows, etc. which aren't available under Linux. SlingPlayer for Windows runs very "jittery" on the 701SD but it is what I would consider to be "viewable".
Good luck.
I successfully installled the Windows Xp Home, after about 6 use, the netbook starts with white screen, everything works, but nothing on the screen, except all white screen. Can you please advice, what you think the problem could be?
ReplyDeletedrtogat, thank you for reading and posting on my blog.
ReplyDeleteWhen you say that everything works but nothing on your screen, does this mean that you plugged your netbook to an external VGA monitor and it works? If so, it sounds as if your netbook's LCD screen has a problem. Although unlikely, there is also a possibility that you have a display driver issue. If when you plug in an external VGA monitor you still don't get anything on your screen, it could be a software issue (or a hardware issue).
When you boot up, do you ever see anything on your netbook's LCD screen? If you do see something on your LCD screen but when it goes to Windows, you see the white screen, try booting up and pressing the F8 key and select "Safe mode".
Hi,
ReplyDeleteCan you please help. I have Eee pc 701 sd running in linux. I want to install xp but before i do that, i can't detect my newly bought external CD-ROM. any ideas?
Thank you john for reading my blog and posting your question/comment. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to reply earlier but I've been very busy (which is one of the reasons why there aren't any new entries in my blog in a long time).
ReplyDeleteRegarding your question, have you tried this external CD-ROM in another PC to see if it is recognized? If you have tried this and it is not recognized, you might have a hardware problem with the external CD-ROM. If it is recognized in the other PC, there is probably nothing wrong with your external CD-ROM and the problem probably lies with the Eee PC 701SD.
It has been awhile since I've touched my Eee PC 701SD but I believe that only 1 USB port is configured so that if you plug in an external CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, it will be recognized and bootable. I might be mistaken and if so, you can try using one of the other USB ports.
As it is very difficult to diagnose problems without actually being there, I'm not sure what other things that I could suggest. Do you see the CD-ROM drive when you enter into the BIOS?