ASUS ee pc long term findings anybody?

[FullCircle]

Belfield? I realise I haven't heard of that one. Is it any good? Links? Thanks for feedback.

Go find WXTide32. Its a lot more free than Belfield.

WXTide47 is hobbled by UKHO.

You will find marginal differences to UKHO, but its seconds not hours, and the heights are fairly consistent, at least in my area of the East Coast where it does actually matter.

Programmes like Software On Board using C-Map cartography have tides built in, just hover over the diamond.

[skipper_stu]

Go find WXTide32. Its a lot more free than Belfield.

WXTide47 is hobbled by UKHO.

You will find marginal differences to UKHO, but its seconds not hours, and the heights are fairly consistent, at least in my area of the East Coast where it does actually matter.

Programmes like Software On Board using C-Map cartography have tides built in, just hover over the diamond.

Jim
dont be orrible!
Keith Belfield is one of us, hangs out around Conway I believe.
Stu

[FullCircle]

Jim
dont be orrible!
Keith Belfield is one of us, hangs out around Conway I believe.
Stu

Well tell him to sell one that lasts for 10 years at a reasonable price, then I would possibly buy it.....

[st599]

I had to scratch my head for while there, it's so long ago. I followed http://cy-thompson.co.uk/lifetype/in...Id=79&blogId=1. It looks a bit daunting, but if you follow the instructions exactly it'll work. Cy is a member of these forums, but I can't remember his login name.

Since I wrote that, they've released a few upgrades. You may want to try replacing 1.4 with 3.6.3

They've also released a repository. You'll need to run the QT install line from my guide, add the repository to a file called sources.list then run apt-get install zyGrib. Full instructions on their website.

[whipper_snapper]

I see a new solid state Asus eepc can be picked up for around £100

Can you give a link ? I struggled to find a source in the UK. I heard that they suffered from large numbers of returns from people who could not get on with linux.

I bought 2 around 6 months ago, put ubuntu on and they ran superbly well. However 1 died with a failed hard drive - it failed to boot, we reinstalled the OS, it worked for a few days then failed again. It was returned to supplier who told me they had replaced the flash drive (but I think they lied) and it immediately failed again. It is back with them now for repair.

So there may be an issue with SS drive reliability. But you can carry an entire linux OS on a bootable flash drive as an emergency rescue kit.

[skipper_stu]

Well tell him to sell one that lasts for 10 years at a reasonable price, then I would possibly buy it.....

£20 odd quid for 3 years, not too bad, I buy every 3 years, have a copy on my phone, one on my laptop and one on my works pooter, am just going to buy another 3 years worth!
Stu

[FullCircle]

£20 odd quid for 3 years, not too bad, I buy every 3 years, have a copy on my phone, one on my laptop and one on my works pooter, am just going to buy another 3 years worth!
Stu

Fred Rift. See new post.

[elton]

So there may be an issue with SS drive reliability.

I don't think so. It would have been a major topic on http://forum.eeeuser.com/index.php if there was.

[paulclan]

Great little machine and runs openCPN nav system really well and also the old cmap CD which is really a bit out of date now.
A word of caution re the SSD!

There is really no heatsink around this so it relies on a draught of air to cool it. So when I took into bed one morning recently and the duvet got comfy around it, it conked out.

No reading or writing to the SSD (solid state drive). Pricing about seemed to indicate that I had cost myself £80 at least for a replacement.

I spent an entire Saturday using various old boot disks, its own recovery disk and something called memtest V.1.5. to gradually write zeros to the drive.

After a big session of this , I used the very good ASUS eeepc XP recovery disk again and it booted, re-partitioned the drive and re-installed XP.

So I am back in business, but for how long, I don't know.
If XP encounters bad sectors as the drive fills, will it just conk again?

At least with a spinning drive you know when it is unhappy as it makes a bit of a bothered noise when its getting full, and one can do something about it then.

With SSD drives there is something called wear levelling software neccessary to avoid some sectors packing up soonest.
I wonder does the Asus eeepc software have this at all?

For about £150 purchase secondhand last year on eBay, I've had a lot of utility from it when travelling incl using a 3G dongle in France (expensive at €10 per hour).

So on balance a good buy , but will be on the lookout for a bigger drive when prices fall if ever!!

Good sailing and boating to all!

[elton]

So I am back in business, but for how long, I don't know.
If XP encounters bad sectors as the drive fills, will it just conk again?

At least with a spinning drive you know when it is unhappy as it makes a bit of a bothered noise when its getting full, and one can do something about it then.

With SSD drives there is something called wear levelling software neccessary to avoid some sectors packing up soonest.
I wonder does the Asus eeepc software have this at all?

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ssd_write_limit is worth a read for anyone concerned about the lifespan of the SSD. I've had mine for two years, with no problems whatsoever, and it's never been a concern to me. There are hundreds of components in any laptop, every one of which has a MTBF. So why worry about it?