LS800

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My New Old LS800 Tablet Part 2

I ran my first wave of Windows Performance Toolkit and copied the generated ETL files to a folder for later processing. The files I am interested in have a naming convention of boot_BASE+CSWITCH_ and are numbered 1 thru 5 for the iterations of each boot. For all ETL files created throughout this test, I will process them and add their individual summary charts to my blog to show performance increases or decreases.

So, the first Windows PC tune-up software I am going to run with on my tablet for my case study is a product called System Mechanic made by iolo technologies, currently in version 10 (10.1.2.1 to be more exact). They update their product on a regular basis both as an entire application and what they call, what I’ve seen been called within their software anyways, Tune-Up Definitions. Might talk more about that later at some point but if at any time I update their software I will duely make note of it along the way.

So I had previously downloaded System Mechanic 10 (and I’ll plainly use SM or SM10 at times) from their website and installed it. I do like how quickly it installs and how it generally presents itself as a no-nonsense lets get it going application.

SM10 has a few automatic options that I chose to disable for any possibility of interference with my first round of this case study so under the Options menu I went to the ActiveCare tab, Edit Advanced Options and changed the Frequency to ever 24 hours, Exceptions to not start between 12 AM and 12 AM and then went back to the Boot-Time tab and also selected to not strat between 12 AM and 12 AM.

I saved the settings, exited SM10 and then ran Windows Performance Toolkit. This will give a measurement of the system performance after simply installing the product but not running any of its tools.

Windows Performance Toolkit has finished so I copied the generated ETL files to later process.
Disabled automatic options
Exited SM
Running WPT
Finished. Copied files to X:LabsLS800Test 1Step 2 installsm_no updates

Running SM Deep analysis
Repairing all problems found
Repaired. Restart required. Restarting tablet.
Running WPT

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LS800 and Windows Performance Toolkit

I have so much data to review now for my tests over time using Microsoft’s Windows Performance Toolkit. I was using version 4.7 from the Windows 7.1 SDK but have since grabbed the newer version 4.8 from the Windows Developer Preview with Developer Tools and Apps DVD ISO (64-bit version I downloaded but it should be on 32 and 64-bit ISO’s. My ISO is named en_windows_developer_preview_with_developer_tools_and_apps_x64_dvd_735220 (which you can Google). I also used Microsoft’s Velocity Test Suite.

In order to use the newer Windows Performance Toolkit version files I installed both MSI’s for the Suite and for WPT 4.8, created a folder named OLD in the elder 4.7 folder and moved those files to it, then copied the newer 4.8 files over. The files are all named the same so Velocity does not know the difference, so long as it can find them in the same expected installed path it looks at C:Program FilesMicrosoft Windows Performance Toolkit.

I’ll piece some stats together once I’ve finished processing and reviewing ETL and summary XML data that I have crunched. Dont take any of it in a literal form though, this is simply something I have wanted to do to show how some older technology is still useful and works. More to come….

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LS800 with Windows 8 and wireless now working

I installed Windows 8 Dev Edition and had reported here an issue with a couple drivers not loading. In doing some research on the internal wireless card I finally found a driver that works from within Windows 8 itself, it had the driver all along. Steps:

  1. Open Device Manager.
  2. Double-click on the network driver showing under Other devices.
  3. Click Update Driver.
  4. Select Browse my computer for driver software.
  5. Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
  6. Scroll down and select Network adapters and click Next.
  7. Scroll down and select Atheros Communications, Inc.
  8. On the right select Atheros AR5004X and then Next.
  9. Install the driver and you should then have working wireless.

I was excited to finally get that working in Windows 8 so now I feel a bit more complete.

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LS800 running Windows 8

So I created a bootable USB flashdrive with the Windows 8 Developer version recently released and was able to install it on my LS800 with 1GB RAM and 40GB hard drive. For all intent this is like a netbook but just in tablet form. Windows 8 is fully functional with a few quirks such as getting Internet connection regardless of it showing the driver needed, actually a few drivers showing as needed and any pre-installed Windows 8 application that requires a screen real estate of more than 800 x 600 will not load, Im talking about the main window widgets, otherwise Im quite happy with the installation. I can see now that there is still not much I cant get on this tablet. I have a small video on my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSJ5-rANgVI.

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DIY tablet holder

What you can make with a little cardboard and packing tape. Works just as well, I save some cash and Im recycling.

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LS800 running Windows 7

My LS800 tablet never ceases to amaze me, so far I have run several derivatives of Linux including Ubuntu and Fedora, Android x86, Meego, ChromeOS, Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista and now Windows 7. I am going to try Windows 8 by the weekend as soon as I image the current OS I have installed. Will post my findings. All in all the responsiveness of the tablet is pretty good, can’t wait to install my ArtRage and SketchBook Pro back to it. I have a brief video as well on my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsOXUvxHZes.

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LS800 and booting from a USB flash drive

Boot to the system BIOS and go to the Boot section. Use the right side navigation to go down to +HDD and expand that. You will then see the list of devices as shown in the pics below. Select the USB drive and move it to the top of the HDD list. Reboot and thats it. This will not stay once you remove the USB drive, it will resort back to the default of booting from the hard drive.

 

LS800BIOS000

LS800BIOS000

 

 

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LS800 running Ubuntu 10.10

I downloaded the latest image of Ubuntu 10.10 (with Unity) and created a bootable USB with it using the donation-ware InfraRecorder. Again, I wrote the image to a 4GB USB drive but didn’t need that much space, I only have 4GB and 8GB flash drives. I booted from the USB flashdrive and like what I see.

Ubuntu on LS800

Not only is Ubuntu 10.10 responsive on the LS800 it is Wacom compatible as I can navigate around with the tablets pen. I can also still use a mouse and keyboard but the whole idea with installing Ubuntu is so I can get away from having to do that.

Caveat(s) – Some of the application icons in the left toolbar do not fire off after they have been tapped on but do from Ubuntu’s application area. The Applications icon does work when tapped on with the LS800’s pen. With Firefox, it did not initially work to launch the browser until I delete its application icon from the toolbar and then recreated it. I could then launch Firefox just fine.

Second caveat, under installed applications it shows a virtual keyboard as having been installed but I cannot find anywhere to tap on it in Ubuntu so I have no use of a virtual keyboard. I have a couple lined up to try as I am really liking Ubuntu or I might make my own. I have a video of Ubuntu running I will post that soon.