[Win8.1] EEE PC 1015PN and Windows 8.1

Very funny coincidence: Exactly one year after my devastating test of Windows 8 on the EEE PC 1015PN ( here) I tried Windows 8 again - 8.1 to be frankly.

After booting from the DVD, I entered my Key and choose to keep my data and such - an Upgrade Installation. Sadly, installer told me that I needed to choose that after booting into Windows 7 and starting the installation process there. Well, I did. But I only could choose to keep my data - not my programs(!). Sad, but - well. So - if you want to install and keep your stuff: Try to install Windows 8 first and then upgrade to Windows 8.1! I made an backup (just in any case - last time showed me the importance again...) and started with the installation. I took quite a while, but in the end it succeded. This time (and maybe because I changed my Wifi/Bluetooth Card from Azure for an Intel ABGN/WiMax Card?!) - I got none problems with Wifi. Working excellent from the first moment on.

I even got Optimus working by following my own tutorial here, by using the mentioned Versions.

Concerning other drivers and tools: I installed successfully the Optimus Tool, Capshook Driver - all by using the Windows 7 Compability Mode. ( I needed to use that as well on the Optimus Driver installation!)
Regarding - especially - the AHCI Drivers (Hotkey Service) and the SuperHybridEngine Tool - well: First of them gives REAL problems. It won't work and always remind to install an working AHCI Driver. Luckily, some guys found out an way to change that: Just install these tools from an newer ASUS EEE PC - the Asus 1225B. And that does work! Link: Source, Drivers - Good thing: Without the blocking AHCI Drivers Optimus does work correctly. But fixing ACPI is not enough. You need to setup the right Touchpad Driver!

About the Touchpad? Well - you need another Hack for Windows 8: Go with these. I chose the Elantech Touchpad driver Version v.10.6.6.0.

What I really changed? Well I did some normal stuff like disabeling the User Rights Control Thingy - as well as I changed the Resolution of the Display with this little hack. That got the Metro Apps working and my display from 1024x600 to 1152x864. Ok, it is not very crispy - but really gives more usability. ( Just watch for the "Display1_DownScalingSupported" setting in the registry and enable it )

To get back your classic Start Menu Button - use: http://www.classicshell.net/

Ok, that was a lot of stuff and I am curious to see how Windows 8.1 will perform in "real life". Well, I am off to installing some more tools and such.

[Win7] Asus EEEPC 1015PN: Getting Optimus working (again) on Windows 7 Pro

Optimus is a really nice concept: Having installed an low-power Intel GMA3150 next to an "high-end" (compared to the Intel ;)) NVIDIA ION2 with 512 MB RAM (and CUDA!) is very nice - switching between both cards on the fly depending on the application - awesome. But getting it to work can be quite painful. I had to reinstall the drivers on my EEE PC and got it wrong. And now that it is working, I just want to write it down. Just in case, you never know ;)!

1.) Get Windows 7 Pro or better installed
2.) Get all the Updates on your system
3.) Install and start the GraphicsSwitch for Windows 7 from Asus for your EEEPC 1015PN
4.) Choose Optimus Mode and reboot your system.
5.) Install the Intel Driver. Latest and working version is the GMA3150 15.12.75.50.7.2230
You can download that here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19494&lang=eng&wapkw=gma+3150 After that, reboot!
6.) Install the Nvidia Driver. Latest and working version (for me) is the Verde 301.42 driver. You get that here: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/44972/en-us - Could be that a newer version does work to, but thats what I came up with after trying a lot of different versions. After installing, reboot.
7.) You should be done. Right-click on your Desktop, choose NVIDIA Systemsettings. In these settings you can enable two cool options from the "Desktop" menu:
a.) "Start with graphics processor to context menu" - with right click on an Application you can choose to start that program with your highend gpu
b.) "Show Actitivy Symbol in Infobar" - that does show you whenever the GPU is working on something. And if that symbol does not show up some boots later - well, that mostly says that some update broke your Optimus Setup.

But by now, I think you know how to get that up and running again! 🙂

[Ubuntu 12.04] EEE PC 1015 PN with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

I could not help myself but felt the need to have at least one real "Dual Boot" system (not VMWare Stuff) - so I setup my Asus EEE PC 1015 PN with the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS according to mtrons excellent Tutorial ( https://sites.google.com/site/mtrons/howtos/eeepc-1015pn ) which worked out right out of the box.

But - as I haid some trouble with the old Broadcom Wifi/BT Card in Windows 7, I went for an Intel 6250 AGN/WiMax Card. I do not use WiMax and would love an BT option - but the price point of that card on ebay finally got me to press the "Buy now" button. I thought "Well, it is an Intel Card - that should work quite well and stop throwing me out of the University Wifi with no chance but doing an hard reboot of the Laptop to solve the problem" - yeah - it really did. BUT - somehow, after some time and updates to the Ubuntu System, I lost connectivity: Network Manager was nagging for the password all the time - without a reason. Finally I found the solution on this website: http://askubuntu.com/questions/104651/how-do-i-get-wireless-working-on-an-asus-notebook-u56e - with some changes.

From Kernel > 3.1 on, the wifi driver is not called iwlagn but iwlwifi, so your changes would go in that way:

sudo /etc/modprobe.d/iwl.conf

and add these options to the file. First does deactivate the not existing BT Module on the card, second does disable N networks, which could avoid other problems:

options iwlagn bt_coex_active=0
options iwlagn 11n_disable=1

Reboot and you are done

Another problem was the Optimus system: The Dual GPU Option of the system, packing an Intel GMA as well as an Nvidia ION Graphics on the board, with the choice of changing between both on the fly. That *did* work according to mtrons guide, BUT after an kernel upgrade - the acpi_call module did not work anymore - and with that the optimus tool. Help to that problem could be found here: http://hybrid-graphics-linux.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Acpi_call with the following changes:

cd /usr/src/acpi_call-1.1.1/
# got an newer version of acpi_call
sudo dkms add -m acpi_call -v 1.1.1
# did throw an error as the module already existed
sudo dkms build -m acpi_call -v 1.1.1
# rebuild the module
sudo dkms install -m acpi_call -v 1.1.1
# reinstalled it to the kernel
sudo modprobe acpi_call
# reload module
modinfo acpi_call
# show some infos

And thats it!

I am quite happy with the performance of Ubuntu on the system and I will keep it a while. I also tried the latest Debian, but was not that satisfied with it :/! So long!

[Win8] EEE PC 1015PN and Windows 8

I have been using my EEE PC 1015PN for nearly 2 years now, and I am quite satisfied with it. But after the release of Windows 8, I wanted to try it, too. So I decided to upgrade install from my Windows 7 Professional to Windows 8 Professional. Before this test, I made an Acronis Image, which turned out to be an really good idea. Installation itself needed about 1 1/2 hour, as I decided to upgrade and not start from scratch.

The first problem started to come up after going to the desktop and trying to change the brightness \ wifi connectivity by using the FN Keyboard Shortcuts: "Asus ACPI Driver missing", was the error. So I tried to reinstall the needed keyboard drivers, and Optimus Tool (1015PN uses an Intel as well as an NVIDIA Graphicscard).

After rebooting, I was able to choose the Optimus setting within the tool, and I could also change screen brightness with the FN Keyboard Shortcuts - but nothing else.

So I decided to shutdown the PC, enable WIFI in the BIOS and reboot - to check WIFI Connectivity, as well as to see the Intel Graphics active in Windows 8. So I pressed the "Save and Reboot" shortcut in the bios - and that was the last thing I saw.

After that, the EEE PC tried to boot once, and then stopped working, rebooting again - boot loop. But not after 20 seconds of boot, no, it already fried seconds after starting the boot process. Even disabling WIFI in BIOS again or pressing F8 manically - nothing could help. The system was killed.

After trying for a good amount of time, I restored the Windows 7 backup. And thats it. My first Windows 8 impression turned out to be even worse than Windows Vista. And well, that was something.