Installing VLC Media Player on the Eee
As much as I don’t like to install stuff on the Eee to make sure I don’t use up the already limited memory on it, the limitations with the software bundled with the Eee leave me no choice sometimes. Case in point: SMPlayer, the built in video player on the Eee, after some time, does not play audio. The Eee plays mp3s and other sound files alright; it doesn’t seem to be a soundcard issue. One day I just got pissed off with SMPlayer mysteriously refusing to play audio after an hour or two. I decided to just install VLC on my Eee. Besides, VLC is my default media player on my XP desktop, why shouldn’t I not install this open-source beauty on my Eee? And guess what: it works beautifully.
So how do we install the VLC Media Player on the Eee’s default Xandros Linux OS? Read more
Upgraded my Asus Eee PC to 1GB of RAM
Recently I complained about the Asus Eee PC choking on 512 MB RAM. So I decided to upgrade. Asus has announced that it will honor warranty of units with broken warranty stickers, but I wasn’t sure if this applied to my territory. Still, I took the risk. But I didn’t want to totally get rid of my warranty stickers, though. And the shop I bought my Eee from had their own warranty sticker, so I made sure these were intact, just in case they won’t honor warranty without their stickers.
First I went off to buy a Kingston 1GB DDR2-667 SODIMM stick, which is dirt cheap these days.
Then with a bit of sticker backing / wax paper, a precision flathead screwdriver, cotton swabs and some WD-40, I proceeded to remove my warranty stickers. Oh, and you need a lot of patience.
Here’s how to do it:
- Spray some WD-40 onto a cotton swab, until the tip is damp with the lubricant.
- Swab the surface of the sticker until the lubricant has been thoroughly absorbed (repeat #1 if needed).
- Spray some WD-40 onto the tip of the screwdriver.
- Wedge the tip of the screwdriver underneath a corner/edge of the sticker and slowly peel it off by wedging the screwdriver in a few millimeters at a time.
- Apply lubricant to the screwdriver again once it becomes dry.
- Repeat the last two steps.
The sticker should now be easy to remove, as the adhesive side no longer sticks to the surface of the Eee too much. Your main concern here would be that the sticker doesn’t disintegrate. These warranty stickers are made to rip apart when you try to remove them.
Once you have completely removed a sticker, transfer it onto some wax paper or sticker paper backing, so you can easily replace it when the need arises.
The results:
RAM and mini PCIe slots of the Asus Eee PC. The RAM stick was easy enough to replace.
Don’t try this at home, kids! Okay, you can, but be sure to contact your local Asus centre first, to confirm if they will honor warranty without the stickers.
Asus Honors Warranty Even With Broken Stickers
It has been a concern that opening the RAM / mini PCIe slot would void Asus’ limited warranty, because the small yellow sticker that covers one of the screws would inevitably be broken. This meant limited options for upgrades, particularly on the Eee’s memory slot.
Asus clears things up with a press release:
ASUS Computer International (“ASUS”) recently received feedback from one of its valued customers with questions concerning the purpose of a seal stating, “Warranty Void If Removed” over the access door to the single SODIMM slot on some models of the ASUS Eee PC. ASUS wishes to assure its customers that merely breaking or removing this kind of seal will not void the ASUS Limited Warranty.
So basically they say that it’s always best to have your unit serviced by authorized service personnel. Still, for most advanced users, I think accessing the RAM and mini PCIe slot would be simple enough.
Personally, I feel that 512MB of RAM is enough for general purposes, especially when using Xandros. But those who are using Windows XP need that RAM boost, and are better off spending the extra $30 or so for a 1GB stick.
So it’s clear then — you don’t void your warranty opening the access door to the RAM slot. But for more advanced hardware hacks, I think that’s a different story.
(via Eeeuser.com; hat tip to Joel; image from asuseeehacks.blogspot.com)
Shift Key Returned to Original Position
Okay, so I’d been annoyed by the fact that the up-arrow key was wedged in between the ? and Shift keys. It got so obtrusive that when I typed, I would often overwrite the lines above when I accidentally hit the UP key.
So I decided to try the key remapping hack detailed on Eeeuser.com. That meant remapping keys to switch between the UP and SHIFT key, and between the DOWN and RIGHT keys. I then copied over the switching script to my KDE startup folder, so it gets executed every time I boot up Xandros.
Along with this, I decided to actually interchange the buttons themselves. So using a small screwdriver I carefully popped out the keys to switch them across.
So my arrow keys looked like this:
? SHFT UP
LF RT DN
So far so good. Better typing experience, I thought.
But then my navigating experience severely suffered. I was so used to the old layout:
UP
LF DN RT
So I decided to remove the script and return the keys to where they originally were.
Now I’m more used to the peculiar SHIFT key position, and my typing efficiency has improved. In fact, I’m so used to the Eee keyboard that it feels awkward to type on my regular laptop keyboard!
I still miss the SHIFT key sometimes, with disastrous results. But there’s nothing that UNDO or Ctrl-Z can’t fix, right?
I think I better practice using the left SHIFT key instead.
Would You Move Your Shift Key?
One of the things difficult to adjust with on the Asus Eee PC is the location of the right shift key. Sure, the keyboard is small, but pretty soon an Eee user would be able to adjust to the size. But the location of the shift key might prove to be difficult because the up arrow is wedged in between the ? key and the right shift key, whereas in regular keyboards, the shift is right next to the ? key.
Most of the time this would result in mistyping because you would accidentally hit the up arrow instead of the shift key, and your typed characters would suddenly be in a higher line (or another text field, altogether). Believe me, I’ve messed up a handful of documents and blog post drafts this way.
Eeeuser has a solution, which involves remapping the keys such that the shift and up buttons are swapped. This would also swap the down button with the right button. This way the arrow keys would be in a reverse-L position (reminiscent of old Toshiba notebooks).
This way you’re less prone to hitting the up arrow accidentally while typing. Then again, your navigating experience might be adversely affected (up, down, left, right).
It’s a tradeoff, and it depends which is more important to you, or if you can easily adjust to having the up arrow wedged in between.
Oh, and Eeeuser even suggests that you can swap the keys themselves! It’s possible and doable (done here!) but I advise you to be careful.
