i-Buddie 4 Desknote Review

[MikeA928]

It's offical I've now experience the Power Plug Melt!

PS I sent David an email and I also found his phone #, If you need it PM me.

Thanks, I was able find his contact info by searching over the previous posts and have already made contact. Fortunately for me I live close enough that I can actually drop it off in person, I'm also considering my self extremely lucky for finding this site as I noticed today that the adapter from the battery to the Desknote had some deformities. It seem the dreaded power plug issue has now struck so I've stopped using the Desknote now.

When David fixed your system did he replace the plug on the desknote?

I'm wondering if I should replace the cable from the battery to the desknote now as the shape is a bit deformed. Maybe I'll bring it to David when I see him and ask him what he thinks.

 

[MikeA928]

Putting in a Wireless MiniPCI card in the A928 possible?

Hi All,

For those of you DIY(ers) who have opened up their A928s, I've been looking through various photos of an opened machine. And from the photo's I think I see a Mini PCI card adapter after a bit of digging I think it's the internal modem.

First can anyone confirm that my thooughts above is correct and if so has anyone tried replacing the modem card with a MiniPCI Wireless card?

 

[albroswift]

Thanks, I was able find his contact info by searching over the previous posts and have already made contact. Fortunately for me I live close enough that I can actually drop it off in person, I'm also considering my self extremely lucky for finding this site as I noticed today that the adapter from the battery to the Desknote had some deformities. It seem the dreaded power plug issue has now struck so I've stopped using the Desknote now.

When David fixed your system did he replace the plug on the desknote?

I'm wondering if I should replace the cable from the battery to the desknote now as the shape is a bit deformed. Maybe I'll bring it to David when I see him and ask him what he thinks.

Replaced the plug, a little deformity on the cord end doesn't hurt as long as it fits.
Love to find out about the wireless card, Had mine opened a few times never noticed that before.

 

[webtools]

Seek for A928 Auido Driver - from original CD

I decided to format the A928 HDD and reinstall the XP, however I lost my driver CD, but I know I can download all drivers form ECS website (archives, of course), all work fine except the Audio driver! It failed to load no matter how I tried. I noticed the version from the website is different from my impression (shown C-media Audio) of the old one. Can anyone kindly offer me his/her Audio Driver/setup from the original CD (compress to a zip file is welcome)? Thanks in advanced.

 

[albroswift]

I decided to format the A928 HDD and reinstall the XP, however I lost my driver CD, but I know I can download all drivers form ECS website (archives, of course), all work fine except the Audio driver! It failed to load no matter how I tried. I noticed the version from the website is different from my impression (shown C-media Audio) of the old one. Can anyone kindly offer me his/her Audio Driver/setup from the original CD (compress to a zip file is welcome)? Thanks in advanced.

Have it zipped, Don't seem to be able to attach to post, about 6.5 mb. Can you receive attachments this large ? Email?
Also posted it www.albroswift.com/junk/AudioDriver.img If it doesn't work downloading as zip, :
Save file as AudioDriver.img, change extension to zip, might work. For reasons unknown, I can't seem to ftp a zip file this morning.

 

[webtools]

Have it zipped, Don't seem to be able to attach to post, about 6.5 mb. Can you receive attachments this large ? Email?
Also posted it www.albroswift.com/junk/AudioDriver.img If it doesn't work downloading as zip, :
Save file as AudioDriver.img, change extension to zip, might work. For reasons unknown, I can't seem to ftp a zip file this morning.

It is amazing this A928 is still running smoothly after 6 years.... thanks for the Audio img, I've renamed it to zip and it works PERFECTLY!! (so, what's wrong withe the one from ECS website???)

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...ailid=224&DetailName=Driver&MenuID=59&LanID=0


The desknote now is working fast and responding well except the melt plug that I had fixed it. Again, it is ashame that ECS did not take care of us for the design flaw, but honestly it is a nice machine even compare to new ones nowadays.

 

[albroswift]

We are on page 49 of the "Why doesn't ECS give a rats a$$" thread. I came along about half way through. 3rd one coming back from David Cai this week. Great product other then power and no wirless card, have 3 + 1 for parts. Running them at 3 GHz reliably.

 

[albroswift]

Thanks, David

Feedback for David Cai, received machine back after repairs, Quick service, fair pricing. Works. Sending 2 more back, one with bad RJ 45 one with bad power. (I have 4 now.)

 

[albroswift]

New HR manager down at ECS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deMYhq3YvEE

 

[mullany528]

Desknote A928 Repairs

Folks, if you are having trouble with your Desknote's (mine's a A928) get in touch with (David Cai (e-mail address removed)) of DC Systems in Toronto, Canada. I had mine repaired at two other places and neither fix worked more than a few months. Found out about David Cai from PC Review and sent my A928 off to him and he fixed the overheating plug-in and bootup problems and upgraded my memory to 1GB. Shipping, Insurance, repairs and upgrade came to only $250 and I now have a fast and great working machine.

Thanks PC Review for this forum that really does provide a good service and thanks to David Cai for a great repair job.

 

[North4st]

Thanks to this forum I contacted David Cai ([email protected]) about my Desknote A928 melt down. We exchanged the machine by Canada Post (I'm in Victoria) and it is now happily working away again. I am thrilled! He did a great job manually rebuilding the 3 pin plug that had been ruined by the heat. I highly recommend his prompt and reasonably priced service.

 

[albroswift]

Just got 2 more back from David, one with a burnt plug and one with a bad eathernet plug. Both came back in a timely manner, working good. Up to 4 of the little buggers now, 3 working good and one more w/ burned plug getting packed up to ship.

 

[tha_lode]

I have to thank " doddel" for the fix on the Lan adapter. Our I-Buddie 4 is now going to live a long life as an audioplayer connected to the stereo with Linux Mint 5.

I just love the internet. There is always someone who has encountered your problem before you, and been kind enough to post the solution on a forum.

 

[Tom Brandolini]

Dell Fan Program works with iBuddie

The salvation to my A928 overheating problem is a free program written by an Italian guy to solve overheating problems with Dell computers. I downloaded it to my ibuddie A928 AND IT WORKS! It creates an icon in the lower right corner that reads out your CPU temperature so you can keep an eye on it.
When I am using my A928 I use the program to boost my fans to 100 percent. Makes a BIG difference and keeps the temperature down. To download this program for free go to http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html

 

[Morttan]

You can also try SpeedFan, that's the one I use. You can adjust it so the program automatically increases or decreases fans speeds depending of temperature (overwritting the A928's original temperature control). With it you don't need to keep fans speeds to a 100% all the time as it shortens the fans life. I live in a very hot climate and I have it set up to 40% speed all the time for both fans and once temperature goes over 51C it gradually increases fans speeds. It is a very good program, it has a lot of settings so you can adjust it to what you want. You can check and download it here http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

[morecer]

my i-buddy4 a928 doesnt come up

after i changed the setting in the setup : shared memorey 8Mb and DSRAM cycle 3t .. it does nothing when i turn on my notebook .. it's ridiculous !! please help me.

 

[Morttan]

Reset CMOS

Try resetting the CMOS. Unplug the power cord and press the Power button. This is supposed to reset the BIOS to default values. Then plug it back and it should boot up again.

 

[morecer]

I had the same problem

I made the same mistake (change of the latency in BIOS) and my A929 stopped to work!!
I decided to open the box (what a nightmare) and was able to reach the bios battery. Removing the battery to reset the bios was totally unsuccessfull!
I tested the CPU on another Mother board and discovered the CPU was dead!! I installed another working CPU...
The A929 did not start and the CPU was killed too!!
I think something was destroyed on the MB when making the latency modification..

Patrick

NOW NOTHING IS WORKING , I CHANGED THE LATENCY TO 3T... THAT'S ABOUT IT !

 

[albroswift]

NOW NOTHING IS WORKING , I CHANGED THE LATENCY TO 3T... THAT'S ABOUT IT !

Seems like back several pages (about a year or two ago) the issue of changing the latency came up. Dont recall if it was resolved. Do a search. I've heard that it causes unreversable error, but haven't tried myself.
GOOD LUCK!
Al

 

[doddel]

warning on using proper length screws

Recently repaired a couple of A928 with the symptom that after having repaired the internal power supply circuitry (adding capacitors as described in another post) the system did not POST and boot despite the 1.5 V being available at the CPU.
Reason:
the rectangular space in the topcover where the keyboard goes offers access to four screws; the top left one, above the one with the warranty-void-if-removed sticker, is extremely critical. When the wrong screw is applied with to much length it will grind away one of the very thin tracks on the mother board that leads to the cpu. A dead motherboard results.
Cure:
remove the cast aluminium part that runs along the rear side of the motherboard (4 screws, 2 on each side) and that provides fixation for the CPU heatsink and carries the CPU fan. Look from the three capacitors at the back side of the CPU socket towards the connector for the touchpad. Half way that line the damage is visible. Restore connectivity by removing lacquer from the track´s ends on both sides of the interruption, use a thin wire to bridge the gap, a thin soldering iron tip on a soldering iron with earth connected to the A928 chassis, a magnifying glass, and patience.

This is just another mechanical flaw designed into this conceptually nice machine. The screwthread in the heatsink never should have been all the way through the metal, or the motherboard should not have carried tracks at that position. The proper screw for that position measures only 4.3 mm in length.
Unfortunately other positions take longer screws but of the same diameter :-( so a fatal mistake is easily made during reassembly. Actually no harm is done by just leaving that screw out. There are plenty others to hold everything together.