Bought a Tablet...

[ratdude747]

... A used Insignia NS-15MS0832 (1.33GHz intel atom, windows 8/8.1) for $54 on fleabay (there were ones for $3 cheaper as refurbs but it wasn't clear if the battery was included).

Why? Because for that cheap, an x86 (x86-64 even, albeit only 1GB RAM) tablet is sorta hard not to pass up and run for laughs... and by laughs I mean arch linux.

Why? Because I'm tired of android... And why I love my Dell E6430, it is somewhat chunky and my smallest laptop, a Sony 10" subcompact (not a netbook) is proprietary as hell and too old/underpowered to do much (core solo, i945 graphics, meh)

and I've seen people linux these up (secure boot is a pain but fixable I hear). Arch has decent enough support supposedly for tablets, and throw on a keyboard case and tada, awesome sauce. I'll have to hook my micro USB to female USB adapter to a (powered) USB hub to make this work at first (since I will need the CLI to either copy my installation from another rig or to build it from scratch, none of this live install bullshit ).

yeah, it has the power of a bleeping lawnmower (not even a 4cyl honda, lol) but I figure it's worth tinkering and in the worst case, my wife gets a tablet out of the deal.

Yes I am crazy...

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

nah u're not crazy. just a high IQ individual keke...

scorpion comes to mind tho the guy behind it seems to be labelled as a con for excessively high unverified IQ score claims.

[ratdude747]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

Been playing with it... I got arch to run after a lot of work (mainly the 32 bit uefi), and after more work, i was able to get somewhat working wifi (there's more info on a thread on arch forums, regarding the struggle). However, the audio, side buttons, cameras, and bluetooth all refuse to run. I can't even shut the screen off (or more importantly, wake it up) and due to the half-uselessness of the usb port, I can't charge and have a decent keyboard at the same time (thanks to the lack of bluetooth).

So, it looks like I'm going to try windows 10 on it (8 was a nightmare)... and maybe add classic start/shell to make it more tolerable. IDK. Let's hope it installs w/o trouble (there is a little bit of 8 left on an embedded partition, the tablet came with no install key and AFAIK there is no recovery image available; IIRC SLIC is a thing of the past).

[ratdude747]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

It's ruined. Digitizer cracked without warning. Replacement digitizer not available.

All its good for is a low power terminal with Bluetooth mouse/keyboard.

POS. Not buying another cheapie... If I ever get another tablet it will be a dell venue pro of some sort.

[stj]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

cracked without warning must have been mounting stress.
bad shell design!
reminds me of ipads with the ally backshell that has a lip around the glass.
all good till it gets a knock and the edge bends in against the glass and cracks it.
piece of shit - i wont touch them.

[japlytic]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

Try searching for part numbers on the cracked digitizer - but beware, the digitizer (and possibly the LCD/LED display) could be part of the tablet body meaning a new body includes the digitizer (and if applicable, the LCD/LED display) although the logic board can usually be transfered to the new tablet body, just like my Samsung Galaxy SIII phone.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

The biggest mistake I ever made was when i cracked the original glass on my Ipad, these cheap replacement digitisers are so flimsy you only have to flick them and they will crack :L

[ratdude747]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

cracked without warning must have been mounting stress.
bad shell design!
reminds me of ipads with the ally backshell that has a lip around the glass.
all good till it gets a knock and the edge bends in against the glass and cracks it.
piece of shit - i wont touch them.

It fell earlier but cracked later in the day.

I will see if I can find a model number on the digitizer. I happen to be out of town this week but I also happen to have some of my mobile tools on me.

[ratdude747]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

It is a DY08026 Panel... which I found on alibaba. $15 plus shipping from china, $30 plus shipping total (minimum quantity 2). At least they include seemingly genuine 3m VHB adhesive pre-cut and applied.

I may poke around ebay some though... see if I can find it there.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

yeah, it has the power of a bleeping lawnmower (not even a 4cyl honda, lol)

Welp, after all, it has an early-2000s-like core frequency. 1.3 is so early-2000s.

[ratdude747]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

Welp, after all, it has an early-2000s-like core frequency. 1.3 is so early-2000s.

4 cores though. Newer too. Think megaherz myth.

Edit- see my "in defense of windows 8.1" thread for details.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

4 cores though. Newer too. Think megaherz myth.

Sadly, even with Skylake, 1.3 looks painful.

Even for today's laptops with more than 1 core, ends up seeming slow, when I get on one.

I could see why a lot of folks went back to XP for a while.....

[ratdude747]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

Sadly, even with Skylake, 1.3 looks painful.

Even for today's laptops with more than 1 core, ends up seeming slow, when I get on one.

I could see why a lot of folks went back to XP for a while.....

For what it is, the CPU never seemed to be an issue. If anything the measly 1GB of DDR3 is the real bottleneck.

(Hell no is it replacing the Dell Latitude E6430 with a 2.2Ghz i7 that I'm sending this from )

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

If anything the measly 1GB of DDR3 is the real bottleneck.

I soo agree there. Even with XP, it may be troublesome with recent versions of Flash.

[goontron]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

I soo agree there. Even with XP, it may be troublesome with recent versions of Flash.

people still use that turd?

[stj]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

people still use that turd?

best windows there is if you "have" to use windows.
it supports usb properly - the only reason you would "have" to use windows.
and it comes without the exessive blatant online cloud spyware bullshit.

[ratdude747]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

I soo agree there. Even with XP, it may be troublesome with recent versions of Flash.

Actually under modded 8.1 (classic shell + ModernMix + some 8.1 only setting changes) it ran OK. Couldn't do 1080P youtube (60FPS that is) but otherwise for general web surfing it did fine. The touchscreen was a bit dicky but I imagine it could be made better with a GOOD stylus (like a wacom or a Jot, something with a capacitive-friendly fine tip).

[kaboom]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

I think goon was talking about crashplayer, not XP...

[ratdude747]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

F*ck it. The alibaba seller won't honor his listed price... to the point of no longer being economical to fix the tablet.

If I ever buy another tablet, it will be a well built one (a Surface Pro or the like would do nicely). The surface pro series really sounds nice... they have a proper wacom pen input and with a keyboard cover they're pretty much mini laptops (as they also have touchpads too). IIRC the Dell Venue pro series is comparable? But even the older ones are going for $200+ used on ebay, and that's WITH a broken digitizer. Then again, with an ivy bridge i5 and 4GB of RAM, that's approaching the specs of my nicest laptop (Dell Latitude E6430, 2.2Ghz i7, 8GB RAM, same graphics).

Sadly the surface 1 and 2 are locked into windows RT (no way to run linux arm distro's). Blah. Just as useless as an iPad or android tablet. I want a tablet that can run desktop OS's, not a giant smart phone.

Dream on, dream on...

[goontron]

Re: Bought a Tablet...

I think goon was talking about crashplayer, not XP...

Yep. Even XPs beta, whistler is good.