OQO notes/review
OQO issues and peculiarities
Platform:
OQO 1.6 ghz , 1 gb ram, Vista business with service pack 1
- Keyboard takes getting used to and needs a fair bit of pressure on the keys to type
- Do not update the display driver to the Feb 2008 version from Microsoft Update
- Network driver – do not install from Microsoft update
- Do not bring brightness down to total black – reason: when it starts back up from sleep with lockout password , you won’t be able to see what you’re typing
- I was told that when pushing the screen up to reveal the keyboard, you should push it from both left and right sides.
- The docking station is a very tight fit… not very easy to put in and take out
- Extra accessories like power adapters are very expensive
- Wifi doesn’t always start properly after sleep mode – may need to disable power down network device on demand
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- Multiple video output does not let you change monitor positions relative to each other
- Cannot boot from Gparted and Parted Magic cds , they either crash or is unable to see the cd drive after kernel loads its’ modules.
- It doesn’t boot from cd on a warm restart. Only cold start will boot from cd. Must hold down fn-f2 to boot from cd
- Vista has a built-in repartition program in the disk management. Can install xp on second partition, but Microsoft does not allow you to use copied media. Must use oem media.
- Once xp is installed, vista will fail to boot, as xp overwrites the vista master boot record (MBR) Must use the free software called easybcd to restore the vista mbr. Or use the vista reinstall cd. Easybcd is better though because one can control a lot of boot parameters.
- XP on the oqo is much much faster. Everything is more responsive and snappy. However, there’s one major bug with xp and the docking station… the cd/dvd fails to show up on bootup… contacting oqo didn’t help …
Solution to a CD docking station that does not read cd’s.
Symptoms With an OQO O2 docked into the docking station, you’ll try to insert a CD. It accepts the CD, but nothing shows up in “My Computer” . In fact, the CD drive itself does not show up in My Computer. Eject button works. You may see a “unable to install hardware” error after you log in as administrator. Multiple reboots does not work. Booting a linux CD does work however. But windows does not acknowledge existence of cd hardware.
Solution : Shut down OQO, and unplug the power from the docking station. Attempt to insert a CD into the docking station slot… push it in all the way. With the power off, it will not accept the CD, which is good! The cd should spring right out. Remove the cd, and plug the power back into the docking station (OQO should be docked in too) . You may hear a loud “THUNK” sound when plugging in the power, or after you’ve turned on the OQO. This is good. Once the OQO is booted up, your cd drive should be working fine now.
One other note, never turn off OQO with a CD inserted inside the docking station. You may get a case of not being able to eject the CD. When I had this problem, the only solution was to unplug the power, plug it back in and press the eject button on power up. If that doesn’t work, shut down power and try again. You may need to do this multiple times and in 6-12 hours intervals.