ASUS S-presso SFF System Review Posted!

opps!

hehe, my powersupply has blown up now. It defiently isn't going to work in its present state so i'll send it back for a repair.

i'll let you all know the whys and hows when i find out.

thanks

CaM

 

windows cant start

has anyone had this problem when connecting a HDD with windows xp (i got home) already installed,

my computer sayz that windows couldn't start 'cause it has detected some new hardware.?

this is obvious because i have taken the HDD from one computer to an other, but i was wondering if someone knows how to fix this problem.? i'd be grateful.!!

 

Asus GeForce FX5200 knocked out TV tuner

Hello,
Been awhile since I posted here. Anyway, I finally broke down and installed a GeForce FX 5200 card by Asus (ASUS V9520) thinking I would not have instant on anymore, but at least thought I would be able to keep the tuner and Home Theater software. WRONG. When I sent to watch TV the WinXP system crashed. Doesn't look like the tuner was designed to work with the other Asus product.

This is misleading to the consumer as the ASUS V9520 is listed as a compatible video card.

Oh well, thought I would let everyone know. If you decide to upgrade to a AGP card, I guess I would go with any brand you want. Don't see any particular need to follow their compatibility list unless someone has another experience to share.

 

Hi CaM! I just got the same problem you have (and try to solve it in the same way) but nothing, just the fans going crazy! What I did? Sent it back to where I bought it (on the net) with "OK" from Asus Support Center and received a new one which works fine.

Good luck!

Ciao!

 

LINUX load error -- "Disabling Interrupt 5"

I loaded Windows 2003 Server on the cheaper S-presso box ($199 @ Fry's) and it works just fine. Transferred OS via Western Digital utilities. Windows 2003 Server had fits when first booted up and demanded I revisit MS to reregister product but the total change in hardware was accepted.

Also tried to load Red Hat Fedora Linux and, during the boot from CD process, got repetitive "Disabling Interrupt 5" messages on the screen although the install process seemed to be proceeding albeit smoothly. The installation messages were interspersed with interrupt messages. I finally aborted the LINUX install because I was uncertain of the result of these messages.

Any ideas please folks?

 

First questions first, which release of Fedora are you using? FC2 has a lot of known issues...

Also, when did the messages start appearing? Which part of the install? Loading kernel, anaconda.. loading packages.. etc..

Try booting it with a LiveCD, Knoppix or something, to do diagnostics.

 

Nice review, and nice product.

I was about getting one this summer but the fact that their cooling is a bit limited made me wonder... but it seem all good... welp... maybe for christmass.

 

AGP Card

I'm glad there is a forum for this unit, because it needs one! On to the problem.

During the initial software install, both the on-board VGA and AGP DVI give no signal to my flat panel LCD. Only after I remove the graphics card does the on-board VGA work. I'm wondering if my card is defective. Did anyone encounter this problem (no signal with graphics card on the board)? I'm going to try to install Win XP first, and then come back and install the graphics card. Not sure if this will fix the problem though...

 

(first sorry for my english)

Hi all. Finally a Forum about s-presso that doesn't suck like asus'

I got my spresso last week and I got a bunch of questions I hope you can help me on:

- Ok, there's no TV out, but can I use a VGA+AUDIO to SCART converter to watch TV? One of these, for example.

Its not killing instant-on what I'm concerned about but the extra-noise a AGP graphics carg would add. So should I go on and find a vga-tv converter (in that case, wich one?) or should I find a silent agp graphics card with tv-out (wich one then)

- If I change the pci tv-tunner card for another wich is supported by MCE, do I also kill instant on?. Every feature of it or would I be able to listen to radio/cd/mp3 but not to watch tv?

- Wich TV-tunner card do you recomend for this machine, that is MCE compatible and I can use for digital AND analog TV?

As a summary I may say what I want is to use this machine to watch/record TV with MCE and digital/analog TV. And I need to know wich hardware to buy keeping noise down and (if possible but not necessary) not killing instant-on audio features.

phew! thanks!

 

Adrian,

Thanks for the help! But still am wondering.... Well, I physically installed the AGP card (it has two DVI ports) onto the motherboard. Next up, install Instant On, Win XP, etc. Only I can't because whether I plug my monitor into the on-board VGA, or whether I plug it into one of the DVI ports, I get no image. When I plug it into the VGA, the monitor has a message that says "No Signal", which is exactly as you had said in your reply. However, when I plug it into either of the DVI slots on the back of the AGP card, the screen is blank (no "No Signal" message). I'm not sure why this is. The computer boots. The fans on the AGP card are on. Just no image. Could the card be defective? Could the card be underpowered (I hope not)?!?!? Not sure why it doesn't display anything? Do I need to install the OS first before installing the AGP card? Or should it work from the initial build? I'd appreciate any insight you could give me. Thanks a bunch!!!

 

S-presso S1-P111, Linux, MythTV

In brief: almost everything works (Fedora Core 4), even the remote is mostly useful!

The installation went smoothly, more or less. The screws were in the plastic bag with manuals and CDs, not in the box with other stuff like cables, etc, where I've expected them to be. So first minutes I thought that I was screwed (no pun intended), cause you can't really attach HDs/CD-ROMs another way around. The CPU's heatsink comes with termal interface material, but I've wiped it and replaced it with termal grease to have a better contact. I saw it mentioned many times that you should remove the power supply unit to install the heatsink, but at least in my case (in both meanings) I didn't see any reason for it - the heatsink installed just fine with PSU still in place. The HD's IDE cable could barely reach it. My box also came without any mention of firewire ports. Not just the front plastic didn't have any windows or even outlines implying the presence of firewire, but they were also not even soldered in to the board - just empty holes.

Power on... Some problems appear. The HD (PATA WD 250GB JB, Master on first IDE) is not detected by BIOS half of times, in all modes (compatible/enhanced). Also it takes like 20 secs just to get past the HD-detection part of POST. The access is also very laggy, the feeling is like it has to reset itself every time it tries to read/write, while the read/write itself is as fast as it shoult be. After playing with it for like an hour I finally decided to replace the IDE cable with my own, and... the original cable's connector that leads to the HD has disassembled right in my hands, while trying to pull it out of a HD. Obviously the cable was faulty, probably cause it could barely reach the HD, as mentioned above. I've replaced it with mine and jumpered the HD to "Cable Select" instead of "Master" cause the cable is long enough to detect it, and I'm just used to this setting. The problem is no more, all works flawlessly.

Installing Linux (FC4). I have both, a HD and a DVD-ROM, as PATA, but choosed the "Enhanced mode" in BIOS cause I plan to replace the HD with a bigger SATA one in a near future and I remember it should work, cause I have SATA on my current FC4 machine. Wrong. Just as I went past the initial setup screen, in anaconda, it begun to flood my screen with "interrupt 10 occured but nobody cared - disabling" messages, and the HD autodetect couldn't get the right settings (wrong DMA status replies, etc). Just then I remembered that I had the same thing with my main machine, and that I had to go to "Compatibility" IDE mode in BIOS. The problem has gone, and the installation went smoothly. I've partitioned the HD, leaving something like 216MB of free space at the end for Instant-On to be installed afterwards. I could have installed it first - Linux will not have problems to boot from other partitions, but just in a case of future changes, not to repartition/reinstall the Instant-On later... I choosed to "Install Everything" and disabled SELinux, not to mess with downloading dependencies later (it was a test install), and the machine is on an internal network behind 2 routers - can let it to be a bit less secure. Everything but a TV card was autodetected and the install went without problems. I managed to get the black&white picture with sound (don't forget to raise the level of Aux mixer, it's 0 by default) from that card by adding this line to /etc/modprobe.conf:
options cx88xx card=5 tuner=44
but that's about it. Googling for the solution brought a lot of people having the same results, so I will stick with it for a while (I don't really watch TV, anyways).

The remote is a nice touch - it sends keyboard key-presses and commands, so it is already useful in its default form. Say, the remote cursor sends keyboard's cursor arrows key-presses, "Ok" sends Enter keypress, numbers send... well, numbers. "Back" - "backspace", "More Info" - the whole keystroke of "exit" and enter after it, and so on. Even the "Power" on remote shutdowns the machine the Linux way (albeight, bypassing the services shutdown procedure if I'm not mistaking, just killing everything and umounting/unexporting shares, but it should be no problem - most services can be just killed without any losses).

MythTV. Not much to talk about - everything just works (the TV gives me black&white for reasons mentioned above). DVD/CD rip, playback, weather, news... Everything. I used yum install mythtv-suite and a nice "Fedora Myth How-to" mentioned on the original MythTV.org web site. The touch-panel does not work with MythTV, though. The sensors lit up when you press one, but well, nothing happens. The indicators also stay at the default.

Installing the Instant-On was a "plug&play" experience - plug the CD in, choose a language, and it plays. The Instant-On works as it should, just the System/CPU temperatures are not shown on the touch-panel (it probably is OS-controlled). Of course, such things as an MP3 playback don't work, cause it looks for Windows folders with MP3 files, and there are none. Probably the Instant-On software (interesting partition type: "88 - Linux plaintext") can be hacked and repointed to the Linux mount with those files. It's Linux, after all... Oh, and another moment with Instant-On. I have a new DVD-ROM installed, one that never seen any Windows DVD-players, and hence is not Region-set yet. MythTV just ignores it and all regions are playable, but Instant-On refuses to play any DVD which is not Region-0/all-regions. So I probably should find some Linux program to set the DVD-ROM to the right region, to use with Instant-On.

 

What I was trying to explain is that when I connected my monitor to the AGP card (through the DVI connection), I got no picture when I booted up for the first time. It makes sense that the internal VGA would not work, since the AGP card took over. But then, the VGA card wasn't producing a display either.

Right now the BIOS settings are:

[AGP/Int-VGA]

and the other options are:

[Internal VGA]
[VGA/PCI]
[PCI/VGA]
[PCI/Int-VGA]

That seems right doesn't it?

 

if you can´t install INSTANT ON, this works...

First of all, excuse my bad english.

I have tried in three s-presso 111 to install the INSTANT ON cd in empties Hard Disks with no exit.

Here are the steps i followed to make it work.....

Quit your hard disk (of you S-presso) and plug it into another
computer as Primary Ide. Insert you INSTANT ON cd on your computer and boot from CD. It will install INSTANT ON in a few seconds. When i tried it, the Hard Disk had no partitions on it.

Now, quit your hard disk of your computer and plug it into your S-Presso and voila, now it works.



---------------------



Later, a friend of my, sucessfully installed INSTANT ON on the Barebone in an hard disk without partitions. In the IDE of the motherboard the harddisk must be as IDE1 and MASTER, and the DVDROM must be as IDE2 and "MASTER". And you have to boot from CD.


Oh, in the two situations, the bios must be as:
-COMPATIBLE MODE
-PATA ONLY

And the PRIMARY VGA must be: "VGA INT" , NOT "AGP/VGA" because of if you install an AGP graphic card in your Asus and select it as primary in the bios, the INSTANT ON don´t work.

 

Yeah, I thought it was strange. Does it sound like a defective graphics card (i.e. fan works, but no signal?). Are there any other BIOS settings that could affect the AGP card? Not sure what else it could be.