Averatec 2150-EH1 Notebook and Linux by Jerry (with a little help from friends)
AMD Mobile Turion 64 MT-28 processor
80 GB HD
512 MB RAM
M$ XP Home
Dual Layer DVD Burner
USB & Firewire ports
4-in-1 Portable Media Reader
12.1 inch WXGA Averabrite display
ATI Radeon Xpress 200M
wireless built in
1 cardbus slot
4.4 lbs
more tech info like lspci and dmidecode to follow. see the Files section below.
North Bridge ATI RS482M South Bridge ATI SB400 2 GB max memory DDR 333 SO-DIMM RaLink Mini PCI wireless built in IEEE 802.11b/g realtek eth0 1 PCMCIA / Cardbus Type II slot USB Flash Boot shared memory AC97 softmodem (read winmodem / linmodem fun with Aegere Systems) 1280x800 WXGA (though not heard of anyone getting beyond 1024x768 yet) Mic / Headphones / Firewire ports 2 built in speaker 3x USB 2.0 Kensington Lock hole high capacity lithium ion battery (in $70-$200 range for Averatec batteries) optional extended battery mentioned WHQL - PC2001 compliance 7 blue (& green and red on power) status LEDS visible from the front 4 extra hotkey buttons for email www wireless and search no service manual seen yet MSI (MicroStar International) based?(ymmv as guessing your models may vary with large vendors to a M$ audience)
+ A large vendor in another county, Sotec is the old name of the company.
-- I had found a yahoogroups.com poll (join Sotec_Averatec_Notebook@yahoogroups.com) that showed NO return authorizations amongst all the owners of the machine. DISTURBING.
+ Other people have it around here that use Linux and happy with it.
= Likely to void the warrantee later anyway grin
At the warehouse store, the following Live CDs ran
[to the concern of the M$ oriented sales guy ;-) ] and in a very noisy warehouse type environment with florescent lights, kids crawling around, other customers, and an impatient buyer (me!) who traveled across town, etc...
[so a GO [for this cheap bastard] to BUY and take home...]
Machine is WHITE like Macs. Film over the screen and outside cover to protect it. Power brick with separate cable, phone line cord, Quickstart brochure. Thick paper size of a CD, saying no install CD, ON THE HARD DRIVE! :-(
No paper manual besides a Quickstart brochure [Windows] saying that they are an environmentally friendly company.
Several people have noticed how bright the screen is... Averabrite®?
Power plug on the upper right seems like it might break, as others who have bought Averatecs have had problems with it.
Touchpad buttons are stamped out of the case in a figure 8 shape with prongs being the buttons. Likely to break eventually :-(
AMD64 processor was the feature I was waiting for. Desktop box uses one, and lived through the AMD64/ x86_64 bit releases coming out. Can always drop back into 32 bit if too bleeding edge...
Machine has a reproducable habit of needing to force power off (5 seconds with the power switch down) twice when rebooting between Linux and M$. Not sure if this is a hardware thing (heat? likely ruled out as done it cold), settings (Linux changing stuff that M$ doesn't expect? likely plus next), or Phoenix cME HPA backup and restore related (best guesses as of yet)... M$ Quickboot "feature?"
KDE Control Center Peripheral Keyboard setting on delay increased fixed the issue..
Upon purchase [to the unresearched], it was discovered that the machine uses a Phoenix cME (Core Management Environment or similar) in a 3-4GB hidden partition. It is said to give added security to the system, but seems to be locking me out of installing anything else [the usual way] so far. The feature allows setting restore points all the way back to factory installation. I had resized the partition with Knoppix qtparted down to around 40 GB and restored with cME when FC4 install CD FAILED TO BOOT with a PANIC. As mentioned elsewhere with Averatec's and resizing the partition, Windows did a chkdisk after the change on the next boot but it also found a new device, which might have been the extra disk space. The monsters be here, and more learning needed here...
More partitioning to learn. NO INSTALL CDROM makes recovering from a hard drive problem impossible, or expensive. Thought might be able to burn the CD from hard drive giving an off hard drive backup, but nothing found as of yet...
Thinking it is different partitioning than I'm used to and will work around eventually. Hoping to resolve this issue, but not happy on this project part.
Suggested Options:
(thanks friends!)
As of Jan 24, 2006, installed Live CDs and broke the little brat from Redmond that doesn't playing well with others (i.e. M$ world domination and not booting here).
knoppix tohd=/dev/hdan where n=your partition number It took about 20+ minutes to copy 700 MB to the partition. then knoppix fromhd=/dev/hdan RUNS MUCH FASTER but takes a Knoppix 4.0 CD to boot as have not learned grub to try to make that work.
mount -w /dev/hdan /mnt/hdan where n=your partition number and umount /mnt/hdan where n=your partition numberfor writing between boots are not an issue.
Kernel Panic on install CD boot where it accesses the hard drive VFS. Same with 32 bit install CD.
Thinking it is a VFS related to the partitioning. Might be able to wipe the hard drive and start over if I can get an XP disk out of the system cME or a vendor. Hoping to resolve this issue, otherwise would have to return it if I can't install to the hard drive, as Live CDs are good temporarily, but not enough long term... MENTION TO RED HAT FEDORA TEAM FOR IMPROVEMENTS
Boots OK. Kat and other tools nice when not seen or running in the usual distros. See Mandriva.Live.CD.Menu.Structure.txt as a cheat sheet for learning new menus. Not in the habit of Mandriva.
Required as existing documents are in the new Open Office 2.0 .ods .odw etc format
dial-in modem device /dev/ttySL0 not working yet, unable to open modem...
Thinking it is user learning somehow. Hoping to resolve this issue but finding it is a AC'97 softmodem (read winmodem but will be trying linmodem after scanModem learning).
able to configure eth0 networking on home network.
knoppix tz=America/Eastern
lsmods dmidecode cat.proc.modules lspci -vvv
The 2100 Series' AMD Turion 64 mobile technology delivers leading-edge CPU performance today, and can run tomorrow's more advanced 64-bit applications. The professional or student looking for a notebook optimized with the most advanced technology available at an unbelievably low price will simply have to get their hands on one of these! The ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M graphics chipset delivers advanced functionality for graphics-intensive business, communications, and 3-D gaming applications and high-quality digital entertainment. A Dual Layer DVD Burner allows burning of music, photos and videos to your regular CD or the newest DVD with 8.5 GB or 240 minutes video - nearly double the storage capacity! Your favorite DVD is all the more enjoyable on the vivid 12.1" wide XGA screen with AveraBrite* technology. The Firewire and USB ports also allow digital video recording right onto your notebook. Includes built in high-speed wireless LAN with dual-antenna for super fast Internet multimedia streaming and downloading with added Antivirus, Windows XP & AMD enhanced security protection.
| Model # | 2150-EH1 | 2155-EH1 |
| CPU | AMD Turion 64 MT-28 | AMD Turion 64 MT-30 |
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition | Microsoft ® Windows ® XP Home Edition |
| LCD Size | 12.1" WXGA | 12.1" WXGA |
| Optical Drive | Dual DVD Burner | Dual DVD Burner |
| Hard Drive | 80 GB | 80 GB |
| Memory | 512MB DDR | 512MB DDR |
| Wireless LAN | 802.11g | 802.11g |
| USB | (3x) 2.0 | (3x) 2.0 |
| DimensionsWxDxH) | 11.9" x 8.86" x 1.24" | 11.9" x 8.86" x 1.24" |
| Weight (lbs.) | 4.4lbs. | 4.4 lbs. |
| Part # | AV2150-EH1 | AV2155-EH1 |
| Limited Time Only - $50 Price Drop! |
Product Description: Features and Benefits The 2100 Series' AMD Turion 64 mobile technology delivers leading-edge CPU performance today, and can run tomorrow's more advanced 64-bit applications. The professional or student looking for a notebook optimized with the most advanced technology available at an unbelievably low price will simply have to get their hands on one of these! The ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M graphics chipset delivers advanced functionality for graphics-intensive business, communications, and 3-D gaming applications and high-quality digital entertainment. A Dual Layer DVD Burner allows burning of music, photos and videos to your regular CD or the newest DVD with 8.5 GB or 240 minutes video - nearly double the storage capacity! Your favorite DVD is all the more enjoyable on the vivid 12.1" wide XGA screen with AveraBrite* technology. The Firewire and USB ports also allow digital video recording right onto your notebook. Includes built in high-speed wireless LAN with dual-antenna for super fast Internet multimedia streaming and downloading with added Antivirus, Windows XP & AMD enhanced security protection. PROCESSOR AMD Turion 64 MT-28 128KB - L2 cache MEMORY 512 MB DDR SDRAM 333 MHz PC2700 HARD DRIVE 80GB S.M.A.R.T. Ultra ATA/100 (ATA-6) DISPLAY 12.1" WXGA Active Matrix TFT 1024 x 768 MULTIMEDIA DRIVE Dual DVD Burner VIDEO GRAPHICS Integrated Video Card COMMUNICATION Integrated V.92 56Kbps Fax Modem NETWORK CARD Integrated Fast Ethernet WIRELESS Integrated Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11g 54Mbps Mini PCI SOUND Stereo speakers KEYBOARD Full Size POINTING DEVICE Touchpad PC CARD SLOTS 1 x CardBus Type II EXTERNAL PORTS 3 x USB 2.0 1 x i.Link IEEE 1394 - FireWire 1 x Headphone(s) 1 x Microphone 1 x 15-pin D-Sub (HD-15) VGA 1 x RJ-11 Modem 1 x RJ-45 Network 1 x DC Power Input