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Amilo M3438G Post Format + Install Advice Req...

post #1 of 15
9/16/05 at 4:13pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,

Got my M3438G this morning and as I expected, its top dollar !

It came with loads of crap installed so I decided to wipe it and start again.
I was hoping to put a copy of XP Pro on that I had but when I tried it would not recognise the drives, I am assuming the copy of XP Home that came bundled with it has a RAID driver of some sort included.

Anyway, I have got XP home installed and have a few questions for any fellow M3438G owners out there.

1)Has anyone done an upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro and was it ok or messy ?

2) What does silent mode mean (the fan symbol) ?

3) I seem to have an extra network connection aswell as the expected gigabit + wireless ones called '1394 Connection' which is showing as being
connected at 400MBs, what is it ?

4) How cool is the little remote control that pops out !!!!!!!


Cheers in advance

Shandy
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post #2 of 15
9/16/05 at 5:53pm
Shady mine came this morning too! Great eh?

Im about to format need some q's answered, though I can answer most of yours anyways:

1. An upgrade to Pro would be simple, several ways to get around the raid issue:

Use a USB floppy drive to load the sata drivers, Use a program called Nlite:

http://www.nliteos.com/

To make a custom copy of your windows cd which includes the raid drivers.

2. Silent mode allows you to run the system without the fans, this is achieved by underclocking the cpu and gfx so they produce little heat. Useful for watching DVDs etc.

3. Thats your firewire connection, they are networkable, remember the "Ilink" in the PS2? That was the same.

4. Its fooking brilliant!


Anyways my questions:

What media did u use for the reinstall? If I use a normal WinXP Home CD can I use the key under the lappy?

How do you make the lappy run at full power on battery, mine keeps being underclocked, meaning you cant play games on battery?
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post #3 of 15
9/16/05 at 6:35pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for info, think I am gonna stick with XP Home for now as aint got a floppy to hand...


Right, if you use the media that came with the system it does not ask for CD Key, well, mine didnt. Its definately worth doing to get rid of all the shite they put on and start fresh/
Once installed and booted into windows it will try and install driver for various things, just cancel any that come up and put in the Driver/Utils CD. It will bring up menu, just choose your model and select express install, works a treat. You need to install the WLAN + InstantON Cinema thing manually from the same menu, just choose manual install instead of express and they are at bottom of page.

Ooh not sure about the battery question as I have got mine plugged in, just been playing call of duty, fookin ace. I suppose it must be possible but cant .see anything in power options, might be a question for Fujitsu/
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post #4 of 15
9/16/05 at 7:34pm
Apparently you do it by going into power options in control panel and setting the profile to "Always on" Will try it later.

Ive just this minute finished burning a customized XP home CD with the sata drivers, will let u know how it goes.
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post #5 of 15
9/16/05 at 9:35pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah keep me posted!!!
I am defo gonna give that nlite a go when i get chance as need a XP Pro CD with the SATA drivers.

I have just been installing Oracle 8i and it works like a dream which is suprising as its not supported on XP Home.
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post #6 of 15
9/16/05 at 10:21pm
Right, it works!

Also works perfectly with the cd key under the lappy, right now this is on the second partition and just did a dual boot, original is still safe on the first. But im gonna wipe that now I see it works, im really impressed with Nlite. I just did a base WinXP Home config with the sata drivers included and the default ide bus controllers removed. Its running flawlessly.

Im going to do a deeper more configured version, cut down some of the useless system crap, gonna make this baby sleek. Saying that the difference is noticable on this alone.

Pro should work in exactly the same way.

I have a Q about raid though, by default its not in an array, I dont see anyway too set the array up pre-windows? All raid ive dealt with has been configured in the bios, how do you set up raid on this lappy?
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post #7 of 15
9/16/05 at 10:51pm
Nvm found the bios option, its hidden after turn on press f2, in between that screen and the bios press tab to enter the raid facillity, note that you will lose all data so I recommend doing it just before u install pro
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post #8 of 15
9/16/05 at 11:09pm
Thread Starter 
Dont think I am gonna bother with RAID at moment as cant face installing everything again. If you do implement RAID let me know if you see any performance increase...
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post #9 of 15
9/16/05 at 11:21pm
Thread Starter 
I aint looked into the RAID config too much but striping seems the logical option as there could be performance improvement. My only concern would be if it would genrate more heat using both the disks although I suppose it could have the opposite effect and spread the heat. I guess the only downside is if you lose one disk, you lose everything but then I suppose If you dont mirror and just use the two disks separately and then lose main disk, then you have knackered anyway.
Mirroring dont seem like an option, well not for me, cant afford to lose 60GB.

I have got some questions on RAID which posted in general bit as hoping for a quick response but you may be able to help me out...

http://www.notebookforums.com/showth...33#post1216433
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post #10 of 15
9/17/05 at 8:10am
I posted, will give you a defo answer a lil later once I set it up.
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post #11 of 15
9/17/05 at 11:54am
Ok so ive set up the Raid Striped array now, that was simple enough. Ive created another more customized XP Home CD with the Sata Drivers, and im now sitting through XP install, shouldnt take too long.
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post #12 of 15
9/17/05 at 12:02pm
Thread Starter 
What block size did you use ?
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post #13 of 15
9/17/05 at 12:24pm
64K, it was the default setting, plus it sounded good lol. Its also the setting of choice in the "Automated Setup" so figured it was right.

Ive installed XP home, just formatting my partitions, so far so good.
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post #14 of 15
9/19/05 at 3:06pm
Hey, did you guys get a FULL copy of XP with your laptop? Mine's just Fujitsu's recovery disk and I guess it'll have all the unnecessary shit pre-installed on it? =/
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post #15 of 15
9/19/05 at 3:53pm
Ye recovery disk, the large majority of new computers do only ship with these now, certainly an annoyance. Though I got around it, "found" a copy of XP Home with SP2 (same as shipped with the lappy), used Nlite to include the sata drivers for the harddrives, and then installed this using the license key under the lappy.

So id recommend this method rather than using the bloatware recovery cd.
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