Allow me to put in some more information into the equation so everyone can ponder. That cost of his is the price he gets from the main ASUS representative office. And behind that chain, there's another cost from the manufacturer. In mass production scale, these components are pretty cheap. The bill of materials cost should be a lot cheaper. And all these costs will give you the retail price. Some retail stores can give you a more competitive price because they get consignment from ASUS. In such a large quantity buy sell, there's can be a lot of freedom in adjusting the price while still be able to take a large cut of the cake.

No offense here but I don't understand every time when a product is in heavy demand, the quality control will go down the drain. And it always associated to the non-western products. The failure rate is always consistent. With more demand, they simply produce more. And that failure rate is represented by a larger quantity but their percentage is always the same.

Again why would a battery face a problem just because its factory was in a serious fire? It was either produced before that faithful event or they were produced after. Why would the fire be involved? They could just build it somewhere else.

The newcomers simply tries to attract consumers by spending more time on the cosmetic/exterior of the product. They give better specifications at a more competitive price. With a lower price, it will always eat into the reliability of a product and somewhere in between. Then again, people don't over-engineer a product to last longer than the lifetime of usage. So a time span of between 3-5 years (usually) is reasonable.

You mean there's a leakage somewhere in the circuitry? Well the Celeron M ULV was built on a larger architecture and not 45nm. The core voltage will always be slightly higher. Also the chipset used is off an older generation and it sucks a lot of power too.

Maybe you can identify the chipset number used in your machine. Then look for other vista notebook drivers which uses the same chipset. It should work. Some are product specific, so you need to keep looking.

According to the information I searched from the internet, the WIFI card used in the Eee PC 900 is still the same one used on the Eee PC 701. The WIFI chipset is Atheros 5700. Maybe you can try another way to obtain the driver - through Windows Update. The standard installation should have drivers for your built-in ethernet. You can then access Windows Update and hopefully it is able to detect a proper driver for it.

Yeah adapter is very hot especially when you are using and recharging the battery pack at the same time. I think its due to the small and compact nature of the adapter. The amperage is also very high but you can charge the battery faster though.

Yes that is true but the drain does not comes from the Eee PC but from the battery itself. It is a feature of every rechargeable battery or battery because there's always an internal resistance. It will cause a self drain but usually a very low percentage each day to a month. In Eee PC 900/700's case, the drain is exceptionally high... up to 10% each day as reported by the sources.

In my experience with the Eee PC 901 so far, the keyboard area isn't hot or warm at all during heavy use. At most the underneath is warm only. The fan does a good job in dissipating the heat away from the unit. During charging however, the battery module is slightly warm especially the area near the hinge.

Actually any bluetooth GPS receiver will do just fine. The navigational software can be of any. For the sake of convenience and usability we usually prefer either Garmin or Mapking. The map support is also great because we have the local community Malsingmap providing very detail maps of our country. If you want recommendation you can try Holux or any brands that uses the SirfStarIII or MTK chipsets. Lookout our trade section, there is one member selling these devices.

If you're really concern on the battery, then you can use the Eee PC with the battery removed. However, you will now be exposed to power outage and whatever data you're working with will be lost. If you use the Eee PC as an information consumption device, then this is not really a problem. The NTFS file system is a journal based file system and is very robust.

If you are using 2GB of RAM, the space required to do hibernation will be higher and that is 2048MB as indicated by SKY.

Check the bottom casing of your Eee PC 901. There are various product stickers at the bottom. Notice one of the stickers which has a number such as 12 on the corner of the sticker. If you have 12, that means the hardware motherboard is version 1.2/12 and that is the same motherboard used for upgrading by JKKmobile on his youtube guide on HDD modification.

Bro, the price of RM80 is nice! You're selling at RM50? Sweeter... Anyway how old is the product? Does it have a ZIF cable?

Yes, that is the one used by JKKmobile on his own modifications. Yours should be equipped with the ZIF connector.

Gosh, few subversions on the same motherboard revision? Now that misleading. Guess we'll have to open up the casing to find the answer. I think the 1.8" HDD solution is a better alternative if the price is not near RM350. Otherwise the 32GB for RM450 sounds reasonable because it also have 30GB of space and the performance is most likely faster including the advantages of a SSD. But I agree with you, SD cards are cheap and the non-invasive way of having more storage.

However, if users are using the Eee PC as designed I don't think upgrading the storage is ever required. Given internet/communication program does not require a lot of space and also the advent of Web2.0 applications, the default storage is actually pretty ok. User files can be saved on the SD card for utmost portability.

Well the Eee PC 701's resolution is lesser so you'll be doing a lot of horizontal left right scrolling. Not an enjoyable experience. Better aim for the Eee PC 901 or other alternatives with at least 1024 x 600 resolutions. The 1024 horizontal pixels is required because most web pages are designed to be viewed on a standard 15-17" 1024x768 resolution monitor.

Yes, its small but you'll get used to it. Its not really really tiny but you'll find reading Eee PC like reading a small book. The 1024 horizontal resolution is able to display a lot of information but the vertical resolution is just not enough. But thats fine since you can scroll up and down easily than left and right. If 8.9" is small for you, then the 10" will give you a large size but with the same resolution and no more information than the 8.9".

I am not sure but I remember the external VGA port can support external monitor or TV. The resolution will definitely be higher than the standard 1024x600 resolution on the 8.9/10" LCD display. We're talking about the GMA950 here. Look up for the Intel specifications for the resolutions supported. I have the same graphics core on my 15.4" laptop with resolution of 1280x800. So I don't think it will have problem with the 22" LCD. But you'll need to try to find out.

Maybe other uses can chip in?

Same here hehehehe I am wiping the glossy surface every time I used it with a microfiber cloth. But I am liking the surface because it seems to be quite resistant to scratches and smudges. Like the white color so much.

I would definitely go for the Eee PC 901. Better overall specifications even though it does not have as much storage capacity as the Eee PC 900. But if your priorities are storage capacity and you don't wanna invest anymore SDHC cards for the 901, then the choice is clear.

Yeah lucky for me too, otherwise I may never get the right 900-series. Seems like ASUS is creating a mess here. They wanna maintain the RM1699 price point throughout the 900-series family. So they mix this and that. To make matters worst, a consumer may never get the right 900-series. Currently I think the 901 is the right balance between performance and form factor. The rest is basically so close.

I guess they are trying to force consumers to go straight for the 1000H?

This could be the reason why the Eee PC 901 is nowhere to be seen and instead 904 coming into the picture. As far as 901 is concern it is still the best Atom platform for the 8.9" form factor. If this shortages of Atom is true, the 1000H should be affected real soon since it uses the same CPU too.

Dailytech: Shortages of Intel Atom CPU Leads ASUS to Celeron M
http://www.dailytech.com/Shortages+of+Inte...rticle12742.htm

Hehehe I wonder who is interested in my one-month-old 901. Toying with the idea of funding for a VAIO SR-series.

No no... don't jump to conclusion so fast. I am not trying to make a profit here. Its just that the selling price will not be as low, thats all. I bought mine at RM1749, so maybe sell at RM1600 and below. But I have not decided yet.

I think my prices for my stuff has always been reasonable so I guess it's gonna be ok.

Honestly speaking, I hope there is one in the future. But the current dual core Atom sold for desktop boards has a Z suffix in front. The netbooks uses N suffixes. I hope Intel will not restrict dual core Atoms from the netbooks. Now that the Centrino Atoms brand name has been dropped, I do hope the dual core Atoms if they ever become available for netbooks come with the Poulsbo chipset.

The current i945GSE maybe throwing out a lot of heat and not as efficient as the CPU itself. A very ironic feeling there.

Nice! Really nice... good that you have that ZIF connector intact.

You can start by simply right clicking a folder and then select 'share'. Different OS would have this option differently but the concept is the same. I assume that all your computers are able to connect to the router and have access to the internet. So technically, all your computers should have a valid internal IP address and on the same domain.

Try using your hair dryer set to medium heat and gently blow on the material to allow it to expand. When it is soft, it is easier to 'shape' the curves and bends. Don't overheat though, we don't want burnt plastics hehehehe. Especially white plastics which turns brown in no time!

Just to add in for the benefit to other users, you can also copy the installations files from the Office 2003/2007 CD to the thumb drive and execute from there. You don't need the autostart scripts. Just run the executable/msi file and it will install on its own.