Homemade Tablet PC Progress Thread. ***UPDATED***

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:55 pm

Bump. Ive decided to scrap this project. BUT. Not completely. More like a revamption.

Instead of making my own computer and such, it would be about $200 less to buy a EEE-PC instead. (In total parts, excluding labour and shipping)

Now, Im going to totally redesign the eeepc. No keyboard, No mouse, and monitor switching. Instead of using the built in, non touchscreen monitor in the laptop, Im switching it with a 8inch touchscreen.

(Which is good, as the EEEpc monitor has a 7inch, and the touchscreen monitor is an 8inch, so well. Its bigger.)

Now you say, why no mouse or keyboard? Well, because. Its a tablet.

I'm also, going to buy a 4-12gb CF card, and buy an IDE to Usb Adapter, and then buy a IDE to CF adapter. So, I have an external CF card (CF HDD) that plugs in through USB.

How would I connect them though? I need to basically: Plug a USB male to IDE female into a IDE female to CF. (IF I cannot find a IDE to CF adapter, which has a male IDE end instead of a female. Which there are some of those on ebay.)

How do I connect to IDE females together?

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:58 pm

Just get a USB CF card reader...

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:07 pm

vb_master wrote:Just get a USB CF card reader...

I was gonna say...

Good for you, hotdog! You're fixing my one main beef with the Eee. It would be a great little cheap laptop if it had a better screen. 800x480 just isn't enough! Now a 10" 1280x768 screen...

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:30 pm

Well, One problem with the USB cf reader. If I plug it into the USB drive, will the computer recognize it as a HDD?

(As, I want the eeepc to think that the 12gb CF card is an HDD. Yet, If I buy a USB to CF reader, will the laptop recognize the CF card as a HDD, or as just a CF card plugged into USB?)

(Like, I want to install windows xp on this 12gb card. So I want the laptop to think the card is a HDD, so it can install XP onto it, and so XP can boot off it. Yet if the laptop doesnt recognize CF card as being as HDD since its just plugged into a USB CF reader, it wont install XP on it.)

See my problem/question?

Also, the current touchscreen I'm looking at is an 8inch. Still 1 inch bigger than the eeepc's screen. If I see a 10inch, for a reasonable price, I'll grab it.

Thanks.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:33 pm

bicostp wrote:Good for you, hotdog! You're fixing my one main beef with the Eee. It would be a great little cheap laptop if it had a better screen. 800x480 just isn't enough! Now a 10" 1280x768 screen...

They're coming out with an 8.9" EEE thats 1024x600. No word on official US price, but its been guessed that it'll be $400-600, coming out around summer, specs still aren't known, might be the same as the 7", might be better.

EDIT:

HotDog-Cart wrote:Well, One problem with the USB cf reader. If I plug it into the USB drive, will the computer recognize it as a HDD?

Yes it will, you could even use a USB flash drive if you want.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:53 pm

Woah. Seriously? Nice.

How can I get the computer to recognize the 4-12gb CF card inside the USB CF/Card reader as a HDD?

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:08 pm

Methinks you should look at http://beta.ivancover.com/wiki/index.ph ... l_Upgrades

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:25 pm

I dont get what that thing says about USB's.

Whats it saying?

That its upgradeable? Or ??

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:47 pm

I have seen articles in PC magazines and internet of installing XP onto the Eee, basically if you get rid of some programs pre-install you don't need on the Windows installation, it will fit onto the Eee's memory, which appears to be what you want. That would mean the Eee holds the OS and your CF card can have the programs, data and games; which has to be a better option.

The larger Eee sounds quite nice, although if it gets too much bigger it will just be like a normal laptop!

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:54 pm

Yea I know. But heres why I need to install to the cf.

As: How can I install XP onto a computer without a disc drive? Exactly.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:56 pm

I believe you copy all the files from the CD to a USB drive or something of the sort, and set it to be a bootable device. There's instructions on the interweb.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:00 pm

Link me to some? Im doing a research paper, and cant really multi task.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:24 pm

bacteria wrote:The larger Eee sounds quite nice, although if it gets too much bigger it will just be like a normal laptop!

Its actually just barely bigger than the 7 inch, as the 7" has that monster border around the screen. Theres a pic comparing them here.

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:40 pm

I installed XP to my Eee using an IDE DVD drive in an USB enclosure.

Make sure to use nLite to remove a lot of stuff from your XP CD. While you're at it, you can also integrate your serial key (which is what I did with my corporate edition disk)

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:55 pm

An external CD drive is all you need. Also use nLite to cut out things you definitely won't need to save space on the internal flash memory. (I suggest starting with things like the Help center, Windows Tour, Messenger, and Movie Maker.)

vskid wrote:Its actually just barely bigger than the 7 inch, as the 7" has that monster border around the screen. Theres a pic comparing them here.

Now that's exactly what I'm talking about! The new one looks much less like a toy.

If they keep the price reasonable and upgrade the internals a bit I might get one someday. (If it's more expensive and doesn't have a significant performance advantage I'll just go with a Toshiba Portege. Those things are really small.)

This makes me miss using my Powerbook Duo on a regular basis. Laptops shouldn't be aircraft carriers like my Pavillion dv5000.

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Homemade Tablet PC Progress Thread. UPDATED