NetbookTech

We’ve got a bit more information about the new dual-booting Acer Aspire One AOD250 netbook courtesy of Acer’s official press release today (ok well yesterday). First off, in case you missed it, the new AOD250 will come with both Microsoft Windows XP as well as the Android OS – giving users a choice of two operating systems depending upon their needs.

Users of the Aspire One AOD250 will be able to switch between the two OS’s with just a click of a mouse. Android allows the AOD250 to boot up and shut down quickly – with near “instant-on” Internet connectivity.

According to Sumit Agnihotry, vice president of product management for Acer America, “The Android operating system and the Aspire One netbook is an ideal combination for end users that require a highly mobile device for data consumption..The unique dual-boot OS on the new Aspire One ensures users fast connections, the familiarity of Windows, and the added convenience of open source mobile platforms and applications.”

Here’s a list of the complete specs to the new AOD250:

• Intel Atom Processor N280 (1.66GHz, 512KB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB)
• Dual-Boot Operating System, choose between Android and Windows XP Home operating systems
• 10.1″ WSVGA Acer CrystalBrite LED-backlit Display
• Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset
• Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• 1024MB DDR2 667MHz Memory
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
• Acer InviLink 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED®
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Integrated Acer Crystal Eye Webcam
• Two Built-in Stereo Speakers
• Dolby® Headphone Technology
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• 3 – USB 2.0 Ports
• 6-cell Li-ion Battery (5800 mAh)
• 2.79 lbs. | 1.27 kg
• 10.2” (W) x 8.4” (D) x 1.0” (H)
• MSRP: $349.99
• Four stylish colors: Ruby Red, Diamond Black, Sapphire Blue and Seashell White

What’s not mentioned in the official press release is the rather smallish keyboard – measuring in at 89 percent according to order information at Amazon.com. On the up side, the high-capacity 5800 mAh 6 cell Lithium Ion battery should allow for near-all-day power. Although listed yesterday as a pre-order item, Amazon now states the new Acer AOD250 netbook is in stock and available for $349.99

[Check it out]

Before doing this – make sure to create your Gateway recovery DVDs using the built-in software that comes with the LT3101u.  I needed two blank DVDs for a recovery image of the entire system and one black DVD for application and drivers. These discs will be useful in case you want to:

1. go back to Windows Vista Home Edition or

2. install other version of Windows such as Windows 7 32bit or 64 bit.

For now, we’re going to concentrate on installing Windows XP Professional SP2 on the LT3103u.

So..

Step 1: Boot from Windows XP install DVD:

Get your trusty external USB drive and connect it to the Gateway. For this experiment, I used a Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 installation DVD. Make sure your netbook will boot from the USB DVD drive first before checking the internal hard drive. You’ll need to change the boot order by going into the BIOS (Press F2). Move the USB drive to the top, save changes, and then boot from the DVD.

Step 2: Format the correct partition for Windows XP

The first major thing XP setup will ask you is to identify a partition to install the OS.

You’ll notice two partitions on your netbook – one small OEM partition (labeled PQSERVICE) and one large (200GB+) partition containing Windows Vista. Go ahead and wipe that large partition (do a quick NTFS format) – you’ll be installing Windows XP on that partition. You could of course wipe both partitions if you’ve already created your recovery DVDs – I like to just keep things around just in case.

Step 3: Install Windows

Once the appropriate partition has been formatted, the setup will copy all the necessary files to your netbook and proceed with the installation of the OS.

 

The entire installation process will take some time – the text portion took approximately 10 minutes. A quick reboot and up came the graphical portion of the setup process which took approximately 30+ minutes.

A reboot – a few more setup questions and we’re into the Windows XP desktop.

SO what’s missing?

Here’s a look at Device Manager:

Drivers missing for:

• Ethernet Controller
• Network Controller
• PCI Device
• SM Bus Controller
• Video Controller

 

Step 4: Install the Network Drivers

Unfortunately Gateway doesn’t provide the Windows XP drivers for the missing components above. Luckily the Vista drivers Gateway does provide with the netbook helps us determine what XP drivers we do need to find from the web.

One of the first things we’d like to resolve is the missing network drivers – whether it’s the Ethernet or Wireless networking – it doesn’t really matter – as long as one of the network devices work.

Why get networking up and running first? Once you have networking working, you can download the necessary software updates/drivers directly to the netbook instead of using an external PC system.

For Wi-Fi, you’ll need to find the Windows XP driver for the Atheros Wi-Fi chipset (AR5B95 Wireless Network Adapter). I used the drivers found on this website here:

http://www.atheros.cz/download.php?atheros=AR5B95&system=2

Keep in mind this download apparently packages both 32 bit and 64 bit drivers – make sure to install the 32 bit driver (the 64 bit driver will fail to install)

The Ethernet controller is the Realtek LAN RTL8103EL. I found a driver courtesy of Dell via this website below:

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/NETWORK-CARD/REALTEK/Dell-Inspiron-Mini-10V-Realtek-RTL8103EL-GR-LAN-Driver-A01.shtml

Both drivers were downloaded on a separate PC and then brought over to the Gateway LT3103u via a USB flash drive.

Step 5: Install the video drivers

To fix the video driver problem, I used the ATI Radeon X1200 Series driver located here:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/integrated_mce-xp.aspx?type=2.7&product=2.7.5.3.2&lang=English

If you haven’t installed Microsoft .NET you’ll notice an error message appear when trying to install the ATI Catalyst software application. The app will install but it won’t be able to execute since it requires .NET 2.0 or higher. Make sure to install .NET afterwards.

A quick reboot and you’ll notice the screen resolution is at the appropriate levels.

Step 6: Install the SM Bus Controller driver

After the display driver is installed, go ahead and install the driver for the SM Bus Controller (The System Management Bus Controller).  The driver can also be found at the AMD/ATI website here:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/integrated_mce-xp.aspx?type=2.7&product=2.7.3.3.1.3.2&lang=English

In case the link fails to work – simply select graphics drivers for the ATI Radeon X1200 series and then scroll down to the bottom for the South Bridge Driver. Download and install the South Bridge Driver.

Step 7: Update to Service Pack 3 and perform Windows Update

Because I started with Service Pack 2, I decided to perform an update to Service Pack 3 and thanks to networking being enabled, I was able to do so directly on the LT3103u. Of course if you already started with SP3 – you’re fine at this point.

Once SP 3 is installed, Windows XP found the necessary Realtek HD audio drivers for the last device – which was the unidentified “PCI Device”

I ran Windows Update yet again and found a slew of additional updates to install including two hardware driver updates – One driver is for the AMD processor and the other driver is for the Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller. 

Installed all the updates, rebooted, and looked into Device Manager to see the following:

Yup – everything working.

Is that the end of things? Technically from a driver standpoint it is – but you can always do more. We went ahead and installed the Synaptics driver that came with the Gateway application/driver recovery DVD (yup – it installed just fine under XP).

 

And there you have it – Windows XP running on the Gateway LT3103u. Enjoy!