In-line ;-)
Regards,
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com
Tips of the month:
-Creating Signatures
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 3
-----
"Callahan" <ca_callahan@WHATZA_HEYcomputer.org> wrote in message
news:eI0y7xYVEHA.3620@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
I have been lurking on this board since the tablets came out, hoping against
hope
that one day I would be able to justify the purchase of one of my own.
---Cool!
That day has come. It was a toss up between the good old workhorse, the HP
nc6000, and the Acer c303xmi. The additional 512mb ram, 80 gig drive and dvd
burner-- for only about 96$ more, really sealed the deal for the 303xmi.
Yeah,
I'd get a strong machine and a tablet to boot.
---It comes with a Dual DVD burner as well, right?
Well, despite the fact that I have never worked with any acer products
before, and
wasn't really thrilled with the limited warranty, I decided to go for it. I
paid
for two day shipping, and voila, it's here.
---I got mine with an overnight shipping; but we still call it snail mail
;-)
I took it out of the box, and first thing I noticed is the screen doesn't
line up
properly to latch in tablet mode. It is slightly off to the right, and you
have
to sort of shift it over to get it to lock.
---The lock mechanism isn't the best indeed. When I close my screen and pick
up the tablet it gets loose already :-S
Then, during the setup process, a large keyboard popped up onscreen and
obscured
most of the
display. I had to keep moving it around to actually see the text and fill in
the
fields properly. This keyboard disappeared after the reboot (or two) that
was
required before the system actually moved into the operating system for the
first
time.
---the installation is in pretty low res so the soft keyboard indeed takes
up quite some real estate. During setup I just used the normal keyboard
When it actually booted up to a desktop, and I clicked through the tablet
stuff
that loaded, I decided to try messing with the stylus. I flipped the screen
around, snapped it down (with a jiggle), it changed from landscape to
portrait,
and I started writing....
.... then it flickered, then it shifted back into landscape, then
portrait....
---are you sure you were done installing and booting? Does t still do this
or did it happen only once? Some programs can't run in the flipped mode and
force the screen back to normal. These are mainly 3D games though (get
Tablet Pool as a free donwload from MS!)
.... I think you get the picture. Is that a common problem with the C300
series,
303s in particular? Did I just get a bad machine (figures, that is my luck)?
It
seems to "short out" if I hold onto the bottm left side (in portrait mode,
hinge
to the right) of the laptop while I write. Also, if I tip the laptop while
writing, it spontaneously shifts from one mode to the other, but not back.
---the screen catches the orientation. When portrait it switches to portrait
and when landscape it switches to landscape. You can confuse it by setting
it to landscape while in portrait and vise versa. Switching it properly some
times and using the orientation button gets it right again. Since I switch a
lot I just use the button :-)
In addition, it seems to darken and lighten the display spontaneously as I
move my
hand over the "rim" of the screen as I write (I am left handed). What's with
that?? The screen does not move, there's not a cloud in the sky, yet the it
seems
to be responding to lighting changes that do not exist....
---haha, a feature you haven't found out about yet; the little circle on the
left side of all the LEDS (most left LED is the wireless for me on the C302)
is a little eye that "sees" how light/dark your environment is and adjusts
the brightness for you automatically.
Please, could someone give me an idea of whether or not the thing is broken
(it is
now almost three hours old) and needs to be sent back or if there is a
patch, fix,
or tweak that will make the issue go away.
---I wouldn't call it broken; just play with it some more
I was so looking forward to getting my own tablet...
---and I'm sure you'll enjoy it for a long long time. When Service Pack 2
comes out; install it! It has incredible improvements for the input panel
(TIP); you'll love it even more!
--
-callahan
--
-callahan