To followup:

The flickering and shorting still happens, well after booting and installing. It
doesn't seem to be as bad in the secondary portrait mode. As for the display
darkening/light sensor issue, I turned it off in the softbuttons.

Furthermore, I now have problems with the TIP. After a few minutes, the input
panel first stops showing any ink (although it will send the invisible writing to
the selected field--I think I saw something about it but I can't seem to find it),
then the TIP freezes up altogether. The only thing that seems to work (short of a
hard reboot), is to go to laptop mode and do a ctrlaltdel on the keyboard and
force a close of the tip application. *Then* when you reopen the tip, it will
work for a while.

The catch? It only fails in tablet/portrait mode. The problem? If I didn't want
a convertible pc I would have bought a nc6000....

Also, I loaded the updates that XP was begging for (rolling back the smartcard
driver). I think it may have muddied the waters concerning this TIP issue.

--


-callahan
"Roady [MVP]" <newsgroups_DELETE_@_DELETE_sparnaaij_NO_._SPAM_ne t> wrote in
message news:uUKZoIZVEHA.212@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> 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
>
>
>
>