Advent 4213 Netbook Advice!

[mkohman]

Hey Guys,

Just purchased a Advent 4213 Netbook from online for £219.00.. these are going for £299.00 but I got a great deal on a refurbished model from a reputable company.. in the UK..

it has 160GB HDD and 1GB RAM and comes with XP.. I have been reading some other forums on how to upgrade the RAM to a 2GB RAM which can be purchased for £15-20 in UK. which is worth the extra 1GB..

However as this has not got a CD or DVD Rom as its a netbook does anyone know how I can upgrade this to Vista 32 BIT from XP? I have original Vista DVD 32 and 64bit and also I have a 4GB flash drive and a usb2 100GB HDD if this helps at all.. but how would I upgrade it to VISTA?

Also does anyone else have this model netbook and if so whats your experiences.. is it good? this is my first netbook and I can't wait for it to be delivered..

Please help and advice.. thanks guys.. :)

[YP5 Toronto]

Not sure putting Vista on that platform would be the best idea. Performance would be better with XP. Vista is too much of a resource hog.

You could go with vista, however you would need to source the 32bit VISTA drivers from the manufacaturer. I doubt they have developed them. If they have you are in luck and you should be able to do it. They key is that ALL the required drivers are available for the netbook.

edit: found you a link where people are getting it done themselves: http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/netbook/17942-advent-4213-upgrade-xp-vista.html

[mkohman]

Not sure putting Vista on that platform would be the best idea. Performance would be better with XP. Vista is too much of a resource hog.

You could go with vista, however you would need to source the 32bit VISTA drivers from the manufacaturer. I doubt they have developed them. If they have you are in luck and you should be able to do it. They key is that ALL the required drivers are available for the netbook.

edit: found you a link where people are getting it done themselves: http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/netbook/17942-advent-4213-upgrade-xp-vista.html


Thanks for the link bro, this is the actual link and forum I was reading earlier :) Well I agree vista will probably be a hog but with the upgrade to 2GB I am sure it would be ok ? :) or maybe not lol :)

[YP5 Toronto]

any particular compelling need to go to vista a netbook platform?

[HankScorpio]

I have that netbook (lives permanently in my car) and it will not run Vista at an acceptable speed the Atom CPU in it just can't handle it even with all the fluffy things turned off.

If you must try it then simply format a USB flash drive (2GB at least) with FAT32, copy the entire contents of the Vista DVD to it and then boot the netbook from the USB flash disk.

You should actually be able to copy the entire contents of the DVD to the netbook over a network connection then run the installer from the hard drive. That used to work with XP.

I tried mine with Vista, Windows 7 and a few flavours of Linux (I bought a USB DVD drive) and have gone back to XP but using StyleXP to pretty it up a bit.

As for the netbook itself, it's great. Boots quickly and does everything you could want from a tiny PC. I basically use mine for web, email, photo storage and sending killer shots to my webserver for safe keeping while away from home and it hasn't failed me yet.

I bought it as a stopgap measure when my Sony VAIO got recalled because it had the potential to set me on fire. But since the VAIO came back, it hasn't been turned on as the netbook does everything I need in a smaller, less battery hungry package.

[mkohman]

I have that netbook (lives permanently in my car) and it will not run Vista at an acceptable speed the Atom CPU in it just can't handle it even with all the fluffy things turned off.

If you must try it then simply format a USB flash drive (2GB at least) with FAT32, copy the entire contents of the Vista DVD to it and then boot the netbook from the USB flash disk.

You should actually be able to copy the entire contents of the DVD to the netbook over a network connection then run the installer from the hard drive. That used to work with XP.

I tried mine with Vista, Windows 7 and a few flavours of Linux (I bought a USB DVD drive) and have gone back to XP but using StyleXP to pretty it up a bit.

As for the netbook itself, it's great. Boots quickly and does everything you could want from a tiny PC. I basically use mine for web, email, photo storage and sending killer shots to my webserver for safe keeping while away from home and it hasn't failed me yet.

I bought it as a stopgap measure when my Sony VAIO got recalled because it had the potential to set me on fire. But since the VAIO came back, it hasn't been turned on as the netbook does everything I need in a smaller, less battery hungry package.

Thanks for the info mate.. will probably keep XP on it if you say its better. Only wanted vista as I have vista at home and used to using it as its prettier lol :) but I guess I won't need all the vista features so whats the point really.. thanks for the info .. do you have the same netbook ? If so whats the battery life hours on one of these? 3-4 hrs or less? thanks

[HankScorpio]

Battery life on mine is around 3 hours. 4 if I'm not running a HSDPA dongle.

[mkohman]

Battery life on mine is around 3 hours. 4 if I'm not running a HSDPA dongle.

Mate I got mine yesterday and upgraded the Ram to 2GB and installed windows 7 build 7068.. its sweeeet :)

well pleased with this little fella :)

However I wanted to ask you something.. is the max RAM 2GB that can be upgraded or will it take a 4gb chip.. ?

Also whats the maximum HDD that can be put in this machine as there are some good deals on a 320gb on ebay. thanks

[HankScorpio]

I've not tried a 4GB stick, I've got 2GB in mine. No idea what it's maximum is.

As for HDD, mine now has a 500GB Seagate Momentus 2.5" drive that I got from here (http://www.laptopshop.co.uk/laptop-hard-drives.htm). Works a treat.

[mkohman]

I've not tried a 4GB stick, I've got 2GB in mine. No idea what it's maximum is.

As for HDD, mine now has a 500GB Seagate Momentus 2.5" drive that I got from here (http://www.laptopshop.co.uk/laptop-hard-drives.htm). Works a treat.


hmmm thats good but a little pricey I guess :) do you know or have a tutorial with pics as to how I can change my HDD please? Need a tutorial if you know any, I dont want to be un screwing anything unnessacery.. .. many thanks ....

[HankScorpio]

I don't have a tutorial but I'd never opened a laptop before and I found it very simple.

[mkohman]

I don't have a tutorial but I'd never opened a laptop before and I found it very simple.

:) I will give it a go.. but why do you need such a big HDD?

[mkohman]

I've not tried a 4GB stick, I've got 2GB in mine. No idea what it's maximum is.

As for HDD, mine now has a 500GB Seagate Momentus 2.5" drive that I got from here (http://www.laptopshop.co.uk/laptop-hard-drives.htm). Works a treat.


Hmmm interesting.. please check this out and tell me if this is the HDD you have? the price is not bad at all .. Please click here (http://www.techbitsonline.co.uk/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ST9500325AS) to check :)

[HankScorpio]

I don't really need it but I figured I'd get the biggest I could find just in case. Also I plan to ebay my Sony VAIO which will more than pay for the netbook, RAM and HDD.

[HankScorpio]

Hmmm interesting.. please check this out and tell me if this is the HDD you have? the price is not bad at all .. Please click here (http://www.techbitsonline.co.uk/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ST9500325AS) to check :)
Yes, that's the one I have.

[mkohman]

Yes, that's the one I have.

Thank you mate.. I mean the price is reasonable I guess.. I may go for it .. but what would I put on it lol .. maybe some divx movies :)

[mkohman]

Yes, that's the one I have.


Bro please can you advise me how to boot XP back on this machine.. I think XP will run alot smoother.. I have a 4GB usb stick I tried copyin all the contents on my xp cd but did not boot.. says in bios when I try to boot from the usb flash drive "boot file not available" or something like this.. any ideas? thanks

[HankScorpio]

I'm not really sure. I bought a USB DVD drive because I'm not great at that kind of thing. Did it come with a recovery partition on the hard drive? Mine originally had the option to boot into the XP recovery application which would restore it to factory default.