ECS (ECS i-Buddie A928)

Member Name: webblogger

Product:	ECS i-Buddie A928
Date:	13/11/04 (2265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: bright screen, ok speakers, ok keyboard

Disadvantages: reliability, support, speed

Elitegroup ESC desknote iBuddie A 929 user review

I bought this laptop at the beginning of 2002 (august 2004 now) with an 1800 Atlon XP, 256MB Ram (upgraded afterwards with an 512MB Infineon module) a 30gb Fujitsu Hdd and a DVD CDRW combo for about 900 Euros.
It came with windows XP Professional edition but for some good reasons I wanted to have windows 2000 installed. The install went fine until I wanted to install the drivers from the original driver CD. It was a no go situation until I had the idea to make a copy of the supplied CD. Afterwards everything went just fine. The reason why I could only install from a self-made copy and not from the ORIGINAL CD is beyond me.
Under windows 2k this laptop was rock stable I cant remember a single crash. I also had Suse linux 9.0 personal edition on it with everything working just fine.
The first problem appeared 3 (three!) months after purchase: the power supply connector just melted and one of the three pins remained in the power plug. I mean if grandma would start building laptops things like this may happen, but ?!? Whatever.
Called the guys from ECS here in Germany, wrote several emails. They didn?t even try to appear helpful. So much about ECS support! , I took the matter in my own hands, opened the thing and soldered the dammed connector.
I had again problems with the computer about two months later. On occasions it would not boot, I would get only the suspend led on, the processor fan and a black screen. It would start maybe after several hours or the next day. After some internet search I founded a bios update which would fix this (at least so was written on their web site). I know better because I installed that update and the erratic behavior continued just like before. Well I founded there several other updates, one suppressing a real loud and nasty beep that the computer is making each time is started and the other which would make the pretty loud cpu fan (placed right in front of you) turn only when needed. For reasons beyond my understanding you can have only one of them at the same time - that is, either the one which was intended to fix my problem with the failing boot, either the one removing the start up beep (believe me I know what I mean when I say it?s nasty) or the one reducing the noise of the cooler). At that time I choose the update removing the beep. Just checked on their web site, it appears that they had removed the last two. Nice one ECS!
Other gripes: at one time I tried to install Thiz linux (ECS edition) which also came with the laptop. So I made partitions, popped the CD in, booted from it just to get the message that it can?t be installed from the CD. Don?t ask me why. It presented me with the option to install over some pcmcia adapter. Funny thing is this laptop does NOT have a pcmcia adapter at all.
The speed of this computer with a 1800 XP athlon and 512MB RAM somehow reached the speed of my 1.3 ghz duron desktop with 256MB memory. (I did some mp3 and video encoding benchmarks on both of them)
This laptop gets HOT! Good think they called it a desknote. It has two plastic supports on the bottom far side, something like a desktop keyboard. They recommend that you extend them so that some air gets under the computer. They are the flimsiest thing ever built in a computer. Mine broke in first two weeks of use.
The size and weight of this computer: Even without a battery is heavier than every other 14? full option laptop I got my hands on. Add the big noisy power supply unit and you are ready to go.
Good things: it has a decent keyboard, a bright screen and good speakers.
That is about it.

Summary: