Chinese netbooks...

[Powerpie5000]

My brother gave me his old cheapo 7" Chinese netbook that he got from Amazon over a year ago, it's one of those no-name things that originally came with Windows CE 6.0 installed. Does anyone have experience with these devices? My brother was running an Android OS (1.6 i think) and recently it all went to hell, so now i've tried reinstalling Windows CE 6.0 but it all ends up in Chinese! I can't figure out how to change the language (it originally had Windows CE in English installed when he got it).

There are so many Chinese netbooks that look the same, but most seem to have different specs... The old Amazon listing described this one as:

EPC-WM8505
7" WSVGA screen 800x480 pixels
300Mhz VIA ARM920 processor (aka WonderMedia WM8505 or Via Technologies VT8505)
128Mb DDR RAM
2GB internal NAND flash storage
Built in WIFI
3 x USB ports
1 x Micro SD port (upto 32GB)
RJ45 ethernet LAN
Stereo speakers
1 x headphone jack
1 x mic jack
9V DC input

I thought 'WM8505' was the CPU but it also says 'ARM920'.... It doesn't have any model numbers or any labels (my brother threw away the box ages ago oh.

I might give up with this one as it seems a bit of a lost cause. It's slow and i can't find a stable OS that functions correctly! The DC input and heaphone socket also seem to need attention as they need a bit of 'wiggling'. I've heard of people putting Linux on these things, but is it worth it?


It looks like this one on the outside:

---------- Post added at 14:36 ---------- Previous post was at 14:14 ----------

Just updated this mutant netbook to Android FLUX edition (i think it's ANDROID 2.2)... All good except it's got the annoying 'volume bug' where the volume box pops up and doesn't go away (i don't have much experience with Android so i'm not sure how to fix it! :dry.

Anyway, i've just managed to find a bundle of different Android and WinCE versions that are meant for these WM8505/VT8505 (VIA ARM?) netbooks. Just got to find one that works propeerly as these devices may look the same on the outside but many have slightly different hardware configs :banghead:

At least i haven't managed to brick it yet

 

[Powerpie5000]

I've had some success in setting this thing up! It's now running Windows CE 6.0 in English . It seems the installation will boot to the Windows CE desktop and display everything is in Chinese, but after rebooting it all appears in English (strange i thought).

Now i have a couple of problems:

1. There is no audio... I'm guessing i have the wrong driver or CE build for this netbook (there's a few different versions of WinCE 6.0 floating around with different drivers etc. for these netbooks)

2. WIFI is not connecting... I can only guess WinCE 6.0 doesn't support my routers WPA2-PSK security. The WIFI worked fine when i tested it with various versions of Android.
Anyone else here have one of these things?

 

[Tajmaster]

Ive never seen a netbook running Windows CE or Android, would you mind taking some pictures?

 

[Chinners]

1. There is no audio... I'm guessing i have the wrong driver or CE build for this netbook (there's a few different versions of WinCE 6.0 floating around with different drivers etc. for these netbooks)

2. WIFI is not connecting... I can only guess WinCE 6.0 doesn't support my routers WPA2-PSK security. The WIFI worked fine when i tested it with various versions of Android.
Anyone else here have one of these things?

From memory, and experience with WindowsCE, installation CDs are built by the manufacturer customised for a specific hardware - so each hardware has it's own setup CD. You probably have the wrong CD for install.

As for the WPA2-PSK, I remember CE5.x being stuck at WPA. I don't know if there are any updates in v6. AFAIK, MS are now pushing Windows Embedded to the markets that were the haunts of CE.

---------- Post added at 14:33 ---------- Previous post was at 14:32 ----------

Ive never seen a netbook running Windows CE or Android, would you mind taking some pictures?

I have my little netbook running EasyPeasy:

http://www.geteasypeasy.com/

Lightweight & small footprint & free

 

[xc8]

debian runs very well on them! ;-)

 

[Tajmaster]

@Chinners

Thanks for the link! Looks good

 

[Powerpie5000]

From memory, and experience with WindowsCE, installation CDs are built by the manufacturer customised for a specific hardware - so each hardware has it's own setup CD. You probably have the wrong CD for install

It doesn't have a CD drive and the Android/WinCE installations are script folders that are placed on the SD card and then installed to the internal NAND memory.

Ive never seen a netbook running Windows CE or Android, would you mind taking some pictures? :smile:

I'll take some pictures after work as i'm selling it here (cheap as it does have a few issues... Which can most likely be fixed if someone can be bothered ).

https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?p=253074#post253074

It's cheap and slow so don't expect it to perform miracles (you can probably get away with NES/GB emulation). It's ok as a web browser... Might be a good idea to download Opera Mini for either Windows CE or Android.