Solving Fan Noise on eeePC

In April when I purchased my eeePC I noticed that I was very quiet, whisper quiet would probably be a better way to describe it.  After I had installed Mandriva on it, the eeePC became “Homer Simpson whisper quiet”!  For those of you that do not enjoy watching The Simpsons, when Homer Simpson whispers you can hear him miles away.  I searched the Internet and found out that this fan noise in the eeePC occurs in a lot of them.  I was not impressed, I almost returned it to the store.I learned to live with it.  I like everything about the eeePC except the loud fan noise.

I decided to update the kernel, I had put it off because I did not want to re-configure the wireless since every time we update the kernel in Ubuntu on the eeePC we lose the wi-fi.  It is very easy to configure but I felt lazy.  Back to the topic in hand, I update the kernel re-booted the eeePC no wireless.  I plug in a land line still no Internet connection.  I had read about this minor inconvenience, the solution is to turn off the eeePC, remove the battery, install the battery, boot the computer and voila Ethernet works again.

I got a surprise when I booted the eeePC, no fan noise!  Being a realist, not a pessimist, I taught to myself that the fan had burnt out.  It was working to hard and it burnt out, damn, damn, damn.  The second taught I had was maybe it is fixed and is working like before.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  So I decided to work with the eeePC a little to see if I had a problem or a solution.  After 20 minutes or so the fan kicked in and it was whisper quiet.  The good whisper quiet.  I quoted Homer J Simpson “Woo Hoo”.

I am wondering if this would solve other peoples fan noise problems.  I hope that you try it out and works for you like it did for me.  Now I can really say that I like everything about my eeePC.

Avant Windows Navigator on The eeePC

I decided to try Avant Windows Navigator on my laptop and eeePC.  I sort of like Apple’s dock.  After working with it on my laptop for a day I installed it the eeePC.  I figured that it would give me more real estate on the small desktop. It did.  Do I like it or not?  That is the question.

I was undecided if I would keep it or not on both computers until I tried to play video on the eeePC.  The eeePC froze!  I could move the mouse but if I clicked on something nothing happened!  At first I didn’t know what was the cause but when I asked myself what did I change that could have caused this to happen the only answer I could come up with was Avant.  Before I removed Avant I had to make sure that was the cause.  After I turned off the computer by holding down the power button, I turned it back on and tried the video again and it froze.  Turn off, turn on computer quit Avant Windows Navigator tried video and it works perfectly like before.  I knew then without a doubt that Avant was the problem.  I decide to turn avant back on one more time and try playing video before taking drastic measures.  The eeePC froze again.

I had to make a decision.  Do I keep Avant or not.  If I keep it on the eeePC I have to spend sometime trying to fix it so that I can enjoy video on the small PC or completely forget watching video on the eeePC.  I chose the easiest option for myself, I removed Avant from the eeePC.  I did not like it enough to convince me to invest the time debugging it.

I do not have this problem with my laptop, so as I am writing this it is still on that computer.  I have been using it for that last few days and will leave it on for at least a complete week before I make my final decision if I keep it or not.  At the moment I don’t see any advantage to keep it maybe I will change my mind later on I have been known to do that at times.

Banshee Media Player a Winner Without DAAP

I have tried Banshee 1.0 as my music player for a few days and I would use it as if I could play music from another computer on it but since DAAP does not work I have to pass.  On my Ubuntu laptop I have tried Rhythmbox, Exaile and now Banshee, I always go back to Rhythmbox, in my case it pretty much does whatever I need.  On Kubuntu computers I of course use Amarok.  I hope that the Banshee developers can fix the issues they have with DAAP because they have created a winner.

I keep all my media on a server so that I can access it from any of my computers. I need a player that has DAAP capability.  Exaile sometimes acts up when I try to import music from the server.  Well that’s my two cents worth.

Ubuntu Works Just Fine On The eeePC

Earlier this week I played around with eeePC.  I had Ubuntu 8.04 and I decided that I would go with Xubuntu to see if it would be faster.  I installed Xubuntu, tweaked it so that everything worked (wireless, function keys and the like).  I then tried to configure Thunar for samba browsing.  I screwed up and it did not work.  After a few hours of trying to fix it I gave up and reinstalled Xubuntu.  This time I got it right and I could my other computers while using Thunar.  I was tweaking the system and I lost my two panels.  Piss me off!  I was not impressed.  At the same time as this I could not connect to my wireless network with my full size laptop, what the hell?

I had to erase my wireless password on the laptop and enter it again to get it to work.  I figure this out after a few minutes.  The eeePC was a bit harder.  After playing with it for an hour or so I got back my panels but I could not get Samba browsing with Thunar.  Damn, damn, damnation!  I was tired off all this bull and I decided to take the easy way out:  I installed Ubuntu again and after tweaking the system everything works fine.  The moral of this story is if it works don’t fix it.

I’ll just add that I have gotten rid of a panel to give me more “space” for applications.  I also tried the new Ubuntu netbook remix that we all have been hearing about the last few weeks and it promising.  It is not yet ready so I uninstalled it.

Back in June 2006 I posted a picture along with “Procrastination” I guess that I am either a visionnary or psycic since it features a Heron and now I am using Hardy Heron on several computers.