Samsung NC10

dropper79

Hi,

I'm looking to get a mini notebook and after some research the Samsung NC10 seems like it would suit my needs.
I already have a PC with plenty of spec and a DVD RW drive so what I'm looking for is a more portable laptop that can connect through WiFi and has basic MS apps on it e.g. Word, Excel etc.

I'm not the most technical savvy but can usually figure out things, so this might be a really silly question but I was wondering, if I buy the NC10 or another mini notebook and I want to install new software, how can I do this without a CD drive? Which is how I normally would on the PC.

Thanks a mill!:)

Ricky91t

dropper79 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking to get a mini notebook and after some research the Samsung NC10 seems like it would suit my needs.
I already have a PC with plenty of spec and a DVD RW drive so what I'm looking for is a more portable laptop that can connect through WiFi and has basic MS apps on it e.g. Word, Excel etc.

I'm not the most technical savvy but can usually figure out things, so this might be a really silly question but I was wondering, if I buy the NC10 or another mini notebook and I want to install new software, how can I do this without a CD drive? Which is how I normally would on the PC.

Thanks a mill!:)

Well alot of apps you can download,you could also burn .iso of bigger apps and copy them across to the nc10 and use deamon tools lite(free version) to run these on a virtual dvd/cd drive...Also you could buy a cheap external cd/dvd drive and install apps that way...

The_Conductor

If you're not too techie- I'd suggest keeping away from mounting virtual drives etc- just pop into Maplins/PC World/Peats or online and get a USB DVD drive (they are incredibly cheap- EUR20-25). You won't need a CD Writer/DVD Writer- they are cheap too though- 60-70 will get you a reasonable one.

Worst case scenario- give one of the friendly folk here a yell, and they'll guide you through it........

vibe666

the external drive i used was actually an internal ide dvd drive with a usb to ide/sata adapter i got for a couple of quid off ebay.

worked a treat, just comes iwth a psu and apapters for ide and sata power (or bus powered for 2.5" ide drives) and i've tried it with all of them (hdds, 2.5", 3.5" sata and ide) and the dvd drive and they all work perfectly.

i did have trouble getting the sammy to correctly mount my trekstor 1tb usb drive though, seems to mount it but can't see any data. same drive working fine on the g/f's old dell d600 laptop under xp and my ubuntu desktop, so not sure what the deal is with it.

anyways, it's away now again hidden away from her (still can't convince her to take the pressie before xmas!:().

still have office 2007 etc. to put on it (ran out of time last night whilst she was out) and get the fn keys working, but should be grand.

do we know if the webcam is working? someone on sammynetbook said it doesn't work under vista?

still contemplating a sandisk extreme III 2gb sdcard and a 2gb ram upgrade (can't hurt) since I heard that vista sp1 improves the effectiveness of readyboost by a factor of several times over.

i actually have a standard 2gb card in my car stereo right now, so i might whip that out for a test during the week if i have time and see how much quicker everything is and if it does help i'll grab one from 7dayshop.

anyone have any recommendation for a cheap and quick place to get a 2gb ddr2 667mhz sodimm and a 2gb sandisk extreme III sdcard relatively quickly and cheaply?

and triple superthanks to supercell too (again) for the encouragement and driver links.

Supercell

vibe666 wrote: »

do we know if the webcam is working? someone on sammynetbook said it doesn't work under vista?
and triple superthanks to supercell too (again) for the encouragement and driver links.

You're welcome!

Webcam works fine in Vista, was using it earlier in messenger. If anything, it works better, picture was much clearer than in XP

blobert

Would this method, in particular step 1 work for a fresh Windows XP installation from a USB drive?

Supercell wrote: »

Sure, was pretty simple really :-

1) Setup usb drive - XP didnt list the usb drive so had to do this on a Vista box
2) Set boot order on NC-10 to flash drive first - Just hit F2 on boot and move it to the top of the boot order screen
3) Boot off the flash drive, install goes surprisingly fast, remember to remove the usb drive when setup reboots the laptop or it'll just boot of the usb stick again and restart setup
4) Install drivers, I'd recommend installing the chipset drivers first.

I got the drivers from various places, to make matters easier for boards people interested in doing this, I've put them all into a zip file and am uploading it to rapidshare atm, will post the link when that completes the upload.

blobert

Also does anyone have any suggestions where the cheapest place to get a 32+Gb Solid State HD for this would be?

Had a look on eBay but they seem very pricey.

Thanks

AlmightyCushion

blobert wrote: »

Also does anyone have any suggestions where the cheapest place to get a 32+Gb Solid State HD for this would be?

Had a look on eBay but they seem very pricey.

Thanks

I wouldn't recommend going with a cheap one. They are worse than normal hard drives for read/write speeds. I'd consider it a downgrade. Even some of the more expensive ones have their downsides. The ocz cores would be one of these, they are very reasonable priced but seem to have a problem with random writes that can cause them to lock up for a second or two. Whether or not you'll notice it frequently enough to annoy you is another story.

The mtron mobi range are meant to be very good. You can get them on realta.ie but they might be more expensive than you are looking for.

ongarite

Just want to remind people of the superb program that someone has written for all touchpads that you can download called TwoFingerScroll

It fixes the one bad point of the NC10 which is the poor trackpad. This application mimicks Apple Mac trackpad behaviour with 2 finger scrolling, one finger fixed and other scrolling (doesn't matter which finger and it uses the whole trackpad as scroll area), 1 finger + assigned tap (great as middle mouse button for internet links, etc) and you can also 2 finger zoom with images.

I disabled virtual scrolling, momentum & pinch in synaptics control panel.
I reduced the TwoFingerScrool speed to 2, disabled acceleration and enabled smooth scroll mode.

vibe666

thanks for the tip ongarite, sounds good but i might leave it till she actually starts using the thing before i stick that on, she might not like it.

The_Conductor

For those of you who've upgraded your Windows installs- ccleaner will clean up the registry and Windows folder, and make your install a lot cleaner (it also gets rid of backed up system files- and a little tinkering can manipulate your restore point settings to reasonable levels.)

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

dropper79

Ricky91t wrote: »

Well alot of apps you can download,you could also burn .iso of bigger apps and copy them across to the nc10 and use deamon tools lite(free version) to run these on a virtual dvd/cd drive...Also you could buy a cheap external cd/dvd drive and install apps that way...

Thanks a mill Ricky91t and everyone else who took time out to reply, think I'll go with the external hard drive option - sounds like I would be able to handle that!

ongarite

The Scientist wrote: »

Whats the story with the Orange + Black sticker to the left of the Trackpad.
Has it something to do with the warranty? (theres a barcode on it).
Mine's beginning to peel...

I peeled the sticker off mine. Its more of a quick info sheet for a potential customer to see in a store.
The Samsung serial no. is on the back of the device along with the XP UPMC license key.

Villain

Jees big thread and I never saw it, I bought one last week savage little laptop, I have XP PRO on it and it's running sweet. I work in the trade so got it for €310, 2gb Ram stick is only about €35 so I'll get one in Jan and I picked up a USB DVD burner for €59 nice and slim.

The_Conductor

Villain wrote: »

Jees big thread and I never saw it, I bought one last week savage little laptop, I have XP PRO on it and it's running sweet. I work in the trade so got it for €310, 2gb Ram stick is only about €35 so I'll get one in Jan and I picked up a USB DVD burner for €59 nice and slim.

You obviously didn't see the thread over in Bargain Alerts
€301 delivered!

Wahoooo!!!!

Villain

smccarrick wrote: »

You obviously didn't see the thread over in Bargain Alerts
€301 delivered!

Wahoooo!!!!

Ah I ordered mine Last Wednesday at 2pm and had it at 10 am Thursday morning

The_Conductor

Villain wrote: »

Ah I ordered mine Last Wednesday at 2pm and had it at 10 am Thursday morning

Nice one......

Brimmy

I'm going to be installing Football Manager 07 on mine, possibly tomorrow, as I don't want to keep lugging around an external hd I'll probably use a no cd key after I install. What would be the best way for installing it without an external drive or would I need it?

I've never done this before but if I created a network with my desktop which already has the game on it could I just transfer all the files over and boot it immediately?

Alanstrainor

Discussion of illegally installing software, or using cracks etc is strictly forbidden on this forum.
Consider yourself warned.

marktsang

i have installed kunbuntu on mine and have a partition for windows -
i dont have a usb cd rom so i cant install my winxp pro - i have been trying to install from a usb key but cant get it working - anyone done this?

Username!

marktsang wrote: »

i have installed kunbuntu on mine and have a partition for windows -
i dont have a usb cd rom so i cant install my winxp pro - i have been trying to install from a usb key but cant get it working - anyone done this?

Easily...

http://www.vandomburg.net/installing-windows-xp-from-usb/

Rsaeire

marktsang wrote: »

i have installed kunbuntu on mine and have a partition for windows -
i dont have a usb cd rom so i cant install my winxp pro - i have been trying to install from a usb key but cant get it working - anyone done this?

I did an XP Pro install from an M2 memory card inserted into an M2 memory card reader using the following method. It aslo has screenshots, making it easier to follow.

To note, I used a valid install disc and license key, so everything was above board.

vibe666

fyi, elara expecting several hundred in stock in the next couple of days.

http://www.elara.ie/products/notebooks.asp?mancode=&anyallexact=all&manu=&searchBtn=Search&srch=nc10&productcode=&offset=

ongarite

Wow. the price has dropped back down to the level I bought mine at 3 weeks ago. Cracking value.

marktsang

thanks username! great guide!!!!!

parsi

This is certainly a nifty machine.

I've loaded Vista Ultimate (got a free disk last year and been waiting since) and it works very well. Downloading various updates at the moment.

Thanks supercell for collating the samsung updates

agentgreen

I know I asked this before, but the link on elara has expired. Can someone please link me to a 2gb RAM upgrade suitible for this laptop please?

Thanks

Elara: Kin

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1604060&productID=S5759957

Not in stock at the mo but coming back in.

AlmightyCushion

agentgreen wrote: »

I know I asked this before, but the link on elara has expired. Can someone please link me to a 2gb RAM upgrade suitible for this laptop please?

Thanks

Just grab the first 2GB module on this page (http://shop4memory.com/products/ddr2-so-dimm.asp). It's €35.