Dell Inspiron Micro Desktop €149 @ DELL Ireland

quarryman

maximus02 wrote: »

Thanks Xcellor, any help appreciated.

I have an ISO file. Where to from here?

Should you not solve this tonight I'll post back in the morning and walk you through it.

maximus02

Thanks Xcellor and Quarryman I managed to get it done yesterday evening.

I used a tool called Rufus to make a USB stick with a setup.exe. All seemed to run fine and I have it installed now.

One final question (I promise), how much free disk space should I have after the installation. I have run the disk cleanup including getting rid of previous versions and I only have 10.7gb free out of 28.7gb. Is this correct?

gillamandango

Anyone know how to change the screen res? I have an old Sony TV and the edges of the screen are hidden due to screen res..I cant change it on the Dell, as I am stuck with the only option of 1920x1080..Any ideas as it all seems locked into this setting..Also on the Sony I cant change the screen dimensions as it says its not available for this source..Am stumped..

degsie

gillamandango wrote: »

Anyone know how to change the screen res? I have an old Sony TV and the edges of the screen are hidden due to screen res..I cant change it on the Dell, as I am stuck with the only option of 1920x1080..Any ideas as it all seems locked into this setting..Also on the Sony I cant change the screen dimensions as it says its not available for this source..Am stumped..

Turn off overscan on the Sony.

ablelocks

quarryman wrote: »

Should you not solve this tonight I'll post back in the morning and walk you through it.

quarryman, if you wouldn't mind posting that walkthrough i'd appreciate it....no rush cos I won't get around to it for a couple of days...

Xcellor

This is my free disk after doing clean install. I deleted all recovery partitions to et the max space.

quarryman

ablelocks wrote: »

quarryman, if you wouldn't mind posting that walkthrough i'd appreciate it....no rush cos I won't get around to it for a couple of days...

First read my post here.

Then as per maximus02 posted use a tool called Rufus to copy to a USB key and boot into the Windows installer.

If you are installing Win 8.1 then:

Then click the "custom install" option until you see the partitions, delete all of them. (Remember you are deleting the windows install and recovery here, so be sure you are happy with that).

Then choose your new 30GB unallocated space and install. That's it. You should have windows 8.1 on now and have an option to upgrade straight away to win 10.

Now maximus02 might have been installing Win 10 in which case you should be able to run setup.exe from the iso.

maximus02

ablelocks wrote: »

quarryman, if you wouldn't mind posting that walkthrough i'd appreciate it....no rush cos I won't get around to it for a couple of days...

Here is what I eventually figured out I had to do:

Download the 64-bit home version of Windows 10 from the following site:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Download Rufus from here:

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Rufus does not need to be installed. Just run it. No installation needed.

I used a 4GB USB stick. It was sufficient for me.

This creates files on the USB stick inc. a setup.exe.

Run this setup on the Dell and it should work.

I'm disapointed with the amount of free space left after installing. I only had 10.7GB free out of 32GB and this includes removing older versions of windows installations with the disk cleanup. Something strange here. I'm wondering is there a problem with my solid state drive.

quarryman

maximus02 wrote: »

Here is what I eventually figured out I had to do:

Download the 64-bit home version of Windows 10 from the following site:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Download Rufus from here:

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Rufus does not need to be installed. Just run it. No installation needed.

I used a 4GB USB stick. It was sufficient for me.

This creates files on the USB stick inc. a setup.exe.

Run this setup on the Dell and it should work.

I'm disapointed with the amount of free space left after installing. I only had 10.7GB free out of 32GB and this includes removing older versions of windows installations with the disk cleanup. Something strange here. I'm wondering is there a problem with my solid state drive.

Do you still have a recovery partition? That will be taking up a good bit.

Type Disk Management into windows search bar and it should show your partitions.

Toxica

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

When I click on the original link I get brought to the product page in the Dell shop, but theres no mention of price, or an option to add to basket. Anyone else have this - maybe theyre out of stock?

I'm getting the same here too.

quarryman

quarryman wrote: »

Anyone know what the idle power consumption is on this? Can't find a figure online.

I reckon I'll be leaving this on 24/7 so just wondering how much my bill is gonna go up. Minimal I'm guessing.

For anyone curious on this I took a pic tonight:

kaizersoze

Toxica wrote: »

I'm getting the same here too.

Out of stock ne're to return I'd say or not at the bargain price at least.

degsie

kaizersoze wrote: »

Out of stock ne're to return I'd say or not at the bargain price at least.

Xcellor

degsie wrote: »

Probably means ne'er.

maximus02

quarryman wrote: »

Do you still have a recovery partition? That will be taking up a good bit.

Type Disk Management into windows search bar and it should show your partitions.

Quarryman I looked at disk management and the recovery partition is only using 450mb.

quarryman

maximus02 wrote: »

Quarryman I looked at disk management and the recovery partition is only using 450mb.

In that case download a free program called windirstat and graphically show what's hogging the space.

Did you disable hibernate?

quarryman

Anyone else find that the power adapter brick very whiny?

Mine makes a very high pitched whistle...

Lenny

If anyone is selling theirs I'd be interested.. Be hoping whoever bought got it with the keyboard or mousey..

mossym

Lenny wrote: »

If anyone is selling theirs I'd be interested.. Be hoping whoever bought got it with the keyboard or mousey..

sure, 250. they're tougher to get now so gone up in price.

(just kidding, not selling..)

54and56

Updated mine to Win 10, installed Netflix app from the Windows Store, PIA VPN, Kodi and set up YouTube on Chrome. All works flawlessly. Streamed a 90 minute movie in HD via a KODI plugin last night and forgot after a few minutes that it was streaming, it was so clear and smooth I thought I was watching it on Sky Satellite. Same applies to running 1080p files from my NAS.

I also tested the WiFi capability and it streams fine over Wifi but then my WiFi router is literally only 10ft away with a clean line of vision to the Dell. It also helps for online streaming that I'm on the UPC 100mb broadband package. Connected via LAN I get 100mb down and 10mb up and over Wifi I get an average of 17mb down and 5mb up.

All in all this is a magic little device for the money. I just wish there was a dedicated YouTube app similar to Netflix then I'd be golden but as a HTPC for running KODI, Netflix etc it is easy to set up, easy to use and the user experience is smoother than the Android boxes I have. I can see myself selling off the two Android boxes and getting another one of these or something similar in the not too distant future.

ondafly

quarryman wrote: »

Anyone else find that the power adapter brick very whiny?

Mine makes a very high pitched whistle...

coil whine by any chance ? I don't have it on mine (yet). no real solution other than changing the psu

Xcellor

ondafly wrote: »

coil whine by any chance ? I don't have it on mine (yet). no real solution other than changing the psu

Are you sure the noise isnt coming from the unit itself?

In my case when I turned it on I noticed an alternating whining sound. I thought it was the CPU fan. I opened up and disconnected (temporarily) and switched back on the noise still occurred so I reported it was DOA and ordered another one.

The new one arrived and I plugged it into the same AC adaptor and the same noise! Then I tried the new AC adaptor that came with the second unit and its perfect. I tried the original "faulty" unit and no sound.

I don't have a voltmeter but from what I can see the first unit came with faulty AC adaptor. So I have two units that are working fine and 1 dodgy AC adaptor...

ejabrod

Fancy selling one?

maximus02

quarryman wrote: »

In that case download a free program called windirstat and graphically show what's hogging the space.

Did you disable hibernate?

Quarryman I have run the windirstat and it gives the following results:

Windows: 6.9gb 24.0%
Unknown: 9.3gb 32.3%
Free space: 9.6gb 33.4%

It's very strange that I seem to have 32% unknown space on my disk. It may be time to contact Dell at this stage. I think that's a tricky operation in itself.

BTW I'm not hearing any whining or other sounds from my power adaptor.

Thanks again for your assistance. I don't know if you have any further things to try at this stage.

Max

quarryman

Xcellor wrote: »

Are you sure the noise isnt coming from the unit itself?

In my case when I turned it on I noticed an alternating whining sound. I thought it was the CPU fan. I opened up and disconnected (temporarily) and switched back on the noise still occurred so I reported it was DOA and ordered another one.

The new one arrived and I plugged it into the same AC adaptor and the same noise! Then I tried the new AC adaptor that came with the second unit and its perfect. I tried the original "faulty" unit and no sound.

I don't have a voltmeter but from what I can see the first unit came with faulty AC adaptor. So I have two units that are working fine and 1 dodgy AC adaptor...

It's definitely coming from the power brick and not the Dell unit. It's very high pitched. Probably the coil as mentioned above.

How does it work for a replacement though? They hardly replace the power adapter AND the unit right?

CantGetNoSleep

quarryman wrote: »

It's definitely coming from the power brick and not the Dell unit. It's very high pitched. Probably the coil as mentioned above.

How does it work for a replacement though? They hardly replace the power adapter AND the unit right?

Try get them to send a full replacement without you having to return somehow. For anyone who thinks this is wrong look up how much tax Dell pays

Xcellor

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Try get them to send a full replacement without you having to return somehow. For anyone who thinks this is wrong look up how much tax Dell pays

In my case I paid for a second unit, I have to send back the other to get a refund. I even had to go to their site and order it they didn't have a mechanism to create an order for the exact same unit and bill... I almost told them where to shove it...

Get a faulty unit, have to pay for a replacement but also have to order it yourself. Lazy b*stards. Manager supposed to call me back and didn't bother...

Xcellor

ejabrod wrote: »

Fancy selling one?

I can sell it to you as is but you'd need to get a replacement AC adaptor from DELL. It works fine but I think it's just sending too much voltage so causes some of the inards to make squeaky sounds.

I'll need to send back the unit soon if I'm gonna get a refund but I can sell for what it cost me (127.49) and ship through parcel motel (5 euro around) which is cheap enough.

If you're genuinely interested send me PM before Wednesday and I'll give you my paypal. I can tell DELL to cancel the return and transfer the warranty to you and I'll ship.

theShire

maximus02 wrote: »

Quarryman I have run the windirstat and it gives the following results:

Windows: 6.9gb 24.0%
Unknown: 9.3gb 32.3%
Free space: 9.6gb 33.4%

It's very strange that I seem to have 32% unknown space on my disk. It may be time to contact Dell at this stage. I think that's a tricky operation in itself.

BTW I'm not hearing any whining or other sounds from my power adaptor.

Thanks again for your assistance. I don't know if you have any further things to try at this stage.

Max

I had the same issue - almost 10gb unknown

After multiple restarts and running disk cleanup and running ccleaner it has sorted itself out and ive regained the space

quarryman

Received my sata cable today and hooked up my 250GB SSD.

So now I have Windows 10, 8GB ram and 250gb of storage all for about 170 euro. (already had the SSD lying around.)

Great bargain.