Generic "Chinese Netbook"

[Turbogeek314159]

Hi guys, I'm new here and am looking for some folks to render some assist / bounce ideas / solutions. I'm sure many of you have heard of those Generic Chinese netbooks floating about on ebay and many other places... Well, I acquired a couple of them; (4) on the pretense of reformatting them with a lean distro of LINUX which would certainly make these machines much more viable. I honestly cannot imagine why someone would put Win. CE on a netbook. But, I guess in China they just don't have the regulations... My first instinct was to simply reset the boot config. with an external drive encompassing my desired LINUX distro, (PUPPY) total size 25MB!!! Upon attempt to do so to my consternation & dismay, have realized they set a password to access the BIOS information. I've conducted some research, regarding these machines and some have stated that it doesn't have an internal CMOS battery. Which would indicate that the Bios is Embedded into a PROM / EPROM IC. Alternately, I research the particular motherboard and have come to the realization that many of these are manufactured with diff. motherboards (some containing CMOS, others without...).

So, really I'm going to have to set out to open this beast up myself and take a look. In the event that it doesn't possess the CMOS battery, I'm looking for someone whom might be able to recommend which pins to jump together to clear the password ideas, insights, :welcome:

[dostov]

Password-protected BIOS? First time I hear this... :sly:

The bloke who sold it to you on eBay, doesn't he have the password?

[Adragontattoo]

There has to be a battery for the CMOS. I would take one of them apart, grab a bunch of pics and post them up.

[madhatter256]

If it was well designed, then the password is saved to a ROM chip and can't be erased if you take out any battery in the unit. You'll have to short the ROM chip that contains it.

Of course, this is after you exhausted all other options, especially asking the seller if there's a factory password or way to reset it.

[Turbogeek314159]

I did take Pics (for the sheer fact that there would be skeptics..) hence, myself... I completely dissassembled the entire thing!!! and to my surprise no cmos battery.. No jumpers nothing but IC"s and transistors and a wifi card... take a look at the pics here...
http://www.facebook.com/editalbum.php?add=1&aid=5348&htmlup=1&id=108472172523076#!/pages/Innotech-Computing/108472172523076

I really appreciate the feedback you guys, thanks :)

[Turbogeek314159]

These netbooks were purchased via distributor direct from China... so and they "CLAIMS" that it cannot be hacked... In this day and age, any ten year old should know that NOTHING is safe from being hacked!!! ....I picked up some data sheets on the IC's but they're really not giving me the type of input ineed... I do agree that I need to short/jump a couple of pins together to solve the problem but which ones??? and on what IC???

[anwar1337]

Damn man, good luck. :\

[fiji]

take the HDD/SSD out and hook it up to another computer?

Find someone who knows chinese and ask them to search forums?

[madhatter256]

That area that has the glob of black plastic over it screams it is the BIOS chip.

[Adragontattoo]

Need to see the other side of the board you are showing us as well as the PCB that the board is currently sitting on please.

[Turbogeek314159]

Earlier today I connected the netbook to my laptop on the pretense it would be recognized as an external device to run a remote registry program for manipulating CE... (NO Go...) I've additionally connected an Xternal CD drive to the machine to run a live distro of linux.. No go (as I suspected it would be....) SOOOOO, its looking like all options are again pointing to shorting out / jumping the pins on IC... & again I reiterate, Which ones... In my toils I've come across similar event in which the "tech." fried the board!!! That's not an option for me.. I've gone as far as to contact the manufacturer and they're Amazed I'm going through such effort!!! Needless to say, they're not throwing me a bone either....

[Adragontattoo]

I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe, ok scratch that, IMPOSSIBLE to believe that there is NO CMOS battery. It has got to be there, the only thing I can think of is that it is buried in some obscure location on the system. Personally, I would start by looking for any plugs and unplugging them. Then move to solder points, then go to checking plastic covered areas.

I can pull out a Pentium 1 laptop and show you the CMOS battery for it, there is no way that a new laptop does NOT have one. I really wish you were local, I would dig into this thing with gusto and prove where it is. Not saying I dont believe you BTW, just saying that there HAS to be one.

[thommo]

Hi guys, I'm new here and am looking for some folks to render some assist / bounce ideas / solutions. I'm sure many of you have heard of those Generic Chinese netbooks floating about on ebay and many other places... Well, I acquired a couple of them; (4) on the pretense of reformatting them with a lean distro of LINUX which would certainly make these machines much more viable. I honestly cannot imagine why someone would put Win. CE on a netbook. But, I guess in China they just don't have the regulations... My first instinct was to simply reset the boot config. with an external drive encompassing my desired LINUX distro, (PUPPY) total size 25MB!!! Upon attempt to do so to my consternation & dismay, have realized they set a password to access the BIOS information. I've conducted some research, regarding these machines and some have stated that it doesn't have an internal CMOS battery. Which would indicate that the Bios is Embedded into a PROM / EPROM IC. Alternately, I research the particular motherboard and have come to the realization that many of these are manufactured with diff. motherboards (some containing CMOS, others without...).

So, really I'm going to have to set out to open this beast up myself and take a look. In the event that it doesn't possess the CMOS battery, I'm looking for someone whom might be able to recommend which pins to jump together to clear the password ideas, insights, :welcome:




Password is ztk:clap:

Let me know how you get on as i have one of these and it's like ZZZzzzzzzz Pretty useless with Win CE on it

[Turbogeek314159]

HEY!!! HEY!!! It Worked!!!!!!! Thankyou Very Much!!!! You really saved me a lot of time
So I go into the Settings menu, and I get a series of formatting options:

Format NAND Disk
Format XIP
Format Flash2 Disk
Update XIP
Update Eboot
Reboot
Exit

My incline is to format the NAND Disk. However, upon selecting it, (with my external drive connected) it sits idle stating





"Format Nand disk starting..." but it never does any thing...

So now when I do reboot, it goes to the CE splash screen and stops. Plus, in all honesty, I've never formatted a solid state hard-drive

[thommo]

Format nand disc:shrug:

Me neither!!

Hope you work it out or someone else has any idea's

Keep us informed:cool:

[thommo]

Just Googled "format nand disk" and it brings up lots of results:-/

[TUK101]

I hope you don't mind me asking, but what did you have to give for a "generic Chinese netbook"?

[Niku-Sama]

i looked up those specs on this chinese "netbook"
its pretty weaks, its a PDA with a keyboard basicly.

i mean it would be cool for some on the go hacking cracking adrino type stuff but...

why the heck did you buy it?

i hope you got on of the sub $100 ones on ebay

[thommo]

i looked up those specs on this chinese "netbook"
its pretty weaks, its a PDA with a keyboard basicly.

i mean it would be cool for some on the go hacking cracking adrino type stuff but...

why the heck did you buy it?

i hope you got on of the sub $100 ones on ebay


Mine was £51 or about $76 on Ebay,and
your right it is pretty slow,won't display flash pages or stream video,struggles to play video files unless frames per second are reduced,speakers are tinny.Pda with a keyboard is a good description but i was just curious,just a pity these wer'nt about 12 years ago,they'd have made a killing then!!

[benbaked]

I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe, ok scratch that, IMPOSSIBLE to believe that there is NO CMOS battery. It has got to be there, the only thing I can think of is that it is buried in some obscure location on the system. Personally, I would start by looking for any plugs and unplugging them. Then move to solder points, then go to checking plastic covered areas.

I can pull out a Pentium 1 laptop and show you the CMOS battery for it, there is no way that a new laptop does NOT have one. I really wish you were local, I would dig into this thing with gusto and prove where it is. Not saying I dont believe you BTW, just saying that there HAS to be one.

Believe it or not some laptops don't use CMOS batteries. For example, some older Mac laptops (http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25911?viewlocale=en_US) use a capacitor that will retain the PRAM (cmos) data for about twenty seconds, pretty much long enough to switch batteries. Going longer then that the computer will always ask you for time and date information the next time it boots, mine does.

[Turbogeek314159]

I pick dem up for less than $60.00, on the pretense, to reformat with linux (puppy or jolicloud). Currently need help getting started formatting NAND Disk <??????/>

[Niku-Sama]

where are you gettin em for $60 bucks. it might be something fun to play with but i dont want to pay a whole lot for it

[Turbogeek314159]

...Ya ever see that Jonnie Dep Movie "Blow" Where he's cuttin out da middle man to maximize profit and what not.?? Well, I essentially done the same thing. Execpt its legal, and dealing with Technology...

"Look to da Land of The Rising Sun my friend..."

[thommo]

HEY!!! HEY!!! It Worked!!!!!!! Thankyou Very Much!!!! You really saved me a lot of time
So I go into the Settings menu, and I get a series of formatting options:

Format NAND Disk
Format XIP
Format Flash2 Disk
Update XIP
Update Eboot
Reboot
Exit

My incline is to format the NAND Disk. However, upon selecting it, (with my external drive connected) it sits idle stating





"Format Nand disk starting..." but it never does any thing...

So now when I do reboot, it goes to the CE splash screen and stops. Plus, in all honesty, I've never formatted a solid state hard-drive

Hey

Have you had any luck with formatting that nand disk and loading linux yet?

[JackNSally]

HEY!!! HEY!!! It Worked!!!!!!! Thankyou Very Much!!!! You really saved me a lot of time
So I go into the Settings menu, and I get a series of formatting options:

Format NAND Disk
Format XIP
Format Flash2 Disk
Update XIP
Update Eboot
Reboot
Exit

My incline is to format the NAND Disk. However, upon selecting it, (with my external drive connected) it sits idle stating





"Format Nand disk starting..." but it never does any thing...

So now when I do reboot, it goes to the CE splash screen and stops. Plus, in all honesty, I've never formatted a solid state hard-drive

Have you tried it with your external drive not connected?

[Old Thrashbarg]

It would be a good idea to read through this thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1349626), if you haven't already.

Basically the short of it is, those ARM systems are fundamentally different from the usual PC, and it's not just a straightforward "format and install" process like you're accustomed to on x86 PCs. Those netbooks don't even have a BIOS, in the usual sense.

[WorshipMe]

Sorry to reboot this old thread but I have one of these laptops, with Windows CE supposedly on it.

I say supposedly, as I can't actually get it to boot into Windows.

It turns on and displays "Wireless book". I'm guessing there is no BIOS setup on these as I can't figure out how to get into it.

So I'm at a complete loss as to what to do with this thing, am I missing something?

[infamousdoug]

how do i fix my Chinese net book it only goes to the Windows Ce black startup screen and hangs there forever ?
:bang head