It seems to me that it scales 320x200 to 960x600 by means of nearest neighbor (AKA integer) scaling, which results in a black frame around the image. In my book, this is a big plus! I much prefer this to typical, blurry bilinear scaling, even if it is full screen.
Nice video, i really like this series of yours on retrogaming laptops :) I'd be curious to hear your opinion on the EEEPC. I have an EEEPC myself, which i use for WinXP games + DOS games via DOSBox. It's not really a pure DOS gaming experience, but i found out it comes pretty close, and also the size + ability to connect to an external VGA CRT makes it a pretty neat piece of hardware, at least for my use case. I wonder if SBEmu works on the EEEPC 901, if it does i might reconsider using it as a pure DOS machine 😄
Hello! Thanks for taking time to comment. Indeed, SBEmu is a game changer! I've done some research on the EEEPC and it appears that SBEmu is compatible with many models and should be with the 901 hardware. However, there are some reports of graphics being stretched in fullscreen mode, resulting in a distorted aspect ratio (widescreen). This might not be an issue if you plan to use it on a CRT display. The best approach is to test SBEmu with the specific games you intend to play to see how it works out. Please let us know about your findings.
Pulled the trigger on one because I have been wanting a classic laptop with hardware wavetable Edit: if you want info on suspend and bios battery removal check out this discussion.
@@retrobecanesjust got it now and am setting it up. Do you know if this model has a cmos battery that leaks? If it has just a coin cell lithium I’ll probably just leave it alone and not bother taking it apart. EDIT: does your fan work? I notice mine never spins up. Dunno if it’s even needed….
Hello! It has 1 CMOS battery and 1 Suspend to RAM battery. They are both connected via a cable and are located below the mouse pad, away from the motherboard. However, over time the discharged batteries deionize the copper traces surrounding the connector pins. The most common symptom for this laptop is the malfunction of some keyboard keys. I recommend unplugging them. My fan never spins too - it's perhaps because I always used it in DOS only. I modded my laptop with a Noctua fan and drilled a hole through the main battery compartment and connected it to the USB port. The only drawback is I have to plug/unplug it manually.
@@retrobecanes thanks for the info! I usually pull any non lithium coin cell as well. To access the batteries do you have to basically remove the motherboard? Any gotchas opening this thing up? I could not find a service manual for this model. For the fan I am thinking of doing the same thing. I already run the laptop with the battery pack pulled.
No need to remove the motherboard. It's quite easy. Start by removing the top panel (power button, LED)- it's held by clips. Unscrew and lift the keyboard. You should see the two battery connectors. If you want to remove the batteries. Remove the screws that hold the bottom of the case to the top (~6-8 screws towards the edge). You should be able to lift the top plastic and access the batteries.
Thanks for the great review. In the video I felt like the display is a little bit washed out (is it just from the camera?), what type of screen is it? It would be great to run it on a vga for sure.
Hello, it’s not the best looking screen, but it’s very decent. It’s me, with my limited video skills who was unable to reproduce faithfully the quality of the display. That said, I have another unit that is very dim, due to the CCFL being on its last breath.
Yes indeed, with the S3 Savage chip for example, I get approx 2x that frame rate on an Pentium MMX when activating write combining. Trident is infamous for being one of the slowest cards.
It seems to me that it scales 320x200 to 960x600 by means of nearest neighbor (AKA integer) scaling, which results in a black frame around the image. In my book, this is a big plus! I much prefer this to typical, blurry bilinear scaling, even if it is full screen.
Good point! I didn't see it this way.
Nice video, i really like this series of yours on retrogaming laptops :) I'd be curious to hear your opinion on the EEEPC. I have an EEEPC myself, which i use for WinXP games + DOS games via DOSBox. It's not really a pure DOS gaming experience, but i found out it comes pretty close, and also the size + ability to connect to an external VGA CRT makes it a pretty neat piece of hardware, at least for my use case. I wonder if SBEmu works on the EEEPC 901, if it does i might reconsider using it as a pure DOS machine 😄
Hello! Thanks for taking time to comment. Indeed, SBEmu is a game changer! I've done some research on the EEEPC and it appears that SBEmu is compatible with many models and should be with the 901 hardware. However, there are some reports of graphics being stretched in fullscreen mode, resulting in a distorted aspect ratio (widescreen). This might not be an issue if you plan to use it on a CRT display. The best approach is to test SBEmu with the specific games you intend to play to see how it works out. Please let us know about your findings.
Man you’re doing good!
Thanks man! Doing my best to document these laptops so as to benefit the retro gaming community.
Pulled the trigger on one because I have been wanting a classic laptop with hardware wavetable
Edit: if you want info on suspend and bios battery removal check out this discussion.
Congrats! Please share your experience and let us know how it goes.
@@retrobecanesjust got it now and am setting it up. Do you know if this model has a cmos battery that leaks? If it has just a coin cell lithium I’ll probably just leave it alone and not bother taking it apart.
EDIT: does your fan work? I notice mine never spins up. Dunno if it’s even needed….
Hello! It has 1 CMOS battery and 1 Suspend to RAM battery. They are both connected via a cable and are located below the mouse pad, away from the motherboard. However, over time the discharged batteries deionize the copper traces surrounding the connector pins. The most common symptom for this laptop is the malfunction of some keyboard keys. I recommend unplugging them. My fan never spins too - it's perhaps because I always used it in DOS only. I modded my laptop with a Noctua fan and drilled a hole through the main battery compartment and connected it to the USB port. The only drawback is I have to plug/unplug it manually.
@@retrobecanes thanks for the info! I usually pull any non lithium coin cell as well. To access the batteries do you have to basically remove the motherboard? Any gotchas opening this thing up? I could not find a service manual for this model.
For the fan I am thinking of doing the same thing. I already run the laptop with the battery pack pulled.
No need to remove the motherboard. It's quite easy. Start by removing the top panel (power button, LED)- it's held by clips. Unscrew and lift the keyboard. You should see the two battery connectors. If you want to remove the batteries. Remove the screws that hold the bottom of the case to the top (~6-8 screws towards the edge). You should be able to lift the top plastic and access the batteries.
i had the gateway solo 2100 it ran great w intel celeron cpu
Whats the name of the space game at the end? That was a childhood classic!
That's Descent, it's available on Steam and GOG.
Thanks for the great review. In the video I felt like the display is a little bit washed out (is it just from the camera?), what type of screen is it? It would be great to run it on a vga for sure.
Hello, it’s not the best looking screen, but it’s very decent. It’s me, with my limited video skills who was unable to reproduce faithfully the quality of the display. That said, I have another unit that is very dim, due to the CCFL being on its last breath.
your 9100 is missing a piece of plastic in between the floppy drive
Yeah, actually I have the part, it broke off though.
@@retrobecanes Seems common. Most for sale seem to have this part broken off.
Looks like that GPU is one huge bottleneck if even a mobile Pentium 2 366 ain't enough for 'Quake 1'.
Yes indeed, with the S3 Savage chip for example, I get approx 2x that frame rate on an Pentium MMX when activating write combining. Trident is infamous for being one of the slowest cards.
@@retrobecanes I got the clue just from the name I've never heard of. Granted, due to lack of money in the 90s, I knew only of the big players mostly.