Category: Geeks r Us
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oops...
Here we go again, another netbook review.
If you haven't read it already, I have reviewed my new Toshiba mini nb205 netbook - a very stable device which to date is in my possession. And I don't think it'll be leaving my sight any time soon - the netbook has made me fall in love again with small computers, and... the good ol Grandpa XP. Or Grandma XP? That termonology, then, depends on if you gravitate twoards male or female genders.
The nb205 came with Windows 7 starter. No doubt, I purchased a 2 gig ram stick - to expand the ram in the device and improve performance. Netbooks can only hold up to 2 gb of ram, because they have one slot of DDr2 memory.
Windows 7 starter sucked. Although such limitations like no ability to change desktop backgrounds didn't bother me too much, others like the lack of Windows Mobility center did. I was used to hitting Windows X to get into the mobility center and change some of my preferences.
Well, I reformatted the entire harddrive just a day after the computer purchase ; and installed Windows 7 home premium, hoping that maybe the crapware which Toshiba installed was the thing to slow down stability so much. When browsing the internet, my prefered JAWS screen readr would crackle in speech and took up to 3 seconds to respond to page requests. Even the free NVDA performed horribly - and System Access had a nice keyboard lag when typing. (when running task maneger, JAWS showed anywhere from 6 to 20% CPU usage, NVDA anywhere from 3 to 9, and System access from 2 to 8.)
So home premium didn't solve my problem. Even with 2 gigs of ram, my netbook performed poorly. No, it loaded in under 30 seconds - but something in the screen readers just didn't click when it came to responsiveness.
This brings up a very interesting issue.
Many people have been reporting a decreased battery life when using Windows 7 on a netbook. While at first I could squeeze at least 8 hours of my battery, I noticed with usage that 90% of times I couldn't go beyond 7. I noted this with interest - because the nb205 is of course advertised with 9 hours of battery life.
While Windows 7 is a great operating system, it's performance on these ultra-mobile PCs surprises me. I could run windows 7 on a pentium 4 machine with 512 MB of ram and it went fine! That desktop had a 1.4 CPU - 266 MHz short of my intel atom n280 1.66 GHz one here in the netbook.
Seeing that I wasn't the only person reporting performance drains, I decided to move back to Windows XP sp3. Afterall, before the 7 craze, all netbooks came with sp3 - and roomers tell that there were minor tweaks done to improve netbook performance in the service pack release.
I was able to integrate my SATA drivers into the Windows XP setup and also slipstreamed a few kb fixes in. Installation thus went very smoothly. Out of the box, I had no audio driver - so I copied the downloaded driver file to my flash disk, inserted it, typed in d:audiosetup.exe, and was off to go with a few enters.
Looking at the device manager with JAWS, there were 7 drivers missing - 2 of which were ethernet/wireless adapters, a display driver, and the serial ATA controler also seemed to magically have disappeared.
I of course installed each driver, and even with everything loaded, XP performs at least 10 times faster then Windows 7. I'm noticing a decrease of fan activity as the CPU doesn't have to overwork itself just to run services and applications. JAWS still uses at least 20% of CPU, and for a netbook, 20% is a lot.
In conclusion, I'm certain that for the sighted, Windows 7 would run flawlessly on their netbook machines. Yet screen readers for the visually impaired seem to "drain" and highten processor resources - making Windows 7 a crawling bear compared to XP. AT vendors should focus specifically on trying to reduce used resources in their products - the rising popularity of Netbook computers will no doubt continue. Of course, in a few years we'll also see an exponential growth of capibilities which they offer - but at the same rate, the intuitiveness of screen readers will also make their resource usage greater. For now, if you want to buy a netbook, grab a sighted friend (if you don't know the XP setup routine), and install Windows XP. Chances are,Windows 7 will be a slow beast - and I'm not expecting this to change until the release of sp1 and more advanced hardware in future low-end computers.
-Tomi
November 23, 2009
I haven't had any problems at all with JAWS when I was running Windows 7, but this wasn't on a netbook. The computer would load up, and Jaws would turn on as soon as it finished loading, and it was very responsive. This computer has 2 gb of memory, and I would say at least a 2.6 ghz processor. So when you say that JAWS isn't doing good with Windows 7, you can't make a general statement that it won't work on any Windows 7 computers because it does, and it does very well. So in short, I have had no problems at all with Jaws and Windows 7.
oh, jaws works on Windows 7, but not when you combine that formula with Netbooks and win 7. The highest CPU you can get on a netbook to date is 1.6 GHz.
Oh, I see your point. Sorry for the mix-up there. lol
Just curious... Is there a difference in the screen readers with slow down issues like this? Window-eyes, jaws, system access, or others...?
jaws, or any screen reader in any case will slow down your system performence somehow, just like any sort of anti virus program that install in your system. as far as the battery usage goes, it is the same for laptop and netbook. i make a test before using my Dell XpX M1210, the promise battery life is up to 7 hours, which is one of the best around considering its a full laptop. however, with jaws running, the most i can get out of this is 4.5 hours, ones i switch off jaws, and run the same program, with wireless and everything else, the battery life can go up to 6.50 hours. i'm talking about having the screen in the highest reserlution, etc etc. when my monitor dead on this machine, the battery life can swetch up to 10.5 hours with continuest usage.
if you want to have full performence, try to switch off your monitor when you not in need.
as far as processer goes, the latest processer for netbook is intel atom n280, which is 1.66GHZ, and if you off the monitor, some netbooks can go up to 1.7GHS processer.
as far as window7 and netbook is concern, i don't see any reason for a netbook to upgrate it from XP to window7, over all, you suing a netbook, for word processer and internet related function, it doesn't make a huge different either having xp or window7 on.
I don't believe I'd run 7 starter, or any on a netbook. Tony wonders if the sighted report good , and that answer is no. There are still some gripes even if you can see running 7 starter on the netbook. It was rushed to market for the netbook, and I really don't think created with netbooks in mind. Netbooks as I've said before in post are just low powered machines meant for simple task. I think blind people as a whole demand more from their systems of any type, plus we simply need more stuff running to even have our machines accessible. I've spoken to some people at Freedom Scientific, and there not pushing netbook use, and I can see the point. I'd think other screen readers would say the same. Use at your own risk so to speak. Some netbooks aren't up to the bar as Tony's is, so imagine what you'd get if you weren't tech savvy, and demanding as he is, and you purchased something on sale? Smile.
Great review Tony.