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T**G
Working well, FIXED overscan and no hdmi audio problems easily
so I ordered on Sat (9/5/15) and it arrived on Labor Day 2 days later... how's that for fast shipping?!Opened the box, it seemed very well made... so I hooked it up to my tv and turned on power. 20 seconds later or so I was greeted by the windows setup wizard... very quick for the size hardware. I was then greeted with the windows 10 upgrade and so I chose yes. Once that started I was brought to win8 familiar desktop with the overscan issue everyone has talked about, but since windows10 was downloading in background, I figured I'll wait until w10 install is complete to tweak. Windows 10 took about 2 hours to upgrade, so I was not expecting it to work very well when it completed. When it did complete, I was then again presented with the overscan issue. I also confirmed having the no sound issue over hdmi that everyone else has reported.So I did some checking and within 15 minutes I was able to resolve both issues. First I tackled the sound issue. I simply typed "sound" into cortana and chose the the sound control panel... and there it was.. the default sound device was selected as the onboard out jack (3.5mm headphone jack). I changed the TV/HDMI device to be the default device and boom sound works.So I then tried tackling the overscan issue and I simply pressed the format button on my philips tv and changed to full and boom again, overscan gone.With that done, I went to check out how the gpu performs so I installed chrome, then the comcast live tv plugin and attempted to load a live stream. It started but was a bit choppy... so I tried another stream and choppy again. I thought to myself, I bet the intel hd drivers aren't up-to-date, so I went and downloaded the intel driver update utility at https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24345/Intel-Driver-Update-Utility and let it run. It quickly showed that the system was using version v10.x drivers and recommended I upgrade to v15.x, and so of course I said yes and did the install. For those who don't know, the intel HD drivers will install more than just video drivers, it will also install audio drivers to work properly with hdmi digital signal and various bus drivers. It completed, I then allowed it to restart and immediately noticed a performance boost as the o/s reloaded, as well as a much clearer picture. I then repeated the streaming comcast test and flawless, no more glitching.So now I've had it running a live HD stream for about an hour now and it's been running great. The only concern I have is that the unit appears very warm so I'm curious how it manages heat for extended periods of time so I'm going to use and abuse it for a few days to see how it holds up but so far so good.I hope this helps anyone who has trouble setting it up and solving the audio and overscan issues.
M**S
if you plan on purchasing please read these warnings first.
I love this little PC now. I didnt at first because I had some setbacks but now after owning it for almost a month and putting it through its paces I really Like it a lot. Read about the problems I had below and you can avoid some heart ache and really enjoy this product.1) The USB wall charger that it comes with is too weak for this device. I would notice that when plugged in, the battery would slowly drain as the charger could not keep up with it. When the battery is completely drained, the charger would not provide enough power to power the unit up without the battery at least being a little charged. I have since plugged mine into an ANKER Charge IQ charger and now it works great. My recommendation is to plug in your unit and while using it if the battery is getting weaker instead of stronger then you probably have a weak charger like the one I received and purchase a better one. If you don't there could be even bigger concequences. I used the USB ports on external media drives while in this underpowered state and I broke 3 thumb drives until I realized what the problem was. Luckily I was able to recover all the data and reformat the drives so no harm done, but not everyone will be that lucky so make sure you are getting enough power to your unit before plugging anything into it.2)My unit did not have a Windows 10 registration Product Key installed. For several days I got an annoying prompt at the bottom right corner of the screen telling me to activate Windows 10. I followed the advice of other reviewers and just sent an email to the manufacturer and they sent me a new product key to resolve the issue. Helpful tip...Include your Amazon Order number when contacting them. Otherwise they will contact you back asking for it and it will just take longer to resolve your issue. If you contact them with the problem and your order number then you should get it resolved in one email. But hopefully you will not even have this problem as it seems rare among the reviewers. I'm just lucky I guess.3) if you have the power issues resolved that I mentioned earlier, then I would also recommend a USB hub to plug in your peripherals as there are only 2 on the unit. that is a keyboard and mouse and nothing else. If you do not want to clutter up your set up with a hub then your only alternative is to pay more money for an upgrade to a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. it will drain your battery faster and not always be as responsive as a usb setup (i tried it a while and reverted back to USB as the Bluetooth didn't always wake up after the PC went into hibernation mode which is probably a driver problem and certainly not caused by the Vensmile) . If you use the Bluetooth option you will have 2 usb ports for peripherals.even though I had these issues this is still a 5 star computer in my opinion. I mean who hasn't has a few issues when breaking in a new computer right? In comparison to other computers I've had this one has had the fewest problems and is also portable and Cheaper than any other I have ever owned before. Before buying I was worried about the small amount of RAM and internal memory this unit has. So far it appears that windows 10 is very efficient at using the available resources and this computer running half the RAM I had in my windows 7 PC runs much faster with less memory. That was a surprise. As for the internal memory it comes with a 64gig memory (about 50GB after formatting and windows sector installed). It also has a Micro SD slot to upgrade with additional memory and if you upgrade the trial version of office to MS Office 365 you get a 1TB virtual drive from Microsoft. I have been using the Cloud option for several years now and I prefer it to a physical drive anyway, however remember to keep files that you need to access when you have no internet coverage stored locally!
A**O
Amazing
Amazing little device. I use it as a multimedia PC. I have a USB flash drive for extra storage and a wireless keyboard/touch pad. I made sure to run coretemp on it from other reports of it getting too hot. I have not experienced any temps greater than 54c. I have a Vizio tv and never had any issues with overscan or audio. I run iTunes, Hulu, Crackle, Vimeo, Netflix, Flixter and Kodi on it. All of those programs run fast and smooth. I cannot stress how much this is a space, energy and second watt saver compared to my nMediaPC 6000B HTPC Case. I do plan on expanding the storage space via powered USB hub and more flash drives. I will be buying a couple more as xmas gifts. Great computer for everyday use also. I would say that the power supply that comes with it probably does not supply enough amps. Uses some battery even while plugged in. But other than that it is awesome.
Trustpilot
1 month ago
2 months ago
