Which Eee PC did you get?
It seems as though there are two models of the ASUS Eee PC 4G: the “7A” and the “7B.” Both are the same price ($399) and identical to the untrained eye. There is one difference: the 7B is missing the second mini-PCIe (PCI Express Mini Card) expansion connector.
Yes, that’s the slot that this forbes article talks about for expanding the storage of the Eee PC:
But Asustek clearly wants to connect with the first billion, too. For instance, the 2- to 8-gigabyte memory cards can be upgraded to 32 gigabytes
Apparently, they’re not so much interested in the first billion anymore.
How can you tell which one you have? The serial number starts with either “7A” or “7B.” This can be found on a sticker on the back of the Eee PC. Of course, to see for yourself if your Eee PC actually has the second Mini-PCIe slot, you have to destroy the little yellow tab covering the screws of the hatch on the bottom of the Eee PC. By doing this, you are voiding your Eee PC’s warranty. If your SSD dies within the next year, you not only don’t have a warranty to get it fixed, but also can’t pop in a new SSD storage module into the secondary Mini-PCIe slot- since there isn’t a connector for it.
Early reports indicated that the loss of the connector had to do with black colored units or units shipped to the United Kingdom. I can confirm now that my US Pearl White Eee PC 4G bought via Newegg does not have the second Mini-PCIe connector. It is a 7B unit.
I’m now left with no warranty and no second Mini-PCIe connector- on a device that cost exactly double the original announcement from way back in June.
The weirdest part is that it seems to just be missing the connector itself, which is just a piece of metal. Cost savings? $1.
Regardless, I’d like to hear what ASUS has to say about this. I’m not very happy at all.
[edit @ 1:10am]:
Apparently, according to this thread (thanks muha), there are some users with serial numbers that start with 7B that actually DO have mini-pcie connectors. What in the world is going on?
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My s/n starts 79OAAQ001… and then it’s sort of rubbed off. White 4G from Citrus Micro, shipped Nov 1. Haven’t cracked it open yet. Tough to tell.
ASUS is making a big mistake.
I was telling folks to get this Eee PC, now I am not. Easily many unit will not be bought, as well, you know, no word of mouth.
ASUS – please put back the miniPCIe. Why be so stupid?
ASUS is making to many variations with the same model # by having the PCIE on some and not on others. I like many other will avoid the Eee PC till ASUS gets this straight. I guess this is why many people avoid first generation products.
To be fair, this was never a published feature from Asus. We shouldn’t get so upset at something that was never promised.
This isn’t verified yet! In fact, someone on the forum reported that they had a mini PCIe connector on their 7B unit.
Here is the thread: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=3824
Look at the first two posts. Both people report 7B units WITH the connectors.
I’m confirming that I do not have a mini-pcie connector on my own Eee PC with a serial number starting with 7B. What post on the forum are you referring to, muha?
Ah, thanks. Interesting.
how to check? sorry for my ignorance
Wait, you mean Asus has been raising prices and dropping specs?!?!
Sorry, but the eeePC is one of the most brazen examples of bait-and-switch marketing I can recall. It’s certainly the worst one I’ve fallen for myself.
Yeah, I bought one. I’d have purchased one of these things anyway. Why they felt the need to piss me off in the process I will never understand.
Regardless of whether this turns out to be the case once more data is in, it’s quite common for companies to build earlier units with a little extra flexibility so they can go back and make changes if it turns out there’s something that wasn’t anticipated.
Make buying decisions on the announced specs, and I don’t think those have changed since launch.
I just ordered one from ncix.com I’ll check and see if the minipcie is there or not, it’s a black one so should be a newer model. Check out my site for some EEE tutorials http://eeetutorials.blogspot.com
“What in the world is going on?”, indeed!
Perhaps earlier 7B models still have it? More digits may be needed!
If there is just a connector missing then it can be soldered – you just buy a connector and use some soldering station (or find a man with one).
mine is a 790aa unit too. and it defintiely has the connector…checked it when i upgraded to 2 gigs…bought it on launch day…white 4g 701
Mine starts with 7A. But I’m not too comfortable with voiding my warranty by opening that back slot. That is unless there is a really compelling reason to do so (maybe to install another SSD). Now if only there was a way to remove the sticker safely without getting torn.
A big mistake? Really? for the average user, who cares if it doesn’t have the card slot? Not too many applications for that anyhow. There is no bait-and-switch, as one person said – it was never advertised in any form. The price, quit complaining. This is still this best computer you can get for $400 anywhere on the planet. There is nothing else like this in existence – size, power, capabilities. Asus has done a great thing and all you want to do is complain.
Ditto 7B no PCI-E. Socket removed.
jangelo
-Where do you live? The sticker and the tie-in warranty in the US, is most likely not legal (meaning that if ASUS may be in line for a class action of some kind, if they deny the warranty with any kind of sticker restriction to access.
see:
http://cliffhacks.blogspot.com/2007/11/asus-eeepc-first-impressions-and-gpl.html
Quote- “The Magnuson-Moss Act is a 1975 Federal law that lays down some rules for how consumer warranties work. One of the specific things it prohibits are “tie-ins,” additional items or services you must buy from the manufacturer to make your warranty work. (This is why for-pay warranties these days are euphemistically termed ’service contracts.’)”.
Prometheus -
Do you work for ASUS? Who do you work for. The excitement for the unit, pre-release, was due to what folks saw inside, and not the Xandros OS (as Xandros has made a deal with Microsoft, and many as soon as they get their unit ONLY want to get another Distro on it (one that has not made a deal with the Microsoft) ASAP. The advantage of the miniPCIe is that when a SSD is available for it, or a combo bluetooth and SSD, that a dual boot can be done, using a easy to install Eeebuntu distro .iso file (burned to CD) that has all that is needed to install to such a miniPCIe device… and the proprietary wireless, if that is a problem, can be used anyway from the Xandros install (as it has been paid for, really the only use for Xandros on this unit). Ubuntu repositories have a HUGE amount of software available, that is the real value of Ubuntu over Xandros (Xandros has it’s own repo that is limited, very limited, and tied into just the whims of Xandros, and with their deal with MS, who knows what crap will show up there, with what kind of future EULA). Got it now?
Freedom to tinker. That is what the GPL is all about.
Ubuntu’s massive following is who you want to sell this to. Ubuntu and Red Hat ARE NOT going to cut any deal with Microsoft. OpenSolaris might even be fully GPL 3, making it too and option for install on the Eee PC (that is why the mini PCIe is important – Freedom to upgrade and improve where ASUS has left us with an inferior spec, we just want to improve on it at will)!
Oh – if you want to understand the Open Source thing and more importantly the GPL then read this below:
Your future business needs mandates that regarding he
GPL, that you should be aware of what is going on.
Below, is for anyone who really wants to know why you use and participate in GPL projects/products (not just LINUX, but any other GPL’d product, for example Sun’s UNIX OPEN OS is on it’s way to being tracked as a GPL licensed software, the Asterisk, HylaFax, Samba, and other software is under a GPL license as well – but I don’t know for sure if it all is at GPLv3 yet, Samba is). Anyway, if time is an investment for you,then you should spend about 1.5
hours and view this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2408787365037153871
Eben Moglen was indeed a programmer at IBM, and Eben is now a lawyer who was key in the understanding and the GPL direction, and the GPL direction is not a Free
Software direction but instead it is an open knowledge direction, it is a direction of understanding the foundations for the reasoning of the GPL evolution process, and that the GPL process is a process of KNOWLEDGE sharing, vs a direction of using or being locked-in to code that does not promote KNOWLEDGE at
all (like Microsoft wants). Xandros likes the GPL, maybe, but why did they do the patent deal with Microsoft (patents that MS has not published openly so that FOSS can see what they are, and so can challenge them and defeat them – as many software patents now are likely to be defeated using the Supreme Court’s new “obvious” test. In fact, this test, because software is math, might defeat all software, as math is math. Even encryption, not a software only invention, can not be patented. The UK Court of Appeal has ruled that software patents can not exist, it is only a matter of time before the law in other countries wakes up to this “correct” reality as well. Copyright is the rightful protector of software, and only copyright. With GPL 3, we are again free to tinker and share, like in a time past that Eben talks about in the above video.
ASUS could profit from getting an education about where the world is headed, and once educated can then profit by it. GPL3 is heaven for hardware makers.
http://flipbitsnotburgers.blogspot.com/2007/12/7a-vs-7b-eee-pcs.html 7A vs 7B Eee PCs – do YOU have the extra mini PCIe connector?
My 7B0AAQ01xxxx do not have a mini-pcie connector
Black 7A Ultra here, ordered 11/24 from JR.com in NYC, received 11/27, it HAS the connector. What can I do with it?
Prometheus-
Footnote, due to reference above, if you did not know, article about the UK not allowing pure software or business method patents anymore (see links below):
” Software patent rulings become Patent Office benchmark”, OUT-LAW News, 09/11/2006
http://www.out-law.com/default.aspx?page=7457
“The law in the UK says that inventions which are business methods and computer programs and nothing more cannot be patented”.
also-
“Ideas behind computer games can be copied, says Court of Appeal”
OUT-LAW News, 22/03/2007
http://www.out-law.com/page-7896
“General ideas and structures behind computer games and programs can be copied as long as the source code and graphics are not, the Court of Appeal has ruled”.
Much of modern law, in many free countries around the world, finds some roots in the English Legal system. The UK is leading on fairness and the law again. Now the rest of the world needs to wake up as well.
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/modding-the-asus-701-eee/
“Inserting a Novatel mini PCIe EVDO card into the empty mini PCIe card slot disabled the built-in SSD – as a result, my Eee was unable to boot! I think this mini PCIe card slot is designed for an optional SSD that replaces the built-in SSD…”
Skender-
Makes sense, as if the built-in SSD, soldered onto MB, goes down the tubes (after the warranty has expired), then what use, other than being a coffee mug coaster, is the Eee PC then?
The miniPCIe, it seems, is a needed feature.
Needed, mistake… dang you people are dramatic.
It’s not a published feature. 90% of users (people that probably don’t post here) won’t EVER use it. Remember it is warranty voiding to get to it.
Put down the pitch forks. It’s absent on some probably because of a supply issue. Why is the initial reation that “ASUS is out to screw us?”
xwing-
“you people”??? user forums are mostly “you people types” if you did not notice.
Anyway – per an above post… It is reported that everything needed to run the miniPCIe, is *still* on the MB, except that now there is NO connector part now (a part that might cost 5 cents, the poster above was generous that it would cost a dollar – in china? (nope, 2 cent tops for that part).
My guess, a pure guess, is that Microsoft, who wants to have the hardware and software locked down to be “registered” with Microsoft, where folks can’t just swap out the SSDs and share them between machines…, that MS did not want removable OS capability when the XP ones hit the stores (so ASUS took out the to satisfy Microsoft). Just a guess.
Oh read this and find the part about the warranty sticker and it’s value.
http://cliffhacks.blogspot.com/2007/11/asus-eeepc-first-impressions-and-gpl.html
read the part of the page that starts with “However, since I’m already pretending to be a lawyer in this post, allow me to discuss the Magnuson-Moss Act, what it says about tie-ins, and what exactly ASUS is doing here”.
It is a very good read.
********
Yes, that’s the slot that this forbes article talks about for expanding the storage of the Eee PC:
“But Asustek clearly wants to connect with the first billion, too. For instance, the 2- to 8-gigabyte memory cards can be upgraded to 32 gigabytes”
********
I’d disagree, when I read the forbes article the first thing that came to mind was the actual SD slot, at the moment SDs range up to 8gig but there is already support in SDHC for up to 32gig. It then mentions the Ram and the screws to change the ram but as other people have aleady pointed out, ASUS have never advertised it as coming with a mini PCIE port for upgrading the storage, that’s always been the job of the SD slot and USB ports. I think it’s alot of fuss about nothing.
As far as I know, Eee PC has two models so far, they are standard 4G and Surf 4G. The different between them is the webcam and may be the mini PCIe slot as well as the RAM slot. The Surf 4G comes without webcam that you can identify it very easily.
It looks like the 8GB version won’t have it neither
http://www.dynamism.com/eee-pc/specs.shtml
While I can sympathize on the disappointment of not having a PCIe connector, I fail to see why all are so pissed. I didn’t think (after reading the specs) that mine would come with PCIe. However, it did.
I got what I paid for and more.
What ASUS should’ve done would be to just remove the PCIe connector and leave the specs as they were or add it to all eee’s and publish it in the specs…
Bait and switch? Do “you people*” even know what that means?
I’ve posted stuff on the Wikipedia entry about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:ASUS_Eee_PC#Criticism_needs_citations_too
Have a nice day.
There was no bait and switch because *ASUS* never advertised the product for sale in a specific store at a specific price. Can someone point to a press release *by ASUS* stating that the 4G *is* in stores for $199? I didn’t think so. It was all a bunch of media cross speculation that created the $199 4G myth. Take a look at the actual ASUS press releases and when you find the one for the original 4G one you’ll see something very important – *NO PRICE*. The other early announcement for a $199 Eee PC was for a *2G variant*. Get informed and “you people*” will stop sounding like whiny children.
*- Apologies to Groklaw Reader
And thanks to Prometheus Fire for remembering some of this from the last “bait-n-switch” go around.
May –
The system specs that a reseller posts are not a guarantee – they basically tell the person, what it is, not the internal specs. We will have to wait for the 8G to be officially released, and ripped apart to see the truths .. IF the 8g has a 2nd pci-e slot .. I’m buying it .. and buying an affordable upgraded ssd card
But yeah, Here is to waiting.
http://uk.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=7472
$199 2G announcement from *ASUS*. This is the start of the $199 price, but there is *nothing* about a 4G in there.
I’m not seeing the 4G announcement on the ASUS site with my searches but I remember very clearly that it had no price on it as it was a subject of another dispute on an earlier post on this site.
If 7A and 7B don’t correlate with the second PCIe socket, What are the motherboard revision numbers?
I’m now left with no warranty and no second Mini-PCIe connector- on a device that cost exactly double the original announcement from way back in June.
This is a stupid point to bitch about. As if your loss was so great. You don’t have to buy it
Here is the deal with flash memory with hard use it will fail at some point. Then you have a a brick. With the mini-pcie at least you could keep it going after the initial 2 years. We all know that it will cost more to fix it that replace it in 2 years. But hey what another throw away device to fill up the rubish pile. I am not saying that this is a promised spec. I’m saying the dollar for the part might have been worth it, at least eviromentally and longevity.
To everyone complaining about the HD failing…the SDHC card slot is bootable, AND higher-capacity (up to 32GB). If, someday, your HD fails, your device is still fully usable.
Yes, I said “you people”… as in everyone crying wolf. It’s simply getting nuts that you are complaining instead of enjoying your EEE.
-The hard drive will fail
-Asus violated GPL
-The original price was $200
It’s becoming a list of what will be complained about next…
A missing connector for an unpublished spec isn’t something to complain over. Like I said probably didn’t have a consistent supply… It’s not unfathomable that they simply didn’t add the connector because they didn’t have it?
Why jump to the: “Oh it’s so cheap! Asus is screwing us for every penny.”
No one has shown a flash drive fail yet. I never heard the cry for that under say the iPod Nano.
Just get over it.
Grokaw,
Again… NEEDED???
There is three USB slots and an SD slot. All of which are bootable.
If you are so adamant about failure… I’ll buy you another EEE if all of those fail or are removed and render your EEE a brick.
The average consumer that buys this thing, they’re going to be shocked that the disk and RAM are not upgradeable like every other laptop sold in existence.
What gives any laptop manufacturer the justification for making RAM and storage non-upgradeable on any laptop?
Advertised or not, it’s assumed that you’ll be able to open doors on the laptop to replace RAM modules and disks without voiding a warranty.
Having said that I’ll still get one. Even if the flash fails in 2 years the price of this thing makes it a disposable laptop. In 2 years there will be something 10 times more capable at the same price.
I think ASUS will start a trend here and we’ll see several competing products in the next few years. Some upgradeable.
Because it’s non upgradeable, this is one reason I’ll hold out for the 8G.
Now if only the 16G was coming some time soon.
One simple possibility is that Asus ran out of mini-PCIe connectors at some point, and decided to leave the connector off rather than halt production. If they never advertised the mini-PCIe slot, and have no plans to use the slot for after market upgrades, it would make perfect sense to leave the connector off.
does any have problems with there mouse? mine seems to get stuck everyonce and awhile. thought it had to do with how much battery was left, then i started even with the full battery. im not touching that yellow sticker until my 1 year is over
I made the original “bait and switch” comment.
1) I decided to buy one of these the moment it was announced. I haven’t obsessively crawled through the ASUS press release archives and don’t care to, but there’s no doubt that it was the idea of a 4 gigabyte micro-laptop at $200 was the story that launched ASUS into the headlines back in May or June or whenever it was. They made no attempt to clarify and clearly switched that up when it got closer to release. It was a sin of omission, I suppose, but they were passive and complacent when it came to enjoying the publicity it brought them. They could have clarified.
2) I know for a fact that specs were changed after I placed my pre-order. I was in line for what would become the 2G Surf at $259. That combination of features and price points was nixed entirely — AFTER I placed my pre-order — and features were removed from the other price points.
3) Whether or not ASUS officially put the mini-PCIe slot on the spec sheet, it was in the first models released, and users discovered it and passed the word along to other users, thereby informing the decisions of the more cautious purchasers. They’re free to drop it without notification, but you can’t seriously expect buyers not to react with dismay.
Sorry dude, but I’m going to stand by it. Any one of these would have been fine, but with three in a row, it’s a bit hard to swallow the notion that it was all accidental.
1) It’s not required of ASUS to patrol the internet to find who is misreporting the story. ASUS openly published the press releases which are fairly easy to find by anyone for confirmation. That you didn’t do it and believed the hype of your preorder company is your own fault. Why would ASUS have to clarify if the press release is right there? It’s up to the reporter to not be a dip shit and do due-diligence when reporting on a story.
2) Your preorder was not with ASUS, thus your bait and switch complaint lies with the company that sold you the preorder. Get a clue. The product was NOT ON SALE hen you made the preorder, and ASUS never told anyone that they could get an Eee at a specific price until it was released. Even that $199 2G link I posted says “around $199″.
3) Not a response to me.
Sorry dude yourself, it was your mistake right along with all the dumb reporters and editors who can’t fact check worth a damn.
Asus is of course protecting the next EPC launch, wich will have more disk space and
a bigger screen, they want the same people who already bought EPCs to keep upgrading
just like apple with ipods.
But they’re missing a loyal fan(boys) base, unlike apple.
You see, a percentage of off EPCs byers are Linux users and they(we) tend to complain alot…
Those who think that they will upgrade with a PCIe SSD on your current eee is pretty unrealistic. A 16GB PCIe SSD costs more than the eee itself right now. Yes, price will drop eventually. But by that time, your money is better spent on newer and more powerful eee-type PC.
The price increase is likely due at least in a major part by the free-fall of the US$ in relation to other world wide currencies.
Hate the fact that you are paying much more for stuff imported – vote next election someone who is concerned about the American economy.
This is an innovative product. I would rather it be a financial success for ASUS instead of them going out of business selling them at a loss.
JDP,
1) It’s not required, but it would have been wise and ethical. The fact is that Asus announced this thing by promising a $199 price point and an August release date. They came out in November/December and cost twice as much. It’s the OLPC syndrome, but without the good karma of giving educational tools to needy kids.
2) You don’t seriously think that retailers just fabricated the specs for that first round of configurations, do you? All the retailers were reporting the same details. This likely means that Asus confirmed them with the retailers, who then started taking preorders based on that information. If you have an alternative explanation for the fact that the configurations were reported identically on many different sites, I’m all ears.
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