AOpen EX65 SFF PC Review - Documentation and Tech Support
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Documentation
The EX65 comes with a do it yourself (DIY) quick start guide and a more comprehensive manual, in both printed and electronic forms. (Interestingly, the media sample that was sent to us included three of each of the printed manuals: in traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, and English). The documentation certainly fulfils its duty, taking the user through setting up the box and getting it ready to install an operating system. It even includes a tour of the BIOS, as well as an overview of CPU core voltages and frequencies.
Like other AOpen products, there’s no information supplied not directly related to the item at hand. Good for those who like the bare essentials, but bad for those who want to know more. It would probably make sense for the company to include a recommended components list at the very least, in addition to the documentation.
[Author’s note: When I build a system, I attempt to find parts which the company recommends be used with the product. Given AOpen’s product line, I would have enjoyed seeing a small catalog of add-on parts, such as speakers, video cards, monitors, and other company-made peripherals. Chances are that if I feel secure enough in the company’s product to spend $290US on this system, I’ll probably also feel secure spending another $175US for one of the Aeolus line of graphics cards, especially if I’m looking to get the most out of this system.]
Other than the translation errors in the documentation, we didn’t have any problems understanding the information. Using the instruction manual, it took an inexperienced user about an hour to get the system ready for operating system installation. This doesn’t take into account the time taken to resolve a technical issue we ran into when installing Windows.
Technical support
Although both Lindows 4.5 and Linux Mandrake 9.2 installed without any difficulties, installing Windows proved to be a bit more challenging. Since Windows XP was released before motherboard manufacturers began including SATA en-masse, installing the OS into a SATA connected hard drive wasn’t as straight-forward as a run-of-the-mill Windows XP installation.
As it turns out, versions of Windows before XP need an additional driver in order to recognize SATA drives. Although the drives were detected, and the operating system was installed, we received an “Error Loading Operating System” message on first boot up. Unfortunately, Windows XP requires that the drivers for SCSI and SATA drives be installed on a floppy disk and manually installed during the installation process -- or so we thought. (Who says floppies are dead? Not if Microsoft has anything to say about it.) Still, the lack of these drivers in the box prompted this reviewer to call AOpen’s tech support.
My first attempt at calling tech support ended almost as soon as it started, since AOpen’s tech support office apparently isn’t open on the weekends. After waiting a couple of days, I once again called and was able to reach someone. Here are the conversation notes:
Me: Ok, I can’t seem to get to the Windows XP splash screen. The OS looked to have loaded fine.
Tech: Go to AOpen.com and download the following file. It contains all the drivers for Windows XP.
Me: Oh, ok. Thanks.
I got off the line, went to download the file, but realized it was a 2.3MB EXE file. This part of the installation looks for a file called TXTSETUP.OEM, and won’t accept an EXE file. I tried to extract the file to another computer and grab the proper files, but that didn’t work either. So, I called back.
Me: Ok, I got to the page, but the only file there is too large, and isn’t even the right file type.
Tech: Ok, make sure that all the drives are being recognized at boot up.
Me: Yep. They are. In fact, the drive is even recognized in installation. But the system won’t boot after that point.
Tech: Ok, then go to another computer and try to extract the file.
(Trying to extract the file)
Me: The other system isn’t an AOpen system. The file won’t extract.
Tech: Well, sir, that’s all the drivers we have.
Me: So, you’re telling me I can’t install Windows?
Tech: Uhm… hold on sir. (Put on hold for about 5 minutes). You’ll have to go to either Intel.com for the ICH5 drivers, or SiliconImage.com and find the drivers there.
Me: Ok, I’ll try that. Thanks.
So, off I went to find the drivers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find them there. I got some help, however, from the friendly folks on Dev Hardware’s forums. I shouldn’t have had to go that far, however.
[Note: I later discovered that this was a simple BIOS issue, where the SATA controller was turned off by default.]
Throughout the entire conversation with the tech support personnel, I felt pretty rushed. Although I understand that they need to keep their call times down, that still doesn’t excuse an answer like “Well, sir, that’s all the drivers we have.” I won’t take the tech support incident into my grading of the unit, since tech support is a different issue entirely. However, there’s certainly room for improvement.
Next: Testing and Concluisions >>
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