Rebirth of the HP tc1100- a few bumps in the road
I mentioned yesterday that I was feeling the urge to get the old faithful HP tc1100 Tablet PC out of mothballs and give it a go. Last night I made good on that urge; I pulled the tc1100 out and started assessing what I needed to do to make a serious run with it.
The tc1100, with its hybrid design, makes it a stellar mobile computer that can handle virtually any task I might throw at it. The keyboard turns it into a full notebook-type of computer and the ability to pop the screen off and carry just the slate can’t be beat.
The tc1100 is currently running Vista Ultimate, that’s what my step-daughter has used since Vista was released and it’s served her surprisingly well. I’m not too happy with the pokey nature of the device under Vista so I’m pretty sure I’m going to be changing that. I haven’t decided if I’m going to restore it to factory conditions with Windows XP Tablet Edition or step up and install Windows 7 on it. I’m going to do some research online to see how many have successfully gone the Win7 route and see what issues that might create.
My short time with the tc1100 has led to the discovery of some problems that I need to solve. The A/C adapter will power the Tablet but will not charge the battery unless the device is off. I left the tc1100 off all night, plugged in, and the battery was 100% charged this morning so I thought the battery was OK but the adapter might need replacing. Unfortunately when I unplugged the device and started using it sans power the battery went from 100% charged to 7% in just 5 minutes. Uh-oh, could be the battery. I have a second A/C adapter and battery for the tc1100 around here somewhere so the first step to solve this is to find those and see how they work.
The other problem I’ve encountered is that I can’t find the XP recovery disks that shipped with the tc1100. I have not used (nor seen) the device for a couple of years (while the kid was using it) and those disks are nowhere I can find. That might force me to go the Win7 route anyway. I intend to get this baby fully up and running and will continue to share this journey with you as it unfolds. One thing I have already discovered: You can still buy these Tablets on eBay for around $300 and they are far more capable than any netbook out there. Of course, you have to make sure you get the real deal on eBay and not junk. There are full accessories for the tc1100 online, too.
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Depending what you plan to use it for…. Ubuntu would service you well.
Kind of makes it useless as a tablet though…..
@Gordon ?? i got mine running as tablet in ubuntu…
http://blogs.tech-recipes.com/seamonkey420/2007/12/26/video-ubuntu-710-on-my-tc1100-wtablet-and-digitizer-working/
The problem isn’t that you can’t get the digitizer working in Ubuntu, from what I understand that’s pretty easy. (A liveCD on my Dell XT of 9.04 immediately recognized the digitizer). The problem is there’s no software to take advantage of it. Unless you’re using it solely for very simple notes in xournal, there’s not really much of a point.
I have hovered over the “Bid” or “Buy It Now” button for a TC1100 on eBay many times now. This post makes me wish I would have. But it always seems like the “real deal” for a TC1100 with better specs and in decent condition can still pull closer to $500! Speaking of specs…if one were looking to purchase a TC1100 are there some minimum specs to looks for (processor? RAM? etc)
Happy to copy and send my reinstall disks, just email me.
Need recovery cd for my HP tc1100. Please help. Thanks.
You can download it from emule or torrent.
Hi do you still have your Tc 1100 disks to copy? My hard drive has failed purchased another but cannot get this thing rebooted regards Adrian
I managed to get Windows 7 beta running on mine. It worked quite well and required very little hacking to make it work. Google will turn up the hints/tips required to install the Q menu software but other than that it just worked. And worked quite well at that.
I’ve installed Windows 7 Ultimate beta on a TC1000 (not a typo) and it runs quite well — as a laptop. I can’t get the Finepoint driver to work, so no tablet use, yet (Every so often I try to find a work around). The performance is decent, I’ve turned off all the aero stuff (which did work with the default VGA Win7 driver, not with the TC1000′s NVidia driver), to improve performance. If I can’t get the tablet functionality by the time the beta expires — I’ll probably replace with Ubuntu.
Off Topic ALERT:
THE IPHONE WILL GET CUT & PASTE !!!
AND STEREO BLUETOOTH !
AND MMS !
AND MORE…this summer around June…time to party.
And still not compare to what’s exciting about the Pre. :p
Back on topic, I saw one for $210 last night, including the “combo docking station” but no mention of keyboard so I don’t think it includes it, (but if that’s the case I can buy it separately for $50-70), and no OS (preferred for me anyway) and I pulled the trigger.
The ebay I bought it from is giving a 30 day warranty, plus Paypal’s protections, so I feel safe with regards to that.
And as for the specs, 1GHz, 512MB ram, 40GB hard drive. I’d probably have preferred the 1.2GHz, but for the price I saw I couldn’t resist. Anything else I might upgrade later on. Besides that, it’ll mainly be used as a more portable version of my main tablet, a Dell XT and for eBook reading, so the speed isn’t too important.
Hi, i´m still using my tc1100, of course with no battery at all. At home as a good tablet with XP with software of its age, and in my VW Touareg, as a good internet-tv-divx-google maps and GPS offroad´s device. So i can´t see a better use for this incredible HP mini computer. It will be perfect someday when someone sells an affordable solar charger panel that gives the needed juice for slate use outdoors on a weekend. Sure you know what i mean.
Windows 7 runs fairly well on the TC1100. There’s a couple drivers that you’ll need to manually install, but no big issues – except for one: no hardware acceleration with the Nvidia 420M. Gotta turn it off or it bluescreens. No DirectX 9 means you lose a number of other things as well.
I haven’t seen a better form factor for what I use in the mobile world. I’ve had a fujitsu convertible and currently have at Sahara for my work mobile, but neither of them meet the tc100 for it’s flexibility and comfort in slate mode.
I still have my tc1100 running XP at home. It’s my last non VISTA computer. It is also the only one I have at home not run a 64bit OS. It’s the only one I can use for my GPS running watch and Amazon video syncs. I also use it to keep an old Palm alive for my Hood-to-Coast (192 mile relay run) software going (they haven’t come out w/a WinMo version).
I gotta wonder how this compares to the Always Innovating Touch Book thing. Similar form factor and price, regardless of the hardware/software differences…
The TC1100 is a fantastic buy on eBay though, thats for certain.
No contest. I have used both. The Always Inovating is just a updated large screen PDA while the HP is a Full PC.
IMHO if HP pulled this off the shelf and updated it Apple would no be building a tablet.