[Franzli]

 

Thanks a ton!! I hadn’t seen that, thought the dual boot was the final Bios update for the device. Camera working now in Windows and Android, yay!

[Franzli]

Ok, I figured it out with the help of various tutorials, what helped most was the one on the first page of this thread and a Russian one here (https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=707903&st=580#entry47077014).

The crucial bit, even if you just want to install from scratch, is how to boot into the installation medium (step 13 in the tutorial on page 1): Contrary to what the teclast page says, do NOT enable the DNX mode in BIOS, but make sure OS ID is set to Windows, not Android. Then select the USB stick that you want to install from. With Windows installation media, for some reason you normally get the 🙁 sad face with the error I mentioned earlier. That is fine – just wait for it to reboot and when the Teclast logo appears again (takes a bit) press F7 until you get to chose the boot medium and choose your Windows installation stick again. Shortly after that, you’ll see the Teclast logo again. It may be that you could be able to boot at this point already, but for safety I did the same routine as above two more times, i.e. once the teclast logo shows press F7, choose USB stick to boot from. Eventually you’ll boot into your installation medium.

One further hint that I found was only clear on the Russian page (step 13 there as well): if you want to install using the Teclast supplied images, you’re supposed to have a smaller and a larger USB. For booting, only have the smaller (8G) one connected to the computer – only insert the second one once you get to the Windows dosbox screen saying “wpeinit”! I had them both connected on boot and tried numerous times until I found out what the problem was.

I would have been able to use the newest Windows iso as well, but had made a mistake writing down the registration key on the original install, and I wasn’t sure if it would properly activate afterwards. The teclast image comes with activation key, so that’s good.

[Franzli]

Tommy wrote:

I dont know if the Android Installation changed anything(but i doubt it), i am using the dual Boot for Windows/Ubuntu. But i used the normal Windows “make me an USB install stick” and used keyboard+mouse (either you access the USB stick via BIOS or… I think it was F7 on the keyboard) And: Double Driver is a Software used to backup your existing drivers, you can choose any driver seperately.

Thanks again for your reply!

So do I understand correctly that you don’t have the dual boot bios installed? I suspect that this might make the difference and require something special for the Windows installation…

I just tried and noticed that I can boot into a live USB stick of Bliss-x86, an Android N version. This looks like there’s something wrong with the Windows boot medium – but that boots just fine on another PC, suggesting that there is some problem with the Bios. I suspect it’s got to do with the choice menu on startup, where you pick Android or Windows. Must need something special for it deal with Windows?

[Franzli]

Tommy wrote:

Hey, for 1) As far as I have read,it is “normal” that the cameras won’t work after flashing the new bios. But since the cameras are crap,I didn’t even test them. For 2) I _am_ using a normal windows installation. I can’t see any difference. BUT it is important to use a Double Driver backup of the drivers, simply using the drivers via a normal installation process won’t work properly.

 

Another short question, how do you perform the normal Windows installation? I’ve flashed Android and wanted to proceed installing Windows, but either it doesn’t boot to the USB installation disk at all and goes directly to Android, or it gives me a blue screen saying I should tell a service person that I got an ACPI BIOS ERROR. Any way to installa from normal boot medium, or do I have to go through the teclast installation process with two USB sticks?

[Franzli]

Thanks!

re 1) Cameras: yes, I wouldn’t expect them to be good either, but it would be nice to have them working at least for skype and such. So there’s no way to get the camera running? At least I don’t feel bad for going for missing out on the camera when I go to either Remix or mirek if it’s broken even on stock…

re 2) Great to hear that that it’s working fine! Not sure what you mean by Double Driver backup though? I’ve been able to reinstall everything previously using the drivers provided on techtablets when the drivers seem to have gone missing after the regular windows upgrade process.

 

[Franzli]

I just converted an A5C6 to the dual boot BIOS and have two short questions about other people’s experience.

1. For some reason, the camera doesn’t seem to work on either the Stock ROM, nor RemixOS, nor mirek v3. I tried each of them with a clean flash via the Intel flash tool, and in all cases the camera app tells me it cannot find the camera (I also tried opencamera on stock and mirek to check whether it’s only a problem with the camera app). Has anyone else experienced this issue with the camera, is this just the way it is? I saw some comments from people with the A5C8 complaining about bad camera quality on mirek’s ROM, and some people on other pages saying they’ve got a problem with the camera on A5C6, but I never saw a general warning that there won’t be a working camera on Android if you convert to dual boot… Any input welcome!
2. The standard tutorials involve installing the teclast provided version of Windows. Has anyone tried installing a plain Windows from USB-stick? As the creator’s update just came out I’m reluctant to install the old teclast version and then go through the upgrade process rather than just installing a clean slate version. I’m aware that I’ll need to install the drivers for touch etc. afterwards, but is there anything else to take care of? Will this work with the boot menu on startup, where you pick Android or Windows?

[Franzli]

Since kernel 4.9 the rotation sensor seems to be recognised, so autorotate kind of works, at least on Gnome. By kind of I mean that there seems to be some sort of inversion happening, so when you use it in portrait mode it’s the wrong way around. I “solve” this by turning the tablet the opposite way of how I want it and then lock screen rotation.

[Franzli]

How long it takes for the power bank to charge the tablet, I assume? Or for the power bank itself to charge?

Actually I don’t know either yet, but will advise once I’ve had a chance to work with them a bit and have an eye on the performance.

[Franzli]

Aleksandr wrote:

Anyone try this powerbank PD Type C Portable Charger RAVPower 26800mAh Battery Pack?

I can confirm that this is working now (only tried with Linux so far, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t charge on Win). So we finally have a working Type C PD power bank. It’s relatively large and heavy though, I’d have preferred a slightly smaller 10000 or 15000 mAh version, but there you go.

[Franzli]

@ nipaph Thanks, might try that if I find some time!

@ Jagd Would be a nice idea, but as the previous person said, even without having opened it I don’t see any space for a 2.5″ drive. I suspect it might even be too tight for an M2 or MSATA, especially since you’ll need to fit some sort of adaptor as well – although this one I wouldn’t completely exclude. Thermals might become a problem with those though, as they tend to get warm and there wouldn’t be any space. Finally, there’d bee the question as to how you could connect the drive to the computer – not sure if you can link it up to the POGO connector somehow. I’d suspect (!) it would run at USB2.0 speeds max though, which might be a bit of a waste for an SSD drive.

That being said, if you find a way of pulling this off I’d nonetheless be very interested in hearing about it! 🙂 (Even though I personally might not have a need for an extra internal hard drive)

[Franzli]

Very nice, I’ve been thinking about opening the keyboard myself. Good to hear that it doesn’t seem to become too unstable this way. Is there anything in particular to look out for when opening the keyboard, any tricky areas? I suppose opening works like for the tablet – with thin plastic tools and lots of patience?

[Franzli]

Thanks for sharing your impressions!

I thought I read that the EZPad had an aluminium casing? I just checked on the Gearbest page it just says something about a “metal bracket”, which may just be the kickstand?

I’m pretty sure that the 5S was reported to have an aluminium casing that weidrly enough looked like plastic. Maybe they changed that to actual plastic when bringing out the 5SE?

[Franzli]

So apart possibly from the Chuwi Hi12, which may have a slightly more usable experience (though still limited from what I understood), pen support on Chuwi tablets seems to be a hoax largely? (Which doesn’t mean they’re not nice tablets otherwise, I guess)

Apart from the Cube i7 Stylus/Book, which are priced quite a bit over $200, the EZPad 5SE is the only sub-200 tablet that I’ve seen confirmed to have a Wacom digitizer. On the relevant thread here in the forum there’s a bit of a bandwith of opinions regarding the general servicability of the device though, so anyone interested might want to have  a look around there. Some people complained about speed (though I’m not sure that’s necessarily much different from other z8300 devices?) and maybe more importantly also about battery life.

Any other experiences about real or alleged stylus support on other (relevant) tablets?

[Franzli]

@alexandr and @Wylver

I’ll actually give the RAV power bank a shot, ordered it from amazon UK. I’m somewhat optimistic, since the description says it supports 30W chargin via USB C (presumably Power Delivery):

<span class=”a-list-item”>Massive 30W Type-C Output: The Type-C output reaches up to 30W that matches the original AC MacBook charger, so you can charge all devices including a MacBook in no time. (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LZILJQ1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)</span>

Now it’s true that not all chargers/powerbanks billed to be compatible with the Macbook will work with our Cube i7, but since my USB C charger also “only” supplies 36W via PD, I guess there’s a reasonable chance this might work. Of course still depends on the amount of voltage allowed, but it seems to be more than 5V/3A, so that’s encouraging. Will report back if it works.

[Franzli]

Great, thanks for your detailed answer! This may be helpful to some people looking for a pen-enabled tablet, so I’ve taken the freedom to quote qou in the relevant thread I opened recently. (http://techtablets.com/forum/topic/discussion-of-pen-enabled-tabletstablets-with-stylus/#post-57151)

[Author]

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