[CH]

Whilst attempting to try Linux on mine, I had set my max C state to C1 which doesn’t allow low power mode. I think it made a fair difference setting it back to C7. Just something I came across recently.

The current Android image is very clean compared to the original it shipped with. Zero bloatware, dodgy Chinese apps etc. Maybe consider reflashing that if you haven’t already?

Define “bad” though?

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Where exactly in the BIOS is Boot on invalid battery? I don’t have it that I can find. What version of Hi8 do you have? There are at least two main different versions where they changed the Wifi chip.

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I don’t think I have a “Boot on invalid battery” option. I will have to take a look. Does that get around the double boot issue?

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No from the speaker only. I haven’t actually tried the head phone jack.

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The OS can’t do auto turn on the laptop. You have to set in the BIOS. I was looking for this a long time ago and had given up but found that there is an option that will do it. Enable Boot->Power Up In Standby Support and it will auto start.

The problem you will then have with Android is that it boots into “charger” mode where basically it runs an application called “charger” in / that displays the charge level. You have to then power it on again. I’ve had success replacing that binary with a script that just reboots the device. Windows doesn’t have this issue.

Issues with this:

1. It basically has to boot twice so takes a while. You might be able to do away with this if you can figure out how to make it bypass the charger application directly. There’s a bunch of scripting etc in there
2. When you shut down with power connected it automatically restarts (Android and Windows) so if you want to actually shut it down you need to unplug and then shutdown. If you want to leave it charging though it will automatically start up again. So basically there’s no way to charge it whilst off.

HTH

[CH]

I have one like in your link and another that looks like the one Chris (I think) recommended.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-new-4ports-USB-OTG-Charger-HUB-cable-for-Tablet-thinkpad-8-X98-M80ta-WT-8/1888812032.html

http://www.banggood.com/3-Port-USB-2_0-OTG-Hub-OTG-Charging-Cable-For-Mobile-Phone-Tablet-p-970000.html

The first one has some kind of mechanical relay inside which seems wierd.

The latter is better in terms of simultaneous charging and hub but neither allow full charge speed which means the tablet can’t charge fast enough when the screen is on. So eventually the battery discharges. Both also have issues

I can only charge at about 0.5A whereas with a straight cable I get about 1.1-1.2A. The first one I bought claims high charge rates and lower gauge cables, but it doesn’t seem to work for me. The other larger problem for me is that if unplugged (or power is removed from the hub in charging + hub mode), the tablet often needs to be rebooted. Also if power is removed, the whole hub unplugs so devices plugged into the hub now longer work. I want to leave the hub plugged in and turn power on and off externally.

[CH]

Did you ever solve this? I am experiencing the same thing. I have removed all the partitions and started anew. The fresh install (using a MS’s recent 1511 version made into a UEFI boot image with Rufus i.e. not a Chuwi image) boots fine initially, just without most of the drivers. Using DD or manually it hangs and power cycling it results in it not booting. It’s a pretty slow process re-installing it each time to find out what’s going on.

 

[CH]

Time for my review buying a Chuwi Hi8 from Banggood to Australia (also bought one about the same time from GearBest)

Ordered one with some extra screen protectors and the trifold case paying AUD$135.44 after $14.23 discount

26/8 Ordered

31/8 Received email stating it was out of stock after I emailed them querying it (I was 90% sure it said in stock when I ordered)

1/9 Received email “congratulating” me that my order had shipped.

29/9 Card in letter box to pick up from post office (to be available the next day)

30/9 Picked up from post office

It had been removed from it’s original packaging as expected with Banggood. The tablet lightly wrapped in from and screen protectors were inside a polystyrene box along with all the Chuwi accessories. They claim it’s better to ship that way but all that stuff was floating around in the box. The case was just stuck on the outside of the polystyrene box and the whole thing was wrapped in packinstg tape. Quite an effort to open without a knife also as the label and the case side were on the opposite site to the lid of the polystyrene box.

Tablet was fine and as new looking however it had been powered up. It started Android initially. Change to Windows 10 and it logged in with an already created user “g” automatically. This in comparison to Gearbest which started as a completely fresh install allowing me to pick usernames etc. A bit annoying since I don’t want the username g, so need to change that amongst other things. Otherwise it all seemed the same basically. Windows was activated with no issues but I believe it was already activated before I got it whereas the GB one I think activated in my possession.

I’ve only had it a few hours but seems identical to the one I bought from GearBest

So over a month from order to receipt compared with 20 days for GearBest (ordered after BG and received well before BG order).

[CH]

My “review”, ordering a Chuwi Hi8 – I managed to snag one for the bargain price of just USD $69.89. Price seemed to change back and forth from the more regular $92.xx  but there was some kind of deal on around that time. I was expecting them to just cancel it actually since I seemed to get lucky with the webpage. Maybe I paid the USD equivalent of AUD $92.xx somehow.

2/9 Ordered

7/9 Email sent saying it had been sent

22/9 Received in Australia

So 20 days which is fairly reasonable. It had a very basic tracking that only showed something when it appeared in Australia 3 or 4 days before it arrived and it’s still showing as at that location even though I picked it up 2 days ago.

Unit was all in original Chuwi box plastic sealed as new. Outer packing was minimal (a slightly padded bag) but was in perfect condition. Unit came pre-installed with Windows 10 (stickers/printing on box was updated too). Haven’t really looked at Android side yet apart from booting it. Umpteen partitions like previous units too. I fail to see the need for that.

One “complaint” with the device (so not really Gearbest) I have is the 802.11n card now seems to be an SDIO interface Broadcom device whereas older ones judging by driver packs have seemed to be Realtek devices (also SDIO). I’m trying to use it to stream some media (too slow to transcode) and using the inbuilt interface results in very poor performance when sending to another device. It can receive fine. Plugging in a Realtek USB unit and the problem just goes away. So a little annoying as I’d prefer to not have to use a second interface which means an external hub / cable to charge and use OTG. Whether the Realtek internal units would have had the same issue I’m not sure. It could be the SDIO interface itself but it’s fine receiving so presume it can handle the data rate no problem. We’re only taking around 4-5Mbit/s

Also the driver that came with it didn’t support Hosted Networks. I removed the driver and replaced with the one in the Double Driver pack and it now works albeit with the problem which was there with the original driver I’m pretty sure. I wanted the Hosted Network interface to run it as an AP so the old driver was no good anyway.

[CH]

To answer my own question, there doesn’t seem to be any option to allow it to automatically power on and boot when power is applied which is unfortunate.

I can probably deal with it as long as standby/sleep can last a few days though. It does seem to wake up although I’m not 100% sure it’s actually entering sleep mode at the moment.

And it seems to run continously charging somewhat slowly off about 1A i.e. about 5W. It never seems to draw any more than about 1A.

[CH]

Does Banggood normally acknowledge orders if items are not in stock? I just ordered a Hi8 2 business days ago and nothing has happened. I was pretty sure it said in stock when I ordered but now is showing restocked by 30th August which then quickly changed to 1st September.

I’m thinking of cancelling if I can. I can see this dragging out for a while and I’m keen to get my hands on it.

 

[CH]

A DisplayLink USB device would do it, but isn’t really mirroring. It’s adding a second display completely that can be a clone or a second screen. Doesn’t support audio though. Even with just USB2.0 video is surprisingly watchable. e.g. a bit cheaper than the earlier post (which is probably DisplayLink too)

http://www.dx.com/p/usb-2-0-vga-dvi-hdmi-multi-display-adapter-81578

http://www.dx.com/p/usb-2-0-uga-multi-display-external-dvi-video-card-with-vga-hdmi-adapters-1920-1080-max-28532#.VdbI7_mqrkU

I bought one from DX (I think the second one) and it works very well with my laptop.

[Author]

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