VIA has released updted drivers for the CN896 chipset and Chrome9 integrated graphics. There are new drivers for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. HP 2133 Guide decided to see how the updated drivers affected performance on the HP Mini-Note.

You can read the full writeup at HP 2133 Guide and find download links. But in a nutshell, video playback is significantly better once you update to Vista SP1 or Windows XP SP3 and apply the updates. So if you've got Windows on your Mini-Note, and any interest in watching video from sites like YouTube and Hulu, you should probably update your system.

You may not be able to pick up an Eee PC 901 yet (unless you happen to be in Taiwan), but if you plan to pick up the Linux model eventually and add Windows XP manually, Asus has you covered. The company has posted Windows XP drivers on its support web site. The files include:

• Audio driver
• Bluetooth driver
• Chipset Driver
• LAN driver
• Advanced Configuration and Power Interface driver
• Touchpad driver
• Graphics driver
• WLAN driver

[via Eee PC News.de]

Following the lead of Asus, MSI will be including a Windows XP driver disc with every MSI Wind laptop, whether you order a PC running Windows or Linux. For some reason HP decided to wait until the HP 2133 Mini-Note had been out for a few weeks before posting Windows XP drivers online, but MSI has gone ahead and added a bunch of drivers to the MSI Wind support site even though the PC won't be released for at least another few days.

If you dig around the MSI Wind U100 page, here are some of the things you can find:

• A BIOS file
• Windows XP LAN drivers
• Windows XP CardReader drivers
• Windows XP WLAN drivers
• Windows XP VGA drivers
• Windows XP Touchpad drivers
• Windows XP Chipset drivers
• Windows XP Bluetooth drivers
• Windows XP Audio drivers
• A system control manager application for Windows XP
• Instruction manuals in 24 languages

There don't appear to be any Linux support files at the moment, but MSI doesn't plan to release the Linux model of the Wind notebook until the XP version has been out for a little while. In the meantime, I'm sure members of the Linux community will try their hardest to find the best way to run Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, and other distributions on the MSI Wind.

A few days ago HP started posting Windows XP drivers and software for the Mini-Note on the company's web site. But there were a few things missing, most notably the audio driver. Sure, you could configure Windows XP to use the Windows Vista driver with a little tweaking, but it's not a perfect fit.

But now it looks like HP's got a full set of drivers and support software available for download. That includes an audio driver, a BIOS image, Bluetooth, WiFI, flash card reader drivers, a system update for Windows XP SP2, and even a copy of WinDVD 8 SE (which is kind of funny considering the Mini-Note doesn't have an optical disc drive).

There are a couple of other goodies on the support page too, so whether you've already installed Windows XP on your Mini-Note or you plan to, you should probably check it out. Keep in mind, you don't need all of these files to install Windows XP. But I'd recommend using the audio, chipset, network, and storage file at the very least.

HP has finally gotten around to posting Windows XP drivers and support software on its web site. I know I wasn't the only person to install XP within hours of unboxing the Mini-Note. But now you don't have to rummage around to find drivers that work properly.

Honestly, the only problem I've noticed is that I get an error sound when booting Windows which I'm pretty sure is just my computer's way of letting me know that I'm using an audio driver that was designed for Windows Vista, not XP (I already turned off the visual notification box that popped up to tell me this every time my computer booted).

There doesn't appear to be a Windows XP audio driver on the web site, but I'm wondering if it might be bundled with the VIA chipset drivers of the HP software update tool. I plant to install both of these packages and see what happens, but since I don't intend to do a clean install of Windows XP right now, I'm not sure I'll be able to tell for certain what each package does.

Update: As of 10:26pm on 5/5, HP appears to have pulled the XP drivers down again. But I suspect they'll be back online soon, perhaps with a working audio driver.

Update 2: And Tuesday morning the XP drivers are back online. I still don't see anything that says sound, but since I already have a working Vista sound driver installed, I can't tell if any of the new drivers would have enabled audio. If you're doing a fresh install of XP, let us know if and when sound starts working when you start installing these applications and drivers.

[via HP 2133 Guide]

Order an HP Mini-Note running Linux in the US and you get a Mini-Note running Linux, a power cable, and that's about it. There's no system restore disk, and no drivers for installing alternate operating systems. While you can find drivers and software for Windows Vista on the HP support site, there's no official support for Windows XP. But it looks like if you order a Linux model in Hong Kong, you get both a Linux "system repair" CD and a disc with Windows XP drivers.

These discs are listed under "promotions," which makes it sound like HP might not offer them indefinitely. But honestly, that doesn't make any sense -- unless HP does eventually plan to make the drivers and a Linux OS/restore utility available on its web site, in which case the company will be able to save the marginal cost of creating and shipping the discs.

It's still not clear why HP would offer this promotion in Hong Kong and not the US or other markets though.

[via MiniNoteUser]

Good news for anyone who was planning on buying a Linux version of the HP 2133 Mini-Note and installing their own operating system instead of paying a few extra bucks to get a Windows Vista version. Notebook Review forum member jckaylis says he was able to install Windows XP and almost everything worked right away. Jckaylis is the same forum member who first reported that his Mini-Note running OpenSUSE was locking up and that he was having problems installing software.

Apparently he had to download a Broadcom Ethernet driver, but Windows Update found almost everything else he needed -- except for a good sound driver. So far he's been unable to get sound working.

This all comes as excellent news. I ordered an OpenSUSE model thinking I would partition the hard drive and install Windows XP on one partition and OpenSUSE or Ubuntu on another. I was expecting to get my HP Mini-Note this weekend, but I got an email from HP on Saturday morning letting me know that my order has been delayed. I was starting to think that this presented me with a good opportunity to call HP and ask if I could spend the extra $50 to get Windows Vista installed, but now that I know XP will work I think I'll let my order stand and wait for my notebook to arrive.

There's still no sign of any XP or Linux drivers or other support software or information on the HP web site. Once HP begins to officially offer XP as an option, I expect/hope that we'll be able to find drivers online. In the meantime, it looks like you can install Windows XP without waiting for HP. If you don't care about sound drivers. Which I kind of do, but I'm holding out hope that I'll be able to find a driver that works.

Update: It looks like you can install a Windows hotfix to enable support for an audio driver. I won't be able to confirm this until my Mini-Note arrives, but it looks like a promising solution.