magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

manasota · MagicJack User Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 49

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fundamentals_for_Legacy_PCs

Comments?

Alpman · Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:23 am Post subject:

I'm currently running FLP on an old Cel466 128MB (yes, 466/128) machine repurposed for my MJ and it's working great. I'm currently using an old 6.4GB HDD, but plan on getting a 4GB MicroDrive and CF to IDE adapter on order from Geeks for under 10 bucks this week. FLP is already somewhat optimized for CF cards as it was designed to repurpose older hardware as a thin client. It will install on as little as a 1GB card. It also uses RAM Disk and you can set it for no PageFile to minimize writes to the card. I've also scheduled a batch file to reboot nightly. Also removed as many services as possible. I have about 60Mb of physical memory available with MJ running. Not bad for a machine I was going to take to the dump three weeks ago...I'll let you know how the MicroDrive does for me.

EDIT - FLP is much easier to configure than XPe for MJ and you can install and run other programs locally without modification, unlike XPe. It can also be installed on most x86 based thin clients quite easily to replace XPe to add functionality.

manasota · MagicJack User Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 49

Excellent, the problem I have is that it doesn't recognize my 8gb Sandisk as a hard drive. I have a thin install of XP running on it now and didn't have any problem during the install. I want to use the Sandisk utility to enable it as a fixed disk but when I boot into DOS I can't see the C drive.

Any tips?

Alpman · Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:53 pm Post subject:

Are you using a USB adapter or a CF to IDE adapter? USB adapters will not work for FLP without extensive modification. You need a CF to IDE adapter and your CF card must have IDE mode enabled. Not all CF cards have this mode. If you use the MicroDrive your guaranteed to have IDE mode enabled and you don't have to worry about enabling EWF or disabling the PageFile in FLP either which means less maintenence as MJ updates will be saved to disk. They are still very low power and almost silent and very cheap, like around $4 for a 4GB. Hope this helps...

manasota · MagicJack User Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 49

IDE adapter. I works like a charm with a version of windows named "Stripped to the Bone". I could just leave well enough alone but what can I say, I like to tinker. I'm going to spring for one of those micro drives even though I'll be loosing 50% of the storage capacity of the CF card that I'm using. The $9 shipping charge sucks though.

Alpman · Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 6:43 pm Post subject:

If you're only using it for MJ you won't need any more disk space, right? You just missed Geeks' free shipping deal, but add a few other items you might need onto your order to offset the shipping cost. It will only go up a buck or two for small items. I recently purchased a bunch of stuff including a CPU, MB and case and shipping was only $13. They don't gouge you after the initial shipping charge. Also, you can use the discount code "XPBARGAINS" without the quotes at checkout for a 10% discount on all non-special items.

manasota · MagicJack User Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 49

I'm using it as a web terminal as well. Actually, I haven't started my tower in weeks.

I bought a Microdrive on ebay for $10 shipped.

Alpman · Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 4:44 am Post subject:

Did you get the MicroDrive and have you installed FLP onto it yet? I have an update of my own to share...

I was able to squeeze FLP down to about 460mb, which will now fit nicely on a 512 CF card with room to spare, by removing the fat after the initial HDD install and tweaking services (just 15 services running incl MJ and TeamViewer) & other stuff to reduce memory and CPU requirements. I have EWF installed with EWFInfo2. I disabled prefetch, pagefile, Indexing, NTFS LastAccess TS, IE History & Cache, but had to bump up memory from 128 to 192 to keep EWF from filling up and crashing windows, still lower than XPe' min req of 256 (which some still have probs with). There is about 45mb of memory available with everything running.

It has been rock solid for a few days now running on the HDD, so I took the plunge and cloned it to a 512 CF & IDE adapter and its working great so far. So now its onto the next stage...setting it all up on a TC.

I'm looking at a couple of models...the Maxterm 5400 because they're cheap and have a CF adapter already on-board. The MB is the same as the 8300 model (VIA 800 CPU), but with 64/128 config which ran CE. Just replace the 64 CF with the cloned 512 CF and add a 64 PC100 stick and I should be golden.

The other model I'm looking at is a WYSE 3455 which will take a little more to get running. It too is the same MB as their 9455 (VIA 550 CPU) but with 32/64 config which ran Linux. I'll need to add the CF adapter and a 128 stick. It should run just fine as my current CPU is a C466, but I think I'm steering towards the Maxterm for the faster CPU and less hardware cost and less time/trouble to set up.

I'm also looking at a really small SBC setup with an embedded CF slot just slightly larger than a floppy drive. They use a VIA 667 CPU with a single SODIMM slot that will take up to a 512 PC133 stick. These would be nice to set up as an internet appliance w/ one of those 4GB MicroDrives, or the worlds smallest MJ box, but that's a project for another day.

FLP looks like it could be a viable OS replacement for any non-XPe TC, provided that the TC meets the min HW reqs with Flash/Memory upgrades.

I'll keep you posted on my progress...

manasota · MagicJack User Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 49

I couldn't get FLP to install on the MicroDrive. I't can see the drive for some reason. I chose another thin install named "XP Gamer" It weighs in at 366mb with the page file disabled. I'm pretty happy with it as it has most important features and only 17 running services even with Sygate firewall installed. Nice theme too!

So my current project has 4mb of storage, 512mb of RAM and a 64mb VGA. Works well as a web terminal. I think I'll bump the ram up to 1024 and be done with it.

magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

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