My New AMD 50x15 PIC Computer!!!

My 50x15 arrived today. I've opened it and learned a few things.

The 50x15 uses laptop RAM - 128MB DDR 266. It might be possible to upgrade it to 256MB.

The hard disk has a second partition for the system files. Other than that it's an ordinary Seagate. I'm going to try to replace it with a couple CF cards. It should save about a pound of weight.

According to what I've read, the ram can be upgraded with laptop DDR memory up to 512MB. As far as the harddrive goes, you'd have to reflash it in order to change it more than likely (at least according to what I've read online). I'm trying to get one of these for cheap, but I admit that I'm going to axe windows CE... My plan is to install a very slimmed down copy of XP Pro, and use it as a basic file server and to use remote desktop at any time without my normal desktop being on. I have the XP on my desktop slimmed down to using a mere 90MB ram once everything is loaded at startup. Couple that with either a 256MB stick of ram I have from an old laptop, or maybe upgrade to 512MB, and I think it'd work pretty well all in all. May not be the fastest, but I think it'd be well worth it for a nearly silent server.

If anyone is interested, I got amd 50x15 in, looked at the windows CE for a whole 5 seconds, and proceded to reflash it with a non-restricted bios and installed xp. I also upgraded the harddrive to 120GB with a spare HD I had, and the ram to 256MB from a dead laptop. It's working great, other than the processor being about the same speed as a 200mhz pentium. It works well as a file server and something to use as an always available remote desktop server for my sig3 or mogul phone.

I might put CE back on at some point to try it out, but for now I really like having XP. Just took a lot of tweaking so it didn't fill the 256MB ram. I bet this thing would be great for a lightweight linux distro.

Is this true?How slow will go on such as opening EBAY....

I know this is an old thread, but I am reviving it because I have great info to share...

The AMD PIC 50X15 is a x86 Windows CE device. It is very cool and has quite a bit of software for it. If you read through this thread, you'll find out a lot of info. It is especially good for kids who want to websurf because it is almost indestructable. No viruses, no problems...and when you turn it off, you are essentially starting with a clean reboot each timeyou power on.

One of the things that trouble people is the lack of current browsers. So they've hacked this machine to death. Linux, XP, you name it. But to hack it hasn't been very easy. I put mine on the shelf about 6 months ago because I locked up and destroyed a couple of other 50X15s while experimenting on them in order to bypass the CE operating system.

Today, after hours of surfing, I have found everything you need to turn your 50X15 into a full XP machine.

First you have to flash the BIOS using the attached Xpress BIOS ROM.

Then install XP. Also attached are the two critical drivers you will need afterwards. One is the audio driver, and the other is the video driver.

Copy the bios flash (attached to this post) that I copied to the AMD 50X15 Windows folder in CE. Then open a CMD window and issue the command:

flashce 256 "\windows\xpress.rom” 0x0163B830 noreboot

It will flash your bios and totally unlock, it and gave you a bunch of boot options. I can now configure the hardware just like you would any desktop. If you increase your RAM from the default 128mb to 512mb, be sure to update the DIMM1 settings in the BIOS to reflect the increased RAM available.

I'm pulling the 10gb drive the PIC comes with and installing a 40gb drive, and then installing XP. This is a silent, fanless computer...and I'm thinking it will become my personal home server in the very near future.

Anyways, I was so tickled to find a compatible working good bios flash that resolved all my problems that I can hardly contain myself.



Attachments
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xpress.rom (256KB - 37 downloads)
50X15 XP Drivers.zip (277KB - 25 downloads)

The funny thing about this is I just pulled out my PIC from a drawer the other day. Played with it for a bit and put it back away. Can you send me instructions on how you did that? I would like to get more use out of mine.

Okie dokie...all done.

Most of us would want to install Windows CE on an X86 machine...while I just finished the opposite. I have completely did away with my 50X15 running CE 5.0 and it is now running XP Pro.

Steps were pretty simple really.

1st - Flash the bios with the flash I mentioned a post or two ago.
2nd - After flashing the bios, enter it and change the RAM size to whatever chip you put in the 50X15. I just stuck in a 512mb ram chip.
3rd - Install XP and all the service packs.

Finished picture my 50X15 running XP, showing the desktop properties...





Attachments
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50x15xp.jpg (33KB - 4 downloads)

That is great!

XP Pro SP3 running at 400 MHz with 256 MB of RAM? Geez, you sure it can handle it?

Well, you were right CEGeek...it was kind of taxing on the 50X15...way too taxing really. So I dropped down to Win98 and will give PWS a try. Also swapped out the RAM chip and put in 512MB instead of 256MB. Finally I also mounted a small fan on the case after cutting a hole in it to keep the 60GB hard drive cool.





Attachments
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amdpic.jpg (31KB - 3 downloads)

Wow...

That's what you get for not sticking with a solid state drive, Rich.

The ones I have are less than 1GB...not big enough for what I want, and others are too expensive...