10" WM8850 netbook with Windows Embedded Compact 7

These are really hard to find (nearly all of these have Android instead), but I snagged one for a good price. It's an unbranded model, and has the "Smart Book" logo on bootup. It has 4 GB of storage, and claims 512 MB of RAM on the bottom, but clearly that's phony as the Control Panel only shows about 228 MB of available memory. It's supposed to be rated at 1.5 GHz; how accurate that is I can't say for sure, but it is definitely faster than my Sylvania WEC 7 netbooks, which are supposed to be rated at 800 MHz. Strangely, though, while the GAC files for .NET CF 3.5 are clearly visible in \Windows, no .NET CF apps will run, and I soon found out why: when I ran cgacutil.exe to verify the .NET CF version, I instead got a command-line error: "Registration failed." But it won't allow me to reinstall .NET CF 3.5 via CAB file, erroring out in the middle of the install process. The seller included a USB WiFi dongle that works (which is a good thing since the built-in WiFi doesn't appear to ever connect to the networks it finds), but unfortunately part of its outside cover is missing and there's no way to identify the brand or model number.

Another curiosity is the power port on it, which is a mini USB A interface. (It appears to be power-only, though, but I'll probably never know for sure since there are no synchronization files installed in ROM. Nice, though, that it only requires 5 volts power.) Other interfaces include two USB host ports, one HDMI port, headphone and microphone jacks, and an SD slot. Of course, it also has the tiny built-in camera in the upper part of the display bezel.

Just if you are eager to do it: NET CF installation consists of several things.
1) libraries;
2) .gac file with list of libraries;
3) a load of regisry keys (you should know where).

You do not really need to install it from CAB, just copy all these things from any other laptop.

Sister bought an Asus Memo with a WM8850 cpu in it. Only runs at 1ghz. Be nice if I could flash CE to it....

That method isn't working so far either.

It seriously should.

Yeah, but it seriously shouldn't be erroring out in the first place. I'll keep working on it though.

The battery doesn't seem too impressive thus far - it seems to provide less than two hours of use.

Does this have standby mode - instant on?

But yeah 2 hours would really be silly.

No standby mode - I've yet to see a CE netbook (CE 5 forward) that has any kind of standby mode.

I suspect the battery was weak from nonuse, since the capacity was relatively high (3000 MAh). I swapped out the battery with one from a non-working UbiSurfer (which is rated at 3600 MAh), and now I'm getting very good battery life. (Cutting and splicing of the wires was necessary as this netbook's original battery was wired directly to the motherboard.)

Still getting nowhere with .NET CF. GAC registering with cgacutil.exe doesn't work with non-GAC-registered versions of the DLLs - I get a command-line error: "Failed to add assembly . . . ." I'm even wondering if installing 3.7, or a newer build of 3.5, will solve the problem. However, there was never an official release of 3.7, and the only CAB I'm aware of that got out won't install on any device I've tried. Were the newer builds of 3.5 (3.5.9198, 3.5.10181, or 3.5.11125) only available for OEMs? I can't find them anywhere as standalone CABs. (BTW, I understand that Windows Embedded Compact 2013 will include a release of .NET CF 3.9, though it's not clear whether that version will support WEC 7 or anything earlier. )

Still no luck trying to get any version of .NET CF to work. I've even tried installing .NET CF 1.0 (even the CE 2.11 build) - it installs, but won't work either. The GAC files in \Windows are apparently not ROM modules as I was also able to move them from \Windows onto external storage. I then deleted the .NET CF key in the registry and tried installing .NET CF 3.5 again, but got the same error as before. What's also a bit strange is that the .NET CF registry key never had a folder icon next to it in Total Commander, instead showing the generic Windows icon (which usually means an unrecognized file type) - dunno if that means anything. (I should also note that the memory slider in the Control Panel under System shows zero storage memory, and cannot be moved.)

Another quirk this device has is that it sometimes resets the time to 12:00pm on 1 October 2012 after it's been turned off for a while. (It doesn't do this if it's only been off for a few minutes.) This happens even though the battery is fully charged.

I've had several CE machines that the memory slider didn't work and was as you described. Never seemed to make any difference though...everything saved okay to the storage areas. I though maybe it was because the firmware flash designated more memory to storage than the OS was made to handle, or maybe it was the way the storage folder was set up or something...I had and still have no idea on all that stuff.

The clock might be on a separate coin battery. Open it up and look for it?

I figured it was because all storage memory is allocated within the NAND flash storage area. But what's strange is that the installation error message suggests that I allocate additional storage memory and try reinstalling.

It turns out that the time only resets after being off for a while without external power. I tried leaving it connected to power overnight and then powered it on, and the time was still correct. I'm thinking that the wire splicing I did may not be tight enough, and maybe it disconnects for a split second sometimes when the device is moved.

What...you didn't solder the wires...bad Geekie...bad Geekie...

I wonder why it chooses Oct 1st...maybe that was the last time the firmware was flashed perhaps?

No, I've had bad experiences with soldering. I figure I'm the only one who's gonna use it, so neatness doesn't count. (I've wound the wires more tightly together, and that seems to have solved that problem.)

We'll never know if that's the firmware date unless someone tracks down a flashable ROM image.