Reflashing Ubisurfer?

I bought an old Ubisurfer (DW-UB04U) secondhand yesterday, just a few pounds, something to play with. Problem is, it's got a silly branded version of CE on it with a bunch of crappy software that I don't want. So I downloaded an image to an SD card to reflash it, but it won't boot off the SD card, just boots like normal into the crappy branded version. Setup won't work on it, when I load autorun.exe it says "cool, gonna wipe the flash" and does it, but then freezes. When I reboot it comes back totally standard.

I've tried just copying the system across while running, but that just leaves me with a half-this half-that system where nothing seems to work properly. How can I actually do a reinstall on this machine?

Was this the one you bought?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Datawind-UbiSurfer-9-Netbook-ASIS-No-Return...

$49 isn't bad for a 9" netbook. And these are brand new Ubisurfer 9 machines. Though they don't do me much good over here if I wanted the free cellular connection. Still if they were open for modding....

BTW, I did contact the seller, and they are all brand new and are the CE versions...not the Linux version.

What version of CE is on it, Rich? (I'm assuming CE 6 given where this thread was posted, but is it R2 or R3?) And is it the core OS or is there some sort of proprietary UI on top of it?

It is CE6 for sure, what revision I don't know. It is a core OS with the standard desktop just like you see on any of the netbooks.

One cool thing is all the Ubisurfer 9 machines come with a complete version of Softmaker Office 10 on them.

I've been surfing, but I cannot find a picture of the motherboard or any info on what processor is being used. The 7" Ubisurfer looks pretty much like any of those Chinese cheapos you see. The 9" looks very similar to the Wabook Sky machine in build, but only a 9" LCD...

I like the idea of a 9" LCD, and am considering getting one just to play with. The price is certainly right...

There is a YouTube video by some Russian guy who goes into depth with the machine. He is running Total Commander of the SD card and has a ton of stuff on it, and it is exactly what you would think it would be.

Okay, I offered $35 for the Ubisurfer 9, brand new in box and the seller took it. You might get one for $30 if you try...





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You talked me into it, Rich. (Like I need a lot of talking into buying a CE device. )

I KNEW I'D HOOK YOU CEGEEK!!!!

Hard to pass up at that price, Rich. I'm looking forward to playing with it.

It's an Ubisurfer 9, yeah. The image that's on it is a joke, with all of Datawind's silly software on it - I just want a CE6 image on there, so I've got CE6 through MSDN and plan on playing with the Platform Builder on there...

I made a $30 offer just to see. auto accepted it i guess, someone should see if $25 would get em one.
Don't know what i'll do with.

Edited by thcrw739 2013-03-21 5:02 PM

Wow, that is even better yet.

Yahoo! It came in the mail today. And it is sweet! First of all, it is CE6, build 3122. Second, unlike Markfptuson's machine, it is the standard CE interface, no bloatware on it at all.

It has installed Softmaker Office 10, Mobipocket Reader 5.3 and your typical run of games and viewers and paint programs, etc.

Charging it up now...will let you know more later when I go to add it to the Device and Specs area...and tear the thing apart to look at the innards...

and my wireless mouse works fine on it too...





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Dammit Rich... yours has "Start" as well ...

Do you know of a way I can get an image like yours on mine?





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So it's a Samsung arm 9 & not a via?

Datawind has no info on the processor (or even the CE version) in its specs, but after some poking around the Web, I came across some info that seemed to indicate that it had a Samsung processor, so the info on the image isn't a big surprise. Unfortunately, it also looks like Datawind's download page is defunct - there's a link there for a patch, but it just leads back to the same page. I tried the Wayback Machine, but the links on the archived pages don't work either. (At least we know an OS reflash image exists, though - but I can't tell whether it's the 9-inch image or the 7-inch image.)