Official Dell Zino 410 HTPC - Page 22

Anyone?

To go back in Boxee, hit the clear button.

LuxoDave,

Thank you. That works. Turns out that the 'clear' button is the only thing I did not "learn" in my Harmony.

No problem. It took me a while to figure it out myself.

Do you know what the button next to the 'clear' button is for? It is the one that is marked with a 'T' inside a box???

Rarely have I come across such a good thread with so much info and reviews on a single product in one place!

I just pulled the trigger on the base wireless model @ $399. Not the best of deals but not bad. I'll mainly be using it for web browsing and media playing. I'll be blowing away the OS will probably be installing 7 Ultimate. Have there been any major issues with drivers and 64bit? I'll be using the Cideko air KB and mouse so remote functionality is a moot point. With a reload are there any driver caveats? Is it just the sound and video drivers that I should update afterwards?
TIA.

Is the integrated graphics card good enough for use as an HTPC? I can't decide whether to spring for the upgrade or not, I would much rather not if it's unnecessary.

That's a great question. I should be getting my 410 in the mail tomorrow and plan to do the same. I will be wiping the machine clean and installing Windows 7 Professional. Has anyone who has reinstalled the OS on a Zino 410 had any issues with drivers?

Dell's support site looks like it has most 64-bit drivers you would need (sound, chipset, video, network) but would love to know what others have experienced when reinstalling the OS to clean up the junk that dell includes with all pc's.

Thanks.

My HD 410, from the Dell Outlet, had very little extra junk installed, and what I did not want was easily uninstalled. So you may not need to bother with a complete reinstall.

My zino from the outlet just had some webcam software, roxio and anti-virus so I decided a clean install wasn't necassary.

Good point, dhalbert and biggggant. I don't think I'll be using the extra features in Ultimate. If there's not too much bloatware I may just keep it as is.
Robbk, can you let us know how old the drivers are out of the box? Mine won't ship for another week

Edit: ...just realized that you guys got yours from the outlet. I opted for brand new. Hopefully mine is similarly configured.


@joekun - From what I've read, the graphics performance difference between the integrated video and the discrete video card upgrade is not much at all. The upgraded card does include the ability to play Dolby digital surround and DTS digital surround, though.

Thank you for the reply!

Did anyone who bought from the outlet get the media remote, or even just the IR receiver built in, even though it wasn't listed?

Will do, but it won't be until tomorrow since I missed the delivery today and they require a signature.

Since I bought mine direct from Dell (not outlet), I'll also post what sort of software comes preinstalled to see how it compares to those bought through the outlet.

Does anyone else have problems with the Zino staying asleep? I set it up to go to sleep when the power button is pushed so I can manage it with a Harmony remote. It works, but more often than not it wakes up on its own.

This shouldn't be a big deal, but my wife uses it often and when she tries to watch TV by powering on the system with the remote, it often actually powers off the Zino and the TV shows an error that there is no signal, which obviously doesn't make her very happy with the setup.

Any suggestions how I can make this thing stay asleep until it is powered back up with the remote?

I got mine through the regular store (not Outlet) and it came with Dell data safe (which is a data backup software), a trial version of virus protection, some shortcuts and links to ebay.com. It also came with a dell toolbar, which is a toolbar that shows up at the top of your screen. All I had to do was turn the tool bar off.

My Win7, HP laptop came with a bucket-o-crap that I got rid off. So, relatively speaking, not too bad.

I have yet to go through the task manager and see what other background tasks/processes are running.

Mine wakes up if I have any TV show recordings set up and then it goes back to sleep after the recording is completed. Other than that, I haven't had it wake up on me randomly.

Thanks bowlerj, I used this coupon today and got a great deal on a quad core with blu-ray, not much more than I would've paid for a new dual core with no blu-ray and integrated graphics.

+1 Thanks to you bowlerj. I just called dell and they are applying a one time credit for the coupon code to my already received zino from the outlet

Drivers
Network: Ethernet - 1.0.0.24 (1/18/2010), Wifi - 5.60.48.18 (12/8/2009)
Video: 8.743 (6/8/2010)...Latest on ATI site is 8.821 (software suite 11.2) for the HD 5450
Sound: ATI - 7.11.0.7707 (6/14/2010), Realtek - 6.0.1.6181 (8/17/2010)

Preinstalled Software
Ebay
Office 2010 Limited
My Identity Protection
Dell Data Safe
Dell Data Safe Online
McAfee
Roxio Starter


I just got the machine last night, so I have not reinstalled the OS yet. I'm still up in the air about it. I had some issues with getting the ATI Catalyst Control Center to open, but after installing a bunch of updates and reinstalling the Catalyst Control Center it began to work.

Also, when I enter Windows Media Center, I do not have the Netflix or Internet TV tiles. I'm still troubleshooting that one, but hopefully I'll figure out the issue tonight. After doing to some searching, I've found a few suggestions for solutions. If anyone here has had this problem, feel free to chime in and let me know how you resolved it.

Several of us had this problem and were able to get it resolved by making a change to the DNS.

Reference

After being disappointed with a Lenovo Q150 I was dead set on going with a Zino 410 if I could find a deal. They finally started to appear on the Outlet recently and I saw they had a 10% coupon and free shipping. I was able to land a Zino 410 Quad core P940 with 8GB ram, Blu-ray 1520 wireless and Media Center Remote and "512MB ATi Mobility HD 4330 graphics". ($509 plus tax)

The unit arrived yesterday...... with 2 major issues.

After hearing many people got the ATI 5450 in the Zino from the Dell Outlet even though the lising shows the older (Zino 400) card, I assumed I would get the same. My until came with the the low-end (HD 4250 256MB) integrated card. Very disappointing!!

2nd issue was the MCE remote was an "add-on". It did not work with the built-in IR receiver on the faceplate. It came with a USB receiver to connect on the back of the unit. I want a clean setup and do not want the bulk of extra cables hanging off the back of the unit.

So.....nearly 2 hours on the phone with Dell support they are supposed to be sending a tech to replace the motherboard and graphics (HD 5450 1GB) and also the IR remote to get the built-in system working.

I was hoping they would simple send a diffferent until with the specs I was expecting. Seems sending a tech would cost more than just paying shipping costs to swap the Zino. Oh well---

FYI - Last night I hooked up the unit to my home theater (Onkyo TXSR608 using HDMI only plus hard-wired ehternet) just to see how it performs with a low-end graphis card. I was honestly surprized how well it did. Blu-ray discs played without a stutter, HULU was smooth, Boxee was snappy and the overall responsivness of the system was very good (thnks to Quad care and 8GB ram I guess). I am hoping to try Netflix (this was the worst issue on the Lenovo Q150... a deal breaker) but I need to trouble shoot why it has not appeared on the MCE menu.

Also...this machine is nearly SILENT!! Yay!! The Lenovo sounded like a cheap laptop revving up. I have yet to put a huge load on it other then the blu-ray. But I was very pleased!!

I hope this helps some of ya'll with your buying decisions.

I have my fingers crossed that Dell with come through with the above-mentioned swaps.

G'Day

Try the DNS fix I linked to above.

I tried all of the microsoft solutions last night, but nothing worked. I saw the post speedbump referenced, but it didn't make much sense to me.

I'll have to do more research about refreshing or reconfiguring DNS in Windows 7. If someone has more of a step-by-step procedure they can forward, it would be much appreciated

Thanks!

Mark

Here's what some of us found on the green button:

1) Open IE and go to www.dnsserverlist.org. Write down the top two calculated DNS servers (mine were 63.251.62.33 &
69.111.95.106). Close IE.

2) Add the two DNS servers to the top of the "DNS server addresses; in order of use" list (Advanced TCP/IP Settings for your network connection).

3) Run steps 4a - 4e & step 5 from this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977116

4) It's up to you, if you want to leave the DNS servers in your TCP/IP settings, or restore your previous settings. I left mine there.

Thats it! Netflix & Internet TV tiles now appear in my WMC menus, and they work too. Thanks to those who figured this out, I'm just sharing my experience.

If I recall correctly, I think I only had to perform the first two steps to get mine working. Also there was only one calculated DNS IP for me in step one, but it still worked.

Maybe a simpler set of instructions, also thanks to a poster on the green button:

1st... went to www.dnsserverlist.org, got the server IPs...

2nd... entered the dns servers in my adapter settings

3rd... clicked 'Download Now' in Settings/General/Automatic Updates within Media Center.

4th... did a Media Center close/reopen

Yeah, sorry about that, it has been a while since I fixed mine. I remembered that I had started with the info from that post but I had to do a little more searching before I found something more straightforward. Hopefully that last set of instructions will be easier to follow. It worked like a charm for me.

One more way of saying the same thing.

Performing steps 4a-4e fixed it for me. I didn't mess with the DNS servers since I like the ones that I currently have my router set to use. Clicking the "download now" button within media center did not fix the problem for me, but using the command line (steps 4a-4e) to perform the update did the trick without having to change my DNS settings. Not sure why the "download now" button didn't work for me. Thanks for the help.

To speedbump....thanks for the clarification and the additional microsoft link. The Command Line procedure resolved my issues without the need to alter the DNS configuration. I now have Netflix and Internet TV active on Media Center.

To update on the performance of the low end (HD 4250) graphics........Both Netflix and Internet TV worked well without noticable stuttering. Quality on Netflix was "good"...but not as good as Netflix on AppleTV2 (must see to appreciate) but I am satisfied with the results.

I got a call today from the Dell tech.....he will be out Monday to place the motherboard and graphics card to upgrade to the HD5450 and get the internal IR sensor working.

G'day
Mark

I had the random wake up issue last night. I put the Zino into standby mode when I went to bed. When I woke up in the morning, it was on and fan was a howling. I guess when it came on the processor was in a very high usage state and generating a lot of heat. I just turned it off this morning and will look into it this weekend.

I read that if you open a command line and type

powercfg –lastwake

That would tell you what caused the last wake up event. But, since I have turned my Zino off for now, it will have lost that last wake data. I'll give it another go and when it wakes up I'm going to check what caused the wake up.

My guess right now is that I have a wireless keyboard and mouse connected, and it possibly could have caused the wake up. Before I shut it down this morning I disabled wake by keyboard and mouse in the device manager as a first guess at the culprit.

This is a follow up to my earlier post.

I had purchased a Zino 400 from Costco a few weeks ago. I returned it since I thought it was getting too hot. I had heard the 410s cooled a little better so I returned the Costco unit and ordered a similar spec'd 410 from Dell. New unit is dual core, 6gb, 1tb, BD, 5450.

Heat

Overall, the 410 is a little cooler than the 400 was, but still very hot in my opinion. I have been using HW Monitor to track the temperatures. Mostly I am keeping an eye on the HDD. The high temperature so far is 58* C which is dangerously close to the manufacturer's recommended max of 60* C. It should be noted that the Zino is sitting in an enclosed media cabinet (twin toddlers require this).

I think in an open-air setting it would be fine, but it's too hot for my liking. I am probably going to add a usb exhaust fan to the back of the cabinet to try to cool things down a bit.

SPDIF sound
I added Shark 007 codecs 32-bit/64-bit to allow me to play .mkv copies of my DVDs and a few BDs. Last night I hooked the Zino to my antiquated Onkyo receiver (ht-r510) and tested out some of the .mkv files. Playback was smooth, but the sound is horrible over SPDIF. HDMI sound to my television sounds fine, but the digital out sounds like I am missing the center channel. Basses and ambient noises are loud, but voices are barely discernible. The receiver is a 5.1 receiver with two speakers and a sub hooked up currently. FWIW - I have played the same .mkv files on my Popcorn Hour A-100 hooked to the same receiver with a coaxial digital connection and the sound is fine.

Am I missing a setting somewhere? Codec problem? Receiver too old for the digital audio being transmitted?

Overall I like the Zino a lot. I have been a GBPVR/NPVR user for the past few years and I am transitioning from a setup that used the Popcorn Hour as an extender for a NPVR server backend to this Zino WMC7 setup. There are a lot of things I really like about NPVR, but the PVR/DVR functionality of WMC is just better in my opinion.