For me, WLAN works flawlessly since compiling and installing those new drivers. I can also connect to unprotected networks. (Tested this week.)

Not sure why, but the volume control keys (Fn+F4 and Fn+F5) magically started working yesterday, even though I haven’t touched anything that might affect them.
(This might have to do something with the new kernel update, or some package updates, but I’m not sure.)

Keep in mind that with the money for these upgrades and the money you can get from selling the laptop two years from now you could probably buy a new one.

The fan has a filter installed so you do not need to open the panel to clean it. If you blow it from outside (with compressed air), the filter will cleanse easily.

I think I’ve opened the panel once but I am not sure. I will take some photos if I remember it but please understand that my machine never shuts down so it may take quite a time before I get to it. My uptime before I went off to vacations was 70 days…

The most annoying thing until now I think it proved to be the wifi. I use it very rarely but usually these times it doesn’t work. When I reviewed the laptop it worked, but after some kernel updates and some driver updates the situation doesn’t seem that good. There are times it connects and times it doesn’t and it always refuses to connect to unprotected networks. If only realtek provided proper drivers which could be added to the kernel tree…

I would appreciate it if you could answer a couple of questions:

How difficult is it to remove and clean the fan (compared to other laptops
you used)?

Is the hardware easily accessible for upgrades (RAM, HDD, CPU, graphics card)?
Can the graphics card be removed or is it soldered in?

Could you post some photos of the laptop with the bottom panels removed?

For everyone else who has an issue with the absence of keyboard and
HDD activity LEDs, here are some software based workarounds:

gkleds – GKrellM plugin for monitoring/setting/displaying keyboard LEDs
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~oyvinha/files/files

KKeyLed – KDE utility for monitoring/setting/displaying keyboard LEDs
http://www.truesoft.ch/dieter/kkeyled.html

wmhdplop / gkhdplop – dockapp for monitoring/displaying HDD activity
http://hules.free.fr/wmhdplop/

A funny thing about the wifi card is that for some reason it can’t connect to unprotected networks in linux. I will give the new drivers a try.

Also I just tried the volume keys and indeed they do not seem to work except the mute button. Maybe you just have to set the appropriate shortcuts in your system settings.

Thanks for answering, I hope you had a good time at the vacation.

About the WLAN drivers… it seems that Realtek updated them yesterday.
(At least for me – RTL8191SE here.)

http://218.210.127.131/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=48&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true

About the Fn keys – with Nouveau it seemed to recognize the Fn+F9 combo (Gnome’s brigtness applet popped up), but not Fn+F8…

The volume keys worked for a fed days, then stopped working after I reinstalled the system. I wonder what software I might be missing…

I like your review. I bought this model too, and I have the following issue: when I put the computer to sleep and then wake it up, the display remains dark.
I use Fedora 13 with the latest updates.

Did you experience the same issue? Could you please recommend something for me?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/551668