CompalHEL81

This laptop is sold in Italy by Marvel PC http://www.marvelpc.it/ (and perhaps by others) as Ali-Book VBI serie 81. It can be purchased without a MS Windows License and with a custom configuration. Moreover, the Olidata Tehom CW 4800 seems to be the same computer. It has the same chassis and similar hardware.
In Switzerland it was sold as JET H8100.

Current Issues

System Info

bios-version:110B
system-manufacturer:COMPAL
system-product-name:HEL81I
system-version:*

Hardware details

  • Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz T7200
  • 2 GB 667 MHz RAM
  • Intel 945G chipset
  • FUJITSU MHV2080AH 80 GB 5400 rpm hard disk
  • Slimtype DVDRW SSM-8515S DVD writer
  • Intel Corporation Mobile GMA950 Graphics chipset
  • 15.4" WXGA+ 1280x800 screen
  • Realtek RTL8111B wired NIC
  • Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG wireless NIC
  • VIA IEEE 1394 Host Controller firewire
  • ENE Technology Inc CB-712/4 Cardbus Controller and SD/MMC-Card and MS-Card Reader

in Edgy (current stable)?

in Feisty (current stable)?

in Gutsy (current stable)?

Installation works?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Hardware Information

Screen & Monitors

Device

Works?

Bug #

in Edgy (current stable)?

in Feisty (current stable)?

in Gutsy (current stable)?

Screen

Yes

Yes

Yes

Correct resolution?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Correct refresh rate?

Yes

Yes

Yes

3D Acceleration

Yes

Yes

Yes

External monitor works?

Yes

Yes

Yes

External monitor - mirrors

Untested

Untested

Yes

External monitor - extend desktop

Untested

Untested

Yes

Power Management

Battery detected?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Hibernates?

Yes, see note 1

Yes, see note 1

Yes, see note 1

Sleep

Yes, see note 1

Yes, see note 1

Yes, see note 1

Dim monitor on battery

Yes

Yes

Yes

Blank monitor on inactivity

Yes

Yes

Yes

Lid Close

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cpu frequency scaling

Yes

Yes

Yes

Sound

Sound works?

Yes, see note 5

Yes, see note 5

Yes

Correct volume?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Hardware volume switch

N/A

N/A

N/A

Headphone jack

Yes

Yes

Yes

Mic jack

Yes

Yes

Yes

Networking

Wired NIC

Yes, see note 2

Yes, see note 2

Yes

Wireless NIC

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cardbus NIC

Yes

Untested

Yes

ExpressCard NIC

Untested

Untested

Yes, see note 7

Firewire

Untested

Untested

Yes

Modem

No

No

No

Touchpad & Mice

Touchpad

Yes, see note 3

Yes, see note 3

Yes, see note 3

Touchpad - Doubletap = double click

Yes

Yes

Yes

Touchpad - Scroll down side

Yes

Yes

Yes

Touchpad - turned off while typing

No

No

No

External mouse - USB

Yes

Yes

Yes

Additional Hardware

CD/DVD drive

Yes

Yes

Yes

PCMCIA cards

Yes

Untested

Yes

ExpressCard slot

Untested

Untested

Yes, see note 7

SD Card reader

No

No

Yes

MMC Card reader

No

No

Yes

MS Card reader

No

No

No

Function and other keys

Fn key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

in Edgy (current stable)?

in Feisty (current stable)?

in Gutsy (current stable)?

+ F1

Sleep

Yes

Yes

Yes

+ F2

Wireless on/off

No

No

No

+ F3

External monitor

Yes

Yes

Yes

+ F4

Brightness down

Yes

Yes

Yes

+ F5

Brightness up

Yes

Yes

Yes

+ F6

Mute

Yes, for headphone

Yes

Yes

+ F7

Volume down

Yes, for headphone

Yes

Yes

+ F8

Volume up

Yes, for headphone

Yes

Yes

+ F9

Start/Stop playing

Yes, if configured with Keyboard Shortcuts

Yes

Yes

+ F10

Pause

Yes, if configured with Keyboard Shortcuts

Yes

Yes

+ F11

Previous track

Yes, if configured with Keyboard Shortcuts

Yes

Yes

+ F12

Next track

Yes, if configured with Keyboard Shortcuts

Yes

Yes

+ Num lk

Scroll lock

Yes

Yes

Yes

+ Insert

Print Screen

Yes

Yes

Yes

+ Del

R Sist

Yes

Yes

Yes

Other special keys

Key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

in Edgy (current stable)?

in Feisty (current stable)?

in Gutsy (current stable)?

Browser Key

Launch browser

Yes

Yes

Yes

Mail Key

Launch mail client

Yes

Yes

Yes

Key 1

Customizable

Yes, see note 4

Yes, see note 4

Yes, see note 4

Key 2

Customizable

Yes, see note 4

Yes, see note 4

Yes, see note 4

Notes

1) Before trying hibernate, I changed the value in /sys/power/image_size from the default 512 MB (in bytes) to the amount of memory (in bytes) of this laptop (2 GB). I have not tried hibernate with the default 512 MB value (edgy, feisty and gutsy). The best settings in /etc/default/acpi-support to have sleep and hibernate always working are to disable SAVE_VBE_STATE, SAVE_VIDEO_PCI_STATE and USE_DPMS (edgy).

2) The current kernel driver for the ethernet card doesn't support link beat detection. The newer 1.05 version of the driver doesn't seem to support link beat detection yet (edgy). For feisty, see bug #86798. Works fine in gutsy.

3) The touchpad is identified by the system as an "ImPS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse" in /proc/bus/input/devices, so the Xorg synaptic driver is not loaded and not able to control the touchpad. Nevertheless, it works (edgy, feisty and gutsy).

4) To have these two extra keys available, follow the MultimediaKeys howto. The scancodes are e074 and e073 for edgy and feisty, e074 and e039 for gutsy.

5) I had noticed choppy sound in a game (glest http://www.glest.org) and a kernel error message "azx_get_response timeout". Both were solved adding a pci=noacpi option to the kernel in grub (edgy). Choppy sound problem on feisty too, solved adding a .openalrc file in $HOME with the following content (define devices '(esd alsa arts native)) and installing libesd0-dev (feisty).

6) When the wireless NIC is turned off with the front switch, the system sometimes fails to boot giving the soft lockup detected on CPU#X (with X=0 or 1) error message. This doesn't happen anymore since the latest kernel upgrade to 2.6.17.1-11.37 (edgy).

7)Tested with STLab Gigabit Ethernet ExpressCard34: Works fine when pluged in before booting the computer. Is not recognized when added hotplug

CategoryLaptop

LaptopTestingTeam/Old/CompalHEL81 (last edited 2010-03-01 20:07:23 by 94)