Asus Eee PC results...not so good!

Hey everybody, and all those who replied to my messages about a small, 10 inch screen netbook computer.

Because Staples Business Depot has a good return policy, I picked an Asus Eee PC netbook up today to test it out.  Didn't bother loading programs onit, having it turned on sufficed just fine for what I needed to do.  I'll be returning the thing soon.

So, I checked the magnetic field first.  (Note: all testing was done withthe netbook on battery power only,)  As the YouTube video I referred to showed, the field was indeed very high, jumping moreso when the hard drive was being accessed, though it wasn't what I would call low when the hard drive wasn't in use.

At some spots on the keyboard/general area the hands are placed, it was up to 35 milligauss, which is ridiculous.

Bill Bruno, you mentioned suspicion of the trackpad.  It actually had rather low (relatively speaking) magnetic fields, but an electric field which shot the Trifield meter's needle to the top. 

I tested covering the whole thing with thin, flexible mu metal, and it did reduce the magnetic field, but in some spots it was still 1 to 4+ milligauss, higher than I'd want my hands over for hours at a time.

I didn't active the wireless, but it still periodically tried to connect, even though Windows wasn't set up; the Gigahertz Solutions RF meter made occasional, loud, digital farting noises (or fast "woodpecker" sounds, to be more polite), which are distinctly recognizable as WiFi).

Then there was the general RF, my only means of measuring being a recommended AM radio.  With the Eee PC in standby, there was only an increase in static, which is nothing much to be concerned about.

However, turning it back on, which activates the LCD screen, hard drive, processor and everything, made quite a lot of noise on the AM radio that could be picked up over a foot away in some areas.  There were some distinct high pitched tones, a lower pitched rumble, and every time the processor was active, a whole digital cacophony of whines, bleeps and whirs.

I tried covering the whole unit with conductive shielding fabric and two layers of thick aluminum foil all around, but it made almost no difference tothe AM radio RF.

Christ, that stuff is not easy to shield.

So - just for the heck of it, I emailed the company Holland Shielding, who have quite a material selection and engineers who know how to measure and shield and asked them if they could and would do it.

So far my only answer has been that "we can shield all sorts of things, butit might pain you to know that for a one time job, it could cost up to three times the value of the machine you're trying to shield!"

At least they're being honest.

I haven't heard back with an actual estimate in dollars from them yet, though unless it's quite reasonable, I'll say forget that route, most likely, though they probably could do a pretty good job.

Beyond that, I'm back to investigating a fanless mini-ITX system running on12V DC with external mouse and keyboard, and a properly (magnetic, electric, and RF) filtered and shielded monitor, hopefully on DC.

I need something.  Even if it's not laptop format, if it's low emissions and runs on 12V, I'm happy.

Still, any thoughts from anyone, I'd like to hear them.



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