MSI U135 Laptop Motherboard Repair
We repaired a motherboard for the Laptop MSI U135 for a customer from Richmond Hill Ontario Canada.
The Wind models were counted to the pioneers of the unyielding netbook trend, beside the Eee PCs from Asus. It’s no wonder then, that MSI offers fitting models a short time after the release of Intel’s Pine Trail platform. The Wind U135 presents itself as a classic plain netbook at an especially attractive price.
The MSI Wind U100 is, or rather was, one of the most popular 10 inch netbooks of the first hour. MSI offered the netbook in several alternatives, among others as a SSD-HDD solution (Wind U115). With Intel’s update of its own netbook platform “Pine Trail”, there is now reason enough for MSI to refresh its netbook range and to release a few new models. The Wind U135 is one of them and positions itself primarily in the low-priced starter field. Read in the following review if the netbook can benefit from the new, significantly more energy efficient components.
There haven’t been any big changes in comparison to the Wind U135’s case. The plain forms and the use of plastic remain. The netbook has basically taken a step toward Asus’ Eee PC. The case has been dipped completely in high-gloss, with exception of the base tray, and all plastic components in the wrist-rest area will from now on be designed chaste and without any structure. The evidently ever-increasing fashion of chiclet design for the keyboard is also very striking.
MSI presents four different color alternatives online. Aside from our prototype’s black design, there will allegedly also be a white, a blue and red outfit offered internationally. However, only the black alternative will be commercialized in Germany.
As pretty as the reflective surfaces may be to look at, everyday use turns out to be even more tedious. In particular, the ugly-to-look-at fingerprints that quickly multiply themselves on the surfaces will turn into a problem. It’s almost impossible to handle the netbook without leaving related traces on it. In addition, there is the risk of permanent traces, such as fine scratches due to frequent netbook packing and unpacking.
The MSI U135 doesn’t miss a trick in terms of stability. The base unit makes a very solid impression and isn’t impressed by selective pressure. The display is also very convincing in this point. It can only be twisted with difficulty, which allows for a picking up of the netbook at its display edge without problems. Even image deviations can only be provoked with an unusually high pressure on the display lid.
Both display hinges have to accept reproach. They pleasantly can be easily adjusted but the display teeters eagerly. Aside from that, we only noticed one further peculiarity: When the display is opened more than 110°, the entire netbook has a strong tendency to fall over towards the back. This is, to a part, especially very annoying during the netbook’s mobile use on the lap.
A quick look around the netbook proves that there hasn’t really been much changed about the given ports, either. The MSI Wind U135 is just about the same as the U115 based on Intel’s Atom in terms of scope and positioning. Summarizing, this means that there are a total of three USB ports in the front area of the left and right side edges, an SD cardreader, microphone and headphone socket, as well as the LAN and VGA port on the right side edge. The front and back remain unfettered from connections.
The range complies with the netbook standard. However, that all USB ports have been placed on the far front sides could possibly turn out to be less supportive. We weren’t quite as happy with the VGA port, either. The MSI Wind U135 supports a maximum of 1680×1050 pixels on external monitors. The netbook, tested with our reference monitor Dell 2408 WFp, only provided a sufficient image quality in this resolution. There was a very evident blurriness especially in texts; pictures and videos were still just alright.
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