After I had completed my first pass at the Toshiba Chromebook 2, I moved on to the third and final machine in this research project made possible by NUCC: the HP Mini 110-1134CL. It is an example from "netbook" era, a category of computers launched by the Asus Eee PC. Netbooks were an early attempt to build minimalist computers for basic internet activity, years before Chromebooks defined their own product category.

Like Chromebooks, the first netbooks ran a custom operating system that offered a web browser and very few other basic applications. But unlike Chromebooks, netbooks quickly abandoned custom OS and started running a special "Starter Edition" of Windows. Was it due to customer demand? Manufacturer preference? Microsoft offering carrot and stick? I have nothing useful to contribute here.

Like the other two machines, when I received this machine the battery was flat. Nothing happened when I first pushed the power switch. Fortunately it could be charged with the "type I" tip for my Targus universal laptop AC power adapter, same as the Toshiba Chromebook 2 I looked at earlier.

While it was charging I looked over its physical condition. There is a missing "N" key on the keyboard, but nothing else was outwardly wrong. Once the battery was charged, I turned it on to take a quick look at its condition. I saw what I recognized as the Windows 7 boot up sequence, but after some time staring at "Welcome..." I never got to the login screen. It threw up an error of "failed to start" without any error codes I could investigate, and suggested "rerun installation" which I don't particularly care to do as we've long passed the end of life for Windows 7.

That's a problem to be looked at later. For now, I'm glad the machine showed signs of life making it worthwhile to spend some time looking over its specifications.