To further refine my initial report

The cardbus slot is not recognised and the CF and SD card slots do not read or write to cards when inserted, lvm does not see them either.

max screen resolution in snap or panorama is 1280 * 1024

wide screen 1600 * 900 is not available through any of the options or adjustment in snap etc. foible of Nvidia go chipsets I believe.

USB will not co-operate with resource manager etc or usbconfig and changing bios to later version crashes APCI.

Dual layer DVD writer appears to do its thing properly with latest CD/DVDRecord versions will advise when I find out further.

1 * 9 pin serial port is only output, but with a usb enabled network hub you could print to that, just can,t take it on the road to easily with out some sort of direct output apart from burning cd's or emailing files.

Power management is poor and you cannot throttle the cpu or cooling fan both are at max and suck the battery down in under 40 minutes or less and with no sound the audible warnings are not available.

sound still eludes me.

NVidia chip set is prime culprit with this unit and various drivers and/or kernel would need to be updated to cure issues.

Tough project but I am persisting until someone makes me an off to swap or it falls out the window and needs replacing(:<))