Netbook And Dragon Naturally Speaking

[BuffaloHelp 24]

Netbooks are popular and recently one of my guys decided to purchase Dell Experian N270 model to lighten his travel load.Since it came with Windows XP Home edition I figured installing Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Standard edition wouldn't be a problem. I mean after all, I maintain 2003 server all by me little self (ha ha ha...a little humor there).Installing was tricky since I had to transfer its DVD contents to a thumb drive. Dell Experian did not come with an external DVD drive and I thought I don't need one for this installation.So why post about this software installation? Well, it turns out that Dragon Naturally Speaking and Dell Experian are NOT compatible. I searched high and low on the internet and everyone were asking the question but no one can truly answer with an experience.The simple answer is NO. The installation went perfectly. Well, there was an incident where I had to reboot 7 times because some netframe component wasn't installing correctly. But once I got it to install, Dragon Naturally Speaking was running alright.But that's not the end of the story. Dragon Naturally Speaking requires profiling. It will be trained to your voice (profile) so that you can dictate and command only using your voice (that's the coolest thing about this software). My guy wanted to dictate while driving so that he can maximize the time on the road (and no PMs about how dangerous that he should not take his mind off the road etc. I hope that he knows it too).When myself and my guy went to start the profile training, it goes to the "blue screen of death" and gives OA012Afx.sys error.This error may not be the same for all but for those who are getting the blue screen of death here is why: I called up Nuance--company of Dragon Naturally Speaking--and talking to a technician for about 2 hours I came to learn that hardware requirement is impeccable! The tech said the combination of sound card and hard drive might be causing the blue screen of death, leading to memory dump.After gathering my unfound belief, basically he told me there's no fix around it--just get a better laptop/netbook. Sorry folks. If you are here to see there's a workaround this issue there isn't yet. Yup, I even installed the SP1 for DNS. Nothing.Perhaps the program could have been faulty? I installed on 2 other laptops (one is 3 years old Dell, the other is 1 year old Toshiba) and they both ran without an issue. And yes, both were installed from the same thumb drive mentioned before.Talk about a snobbish software, huh?

[The Simpleton 2]

NetBooks aren't really meant for such applications, are they? Most of them are light on resources end and can't support many applications, games, etc. I would only use netbooks for surfing the net and maybe watching movies, but mostly for text-processing work. Other stuff will most likely never work on most netbooks

[rayzoredge 2]

Sound card and hard drive? That's impeccably retarded. Maybe you can snag up a cheap USB SoundBlaster 24-bit external sound processor and mount that thing with Velcro or something to his existing laptop stand after confirming that it works with his existing hard drive and/or snag another 2.5" hard drive after confirming that it is compatible... then expense it out to the company IT budget. And if neither works... well, not sure what to say that's economically-viable. Hopefully using the SBLive! external will work, because a $20 piece of additional equipment might be financially better than upgrading your guy to "a better laptop." I think that's absolutely bad that the company basically gave you the cold shoulder, since they literally can't do anything about it (unless enough people complain about it that they're forced to release an official fix for it). I would think about maybe finding another software solution and return DNS, or send a request for a soft fix to see if you can resolve it that way without having to buy additional hardware just to make something work with the computer that should work flawlessly in the first place.

[Saint_Michael 3]

NetBooks aren't really meant for such applications, are they? Most of them are light on resources end and can't support many applications, games, etc. I would only use netbooks for surfing the net and maybe watching movies, but mostly for text-processing work. Other stuff will most likely never work on most netbooks

Your correct, and if understand Dragon enough, its a hoss in the memory department of which a netbook cannot really handle. I would have to go with rayzor that you would need something additionally to get it going, almost sounds like you need to some hardware hacking in order ot make the netbook go beyond what it is intended to do.

[shadowx 0]

I second what "The simpleton" said. Netbooks are designed almost exclusively for the internet. Cloud computing and the likes.They arent meant to have nice features like HD surround sound, high quality voice pickup and what not. My advice is the same as the ict Techs, get a better machine! (Or use a different machine) i cant stand netbooks, its like fobbing you off with a lower quality computer and making up some excuse along the lines of "no its not a low spec laptop, its a high spec notebook. Now, about that money..." They have their uses, like mobile internet browsing, word processing and emailing. But IMHO if you come to a point where you need to install software (other than a browser, open office or the GIMP etc...) then you've hit the point where you need a laptop, even a lowish spec one. But thats my opinion. Have you tried googling the SYS file the BSOD highlighted? There might already be an easy fix. And it might be worth updating to service pack 2, and then even 3 if it still doesnt work. Could be something that MS has already fixed.You might be able to find an open source alternative to DNS too which might be lighter and more compatible. I expect the components in a netbook have to be modified or designed for netbook use to make them compact enough to fit in the smaller housing which could be the root of the problem, non-standard hardware with bog standard drivers.

[iGuest 3]

Possible Work AroundNetbook And Dragon Naturally SpeakingReplying to BuffaloHelp I'm just going to add my two bits about this issue. I have a Dell Insprion Mini 10v Windows XP netbook running Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Essentials edition SP1 and I encountered the same issue with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) refering to the OA012AFX.SYS file and error codes 0x0000008E (0x00000090, 0xF6322F91, 0xEC80DF64, 0x00000000). This is the first and looks like one of the few sites I have seen so far even mentioning this issue. I have been running Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 for about a week and have not noticed this problem because I have been using a Bluetooth Headset with my built in Bluetooth in the netbook. I know Bluetooth adapters are terrible with both audio and microphone and the Dragon Naturally software has made it clear that it has a low level of sound quality and a lot of noise, but I'm not trying to do anything fancy or difficult with it. I'll also point out that it is a $20 headset so it is not really up there on the quality scale, but once again it works for my purposes. Anyway, the Bluetooth Adapter apparently bypasses the Realtek HD builtin audio device and has no problems with the Dragon Naturally software. One day however, I decided I wanted to do something real quick and didn't want to take the time to dig out the Bluetooth headset adapter. That is when I ran into this issue with the BSOD and all. If you have Bluetooth on your netbook and you have a Bluetooth headset that works pretty good you might give it a try. I have never used a ordinary usb wireless headset before, but it might work too if it also bypasses the builtin audio device. By the way, so far I have updated my audio drivers and that did not fix the issue. Also, I probably won't check back with this thread again. So, if you ask me a question I probably won't be back to answer it.-reply by TechGuy

[iGuest 3]

I've done dozens of video and text reviews on Dragon 9, 10 and starting on 11. In general, I've never had much success with netbooks, although I do think its theoretically possible if you have at least 2gb of ram. Personally, I like it best when I run it on my 13.3 inch toshiba u405. Its a couple years old now and about due for a replacement, but get a souped up little laptop at the 13" level and who needs a netbook?

[k_nitin_r 8]

Hi!Netbooks are a cheap alternative to regular notebooks if all you want to do is check your email while on the go and don't want to worry about breaking an expensive asset.I've tried the Dragon Naturally Speaking software on a desktop computer sometime in 1997 or 1998 and don't really like voice recognition software in general because of the accuracy rate - I'd rather use handwriting recognition software (or even saving my handwritten note as an image) to jot something down quickly, but for extensive work I still prefer a full-size keyboard - it's proven technology and works as advertised every time!I doubt the problem you experienced with Dragon Naturally Speaking has anything to do with the hard drive, but may be related to the sound card. The guest post by TechGuy suggests using a Bluetooth headset... get one of the A2DP headsets as a normal headset may not work with your computer depending on its Bluetooth profile.NetBooks are a great replacement for older notebook computers - they have a longer battery life due to the Intel Atom processor that most of them run on, and you get the option of using a solid state hard drive so there are no moving parts if you intend to use the netbook in an automobile. If you do live in a place where it can get sunny, you would not want to leave your netbook in a vehicle because the green house effect of the glass would make it quite hot and damage the screen of the netbook. NetBooks may be cheap, portable, light in weight, and have a good battery life but they aren't indestructable, so be sure to observe the same care when handling or storing them as you would when using a regular notebook PC. The hardware may be cheap, but the access to your data on it isn't.

[iGuest 3]

I'm aware that this thread is four years old but it is one of the very few places where I have seen the Mini10V, Blue screen of death and OA012Afx.sys error all mentioned in the same place. I'm here because I have just now (2013) encountered the same problem on a Dell Mini 10V which I have been using for all purposes including various types of audio applications with absolutely no problems for four years - until now. The software in my case is not actually Dragon Naturally Speaking, but a Morse Code decoder package called CwGet - However, yours is the only other case of an audio application crashing out on a Mini 10V with the same error that I have managed to find.

 

The good news is that my problem proved relatively easy to fix - although the audio drivers on Dell's website have not been updated since 2009, Realtek, who make the 'Realtek HD Audio Chipset' used in the 10V do still continue to update the generic drivers for this hardware and there are recently updated (2013) Windows XP drivers for this audio hardware on Realtek's site. I've just installed them, and they fix my problem (no more crash to Blue Screen Of Death when the software starts) and so, if any of you are still struggling to get Dragon Naturally Speaking to run on a 10V, you might like to see if the newer drivers fix your problem as well.

 

[iGuest 3]

I'm aware that this thread is four years old but it is one of the very few places where I have seen the Mini10V, Blue screen of death and OA012Afx.sys error all mentioned in the same place. I'm here because I have just now (2013) encountered the same problem on a Dell Mini 10V which I have been using for all purposes including various types of audio applications with absolutely no problems for four years - until now. The software in my case is not actually Dragon Naturally Speaking, but a Morse Code decoder package called CwGet - However, yours is the only other case of an audio application crashing out on a Mini 10V with the same error that I have managed to find.

 

The good news is that my problem proved relatively easy to fix - although the audio drivers on Dell's website have not been updated since 2009, Realtek, who make the 'Realtek HD Audio Chipset' used in the 10V do still continue to update the generic drivers for this hardware and there are recently updated (2013) Windows XP drivers for this audio hardware on Realtek's site. I've just installed them, and they fix my problem (no more crash to Blue Screen Of Death when the software starts) and so, if any of you are still struggling to get Dragon Naturally Speaking to run on a 10V, you might like to see if the newer drivers fix your problem as well.