Dell WYSE VX0 V90LE Thin Client XPE Compact PC

"Use it up... wear it out... make it do... do without."

-- from one of my grandmother's hand-stitched samplers

Hello All.

Acting on a whim, I searched the internet for a Windows XP compatible Mini PC... you know... Mini PCs... those cheap, compact, portable, high-performance Mini PCs with multiple peripheral jacks, but mostly with OEM Windows 11 operating systems.

And we Windows XP computer aficionados know the pain and grief when our vintage computers, one-by-one inevitably die from old age... and it always seems to be too soon... and just after we've finally found, download, installed, and tested the best vintage software for our beloved device.

So, in light of that, I wanted a small, compact PC that was designed to run Windows XP, and on a 12-Volt DC power source... and once loaded with vintage XP freeware as well as DOS and Windows 98SE games and apps, would be rugged and ready for action in the field: astronomy, amateur radio, portable video projectors, and such. And I also wanted a "Mini PC" that I could, hopefully, keep reliably running for years to come... one that was just large enough to give me enough breathing room to replace electronic components as they age out and fail.

I soon zeroed in on a vintage (2011) Dell WYSE VX0 V90LE Thin Client XPE PC. Measuring 8.5"x7.88"x2" (21.6x20x5.1cm) with a Windows XP Embedded native operating system, an unusually large CPU heatsink (no cooling fan) and... 14 electrolytic capacitors in the circuit board. For those who know basic electronics, dead electrolytic capacitors in vintage electronic circuits are a given... but easily identified, easily replaced, and their costs are quite cheap.

These WYSE V90LE PCs were so compact that they used to be conveniently mounted on the back of display monitors... on the wall... and even easily packed and carried from office to office in corporate environments.

So... I purchased a used WYSE V90LE PC for $ 25.00, with the seller making no guarantees as to the internal condition and functionality of the device. And, on first inspection, all of the electrolytic capacitors in the circuit board were in excellent condition.

Going totally vintage, I plugged in my external iOne Scorpius 95 keyboard with built in optical trackball, into both the PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse ports. Plugging in a DVI-I 24 5-Pin-to-VGA adapter, I connected an external 20-inch 1600x900 VGA monitor (120VAC). Lastly, I plugged in a 12-Volt Lithium-Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) external battery pack (13.7-Volts actual) into the 12-Volt DC negative ground power jack of the WYSE V90LE.

And the WYSE V90LE started up beautifully!

On the Windows XP Embedded Desktop screen I left-clicked the mouse curser, and selected the Shutdown option. In the Shutdown the system option window, I selected Reset the system setting to factory default (which automatically defaulted to the Restart the system option). The WYSE V90LE automatically rebooted and properly reconfigured to the original factory Windows XP Embedded setup, and adjusted to my video monitor resolution.

But, viewing the Windows XP Desktop it was obvious that this WYSE V90LE was set up as a simple terminal computer... just to serve as a remote desktop... hooked up to a more powerful corporate online computer. So, for my purposes, a complete reinstall of Windows XP Embedded was necessary. But searching for, downloading, and installing a Windows XP Embedded operating system proved to be quite difficult, and quite painful.

So I concluded that nothing less than a full Windows XP Professional 32-bit operating system install would be needed to run a full spectrum of my legacy Windows XP programs, a considerable improvement over the bare-bones OEM Windows XP Embedded operating system.

I tossed the 2 GB flash memory module and replaced it with a 16GB HyperDisk 44-pin (actually 44-holes) IDE DOM Industrial Hi-Speed Flash Disk Module (5v/3.3V DC), as the 32GB modules seemed way too expensive for what is essentially a toy. The OEM 1GB RAM was already maximum for the device.

Booting up the WYSE V90LE, while tapping the F2 key (or the Delete key), I was surprised to see the WYSE V90LE had a full-featured BIOS, with many options and control over the functionality of the WYSE V90LE.

I made just a few basic changes in the BIOS:

Standard CMOS Features:

- IDE Channel 0 Master: Select "HYPERDISK DOM"

- Select "NONE" for the other 3 IDE Channels

- Halt On: Select "All , But Keyboard"

Advanced CMOS Features:

- First Boot Device: Select "CD-ROM"

- Second Boot Device: Select "USB-FLOPPY"

- Third Boot Device: Select "HARD DRIVE"

CPU L1 & L2 Cache: Select "Enabled"

MPS Version Control For OS: Select "1.4"

Display Full Screen Logo: Select "Disabled" (by-passes the WYSE splash screen and provides a more useful DOS screen of the hardware in use)

Also:

- Setting the "CPU Clock Ratio" to 12x (100MHz x 12, for full 1.2GHz CPU speed)

Using a USB CD-ROM drive, I installed the Windows XP Professional 32-bit Service Pack 3 operating system CD-ROM. And right after booting up, I plugged in a USB flash drive, loaded with SDI (Snappy Driver Installer), a 43GB driver installation package (freeware) specifically for Windows XP (both 32-bit and 64-bit). It scanned and immediately detected 14 essential drivers missing, and installed them. One of the drivers made the CMOS clock functional, as it was previously quickly discharging the replaceable non-rechargeable CR-2032 Lithium cell prematurely.

My WYSE V90LE was now fully functional and ready to install my many Windows XP, Windows 98SE, and Windows DOS legacy programs and games.

But, invariably, some untested and highly questionable Windows XP software downloaded from the internet caused the CPU to run at maximum capacity, slowing everything down to a crawl, even when I had specifically blocked all unnecessary startup programs with CCleaner freeware. But the Windows XP Professional 32-bit Service Pack 3 operating system CD-ROM came to the rescue: After I had installed all the software I wanted to install, I simply ran a cleanup with legacy Glary Utilities and CCleaner freeware, and then did a install of the Windows XP Pro CD-ROM, without booting up, which allowed me to select the re-install option that preserved all installed software. And such a Windows XP re-install always does the trick, keeping the CPU load as low as possible, keeping the WYSE V90LE running Windows XP at full speed... and my WYSE V90LE now boots up in less than two minutes.

My WYSE V90LE will now run demanding software on its 1.2GHz CPU and 16GB IDE flash with ease: Videos, MP3s, speech-to-text (IBM ViaVoice Pro USB Edition v10 For Windows), natural voice speech (AT&T SAPI4), and vintage games. I also installed Avast! Free v18.8.2356, the last Avast! antivirus software that is not only compatible with Windows XP, but runs low on the CPU resources, yet still downloads up-to-the-minute virus definitions as needed.

For the internet, I use the PaleMoon v28.10.7 portable internet browser exclusively, as, after a thorough test run of 15 different "Windows XP compatible" internet browsers, only the PaleMoon v28.10.7 is able to not only browse the internet, but also log in and browse that always resource-hogging Facebook. Oddly, PaleMoon v28.10.7 is downloaded as a 35.958 MB zip file that expands to a 89.0 MB folder that I simply clicked and dragged into my C:\Program Files and added a shortcut to my desktop. And, being truly portable, PaleMoon v28.10.7, unlike many of those so-called "Windows XP browsers" does not require a SSE, SSE2, nor SSE3 compatible CPU.

But, still, I would NEVER, EVER do my online financial transactions with any Windows XP browser.

As for those "suitable internet browsers for Windows XP" it makes me grit my teeth reading glowing, but incomplete and misleading reviews of "Windows XP compatible internet browsers" obviously written by someone with a pimped 3.50GHz CPU 4GB RAM Windows XP PC... who fails to mention that a fast CPU is required to run them... fast CPUs that were never prevalent on legacy PCs. The devil is in the details.

So... "Windows XP friendly" is an incomplete and misleading statement, as my vintage 1.7GHz 2GB RAM 32-bit Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Toshiba laptop performs quite differently on the internet than my vintage 1.2GHz 1GB RAM 32-bit Windows XP-Pro WYSE V90LE.

Just saying.

That said, here are the final specifications of my Dell WYSE VX0 V90LE Thin Client XP-Pro PC:

- Via C7 Eden 1.2 GHz x86 CPU

Supports MMX, SSE, SSE2, and SSE3 instructions

- 16GB HyperDisk 44-pin IDE DOM Industrial Hi-Speed Flash Disk Module (5v/3.3V DC)

- 1GB RAM (maximum for the device)

Peripheral Connections:

- One DVI-I 24 5-Pin Video-Out Port (DVI-I 24 5 to VGA (DB-15) or HDMI Adapter usually needed)

- PS/2 keyboard port

- PS/2 mouse port

- One serial port

- One parallel port

- Three USB 2.0 ports (1 on front, 2 on back)

- One 10/100 Base-T Fast Ethernet twisted pair (RJ-45) port

- One 1/8-inch mini output stereo jack full, 16-bit, 48KHz sample rate

- One 1/8-inch mini input microphone jack, 8-bit

- One 12VDC power jack, negative ground (the WYSE V90LE only consumes 13.2 Watts)

Warning: The Dell Wyse V class specifications vary wildly, with only the V90LE suitable for Windows XP:

V10LE: (ThinOS/128MB Flash/512MB DDR2 RAM)

V30LE: (Microsoft Windows CE/128MB Flash/512MB DDR2 RAM)

V50LE: (Linux v6/128MB Flash/512MB DDR2 RAM)

V90LE: (Microsoft Windows XP Embedded/1GB-32GB Flash/1GB RAM)

V90LEW: (Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard... but actually Windows CE/2GB Flash/1GB DDR2 RAM)

V00LE: (Cloud PC for use with Dell/0MB Flash/1GB RAM)