MP995

MP995

Chicony produced the MP995 to be sold as a low-cost model, I recently found out that it was also sold as the Uniwill 330i. I don't know how many reseller brands sold this laptop, but production numbers must not have been very large, sales of all Chicony laptops ended soon after production of this model began. The MP995 was a nice little machine that came too little to late for Chicony, I guess.

The MP995 does support XP except for it's battery. The battery will not report its charge without advanced power management turned on, however turning on advanced power function causes major XP problems. So advanced power management must be left turned off. If yo don't heed this warning then you find out that the laptop goes into suspend mode and you need to reboot and use safe mode to reset APM back to off. The internal modem is the only other device that doesn't auto install when installing XP and that can be made to function with manual install of the modem and the standard XP 56K modem setting.

There isn't a NIC connector on the MP995 nor is there a mini-PCI slot and so you will need a wired or wireless PCMCIA NIC card (or USB device) for a network connection.

Apparently the memory is limited to 256 MB unless low-density (16 chip) modules are used and then you can go to 512MB. Hard drives (HDD) are limited to under 32GB unless you find the modified BIOS on the Internet and reflash you BIOS. No Ffactory BIOS overcame this limit. Or you could use a BIOS override program to do the same thing.

MP995 used a uPGA-1 socket Intel Celeron CPU, with the 466 MHz/66FSB being the fastest version produced in the PII core based Celeron line. The limit in CPU speed was created by Intel because they never developed faster PII CPU's for this socket with their PII core CPU. Note: PIII Celerons do not work in the MP995.

The MP995 seem to have decent video memory size for viewing MPEG movies. Most came with a 24x CD-ROM drives but there was a DVD drive as an option. Playing of DVD's on the optional DVD drive seems to need a Margi card. I've not tried this with XP and so do not know if this combination works. If you use PowerDVD Ô as supplied with the optional DVD drive (I think it came with this software) you end up with lots of skips in video playback.

I still have some MP995 keyboards, modems, HDD carrier kits plus optical drive modules. I also have new CPU heatsinks, cooling fans and heat pipes. Case plastics for the most part are long gone. I do have a few LCD hinge covers and some other minor parts. Batteries can be rebuilt and so do not throw out your old battery. AC adapters are 19volt DC output @ 2.6 amps and that's a common size, so new AC adapters should be easy to find.

Changing or adding a CPU is a bear - the socket used wasn't the best design ever invented and I find that the use "more-power" method of installing a CPU is the only solution that works in the field. This method is not for the weak-at-heart and it involves using a pair of Channelock-type pliers and a great deal of praying to the CPU socket gods. The CPU is placed into the socket and the socket plus CPU are forced on the diagonal towards the closed position until the socket seems to be closed or just before something breaks. (hopefully not!) Then the heatsink is installed to test if the socket is locked. If not, and there's no POST, then try again. A special tool must have been made and used by the factory, but I've not been able to trace one down.

CPU voltage and speed is controlled by the motherboard settings and needs to be set via DIP switch settings. (see below) I've not been able to figure out all motherboard switch functions and any user information that can be supplied to us will be helpful and will used to update this page.

Motherboard switch settings

Motherboard Revision "A" or "B" settings are unknown at this time

For Mobo Revision "C"

CPU	SW1:1	SW1:2	SW1:3	SW1:4
266	OFF	OFF	OFF	ON
300	OFF	ON	OFF	ON
333	OFF	OFF	ON	ON
366	OFF	ON	ON	ON
400	ON	OFF	OFF	OFF

CPU	S1:5
Celeron 266- 400 & Dixon 300 - 366 MHz	OFF
Dixon 400 MHz	ON

Core Voltage

CPU	SW3:1	SW3:2	SW3:3	SW3:4
Celeron 266- 400 & Dixon 300 - 366	ON	ON	ON	OFF
Dixon 400 MHz	OFF	OFF	OFF	ON

For Mobo Revision "D"

CPU	SW1:1	SW1:2	SW1:3	SW1:4
266	OFF	OFF	OFF	ON
300	OFF	ON	OFF	ON
333	OFF	OFF	ON	ON
366	OFF	ON	ON	ON
400	ON	OFF	OFF	OFF
433	ON	ON	OFF	OFF
466	ON	OFF	ON	OFF

CPU	S1:5
Celeron 266- 466 & Dixon 300 - 366	OFF
Dixon 400 MHz	ON

Core Voltage

CPU	SW3:1	SW3:2	SW3:3	SW3:4	SW3:5	SW3:6
Celeron 266- 400 & Dixon 300 - 366	ON	OFF	ON	ON	ON	OFF
Dixon 400 MHz	ON	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	ON
Celeron 433 - 466 MHz	ON	ON	OFF	ON	ON	OFF

Some more MP995 information

Quoted from Chicony's last known USA webpage

Chicony's MP995

Features:

MP995 combines a great looking design with smooth beautiful curves with an integrated Intel chipset for lower cost. Earlier to buy a low-cost notebook meant getting old technology in an ugly case, but with the MP995 this is no longer true. Intel mobile Celeron is going up to 400MHz, the CPU is mounted on an easy to change socket (uPGA-1) for end-user convenience. Although the case is very slim it still houses both a FDD and a CD-ROM simultaneously. The CD-ROM is exchangeable with a DVD-ROM.

CPU:

The easy to change CPU supports all Intel Celeron processors on an uPGA-1 socket. Currently the fastest available processor is the 400MHz Celeron. (Wrong! - OLSG)

Memory:

Memory is upgraded in a flash, there are two memory banks and it maximum supports 256MB SDRAM. (Orphan note - this is not right)

CD and FDD:

Three spindle design, the FDD is fixed under the keyboard on the right side and the CD-ROM is located underneath the HDD in the front, with the door ergonomically sliding front.

HDD:

Do you mind when your kids install games on your HDD? Buy them another HDD, it's easy changed in the MP995. You can also have different HDDs for different purposes, also it's never been easier to upgrade. (Orphan note - door can be opened during operation - not good!)

Rear of the MP995:

Docking and Port replicator:

Docking Station with PCI slot, 5.25" Port Replicator with two 3W speakers

desktop bay, all ports replicated