I've joined the 8204 club

[joe-st]

Ordered my 8204 today, should arrive tomorow.
Horay!

Any tips for initial install or is the default OK?
I tend to erase the HD and re-install XP with new machines just to make sure I start with a clean machine

[Falafel]

Congrats on your new toy. It is really up to you and what makes you feel comfortable with how your laptop is setup. I personally wipe the drive of every new machine I buy for a couple of reasons. One of which is I don't want any of the company's bloatware which is almost a duplication of what the operating system provides, and the other is that I have the computer configured the way I like it.

When you get your laptop you will have 3 Fat32 partitions. C: and D: drive, and a hidden partition containing the system backup.

You will be given a chance to make DVD or CD backups of your system when you first boot up the computer, so you might want to make sure you have some media on hand.

If you do decide to a clean install just remember there are a few hotfixes you need to install.

One is the registry fix for the power drain problem due to a USB bug in WinXP, which you can install as follows:


Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate, and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\USB
Note If the USB subkey does not exist, create it. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Select the Services key. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
b. Type USB in the New Key #1 box to name the new key "USB."
Right-click USB, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
In the New Value #1 box that appears, type EnIdleEndpointSupport, and then press ENTER.
Right-click EnIdleEndpointSupport, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 1, leave the Hexadecimal option selected, and then click OK.
Quit Registry Editor.


The other hotfix (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=896256) is a fix for a performance problem with WinXP SP 2 on Duo Core laptops. If you do a google search for WindowsXP-KB896256-v3-x86-ENU.exe (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-10,GGGL:en&q=WindowsXP-KB896256-v3-x86-ENU.exe) you can find a download location so you don't have to call microsoft.

Remember these changes are only if you install a clean copy of WinXP on your 8204. The pre-installed OS on your laptop has all these fixes.

[joe-st]

A good few tips there, thanks
Any reason why acer felt the need for 2 FAT partitions rather than one NTFS?
I'll go for a clean slate as I hate hidden recovery partitions

[137]

A good few tips there, thanks
Any reason why acer felt the need for 2 FAT partitions rather than one NTFS?
I'll go for a clean slate as I hate hidden recovery partitions

Just make sure you burn the recovery DVD at first, because if you wipe out the hidden partition you get rid of the system part of the whole fun:surreal:

I am getting mine one tomorrow in the morning! The resseler gave me good price and I have one day to try if it is alright, if not I am getting replacement. The deal is that if more than five are not gonna be without buzzing or other poblems, I am getting money back as well as leaving ACER. But if it is gonna work, I hope I will be proud owner of this nice beast!! :dude:

cheers

[BOFH1971]

well done on that one, they are great machines.
ours at work are a dream to use, although some spyware has wrecked the acer software and ati catlyst, stuff, a reinstall tomorrow should fix that, (then shore up the security :) )

we use default factory settings on the 8204's at work as they are used for disaster recovery and testing.

good luck with your new machine

[kohaar]

Just make sure you burn the recovery DVD at first, because if you wipe out the hidden partition you get rid of the system part of the whole fun:surreal:

Got my laptop a saturday, and didn't have an empty dvd, so I called Acer, and they sent me a dvd with the install on. Just to be sure that I would have a backup if anything went wrong.

[137]

Got my laptop a saturday, and didn't have an empty dvd, so I called Acer, and they sent me a dvd with the install on. Just to be sure that I would have a backup if anything went wrong.

Wow, do they provide that? Did they charge you something at all? Are you in the Europe? Well, I think even if you just do not burn the DVD essentially on the beginning, you can still have it burned later through the ACER tools...but this is of course not the option if you wipe the HDD out:w00t:

But that is a good news, they can provide the recovery disk. I still think it would not be too too expensive for them to include one official as they always used to. I mean, you still can burn it on different media make and...well some DVDs are not too too cooperative with some DVD burners soo...:p

[kohaar]

Yep. Live in Europe. They didn't charge me anything, but wanted me to fax a letter with proof of purchase, and that was it.