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Aspire 9814WKMib troubles

post #1 of 43
12/26/06 at 8:38am
Thread Starter 
Hello guys, first post here...
Edit: Second post here...

Having been the happy owner of an Aspire 1712SMi for about 2.5 years (great and fast machine, but noisy) I decided to replace it by an Aspire 9814WKMib (20.1" 1680x1050 LCD, Intel Core2 T5600 CPU @ 1.83GHz, 2GB DDR, 120GB 5400RPM 2.5" SATA HDD).
My 21 year old son is happy too since he heritates my Aspire 1712.

So I bought my 9814 (through my company) at the end of november 2006, preinstalled it with the Acer preload (XP MCE2002 SP2) and now have lots of troubles and headaches...

I removed the Norton Antivirus 30 day-version and replaced it with Avast Antivirus.
Also I had some wireless connection troubles with the original Acer drivers, so I replaced them with the Intel drivers and management tools.
Wireless connection is now working great.

I noticed following behaviours or malfunctions:

1. This machine is several times slower than my previous Aspire 1714 (3.0GHz P4, 1GB DDR RAM, 120GB 7200RPM 3.5" ATA100 HDD).

2. I noticed that XP uses about 600MB of RAM with all the Acer tools installed, I de-installed most of them except ePower Management, Acer Orbicam, Launch Manager and eRecovery Management.
Memory use decreased to about 400MB which is still a lot!

3. A cold boot to Windows (till all HDD access stops) takes about 3 minutes! (is about 1 minute with the Aspire 1714 with his factory default preload)

4. I'm not able to create the factory default DVD's (the first DVD is succesfully burned, when preparing for the second DVD I get an error that the needed files cannot be found). The PQSERVICE partition is still present and original, the C and D partitions were converted to NTFS.
The Application DVD creation works too.
The 'Alt-F10' shortcut for D2D at boottime seems to work as I can access the factory recovery utility.

5. Since the first day my 9814 randomly wakes up from standby mode, this can happen after a few minutes or even one day. I now leave the LCD lid open as the 9814 quite warms when waking up with the lid closed.
I disabled any screensaver function but cannot find a reason for this behaviour.

6. Hibernation only works the first time after deleting the hibernate.sys file (2nd time I get a Windows system error: "Insufficient resources to complete the API").
After this error the 'Hibernation' function dissapears from the shutdown menu.

7. I bought a 2.5" Seagate 100GB SATA 8MB 7200rpm HDD (ST910021AS) to replace the slower original 120GB SATA 8MB 5400rpm HDD (ST9120821AS).
I did a disk to disk ghost and booted from the new 100GB HDD. Boot time is now 2.5 minutes instead of the original 3 minutes, less improvement than I expected...
Now the PQSERVICE partition isn't recognised anymore by D2D or eRecovery Management, but this isn't a surprise to me.

8. I'd liked to install a fresh copy of MCE2002 onto the new 100GB disk to be able to distinguish between hardware or software malfunctions on my laptop.
I used the MCE2002 DVD of my (now ended) MSDN subscription to install but the installation procedure doesn't accept the Acer MCE2002 product key...
Also I'm not keen to reinstall the Acer factory install (through Alt-F10) onto the original 120GB drive because I already reinstalled all my applications/software onto the 9814 (it's a company laptop) which I need daily, and my son already reformatted my old Aspire 1714.
In worst case scenario I will buy a full XP retail licence to reinstall.

Any tips or recommendations before I throw my Aspire 9814 through the window?

CD
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post #2 of 43
12/26/06 at 11:47am
Same problem here,i can not burn 2nd DVD ,1st one succesfully wrotten.
Any help would be higly apretiated.
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post #3 of 43
12/26/06 at 4:28pm
This fix http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=896256 should help a bit with general slowness and perhaps might fix occasional wake-ups and hibernation issues.
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post #4 of 43
12/27/06 at 4:04am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthAcer
This fix http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=896256 should help a bit with general slowness and perhaps might fix occasional wake-ups and hibernation issues.
DarthAcer, this fix seems to have fixed my hibernation issues, for the standby issues I will observe the laptop during a few days and I'll let you know the outcome.

Thanks!

CD
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post #5 of 43
12/27/06 at 4:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by _ana_
Same problem here,i can not burn 2nd DVD ,1st one succesfully wrotten.
Any help would be higly apretiated.
Is there a way to read or backup the DVD images directly from the PQSERVICE partition?
Also, is there a way to copy the PQSERVICE partition from the original disk onto a new HDD while conserving the ALT-F10 (D2D) and eRecovery functionality? (I read about an Acer utility to restore the factory MBR but cannot find it)

CD
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post #6 of 43
12/30/06 at 6:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbokeu
Is there a way to read or backup the DVD images directly from the PQSERVICE partition?
Also, is there a way to copy the PQSERVICE partition from the original disk onto a new HDD while conserving the ALT-F10 (D2D) and eRecovery functionality? (I read about an Acer utility to restore the factory MBR but cannot find it)

CD

Perhaps a full-disk copy using Norton Ghost (or is it called differently now?) with partition resizing (if necessary) on the fly will do it. AFAIK, Ghost will preserve PQSERVICE partition and MBR. Acronis backup software did not do a good job in the past, maybe that changed though. I also used tools from Paragon AG successfully to backup/copy a whole disk.
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post #7 of 43
12/31/06 at 5:51am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbokeu
DarthAcer, this fix seems to have fixed my hibernation issues, for the standby issues I will observe the laptop during a few days and I'll let you know the outcome.
Hibernation is indeed working every time now, and I had the opportunity to observe my Aspire for a few days:
The 9814 still randomly wakes up from standby mode, AND from hibernation mode!
Apparently, only when shut down the laptop stays powered off.

Could this be a software issue, or is this probably a hardware problem with my Aspire, and therefore I have to send it to the Acer repair center?

When I have some free time I will install temporarily a (not very legal) copy of a Windows XP with all needed drivers onto my new 100GB/7400RPM HDD just to check out possible hardware/software issues.

CD
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post #8 of 43
12/31/06 at 6:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthAcer
Perhaps a full-disk copy using Norton Ghost (or is it called differently now?) with partition resizing (if necessary) on the fly will do it. AFAIK, Ghost will preserve PQSERVICE partition and MBR. Acronis backup software did not do a good job in the past, maybe that changed though. I also used tools from Paragon AG successfully to backup/copy a whole disk.
I already tried a full disk copy using Symantec Ghost 8 from the original 120GB/5400RPM onto the new 100GB/7200RPM (with resizing of the Acerdata partition since the destination disk is smaller).
The copied disk boots fine but D2D on boottime (ALT-F10) and Acer Recovery Management do not work anymore.
Seems as if the original Acer MBR and some PQSERVICE partition info is not copied onto the new disk.

There are -IA and -IB switches in Ghost which also copy all MBR and complete boottrack info but then the source and destination drive have to be identical since partition sizes cannot be modified with these switches.

I will try out some of the possible Ghost switches...

CD
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post #9 of 43
1/16/07 at 11:47am
- The empowering(?) eRecovery software is not yet working. No initial backup and
no current system backup are available (an excellent idea ruined by a shame software packaging). Support offers eRecovery Disks (a minimal solution)
- The used file system is FAT32 (old and limiting files to 4GB)
- The XP Windows Media Center 2005 doesn t seems to use the double cores and 64bit processor.
- The Norton Anti-virus is already almost installed (Norton is well known for unclean installation procedure)

I booted Linux on it and most of the hardware is recknognized. Finally, I will used linux
tools (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page) to handle the backup.

Otherwise, this is a great laptop.
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post #10 of 43
1/24/07 at 12:33pm
Anyone managed to make backup DVDs for AcerAspire9814WKMi mates??
thanks in advance
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post #11 of 43
1/28/07 at 6:04am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by _ana_
Anyone managed to make backup DVDs for AcerAspire9814WKMi mates??
thanks in advance
Not yet, but I will try out the method described by Victor_P as soon as possible.

Another weird thing that I observe with my Aspire 9814:
Every morning, at exactly 6:25 am, my Aspire wakes up, as well from standby mode as from hibernation mode...

Any explanation for this behaviour?

CD
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post #12 of 43
2/17/07 at 4:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbokeu
Another weird thing that I observe with my Aspire 9814: Every morning, at exactly 6:25 am, my Aspire wakes up, as well from standby mode as from hibernation mode... Any explanation for this behaviour? CD
On a Dutch forum I read a message from another 9814 user with the same problem. Some time after that, he reported back that he found the culprit. It seems that Windows update was scheduled to daily check for updates at a certain time. If the laptop was in hibernation then, it would awake and try to connect to the internet. Maybe you have the same problem. I bought my 9814 on feb. 2, and thought I did something wrong with the backup procedure. It's a great relief to read that I'm not the only one, but its unbelievable that Acer sells laptops without recovery CD's AND with an inoperative backup-program. Only the option to burn all drivers and utilites (like adober reader) to DVD works fine. The option that is supposed to make a bootable image of the installed C-partition (9.1 Gb) crashes when I insert the second DVD or CD. On one of my attempts I was able to read an error message stating a file on the D-partition was missing. The option to backup the system (3.8 Gb) is the same as the backup that is automatically started after first installation. It writes 1 DVD that is ineed bootable, but asks for a non existing second disk. When using CD's (6 needed according to the program), the program actually asks to insert the second CD, but it is rejected with a "wrong disk type" error. After searching 2 weeks for a solution I used Hiren's boot CD to make a Ghost image of the C and the hidden partition. After that I installed McAfee and set up the internet connection. I saw the Acer website and opened my mailbox. The next day the laptop booted terribly slow. I got an error that azmixersel.exe generated an error and needed to shut down. All programs loaded terribly slow and many times they also blocked before they were completely loaded. The modem was missing, and there was no sound at all. I also noticed that when the laptop was completely shut down (but still connected to the mains), there was still tention un all USB ports. That means that the external drive always had to be disconnected after use, or it would run all day. After testing all recomendatioons from problem solver, there was still no modem, no sound. Even a complete reinstallation (Alt-F10 during POST to enter disk to disk recovery) didn't work. During that second installation I could also see the 2 errors that were reported during first installation. Windows installs without errors, but Acer Launch reports errors while setting up Bluetooth Com Port and Bluetooth Audio. The laptop is in the shop for two weeks now and still no news. Weird enough, when I took the laptop back to the shop, all problems were vanished, exept of the missing sound.
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post #13 of 43
2/18/07 at 4:49pm
Removed (I added the contents to my first message)
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post #14 of 43
2/18/07 at 7:32pm
I managed to get a copy of Ultimate Boot CD, but the loading of MBR Tool blocks upon loading the US keyboard driver. Not that big a problem as MBR Tool is on the Hiren's Boot CD 8.7 too. I could find the partition information of the laptop I'm temporarily working on. First (primary) partition is code 07 (NTFS), the second (extended) is code 0F.

I know that on the 9814 the partitions were

Type 12 (Utility)
Type OC (primary, FAT32X)
Type OC (primary, FAT32X)

Would the disk to disk backup still work if I made a ghost copy on DVD of the first partition, replace the hard disk with another one, create a primary 6 Gb FAT32 partition and 2 primary NTFS partitions, put the Ghost image on the first partition, and then just switch the partition type from 07 to 12 ?

I have a Partition Magic 6 and on the Hiren's Boot CD is a version 8.05. Can I create all this different types of partitions with those programs ?
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post #15 of 43
2/18/07 at 9:51pm
Sorry to step in here but I recently bought a Aspire 5100. It came preloaded with Vista Home Premium. I have a lot of programs that will not work Vista, I need this on a daily basis.
Any way I have access to the PQservice partition, How can I burn this information to Multiple DVD's or Dual Layer. Also I want to leave the partitions the way they are. Format C install XP Pro, Then install Vista in D. Leaving the PQservice alone. The pqservice is showing 7.81gb with 2.03 free.
Now in the End i want it to be:
C: XP Pro
D: Vista The way it was when it was on C
If I can't burn all to a bootable dvd is there a way to make a Windows Vista OEM DVD out of pqservice with all drivers on the disc?

Thanks...
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post #16 of 43
2/19/07 at 11:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Victor_P
The acer recovery will make for you one dvd with the os and another for driver and utility, since that you are not touching pq service you can install what you want in the other partition, but if you want to restore later from pq service the partition with drive c: should be in Fat32, pqservive is not working with ntfs.
The acer recovery is supposed to make a DVD with the OS, but in my case the restore function of that DVD doesn't work. That's why I used Ghost 8 on the Hiren's Boot CD 8.7 to create an image-file of the PQSERVICE partition on the D partition. You can set up the Ghost program to make spanned files of e.g. 700 Mb each, and then burn those to a set of CD's. As Ghost can use compression, the 3.8 Gb PQSERVICE and even the 9.1 Gb C partition fit on one DVD each. I was thinking of buying Ghost 10, the latest version, but I don't know if the program can boot from CD and make image files like it does on the Hiren CD. I'm afraid I will need to install Ghost 10 on the laptop, create the images on DVD, then afterwards boot from the Ghost CD to restore the DVD's to a new hard disk. There seems to be a problem with Ghost 10 and Vista though, so it's not the right time to buy a copy of the Ghost program. The latest version of Partition Magic seems to have troubles running under Vista too. On their website, they say that Ghost an Partition Magic are designed for Windows 2000 and XP only.
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post #17 of 43
2/23/07 at 10:54am
On the startup screen of the 9814 I noticed a message I have overlooked until now. It says there is no TPM or the TPM has a problem. Took me a wile to figure out this is the abreviation for Trusted Platform Module, the chip involved in DRM (Digital Rights Management). In Belgium the 9814 comes with a standard dual layer DVD writer, but in the US it comes with a HD drive. Does the US model have a TPM chip ?

Update on the problem with my 9814 :

The people at the store couldn't find anything wrong with the laptop. At least, that's what they told me. They said all problems were caused by me when I did the laptop install and added McAfee afterwards. As the modem and soundcard were detected again when I took the laptop to the store, I couldn't proof there had been a problem before.

When I went to collect the laptop they had only set the audio output of Media Player to the Realtec soundcard, so I had to even make the Realtec the standard audio device myself to also get system sound. Windows had switched to Bluetooth Audio as the standard output when the Realtec soundcard suddenly disappeared from the list of installed audio devices. Ofcourse Windows had'n switched back to the Realtec once it was detected again. Why the modem and sound card went missing still is a mystery.

The people from the shop also requested a boot-DVD for system installation at Acer The Netherlands. If it will be a free copy still isn't certain.

The USB ports are also still under tention when the laptop is switched off and connected to the mains. Seems that all 9814 laptop have this anoying feature. I sent a mail about this to Acer, but haven't got a reply yet.

Last night, when I switched the laptop on, again I heard the sharp snapping sound when the Windows logo appeared, and the laptop switched off and back on again. This time, the next boot (and several test-boots afterward) went fine though, and I couldn't find anything wrong while I was looking trough all the settings.

Now I have ordered an extra hard drive, identical to the one already installed (120 Gb - 5400 RPM - 8 Mb cache), to do further testing. First I'm going to test if I can Ghost the PQSERVICE partition trough a DVD image to the new disk to be able to boot and install from that partition. If Ghost doesn't set the partition type to 12 Hex, I will use MBR-Tool to convert the FAT32(X) (0C Hex) to Utility (12 Hex). Hopefully, this is just a switch, and the setup of 12 Hex is identical to 0C Hex. Maybe I will also have to first create two additional FAT32 partitions to get the restore working.

Next step will be to Ghost image the installed Windows (with my personal settings) to DVD and restore this onto an NTFS partition covering half of the new drive (second half also NTFS for data). I must admit that my previous laptop (Acer 1800) also still had FAT32 for the C-partition and only NTFS for the D-partition and external drive, but I do prefer to start from scratch with NTFS now. As long as the Hiren CD can backup my Winwows and data partition, I don't care that much about the missing tyhe Disk-2-Disk eRecovery function.

If everything works as expected, I would even concider setting up the two drives as a RAID for improved speed. 240 Gb in a laptop is a bit overkill, but if it speeds up the booting and loading of programs enough, it's worth it. Only thing is I can't find any information on how to set up a RAID. Shouldn't this be in the BIOS ?
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post #18 of 43
2/24/07 at 5:11am
Thread Starter 
@Roger:
I will reply more in detail when I have more time.

For RAID1 functionality you need to flash the R113.ROM RAID1 bios for the 9814 from Acer's website (included in the 1.13.zip bios file).

CD
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post #19 of 43
3/2/07 at 9:16am
I finaly managed to make a backup. With Acronis Partition Director and Acronis True Image on the Hiren's Boot CD 8.8. Both work over USB so I could connect a new drive to a SATA/IDE/USB connector and create identical partitons as I saw on the "old" drive.

With APD I could set the type of the PQSERVICE partition of the new drive to 12 Hex (Compaq utility).

With ATI I made a spanned image file set (700 Mb each) of the PQSERVICE partition on de data partition of the original drive. But I couldn't restore it on the PQSERVICE partition of the new drive, only on the original drive. When I copied the files in Windows and then switched the drives, it did work as expected.

The only way to boot from the PQSERVICE partition was to set it active, but then everyting went fine. After installing Windows on the empty C-partition I had to manually set the C-partition to active.

Still doubting about the flashing. If is goes wrong I will have to pay for the repair and replacements myself. Flashing problems arent covered by the waranty.
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post #20 of 43
4/4/07 at 7:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Victor_P
After boot go to my computer you will see a new disk named PQSERVICE you've done it. In this disk you can find your drivers and windows. We will explain in another review how to wake a real windows cd with these data.
Hi. I've just decided to nuke my PQSERVICE partition and make a clean Windows install with another full version XP Pro that I own but before I do I want to make a copy of the PQSERVICE so that I can reset the system in case I want to sell the machine later (can't give away my full version XP Pro). I've been looking around a bit about making that Windows CD previously mentioned here, any news on that? I haven't found a post about it, anyone else? I would greatly appreciate a solution to this.
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