Acer Aspire 1710 Review - Page 18

Memory

I have a 1714Smi. The manual states that the maximum memory is 2GB but there are 2 slots.

Crucial now have a 2GB Module (CT25672Y40B). Can the 1714 be congured to take 2 of these giving 4Gb overall?

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/Part...72Y40B&cat=RAM

Regards

Dead Aspire 1712

I am just about to open my second Aspire 1712.
My first one just died this morning 9 days after purchase.
It just shut off while I was doing nothing in particular.
The battery charging light works normally.
Pushing the power button just gives a momentary flash to all the other lights.
The fan hints at a momentary sound, but then silence.
When I called Acer support, the first time went to a dead phone line.
The second time, the support person answered right away.
After going through the plug in the power pack and 10 second power reset sequence
drill, as well as the excuse himself to talk to the real tech routine,
he said Acer's only option was to send it in to Texas (no local service for new machines).
Fortunately, I was able to do an exchange at my retailer.

The only other oddity I noticed on the first Aspire 1712 that I have not seen previously mentioned,
is that it complained about the keyboard driver when failing
in any attempts to sleep or hibernate.

Hope I have better luck with the new one.

Update on Problems

Got my 1712 back today from Acer Repair in Texas (see my previous posts about my problems). I gotta give acer repair and tech support an A+ for service and repair time. Sent it off last Tuesday and got it back Yesterday (7 days repair time aint bad). THey replaced the motherboard and all the problems seem to be gone. BUT, the built in wireless 802 card no longer works. TUrned the system on, and it could not find the card. I called acer support and he had me remove the cover with him on the line to see about the card and guess what! It had fallen out of the socket during shipping. I hung up, plugged the card back in expecting it to work. Well, it still does not work. The card is still not found in the hardware manager. I think it got damaged from the bumping around during shipping. I will call support back tomorrow to see if they can send me a new card so I wont have to send the thing back again. If I cant get it to work, I will just continue to use my Microsoft USB wireless adapter.

You know, if it were loose to begin with, it may not have been detected when they loaded the system. Is the driver for the wireless card installed? Try installing the driver from the recovery CD and cycle the power and see if it finds the hardware then.

Here is a link to a very positive review of the Acer Aspire 1710 series from the UK: http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=499

Also, if you look, this site has done several reviews of Acer notebooks in the past so it might be one to keep in mind if looking for Acer notebook reviews, which are sometimes rarer in the USA.

Ddr 400?

Hi there guys,

Did anybody notice this post about the 1714:

http://www.whatlaptop.co.uk/forum/to...?TOPIC_ID=9178

And I quote .....

"First despite the support for DDR400, be warned that the Intel 865G chipset supports it but will not run at it. I found this out to my cost when I bought the following memory which was recommended by OCZ Technical Support:

OCZ 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2

The memory installed fine and works a treat and despite the improvement in speed it is actually running at DDR333 and cannot be changed. The enhanced latency of the memory and tighter memory timmings make the system run faster but is not worth the extra expense. I spoke to Acer about this and they said there was nothing they can do about it, they said it supports it but doesn't run it which to me means it does not fully support it and should not claim that it can as other Acer users may pay extra to upgrade and like me waste their money." End of quote

Anybody want to comment on that?
Do a check with Sisoft Sandra or smthng similar...

I am very curious to find out what is the case....


Anyway, Im just waiting for an improved cashflow ...and will go down to the store to get me a 1714 after of course checking the screen for any dead guys..............hmm ...did I say guys?.... I meant those little thingies...whats their name......????

Yeah right pixies!!......


no...........I remembered!!

PIXELS!!

P.S.: By the way, how is the screen holding up after some months use now...existing users??? (banding, flickering, DP's, incosistent luminocity etc..)
stable or anybody noticing a decline in performance?..

But boy this LCD is bright!!! .........

I put in a gig of simple tech 3200 (I think cas3) and it ran at the 400 speed.

I did CPUZ and it said that the memory timing and FSB timing was 1:1 which means it's running at full speed.

Maybe the OZ memory just wasn't up to snuff?

I returned the memory since I didn't see a big difference and I wanted cas 2.5 at least if I were to replace the stock memory. CPUZ shows the DDR333 running at 4:5 ratio with the FSB (as expected).

So for the 1712 at least, DDR400 works as intended.

is it sodimm's in this thing? or plain memory?

Thx Renac for your answer...so its not a sure thing what the post I linked to is mentioning...well ......lets wait for some more power users to confirm this...

Regards

The 1710 series takes desktop memory (184 pin DDR ram, i.e. plain memory, NOT sodimm). It comes stock with DDR333 ram but is capable of using DDR400 ram.

Read the first few pages of this thread. Adam put in DDR400 and it worked fine. I've tried it and it ran fine. I returned the memory since I really didn't notice a big difference in performance and I just couldn't justify the added expense. It did work flawlessly though.

I have installed the Kingston HyperX 2GB kit (2 x 1GB) PC3200 2.5-3-3-7-1. It works flawlessly.

hmmm

What a great thread this is, thank you all contributing to this 1. It pushed me over the edge...Got my 1712SMI yesterday.
Awesome machine, no dead pixels.
Didn't bother about the pre-install and stuffed it with pro and it runs flawless.
It runs BIOS version T3A20.
I have some questions though.
Is there any way to cranck up the FSB on this machine?
What are the best(latest?) drivers for the Fx Go5700? If there are any, where can these be downloaded?
What kinda bag do you guys use to drag this monster around?

Thanks in advance!

GreetZ

Download the latest Nvidia drivers, then go to this site and get the corresponding modified INF file. I'm running the latest version and it's works well.

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com

As for a bag, I went to eBags.com and looked around. Not many bags fit our monster. The Jansport Thinker backpack looks interesting but I think I'll go with a large catalogue rolling case. This thing does get heavy after a while.

Friends,

Received my 1714SMi some days ago. I love that monster. Had DELLs the past couple of years, even the 9100 in hand lately. The ACER beats them all.

As per a bag or trolley:

I have bought a trolley called "butler" from www.lapbag.de (german site, but may be of some help nevertheless). The exact URL for the "Butler" is here.

Once you get it, you may think, the ACER does not fit in. That is, what I first thought. It depends, however, on how you pack that thing! Fill the bottom with the powerunit, cables, modem-stuff, other stuff, over-night-things,etc until about half the height. Then place a sweater over these things, then place the 171x as very top. Make sure, it ends even the height of the trolley. Pull out the small bag (as seen on the pic) and the latch for the closure. Then fasten the closure and close the lid. The ACER will be firmly held in place, since it has about the EXACT inner-size of the trolley. No wobbling around, etc. Check the pic here! BTW, I go the leather one, which is REALLY nice!



I hope, this may be of some help to others.

However, I also have a problem, where I ask for some help, please.

I was to replace my 120GB HD with a 250GB one. Unfortunately I went to buy BEFORE I knew that forum ... So, I thought, ATA133 is backward compatible with ATA100, so they say. Should be a standard, correct me, if I am wrong. So it should not matter, if the disk is 100 or 133. SO I went and got a MAXTOR MaXLine Plus II. Well, to cut a long sentence short: it is not dedected by the bios. The HD is in order, though. Works perfectly in a desktop system. Any ideas here? Can it really be the ATA133 thing? I have read in the thread, that the SAMSUNG HD built in is NOT ACPI. Can it be that? I have tried all different jumper settings (Master, Slave, CSEL, etc) No avail. I called ACER and they were not very helpfull. "This system has 120GB and that is it. No, we do not know, why it does not work." Main reason for buying a desktop-component NB *IS* that normal components can be used. I am building PCs since 10 years now and I *NEVER* had any issue of that kind. They should not be, I guess.

Any idea is welcome!

Thanks!

Steve

Thx

Thanks Renac for the url, gonna test it when I get home tonight!!
Renac, are you saying that the memmory runs at speeds it's intended to?
I have 1Gb Mushkin Black level II 3200 (matched pair) here, if I put this in wil it run 200(x2) MHz? Instead of the 166(x2) it runs at now with the stock mem?
I'd love to try to oc this machine. Any modded bioses around to get to the FSB or the mem timings? If anyone oc'ed it, let me know

This monster is best to be carried around in a backpack I think. The problem is I can't find any which can cary AND protect it...
I'm lookin'for something like this. Too bad this compartment lacks the 9 cm in hight to hold it...


GreetZ

If you put in 3200 ram, it should run at full speed. The system checks some sort of ID chip on the memory to get timing I believe. In other words, I didn't do anything but put in the new memory and it ran at full speed.

The ebags shows that the Jansport Thinker backpack bag will fit and it has nice padding on the bottom to help protect the laptop if you accidently put the bag down hard.


As for the HD, that is interesting. I would think that 133 would be backward compatible. I know the 100s are backward compatible with 66, so I'd imagine that 133 would be compatible with 100.

Acer really does limit what you can do with the BIOS. I think they put in their BIOS update notes that they turned something off that concerns the HD, I'll have to look it up.

What version of the BIOS do you have?

Page 13 Post #190 has the link to the USA version of the BIOS. I'm assuming European versions have different Bios versions so I wouldn't recommend using that version unless you have the US version or verify with someone that it works.

Anyone have a direct link to BIOS updates from Acer for the 1710 series?

I have the 3A19 bios installed. It is the one it came with and to my knowledge the latest available for free download from ACER website. The direct link to their bios updates is here (Europe) and here (USA). Since the version-numbers are the same and most NB COs do not distinguish between US and non-US (Dell does not ...) and ACER does not warn about mixing versions, I guess, the Bioses are the same.

Any more ideas welcome! Thanks a bunch!

Steve

I can't remember if the ribbon was keyed or not. Maybe you installed the HD upside down and the ribbon is not connected correctly? THere isn't much room to move the ribbon (if I remember correctly, so if you installed the HD upside down, then maybe that's why it isn't working?



I did look at the bio notes and the only thing I saw that might remotely affect the HD was they turnned off the S.M.A.R.T. feature in the bios that solved the HD pausing issue discussed earlier in this thread (around page 13).

Certainly, the Western Digital 200 gig Special Edition HD works fine in my 1712. Apparantly Adam put in a 250 (unsure of brand without looking back).

From the quote above, Adam used a WD 250. Both the 200 and 250 are ATA100 I believe.