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Inside the Aspire 5315

post #1 of 27
11/7/07 at 7:52am
Thread Starter 
Here's what the Aspire 5315 looks like after getting the "thermal door" cover off the bottom of the ICL50. (ICL50 is what Acer calls this model, and that number is on some lables inside.)

http://members.aceweb.com/gregg1/ace...pire_5315.html

A bit of a dissapointment is there's no Mini-PCI slot, though there's an empty spot for one. The WiFi card uses a smaller connector and there is a similar sized spot next to that where a connector isn't installed.

Flashing the BIOS to 1.19 cured problems with typing and the touchpad, helped by turning off tapping in the mouse control panel.

The notes with the BIOS update say it supports the Merom and Merom Lite CPU. It comes with a 1.73Ghz Celeron M530 "Conroe" CPU installed in the mPGA 478 socket.

Looks like this cheap laptop could seriously rock with a brain transplant. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05...-cache_meroms/

The CPU looks like it should be a fairly easy upgrade. I wonder if replacing the thermal tape on it and the other two chips the heatsink is on with real thermal paste would help?

Replacing the DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive with a DVD burner looks like it would be a major job. I haven't explored pulling anything else apart other than removing the hard drive cover.
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post #2 of 27
11/7/07 at 7:05pm
Actually, Wi-Fi card is sitting in mini PCI-Express slot, which is better than mini PCI.
My experience replacing thermal tape with something like Arctic Silver (in Travelmate series) is generally positive but be careful that sometimes there may be significant space between the chip (video chip) and thermal pipe assembly and AS wont cut it in that case (you'll need something thick, like thermal tape).
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post #3 of 27
11/8/07 at 5:09am
Thread Starter 
So the WiFi card is in an internal ExpressCard slot, which is actually PCIe x1.... interesting.

Or is that internal slot PCIe x2 or higher?

I'm hoping the next change to ExpressCard will be fitting the 54mm wide size for a wider connector to expand it up to x2 or x3.

There are external boxes that connect ExpressCard to a standard PCIe slot, but that's not much use because even though you *can* plug a hot-snot x16 videocard in and it'll work, the bandwidth will be severely strangled.

I wonder if there's a x1 PCIe videocard that'd be better than the Intel 965 chipset video of this Aspire laptop?
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post #4 of 27
11/8/07 at 9:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bizzybody View Post
Here's what the Aspire 5315 looks like after getting the "thermal door" cover off the bottom of the ICL50. (ICL50 is what Acer calls this model, and that number is on some lables inside.)

http://members.aceweb.com/gregg1/ace...pire_5315.html

A bit of a dissapointment is there's no Mini-PCI slot, though there's an empty spot for one. The WiFi card uses a smaller connector and there is a similar sized spot next to that where a connector isn't installed.

Flashing the BIOS to 1.19 cured problems with typing and the touchpad, helped by turning off tapping in the mouse control panel.

The notes with the BIOS update say it supports the Merom and Merom Lite CPU. It comes with a 1.73Ghz Celeron M530 "Conroe" CPU installed in the mPGA 478 socket.

Looks like this cheap laptop could seriously rock with a brain transplant. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05...-cache_meroms/

The CPU looks like it should be a fairly easy upgrade. I wonder if replacing the thermal tape on it and the other two chips the heatsink is on with real thermal paste would help?

Replacing the DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive with a DVD burner looks like it would be a major job. I haven't explored pulling anything else apart other than removing the hard drive cover.
+rep. Thanks for taking the time to do the photo and ram replacement guide.

After the BIOS flash, 2GB ram upgrade and "disable tap while typing"
my wife is totally happy with this laptop and it's perfect for her needs. My father-in-law and friend also purchased one.

Has anyone gotten any weird freezing? For instance, I was trying to log into Myspace and after entering the username/PW the whole machine just hung for a couple of minutes. I couldn't click on anything, it would just beep at me. Then, it cleared up all by itself. Wonder if it's Vista?
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post #5 of 27
3/16/08 at 3:18am
"disable tap while typing"

I've tried everything! I've downloaded the latest drivers but for some reason, it doesn't show this (and other) menu options in the mouse properties menus.

what am I missing?

do you have to flash the BIOS for this? something else?

thanks
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post #6 of 27
3/16/08 at 5:43am
Thread Starter 
It's not to disable tapping while typing, it disables it completely. That's fine for me because I've never thought tapping a touchpad was a brilliant idea. IMHO, the touchpad itself isn't too bright. I'd much rather see a return of the trackball to laptops!

This Acer is thicker than an old PowerBook 145- which had an excellent trackball.

BTW, there's a newer BIOS for this Acer, 1.25 or something like that. Nice to see that Acer is still working on it, unlike Dell- which loves to toss out cheap boxes built with last years parts and NEVER update drivers or the BIOS. (Points to the Dimension B110 on this desk.)

One more thing, the DVD drive is held in with a single screw. With the bottom cover off you can see the black screw next to where that connector by the WiFi card isn't installed. Remove that then look under the edge of the case for a small metal tab. Push that tab and the drive pops out. Swap that tab onto a different drive, installing the screws by the numbers stamped into the tab, push the replacement into the slot, replace the black screw and yer done.
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post #7 of 27
3/16/08 at 4:44pm
Yes, exactly. I want to disable the touchpad from clicking... I want only the buttons to click or tap. How do you do that?!?! I've seen screenshots of it so I know what the menu looks like.

But as I said, whatever I've tried has failed. I've downloaded the latest drivers from both acer and the proprietary co's website for the touchpad but nothing! the menu isn't there.

That's why I asked if I had to flash the BIOS first. I would prefer not to since this isn't for my computer but for a family members. I don't want to brick it.

appreciate all help!
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post #8 of 27
3/16/08 at 10:58pm
Thread Starter 
Acer has a couple of different touchpad drivers to download for this laptop. Use the newest ALPS one shown there.
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post #9 of 27
3/17/08 at 12:35am
bizzybody, thanks but I 'm not sure what you mean by ALPS? does that stand for something? do you have a link?

cheers
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post #10 of 27
3/17/08 at 12:55am
ALPS is one of the main makers of touchpads. He's saying that's the driver you'll need.
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post #11 of 27
3/17/08 at 5:35pm
drlouis, thanks. I went to the acer download site (www.support.acer-euro.com/drivers/downloads.html)and found that the ALPS driver is for Vista. It says:

Please ensure that VISTA SP1 is installed on your system prior to installing these drivers!
Driver incompatibilities on a system without VISTA SP1 might affect usability.
-------------
I have removed vista and installed XP on the notebook! Does that mean that I can't use the ALPS driver?

on the filename it says:

TOUCHPAD_ALPS_V7.0.1101.14_Vistax32x64_XPx32x64

does that mean it works with both Vista and XP?

thanks
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post #12 of 27
3/18/08 at 1:22am
hard to say. It looks like it should work on XP. only one way to find out - try it. I'd make sure I had a usb mouse to use in case it really fubars the touchpad.
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post #13 of 27
3/18/08 at 6:03pm
downloaded the ALPS drivers and although it says in the README:

----- RELEASE NOTE ---------------------------------------------------

Release Date : 09/03/2007
Driver Name : Alps Touch Pad Driver
Version : 7.0.1101 with Installer
OS : Windows XP Professional/Home Edition (32-bit)
Windows Vista (32-bit)
Lang. : *** 7.0.1101 *** (28-Languages)
Japanese, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish,
Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean,
Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Hong Kong(Traditional
Chinese), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek,
Hungarian, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian, Polish,
Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Thai,
Turkish
Systems : Acer model
Input Device : 6sw Touch Pad
PnP ID : AUI1101, PNP0F13

when I double clicked on the exe file I got a popup window saying:

This software does not work on your operating system. Click OK to exit setup.


also, what does this mean (it was in the readme file)

----- USAGE ----------------------------------------------------------

== Silent Installation ==
Setup.exe /s

[NOTE] Driver installation in silent mode will be failed if the driver
have not Logo.
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post #14 of 27
3/20/08 at 1:25am
hmmm, I'm afraid you're a bit beyond me on this one, but that bit about the silent install appears to mean that if you attempt to install by typing "Setup.exe /s" at the command prompt then it will automatically fail if it has not been 'certified' by MS to work with your version of Windows.

I'll see if we cant rustle up someone with more knowledge than me to help you out.
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post #15 of 27
3/20/08 at 1:27am
try to shut off any antivirus or protection programs before you install the touchpad driver. I had this issue once with a DirectX update and as I recall my antivirus program prevented Windows from checking to see that it would work. Once I shut it off, it worked just fine.
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post #16 of 27
3/31/08 at 1:46am
does anyone know if there's an Intel 4965ABG wireless card for this laptop? Or what other CPUs can go in it?
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post #17 of 27
4/1/08 at 9:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac_angel View Post
does anyone know if there's an Intel 4965ABG wireless card for this laptop?
most internal wifi cards can be upgraded. Successful rate is however less than impressive (driver, hardware antenna capability ..). And unless the wifi environment supports the higher range, it is a moot point. I personally stick with an usb or pcmcia card

Quote:
Originally Posted by mac_angel View Post
Or what other CPUs can go in it?
what do u have at the moment?
ibm/intel has a good reference chart for crossing/upgrading current cpus. Simple rule of thumb is 2 steps up and across (celeron to pentium) w/o having a pain going thru bios update, worrying about heat etc ...

cheers ...
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post #18 of 27
4/2/08 at 9:33pm
yea, I was just looking at the Intel 4965AGN on eBay. Found one for $35. I had one in my dell xps-m1710 (see signature) but I sold that system. I still have to upgrade my signature. Anyways, loved that card. And the intel 4965 is one of the only cards that support the proper N dual radio/dual band. And the only router that supports that right now is the Linksys WRT600N. Diver, not a problem, slot, fits, antanna, problem there. The Acer has 2 connectors, the Intel has 3. Probably is a way to mod it though.
About the CPU, I'm not sure what chart you were talking about, you never showed one or gave a link to it. I have a celeron 1.83GHz. It's the G965 chipset and socket 478. I'd love to get a Core 2 duo in it, but even a Pentium M would be a bit better.
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post #19 of 27
4/4/08 at 7:10am
http://www.intel.com/support/process...eron/index.htm

compatibility chart is at the end of the page

cheers ...
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post #20 of 27
4/12/08 at 6:40pm

dvd removal

can anyone tell me how to change the dvd writer in my daughters aspire 5315 please
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