Acer Ferrari 3200 review (just a few pics/couple benches) - Page 49

hi, snorre, could you make a thread or a list in this thread about all the things u need to download for the acer ferrari 3200, like the amd 64 driver for windows, and some ati drivers, and ... all the stuff... and how to optimize preformance... i know ther is probably all the info i need in this thread, but i dont want to have to look trough the whole tread, so if u could make a new thread or in this thread or pm me the info, or if there allready is a compilation of usefull stuff for the acer ferrari 3200, give me a link?

thanks //bachler

bachler: I've already done this, see this thread:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=41052

What version Bios are you using. The latest version (link posted by Snorre) suppose to fix the blue screen issue. Maybe you can flash upgrade your Bios first if you have not done so.

Yes, i have SP2 installed. Do you think that is one cause?

And yes, I have the updated BIOS.

Snorre, Ive tried memtest already but no errors found. I also tried the one from microsoft, no errors as well.

hmmm, mobo problem??? that doesn't sound good :-(

Try updating it with all the newest Windows updates and drivers (see my link above) as that might help.

I had the same problem (before upgrading my ram and hd) and while browsing another forum, there was another person with the same problem who eventually found out it was sp2, so I uninstalled it and it seemed to work fine. It can't really hurt as you can always reinstall it. If all else fails, just for fun, install anticrash from http://www.dachshundsoftware.com/download.html and see if it helps any, its 30 bucks, but it lets you try it out for free, and if it works it gives you a good workaround option.

Would the ferrari work well with EQ2? what does its processor translate in ghz? and would doubling the ram be an issue?

ty

oh yes...does it have good wireless functionality....long distance persay....maybe get it an external

Snorre, windows and drivers are already updated. Maybe I will try to reinstall everything again and maybe try lithiumcharles' suggestion not to install SP2.

I'm gonna spend my whole day tomorrow to do these. Goodluck to me!

Are the Kingston DDR400 512MB memory modules ok? I plan to upgrade to that. 512MB X 2.

Corsair XMS is not available in our country yet, too bad :-(

Yes, all games runs fine on the Ferrari so I guess EQ2 would work fine as well.

The Acer Ferrari 3200 got a low-power Mobile Athlon 64 2800+ processsor that runs at 1.8GHz and the Acer Ferrari 3400 got a low-power Mobile Athlon 64 3000+ that runs at 2.0GHz. However, GHz is not a good indicator for raw performance if that's what you were asking about?

Memory upgrade is no problem at all, just take a look at this:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread...430#post361430

Yes, it got a built-in Broadcom AirForce BCM4306KFB 802.11b/g WLAN solution that's probably the best in the market. Excellent signal integrity and long distance.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think they should work perfectly fine.

I've been having 2 issues with my Ferrari:
1. My drive is showing a couple of large fragmented chunks on it that can not seem to be defragmented by the Windows XP defragmenter. Is there another way or program that I can use to get rid of these, as it has slowed my HD Tach benches to something ridiculous like 3 mb/sec. read .
2. My Ferrari refuses to aknowledge the existence of my Lacie D2 250gb firewire/usb combo drive. When I plug it in, you can see it under Safely Remove Hardware, and you can see it if you run HD Tach, but under My COmputer, it does not appear, so you can not access its files. Additionally, when I run HD Tach on it, it seems to only be able to get get 10 mb/sec read and burst;something is throttling it (should be getting well above 30-40 mb/sec). I have not had this problem with my other firewire/usb combo external drive. Any ideas what the heck is wrong?

mono, I don't know how XP's built-in defragmenter stacks up against standalones, but you might try something like Diskeeper.

There's a new version out.

http://execsoft.com/coverpage.asp

Bootz

Diskeeper is the Windows XP defragmenter. However, the actual program gives you additional functionality that should allow for better defragmenting.

for some reason, even though Diskeeper sees that my C: drive is very fragmented and needs severe defragmentation, after running it, it is still at the same level of fragmentation. It claims that I need to keep running the defragmenter on it, but what's the use if it does not seem able to further defragment it from this point?

also....has anyone else had compatibility problems with one of these external Lacie D2 firewire 800/400/usb combo drives with their Acer ferrari?

mono-try perfectdisk to fragment your drives, it has a free 30 day trial, it's what I've been using (for the past 14 days) and it works great,IMO much better than diskeeper.

Just an update:

I have restored the unit back to factory setup with the acer restore CDs. Then I installed the latest Omega drivers rightaway but without the Radlinker just to lessen the complication. And I chose not to install XP SP2 as well, btw. Installed some programs that I need to use immediately like Norton Ghost, Photoshop, Sony Vegas/DVD Architect, MSOffice and Firefox. So far, no freeze-ups and auto-reboots. In the computer properties/advanced/startup&recovery, I unchecked automatic restart, just to be sure its doesn't reboot in case of system failure.

I tested all the programs I installed, no errors. Looking good :-) I burned a couple of CDs,DVDs, tried some video and photo editing. Connected some devices like the camera and the printer as well as an external HD. Everything is running well.

Took me about 3 hours to do everything just that. I'm not finished just yet. I decided to run the latest memtest overnight. After around 8 hours, 30+ passes, no errors were found, so I guess everything is well with the memory.

This morning, I was able to operate the unit for 2 hours with no freeze-ups and reboots as well. I was able to burn DVDs without any problems. Was able to restore all my files from the backup I did yesterday. Norton Ghost did well except for two files which I cannot restore but it's ok since those aren't important files anyway. Looking good, and it feels good at that.

It's just today while writing this, that I just update the virus defs of my Norton AV. There were reminders to Windows updates but I decided not to download/install them just to keep everything as simple as possible.

Tonight, I'm going to install few more programs that I need like Softimage XSI (3D) and Digital Fusion. These programs will really drive this Ferrari hard. Then install some games like NFSU2 and warcraft. In the weekend, I'll let you know with the results of these installs. I'm keeping my fingers crossed :-)

PS: I've decided to get the 2 X Kingston 512MB DDR333 instead of the DDR400, just playing it safe since nobody here ever tested the Kingston DDR400 with the Ferrari yet. At least its' gonna be way better than the stock memory :-)

btw, just a note, before I ever did the "restore to factory" yesterday, I tried the XP64 beta. Everythings seems ok but when I installed and ran the Norton Ghost, it can't seem to restore the backup files well, I keep on having errors. And because of little knowledge with XP64, that's when I decided to take the more conservative route :-)

I am using 2 X Kingston 1G DDR400 with my ferrari and works perfect. You should not doubt the quality of Kingston.