Who owns an Acer Aspire 2025???

You have got to read the other posts man.. lotsa ppl have talked about the notebook.. why make them regurgitate what they said. do a search or something

just got mine today from newegg.com so far so good. im loving it. im gonna install call of duty and 1 or 2 other games later on and il let you know how it is. btw i bought it for college.

fair play dude. here ya go.

-how's that arcade mode really working out? is it useful to not start up windows?

A: arcade mode basically loads ya into a linux environment into a media player. however, it's pretty basic.. few options - like look at photos(on disc or hdd), watch dvds, listen to mp3s(on hdd or disc)..
does the job if you just wanna quick fix of music or movie, but you won't be able to watch any phat visuals or adjust your equaliser and all that jazz

-how about that slot loaded rom? not many companies are doing it. after usuage, are you still enjoying it? any issues?

A: slot loaded rom is convenient, and pretty cool - nothing jutting out to get broken and stuff. BUT: - can't use those mini cds and stuff - only standard size discs AND the firmware is a beyoch to find.. it's a panasonic UJ-825-S.. tell me if you find any. hard to get past the region protection

-after you've banged it up a bit, is the chassis holding up well?

A: haven't banged it up, not going to, after the money i spent on it. book's gonna be in a case when on the move. chassis feels solid, they put the hdd at the bottom of the notebook so heat isn't really a issue. don't really get the aluminum bit though. seems only the top cover is alu, the rest is mostly plastic - high quality, but plastic nonetheless.

-what about the wireless connection, how's the range working out?

A: wireless is fine, haven't taken it beyond 5m of the receiver.. but works ok

-has anyone switched out the hard drive yet for a faster one? is it difficult?

A: yep, bunged a 5400rpm to replace the 4200. not too hard, but a bit troublesome - 6 screws to remove: 2 to take out the hdd assembly, and 4 to remove the hdd from the assembly. need to stick an adapter to the hdd before bunging the assembly back in.. it's like a dongle that goes on over the existing hdd pins

-and what about the memory? has anyone taken out the sticks and bumped it up to 1g+ of RAM? if so, how's the performance changed?

A: two slots, one external, one under the keyboard. ain't gonna bother with removing the keyboard, but the external one is easy to reach.. just one screw, pop the cover and bob's your uncle. no money to buy ram atm.. but depending on what you run.. more ram is always good.


hope that takes care of the basics dude.. can't be arsed to do a review and stuff, but will try to answer any queries;. i guess i was just pissed cos your questions were too general. tired of reading the same questions and yours just happened to hit my sore spot man. anyway. cheers.

no probs, here we go:


for those of us who haven't taken out a hard drive, where do you find instructions? and how do you know which drive to buy that will go in there? and does it come with the adapter to fit on?

A: Hmm, i guess you just have to wing it.. it helps if you've owned other notebooks before or built your own pc.. the adapter is supplied with the default drive, you just gotta pop it off the drive and put it onto your new drive. most modern 2.5" drives will fit in there, I think the thickness can't exceed 9.5mm or something like that though. what drive to buy? well it comes with a hitachi, so you might want to upgrade to one of the same brand. hitachi is about the only brand with a 7200rpm drive anyway, so if you want the best performance they are the only brand to go with. Helluva expensive though, the 7.2ks.. :P

and the memory thing? my slim research shows that notebooks can be more picky about what brand of memory your popping in...is that the case? if so, what resources are out there for me to find out what to buy?

A: well, i guess a good guide would be to see what ram acer supplied and buy larger ram modules from the same brand.. no idea about incompatibilities cos I haven't been able to afford more ram, but the 2025 comes filled with 2x 256mb sticks. mine happened to be pc2700 micron sticks.

now the bluetooth...are you using a mouse w/ bluetooth? is that working good? how about a cell phone?

A: yeah i used the bluetooth with my motorola cellphone, no probs with sending files and stuff.. a bit slow, but that's just the phone i guess. no bluetooth mouse yet...

and what about the firmware for the rom? i'm not versed in firmware. but i'd love to know what you are talking about here. i know about region stuff, but how's firmware connected to it?

A: well to make rom drives region free, you gotta flash it with firmware, or it will lock you to a certain region after five changes. means you can only play region 1 or region 2, etc. the modified region-free firmware allows you to play discs from any region without locking you to any one. just do a search on google for firmware page.. you'll reach a badass page with lotsa region-free firmware for different drives. prob is, the panasonic ain't there.. and from what i read elsewhere, it's a pain to hack. if you tend to order dvds from around the place, that may be a problem, but if you just wanna play US dvds or stuff then it shouldn't be a problem.

I have no idea where the other 2025 owners are off to.. too busy enjoying the machine I guess haha. well on the whole i love it, but it is a bit on the bulky side cos the arcade controls and the one line mini lcd takes up an extra 1 cm or so in front of the lappie, so its a bit wider than most widescreen lappies.

Hey!

Would you mind explaining how you went about changing the HDD seeing as the Arcade software appears to be on a seperate partition on the original HDD? Did you just need to use the Recovery CDs on the new HDD and let it do it's thing, or did you need Norton Ghost or equivalent?

Cheers.

so far i have halo installed. i can feel the 4200 rpm slowing down some parts of it. if had the money i would love to get a faster hd. i didnt do call of duty or anything else yet. firmware? can someone please explain that and Bluetooth to me?. memory i always heard its best to go with name brand which is what im going to do.

overall i am wholey impressed with this machine.

yeah i had to ghost my hard disk drive.. used a nice shareware prog: acronis trueimage - however the arcade software didn't work after ghosting, i had to stick the aspire arcade disk in and boot from it for the arcade software to be reinstalled on the linux partition it is on.

Cheers for the reply .

I was a bit worried seeing as the manual said to consult the dealer when upgrading the HDD, so it's good to know it's not more complicated .

Thanks again!