Acer TravelMate 8100!!! - Page 53

I must apologise for this, i've tried to source the 8104's but to no avail, they were all sold out before yours was collected from you and there was nothing i could do as we had no stock left!

Personally i think everyone will be in the same boat as there are only two main distributors of these laptops and we are top of the waiting list with both of them!! ........but i would say that as i work for digiuk!

Ok I don't know if this has already come out but I just got an email from tech on web that states they have the 8103 for 1880 in stock.

They seem like a great compani IMHO.

I think a few others have had the problem but have since fixed it by reinstalling factory image. I think where I went wrong was trying to use the Acer ghost cd they provided instead of the one you're supposed to burn when you first get it. I didn't want the laptop after it had run so hot I was afraid it had been fried and I just wanted a fresh start. I still have faith in this wonderful machine....a few bad drivers won't affect my decision

DarthAcer:

I’m about to receive my 8104 today. I think that a lot of people are going to be buying this Acer, once they find out that we trendsetters have adopted this cool lappy. So, I want to put together a step-by-step for everyone who’s receiving theirs right now to address a few critical issues, like Partitioning and ePowerManagement. I’ve read all your previous posts about these topics and here’s my best attempt at a summary:

REMOVING PARTITIONS WITH PARTITION MAGIC
Acer ships the drive partitioned in three sectors: a 3-GB hidden restore partition, and two 45-GB partitions, all formatted FAT32, Windows XP’s latest FAT spec that supports a maximum capacity of 2GB with the same flexible storage parameters as NTFS.

The reason Acer did this is because Acer’s eRecovery software is an Acer rebranded older Norton Ghost running from a hidden Windows 98 partition, explaining the need for FAT32. The manual states that while the C: sector can be converted to NTFS, the D: partition needs to be FAT32 for eRecovery to work.

While you may not feel compelled to convert the FAT32 sectors to NTFS, you might want to collapse the D: drive, if that bothers you, but be aware that in the very rare instance that you need to recover your hard drive from a bad crash, Acer’s eRecovery software needs to access recovery files saved on the D: partition.

You could, of course, back up all your documents and important files, like bookmarks, and simply reformat the drive with the two included system disks and start from scratch. But a full recovery will also not work without the default partitions, so you’ll need to add a FAT32 D: partition to your drive before using eRecovery, if you deleted the D: sector.

To repartition the drive, you’ll need Partition Magic 8.0, the only software thusfar found to be capable of repartitioning the Seagate Momentus drive. To convert the C: or D: sectors to NTFS run the following in command from the Command Prompt:

convert c: /fs:NTFS

To convert the D: sector, just change the “c:” to “d:”

Partition Magic can handle this task as well.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD NOT USING PARTITION MAGIC
If you want to accomplish the above without bothering with Partition Magic, follow this step-by-step procedure:

1. Use another copy of Windows XP Pro, after changing the bios to load from the CD, to reformat the drive
2. At the Windows XP Pro blue set-up screen, format the C: drive NTFS and install XP Pro
3. For a CD Key, use the one supplied by Acer on the bottom of the notebook
4. Install Service Pack 2, if necessary
5. Use the "Acer System CD" to install drivers, utilities and programs. When you insert the system CD, click on the “Install” tab (it has Windows XP on the left hand side), to see a list of drivers, utilities, etc., which you can install one by one.

Everything should work, except for the fact that you will not have the ACER desktop screen.

DarthAcer, I also saw that you made this comment:

“There is a hidden 3-GB partition that has a system you can restore from. There is an option in BIOS to perform disk-to-disk retore. No need for CDs.”

If that’s true, can we safely assume that we don’t need Acer’s eRecovery Disk when using this partition to restore?

REMOVING EPOWERMANAGEMENT
Finally, you said you removed ePowerManagement, but you were rather cryptic:

“As I wrote earlier in the thread, ePowerManagement is gone, so is Launch Manager. I installed Launch Manager from my TravelMate 8003, but slightly modified DeviceId.ini in it to recognize new wireless and bluetooth:

[Wireless Device]
Device ID 5 = VEN_8086&DEV_4223

[Bluetooth Device]
Device ID 0 = Vid_0a5c&Pid_200a

I can now select what is active on bootup. All Fn+ keys work fine. Special keys work fine. MX900 Bluetooth mouse connects quickly and reliably on start-up.

Using Windows’ built-in power management, the fan comes on less! I'm so happy!”

I gather that using Method #2 (without Partition Magic), would address removing ePowerManagement without requiring a total hack, am I correct? If so, I’ll order a new Windows XP disk today, so I can deal with the fan and the ability to completely turn off hibernation.

Anyone else, please feel free to chime in!

The newegg 8103

Hi,

I've been reading this forum for about a week now and I just checked out newegg for the 8103.

The 8103 they have in stock is a 15.4 WXGA (not widescreen) with 1280 X 800 (not 1680x 1050). also the processor is a Pentium M 745 1.8 gig (not the Pentium M 750 1.86 gig). I called them up and this is what the guy told me. This probably would explain the lower cost at newegg and other places.

The model numbers on the newegg as well as the acer US site are the same though!! LX.T7206.085

I called one of the acer authorized resellers in Chicago and they quoted 1870 for the 8103 and they claimed that it was the exact same thing as in the acer site. I am yet to compare exact specs word by word. The person I talked to seemed like she dint know much abt the config and what it meant. So if it actually is correct it might be useful. I found it odd that no one mentioned abt the resellers on this forum....or did I miss something...

Thanks for all the info posted on the forums!
Keep the updates coming! I need an 8103 soon ;-)

vgo

vgo,

The 8103 has

Intel Pentium M Processor 745 (1.8GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB)

DISPLAY - 15.4" TFT active matrix WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050), 24-bit (16.7 million colors).

michael@trendse: I believe that the erecovery software will only burn the iamge of the c: only and it will restore as Fat32. It uses Ghost 8.0.

I don't understand all the time spent on NTFS discussions as my IT guy said that it really had no material benefit for me.

You maybe right, which is why I explain that the advantages are minor in my post. However, what's more important is dealing with the power management issue. I feel that having the fan run less is very important, and I also hate hibernation. So it seems that the core issues to deal with in setting up this notebook are:

1. Get rid of D: partition -- especially if the "hidden partitition" is capable of restoring OS and drivers without a hitch. But judging from your response and DarthAcer's that's not possible, since eRecovery still searches for the elusive D: sector. Then again, how many times have you had to completely reinstall a system after a major crash? I think I've had to do it once or twice with ancient PowerBooks, but can't recollect any of my seven Windows-based notebooks, starting in 1998, needing such drastic maneuvers, unless I wanted to rid myself of a "limping" OS by reinstalling everything fresh, but since I buy a new notebook each year, that's less of an issue these days.

2. Get rid of ePowerManagement -- requires a virgin install from another Win XP Pro disk and subsequent drivers re-install, which is a super pain, but the direction I'm leaning.

Tradersworld:

You're wrong too, and so is Acer's site. My corrections are shown below in RED:

Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional; Intel® Pentium® M Processor 750 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB); 512MB (512/0) DDR2 533 SDRAM; 80GB hard drive 4200RPM; modular Super-Multi (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) drive; 5-in-1 card reader; 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) TFT display; ATI® MOBILITY™ RADEON® X700 graphics, 128MB DDR; 802.11a/b/g WLAN, Bluetooth™, gigabit LAN, V.92 modem

Your IT guy is not completely honest with you. NTFS allows for 4k clusters even on large partitions thus reducing space overhead on many small files (that's exactly what you Internet cache is - a lot of small files). FAT32 will force you to use 16k or even 32k clusters on large partion.

Also, NTFS is more reliable, due to the fact as how it works (it has two copies of file allocation tables), it is extremely hard to corrupt NTFS by, say, removing battery and power from a working computer. FAT32 may appear in incorrect state after such operation, and you risk losing data.

NTFS is slightly less susceptible to fragmentation.

You probably do not need security features of NTFS. You also may not need compression of files/folders that NTFS can do. That's what your IT guy had in mind, I guess.

DarthAcer:

I know that super-long post of mine is not easily answerable, but can you suggest a way to get rid of ePowerManagement that can be followed by a layman, or is a complete fresh install necessary?

Actually, I was not cryptic. I just launched "Add or Remove Programs" applet in Control Panel and uninstalled ePowerManagement and Launch Manager. Then I took Launch Manager installation from my TM8003 (can also be downloaded at ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/notebook/Tra...xp/launmgr.zip) Unpack it after download. There is DeviceId.ini file there. I described what I modified in that file. Then install it.

On TM8104 Acer moved control over initial on/off state of Wireless and Bluetooth from Launch Manager to ePowerManagement. That's why all the trouble of installing older version of Launch Manager. That version, if you click on the icon in the tray, allows to select if Wireless and/or Bluetooth is on/off upon bootup.

There is one more thing - you also lose mapping of dollar and euro button above arrow keys with this scenario. But I would not care since $ = Shift+4 and € = Alt Gr + 5. Besides, I still attempt to use these buttons as PgUp/PgDn (that's what was there on TM8003) and if they left mapped it would screw things up for me.

Throttling processor can be done using SpeedswitchXP or RMClock programs.
Turning off individual devices (like PCCard slot, Firewire) - by clicking on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in tray. Power profiles are now standard Windows power profiles (Power Options applet in Control Panel).

If you don't like it, you can reinstall anytime original Launch Manager and ePowerManagement from the drivers CD that came with laptop.

DarthAcer:

Fantastic, now I see what you did! I just got my Acer! Will report back on my experiences by tonight.

Sorry, I'm new to this. Is this what you have to do to the .ini file?

Replace this:

[Bluetooth Device]
Class = BTW

With this:

[Wireless Device]
Device ID 5 = VEN_8086&DEV_4223

[Bluetooth Device]
Device ID 0 = Vid_0a5c&Pid_200a

Incidentally, my ePowerManagement does allow you to set System Hibernation to "Never" -- so I'm not sure if that's an issue. The fan is however...

Sure thing. Here you go:
Newegg Review

OK, here are my first impressions:

1. Font -- I don't like Acer's "custom font" which makes menu fonts larger, so I'll have to go buy myself another copy of XP Pro. Oh well!

2. Trackpad -- I think the trackpad is too slow, even in its fastest setting. Hopefully a new Synaptics driver will do the trick.

3. Fan -- Is noisy and comes on a lot. I will have to reformat and do the Win XP Pro install for two reasons now.

4. Heat -- The trackpad does get warm, but since your fingertips barely touch it, it's not a major issue. The palmrest on the right, though, does get warm.

But I do like it overall, it seems like a very nice package.

See if your Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, General tab is set to Large size (120 DPI). Mine was by default and I couldn't stand it. I changed it to Normal - 96 DPI.

Thank you very much DarthAcer and michael@trendse. That sounds like a very good solution which is probably what I’ll end up doing. There is just one thing I hope someone would be able to answer.

If I own a copy of Norton Ghost v9 that has support for NTFS is there a way to replace the 3gb hidden partition with an updated image and make it work with the rest of the drive being just one large ntfs drive? Or more spesifiacally will I be able to use the bios command option?

I was just pointing out sections of files and lines to replace, i.e. in section [Bluetooth Device] replace line starting with Device ID 0 with the line provided in the message. Similar for the Wireless section.