Acer TravelMate 8100!!! - Page 75

Thanks! I just installed 5.3 and used the mobility modder. Very easy and you dont have to wait around for someone else to update the latest ATI driver.

Did you install the CCC-Catalyst Control Center? If so, how is it?

Hi

Thanks MrMsyvc for such a cool Acer 8104 review. It helped me decide to buy this really nifty laptop. It really is a wonderful little marvel. :-)

One issue however, I don't know if anyone here has encountered this problem. DVD playback. I found that the TM8104 has certain issues with playback of some commercial DVDs. The drive would not recognise for example this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006IIPDA/qid=1112124910/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-2005235-7620845?v=glance&s=dvd">DVD</a>. Granted it's a children's DVD but it's a single layer
DVD which maybe some other 8104 user's also have problems with?
The laptop would not recognise the DVD at all- it said empty drive and it would spin up and spin down the DVD drive. I tried the DVD in my desktop and on my stand alone DVD player and it worked like any other DVD. The DVD was brand new and had no scratches or dirt either. The Acer had no problems reading both DVD+R's and dual layered commercial DVDs. After doing some Googling I came upon a thread which suggested I check my ASPI layer - via the Adaptec aspichk.exe utility which can be found on their website. Lo and behold - my desktop did have an ASPI layer installed but my factory preset Acer did not. I then downloaded the ASPI layer from the Adaptec site (search for ASPI on Adaptec.com) and after installing the ASPI layer (2 drivers and a registry entry) - the DVD now works - it's read and recognised by the laptop and plays back normally. Anyone has had similar experiences?

OFFTOPIC : In case anyone is into watching DVDs from other regions on their laptop (which only has 5 changes) - you can watch all the foreign DVDs you want by using Remote Selector (it's free) - www.remoteselector.com

Thanks

Thanks for the compliment. People will be glad to add your DVD info to their stash also, as a few have mentioned different problems with DVD operation.

Some DVDs have also data part on them, for instance, interactive DVD which typically want to install InterActual player on your computer. There are other flavors of course. These indeed might require ASPI layer. Basically any "mixed mode" DVD might cause problems without ASPI

Technically, you should not need ASPI. Windows 2000 and later are using native API that replaces ASPI. But some programs still rely heavily on ASPI compatibility.

Since I installed Nero on my laptop, it also installed its own version of winaspi32.dll, so I never experienced any problems

I installed the CCC. I installed it on my desktop when it first came out and removed it after a couple of weeks. There was nothing really wrong with it, but i did not think it offered that much over the regular control panel and it took longer to load when i wanted to adjust settings. I will probably leave it on my 8104 for a couple of days and see if it grows on me. I think its just a personal preference.

Thx. Like everything else, the ATI forums are loaded with people that love it or hate it. Some mentioned it's a slow load.

Hi,

Just installed 5.3 CCC for my 8103 after modding them with dhmodtool. Now im finally happy with my desktop. Played a bit with dpi, back to 96, and large icons in use, and now everything is perfect.

Gotta love this. And my batterylife is 3,5 hours with word processing settings, but lcd brightness set to 80% and some other settings inceased as well.

Whouh... I'm Happy =D

Ouzo

benchmarks

after installing the moded catalyst 5.3 drivers i ran 3dmark05. at the stock settings i got 2392. Using ATI Tool I increased the core to 405mhz and the memory to 380. I thought this was a little high compared to the other OCs i saw posted, but i played DOOM 3 at these settings for an hour with no problems. At these settings i got a 3dmark05 score of 2764 and an Aquamark score of 49,081.

Mine:
04Feb2005 "Stock" from Acer, ATI Cat. 4.12s (left) versus
10Mar2005 Reformatted, reinstalled, Unian ATI 1.1.5a (middle) versus
12Mar2005 Omega drivers Cat 5.1 2.5.06a (right)

3DMark2001 SE..... 16574.....16889.....16901
3DMark2003..........5698......5704.......5710
3DMark2005..........2269......2282.......2277

Aquamark around 3/12/05 was 44,551.

Good stuff!

Installed them myself. Tried to select DPI setting: "Large size (120 DPI)" but it doesn't seem to work (works with the original driver provided by Acer).

Also, in CCC->PowerPlay if I select "Balanced" nothing happens.

Can I get a confirmation?

Cheers,
_EnF_

It becomes more and more difficult to follow so many threads.
Similar topics have been debated on different unrelated threads.
I think we need a little organization of the discussions related to Acer 8100.
We should have some main categories sub-forums with related threads.

Can somebody help?

Cheers,
_EnF_

HELP!!

I just got an error message that said:
"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA"

iF THIS IS THE FIRST TIME (IT DID IT 2 TIMES...) you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check to make sure that any hardsware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software . Disable BIOS memory options, such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use "safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer , press F8 to select Adv. startup options & then select Safe Mode."

Tech Info:
STOP: Ox00000050/OXFFFFFFE8,OX00000001, OX80521E14,OX00000000

Beginning dump of physical memory, physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or tech support for further assistance."

SO, I did as much of that as I could figure out how to do. I tried, unsuccessfully, to do a system restore to any date. NOW, I get 2 error messages when I boot the system up:
1. ATI Control Panel failed to initialize because no ATI driver is installed, or not working properly. The ATI panel will now exit.
2. E-Recovery error.

All of this seemed to happen after I installed the Microsoft.net updatetoday.

HELP, MrMsyvc or DarthAcer, or anyone else who can possibly shed light on these problems! Thanks!!!

any1 know how to enable the 2nd option to stretch the widescreen but keeping aspect ratio?

see: http://members.chello.nl/r.leenheer1/atiws.png

I'd download memtest86, burn CD, boot from that CD and test memory. As strange as it sounds this looks like failing memory. You'll need to do downloading and burning on a different computer, of course.

If you don'have another computer and you have TM8104 then you may try to remove one of the memory DIMMs and try to boot. Experiment to find out which one is working. Hopefully, only one of DIMMs has problems.

I can generated those on demand

Loading RMclock and running my voltage down to 1.1v on the cpu generates this error on my 8104. Running ATItraytool also generates the same error.

Both bluescreen then power my system down. Other than those two conditions, my lappy is rock solid which leads me to believe that I don't have memory problems.

I have not explored it much since it seems like a valid blue screen generated by ME mucking around with stuff I should not be, but I wonder if the Pentium-M's DEP support is doing this?

From Readme.txt in the latest Realtek HDAudio driver (1.18) available here
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...Audio%20CODECs

Driver Package R1.18
RtkHDAud.sys Version: 5.10.0.5122
1. Codec Supporting: ALC880, ALC882, ALC260
2. OS Supporting: Microsoft WindowsXP, Widnows2000
3. Pack with Microsoft High Definition Audio UAAV1.0a(5013)
4. Add/Fix
1. Customization.
2.Add 2 default values of codec subsystem ID for ALC260.

For New architecture:
1.) Customization.
2.) Fixed the issue of uncontinuous sound after suspend on some machine.

Number 2 translated into English is basically they fixed stuttering after laptop wakes from standby. Might fix stuttering in general too for those who had it.

If there is a commonality, it's that the many 8100s are INCONSISTENT and either have a mixed variety of problems, or no problems at all. Those of us having a good working model are happy, but it shouldn't have to be a hit or miss situation. How can you recommend the laptop when it's a crapshoot? VERY unfortunate for the consumer, and bad for Acer's reputation I'd think (hope). If most of us didn't need them so bad, the problem laptops should be sent back over and over, or sold and another brand bought.

I installed RMClock last evening at the suggested settings and ran it during a long WoW session. No probs and temps 6C+ cooler at high CPU, at about 72C instead of the recent MaxPerf 80C I've been hitting. It's been running all day today. I installed the stock ATI Cat 5.3 (OK, I'm a follower not a leader) with CCC this morning and no probs so far. (CCC takes 15-20 seconds to open and a minute or two to initialize. It has quickly been replaced by the ATI Control Panel.)

Mr. Vsync have you checked that Memory Stick Duo thing for me? Can you try putting in your system several times and see how it reacts? My system works totally fine for Mini SD cards but it BSOD's and vomits all over my face when I put in the Memory stick duo pro in the card reader.

On another note, what are everyone's settings in Need for speed Underground 2?

This isn't something I would normally do, but I just couldn't resist.