Acer TravelMate 8100!!! - Page 83

I also ordered my 8104 yesterday (Monday)! And I plan to do the same. Gotta get this thing tuned and primed for the fun times ahead. Hope it comes in by the end of the week! (not likely, it'll probably be in on Monday)

Mine should arrive on thursday... friday in the worst case

Does anyone around here have the "Acer Keyboard for TM8100 series"? I saw this for sale, I wonder how does it look like..couldnt find on google

Where did you end up ordering from?

And about the keyboard, I've never heard of it before, except on this forum.

I live in Norway and ordered in a webshop here, cshop.no

I don't know about the rest of the world but here's it's quite easy to find it (the place where I bought it from had more than 100 units of TM8104 in stock!)

Just received my Acer TM8104..what a machine

Converted C drive to NTFS, following the tips around here at the forum (that one that mentions "BootIT" app) and it worked fine, after 3 minutes I was done.

My only "d'oh" moment is the fact that I ordered an Acer Easy Dock III for TM 8000 series, thinking that 8104 was part of the 8000 series, but it doesn't seem so Well, I'll try to return it....

Now I just gotta get used to the keyboard...not to the fact it's curved, but the fact that I havent used a laptop keyboard for 5 years now...and since I type very fast, I make mistakes every 3 seconds...

Gotta go now, install anti-virus, ad-aware, go to windows update, put a decent firewall..you know, the Windows User Drill

Congrats! I'm jealous. I ordered mine on Monday and it still hasn't shipped yet!

Sweet deal. There are so many things to tune and mod on these things to improve them even more than they already are.

Have fun,
-Ransom

Thanks

I usually try not to get overwhelmed with all the mods and tuning options, it can be frustrating since it's so many and sometimes contradicting.

So I usually go for them as I feel the need or if I stumble upon a nice tip.

Hello rodviking! Since you were rather concerned about whether this nootbook was noisy or not, maybe you can tell us if it is silent or not, now when you have played a while with it.
Is it possilble to get it practically silent using the software included, when running on AC?

Peter, it is very quiet, including when connected to AC power. I can barely listen to it, unless I glue my ear to the notebook...and even then, it's a very "white" noise, the kind that doesn't disturb at all. I am very happy with that.

In general I am extremely happy with the 8104, I don't think I could have found a better laptop, the only issue I have is the one I posted on the peer-to-peer support forum, my iPod won't recharge when I connect it to the laptop on the USB..and it's not even recognized on the Firewire port Any help on that is appreciated....

A little bit noisy when Bluetooth is off. Some sort of electrical noise that instantly goes away when you enable Bluetooth on.

Is it always, or just with a few? Does it happen only after enabling BT for the 1st time? I never used BT in my 8104 and never noticed any electrical noise...now I wonder if I think should twice before connecting anything through BT with it!!

Good to know, rodviking!
I'm going to buy a new notebook as soon as I got enough money, and for the moment it stand between the 8104 and Zepto 4200/4015 (also known as CL56), which is supposed to be very quiet, in fact I have heard that the fan does not go on during ordinary work, only under heavy load, and even then there should only be low noise.
But I like the 8104 better, so it's difficult to decide...

acer travelmate 8103 vs. Asus W3V

HELP! I have pretty much narrowed my laptop search down to the Acer Travelmate 8103 and the Asus W3V. I need help deciding. I currently favor the 8103 over the W3V, and below I state the pros/cons as I see them. Please chime in with your thoughts! THANKS!

8103 over W3V
+ergonomic keyboard (should reduce chance of CPS)
+seagate 100gb/5400 drive seems to run faster & cooler than hitachi 60gb/5400 drive
+15.4" WSXGA vs. 14" WXGA; 1680x1050 vs 1280x768
+better graphics. x700 w/128mb v. x600 w/64mb; I do lots of photoshop; will this matter?
+SignalUp enhanced antenna could help wireless reception
+DVI gives me the best interface to my 19" Dell LCD when at my desk
+smartcard reader for add'l security
+option to get 8104 w/faster CPU
+heat issues on 810x don't seem nearly as bad as the W3V

W3V over 8103
+cooler styling - I like the outer brushed steel casing
+glare-type color shine screen is an option; I plan to use it outside sometimes
+lower native screen res might be easier on my eyes; I am over 40
+don't pay extra for graphics capability that I might not use (I'm not a big gamer)
+2 yr warranty vs. 1 yr
+lighter weight - 5.5 lbs vs. 6.3 lbs!

other items appear comparable to me (Intel M750, ddr2 533 memory, 1394, 8 cell battery, $1700-1800, etc.)

Clearly the Acer seems like more for the money, but I am turned on by the styling and lower weight of the Asus. I plan to travel with the laptop frequently, and will be hauling it down to the local cafe a fair amount. What should I do? http://www.notebookforums.com/newrep...e=1&p=1039298#
Confused

Well, if they're about the same price, it seems that you get much more for you money with the 8103. The better video card might be good for photoshop'ing, and you can always change the resolution settings to a more comfortable level, or even adjust the DPI settings so the resolution is still high but with bigger fonts, so it takes it easy on your eyes

From the "pros"-list of the Asus, only the 2 in the bottom seem to be really an issue, especially if you take seriously the reputedly bad support of Acer (I'm not sure if it's any better with Asus though..never checked it out)

On the other hand, for me the difference on the hard disk size is a big plus on Acer's side (again, considering they're about the same price), since HD space and RAM memory are never too much...there are many apps out there right now that take 1-2Gb on disk, and the tendency is to get worst every day.

Regarding weight, I believe in relative terms it's pretty much equivalent; we can't really "feel" a 13% weight difference. Especially if you think that for this 0.8lb difference you get a much bigger screen, 60% more harddisk space, etc etc. Just get a light case to carry it

I have an Acer 8104 and I wouldn't call the keyboard "ergonomic", it takes much more than that to be ergonomic..I'm not convinced it would make a big difference on the long term. But still, I like the way it looks

IMHO the only pending issue on Acer's side is support, but as I said, I don't know how is it on Asus' side, maybe someone with experience with both companies could tell. If you think 1 year is not much, you can buy their extended support ("Acer Advantage"), to make it 3 years, and may even cover accidental damage. I bought for mine 8104, it's a bargain when you think about the peace of mind you get in return.

I am a newbie on notebooks too, just bought mine, but I hope it was helpful

Thanks rodviking! I'll look into the support/warranty issues in more detail thanks to your comments.

FYI, if I get the Asus, I would probably have to upgrade the hard drive within a year or so. I figure that around the end of the year or early next year the new Hitatchi 2.5" 5K100 travelstar hard drives will be common and cheap (<$100). Those are the new 100gb drives that spin at 5400rpm, but use less battery & generate less heat - more like a 4200rpm drive. I figure that would help the Asus out with it's heat issues around the hard drive/palm rest.

When you reduce the resolution in the Windows settings, does the text get blurry at some resolutions. Some say laptop LCDs are only sharp at their native setting. How's the 810x do at lower resolutions?

I didn't notice any blurring, except the one you always get when you reduce the resolution (since the dots get bigger)

I got my TM8104 a few days ago, ordered from zipzoomfly. Been great so far, but I don't like how Acer's site doesnt have the most up to date drivers so I've had to go to the manufacturer's sites to get the latest ones. Also the whole ATI Mobility driver lock on some models is very annoying, but I am about to try and mod the pure Catalysts drivers to Mobility with the driverheaven.net mod tool. Hopefully ATI will unlock Acer from installing the drivers off their site.

I just modded the 5.7's with this http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/ and got 290 points or 13% better score in 3d Mark 05.

The part number for the 100GB Media Bay HDD is LC.HDD03.006. Has anyone found ANYWHERE that this can be purchased that will ship to the USA? Every store i've found it in has been UK-based, and will only do UK or Ireland.

similar question, anyone found a media bay battery?