ACER TravelMate 8104 "Sonoma" Review - Page 12

Search the MEGA 8104 thread here for "FAT" "partition" etc. for info on that. You can use the "Search This Thread" tool at the upper right of the thread. Admittedly the thread is so huge it's hard to find the info, but it's all there. Search for other threads too.

You can find free partition utils that will allow you to look at the partition also. The HDD comes with a hidden partition (3GB I think), a C: partition, and a D: partition. Converting any one partition to NTFS does not convert the others. The caveat is that if you convert the D: partition (yes, the "D") then you lose the "easy" Acer-provided recovery method (with exceptions).

3GB out of 100GB is not a huge amount to leave "wasted" and hidden. If you convert the other 97GB to NTFS (from 32K FAT clusters to 4K NTFS clusters) suprisingly you only gain about 1MB total. There are other advantages to NTFS for the connesieur (sp) too.

Bottom line: Unless you like to fiddle, know how to fiddle, and have at least some experience in reformatting and installing an OS from scratch, then leave the hidden partition. Note that the 8104 does not come with an hard-copy CD with XP. You may need to borrow one for a complete, scratch, reinstall.

Personally I have no suggestions for testing or pixilating. Use it, load it, game up, or whatever. See the threads about RM Clock for cpu throttling which gives longer battery life and lower temperatures.

Search, search, search. ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!

Thanks. The "frenzy" for the new Sonoma has calmed a bit, but I'm still enjoying mine. FYI I was using RMClock for voltage control for awhile, then tried the CHC utility. It has a nice interface but the machine seemed to run hotter, so I'm back to RMClock and staying coooool.

I installed the TM 8000 Launch Manager (from the previous series of TravelMates) quite some time ago, as suggested by DarthAcer, I think in the mega-8100 thread.

There is no such thing as a perfect laptop. "MY" experience has been:
1. Owned since late January 2005. No one owned one prior to Jan. 2005. I've had no problems, no dead pixels, no nuttin'. As with any laptop you can find in these forums, not everyone has been so fortunate.
2. It seems solid enough. It IS cased in plastic or something like it. I have no idea what it will be like 2 years down the road.
3. I've never owned an Acer before. They make and sell a LOT of laptops (number 4 in the world?? not sure.). They must be adequate at least.

I'm personally very satisfied with my 8104. It does everything "I" need it to. It games like a bandit and has great graphics. It's larger than a sub-notebook and smaller than a DTR notebook, but light for it's size. The speakers are crap but I plug in headphones or monitor speakers and it's fine. I like the 15.4" widescreen with 1680x1050 res, which I always use in laptop mode. It's my personal, unscientific observation that it processes slower (pauses more) than a HyperThreaded Pentium 4, but it will do any tasks satisfactorily. It doesn't lag while gaming. It also has half the weight and more than double the battery life of most HT P-4s. Again, I'm satisfied with the 8104.

There is no such thing as a perfect laptop.

I'm glad!! Otherwise I'd never know what I was missing!

533

SiSoftware Sandra

Chipset 1
Model : Acer Inc ??? (2590)
Bus(es) : ISA PCI PCIe CardBus USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 133MHz (532MHz data rate)
Maximum FSB Speed / Max Memory Speed : 4x 200MHz / 4x 133MHz
Width : 64-bit
IO Queue Depth : 12 request(s)

Chipset 1 Hub Interface
Type : DMI
Version : 1.00
Number of Ports : 4
In/Out Width : 4-bit / 4-bit

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 256MB DDR2-SDRAM 4.0-4-4-11 1CMD
Bank 1 : 256MB DDR2-SDRAM 4.0-4-4-11 1CMD
Bank 4 : 256MB DDR2-SDRAM 4.0-4-4-11 1CMD
Bank 5 : 256MB DDR2-SDRAM 4.0-4-4-11 1CMD
Channels : 2
Speed : 4x 133MHz (532MHz data rate)
Multiplier : 1/1x
Width : 64-bit
Refresh Rate : 7.80µs
Power Save Mode : No
Fixed Hole Present : No

Memory Module 1
Type : 512MB DDR2-SDRAM SO-DIMM
Technology : 8x(32Mx16)
Speed : PC2-4300U 5.0-4-4-11
Version : 1.0
Date of Manufacture : Wednesday, November 14, 2159
Set Timing @ 267MHz : 5.0-4-4-11
Set Timing @ 267MHz : 4.0-4-4-11
Set Timing @ 200MHz : 3.0-3-3-8

Memory Module 2
Type : 512MB DDR2-SDRAM SO-DIMM
Technology : 8x(32Mx16)
Speed : PC2-4300U 5.0-4-4-11
Version : 1.0
Date of Manufacture : Wednesday, November 14, 2159
Set Timing @ 267MHz : 5.0-4-4-11
Set Timing @ 267MHz : 4.0-4-4-11
Set Timing @ 200MHz : 3.0-3-3-8

Extended warranty can be good for peace of mind at least. Several people in the forums, myself included, have bought it. I bought the "basic" extended and some have bought the "accidental damage" inclusive. Bear in mind that any warranty service can involve long times on the phone and\or long times without your laptop. Sometimes you still have to pay for shipping too. But at least you're covered. I believe that if your purchase doesn't work right, get the company to fix it, and fix it soon. Good luck on your purchase. Let us know how it goes.

The 4000 version works for me. (I knew it would, it's "Darth-tested".) Did you uninstall the previous LM first? If so, did you kill the qtzgacer.exe before the uninstall? Have you uninstalled the Acer Power Management from Control Panel?