A quick question regarding upgrading hardware and Acer's Factory reset disks..

A quick shout-out to those who upgraded their hardware--especially the GPU.. Have you used your factory reset disks after upgrading your hardware? Or do you have to switch in the default ones before using the recovery? Thanks in advance!

 

I don't quite undestand your question. Do you want to do full re-installation after the upgrade? When I did my upgrades (CPU, RAM and GPU) the only think I needed to do was to install the new drivers from Nvidia 186.03. The default graphic drivers in my laptop were the 176.20 (I think) but I decided to use the most updated WHQL drivers. When you change the GPU, you need to reinstall the drivers as the laptop thinks you have the old GPU but something is not quite right. In my case (9300M GS to 8600M GT) after the GPU upgrade, Windows installed automatically some 'standard display drivers' but in the system info it was saying that I had still the 9300M GS. After the installation everything looks normal.

 

Oooh! Oooh! Your before-card is the same as mine..well, okay, let me rephrase.

So I'm planning on getting a Mobility 4650 in a system which has a GeForce 9300M GS. Now, I would have to reinstall ATi drivers, that much I know, but when I decide to use the factory recovery disks (the one that you'll be prompted to make the time you open up the laptop) would it work even if I have a different video card (and this case, a different brand altogether)? Does that mean I have to put in the original 9300M GS before the recovery and then reinstall the 4650 afterwards?

 

Right I see, to be honest I haven't made my recovery disks yet
So this is in the event you have a crush or something and you want to reinstall Windows and all the other crap. In the Acer Support Website, in the 6930G page there are ATI drivers, quite old 8.3 I think but they are there. Having that in mind I would guess the hidden partition in your hard drive which is used for the disks, probably has the ATI drivers the ones the support page has as well. But even if your recovery disks don't have the drivers, windows will install a standard display driver and then you can easily install the ATI afterwards. I don't think you should worry.
The only thing you should worry though is in the case you laptop goes bad during the warranty period and you wnat to send it to Acer. Acer will expect to see the laptop you bought and if you have made any changes, you should reinstall the old hardware. That's how I understand the warranty terms and conditions. If you put the old stuff back then Acer will be happy to fix or replace your laptop otherwise will not. I am not sure if that is for all the parts in your laptop of for some specific (I would thought you are allowed to do the RAM upgrade on your own)
If I am wrong, please someone correct me.
That's why I am keeping my old parts and I think I am going to buy the 3 year Europe Warranty extension but I will give them a call first for the details.

 

Well, actually, that's what sucks about Acer Philippines--I think you really can NEVER open up your laptop and get away with still having your warranty. Don't know about Acer Singapore, though, and this laptop was bought at Singapore--could someone clear this up? This is what keeps me (and my dad) from opening up the laptop, since we both don't want the warranty to go kaput.

 

I've opened up my Acer and had it still serviced - but I'm in North America. As for the disks, I've made them, but I've never used them. I use VLite and a clean install w/ the newest drivers directly from their sources. Acer sometimes has some old drivers, I look on the product company's support site.