Acer Aspire 1410 and 1810T Timeline (single core) 11.6" Thread

I haven't seen anyone mentioning that VT is unlocked, though. Manufacturers like to disable it in BIOS without providing an option to enable it. It can be hacked, though.

 

It has to do with European regulations but I don't know the details of it.

 

Mine has a fan rattle problem as well. With rattle sound changing when tilting the laptop. It's not constant, and slight wack on the side gets rid of the rattle ususally (HDD may suffer, though). Would be interested to know if there is an easy permanat fix for this.

Sound quality in the headphones is not great, but no worse than in any other laptop I had before (most of them Dells). Did anybody test digital audio output over HDMI or the optical SPDIF (is SPDIF even there?)?

 

As far as Win 7 upgrade disk goes, I was expecting it to be a regular OEM version that will look for SLIC/SLP tables in BIOS for activation. I would definitely want to do a clean install.

 

XP mode is a total joke anyway..

 

I notice that while the netbook is open, the right bottom corner does not sit flush to the surface. This cause the netbook to wobble in curtain situations. I am guessing this could be a QA issue.

 

For those that don't want to mess with the Vista already installed, why not do a dual boot.
Create a partition and install Win7 there.
Thats what I'm going to do later tonight.

 

Yes, from what I've read, that's true. You'd be better off just having real XP installed in a separate partition and dual-booting. But XP is a destructive install (it re-writes the MBR and blasts away BCD and replaces it with boot.ini and doesn't accommodate any other OS), so you'd want to clean-install it first, then install Windows 7 or Vista (although I don't know why anyone would want to keep Vista if they have Win 7).

This just in: You Europeans can get an all-in-one desktop that will fit in your backpack and it's touchscreen, so no mouse or keyboard needed:
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/09/s...d-all-in-one-desktop-with-opensuse-linux.html

I hope this comes to the U.S.

 

I'm running W7 Pro.

Just have a look at that screenshot I just made. Check the 512MB RAM(I have 4GB), the 2D graphic card(S3 Trio, oh boy) and the soundcard...SoundBlaster16(welcome to the DOS years! ) And no, you can't update those.



If you have a retail XP version you can install it in VT using W7 Virtual PC. This way the OS won't overwrite the MBR and you'll have full XP support.

 

Good information. Thanks! Yeah, that's pretty lame what "XP Mode" does.

 

Heys quick update! I installed my western digital 500gb 5400 rpm 16m cache hard drive and now my vista and win7 scores for hard drive is 5.9 maxed in vista, as well i get average 65.5mb read instead of 35mb read from slow hitachi drive, i think mine was defective becuz results from hdtune on the inet show the hatichi drive that was stock in the 1410 as being way faster, anyhow i got win7 on the 1410 and compared to vista its night and day..

although one of my tests were to copy files through ftp protocal from wireless n intel 5100 card in as 1410 laptop from my windows home sever running filezilla. the connection was through a linksys wrt320n router laptop was about 10 feet away, i connected at 300mbps two sep channels using 5g network. copy files i maxed out speed which is the fastest yet for n speed from router at 14000kbps (100mbps lans get around 12,000 - 12,500 max kbps) so the wireless n speeds were good, cpu usage while transferring gigs of files was from 70-85 percent cpu in win7 ( i think there networking layers and drivers are scrwed up)

Using my old acwer D150 with a intel 4965 n wifi card and xp sp3 os, with laptop 10 feet away from router i max out at 12,000kbps - 13,000 kbps connected at 300mbps wifi, yet this laptop has a 1.6ghz atom cpu and the cpu usage is 40-50 percent. What gives with that since the su3500 in the 1410 outruns an atom by far? I think and assume its win7 with there networking crap. so my next attemp is to install winxp on the 500gb western digital and see how everything runs with that, just got to hunt down all the xp drivers... overall though xp should run nicely and smooth with no issues with anything. guess ill see!~

 

The amount of ram it uses can be changed really easily, and as for the other issues it was never meant for gaming/3d/etc. It works just fine for old office programs that were never updated for vista/7.

 

Right. So it will be useful for like 5% of the W7 users.

Besides, in XP mode, even browsing around is SLOW. So very slow...

 

This is consistent to what I saw when transfering large files over the Gigabit connection. The transfer rate never went higher than 33MB/s and the CPU utilization was close to 100%. I wasn't sure what was the limiting factor, and my first bet was on the LAN driver (utilizing the CPU), but it was definitely on the 1410 side, since I've seen transfer rates over 50MB/s from my file server before.

Looks like the hard drive could have been the culprit as well. But I guess 33MB/s is still pretty good compared to what the norm for netbooks is, with their slow chipsets, harddrives, and 100Mbit LANs.

 

hopefully in windows xp the cpu utilization for wifi at 300mbps n speed to router will be alot lower thats what im about to test next, Ive been to busy lately with all of my hobbies, I have two RC plane kits sitting here, one is built and been crashed 5 times now (bad luck plane) and i need to repair it, then i got another kit here 80% built, just bought me an eflite MSR micro fixed pitch heli that ive been playing with and crashing and got the acer as 1410 laptop ive been playing with... I guess though its time to power up the laptop and install xp and see what happens..

 

Anyone else noticed the 1410 will run at 1.6ghz instead of 1.4ghz after upgrade the memory to ddr2-800? Another benefit I suppose? 200mhz overclock should be a safe margin... acer please don't change this in future bios

 

I have the same numbers with 2x2GB DDR2 666. Maybe CPU-Z's multiplier is off.

 

yes i think you may be right, i just ran a clock speed tester, shows 1.4 still... oh wells

 

Its Sooooo Shiny! Screens a little flimsy though...

 

Please share the info on this reseeller or PM me with the info. I would also like to get the nicer battery. So far this laptop rocks.

BTW, I swapped out the 250 GB 5400 rpm drive for a 320 GB 7200 rpm drive and this things screams. I also have a 800 MHz memory chip in slot 0 and the original 667 Mhtz memory chip in slot 1 and CPU ID also shows me at 1.6 GHz. Amazing little laptop.

Win7 64 bit Ultimate runs great on this thing. I didn't even bother with Vista but just blasted Win7 right down to the new 7200 rpm drive. I only had one minor glitch with the install (stupid Flash forced a re-install) but other than that it is very solid. I'll run the Windows Experience scores here in a bit. I wonder when Acer will release Win7 64 bit drivers.

Power is also doing quite well even with the smaller battery. I think that 6-8 hours it totally reasonable.

One moe thing. I noticed that when I installed the memory that there is one long slot open that is easily accessible. I saw on an Australian site that the BCM92046 is in the 1810TZs in Asia so I bet that would fit in there.

Cheers.

 

just upgraded to win 7 rc 32bit
it seems that more heat generated in win 7 than in pre-installed vista, and the fan sound more noticeable. is it just me or anyone also feel that ?

also tried hulu. 480p + full screen + low quality flash (still looks good, try it), runs perfectly at 60%-70% cpu. highly recommend this combination

 

Test Win7 Score. Interesting results with the 7200 rpm drive. More RAM also seems to help.

More details about my computer

Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Solo CPU U3500 @ 1.40GHz 3.4 3.2
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB 4.9
Graphics Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family 3.3
Gaming graphics 1695 MB Total available graphics memory 3.2
Primary hard disk 276GB Free (298GB Total) 5.9
Windows 7 Ultimate

 

That looks about right. Interestingly, the graphics score on this thing is far better than the graphics score on my ASUS W7s, which has a dedicated nVidia 8400M....weird.

 

strangely i got a 4.9 for "gaming graphics" in win7rc. are you running win7rtm ?

 

I got a 3.2 running the RTM. My Asus W3J, with a Mobility Radeon X1600, got a 4.4 for gaming graphics in the 7 RC.

 

Yeah this is RTM. I downloaded it from TechNet last night. Did you install a different display driver? I am just using the one that came with Win7. The only driver I installed was the Synaptics one.

The Video driver is Intel 4 Series Chipset. Version is 8.15.10.1808 from 6/3/2009. Is there a more recent driver perhaps?

 

I just downloaded and installed the latest driver (8.15.10.1872) and there was not change in my Windows 7 scores. There do seem to be a few more options. I already think that the video is decent.

 

Yes, exactly this slot. Do you know what the name of this port is? I mean like PCI, ATA...it should have a name.

I was googling for external 3G modems but couldnt find any to buy. Does someone has idea where to get something like this in europe?

Thank you

 

It's PCI-e, but in the picture (bottom) there is no free slot!

The free slot is a memory bank.

 

I'd advise this upgrade, as it fixed the HDMI audio for me
Also I'd advise everyone to follow this guide, and don't install MPH-HC or other media players at all. WMP works just fine, no problem with multiple monitors, plays .MKVs...

 

Thx for the help man.

 

Hi,

I was curious to know how big a difference 4gb dual channel vs stock ram was in terms of FPS in either half-life or AOE2 etc...

also, does anyone know if the 1410 will fit in a mac air manila sleeve?

Thanks!

 

Can anyone check this, please?

 

Since I've now had 2 of these, I can perhaps help on a couple of things. After looking at both, I bought the Gateway version of the 1410, based on slightly better functionality (matte surround for the screen, a real lip for the trackpad, more consistent and understated cosmetics).

The Gateway was manufactured in July, around the 20th. The front right corner was raised up a bit, but this didn't bother me enough to return it. The fan was OK when on low, though it was louder than my 15" LG. When it ramped up, I found it very loud, and it never dropped back down to low. It didn't rattle or anything, but it was clearly a loud fan - cheap or poor design. And obviously there was something wrong with the BIOS, but I couldn't find an update on the Gateway site. Since my base use is for extended word processing, and I want a machine as silent as possible for that, I took it back and bought the Acer instead.

The Acer was manufactured on August 9. The front right corner is flat. The fan in low is virtually silent, and the BIOS appears to control it perfectly. It does run faster and louder when plugged in. The lack of a real lip for the trackpad doesn't bother me, but the glossy screen surround is irritating - even more reflections. I may look around for a way to tone it down.

Hope that helps some.
I'm thinking of going for the dual-core version instead (I sometimes do processor-intensive calculations), and have a couple of questions for anyone who may have an idea:
Is the machine likely to run hotter and therefore have more fan noise when just used for word processing?
How much is the dual-core likely to impact the battery life?

 

@Roma2
Someone on the Chinese board got 5h and 44min under medium load on 1810tz(Win7 balanced), Notebookjournal measured 5h 40min under load on 1810t(stock Vista).
These results are not comparable, the tests would have to be made under identical conditions.
Some people claimed a battery life of between 5,5h-6h in Win7 on 1810t.

Around the same battery life also means comparable heat generation and fan loudness.

 

Yes the Notebookjournal test was conducted with 40% CPU load. Normal websurfing will generate much lower CPU load.

 

Can you post some pictures of the Gateway ??

 

I created another partition and installed Win7 and the difference is night and day.(having zero bloatware probably help quite a bit too.)

On another subject, this is really irritating me.
The cursor tend to jump to different places and ruined my typing.
It happens often to the point I want to return or exchange the laptop.
I know the trackpad is below the keyboard but that only move the cursor, not to different places where you type.(I think you guys know what I'm talking about).
So whats would be causing this ??
This happens with other laptps too but not as quite often with this one.

 

@golfreak
You should adjust the settings in the driver control panel. If you find the solution, please post in the tweaks section.
Some people solved the problem but the info is lost somewhere in these huge threads. I think it must be in the timeline owner's lounge thread.

Edit:
Try this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=159600&highlight=palm+sensitivity

Does it help?

 

Thanks.
YUP, figured out double tapping on the pad cause the cursor to jump.
I just installed win7 and I don't think Synaptics is even installed.
How do I disabled double tapping ??

 

You probably should install the Synaptics touchpad drivers. There are extensive settings possibilities once you install it including enabling/disabling double-tap. There is also very good palm rejection.

 

You could've used smartfan on it. I did and the fan speed cut it half when powered by AC. Can't find a setting to turn down the noise when running on battery power though, but I can turn it completely off. I find the temperature acceptable when browsing the web with the fan off.

 

After a few days of use I think I can objectively put ratings on this. I'm looking at this as a 'netbook'.

Why would I want it considering I have a MBP? For me it was portability and a machine dedicated to Windows 7 and later Ubuntu. (My Macbook Pro 13.3 actually belongs to my employer)

How is it compared to the MBP 13.3? It really is Apple v Oranges. The MBP is quality throughout but considering the price was 4x as much as this 1410, the Apple tax really eats into your wallet. I can probably do 80% of what I do on the MBP with the 1410---web browsing, office reading/writing, email, screenshots, video tuts, HTMl/CSS editing and even Visual Studio 2008. That is most of what I do. I prefer the performance boost of the MBP when I need to use Adobe CS3---Photoshop and Flash. If I compare the MBP vs 1410 for value, the 1410 beats down the MBP easily. If I compare the two as notebooks without cost then the MBP is obviously in a league all its own (even against other PC notebooks).

Build/Material Quality: 7/10. The LCD hinge has too much play. The fan rattle is annoying. Netbook surgery will be needed on a free weekend to fix it. The gloss on the LCD is distracting (same with the MBP). The gloss on the LCD trim is really distracting.

No hassle install: 9/10. Windows 7 x64 installed flawlessly and eveything works. The only tweak I found necessary was to install the Synaptics Touchpad driver to get rid of the palm quirkiness/skips.

Battery: 8/10. While the battery does not stick out, the inserted battery extends the depth of the notebook. The depth is not much less than my 13.3 MBP. I prefer the height of the Samsung NC10 battery which serves two purposes: 1) puts the keyboard at a better angle and 2) allows for more air circulation beneath the laptop. As for battery life, anything over 4 hours is more than adequate for me.

Keyboard: 9/10. Full size keyboard for touch typing goodness. I used SharpKeys to remap PgUp/PgDn -> Home/End, Caps Lock -> Ctrl, Ins -> Del. I wish they would have not dedicated keys to PrtSc and Pause and instead mapped them to Fn combinations. By removing these keys they could widen the Esc and F1-F12 keys. Still, the keyboard feels as good as the thin aluminum Apple keyboards and there is a dedicated Del key.

LCD: 8/10. -1 for gloss. -1 for narrow viewing angle. I think the resolution is almost right. I would prefer a little more height though. Maybe 900px.

Touchpad: 7/10. Does not work as well as the MBP and the paint coating causes a little more stickiness than I'm used to. Hard to describe. It feels like using the touchpad after you just washed your hands. The pad area is a little small like all other netbooks.

Extensibility: 8/10. -1 no bluetooth built-in. -1 no eSata. Bluetooth should pretty much be standard on any notebook and the LED is there. eSata is a nice to have. RAM is easy to change. Acer ships with 1x2GB SODIMM with a free bank. HDD is easy to change.

Graphics: 9/10. I do not play games on this. I use it strictly for coding and web surfing. The graphics is a huge improvement over other netbooks.

Value: 10/10. I'm nitpicking for the price. Really, this thing should get 10/10 for everything across the board considering how much it cost. Would I want a faster processor? Of course. Will an extra 0.2 Ghz or even Dual Core even be noticeable. I seriously doubt it. And when there is a better netbook 6-9 months down the road, I'll be happy to upgrade for $400.

 

noespam, I was considering to use this exactly with Visual Studio 2008. How is the speed? Do you find it hard to code on that size screen and keyboard?

 

I am going to give one of these bt modules a try. Any guidance on generally where inside of the case the bt adapter on the pc is. I assume I need to take off the keyboard.

 

@Mark_S
Check Timeline Tweaks(see sig)
There are photos of the inside and compatible bluetooth modules listed.
You have to disassemble the device completely.

First remove bottom screws.
Remove the keyboard(use two credit cards, one to lift the keyboard slightly, the other to push in the little plastic noses that hold the keyboard in place), disconnect keyboard and touchpad ribbon.
Remove screws under the keyboard.
Put a credit card in the gap between upper and lower casing and slide around the device from one corner to the other.

 

Here's where I just ordered my battery from. They had it in stock.

http://www.laptop-batteries.com.au/computer-battery/acer-um09e36.htm

It's an aftermarket battery but has the better 5600mah.

 

I have had my unit for over 24 hours now. So far so good.
I have only added 1gb ram (a spare 1gb stick from my macbook) so I'm up to 3gb...which is all this 32bit OS can fully utilize.

Many here complain about a Hitachi HD. Mine came with a Toshiba drive. It seems fine to me. The bottle neck for speeds seem to lie with the Processor mostly.

I spent a lot of time uninstalling the stuff that came onboard with the computer. Most importantly I swapped McAfee out for AVG.

Battery life is pretty random at times...but on 2 cycles I've been averaging 5 hours.

I've read mixed reviews about Hulu in HD and I think other users who are still using vista like me, are right. Full screen HD is iffy. However, using Hulu Desktop (their application), things seem better. I also like their application because you ca set the quality to high/medium/low, instead of just HD or SD.

This unit seems to run Photoshop CS4 pretty well too. I'm sure it can benefit slightly from the gpu's power too.

I also use an 8gb SD card for Ready-boost (max rdyboostis 4gb). Not sure if that makes a noticeable difference or not.

In conclusion, this does all i need it to do. More computing power needs will be left up to my desktop and macbook. =)

thanks to everyone who posted up photos and information about this netbook/laptop. I look forward to receiving my windows 7 upgrade in the mail next month!

 

I have been on a business trip to a certain European country for a week now, so this laptop has been field tested extensively. I love it !! It feels very natural to do work on this computer; didn't feel the size cramped my productivity at all. The battery life gives me the freedom to be unplugged, and it's nice that I can move the laptop around without needing to carry the charger with me. The only complaint is that the fan is audible sometimes. I sort of expect low powered laptops to have super quiet fans.

 

Yes, thanks. I looked at these pictures. I cannot determine from the pictures which port to plug the bt module into. I would prefer not to use trial and error (risk damage). Do you know where the bt plug is on the motherboard??

Thanks again.