Acer Aspire 3003 review? (3003WLCI)

I am planeing on getting this laptop aswell as a replacement 8 cell battery.
How does this laptop compare to the dell inspiron 2200 with the pentium M?
This currently is my first choice thogh, mainly because of the unbeatable price, it almost seems to good to be true.

I will be useing this laptop as a student so it will be banging around in my backpack, is it going to me sturdy enogh?

and my campus is loaded with wifi hotspots, just wondering how good of wifi reseption you guys are getting...

thanks alot

 

Does anyone know the Specs for the Motherboard on this laptop?

I am curious, what's the best/fastest processor the motherboard will work with, and if there is a hard drive size limit?


Acer isn't real free with their Spec information. How would we get this sort of information?

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

Hey

I purchased the 8 cell battery from ebay and am know waiting. I just hope it works out good.

:Acer Owns

 

I would guess it wouldn't do well banging around in your backpack. It's not a sturdy design. The casing feels like a light plastic.

I'm having no trouble picking up WiFi spots. It works pretty well.

Try this free tool, Belarc. It'll give you specs on everything.
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

 

I bought the 8-cell battery yesterday...got it today. Bought it from atbatt.com..came to about $135 w/ overnite shipping. Gives me 2hr 45 minutes of battery life w/ regular activity and wireless lan active. Definitely a good investment so far as of day 1.

 

Got my new battery today. After the first charge, I'm getting 3.5 Hours (with the brightness turned down) and about 2.5 with the brightness turned up.

A significant difference. Now I can actually take this thing someplace.

I highly recommend dropping a Benjamin for this battery.

 

Maybe its just me, but how do you tripple your battery life, by only doubling the cells/MaH?


-TheChad

 

Hi, all!

I found this forum when I did a search on Yahoo for "Acer Aspire 3003" for a review on this model.

In my country, Singapore, this lap top Acer Aspire 3003NWLCi is selling at an occasional promotion price of SGD$999 with Linux OS, or the normal offer of Acer Aspire 3003WLCi @ SGD$1399 with Windows XP OS.

Specification for this laptop / notebook
- AMD Sempron 3000+
- 256 MB DDR
- 40 GB HDD
- DVD/CD-RW combo
- up to 128 MB shared video
- Wireless 802.11g
- Wi-Fi certified
- Linux for 3003NWLCi or Windows XP for 3003WLCi
- 15.4" TFT

I find it strange that I can't find this model anywhere on Acer homepage. Anyone knows why?

 

Yeah there are different config's for different markets & they might be behind in updating their website, but you can still check the specifications for the Aspire 3020 series on their website. You can get the general specifications on their website...
(PS - scroll down to aspire 3020)
http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/spec_notebooks.htm

 

Hey all, This thread has been really useful to me, thanks.

TheChad
I was just wondering. What did u say to get your 3002 model exchanged for the 3003? Im just kinda suprised they'd do that for you simply coz its better than what u bought.
I ask coz my mother has bought this laptop and its the 3002.

 

I told them that I had just bought the 3002LCi, and now they had this one on sale, and i would rather have the 3003WLCi because it has 2x the memory, harddrive, and a larger screen.

They said no problem and exchanged it for me. I think it depends on the Citcuit City... My Circuit City is really nice, and really good with thier exchange policy. If you not happy, the'll exchange it.

Some Citcuit City's are just jerks and even though their policy says 14 days exchange, will try to not exchange it. But if you get a manager and point it out that you know the return policy, and you have your reciept. They can't refuse to return or exchange it.

-TheChad

 

I was looking for a cheap laptop for school when I stumbled across the aspire 3003, the only information I could find on it was this thread, and it has been super helpful, this is the perfect notebook for me, best value, and I don't need battery power becasue all my lecture halls have plugs in the desks. I just wanted to thank every one for the info on the notebook it was a great help.

 

My husband and I are both in school right now and are considering buying 2 Acer 3003's (one for each of us). I love that you folks have left so many detailed reviews and so much battery information. The only thing is, someone mentioned that it might not be a great school computer if it were to be "banging around" in a backback. What do you think would be reasonable use for this computer? For instance, if it were in a separate computer bag and handled as a computer and not a football, how do you think it would hold up?
Also, its been mentioned a few times that the laptop gets significantly warm. I've never owned a laptop so I don't know, but that seems almost like some sign of impending doom. Is it normal for laptops to get hot or is it a sign of some data-related apocalypse?
Thanks so much!!
Christy

 

The durability generally depends on how the laptop is handled, from my experience it most probably can sustain the banging around in the backpack. It is not the best built laptop in the world, but is similar to its contemporaries in the same price range. I suggest a notebook sleeve & then keeping it in the backpack, just in case.

The heat is only centered around the touchpad & the bottom of the laptop & it can be felt only after about an hour or so of constant use. I wouldn't term it as impending doom, but yes the heat can be felt especially through the touchpad which sometimes can be highly annoying. The heat can be reduced significantly by allowing the fan to run 24/7.

 

Thanks for all the reviews. This site was truly inciteful in researching the possible purchase of a 3003LCI version (note the lack of "W" in the version) from Circuit City yesterday.

As a matter of fact, went to C.C. with the intention of buying this model, but still wanted to compare to another seemingly good, but spec. inferior, bargain sale on a Toshiba model at CompUSA. That was the Toshiba Satellite A85-S107 on sale for $799 less $300 in rebates...net $499 total.

All the research showed the Acer product to be more powerful... but the "W"LCI was nowhere to be found either in the local Circuit City or their national database (as I was told). Therefore, although a bargain on sale at $550, the LCI had no DVD burner (I checked the display model), a 60GB HD vs. an 80GB, though it was also accordingly a little cheaper than most posts here have said of the WLCI.

Fortunately, the Toshiba model was also at Circuit City and also on display nearby. The two things that struck me in comparing them were overpowering: 1) the dull routine old school screen on the 3003 vs. the stunning, glassy TruBright screen on the Toshiba and the higher priced models that sat in the row in between the two. And, 2) the heat on the touchpad (as mentioned in many posts here) was quite amazing. To me, it was the product of serious flaw in design.

The keypad and touchpad on the 3003 were a little shakey in design, as well.

In my opinion, the 3000 Sempron is over the limit for heat rating and may well not only seriously shorten the lifespan of the product, but cause component failure due to overheating. AMD had already decided to stop the increasing of Mhz in processors due to heat, and it is most inappropriate in a laptop.

For $50 less, the Toshiba also offered some lesser specs., as in a 1.4Ghz Celeron M processor, which rates about 15% slower, a 40GB drive vs. the 60GB in the 3003, and only 256MB Ram installed vs. 512MB.

Despite it's weaker attributes in some key areas, I ended up going to CompUSA and got the Toshiba A85-S107. And now, even after using it for about 15 of the last 24 hours!, it still stays relatively cool.

I've shopped around and now just ordered a 1GB SODIMM memory module, the max expansion for the one and only available slot in the machine, at a bargain cost of $103 from Newegg.com. That will help a lot more on overall speed than the 15% lost from the processor, particularly since I like to open many programs and am going to dual boot to a Linux desktop.

So now, the investment is at $600, $50 more than the comparison Acer model, but with 1.25 mb ram vs. 512mb.

In summary, I always shop for specs./value, and never would have imagined my decision to go with the Toshiba. But without having gone in and seen the laptops side by side, I'd never had seen the complete picture, so to speak.

In addition, though, I also got sold on the service warranty from CompUSA. I never ever buy them, as they're never worth it...until perhaps this one. It cost $139 and covers everything for two whole years. If one pixel goes out on the screen, it gets replaced free! If it is accidently dropped, it is replaced free. And they throw in one replacement battery during the two years.

My quest is going to try and see if they'll upgrade to the 8 cell battery for the difference in cost between the two (about $50, I believe).

Anyway, thanks again to all for your invaluable reviews. They inspired me to come on and share my experience. For those of you that own the 3003WLCI model, you still couldn't go wrong for the price...especially with the W model and the DVD! If that was the choice for me, I'd have probably been a product of being spontaneously torn right in half right then and there on the Circuit City floor and never gotten a thing (or perhaps buying both!)

BTW, with wireless on, battery life seems to be about a wash between the two.

 

Just FYI...

The "W"LCi Model, is the Wide Screen 15.4" Clear Bright screen. As you mentioned the 3003LCi has the standard "dull" 15" 4:3 Aspect screen.

I have yet to see another laptop to even come CLOSE to the amazing deal of the 3003WLCi.... But the standard 3003LCi, has plenty of competition around...

P.S. Though many have complained about the heat around the mouse pad, I have used my 3003WLCi for many hours at a time atleast a dozen times, and have never felt heat around the mouse pad.. It does get pretty warm on the bottom of the laptop, but that is standard of most laptops. I find that the fan seams to come on at a good time, just when you think "Wow this is getting pretty hot" The fan will kick on, and cool it down, and turn off when it gets back to a slight warm.

I have an old Gateway Solo 2150, and the fan has never kicked on when it should, and it gets blazing hot on the bottom. So from my experience, the Acer 300xxLCI Model's as far as heat is concerned is "Normal"

-TheChad

 

I just purchased this laptop a couple of days ago.

When I first checked the system properties, it stated under the processor type that was only 792 mhz. A day later, I saw it again and now it was 1.8 ghz. It consistantly flexes between the two. I once noticed it at 1.52 ghz. I'm not sure what is affecting it to change like that or if it is even suppose to. Anyone one else notice this?

 

In the UK the 3003wlmi costs £580 and the 3022wlmi costs £585. Both have 512MB, DVD dual layer, wireless, 15.4 wiescreen crystal brite.

The 3022wlmi also has
64MB dedicated X600 graphics
firewire
card reader
3.5hr battery (claimed)
The processor is 1.6GHZ Sempron 2800+

but doesn't have Acer software bundle (incl NTI CD maker) and the HDD is only 60GB

For a similar price am i better going for the dedicated graphics, firewire, improved battery and card reader, at the expense of losing the Acer s/w bundle and a smaller drive.

I will not play the latest games or edit video. I will use it for office applications (mainly spreadsheet and visual basic),CD and DVD writing/copying
and the smaller HDD shouldn't cause me a problem.
I have never had a decent laptop so don't really know what is better - my laptop that just died had 32MB RAM & 266Mhz CPU so anything would be a great improvement.

If anyone needs the specs for 3022wlmi they can be foud at
http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/asp/...ords=3022wlmi&recor=1&SearchFor=any&PT_ID=all then click the info button for the 3022wlmi

Any help would be appreciated

 

There is nothing wrong with your laptop. The cpu clock speed moving up & down is just "PowerNow" feature working. It brings down the clock speed when the cpu is not being used(to save power & improve battery life) & increases the clock speed to its maximum as & when needed. So depending on your usage you can see the clock speed move between 800MHz & 1.8GHz...

The Aspire 3022wlmi is much better value & will give better graphics performance than the other laptop...there are much better DVD burning software available in the market than the NTI CD maker(Roxio for example).... The way I see it is that software is replacable, but the extra hardware features(firewire, card reader, video card) cannot be upgraded...

 

Thanks miner

I realise that this is the wrong thread but wanted your further opinion whilst online.

It is possibly over budger but for another £40 i can upgrade from 3022wlim to 3023wlmi and get
X700 128MB (3022 has X600 64MB)
3000+ 1.8ghz (3022 has 2800+ 1.6 ghz)
80GB HDD (3022 has 60GB HDD)

downside is that cheaprest supplier in UK does not have this model for 2 weeks (but i go on holiday at weekend for 1 week) so i am prepared to wait if necessary.

Are the specs so much better to justify a further £40 and go over budget. Do i really need such a good graphics card if i am not playing latest games.

Thanks

Simon

 

Well, if you were a gamer I would have said Yes, but since your uses tends to be more business oriented, the 3022 or even the 3003 should suffice... the X600 can do 85 - 90% of any task the X700 can...only significant difference will be in very high end games. The performance difference between the 2800+ & 3000+ is also negligible.

40GBP increase is probably an OK increase, probably a bit on the high side, but still the only reason I would recommend it over the 3022 would be for the 128MB X700...but since your uses dont need that high end graphics card, the 3022 is a good compromise.

 

Thanks miner. I'm sold. As soon as i come back of my hols i'll get it ordered. The small remainder of my budget can go on a laptop bag and 10 button usb mouse etc (i'm so out of date my printer only works by parallel connection - so no more printing at home).

I only stumbled across this forum yesterday but see that i will be spending many hours reading the posts as it is a brilliant source of info

Thanks again

 

You're welcome and hope you enjoy/share/gain experiences with the new laptop(whichever one you buy) on these forums.

:acer:

 

I purchased my 3003 WLCi about two weeks ago and thought the battery was defective .I phoned the dealer and was put on to Acer in Texas. They said the battery was ok and I should expect 1.5 hrs. on a charge .I complained that I was only getting 1hr.to a charge and they still refused to replace the battery. They offered to sell me a battery that would app. double the charge life .Due to the fact that they say on page 44 of their user guide that the unit should run 2.5 hrs I am not pleased with the Company reply. Buyers beware do your homework before buying . Peeky

 

Well for the great value of this laptop, and laptop's in this class, the battery life is all about the same... If you want better battery life, spend 2x-3x the price and get a centrino laptop with an 8 Cell battery...

The information about the battery life is WELL known if you had done any research about this model, and any model in the budget price point... So you can't really blame the company for YOUR lack of research.

The only thing buyers should beware about this laptop, is that it is one HELL of a deal. :750:

After rebate at CC, I only paied $599.99 for this laptop, and though I'd love a longer bettery life, again for this price, I have nothing to complain about.

-TheChad

 

I recently bought the 3003LCI (not 3003WLCI) for $550 ($750 - $200 rebate). I am extremely pleased with it. I have Photoshop CS, Dreamweaver MX, SecureCRT, CuteFTP, and a few apps that I use frequently. They run just as fast on my laptop as they do on my overclocked Athlon XP gaming rig. I didn't buy the lappy for games so I haven't installed any on it. That's what my desktop is for.

The only complaint I have is the usual battery life issue which I DID know about prior to making the purchase. I just couldn't pass it up for $550.

I think this laptop is destined to be a classic. It's going to be one of those legendary products that people love to post about on message boards. I expect batteries and other accessories to become available in more places than eBay and obscure (to the average comsumer) hardware sites.

A couple of questions that I'm still waiting on a good response to:


1.
I have 512MB RAM and the video is set to 64MB. SPECIFICALLY where would one notice the video performance increase by increasing the video mem. to 128MB. For the sake of discussion, we'll pretend I have a Gig of RAM and want to up my video ram to 128MB. I understand the system memory becomes 1GB - 129MB, but what actually happens to increase the video performance? Higher possible resolution at highest amount of colors?

2.

Could someone who has actually bought one of the better batteries confirm the increased battery life? How much time?

 

Hey...

I am shopping for a laptop. I want to know the meaning of the "W" in 3003WLCI as I have come across the 3003LCI model.

Many thanks,

Yo.

 

1. It will definately improve performance, but still it wont turn the graphics card into a high performace version because the core of the graphics card is the same & that has a major impact on the performance than does video RAM.

The 'W' indicates that the laptop has widescreen...the 3003WLCi has 15.4" WXGA whereas the 3003LCi has 15" XGA

 

Hi,

I'd like to ask a few questions for those of you who have bought extended battaries. Where did you buy them? How long have you used them? Do they really work for 2.5 hours as it's written on websites?
I'm planning to buy a battery for my laptop, but I'm not sure if it's reasonable to spend more than $100 for a battery that is not going to work for less than 2 hours.
Thank you

Mikhail

 

Lovin' all this info!

My question is simple by comparison. I'm a broke college kid who has a desktop at home to do "big" stuff. Would you recommend this notebook as one to take to campus? I'm not a gamer, only need to do internet, email, and school assignments. And watch movies!

I'm comparing it to the Compaq V2305CA, and would like to see what the Acer people around here think. The systems are similar except for the 80GB Acer vs. 60GB Compaq. Exact same prices.

THANK YOU !!!!!

 

Well, with the Acer if you are lucky, you may end up with a dual layer DVD burner as some of us have which would make it even better value. Acer mistakenly installed dual layer DVD burners in some Aspires which at this price range in unheard of.. The Compaq is more mobile given its screen size of 14" vs. 15.4" for the Acer. Also do remember that the laptop(3003WLCi) comes standardwith a 4 cell battery which can only give about an hours worth of battery life compared to the 2+ on the compaq with the 6 cell battery.

So, if you want something to carry around all day around campus, then the compaq might suite you better, otherwise the Acer is also pretty good other than the poor battery life.

 

Well, I paid just under $100 (including shipping) for battery LCBTP03003 brand new on Ebay, which someone recommended from this thread. It works great, I consistently get just under 3 hours battery life when doing minor stuff like web surfing. For some reason though, I also get longer life with Linux, usually about 3.5 hours with minor usage. I think Linux might have better CPU frequency control, because I've also noticed that the fan does not run as frequently as when using Windows. My only problem with running Linux on the 3003 so far is that I can't suspend to ram (it won't return without a hard shutdown), which sucks. Anyways, I would definitely recommend the better battery; best investment I've made (besides the notebook itself) so far.

 

Hello,

Thank you for the information about the battery. I am going to buy one.

I have a question about the screen. The screen on my laptop was fine for the first 3 weeks. Then, suddenly, I got a wide gray line on the screen that goes from the lower right angle to the upper left. I don't think that it consists of dead pixels because I can see everything where it lies. Also, I got another spot that is gray as well.
Has anybody had such problem? Should I contact Acer?

Thank you

 

I just bought a new Aspire 3003LCi and was thinking of getting one of these, LapCool2 Notebook Cooler. One of the reviews said that it is "Suitable for: Laptops that intake air from the bottom (ex: Inspiron 5100), or laptops that do not exhaust heat to the bottom." Would my new laptop fit this description? and would something like this help to extend the life of the computer, or just keep my lap a little cooler?

I'm really glad that I found this thread; it seems to be the only place to get information online for this computer.

Thanks.

 

What I don't understand is that I know I saw this model on display at Circuit City yet there website doesn't list it.

Also, the sempron version I saw did not have the nice screen where as the Turion (or whatever) version did.

 

I am wondering about getting this model at my local Circuit City for $550 but instead it's a LCi instead of WLCi. I was wondering, is this lap top capable of running with the charger plugged in and never turned off. Say for maybe a week or so. I'm not planning on doing this but i'm just curious. Thank's for anyone who replies.

 

Villageidiot

It should work well to keep the laptop cool & I think it fitd that description even though it does not have a direct fan intake at the bottom...

Taylormade

Yeah, CC keeps on changing the laptoops they offer constantly so sometimes even if it was available in store the website never had that in stock. They also ran a lot of different versions of this laptop ranging from the 3002Lci(Sempron 2800+) to 3003Lci/WLci(Sempron 3000+)...So anyways the W versions have the enhanced widescreens while the others have normal non crystalbrite screens.

Mrrksturr

Yeah it should be capable of running 24/7, in most cases the it is the software which gives up first before the hardware.

 

Thanks for the info Miner. I'll just make sure I look for the WLCI models. The LCI screen was pretty pathetic.

 

Hey miner, I see that you removed your Acer 3003 from your sig, did you get rid of it already?

 

Nope, I still have it. I was just playing around with my sig.maybe I will even put it back up again

 

Thanks for the info miner!

 

Hi all,

i just stumbled across this item in webshop too, looks promising, even with the short battery life and all (i will use it mostly as desktop replacement for work which i can sometimes drag along to some meetings)

anyway, is there anyone here that doesnt lay in the same bed with microsoft ?
i would like to do some preparations and research before i put my money on this

so if someone can get a linux running on it (even ubuntu live cd or knoppix cd will do)

and execute these 2 commands

lspci -v
cat /proc/cpuinfo

that should be enough for the start, if you can dig up smth more then you're welcome to share it

for windows users, the first command shows the whole story that is attached to and into the motherboard (ethernet chips, sound chips etc.) , the second shows quite detailed cpu information ...

and if someone cares to reply with output of the commands, big thnx from me in advantage

 

Code:

evan@Acer:~$ sudo lspci -v
Password:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 760/M760 Host (rev 03)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
        Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
        Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 3.0
        Capabilities: [d0] #08 [0120]
        Capabilities: [f0] #08 [8000]

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202 (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 99
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=68
        I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff
        Memory behind bridge: e2100000-e21fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e8000000-efffffff

0000:00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

0000:00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0016
        Flags: medium devsel
        I/O ports at 8100 [size=32]

0000:00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (prog-if 80 [Master])
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 128, IRQ 16
        I/O ports at 2000 [size=16]

0000:00:02.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Modem Controller (rev a0) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 18
        I/O ports at 1000 [size=256]
        I/O ports at 1c00 [size=128]
        Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2

0000:00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Sound Controller (rev a0)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 173, IRQ 18
        I/O ports at 1400 [size=256]
        I/O ports at 1c80 [size=128]
        Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2

0000:00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
        Memory at e2002000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

0000:00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
        Memory at e2003000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

0000:00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 23
        Memory at e2004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 173, IRQ 19
        I/O ports at 1800 [size=256]
        Memory at e2005000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

0000:00:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 19
        Memory at 20000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176
        Memory window 0: 20400000-207ff000 (prefetchable)
        Memory window 1: 20800000-20bff000
        I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff
        I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff
        16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

0000:00:0b.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4318 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp.: Unknown device 0312
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
        Memory at e2000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]

0000:00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
        Flags: fast devsel
        Capabilities: [80] #08 [2101]

0000:00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
        Flags: fast devsel

0000:00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
        Flags: fast devsel

0000:00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
        Flags: fast devsel

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661FX/M661FX/M661MX/741/M741/760/M760 PCI/AGP (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0083
        Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 7
        BIST result: 00
        Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at e2100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        I/O ports at a000 [size=128]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [50] AGP version 3.0

evan@Acer:~$ sudo cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 15
model           : 28
model name      : Mobile AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3000+
stepping        : 0
cpu MHz         : 800.300
cache size      : 128 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 pni syscall nx mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips        : 1591.06

I've got Ubuntu Hoary on here (3003WLCI) now, and it runs quite well. Ndiswrapper works for the Broadcom wireless. ACPI was a pain and battery status wasn't working, but this thread at the Ubuntu forums did the trick. Hibernation (suspend to disk) works just fine, but suspend to ram does not - it suspends, but when it tries to resume there's no video (screen doesn't power on at all). I haven't looked into that too much though, so hopefully it can be worked out. I haven't used the modem though, so I don't know if that works or not. The hotkeys for volume, email, internet, etc. don't work but I don't really care about them so I haven't even looked into them. I'd assume they'd be fairly simple like any other hot keys on multimedia keyboards. Sound works fine as well, and the Synaptics touchpad works great (even better than with Windows). If there's anything else you'd like to know, just let me know.

 

I think i will go for ubuntu too, i've lived on debian for 5 years and all the other distros(redhat,mandrake etc.) are just a terrible mess. debian itself did not provide xorg yet and i dont want to go for xfree86 so i guess ubuntu is the only way to go.

On some forums i noted that people suggested switching to console and then back to X, maybe you should check that out (ctrl+alt+f1, alt+f7)

Someone mentioned on some other forums that it's some kind of a win modem ... but i dont think i will ever use it, it's a legacy way to the internet.

Probably, some extra work may be needed too, http://www.lirmm.fr/~yousfi/divers/acer/ has some nice documentation on that (some codes may differ but i guess it overlaps pretty much across the laptops)

Nice to hear that sound is ok, can you list your lsmod here too ?

 

I've never tried Debian, but I have tried Mandrake, Suse, Fedora, Gentoo, and a couple others (not on this notebook, but on desktops). I'm not a big fan of rpm-based distros, and Gentoo seemed like a bit much for a notebook. On a workstation I don't mind emerging something and walking away while it compiles. I love apt-get, that's the one of the best things about Ubuntu, and obviously any other Debian-based distro. Ubuntu is simple, it just works, and has far better package management than rpms. The community that has pupped up around Ubuntu is really great too.

Yeah, I've tried that, I've even tried killing X, but I get no response at all. Not just a blank screen, a black screen. It's like there's no power to the screen at all. It comes out of stand by, the light switches from orange (standby) to green (powered on) and I here plenty of disk activity, but the screen is still off.

That looks pretty good. I would assume the codes would probably be the same because all the Aspire notebooks tend to be nearly identical.

Code:

root@Acer:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
usbhid                 32192  0
af_packet              22280  2
ipv6                  259008  6
binfmt_misc            11592  1
powernow_k8            12612  0
video                  16068  0
sony_acpi               6024  0
pcc_acpi               11072  0
button                  6544  0
proc_intf               3972  0
freq_table              4100  1 powernow_k8
battery                10052  0
container               4416  0
cpufreq_userspace       4444  1
ac                      4740  0
cpufreq_ondemand        6236  0
cpufreq_powersave       1728  0
pcmcia                 22340  2
yenta_socket           21440  0
pcmcia_core            58304  2 pcmcia,yenta_socket
sis900                 20164  0
ehci_hcd               32772  0
ohci_hcd               21576  0
snd_intel8x0           32416  1
snd_ac97_codec         74208  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm_oss            52516  0
snd_mixer_oss          19776  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                94920  3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              25156  1 snd_pcm
snd                    55268  8 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore              10080  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          9796  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
i2c_sis96x              5316  0
i2c_core               22416  1 i2c_sis96x
shpchp                 99300  0
pci_hotplug            33584  1 shpchp
sis_agp                 8132  1
agpgart                33704  1 sis_agp
pcspkr                  3560  0
rtc                    12536  0
vfat                   14080  0
fat                    42016  1 vfat
md                     47504  0
dm_mod                 59708  1
capability              4744  0
commoncap               7808  1 capability
ndiswrapper           175220  0
usbcore               119224  5 usbhid,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd,ndiswrapper
parport_pc             37444  0
lp                     11240  0
parport                36872  2 parport_pc,lp
ide_cd                 41924  0
cdrom                  40476  1 ide_cd
evdev                   9408  1
joydev                  9728  0
mousedev               11352  1
tsdev                   7616  0
psmouse                21384  0
ext3                  138184  1
jbd                    60888  1 ext3
mbcache                 8452  1 ext3
ide_generic             1408  0
sis5513                16392  1
ide_disk               20480  3
ide_core              129548  4 ide_cd,ide_generic,sis5513,ide_disk
unix                   28532  513
thermal                13384  0
processor              22516  2 powernow_k8,thermal
fan                     4484  0
fbcon                  38016  69
font                    8256  1 fbcon
bitblit                 5568  1 fbcon
vesafb                  6820  1
cfbcopyarea             3904  1 vesafb
cfbimgblt               3008  1 vesafb
cfbfillrect             3584  1 vesafb

 

got my 3003wlci now, i just love that screen, it's awesome

the machine is pretty fast too

ran into some problems too ....

at first acpi managed to mess up my ethernet connection over the usual cable, so i had to add pci=noacpi to the bootloader.

upgraded my bios, added the new acpi dsdt for it to the initrd
and now it's up , the ethernet works , cpu scaling too (it scales pretty nicely from 800mhz to 1800mhz)

if it's on low load the fans are pretty much off most of the time so i barely can hear the machine ....

next step will be to get the wifi working ... i'd have to move into some wifi are a to do the final test but i can do pretty much all the prework whats needed for ndiswrapper :s

 

even more performance fun under linux, watching mplayer @ fullscreen over the xv driver (a pretty regular divx movie, monk episode 4 season 4) the cpu usage is down at 5-8%, cpu scaled to 800mhz ... this is amazing .... even my desktop cant beat this ...

on the other hand, xengine only does show values of 5800 and the cpu goes boom up to 100% power

glxgears goes near 330fps ... not bad for a sis chip

hdparm -tT /dev/hda shows :
/dev/hda:
Timing cached reads: 1500 MB in 2.00 seconds = 749.74 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 90 MB in 3.05 seconds = 29.51 MB/sec


anyway, i am pretty impressed by the performance of it , mplayer compiled in no time at all compared to my old weak duron 1.3ghz desktop

 

That's strange, I haven't had any problems with ethernet, and I don't pass pci=noacpi to grub. I also haven't touched my bios - my bios is up to date according to Acer's drivers & download page. Ndiswrapper worked flawlessly for me except I had to make deb's from source because the outdated version that shipped with Hoary didn't work. I think they have a newer version in backports now though so you might be fine.

EDIT: never mind about the bios, I just noticed that Acer's ftp site has ver. 3a24, while their web site still has 3a18. I'll definitely be updating that.

 

my ethernet adapter started to throw weird error messages to the system log each time i accessed it, but the pci=noacpi removed that.

i got the ndiswrapper working too, too bad that at my home i only found he network of a neighbour and that was also under a password

have you tried to access the irda device too ?

 

No, I didn't even know it had one. Have you tried it at all then? Have you made any attempts at suspend to ram?