Acer Aspire 5210-2273 recovery disk

Hi. I just bought an Acer Aspire 5610-2273 with Vista Home Premium installed. I needed to run XP on it as well, so I wiped the drive, reinstalled XP, then installed Vista as a dual boot OS. Almost everything is working for me, but...

I can't find a driver that allows the keyboard controls for things like the volume and DVD player to work. This is an issue on both Vista and XP. The only disk included with the laptop was a Vista upgrade disk, so I'm at a loss as to how to restore some of the built-in Acer functions.

I've searched the driver sites, but can't seem to find what I'm looking for. I guess I'm asking if Acer has a recovery disk out there, or if someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

Edited: I misstated the model number.

 

Squirrels,

I just purchased the identical laptop from B*st B*y and I am EXTREMELY disappointed in it. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when you initially turned your system on, it prompted you to create YOUR OWN set of restore discs (two DVDs). If you breezed past this part, it does not ask again. And more bad news...when you formatted the HD, you destroyed the invisible backup partition. If you want some "restore" discs, you will need to contact Acer Tech Support and voice your fury/rage at the absence of restore discs in the package.

I made my restore disks and, when no games I attempted to run under Vista would run, I formatted the HD and installed WinXP Pro but have been unable to locate many of the drivers I need to run the system...
Wireless driver
"Good" Video driver, I used the Intel 943GML driver, but it "stutters" during games
"Good" Audio driver, same reason as the video driver
Bluetooth driver
LAN driver
Keypad driver, to use the volume/DVD controls on the keyboard

Hopefully, people will see our problems and AVOID this particular model. This is my first ACER (after years of Dell and Sony) and I am definately NOT happy!

Chili

 

girl griends 5100 from office max is the same way. I did a fresh install and can't find vista drivers for it anywhere. Modem isn't working and when she uses the volume it doesn't show it on screen at all.

 

I just cannot understand how Microsoft can put a product out on the market that not only doesn't work, but has absolutely no technical support available for it.

Apparently the chipset used in our new laptops (INTEL 943GML EXPRESS) was developed specifically for VISTA and drivers for Windows XP-Pro are non existant.

BEFORE YOU BUY A NEW COMPUTER, I SUGGEST YOU LOOK FOR ONE THAT HAS WinXP OR Windows MediaCenter INSTALLED ON IT. VISTA IS NOT (AND PROBABLY WILL NOT) BE SUPPORTED FOR MANY MONTHS TO COME!

Chili

 

I just downgraded the Vista to XP Pro and you will need to download all of the drivers from Acer's website to enable the
1. WXGA monitor
2. Lan

However, I cannot get the correct wireless driver. I also tried to download the latest from intel but without any luck.

 

For those interested, I have listed the ACTUAL components that are in this model. Forget what Acer tells you, I used Everest and here is what is REALLY under the hood:

MODEL: Acer Aspire 5610Z-2273
CPU: Intel Mobile DualCore Celeron M420 1.6Mhz (800 Mhz per core X 2)
Video Adapter: Intel GMA 950
Audio Adapter: Realtek ALC883
LAN: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM4401-B0
WIRELESS: Atheros AR5005G

I dloaded the above WinXP-Pro drivers from various sources and I have LAN and wireless connectivity with no problems.

I have yet to discover WinXP-Pro drivers for the keyboard "goody" buttons for CD/DVD or the modem.

I do, however, have the laptop running WinXP-Pro. I had to install a "newer" version of XP-Pro (with SP2 already integrated) to get the Aspire to function well. Apparently, the "virgin" and SP1 releases do not have certain drivers that recognize the Aspire's 'unique' hardware configuration.

I had a lot of trouble loading and running games before I formatted the VISTA and installed XP-Pro SP2. Now this laptop actually performs quite impressively.

I will let you know if I encounter any updates or any more drivers.

Chili

 

Hi Chilipepper,

I have this same laptop and have attempted to load XP Pro on it as well. Everything is working fine except an extremely annoying "stuttering" in the sound. I notice that you mentioned this in your first post. It sounds like you resolved that issue too, but you didn't mention what you did to take care of it. I've tried loading the latest intel drivers, the latest realtek drivers and nothing seems to help.

My XP Pro disk includes SP2, so it's the more recent version you mention.

Help???

 

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/pub/Aspire%205610
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5610

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/pub/Aspire%205100/
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5100/

 

Cityside,

I still have that annoying stutter. It only presents itself when I play movies. I agree it is annoying and I am really mad at Acer for not addressing my problem. I have emailed and called Tech Assistance with no remedy as of yet.

-Chili

 

The media card reader drivers work, but the one for the card reader bus doesn't. Still have the "stuttering" video/audio effect with the video/audio drivers in these links.

Chili

 

Has anybody tried the Bios updates in that link? I know there are a number of different configs in the 5610 line, are these Bios updates compatible with the 5610z?

As far as the stuttering goes, I'm still at a loss. I did find that even with the audio and video drivers uninstalled, the stutter still exists. This led me to run the Windows Performance Monitor (in the control panel under administrative tools), which revealed that the stutter coincides with a spike in the C3 state of the CPU. This is an ACPI standard and is described as a "sleep" mode.

So, it seems to me that we may need a bios update or new chipset drivers, or maybe a windows ACPI update to fully fix this issue.

I think we are a small minority here that are using this laptop with it's newly released processor in Windows XP, and it doesn't seem to be very well optimized for XP.

 

By the way Chili, have you checked that your computer isn't running in a power saving mode? You listed your processor as 800x2 cores but it should be 1600 per core. I installed the Acer Power Manager and CPU-Z and confirmed that I had been using the CPU at the same speed as you, perhaps because I told Windows it was a laptop under the Power profile.

Anyway, once I went with the Acer Power Manager and set it to Maximum Performance, I confirmed with CPU-Z that I was running 1600 per core.

FYI

 

Well I decided to take the plunge with the 3.50 bios and guess what? 15 minutes in and no stuttering yet! Compared to a stutter every 20 seconds or so before the update, I'm happy. In addition, the performance monitor is not showing the spikes in the C3 state that I was seeing before.

I recommend it to everyone!

 

Cityside,

Taking your advice, I installed the 3.5 BIOS and I no longer have the stuttering issues. I will try the power manager tonite to see if my processor speed changes.

The 800 X 2 core readings were reported by EVEREST, I would imagine that the "inventory" it takes would be related to hardware detection rather than a software report?

Thanks,

Chili

 

Glad to hear the bios helped you as well.

I ran EVEREST here and its showing each core running at 1.6Ghz. I think it does base its readings on hardware detection, I believe that our processors were running at 800 Mhz per core before because they were stuck in power save mode by Windows.

Now that these problems have been resolved, I'm actually very happy with the laptop, I hope you are as well. I happened to see in another thread that you are in Iraq...thank you and stay safe!!!!

Cityside

 

I had to install the Acer utility for that function to work. There is a link to the European site to download all of the drivers and Acer utilities .It is posted on the forum.

Walter

 

I have the same problem

i have the aspire 5610z (2273), with vista pre-loaded

CPU: Mobile Dualcore Intel Dual-core T2050 1.6GHZ
RAM: 1 GB DDR2
Video adapter: Intel GMA 950 / Intel 82940GML/945GT Gfx Controller
Audio: Realtek ALC883


I have the same problem with DVD playback. All my dvds shutter with video/audio, when playing through media center and meid player. Also tried VLC player, it won't play any of my movies.

Was thinking of updating the Bios like you did Chili. but the bios is for winxp. can i update it with the same Bios?

 

I can't even get XP to install on this laptop. I get a black screen before the option to hit F6 to install the storage controller driver even comes up. Is this because I need to inject the WXGA monitor driver into the XP install cd?

Mine is an Acer Aspire 5610z (model 5610-2998)

Here's the hardware specs as reported in linux by lspci:

* CPU: Pentium M T2080 (1.73 Ghz Dual Core, 1MB L2 Cache)
* MEMORY: 2 GB DDR Memory (1GB x 2)
* LCD: 15.4" WXGA Acer Crystal Brite
* DISPLAY: Intel Mobile 945GM Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
* TVOut: SVideo
* AUDIO: Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
* ODD: Pioneer DVR-K17RS DVD Super Multi Double Layer
* BUS Speed: 533Mhz
* MODEM: 56K
* Touchpad: Synaptics
* NIC (ETHERNET): Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
* WIFI: Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-PCI Card (rev 01) 802.11 b/g
* HDD: 120GB HDD ST9120822AS
* IDE interface: Intel 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge SATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 02)
* USB: 4 ports (Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI (rev 02)
* CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB-712/4 Cardbus Controller (rev 10)
* PCMCIA:
* Bluetooth: N/A - Optional Bluetooth Module Not Bundled With System

 

Well, I am happy to report that the BIOS update seems to have resolved the stuttering audio issue! Wow. And Cityside is right, the stutters seemed to occur right around spikes in C3. I also noticed that they could coincide with big memory pages, as well.

For those that don't want to hunt around, the direct link is:

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5610/bios

What really bothers me is how pathetic Acer support is. I only found this update because of THIS forum, not because of anything Acer provides. This CAN'T be only happening in our particular samples, it has to be occurring in every 5610 with this chipset. Haven't other people noticed it? Bah.

And 5610 user, we have almost identical machines, except mine has 1.6 GHz processors and an 80GB HDD. Other than that, they appear identical. I had no trouble booting up from the XP SP2 CD and installing. I don't understand why your install would fail. Very strange. Perhaps you can try a different, (maybe newer?) version of XP and report what happens?

Good luck!

-Pink

 

Can u help me out in installing XP pro on my acer 5610 Z laptop.
Please tell me the instructions how u installed XP..

Thanks