Acer Aspire 5672 + Win 7

This is just my attempt to put Windows 7 on my Aspire 5672. Maybe this will help others

I know its an older model now, heck it came out in 2006 before even Vista. So I've kept it on Win XP for quite a while, hoping Vista drivers would be worked on. Now that I'm cleaning out all the junk, I figure might as well reformat. Sadly Acer doesn't provide Vista drivers for this model.

Might as well try Windows 7 RC and try finally moving to 64-bit.


Windows 7 installs smoothly, no fuss. Getting drivers is now the issue.
If I can get the minimal devices to work with the same usage as I had under XP, I'll stick with Win 7.

- Video: this uses the Mobility Radeon x1600. Sadly ATI deliberately does not support it through their Catalyst drivers. So have to use the Mobility Modder.
Sadly it doesn't seem to work for the latest Catalyst versions

Ultimately I went with DNA-ATI drivers which are pre-modded.
9.4 removes support for everything but their HD 2000 and higher series.
9.3 causes a WDM crash
9.2 seems to work okay
http://www.donotargue.com/page.php?id=1105

One thing now is that the driver is unsigned and won't load. Using the Driver Signature Override tool doesn't seem to work, nor the test mode bcdedit switch.

So what we need is ReadyDriver Plus, which will cause the boot loader to disable driver signing automatically. A neat program
http://www.donotargue.com/dna_ati/rdp/SetupReadyDriverPlus.exe

Of course, for Win7, you'll need to map a drive letter to the "System Reserved" partition so that the boot loader can be modified.

Whoohoo... we get video and a resolution other than the nasty 1024x768
Full Aero should get enabled too, assuming you've activated and such.


- Acer OrbiCam
Mine is the Logitech version. There's a whole thread about the Orbicam here
http://www.theacerguy.com/2007/06/an-apology-and-a-solution-for-the-orbicam-problem/

Sadly I haven't gotten it to work. It won't work with the Logitech package that Acer has. Won't even detect it properly. I've forced it to use the Vista x64 driver but all I get is a "This device cannot start. (Code 10)"

The easiest direct link I've found (because Acer's site is horrible to navigate)
http://download.cnet.com/Acer-OrbiCam-Logitech-zip/3000-18493_4-164032.html

Good I don't need the webcam

- Mass Storage Controller
PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_803B&SUBSYS_00941025
Really not sure what this device is. This machine never had an input for a card reader or something like that
So yep, unidentified

- Unknown device
ACPI\SMCB000\5&31DABA6F&0
Not sure what this is either. Something to do with the ACPI / chipset?
Still not hindering me using the laptop

- RC-605 eSATA ExpressCard (Optional)
This is what I'm using to connect to my external SATA drives. While it seems the disc that Rosewill provides does not load up the drivers automatically, you can update drivers on this Mass Storage Controller to use Vista x64 and it will load up correctly. Woohoo


So far, the rest of the inbox drivers work. I get sound, LAN, wireless as well. For my needs, I'm satisfied and its way less time installing drivers than even for XP.

And Windows 7 itself is working beautifully. These probably aren't the best scores, but for an older machine, I'm okay with this. (CPU / RAM / hard drive have all been upgraded, may not represent stock system)

Windows Experience Index
Processor: 4.9
Memory (RAM): 4.9
Graphics: 3.3
Gaming graphics: 4.0
Primary hard disk: 5.9

 

Thanks for the post Evaders99. I'll be installing Windows 7 this weekend on to my upgraded 5672. If I have the same problems or different ones, I'll post them here.

 

Well, instead of starting my own thread about doing the exact same thing Evaders99 did, I thought I'd just add to this one posting my own success and failures. So, here we go:

I too upgraded my CPU, Memory, HD, Bios, new fan unit and OS (see my sig below for complete details). The upgrades were very easy to do thanks to all the help from SSX4life. I was even able to put down new Ice Diamond 7 Thermal Paste on the new CPU and original GPU (thanks to all the info on NBR forums). The only downside with this upgrade is that the 945PM chipset doesn't support 4GB of memory and will only use 3GB, even with Windows7 64-bit.

I did a fresh install of Windows7 RTM Ultimate and everything was installed and ready to go in about 20mins, no problems what so ever. I connected to the internet and got all the necessary updates too. Boy does this OS run great, I'm very impressed.

When I opened up Device Manager I too had the same 3 issues:
- Mass Storage Controller --> don't know what it is, don't care, nothing affected
- Unknown Device --> same as above
- Webcam

For the Webcam I went to the Acer Europe site and downloaded the Windows Vista Acer Orbicam drivers. First I installed the driver by itself (to test if it worked), then installed the entire package (along with software). Everything runs smooth and the Orbicam works great with Skype.

Now as for the ATI GPU driver, Windows7 automatically detected the Radeon Mobility x1600 and installed the 8.561.0.0 driver. I haven't tried to update it to version 9 yet but will do so in the next few days. I remember reading about the Legacy driver support for this GPU, I'll look into it further and post more later.

The one issue I did have that Evaders99 didn't was that Windows7 assigned my soundcard(on board) driver as Microsoft High Definition Sound, therefore my sound was working sometimes, and other times I got nothing. So I did the same thing as before and went to the Acer Europe website and downloaded the Windows Vista Realtek sound driver (incld. software ) and the sound works fine now.

As for my Windows Experience Index Score, it's the same as Evaders99 except Processor and Memory are 5.0.

Since this laptop already ran extremely hot, I purchased a cooling station, as well as I've undervolted the CPU with RMclock, again no problems after 5hrs of tests with ORTHOS. Currently with my laptop hooked up to a 22" LCD, CoreTemp shows my temps @ 57C idle .8500V, and @ 77C full load .9875V (little bit higher because of external monitor and 25C room temp... I think). All in all I'm very happy with my upgrades and would like to thank everyone on this forum for all their grate help!

 

So its been a while... finally decided to go ahead and move to RTM
Since I had a fairly clean install and a backup anyway, I decided to do an in-place upgrade (by editing the cversion file) rather than doing a clean reinstall.

- No major issues really, but...
Compability did detect there would be issues with
ATI Catalyst
Acer Orbicam
Hamachi


Which were correct mostly...

- ATI Catalyst - display driver
I had to go back and figure this one out. Unlike TrelarH, I didn't get the driver automaticaly loaded. Maybe the upgrade process doesn't install new drivers? Anyway, the DNA-ATI package I could not locate again

The latest CCC 9.9 did not work correctly. The Mobility Modder would make changes and the setup would run, but the driver itself would never load.

TrelarH's link to the legacy driver works with Mobility Modder. And I'm back to running Win7 with all the nice Aero features

- Acer Orbicam

Sadly I didn't have any luck again with this. Maybe its just the Logitech one, but I cannot get the driver working. Oh well

- Hamachi

A quick reinstall to Hamachi 2 solves that issue



Incidentally I've been using Microsoft High Definition Sound with no issues at all.

This is excellant. I have all my programs working as normal... even the saved configuration like my jump lists pinned items, wallpaper, other customizations. It's beautiful.

P.S. free utility for you, changing the boot screen image in one nice utility
http://tweaks.com/software/tweakslogon/

 

Hello again, I will be stealing Evaders99 thread just one more time.

So I also installed the latest v.9.8 ATI Legacy drivers using the Mobility Modder tool. Everything worked out fine, and I have no glitches when gaming or doing anything else. The instructions posted on the MobilityModder website were straight forward and easy to follow, and Windows7 runs these drivers perfectly.

The only thing I was confused about was that I downloaded the Catalyst v.9.8 and thought that's what was being installed. However upon further review the Catalyst version that was ACTUALLY installed was v.9.3 as well as the latest display driver installed was v.8.593 which according to pcpitstop.com is indeed the latest driver which came out 07/21/2009. Here's a pic of the details that my Catalyst is showing me:



I know there's lots of people out there that probably already know this, and wouldn't have been confused by it. However for the other people (like me ) now you know lol.

As for the OrbiCam problem that Evaders99 is having, I'm not sure the reason why. I also have the Logitech version and it installed and works just fine.

Lastly, even with the driver update that damn Windows Experience Index still shows an embarrassing 3.3 due to my Graphics. Oh well.

 

Concernig the Mass storage controller prolbem
Just download from Acer the drivers for the specific laptop named

(card reader TI_V.1.0.1.19 VISTA X86) sure you solve the problem


Mass Storage Controller
PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_803B&SUBSYS_00941025
Really not sure what this device is. This machine never had an input for a card reader or something like that
So yep, unidentified


Concerning
Unknown device
ACPI\SMCB000\5&31DABA6F&0

This is problem with your drive to read the sd or md disk
at front panel, for sure if you try to read your photo cameras disk
will be not more available

with the above Acer driver but in Windows XP or Vista OS, your problem
with front panel will not exist.this happend becouse the driver in Windows 7
solve the Mass Storage Controller only

- Unknown device
ACPI\SMCB000\5&31DABA6F&0
Not sure what this is either. Something to do with the ACPI / chipset?
Still not hindering me using the laptop


I hope to help a little
Cousa

 

First of all, thank you all who have collaborated on this thread. I have recently migrated to Windows 7 on this exact notebook and all your tips were really helpful.

I was able to get everything working, just like you guys, except for the ACPI device which is almost certainly the Infrared Communications port (and I've never used it, so, it's no problem at all).

I am having difficulty with the Logitech Orbicam, however. It has been causing the dreaded BSoD quite often, specially when I try to get the notebook to sleep or wake up (by closing or opening the lid) and other times, it just happens at random. It's really annoying, since I did not have any problems before, with Windows XP. On the BSoD, it says the problem is with the file lv321av.sys.

Also, I am hearing some crackling when playing audio. This includes system sounds, MP3s or YouTube videos. Again, it doesn't happen all the time, but it's annoying.

Is anybody else experiencing these problems? Or better yet, does anybody have a solution? :-D

Thanks a lot,
Alex

 

I've not had much luck with my Logitech Orbicam either. I think it's a hardware issue, probably a bad cable. When it does detect, it does start BSoD'ing on me.

Sorry I have no solution, I rarely use the webcam anyway.

 

Just wanted to add my experience of upgrading my 5672WLMi to Windows 7.
Computer Specs:
Intel Core Duo T2300
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (128MB integrated + 512MB Hypermemory)
500GB Seagate Momentus.4
3GB DDR2 (2GB+1GB)

Using a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate. All Acer drivers were from the North American site.

After installation and initial startup, the first thing I did was get Bluetooth working so I could use my Logitech V470 bluetooth laser mouse. This was accomplished by using the 32-bit Vista drivers provided by Acer. Easy enough (pairing was actually the hard part, but that's pretty common with most things BT).

Next task was the dreaded ATI Catalyst problem. In short, I used Mobility Modder with Catalyst 9.1. I tried, unsuccessfully, to use 9.3, 10.1, and 10.5. Still can't get Catalyst Control Center to work, but I'm just happy to have full resolution and my external monitor working again. Thanks to person who made and updates Mobility Modder!

Next objective was the card reader. Again I used Acer's Vista32 drivers and it installed flawlessly.

Onto the Modem, this was an odd bird. Again, using Acer's Vista32 drivers, at the end of the installation it said it failed. But the weird part is that it asked me to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. And the weirder part was that I did. But nonetheless, the Device Manager said that it was working perfectly. And I know what you're thinking, who uses a modem anymore? Of course, I don't, but nobody wants the bluescreen.

And now onto the main event, the Acer/Logitech Orbicam! I had a hunch with this one that I wanted to investigate. I download the Vista32 drivers from Acer and unzipped. Right-clicked on the setup.exe file, clicked Properties, went to the Compatibility tab, and had it load as it would under Windows Vista. Installation went perfect, restarted, still looked good, and it really works. No error message in the Device Manager.

Anyway, that's how I got everything to work with Windows 7. I don't know how stable it is, because I just fixed all those drivers a few minutes ago and wanted to reply while it was still all fresh. Here is my Windows Experience Index:

Processor: 4.1
Memory (RAM): 4.6
Graphics (Aero): 3.2
Gaming Graphics: 3.5
Primary hard disk: 5.9
Overall: 3.2

Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread, it was a valuable resource.

 

Dear Sir,

Could you tell me how did you partition your 500GB Seagate Momentus.4?, thanks in advance.

Muadeep

 

Back in 2006 I purchased this Acer as my primary entertainment laptop. It served me well for 3 years, and was promptly assigned to my closet when I bought its W7 equipped replacement last year (HP DV7).

I recently made a USB W7 install thumb-drive for my 1.6 Ghz Acer One netbook. After a surprisingly successful install on that, I decided to dust this baby off and give it a much needed facelift.

I'm floored. Works perfect. I expected some issues from this install, but no. Only the Cam doesn't work. My model came with the X1400 which works perfectly with the NA site's vista x86 driver, here.

Acer Support - Drivers & Support Documents

The Aero and resolution are a beauty.

Stats are:
Processor 4.1
RAM 4.7
Graphics 3.4
Gaming 3.6
HDD 4.3

 

Update:

Got the camera and the infrared working. Good, working drivers for both were in the optional install section of Windows Update.