Acer Aspire One 522 Owners Lounge [AMD Fusion Netbook]

System specs
AMD C-50 "Ontario" (40nm) 1.0Ghz Dual Core | 2x512KB L2 cache
10.1" native screen resolution 1280 x 720
AMD Radeon HD 6250
1 GB DDR3
250 GB @ 5400 RPM
Broadcom 802.11 b/g/n
3x USB 2.0 ports
HDMI port
VGA port
Multi-card reader SD, MMC, MS, MS-Pro, XD, microSD
6cell Lithium-Ion w/4400 mAH
Windows 7 Starter
Weight including battery 1.25 kg

-----------------------------

It's time that a thread was made in this section to help users with their Acer Aspire One 522. Enjoy!

 

For those running an SSD drive could you post your ATTO benchmark? As well have you any tweaks applied? I just installed my SSD and curious as to what you're getting.

 

Tie in/related thread: Acer 522 performance review

That picture is definitely not the 522. It looks more like the 260.
-The 522 screen is placed lower than other aspire ones.
-It does not have a dimpled touchpad.
-location of words "aspire one" incorrect
-top part not all one piece as indicated in this picture

 

Updated, I didn't even realize it myself

 

Got mine today and already fell in love with it.... the only hard part was getting the keyboard off so I could install a ssd and a 2gb stick of ram i had laying around!... My 2 only pet peevs are the stupid peep noise it makes when its plugged/unplugged and the smallish keyboard.... other then that it IS the BEST NETBOOK for under 350!!!! GO SUCK IT OVERPRICED ION!!!!

 

Indeed it is a great netbook and better than the toshiba nb555d netbook I returned =P Anyway here are my results on WEI and ATTO Disk benchmark with my new mushkin ssd drive.

 

poy: did you get 4.4 desktop performance for windows aero...before your ssd?

im getting 4.2 (win 7 starter clean install,default drivers...2 gig ram)

my scores are

2.8
4.9
4.2
5.5
5.6

 

weird I am only getting 90 read /30 write on my ssd on this netbook.... Can not figure out why

 

did you redo clean install and or acer recovery disk install? or did you make image in windows backup then reimage? (ive read that when going to ssd best to redo clean install)

maybe if older ssd..try flashfire http://flashfire.org/xe/?mid=home

 

of course I tried a fresh install.... well it doesnt matter now as the drive is toast.... i left the drive on the table in the bios because i was doing sometihing...went to the restroom and came back to find one of my younger brothers friends just typeing random stuff on the keyboard..... i turn it off and back on and now my ssd has a password on it that I have no idea what it is!

 

what hard drive you guys would you recommend for an upgrade?

 

For my SSD drive I did a clean install of windows 7 ultimate and used SSD Tweaker 1.9.1 - Feb-2011 . The ssd tweaker program has made a performance difference on my drive.

Habs69M - Find an SSD drive that's sandforce driven if you're after performance. OCZ seems to be hit and miss at the moment so give the mushkin callisto deluxe drives a go.

 

Is this the Zacate successor to the Aspire 521?! What's with the low WEI? I thought two dual cores at 1 Gig woulda beat the Athlon II Neo's single core...guess not...

My WEI (AO-521) is 3.4 on stock ram (1 Gig of DDR3) under Windows 7 Ultimate. Win7 doesn't like having only 1 core I guess.

 

thks for the info will check it out

 

This isnt the Zacate its the Ontario. I used to use the 521 daily (till it broke). Anyways the thing is designed for low power consumption. Dont let the WEI fool you cause its pretty inacurate.

For the exact same things I use the netbook for between both machines. There pretty much identicle performance. Except for now I realisticly get 4hours of battery. With a max bright screen and wifi on with a wireless mouse plugged in.

Oh and more screen real estate.

 

Hi
just bought this netbook.
Just wondering what exact HDD is used? I am thinking of replacing it with a Hitachi 7k200, but not sure if there is any benefit.
No money for SSD right now

Thanks

 

start/search/system info

components/storage/disks

toshiba MK2565GSX

Toshiba Storage Products : 2.5-inch HDD MKxx65GSX series

nice but small ssd for $90
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=53308&vpn=OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G&manufacture=OCZ%20Technology&promoid=1281

 

I replaced mine HDD with a 500 WD Cavier Black. I wanted the extra space for media files. It is alot more faster than the toshiba drive though.

Got this but at a cheaper price. NCIX.com - Buy Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB 2.5IN 7200RPM SATA Notebook Hard Drive - Western Digital WD - WD5000BEKT - in Canada

 

Glad to hear this isn't the Zacate. The single mono-speaker and the horrible component upgrade degeneration (The single panel rear path was perfect in the 521) woulda made it a no-deal for me.

Still though, the price, esp. considering the beefy integrated GPU makes it somewhat attractive over the Atom equivalents.

I'd still rather have a Zacate though. )

 

???

with ac plugged in, i set power to performance level in control panel/power,and left default power level settings

when i was using battery today i double checked power setting and noticed it was on balanced,so i put ac back in and noticed it back to performance

is this normal to have to set power level with ac and battery...i would have thought that setting it in either would keep it there for both (as all power levels show both ac and battery settings)

 

@roscoo

yes that is normal for all the laptops we have or owned with WIn 7

 

ty shadow.....

 

Prechance does anyone have any pictures of the inside of this thing? I want to take a look at the heatsink without taking my 522 apart again.

 

any one have any ideas to increase the sound quality out of headphones? when I listen to music it just sounds soo flat and tinty even after using some of the built in windows enhancements

 

you using windows 7 media player graphic equalizer?

media player/alt (for menu)/view/skin chooser/revert/click equalizer to make big.

 

I'm looking for a performance comparison between upgrading the 522 to 2gb and 4gb.

See I have some free 2gb sticks I can use but I would have spend over $50 to buy a 4gb stick.

Is 4gb it really worth it for some surfing, video and light gaming like LOTRO?

btw I have done a Windows Anytime upgrade to Win 7 HP .

thx

 

Personally I did notice a performance increase in upgrading the RAM from 1GB to 2GB and then to 4GB in videos and gaming. Remember that the graphics takes 356MB (I think) of that RAM right away, thus the upgrade to W7 HP will not give you that big of an upgrade (IIRC it keeps it at 32-bit vs upgrading to 64-bit) thus you will use a full 2GB for W7 and 356MB of the remaining 2GB for the graphics leaving ~1.6GB free for the system to access/use in other ways if possible.

SideWinderDX

 

I just installed a 4gb stick of ram as I randomly picked up a BCD3000 Dj controller for Traktor/virtual dj. Will report back on how it goes.... This will be interesting.

 

The quality sounds fine without windows changes to me when I play WMA files in my good headphones. I get what sounds like good bass. I'll pay more attention next time and compare it to my desktop when I get the chance.

 

Installed a Intel 40GB SSD a few days ago and battery life went up dramatically.
2nd lowest Screen Brightness, casual surfing, no videos, 7+ hours. This is with 6 cell battery. Use to be less than 5 hours with 250gb Toshiba 54000rpm OEM drive.

Intel X25-V 40gb SSD

Active 0.15 W
Idle 0.075 W


Toshiba 250gb 5400rpm 2.5" Notebook Drive

start-up 4.7 W
Seek 2.2 W
Read / Write 1.9 W
Idle 0.85 W

Figures

 

It seems Intel X-25 have fewer problem compare to other, but with only 40GB, it's to small ( 80GB to pricey ^^)
And i read sandforce controller ( Corsair force,patriot inferno) have sleep/hibernation bug,especially corsair product.
OCZ is not avalaible in my country, Mushkin is available.

So, can anyone here tell me which SSD work fine with Acer 522?
It seem the "sleep bug" mostly happened between sandforce controller and intel chipset. So.i'm not sure if amd chipset have the same problem.

 

AO522 AMD C-50 2gb DDR3 Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit with Intel X25 40GB SSD.

Sleep functions perfectly.

 

Thx alot...
Do you have enough space with 40GB SSD?
Do you shrink it with vLite?

 

just wondering, the leds in front are all blue exept the wifi conn one, is that normal or should the wifi be blue also?

oh and i dont have any prob with wifi

 

thats normal... the wifi light is supposed to get brighter based on the strength of the connection... woopie do? but ya its orange

 

cool thks

 

Just bought this computer and haven't opened the box yet. I don't know if I'll need all the upgrades you guys have but I definitely want them. My friend works at a computer store so hopefully she can get a discount on SSDs.

 

you 100% need at least 2gb of ram this is a MUST

 

It's been ok so far with the 1gb of RAM but I do think I want more. I'm thinking of just throwing in a 4gb since it's not much more than the 2gb one. That way if I ever move to home premium 64-bit I won't need to open it up again. I'm also thinking about putting in an Intel X25-M if I can get one at a decent price. How was it accessing the RAM?

Also, there seems to be some bloatware on this thing. Which software did you guys find unnecessary?

 

Personally I just reinstalled the whole thing once i registered my warrenty... on the recovery partition with the drivers just make sure you grab the webcam software and anything else you want off of it then just reinstall.... its a pain to open up yet simple none the less... just pop off the keyboard and undue 4-5 screws and then the bottom pops off

 

Would love to see 3dm06 and wprime scores for this C-50. Has anyone tried to OC with SetFSB? Can fusion cores be OC'd? This core looks perfect for a tablet. Is this netbook fanless?

Bronsky

 

Its not fanless yet the fan barely runs unless your playing a game or something of that sort

 

It can't be fanless... Temps go as high as 90C when under load.

 

Readers should know that thread contains over 600 entries about the Acer Aspire One 522 netbook.
Your questions, such as

• should I upgrade memory?
• what memory upgrades should I use?
• how to replace memory and/or disk drives
• what games work?
• upgrading Windows 7 starter edition
• where do I find drivers for x64 windows?
• and more

already have answers in Acer 522 performance review.

Please look over that thread before repeating a question here.

Thank you,
Harry

 

Sweet. Thanks for the info!

 

Too bad about the heat. I was hoping that the C-50 would make a good power source for fanless tablets like my HP Slate 500.

Bronsky

 

This list is culled from messages to this date in the Acer Aspire One 522 Owners Lounge [AMD Fusion Netbook] and the AMD C-50 CPU and 6250 GPU performance(Acer 522 review) thread.

To be included in this list a writer states the 4GB memory module works in their AO522. I've included the all important part number where given:

• Corsair CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9 4GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Module - 1333MHz Unbuffered CL 9 SODIMM Memory 9-9-9-24 1.5V
• Mushkin Essentials 2GB DDR3 1066MHz CL7 SODIMM (991643) PC3-8500
• Kingston KVR1066D3S7/4G 4GB 1X4GB PC3-8500 DDR3-1066 204PIN SODIMM Memory
• Samsung 4GB DDR3-1333 (PC3-10600) CL9 SO-DIMM
• G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) PN F3-10600CL9S-4GBSQ

Harry

 

When I switch between power settings the screen brightness stays the same even though I set power saver to be at 30% and high power at 80%. Is this something with the 522 or is it a Windows 7 thing? Anyone know how to fix this? Sorry about the stupid question but I couldn't find an answer through searching google. Also, can someone point me towards a walk though on how to do a fresh install of Windows 7? Getting rid of the bloatware manually sucks.

 

Look here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html

 

Here is my guide for the 3820TG.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6465732-post1612.html

It should give you the basic steps.

Bronsky