Acer Aspire One 522 Owners Lounge [AMD Fusion Netbook]

you can preview mkv files..... go grab the k-lite codec pack and BOOM mkv previews.....theres a app that tells you all your codecs installed... its on source forge and the name escapes me at the moment....ill see if I can find it later

 

Yes sorry, I mean 11.3 dated 3/28/2011 on AMD's site, I was thinking of something else.

 

just picked up my 522 today, has anyone who has put in a 7200 rpm WD black drive had any issues with heat at all? I have one here as an external and was thinking about swapping the toshi that's inside for this one when I upgrade the ram to 4 gb and would have to reinstall windows x64 anyways to get the most out of the ram.

 

This netbook is HOT! Both in performance/features and in operating temp.
As most of us have opened this baby up to upgrade RAM and/or harddrive, we've seen the little heat exchanger for the CPU (I am assuming) just before the exhaust vent.

I'm pondering making some mods to help reduce the temp. Part of me says don't mess with it, the acceptable max temp is not being reached.

1. Find a bigger/better heat exchanger and swap with the existing one. Well I don't have one that I can pull from an existing machine like the fellow in this monster Acer 522 thread -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...cpu-6250-gpu-performance-acer-522-review.html
Where can one shop for such heat exchangers?

I like this mod the best.

2. Put in a bigger fan? It will probably be louder and use more power.
If I could but a same sized fan that pushed more air, I'd consider it.

3. Mod the bottom of the 522.

a. Drill some more holes just upstream of the heat exchanger? ie after the fan has pushed the cooling air through the heat exchanger. I doubt this will help that much. One could make things worse by adding vent holes willynilly - I assume Acer did some heat removal engineering.

b. Add an aluminum plate to the bottom panel (and make some cut outs in the plastic panel) so more heat can be exchanged/it's not so concentrated? Unless this plate is thermally connected to the heat exchanger, the main benefit will be that the exhaust hot spot will be more spread out - the CPU will probaby still be at the same temp.

We all noticed the thick aluminum foil cladding in the bottom panel that pops off right? I assume this is more for electrical shielding than heat dissipation?
Also, we noticed the foam strips to channel/guide air flow too yes?

So I'm "danger Will Robinson" on mod'ing the bottom panel.

Any one else?

 

can anyone guide me through the RAM upgrade?

I'm pushing the latches on top of the keyboard but they push right back out...

 

hey glorck what's your operating temps for the video card? I'm showing a range from 54C to 79C using pcuid.


bearclaw: I used a creditcard to push in the tab, you can pry up the tops of the keys nearest to the tabs, they pop right out and back in if you just push down. The bottoms clip in on pegs, just be gentle and they'll stay in, they can come right off though, but they pop back on easily enough. When I had the keys up, I used them to gently pull while I kept pushing the tab in and worked my way across the tabs along the top. I started in the top right. once the first 2 were up and the keyboard started coming up, I just pulled on the keyboard, making sure as I went along the top that the tabs were pushed in.

Be slow and gentle, it will pop off.

 

I'm starting in the top right corner as well but I can't lift it up. As soon as I let go of the force it'll sink back down. It's like I need to do 2 tabs at once to relieve the pressure...

 

How this is the tool you're using?

I found out that if I'm less cautious/more forceful it was easier to take out the keyboard. I don't mean totally disregard how careful you are but don't be too scared. The first time around I was trying to be so careful I was getting nowhere. I spent two hours before getting frustrated and just going for it. I used this video to give me a basic idea how to do it:

http://www.umpcportal.com/2011/03/acer-aspire-one-522-upgrade-how-to-and-tests/

Watch the whole video before you actually do anything. He makes a few mistakes and points them out afterward.

 

I've gotten it out already... thanks.

 

Buy new ACER AO522-BZ465 Laptop Battery,11.1V 49Wh 73Wh 39Wh 4400mAh 6600mAh 3500mAh computer batteries

"4. Rechargeable Li-ion battery, ACER AO522-BZ465, 11.1V, 6600mAh, 73Wh replacement computer batteries"

Any comment on aftermarket batteries? Is this thing likely to be an overstated value, or is there actually a chance at getting (73/49Wh=)+49% battery life? Any reliable brand?

 

My 522 arrived yesterday, really loving this thing
I'm actually really surprised at the performance with just the standard 1 GB of ram. I ordered a 4 GB sodimm along with it, but after a quick look at how to take off the keyboard yesterday and with not really running into any significant slowdowns with my current workload (firefox with a couple tabs and software from uni running on interbase), I think I'll wait a little while to see if I can sell some old stuff, buy the SSD I want and install the SSD and ram at the same time.
The only thing I've run into is the keyboard. On its own, it's ok, I do agree that the flat keys arent optimal and I had to get used to the feel of the keys (little travel and taking a little more force to push down than I'm used to)... but the only key I'm sort of worried about is the left shift. It doesn't quite push down straight like the other keys, if I push down on it on the lower end of the key it doesn't quite go all the way down and it doesn't register. It does work if I just press it in the middle and doesn't actually give me any problems in actual use, but it doesn't seem quite right. If I push down the ctrl and fn keys and look under the shift button I also see a thin rod of metal along the whole width of the key that I don't see for any other key, so I'm wondering if maybe that rod was supposed to be clicked into something....
Anyone else recognize this? Are your shift keys the same or is this a (minor) defect with my unit? Not that I'd send it back for this I think, but it's something to keep an eye on I guess...

 

Ha, ok, fixed my shift button
Was taking another look at that metal rod thingy under it and decided to gently apply a bit more pressure to the key right above that piece of metal... popped right back in and it's fine now
Havent run into other problems yet, still going great. 1 GB of ram does limit you as soon as you start doing more things at once, but since for now it suffices for my current study requirements I guess I will wait to open it until I have the SSD as well.
I gotta say I'm very happy I went with this tiny model... I was also considering a 15" Dell XPS. The tiny size of this acer though allows me to study in my comfy chair and when I need it just shift my book to one leg and use this netbook on the other to quickly do an excercise or to check something. The Dell would've still condemned me to studying at a desk. Batterytime is great too, I can just throw this thing in my messengerbag when going to work and take it out if it's quiet and get some more studying done, no need to worry about the powersupply, battery will easily get me through the day (though if you're actually using it for a full 8 hour day it may die at the end).

edit: Oh actually, there was one thing that annoyed me just a little, the left side does get hot when it's gotta work. Was watching some 720p anime in bed with the screen pushed all the way back and standing the laptop on my belly, which works great but I had to hold the laptop on the right or above the keyboard on the left. Holding it on both sides next to the keyboard got uncomfortable. That heat does stay on the bottom though so for gaming with the laptop on a table it should be fine.

 

About the ram upgrade – DDR3 SDRAM – 1066 MHz (PC3-8500) or 1333 MHz (PC3- 10600)?

 

doesn't matter... it will clock down to 1066.... get whatever is cheaper

 

But if and when overclocking becomes a reality for the 522, will there be a benefit to going 1333? I've already installed the 4GB 1333 RAM, so I'm more curious than anything. If this is a newb question I apologize

 

Not really... even if you could overclock in the future the cooling will be a factor, but anyways no it would not make a difference just get whatever is cheaper

 

Do you guys know if there's a difference between these two models:

Acer Aspire 10.1" Netbook featuring AMD Processor C-50 (AO522-BZ499) - Black : Netbooks - Best Buy Canada
Acer Aspire 10.1" Netbook featuring AMD Processor C-50 (AO522-BZ623) - Black : Netbooks - Best Buy Canada

 

No difference. Go with the Z623, 70 bucks cheaper

 

I actually already have a 522. I was going to buy my sister one but she told me too late. I think I'll grab the 722 for her.

 

Hi,

Do you guys think it would be possible for us to install Windows Vista 64-bit version on this netbook? After buying one, I do not want to spend money on OS as I have Windows Vista at home.

Thanks.

 

nah... do not bother with installing any other OS version unless you plan on upgrading your ram. plus vista... thats more of a downgrade then anything...if you are a student you can get win7 pro for 30$ from m$

 

Hi! I have a problem with this beautiful machine...

I cannot select any resolution over 1024x600!!!

I have 4Gb, installed Win 7 x64. Everything went smooth. I tried with the acer website video drivers and I tried with the Ati 12.8 as well... nothing. no luck...

May someone help me?

Thanks!

 

rikymalfoy,

In some markets AO522 laptops are delivered with 1024x600 screens. In your model's number A0522-XXXX what are the X's?

 

i got this netbook finally and amazed from its graphics performance, dont think its just 1ghz as it can run my fav game Ashes Cricket 09 at medium settings with 25avg fps with 1gb ram only... i thought i have to upgrade to 4gb ram but i checked it out and it works great even in online mode, still going for upgrade anyways..
when i first powered it on the starter edition 7 was so laggy with lots of bloat-wares, INSTANTLY i formated my whole harddisk in to 5 partitions and installed the best gaming windows, the Windows XP PE, it runs like dream, so fast, its recommended for laptops and netbooks as it so light and removed all the extra services from xp (e.g they removed the irritating force-close a program and send report to microsoft bla bla, now endtask works so fast as in a sec u can get rid of non-responsive buggy programme)!! another fav game Brian Lara Cricket 2005 runs at 60fps.. thanks to windows xp PE..
i have dual boot with windows xp64bit and it works super fine too.. netbook worths your money coz u dont even need to upgrade to 4gb if u can bear Xp (love xp)

 

I know that this is not the newest model, but I've been trying to order this netbook online the last couple of days. The first two places, they both canceled the order because the item is discontinued. It's irritating when you place an order on an item that is shown to be available and in stock, when it actually wasn't. I've placed the order on a 3rd online retailer, so we'll see if I'll actually get the netbook or not.

 

Argh! The 3rd online retailer didn't have it in stock either! If anyone knows where I can get a new AO522 (with a 1280x720 screen), I'd appreciate the info.

 

Hi,

I recently bought an Aspire One 522, formatted the the whole harddisk and fist installed windows XP x64 and then Windows XP professional. Unfortunately, besides LAN, I couldn't find appropriate drivers for any of those operating systems so far, since the windows-7-drivers form acer's web site didn't work. Could you please tell me which drivers you used? It would be great if you could provide links to them, too!

Also I'd like to know if theres a noticable performance difference between the 32 and 64 bit versions of windows XP?

 

I'm in the UK. I recently bought the AO522 only to find that in the UK Acer released a version without the 720p screen, and only a 3-cell battery, with 250HDD. So that sucks. On the bright side, despite being labelled a C-50, it's actually a C-60 CPU with HD6290 graphics.

I've upgraded to 4GB of ram, and things are much nicer now, but I really want to upgrade the screen. Does anyone have any suggestions on a 1280x720 screen, or even a 1366x768 screen?

Also can anyone recommend a decent battery too. The current 3-cell lasts 3 hours browsing, but when I played a 720p video it only lasted an hour. Admittedly that was without hardware acceleration as I hadn't set it up in Linux at the time.

Oh and finally, does the AO522 have any spare mPCI-e slots at all?

 

Hey guys,

I'm from canada. I owned this netbook since 2010 i think, and i amm having problems.... nothing updates - windows update, catalyst driver ( updated to 12.6 but still says 12.4), and something else but cant remember it as of now. I added 4gb of ram (kingston 1333mhz) and had my drive partitioned after this problem showed up for a clean install..

During the installation of win 7. it says i need drivers but cant find them online :/
please help )x

 

another quick q&a... did the fn keys still work after a clean install? or do you have to get drivers or something for this to? :/

 

Screen with more resolution see for example Panelook.com, to purchage Ebay ore DR.Google. (10,1Zoll 40 pin RGBstripe TN white same thin/big)

MFG

:hi2: