Acer Aspire V5-122P Owners' thread

I have twins, 122p's, One is primary the other sits in it's bag and is periodically brought out to have it's HDD cloned, I went beyond conventional 'Backup,' it's similar to having Exact twin Automobiles, if one breaks you have a duplicate!!! I struggled last June to enable 'Advanced Bios Features' However, I never seemed to get past the Hex editing, 'This particular method provided the editing' but efforts were just futile, any suggestions?

 

Hi everybody,

After reading through whole thread (literally, good read) I think I'm gonna buy that to replace my broken thinkpad x121e. Can you tell me how does it compare to i3 2367 with 4gb that I have now? I sadly broke this laptop down, don't need much more power, but rather same size, and backlit keyboard would be a nice upgrade. I have one game I play on it, but I will ask about that in the other thread.

Cheers!

 

Is there really no way to lock the CPU at 1.4ghz? A year later and we're still having to put up with lack-luster performance..

 

So... I figured out a way to get it to lock at 1.38ghz on battery. Basically upgrade CCC, enforce high performance on battery, sleep/wake on battery and bam, 1.38ghz locked on battery. Loving this lappy.

 

Sorry. What's CCC?

 

Catalyst Control Center = CCC

 

There are new power options in the updated catalyst control center which allow you to enforce high performance on battery. This unlocks the high cpu clock for battery use !

 

Which version are you using? 14.4, 14.6 rc, or 14.7 rc3 beta?

 

14.4



Go to powerplay and change battery to high performance.



Here is proof


I'm on battery and locked at 1.38~1.39 ghz after sleep/wake cycle.
You'll probably need to set system settings to high performance as well. Note: I also uninstalled the acer power regulation software that came with the laptop.

I've also upgraded the laptops ram to 10gb, enabled SVM, bought a couple external batteries and upgraded wifi as well. I damaged the laptops backlight while installing a screen protector so there are some light spots on the gorgeous screen. Makes me sad as this is an otherwise perfect device.

 

Awesome man! Yeah after over one year of owning my v5-122p-0600 I couldn't be any happier with it (even though I don't use it that much after getting my J5N82UT). I've had the official Acer external battery for almost the same time and I still often see the Windows battery meter reads up to 12 hours (depending on usage of course)!

What BIOS UEFI version did you use to enable SVM?
As for your external batteries go, did you buy the Acer one or aftermarket? If so can you provide a link to the source?
What WLAN adapter did you upgrade to and did you have any issues like some of us did in the past?

 

@davidricardo86

I'm on BIOS 2.12 The unlocking method posted earlier in this thread still works fine .

I bought the external batteries off of ebay, they are acer official, and cost $20 each. (can't find any listed right now)

I'm using an Acer AR5B22 WIFI adapter with the 20th pin taped off. It works fine and I get faster speeds, but the range is still dismal. On some routers it's actually faster than a wifi dongle, but on my home network the wifi dongle is still faster. I can turn the wifi on and off, and bluetooth on and off as well, after the 20 pin mod.

I get about 4-5 hours with the external battery attached and 1.38 ghz lock. I'm sure it's actually more though, because I can typically go 2 days without charging on 1 external battery. I could probably manage 3 days if I swapped battery's out.

I might switch to an ssd in the future, but windows 8.1 is pretty speedy on a hdd.

I really think this is the perfect device... It's just as snappy as my old yoga 13 I dropped, 10gb ram, backlit keyboard, ips display... My only gripes might be the fact that I have to sleep wake cycle it for a lock, and that the screen could be brighter. But having bought this laptop + accessories for ~$300 I couldn't be happier.

 

Awesome! I wanted to update to BIOS 2.12 and enable SVM but didn't want to pull the trigger just yet. I'll have to set some time to do it soon.

After hearing how much you paid for an Acer external battery I went on eBay to look for one for myself. Someone had one listed and claims it is a new replacement from Acer. I paid $19.50 including shipping, sweet! I paid $100 for my first Acer external battery over a year ago when then Acer was the only source for them! INSANE!

Yeah I'll be holding on to this Acer for some years until a suitable replacement shows up. So far, nothing has really caught my eye. Its unfortunate Mullins and Beema hasn't come in such a well equipped and portable package.

 

I think my ex gf damaged my v5-122p but there's no way to prove it and she said she didn't. Now my keyboard keys have the gray paint peeling off like acid was spilled on it and the power button is sunk in and doesn't "click" anymore. I want to repair it as I cherish this little PC much and can't stand to see it damaged. I always take good care of my stuff too.

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

Sorry to hear that! I agree about how close the device is to perfect. I think the only thing I would personally add is an ethernet jack, but I make do with usb.

Ever figure out if the acer mini cp one impact on cpu is less than usb? Still cant find it anywhere cheaper. Insane shipping cost from acer. Let me know if you want to sell yours (anyone).

 

Hi!
I have bought a second battery on Ebay US which is arrived yesterday... I reloaded fully the acer, after, I have connected the second battery to my pc. A orange spy was lighting from the second battery just for a second, after, it turned off and became orange the principal spy recharge of my notebook. After many tries, my second battery doesn't start to recharge yet, seems to be always 0%, the pc don't want to load the second battery, it want only recharge the primary battery.
On windows doesn't exist a solution, also there, seems to show recharging the primary battery, and the secondary battery seems to be however defective.

Any suggestions before ask back my money?

Maybe it is fully discharged, and since it is a lithium battery, now it seems defective, but when you will give it a little tension (bring at least 1%), maybe it will restart to reload...

HELP! THANKS!

 

I've experienced a similar thing. Try charging the batteries with the computer completely off say overnight.

 

I tried everything! I'm frustrated! With some softwares I saw that the battery isn't worn (they show like 1,71%), so I thought, maybe the battery was really new but nobody has never recharged it periodically...so now is completely discharged and does not seems to want to start recharge.

I have already let the pc on charging all night but without success. The battery seems death, maybe should have an electroshock!

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

Sorry but I do not want to sell it yet. FYI, I paid $35 for it a year ago.

I won't be able to test it until my v5-122p is fixed. My keyboard is damaged because of whatever chemical was spilled on it and the power button doesn't work. I just ordered a new power button/USB/audio board right now for $6. A replacement US backlit keyboard costs $36.

Has anyone removed the keyboard? From what I remember it is plastic welded to the palm rest plastic. I may have to get a keyboard and palm rest assembly which I checked and costs $80-$100!

Underneath the v5-122p there is a battery reset button. While disconnected from AC power, press and hold this button with a paper clip for 30 seconds. According to Acer support this simulates a battery disconnect from the motherboard.

I would simply return it for an exchange or refund and buy it again from a different seller or source.

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

I tried also this trick, without success... I obtained a full refund but I come from Italy, I can't return the defective battery because it is arrived from USA. In Italy Acer sell the battery at 99€ (like USA 99$)...I think it's too expensive...When I bought the battery on Ebay.us was only because was so cheap.

It was a try, moreover failed.

 

Can you tell me what battery you bought, because i cant find anything on Ebay
Does the battery have a modell name ? and is it 3 or 4 cells?
And do you know how to get the it to run in 1300mhz all the time, beacuse now i have installed the new catalyst Control center but i can only lock it in 1000mhz

 

I'm trying to see if anyone managed to extract the recovery image and hosted it somewhere so download? My model is the V5-122P-6145 and after I upgraded to Windows 8.1 the recovery is broken and I didn't create a backup.

I read a post on here that someone took the hard drive out and was able to see the recovery image and install again like that, but surely there must be another way.

It would be nice to have the recovery if I can but if not I'll survive, but I just don't want to run into problems if I change to an SSD and if I try to alter the bios as done on here.

Thanks

 

I'd also like to know about both these

 

This is the battery I purchased:

Acer External Laptop Battery | eBay

It is an Acer original second battery AL13A for V5-122P or V5-132P:

Chemistry: Li-ion
Pack Spec: 3S1P
Cell Number: 3 cell
Capacity: 2520 mAH, 28 Wh
Voltage: 11.1 V
EAN: 4712196817084
UPC: 887899128363

I tried looking on eBay but could not find any external batteries. It appears they've all been bought so far. You'll have to wait until they reappear. At $20 is a heck of a DEAL! If you find them, BUY ONE, or two or three. I may purchase a third one myself as my new job will require me to be on the road and being away from an electrical outlet.


The way that I get my A6-1450 to run at 1.4 GHz all the time is I simply close the lid to put it to sleep or sleep it using "Fn+F4" and after a few seconds of being asleep, wake it up by opening the lid or pressing the power button. That's it! It will then run the CPU at its maximum clock speed, or approximately 1.4 GHz. I've only done this while plugged into AC adapter power. I believe it can be done on battery too but you need to set it in the catalyst. I don't think it matters what Catalyst you are using (I could be wrong someone can correct me) but I would first start with the one Acer Support provides and then experiment with the latest AMD Catalyst video drivers (maybe even beta drivers). You may need chipset drivers too.

I forgot about this task. I still have my USB recovery backup. It can be used to recovery the factory OS, however I don't know if it can rebuild the recovery partition. Its been a long time. I would suggest a fresh clean installation of Windows 8.1 to be quite honest. I put together a guide showing just how and I feel this is the better way to go. Let me try and find that for you.

See my comment above.

 

Woohoo! My V5-122P is back up and running as new! I found a backlit keyboard touchpad palmrest for $40 on eBay which came from an 0681 in good condition. It had a couple broken tabs, which I glued back on, and a little bit of damage near the hinge area but the keyboard and touchpad are in excellent condition, no finger grease/oil markings whatsoever! Overall I am satisfied with it and the price wasn't too bad. For those whose v5-122p did not come with a backlit keyboard, this is an EASY UPGRADE! Go on eBay and look for complete palmrests and pay attention to the F9 key as that has the marking/symbol for the ON/OFF keyboard backlight.


I love this little v5-122p, it just keeps on chugging right along. While performing these repairs I started thinking about other upgrades that might be possible.

1. Heatsink modification/upgrade: Can we double up on the copper heatsink, or add more heatsink material to help transfer heat off of the SoC?
2. LCD upgrade: Is there any way we can upgrade to a 1080p IPS LCD?


Lastly, for those of you struggling to get the correct video display and chipset drivers working I have a suggestion. First and most importantly, you will remove any and all traces of previous video display and chipset drivers from Winodws directories and registries using Display Driver Uninstaller in Safe Mode. Make sure to delete "C:/AMD" directory and "AMD Audio Bus." Let the program clean and restart Windows 8.1. After the restart, install 14.9 AMD Catalyst Mobility Radeon Drivers and install 14.9 AMD Chipset Drivers. Done! This will make sure you have the latest display driver as well as AMD SATA controller, AMD HD Audio, USB 3.0, and AmdAS4 device driver from a clean state.

1. Download, install and run Display Driver Uninstaller 13.5.0.0 (32/64-bit, 10/24/2014, 1.10 MB)
2. Download, install and run 14.9 AMD Catalyst Mobility Radeon™ Driver (64-bit, 9/28/2014, 273 MB)
3. Download, install and run 14.9 AMD Chipset Drivers (64-bit, 10/23/2014, 36 MB)

This will also make sure the CCC is working correctly too (it was not working for me prior till). Hope this helps!

 

We certainly can upgrade the heatsink, I have been thinking about it for a while now. Really, All it needs is some copper fins to better move the heat away. But I might use a heatpipe from another small laptop and have it sit right in front of the fan.

A 1080p screen would be a long shot, you'd need a dual channel lvds cable. And a panel. But you wouldn't be able to see much on the screen. I think the resolution we have is pretty good, and I love the IPS display.

 

I have three of these. Two of them came from the Microsoft Store and are flawless. The third came from Acer via Amazon and it has lots of software problems.

Right now I cannot dim or brighten the screen. I think the system sometimes forgets the display as it's appearing in the Device Manager as a Generic PnP Display with a question mark, which is obviously wrong.

Has anyone experienced this problem and solved it?

**EDIT** A workaround is to uninstall the device from the control panel and run Scan for New Hardware from the menu, but this has happened more than twice already.

 

Its been happening to me for quite some time. My v5-122p-0600 came from Amazon. Sometimes my touchscreen, display and even touchpad act strange so I simply disable and enable those devices from Device Manager and then they begin working like normal again.

Do you use hibernate? I do, and I've noticed the issue with not being able to dim or brighten the display happens after some time.

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

Hello, how does the bios update work on this? I am still on v2.04. I have read not to update the bios on computers unless I need to. The download contains a .exe file, and the readme says to click on it to update. I am wary of this because I have read that flashing the bios in windows has a higher chance of failure than in a bootable cd using dos. I have researched this and have come to the conclusion that the exe file does one of two things. 1. It will flash the bios from within windows or 2. It will reboot the computer into the uefi/bios and flash from there. Which is it? I ask because I want to add an sdd and want to make sure the bios is compatible so I don't have any problems. I have enough money for an ssd, but not enough to buy a new laptop in the event that I corrupt the bios. Also, am I correct in thinking that the v5 -122p has two ram slots with 2x2gb of ram, one that is soldered to the motherboard, one user replaceable?

 

Very interesting. I think I am using both hybrid sleep and hibernate under Windows 8.1. It's the same setting on my kids' "Microsoft Signature" no-bloatware editions of the same laptop and theirs don't seem to have any problems, but, then, they don't usually bother with the screen brightness.

I'm going to blame the Acer software and add-ons. I've already tried installing the image from one of the other "MS Signature" laptops and it doesn't take. I'm going to try the clean Windows 8.1 installation from this posting when I encounter this problem again.

 

Well, converting an existing installation to SSD is apparently not possible with all the many software clone software I got with my SSD kits, so I'm going to hold off for now until I can either find an easy way to convert the hard drive to SSD or do a relatively painless clean Windows 8.1 installation.

I'm holding out for the former, and definitely not the latter.

**EDIT** See below for the solution!!

 

I'm not sure if you know this yet, but microsoft recently released a tool that lets you download the windows 8.1 update 1 iso. You can download the core, pro, n, or single language editions, both 32 bit and 64 bit. The tool does not ask for a product key. You can choose to create a usb or iso file. I have not confirmed the following myself, but I have seen people say on different forums that this iso file will activate automatically using windows 8 and 8.1 oem keys in the bios. If you will consider a clean install I think this is worth a try. Here is the link: Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help

 

That seems like an awesome tool/solution! I'm going to have to test it out when I've got some spare time.

 

Thanks!

And one note, once you get the USB key made, go into the "sources" folder and create a file called EI.cfg and put these simple lines in there and save:

Code:

[Channel]
Volume

[VL]
1

This will let you install without needing to add your Windows 8 key if you just want to try it out for something. It will start to bug you regularly (like once a day) to add the key, but you can just close the window.

You can also try if you have retail copy:

[EditionID]
Professional (or Core)
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0

Omitting [EditionID] will ask for which version you want to install
[Channel] can be Volume, Retail, OEM
[VL] for volume licensing 1 for true or 0 for none (i.e. Retail)

 

The WinPE bootable media of Macrium Reflect "Free Edition" worked to clone the drive.

First, I delete all restore points, disable system protection (System Restore), disable hibernation (POWERCFG.EXE /H OFF), disable hybrid sleep, and remove the virtual memory (swap) file. Reboot.

Then, I defragment (Defraggler is very good for this). After that, use Disk Management to shrink the volume holding the C: drive to 20 gigabytes smaller than your new SSD.

If you cannot get it down to 20 gigabytes smaller than your SSD, you still need to defragment some hidden files--most likely it's the one called "$Mft." Use the CONTIG.EXE program to do this. You can find it at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428 .

Now use the Macrium software to create a GPT-aware version of a WinPE bootable USB key. Finally, plug the drives into your spare cloning computer. Boot it from the WinPE bootable USB key created by the Macrium software and follow the instructions and clone each partition up to and including the one holding the C: drive. You can ignore the rest--they are the recovery partitions.

When the computer restarts, go to Disk Management and resize the volume to fill the drive. Run "CHKDSK/F C:" and reboot. Watch it verify. Then, turn hibernate back on (POWERCFG.EXE /H ON), turn hybrid sleep back on, re-enable system protection (System Restore), and create a new virtual memory(swap) file. Reboot. Enjoy your fast laptop.

This is all at no cost. I'm going to buy a license for Macrium as a way of thanking them.

Note: Make sure your SSD will actually fit into the laptop. Mine didn't so I was able to "test" my solution because I was forced to clone several other drives to use the thinnest one I had for this laptop. I'm very happy with the result so far. (See my edit below, the drive must be no larger than 7mm in height.)

Note 2: When restarting, you might notice it stays on a "do not turn off computer" screen for a long time. Let it finish, as it may take a couple of hours. I can confirm it successfully completed for me and acted like a normal, and much faster, laptop after it completed.

I chose to defrag the system once more even though this is an SSD since it reported itself as 5% fragmented.

**EDIT** I have confirmed that the size of the SSD should be no larger than 7mm in height. This is more of a de-facto standard in the industry, but make sure your SSD is not higher than 7mm or it won't fit in this laptop.

 

Now I'm looking for replacement screws for this laptop. I lost some of them installing the SSD. I mean, there are over a dozen of them in two different sizes, after all.

 

Never defragment a solid state drive! It only wears the drive out, and offers no performance gain. The only reason to do it traditionally is the hard drive head would have to physically move causing a delay, a solid state drive knows exactly where the data is held and can access it almost instantly. Doesn't matter where the data is on the drive, it will be accessed in the same time. So you just wear the flash memory out, if you continue this as a common practice the drive will fail much quicker than manufacturers recommend.

With regards to the screws, you either have to remove the two types and have them measured in a shop that carries small screws (unlikely) or hope you have enough remaining to reassemble the laptop. As a recommendation, get your self a magnetic parts tray, well worth the money. Screws in modern electronics are a huge pain to find replacements for.

 

hi, guys. i have this acer v5-122p for a little over a year now, windows 8.1 4gb ram. no backlit keyboard though.

i do game on this, mostly rpg's (dragon age i & ii, mass effect 2 (i can't get mass effect 3 to launch on this), kingdom's of amalur, diablo 3, lotr: war in the north, hunted the demon's forge, etc.). last week, i got dragon age: inquisition and it's playing well and good on my amd a8-5600k desktop (low to medium settings), very playable so far. i have no complaints on that processor, considering the massive system requirements of dragon age: inquisition.

anyway, that got me into thinking, and so i installed da:inquisition on this laptop. and much to my pleasant delight, da:inquisition launched and it ran. but i set resolution at 1024 x 768, though, and setting graphics to "automatic" meant low configurations. it's a bit slow, but at least it's running. now, i would like to know if i can squeeze a little more performance out of the gpu. i have already cpu power to high performance using the sleep and wake trick, and it's running at a constant 1.397ghz.

i've read on this thread how some were able to overclock the gpu to 497mhz. how were you able to achieve that? amd overdrive does not recognize the gpu on this laptop, and i cannot get msi afterburner to work. it only has 400mhz max on the core clock. i cannot set it any higher. it resets to default clock when i enter a figure.

thanks for any help.

 

Followed Chippy's intruction video on youtube to install a sandisk ssd, then installed windows 8.1 from the usb I created using microsoft's media creation tool. Windows 8.1 activated automatically using the bios embedded 8.0 key. Got a few drivers from acer (the audio driver file was 970 megabytes once unziped and look like it was for windows xp!) and installed a few programs. Been running with no problems for a week. Now I can start using my laptop in under 2 minutes (and this is a dual core version!).

 

Sorry, but the thing about SSDs wearing out has not been true for several years. I was trying to make the partition as tight as possible for future cloning onto an even smaller SSD.

I'd like to know the part numbers for the screws. Of course I can measure and try to find them but why wouldn't I ask if anyone knew the part numbers, anyway?

 

Easiest way to get screws is to go on eBay, search for "v5-122p screws" or "v5-122p screw set" or "v5-122p screw kit" and you should be able to easily find what you need in a set/kit. That is what I did when one of my case screws undid itself and fell off.

Anyone else's LCD have terrible backlight bleed and strong image retention? It seems now that my v5-122p is over a year old, these two issues are becoming more noticeable, more severe and a bit more annoying. I may have to replace my LCD as I am out of warranty but what if I buy a replacement only to have these two issues reappear later down the road?

And thanks again to SkyLambert for posting that Microsoft Windows Media Creation Tool! I used it to install Windows 8.1 Update 1 Pro without a problem. It certainly saved me time from having to download and install those updates.

 

After opening and closing the case up multiple times, now sometimes when I put pressure on the wrist rest it will shut off the PC. I guess there's a short there somewhere I need to figure out. I haven't noticed any worse backlight bleed or image retention though. Maybe reseat the LCD. Excessive backlight bleed is usually caused by uneven pressure at the attachments.

 

My screen has bad light bleed too. It has been there for months. It's annoying, but I can live with it... for now. I am fairly comfortable working on computers, but I think replacing the screen would be beyond my abilities. I'm just hoping it doesn't get any worse.

 

I need to replace my daughter's keyboard. From what I can see on eBay, you have to get the KB and cover assembly in one. My problem is that all of the one's I see don't mention that they belong to a backlit version. Anybody have a model # or an eBay link to the right keyboard assembly for the backlit keyboard?

 

It is true regardless. All solid state drives have a limited number or writes to each block. Most have a self heal overhead of spare blocks for the inevitable failure. The number of times you can write to one block has increased yes, but defragmenting as traditionally used will still contribute to the early failure of your [expensive] drive. Once is fine, but there is no benefit to it. And with the prices of solid state drives, not a whole lot of people want to go backwards from something they have already fitted to their machine, especially if they've already lost screws in the process.

And if you thought life was as easy as part numbers for screws, you'd have thought that the only place to sell them would be Acer. They probably wouldn't sell them to you unless you were an authorised Acer repair centre, or buying bulk. Hence my suggestion to measure and buy them very cheaply is the best option. Of course the best option is to invest in magnetic screwdrivers and a parts tray in the first place. A service manual would also have thread sizes and lengths required.

You've a very negative reaction to my helpful post. If you don't want advice don't ask for it. Then I won't be wasting my time trying to help someone that clearly doesn't want it.

 

I just recently replaced my US qwertyuiop backlit keyboard (a few pages back) and the easiest way was to check the eBay listing pictures and carefully look for the "F9" backlight control key. If its blank, non-blacklit. If it has the blue backlight "A" symbol, it is a backlit keyboard! Another telltale sign would be to double check the backlight ribbon cable next to the keyboard ribbon cable underneath the assembly. Most listings show pictures of the top and the bottom of the keyboard assemblies. I didn't go by the part numbers and ended up buying a US qwertyuiop backlit keyboard assembly in great shape.


Backlit example (notice "F9" backlight control key, blue backlight "A" symbol)

Keyboard backlight ribbon cable



Non-backlit example (notice "F9" backlight control key, missing blue backlight "A" symbol)

Keyboard backlight ribbon cable missing



As of right now, I was able to find these:

Backlit, silver, "A grade," US qwertyuiop keyboard $33.55
Acer Aspire V5 122P Touch Pad Palmrest Keyboard 604LK03001 | eBay

Backlit, silver, "B grade," US qwertyuiop keyboard $32.85
Acer Aspire V5 122P Touch Pad Palmrest Keyboard 604LK03001 "B" | eBay

 

Perfect. That was exactly what I needed. Ordered the "A" grade KB. Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it. I didn't have her unit as a guide.

 

Any ideas on why these laptops would affect one another in this way?

Thanks.

 

From your video I can see you have multiple Acer Aspire v5-122p. Does this happen to all of them or just that one on top?

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

Happens to all of them.

Thinking it might be the magnets in the laptop below it aligning with the one above and signaling that the lid is closed.

Just don't remember seeing this with any other models over the years.

 

Yeah that was all I could think of too, the magnets in the lid. Pretty unique issue the v5-122p has there If I say so myself. Let me try this with my v5-122p and some of my other laptops and get back to you on that one.