Acer Aspire V5-122P Owners' thread

Looks like there's another problem with my daughter's V5-122p. When on battery, with a 78% charge, the notebook boots, gets to the start menu and then shuts down. You can hear a click near the power cord. When the unit gets plugged in, it starts and works perfectly. Sound like a battery issue? Think a battery reset would help?

Keyboard swap went well. I didn't realize initially that I had to completely swap out the notebooks guts onto the new keyboard top panel. Not too bad though.

 

Thank you very much!! Your post was genuinely helpful unlike some other posters in this thread who say things like "just Google it" and spout facts that have been untrue for years.

 

Hey guys, been a while since I posted here. I've been trying to add an Intel 7260 wireless AC card to my V5-122p to replace the slow single band N card it came with. Had to add a 2nd antenna of course. The problem is the card will not turn on. The wifi toggle in Win 8.1 is greyed out and no solution has been found online after about 6 hours of troubleshooting. Device manager says the card is functioning normal and my wireless is enabled (I've tried turning on and off airplane mode).

No amount of software tweaking allows me the option to turn wifi on in Windows, but if I pop the old card back in, everything is fine. This is the 2nd card I've tried, so I doubt it is faulty hardware. Does Acer employ hardware whitelists that I'm not aware of? I'm tired of monkeying around with what should be simple plug 'n play.

EDIT:
Saw this post on an Acer forum that seems to be similar. They blamed the problem on Intel drivers and resolved it by switching to a Broadcomm chip (N rather than AC though). I tried that too. Installed a Broadcomm N card (dual band)- same problem. Device manager likes it, but Windows says "no connections available" and wifi toggle in network connection is greyed out. So this isn't a problem unique to Intel hardware.

http://community.acer.com/t5/Notebo...mpatible-with-an-Aspire-One-AO722/td-p/268440

 

I think I remember that this was an issue mentioned earlier in this thread and it was resolved by masking with a tape a pin on the card. Which pin? You'll have to go through the thread to find that out.
BTW you are correct assuming Acer does not use whitelisting.

 

Oh. My. Gosh. Yep, after reviewing 30 pages, I found the relevant post. PIN #20! Intel 7260.HMWG.R works now. Finally. I know, I know, Intel network cards are crap, but I searched and searched for an Atheros or Broadcomm AC card with no luck. Of course now I see that one was suggested on one of these pages (but had other issues)... Ugh. Anyway, my V5-122p now connects at around 520mbps rather than around 72mbps, so I'm VERY happy. Thanks for pointing me in the general direction- I should have been keeping up with this thread all along, lol.

 

Has anyone used the program called BAR-Edit? I tried it out and with it was able to lock A6-1450 CPU turbo frequency. While its easier to simply "sleep-and-wake" lock the CPU turbo frequency, this program also allows us to tinker with other system devices such as the Radeon 8250 iGPU, the DRAM controller, north bridge and south bridge to name few.

http://www.tweakers.fr/baredit.html

Changing and editing the PCI Base Address Registers could result in unlocking and locking in some performance that we've otherwise have not tapped into, such as the CPU. The great thing about it so far from what I understand, if we make a mistake the computer will crash and blue screen but a restart or forced shut down will reset everything back to normal. So there seems to be almost no risk of bricking.

I learned about this from a YouTube video showing BAR-Edit being used on an MSI GX60 GX70 A10-5750M to lock the CPU turbo frequency to 3.2-3.5GHz. I simply replicated/duplicated the instructions on my A6-1450 and it had the same effect of locking the CPU turbo frequency.

How to lock MSI GX60/70 A10-5750M at 3.2 GHZ:

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I am looking for a docking station that will connect via the DockPort (originally codenamed Lightning Bolt). The only one I can find so far is the Acer Mini CP to VGA/LAN/USB Converter. Does anyone know of any full size docking stations that are available for use with the DockPort?

 

I don't think so but if you ever find one, please let us know!

Honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot of buzz lately in regards to DockPort. Sadly it seems to have disappeared. Last time DockPort made a public appearance was over a year ago at CES 2014 with AMD's amazing Mullins A10 Micro-6700T based Nano PC prototype. We never did see anything happen with this wonderful reference design and even over a year later today we cannot buy a Mullins based A10 Micro-6700T PC.

http://liliputing.com/2014/01/amd-shows-nano-pc-powered-mullins-chip.html

http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/85176-nano-pc-is-powered-by-amd-s-mullins-soc





That's all about to change though with the soon-to-be released fanless "fit-PC fitlet" Mullins based micro/mini PCs. Best of all, the A10 Micro-6700T is in the lineup! This is about as close as we get to that AMD reference prototype and the top of the line Mullins A10 Micro-6700T. Kinda sad but exciting at the same time!

http://www.fit-pc.com/web/about/news/fitlet-announcement/





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I could not find a full size DockPort docking station so settled upon the Acer Mini CP to VGA/LAN/USB Converter for now. It cost almost US$50 after shipping and taxes. I have my VGA monitor, LAN printer, and USB keyboard and mouse combination connected and all work fine. This computer came out short in regards to connections and the Acer mini converter does make up for this. So I am glad to have it finally.

Thanks for all you help over the years davidricardo86!

 

Yes it does add a little but more useful functionality. I use mine everyday hooked up to a VGA monitor. Hopefully DockPort isn't completely dead and we see some products in the future.

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Hi!
Mine is like this so I want to buy one with the backlight. Sadly, on this side of Atlantic, we have only the keyboard for sale, not the whole palmrest. Is it possible to dismantle the keyboard from the palmrest? In your picture, it seems they are assembled with plastic rivets. Will they break if I dismantle them?
In this video tutorial too, the guy misses dismantling the keyboard.

 

Honestly I've never bothered to dismantle the keyboard from the palmrest as I'm not sure it would be a worthy endeavor. The keyboard is assembled with plastic rivets and I'd imagine you'd need a plastic heat gun or iron of some sort. I don't know what would happen if you chose this route. I would just cough up the cash and buy the backlit palmrest and call it a day. Simple, easy, done!

 

Thanks a lot for your informed advice. That's what I thought, too much trouble and not sure to end up nicely. Now I need to find that palmrest with French layout. Not easy!

Edit: As I couldn't find any palmrest or French backlit keyboard I ended up buying this Latin Spanish Backlit Keyboard for 26$. I popped all the plastic rivets, fit the new KB with a hot glue gun. I hoped to swap some keys to match my French layout but the key locking mechanism is quite different so I have to keep Latin Spanish layout in Windows. Pressing "Windows+Space" I can access French layout for accents though: é, è, à, ù.

 

Hi is their anyway to fix the issue on my bluetooth it just run but could not detect any bluetooth devices... Kind of pain in the butt this windows 8.1

 

Did you upgrade to Windows 8.1 from 8.0 via the store app? I remember reading somewhere (it might have been this thread or the acer community, but I can't remember) that upgrading to Windows 8.1 breaks bluetooth functionality. I don't really use bluetooth, but the one time I tried, my laptop would just search and not find anything. I think clean installing windows 8.1 fixes this, but it seems like a pretty extreme measure just to fix bluetooth. I would try uninstalling the bluetooth driver in the device manager and installing the latest bluetooth driver from acer at http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers. Make sure you select your computer (V5-122P), the right OS version (Windows 8.1 64bit), and the right bluetooth driver (Atheros or Broadcom).

 

If it weren't for the crummy battery life I'd love this laptop more. I wonder why Acer hasn't updated with a Kabini A4-5000. Would love to see a 12" netbook similar to the V5-122p with Mullins and larger battery, ditch the glossy touch screen (help battery life).

 

I picked a used one of these up on Blinq with the A6-1450, backlit, and the 6gb. I did the $47 crucial 8gb chip, a Samsung Evo 850 and the Amazon Basics 11 inch notebook bag.

1. Best backlit keyboard I have ever seen (outlines each key) and really nice screen, just perfect on both counts
2. Great feel, low weight, nice keyboard, although having learned on a manual type writer I hit the keys so hard that the laptop creaks a bit
3. My test is always Star Craft II on low for these low-powered notebooks, I think this plays worse than any machine I have tried. Starts in the 20s then crawls to about 8 FPS, that was a bummer. By comparison all the new atoms can play it well, even the ones with 1 gb memory (HP Stream 7)
4. Web surfing is slow too, there is this unusual 3 second pause when a web page opens.
5. I installed CPU-Z and confirmed that I get 1398mhz after opening and closing the lid (after sleep).
6. I was able to get MSI Afterburner to do 520mhz not 500mhz on Core and confirmed in CPU-Z, the fan was louder and it got hot on the back left side (for regular use, fan is inaudible).
7. After installing my Samsung 250gb Evo (was able to install all features of Samsung like Rapid Mode - someone else said it wouldn't install) BUT....scores are 520 on sequential but way way low on random: 18,000 NOT 90,000 like I have seen on more powerful notebooks.
8. I had to call Windows Activation (which was successful) because I couldn't get any usb port to recognize my SSD in a caddy to use Samsung Data Migration (a program I really like, I only buy Samsung SSDs because of their software), it only recognized using the SATA inside the laptop and Windows said the key was already used. Using the Acer USB back up stick I made right away it even partitioned everything like the original 500gb drive which I pulled to keep as a spare.
9. My used laptop just had a few scratches on the lid and slight marks, but the keyboard looked perfect and screen too. Not a fingerprint magnet, I like the plastic material, seems smooth and matte. This should hold up well over the years cosmetically. Except, the whole body and lid is twisty so be careful.
10. The backlit screen showed a few fingerling shape bleeds but nothing too bad, totally acceptable and invisible once in Windows.
11. I installed my usual Iolo System Mechanic Pro but couldn't seem to tweak out any performance gains even with the 10gb of RAM and the optimizations like ramjet and opticore.
12. Since it is pretty slow at even web browsing, I am left with video watching and trying my really old games like Battle for Middle Earth II, and Command and Conquer Generals as things that might work correctly and not pause or go too slow.
13. Wifi seems pretty strong, got in the 8 and 9 mb/s downloading StarCraft II from battle.net, just like my other devices - 20 feet away from FIOS Quantum Router, the newest one with the Ethernet only 150/150 plan.
14. Battery life says 4 hours 37 minutes on mine when unplugged
15. Screen brightness while not overly bright looks very pleasing inside, wouldn't try outside
16. I would pass on buying this item, good looking kit, weak processor, oh and the person who said that the graphics were 70-90 percent faster than atom, I would say not on StarCraft II, it is 50 percent slower from FPS checking as I played. Recommend the ASUS T100 with the 3770/75 processor that can game on low at native resolution if you want the best of the best for these type machines
17. Anyone know a web browser that plays nice with this? I at least need to be able to surf fluidly, that SHOULD work better than it does. If it can't do that, wow!
18. Acer should keep this chassis and refresh the hardware as everyone else on here probably knows as well, it is just a little too slow and stubborn about tweaks that work on other notebooks to boost speed.
19. Was interested in finding an eBay external battery to use the port on the bottom, none of the ones look right that I see, they all seem to have notches that attach to the back of a regular ASUS V5 NOT the protruding style battery that uses the port under the removable rubber door, if anyone has a link to that one, much obliged.

 

My daughter's 3 year old V5-122p is holding up well. It just got back from another year at college. The case is getting pretty beat up, the screws had fallen out of the back and a hinge had come loose. I replaced the keyboard before. Still, with a little cleaning, the case looks decent.

I opened the unit up, found a few screws from my Acer collection, put everything back where it belonged and tightened everything up. With a little maintenance, the V5 feels solid again. Here is the 3 year old V5 next to my Surface 3. The Acer display compares nicely (the S3 is at 45% brightness). The A6 quad still runs like a champ.

It sounds like you were successful in replacing the plastic rivets using a glue gun. How did you disassemble the keyboard? Did you melt the plastic rivets with a soldering iron? Is the end result solid? I have replaced the keyboard and still have the top cover with broken keyboard. If I can pop a backlit keyboard in it, I would have a back up. Any photos?

 

Is it possible to upgrade the current AMD processor? If so, which one would that be?

 

I've thought if it'd be possible to upgrade the bga SoC but that would require tools and experience I'm frankly lacking. Seems possible but who knows if it'll actually work. Probably wouldn't, as Mullins SoCs also have the built in PSP active for security and Jaguar had it but it wasn't active.

Anyone here upgrade their v5-122p to Windows 10 yet?

I upgraded from Windows 8 Pro, to 8.1 Pro Update, to Windows 10 Pro. I then performed a clean install of Windows 10 Pro. I own a Windows 8 Pro product key. I also update my BIOS to the latest but lost the ability to turn on virtualization. I'll have to edit my BIOS again like before.

It could just be the fact that its still new and not bloated, but I don't know if its just me but my v5-122p with Windows 10 Pro 10GB and SSD things just feel much snappier and responsive now than before. 10 feels smoother and less laggy, from navigating the OS, to launching apps, to browsing the web and playing YouTube videos. Maybe it's also the latest AMD video and chipset drivers that play a big role but I have to say Windows 10 has breadth new life into this little PC for me. As a benefit, it appears battery life has improved too according to the battery meter. My internal battery is over a year old already and was quoting 6 hours! I'm not going back to Windows 8.1 Update.

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I did and the install went perfect. However two of my other machines lost trackpad until I downloaded updated drivers. Haven't gone back to see if anything stopped working on the 122p

 

Did anyone ever find a higher capacity internal battery for the V5-122p? It is the same battery as the Acer E11 I just picked up but it seems like it could easily accommodate a larger size battery. It's the AC13C34 battery, 11.4V, 2670mAh

 

Hi all!
What do you think about this ??

Acer V5 Memo by Ricsbest posted Aug 5, 2015 at 2:20 PM

 

That's right. 2GB onboard + 8GB in the slot.

 

Excellent! I thought it would be maximum 6Gb.

 

None so far. I use the secondary battery port with my external battery. Windows 10 battery meter will display 10-12 hours when both batteries are fully charged. However I've never actually timed it.

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It seems the Acer V11 battery works in the Acer E11 which is the same battery on the V5-122p. But the E11 and V11 share a common motherboard, so maybe the V5-122p can't detect the 15.2V 48Whcompared to the stock 11.2V 30Wh and could cause issues. Doing some testing right now though with the V11 battery in the E11.

 

Dos anyone can tell me if the A6-1450 is IOMMU/AMD-Vi compatible in the V5-122p?

 

Acer has a Windows 10 Addendum for your User's Manual available for download at the Acer support website. The release date for the addendum is 2015/08/13.

Still no BIOS update since July of 2014.

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to install Windows 8.x on an SD card, and boot the V5-122p from this SD card? Thanks.

 

I'm pretty sure that this laptop can't boot from an SD card. Any reason you don't want to use USB? Anyway, Windows isn't really designed to run off of removable media. There are ways to hack it, but the performance probably wouldn't be the best.

 

What is this? Virtualization?

I've tried this and the answer is no. Maybe the BIOS could be hacked to boot from SD card but I have no idea.

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Just recently I've been experiencing a BSoD error "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION" and its happening more often since this past Saturday. I don't know what is triggering this error or how to go about fixing it, yet. Has anyone experienced this error? Please help me diagnose this issue, thanks!

 

Hi!

I have just bought a used V5-122P. I've made a factory reset, and everything worked fine until I have changed the wallpaper to a darker one, then I noticed that if I keep a white window open for a minute in the same place, and then move it, I get a "ghost" image of that window, and it stays there for a couple of minutes. Is that normal for this model?

(the picture doesn't show it that well, in reality it looks a lot worse)

Do You think this is a software, or hardware issue?

 

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had any success with the AMD Radeon Crimson drivers on the v5-122p on Windows 10.
The problems I'm experiencing are:
1. The process "system and compressed memory" is constantly using between 15-20% CPU. It's never idle. Task manager screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/iCFJU
2. Shutting down or signing out of Windows takes 1-2 minutes.

Even going back to Windows Update's suggested AMD driver causes the "system and compressed memory" issue.

Any suggestions?

 

I have this as well. I believe it is an hardware issue with the lcd panel as I have ghosting both in Windows 8.1 and Linux.

Also, be sure to upgrade to Windows 8.1 or 10 if you haven't already. Microsoft ended support for 8.0.

 

I use this laptop all the time during my commute, and it's a fun little thing with a fully-featured AMD GPU. The peformance is even acceptable using the suspend/resume hack.

 

Anybody have to replace the power button board yet? My daughter's V5-122p won't turn on and it feels like the switch has given out (no positive contact). Ordered this from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Button-Aspire...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 Coming by slow boat from China. Should be here in a couple of weeks.

 

I've joined this forum to share my experience with the V5-122P and help out the members of this thread who posted very helpful information. I can certainly fill in a lot of missing information and improve some of the answers already provided, including a reliable and safe method of unlocking the bios.

I decided to purchase an ultrathin laptop for work purposes. Acer has served me well in the past and a little research landed me on the V5-122p. I purchased my device on Ebay expecting a fixer-upper. Since I'm the sort of owner that prefers to take all his computers apart and learn everything about the hardware, buying used and fixing them up usually saves me money while I educate myself. This computer turned out to be more than I had bargained for.

The model I purchased included the A4-1250. My first surprise was a lack of screws in the bottom cover. My second was a touchscreen that wasn't working. The motherboard also turned out to be damaged (the SD card reader was broken). The seller was less than honest and I sincerely hope that person isn't one of the members who posted in this thread.

Replacing the screws from my stockpile was easy. I fought with the touchscreen, trying every solution I could find online, until eventually the screen itself died. I decided to replace the entire lid assembly instead of buying a new screen and digitizer. Since I was already into the laptop for more than I had planned for, I went all out and bought a replacement motherboard with the A6-1450. After finally sorting out almost every issue, here are my findings/solutions.

My Specs/Upgrades:
Windows 10 / Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (dual boot)
A6-1450
10GB Ram
480GB SSD

Since I own both the A4-1250 and A6-1450 motherboards, I want to confirm that all upgrades and solutions mentioned in this post work for both configurations. The A6-1450 motherboard was purchased on Ebay from a reputable parts seller for $48.

I installed an 8GB Kingston PC3L-12800 so-dimm ($32) to max my system out at 10GB. It's more than you'll need, but I still consider the upgrade to be worth the money.

I installed an ADATA Premier SP550 480GB SSD ($94 from Newegg's Ebay Store). This is the first SSD I've ever owned. It's not the fastest available, but I just have to say WOW. If you're looking for an inexpensive and easy way to improve your performance, this hard drive is a great purchase.

I think the thermal compound that comes stock is adequate, but I replaced mine with Gelid GC-Extreme anyway.

All in, I've spent $335 (includes a case and HDMI adapter). It's far more than I wanted to spend, but this computer is beefed up with (almost) every possible upgrade and I've spent less than what an A6 model would have cost new.

EXTERNAL BATTERY ... I'm still looking for the AL13A external battery. I've found them on Amazon for $80, but I'm not paying that much for a battery. If anyone has a line on where to get this battery at a reasonable price, please let me know!

Personal Conclusions/Recommendations:
The keyboard is comfortable and quiet.
The touchpad has a lot of great features and is very accurate.
The touchscreen is very responsive and accurate.
The computer, in general, is quiet and runs cool.

Install an SSD, it makes a world of difference.
Upgrade your RAM, it's always worth it.

The A6 is a significant improvement, performance wise, from the A4... but only where it concerns gaming and multitasking. Windows 10 and Ubuntu are both more than snappy enough with the A4 for web browsing, video streaming, or creating/editing office documents.

This is a great little computer. I suspect the people who have been unhappy with it have been unrealistic about its capabilities (it's not a desktop replacement gaming beast) or unwilling to spend a little extra on upgrades.

Unlocking the BIOS

Editing the efivar Setup file as mentioned previously in this thread didn't work for me. Copying it wasn't a problem. Editing it wasn't a problem. Replacing the original file with the edited file proved impossible. The idea of editing the EFI variables did, however, point me in the correct direction and led to my discovery of the EFI Shell.

This method will work with all versions of the V5-122p bios. Before unlocking the bios, you should update to the latest bios version.

As of this writing the newest version is 2.12- http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_2.12_A_A.zip?acerid=635417688190384281&Step1=ULTRA-THIN&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE V5-122P&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6
If your bios version is older than 2.06, you'll need to update to 2.06 first- http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_2.06_A_A.zip?acerid=635086150518678706&Step1=ULTRA-THIN&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE V5-122P&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

For those interesting in learning what I've learned about UEFI and how to edit the variables, the original thread with links to every tool needed and explanations for how to use them can be found here- http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/g...etting-dvmt-in-insydeh20-bios-laptops.165104/ This thread is also the source of the links in the following tutorial.

DISCLAIMER- While I have used this method numerous times with 100% success, there is always some risk involved with editing your BIOS. This information is provided for educational purposes and the user assumes all risk when attempting the instructions that follow.

With the legal stuff out of the way, let me assure you that these instructions are perfectly safe if you enter the commands EXACTLY as listed. I've made the process of creating the EFI Shell drive as fool proof as possible and I will not answer questions about it. If concepts like creating a bootable USB drive with Rufus, extracting a zip file, or creating a specific directory structure are too complicated for your tech level then you should not be trying to edit the EFI variables.

Hidden BIOS Options:
Here is what I've learned about the hidden settings and my recommendations. If anyone has any suggestions for how the advanced settings should be optimized, please let me know!

After testing almost every setting looking for performance differences in Windows and Ubuntu, I've set almost everything back to default and kept only the changes that actually seemed to matter.

Video Configuration:
I did some testing (glmark2 in Ubuntu) and concluded that it's always best to set your video memory manually. The auto setting defaults to 512mb but I found that the card performed better in glmark2 if it was manually set to 512mb instead. The 1gb setting performed a little better than the 512mb setting. The 2gb setting performed exactly the same as the 512mb setting. I've been playing around with switching between 1gb and 2gb, but I haven't seen much difference in performance in games. 1gb is probably the optimal setting. I've got 10GB of RAM that I never come close to using, so I have it set to 2gb and it doesn't seem to hurt or help performance.

Chipset Configuration:
->NorthBridge/GNB options
I have PSPP Policy set to "Performance". The default is "balanced-low". I haven't noticed that having this policy set higher improves performance or lowers battery life, so I have left it on the "performance" setting.

->Adaptive S4
Enabling this option in the bios enables the smart sleep feature. The behavior for this setting can be changed in Catalyst/Crimson. It seems to be a battery performance enhancement feature, and although I haven't seen any difference I've left it enabled.

ACPI Table/Features Control
->Fusion Utility
Seems like a nice utility for killing processes that slow down your gaming, as well as for overclocking the GPU. It also allows you to really get really specific about your power profile settings. If you feel like giving it a try, enable this feature and download the utility from AMD- http://www2.ati.com/misc/fusion/AMDFusion.exe

CPU Related Setting
->SVM Support
Enable this for virtualization.

Operating Systems:
I dropped Windows as my primary OS a long time ago, but I'm actually finding that I like Windows 10 so I've gone back to a dual boot setup. Linux is my primary operating system and Ubuntu is my distribution of choice. All information provided relates primarily to Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS unless otherwise stated. I have tested no other distributions of Linux on this system.

If you're planning on dual booting, always disable secure boot before installing windows. I did manage to successfully dual boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04 after doing a D2D secure boot restore and then using the option to disable secure boot during Ubuntu installation, but this was a fluke. I was never able to reproduce those results. The only way to reliably install a dual boot of both systems is to disable secure boot before installing windows.

Upgrading to Windows 10
Download the windows media creation tool from microsoft and use it to download the Windows 10 ISO. Use Rufus ( https://rufus.akeo.ie/) to create a bootable USB installation disc from the ISO. Disconnect from the internet and run setup from inside WIndows 8 (choose not to install updates). This is the quickest way to get from Windows 8 to 10, especially if you want to D2D restore Windows 8 and then upgrade.

D2D to Windows 10
I can confirm that an Acer Recovery Drive from an AO1-131 will recover the V5-122P using D2D directly to Windows 10 with all the Acer software that comes along with it (including Acer Care Center). Most of the Acer Care Center features don't apply to the V5-122P, but there are a few things that are still useful. I can make an ISO image of the recovery drive available if there is interest.

Clean installation of Windows 10
You will have no problem activating a clean install of Windows 10. If you don't have your Windows 8 key available, there are tools that can extract it from your BIOS. If you've upgraded to Windows 10 (or activated it once using your Windows 8 key), your system will automatically activate after all future installs using Windows Digital Entitlement. I recommend a clean install. Even if you use a D2D Windows 10 solution like I mentioned above, a clean install always takes up less space and there's no bloatware to uninstall. Download the windows media creation tool from microsoft and use it to download the Windows 10 ISO. Use Rufus ( https://rufus.akeo.ie/) to create a bootable USB installation disc from the ISO. You'll need to have the F12 boot menu enabled. Press F12 during boot and select the Windows 10 USB drive. You'll have options to do a fresh install or repair and existing installation.

Ubuntu 16.04 dual boot installation
You'll need to install Windows 10 with secure boot disabled first (read my above note regarding secure boot). You'll need to have the F12 boot menu enabled. Download the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for Desktop ISO ( http://www.ubuntu.com/). Download Linux Live USB Creator ( http://www.linuxliveusb.com/). Use the Linux Live USB Creator to create a bootable Live Linux USB drive. Press F12 during boot and select the Linux USB drive. Select the "Try Ubuntu" option (the "install ubuntu" option can work, but I've had better success with the live option). Connect to your WiFi and then open the installer. Choose to install updates and 3rd party software. When the system reboots you'll need to press F2 to enter the bios. Under boot options, your SATA drive should now have "ubuntu" at the front of it's name. Move your SATA drive up to the #1 boot position (above Windows Boot Manager). Now you should boot into GRUB every time.

The only issue I've seen with dual booting is that Windows 10 had difficulties with automatically updating the time. It frequently thinks the time is 6 hours later than it currently is. Opening the time and date options and turning automatically time update off and then back on solves the problem (until the next time it happens). Enabling the Windows Time service and making it automatic doesn't solve the problem permanently. If anyone has a permanent solution, please share, but this is a minor issue I'm not worried about.

Drivers:
Getting every driver working properly for this system in Windows 10 was so frustrating I actually tried a driver utility. Yeah, yeah... for years I've said they're a waste of money, but the V5-122P made me try out the free version of Driver Booster. It worked so well that I purchased the lifetime Pro version on Steam.

Try out the free version from the developer (IObit)- http://www.iobit.com/en/driver-booster.php It actually works. The Pro version works better and has a lot of nice features the free version doesn't have, but the free version will actually find and install the drivers you need for free.

The drivers this program updated to improved versions are- HD Webcam, Realtek HD Audio, AMD Chipset, AMD SATA controller and Atheros Wireless LAN. The chipset drivers were actually missing after trying both the AMD legacy chipset driver package and the newest AMD chipset driver package. It also provided the easiest method of updating the crappy video drivers that windows update installs.

I tried Driver Booster after checking out a bunch of reviews on Steam and comparing it to similar software. I purchased the Pro version immediately after trying out the free one. Afterwards, I found a lot of negative things being said about IObit (the developer). Knowing what I know now, there are a few things I need to say-
1) I don't work for IObit. I haven't written any reviews for the software (this is the only place I've mentioned it). My opinions are my own.
2) I've used the program on several systems now (this one, two older laptops and one new-ish desktop). In every case it found outdated drivers. In every case it updated them without issue. In every case the updated drivers were an improvement.
3) This software has performed very well for me... so don't blast me if you don't like Driver Booster. You're entitled to your opinions and I'm simply stating mine.
4) For the love of god, create a freaking system restore point before you run this program or any like it. I have had zero issues but that doesn't mean it won't screw something up for you. It's my opinion that this software is safe and very useful, but you're using it at your own risk.

Driver Booster Pro allows me to backup my drivers. The Driver Booster backups can be extracted with WinRAR (maybe other programs but WinRAR is what I use) and include installers. I can provide backups of my installed drivers if enough interest is shown.

Windows 10 Video
The Windows 10 video drivers that windows update installs are, as I've seen mentioned here, awful. Lots of lag and heat problems are the issues I saw. This problem is particularly frustrating because AMD insists that the newest drivers should support this device (the website, the detection utility, the manual driver selector, all of them agree... all of them are wrong). From what I can tell, the Radeon 8210 (A4-1250) and Radeon 8250 (A6-1450) are now only supported by legacy AMD drivers even though the website says they're still supported by the latest drivers. If I ever get this sorted out with AMD, I'll let everyone here know. For now, there are a few ways to get your drivers working well.

Solution 1: Driver Booster (installs 16.1.1)
I recommend letting windows update install its driver first. Once the Crimson Radeon Settings program is installed, run Driver Booster to update to the better drivers. You'll basically be using the WU version of the settings program with the newer drivers (easiest way to install drivers that work well imo). These drivers are unsigned, but I never had a problem installing them with Driver Booster after a clean Windows 10 install. If you have problems, try disabling signed driver enforcement (a little more info below) before running Driver Booster.

Solution 2: Use Crimson 16.2.1 (unsigned)
Download from Guru3d- http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/amd-radeon-software-crimson-16-2-1-driver-download.html
These are the drivers I run. As far as I can tell from my many hours of experimenting, this is the newest driver available that works with the Radeon 8210/8250. I suggest you download it from Guru3d because the download available from AMD doesn't install properly. This driver is unsigned and you'll need to use the advanced restart option in the recovery settings to disable signed driver enforcement before installing this driver.

Solution 3: Use Catalyst 15.7.1 (signed)
Download from AMD- https://www2.ati.com/drivers/amd-catalyst-15.7.1-win10-64bit.exe
These work well, though they're not the newest.

Windows 10 Others
Get the chipset drivers from AMD's support website (I experienced some problems with AMD's installers, but the correct drivers are in the package even if they don't get installed correctly). All the rest from Windows Update are functional.

Ubuntu Drivers
Ubuntu 16.04 no longer allows the installation of AMD proprietary drivers... but don't let that turn you away from 16.04. I tested the performance of the open source drivers (xorg) vs the proprietary drivers (fglxr) in 14.04 and the open source drivers out performed fglxr every time. The xorg drivers in 16.04 are even better than the ones included in 14.04.

All devices work perfectly on 16.04 without hassle, but be sure to install the AMD Microcode driver using the "additional drivers" tab in software and updates.

Touchscreen Issues
After struggling to get my touchscreen working for countless hours, the problem was made very simple after my entire screen died. Replacing the lid assembly solved my touchscreen issues and it now works flawlessly from install in both Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04.

If your touchscreen isn't working right and the hardware troubleshooter doesn't fix the problem, it's probably hardware issues.

Reminders
If you have any questions, ask.
Anything I forgot will be added if/when I realize it was left out.

I have a Windows 10 D2D Acer Recovery Image for the AO1-131 that works with the V5-122P that can be made available if enough interest is shown, though I recommend a clean install.

I have Driver Booster backups of my installed drivers that can be made available if enough interest is shown. The backups can be opened with WinRAR and don't require Driver Booster to be installed.

I'm still looking for the AL13A external battery at a reasonable price.

 

hi,

When I go to format my Acer it gets to the Windows 8.1 section where you select the hard drive to install Windows on before clicking next, also has the option to format and I think make a partition but there is no hard drive showing up in that box so I can't continue from there, it's the part after selecting language and clicking install.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so how can I get my hard drive to appear in the box?

Is there anything in the bios settings that can make my hard drive appear in the box?

Thank you.

Last edited: Today at 2:56 PM

 

Very informative. Thanks for sharing.

I'm using the WHQL AMD driver (15.11) from Windows Update on Windows 10 and haven't noticed any major problems with it. Temps are pretty much the same (58°-65° Celsius) as Windows 8.1 with Catalyst 13.xx and Xubuntu 14.04 with open source radeon drivers.

The only other drivers I've ever needed after a clean Windows install were Realtek audio(defaut Windows driver crackles) and ELAN touchpad(will work without, but no multi-touch or tapping support). I got them from Acer's support site. Even though they were for Windows 8.1 they worked for 10 as well.

As for Linux I just needed a distro with a kernel version 3.16 or later. Not really an issue now though. I also needed BIOS 2.12 to get backlight dimming after installing. Kind of weird, considering I had backlight dimming on all the live sessions of the distros I tried.

Your clock problem likely has to do with the fact that Windows uses the localtime standard while Linux uses UTC. You can read about it here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/time#Time_standard

I've reloaded my V5-122P 4 times and have never had that problem. Is the hard drive accessible elsewhere? For example can you boot into an existing operating system or see it in the BIOS?

 

I have been thinking about increasing the memory in my Aspire V5-122P-0643 (A6-1450 CPU). I am currently running Windows 8.1 Pro with BitLocker turned on. Acer states the maximum RAM that can be installed is 6GB of which 2GB is onboard memory. Yet others have installed 8GB memory modules for a total of 10GB. Does anyone know which memory configuration is correct? Why would Acer recommend 6GB when others have installed 10GB?

Edit: I read through the back posts and found post #477 by KJohnBoom and went with his suggestion.

 

hi!!! i saw your post and is great, lots of usefull info, i wanted to ask you a couple of questions if you dont mind, i just ordered a v5-122p-0869 , i found it really cheap($60) but it comes with a bad hard drive that wont be detected, so i have no way of restoring or extracting the key, what do you think it will be the easiest and better way to get it to work once the hard drive is replaced??? i downloaded a usb bootable version of windows 8.1 64b, but i heard that the key on bios wont work for that, and there is also the windows 10 choice, but i dont even know if my key will work with that or even what will be the apropiate win10 version for my key, if any of the above isnt a good choice, if you could share your restore image maybe.... anyways i will really apreciatte if you can help me and point me to the right way... thanks in advance...

 

A Windows 8.1 iso will work. As of November 2014 they are able to read the embedded keys from computers that came with 8.0. Just make sure to get the regular "Windows 8.1" iso and not Pro, N, or Single language. I was able to use a Windows 10 Home iso as well, but that was a few months ago. Now that the free upgrade period has ended I'm not sure if it still works. Some people say it does. YMMV. You can get them from here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15088/windows-create-installation-media

 

thanks a lot, i finally had the chance to install windows from scratch, windows 8.1 worked and was able to activate, but it has a couple of issues, it doesnt come with net framework and makes updates impossible, it wont allow me the framework installation, also the wifi fails most of the time, limited access , is there a way to fix those issues??

 

Hi. ive just bought a v5 122p. it has windows 10, 6 gb ram and 128gb ssd drive. its the A4 version with radeon hd 8210 vgraphics.

i immediately did windows 10 updates, which seemed to take ages.

Now the acer lasts 10 minutes or so, then crashes, saying "thread stuck in device driver".

On start up it then says "Radeon Wattman setings have been restored due to a system failure".

How do i resolve this? Thank you

 

Hi David,
You will find more info here :
https://community.amd.com/message/2760041#comment-2760041

Unfortunately there is no proper solution to resolve driver incompatibility. Win 10 forcing you to install via automated updates the latest driver which generating system instability.
Hope could help a little.

All the best

Tapatalkkal küldve az én HTC One eszközömről

 

thank you thatwas very helpful

i seem to have solved it. i stopped windows 10 updating drivers automatically, as per your link, then went to the radeon driver in device manager, and rolled back to a 2015 driver.

suddenly this little netbook is a lot better, and everything works as it should.

 

First, I just wanted to thank everyone who's posted such great info to this thread. It's been tremendously helpful to me.

A question for those who've done a clean install of Windows 10: Does Windows recognize the card reader at all? Mine does not. I can't find any trace of it in Device Manager. I've tried running the Troubleshooting wizards in Control Panel but no problems are detected.

I don't think it's a hardware/BIOS/card issue because when I dual boot to Ubuntu Mate 16.04, it can mount and read all the SD and SDHC cards I through at it.

I couldn't find any drivers for a card reader on Acer's website for the V5-122P so I tried running installers for models that were close in number (RealTek, Genesys, Alcor, Broadcom) both normally and in Compatibility Mode (Windows 8). The installers run fine but no new hardware is detected. I've done all these things while a card was inserted in the slot and with the laptop plugged in.

I've tried going into Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus controllers and for each USB Root Hub, going into Properties and clicking the Refresh button in the Power tab and the Reset Hub button in the Advanced tab. This did nothing.

Also in Device Manager I've tried showing Hidden devices, uninstalling all "ghosted" devices and restarting hoping some new hardware would be detected, but to no avail.

If I connect an external multicard reader into one of the laptop's USB ports, it works great.

I'm about out of ideas. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

My problem is NOT solved! Windows is still updating the graphics driver every time i switch on, and because i'm on windows 10 home edition, I cannot do any of the fixes suggested in other threads to stop it.

Any bright ideas?

thanks David