Acer Aspire V5-122P Owners' thread

I was this close to purchasing an 840 EVO but thanks to you and your 1 GHz discovery I may forgo it all together. I was also considering the benefits of RAPID software but that pretty much settles it. I may just end up going with the M500 after all.

Can you enable RAPID while plugged in? on battery? or none at all?

 

None at all, the ability to run RAPID is solely based on the nominal speed of the processor ( excluding the turbo mode). However, you would not get much gain form RAPID as it scales up with the CPU speed.
Still, the EVO 840 is brilliant, the read/write speed is still 10-15X faster. You won't be dissapointed.

 

Anyone else besides me like to have an SD/MicroSD card in your laptop at all times?
Have you guys ever seen anything like this?








I want to try out of these low profile SD card to Micro SD card adapters so that I can put to use my SD card reader and be able to add on additional storage capacity to my v5-122p. The only problem I can see happening would be the height of the two SD cards together may cause the card not to fit into the slot correctly.

 

Has anybody managed to upgrade the ram to 10 gig?

 

Me, see here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/724071-acer-aspire-v5-122p-owners-thread-4.html#post9323652

I've been using 4GB for the past months and will go back to 10GB when I come across the right stick.

 

I wasn't able to get an 8GB stick to work. It showed up but then RAM available was only 2GB.

 

The Nifty MiniDrive. the MiniDrive, and DoSeen Nifty Minidrive. Of the three, the first one is ridiculously expensive. Last two are cheaper, but I haven't seen a decent review.

reply to davidricardo86

 

So what happened? Did the memory used for the 10GB config make it unstable or something, or why did you revert to 4GB?

 

I picked this up a couple of months ago so we would have something mobile. Our college laptops bit the dust a couple of years ago and we've been surviving on my desktop and our iPhones until recently.

Our experience has been good with the exception of the HD and the fan's annoying spinning. kaotikfunk hasn't updated the SSD list and I wanted you guys to know I found a couple of other models that are 7mm in height. They are below.

• Toshiba Q Series Pro 128GB - HDTS312XZSTA - Of note: my Best Buy carries this model, Newegg does not.
• Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow V300 - SV300S37A/120G - I've seen this one hit $89 on sale at Newegg and Tiger Direct in the last couple of weeks since I started watching these prices.
• Crucial M500 - This one has been mentioned previously.

I am planning on picking up one of these around Black Friday, so I have no experience with any of these drives. Just noting they are also 7mm options.

Also, whoever threw out the recommendation to apply new thermal grease to the CPU, thanks. I had not thought to do that to keep the fan's spinning up down and it is a fantastic idea.

 

Hi Guys,
I bought an Acer NC-V5-122P-61456G50NSS (model - MS2377) a week ago. I did not set up the recovery management and/or any USB recovery media. Due to some issue it has crashed all together and currently I am unable to go back to store I bought from for repair or exchange. I tried recovery by loading recovery manager (Left Alt + F10) as mentioned in acer support article but no luck. the screen shows as your pc needs to be repaired, insert any recovery media).

Is there any way to reset the pc in this case (of course without ordering e-recovery from Acer store, I don't want to pay for the thing I already paid for). Your help will be most appreciated.

 

What stick specifically? Brand, model, part number, etc. etc.?

Thanks! That looks like it might be perfect. I'll have to give those a shot. I'm sure some of the v5-122p users would appreciate such an adapter too.

What happened? Exactly what I expected to happen. It just worked like how any of us would've imagined.

I didn't notice anything drastic and that's likely due to the oem 5400rpm hdd more than anything else. It sort of felt, well, the same. The 8gb stick came from my ProBook 6475b. I am kinda weird/ocd and didn't want to break up a pair of matched (expensive) RAM modules so I took the 8gb stick out and put it back into the ProBook where i wanted it to be.

I do plan on getting a dedicated 8gb stick for my v5-122p. I love this little netbook more and more but the 4gb it comes with sometimes starts to show its limitation. I've been pushing it pretty hard lately with multiple programs and browser tabs running at the same time, I usually see about 60-75% ram usage. Yesterday I had it hooked up to one of my 22" Asus 1080p IPS monitor and running Minecraft at the same time it hit 100% CPU usage on all four cores, locked at 1.38GHz and 85% RAM usage. It doesn't take much to bring the A6-1450 to its knees but It did surprised me how well it was multitasking. Pretty impressive for an 8W TDP ULV SoC APU. I think Windows 8.1, and the newer drivers may have contributed to this too.

I also purposely went back to 4gb to see how much I could push it and force myself to be limited to 4gb. Now I'm starting to see where those boundaries are. At this point, I can definitely make use of more ram and an ssd.

Did you happen to change anything in the UEFI settings?
What happens if you hit F8 while the computer is starting up?
Can you access any recovery partitions?

Only thing I can recommend is to find yourself a Windows 8 ISO, create a bootable USB installation disk, and fresh install Windows 8.

Remember to first create a UEFI password, then disable Secure Boot and or change the boot type to Legacy in the UEFI settings in order to boot from the usb disk. Proceed with the installation as normal.

 

Has anyone upgraded to 8.1? I am using a technet 8.1 pro license but technet is going away after this year. So I will have to do a regular win 8 install. Anyone have issues or install clean 8.1 ?

Beamed from my G2 Tricorder

 

I just received a refurb V5-122P-0643 and it upgraded to 8.1 with no issues. Only thing I ran into was the machine had to run all the current 8.0 updates before I could see the 8.1 update as available. Otherwise it worked fine.

Separate question:

Anyone have issues w/ wifi card seeing wireless N networks? My new machine cannot see my wireless N router it works fine with other routers. I have installed updated drivers from Acer with no change.

 

@davidricardo86 Ok, thanks for the lengthy explanation. I couldn't understand why you were searching for a working stick when you already had one. Would be great to have list of working sticks for this one.
Mine came with 6GB and I'm sorta fine with that for the time being, but I can see myself going to 10GB at some point.
But first I'm gonna buy an SSD, that's for sure.


On a another note, I've started to have this annoying problem: sometimes when waking up from sleep the brightness controls won't work and I need to do a reboot to get them working again.
It wasn't like this when I got the computer, so it's a some driver or update I've installed that's causing the problem.

Anybody else experiencing this?

 

I've gone to 8.1 and installed all the new drivers with no issues..(the above mentioned brightness issue started happening before I installed 8.1...hmm could it be the new bios...)

On a clean install of 8.1: I've read a bit in this thread: How to download the Windows 8.1 ISO, and if I understood it correctly there is currently no known way to do a clean OEM install of 8.1 with the iso currently available.
Seems you have to install Win8, then all the updates, and then update to 8.1 through the store. Great Microsoft....

 

hi david, thanks for reply. I didn't change anything in UEFI manually, however I was trying to do partition with help of a software "Easy Partition"(or so, can't remember), to limit the C drive to 80 Gb (HDD is 500 GB). System went for restart after that and after restart this error message appeared (Same msg shows up when pressing F8 on startup):

"Operating system could not be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors 'File:\Windows\system32\winload.efi
Error code: 0xc0000225."

How can I access recovery partition? I'm able to enter BIOS.

If nothing works,I will try to find a Windows 8 ISO and fresh install as advised, in that case is there anyway to find and use my original windows key (As I had already logged in with my hotmail account and upgraded to Windows 8.1, does that make any chance to associate my original window key with my msn account in anyway?) or will I have to spend on new one?
Thanks.

 

OK, I did some research and below are updates:
1. We can use 'Windows Recovery Drive' (can be made through any PC running Windows 8) to load advance start up options and repair or get back to recovery partition. As I don't have any friends, in my surroundings, running any windows 8 pc, would any of V5 122P owner here can do me a favor of making and uploading the same to any sharing site? (You don't have to worry about your windows product key, as the recovery/repair drive will use the product key embedded in BIOS of my PC.) That is option 1 and

2. I got to know that if I want to do a fresh install of windows, the installer will automatically pick the key from BIOS as for all windows preinstalled PCs like ours, the product key is embedded into BIOS. Only thing is that the version of windows should be same as that for which the key is embedded in BIOS, that means I need to install Windows 8 (not 8.1, as our machine came preloaded with windows 8) while doing fresh install. But I am unable to find any ISO of Windows 8. Would my fellow owners of 122p show me any link (without having to enter product key before downloading ISO).

Please help me by providing download link for any 1 of above. Thanks.

 

Update: I downloaded a window 8 Pro ISO and made a bootable USB. I was able to go to 'Repair Your Computer' option and after going to 'Reset your PC' option found that my recovery partition has gone/missing. I tried all options available but no luck.

Then I tried to install with that Windows 8 Pro ISO but got message:
"The product key entered does not match any of the Windows images available for installation. Enter a different product key".

before this message I did not got any form to fill product key! Does this mean that the installer was picking up the key from BIOS (OEM Key)? and may be the installation did not succeeded because OEM Windows version was Window 8 and I was trying to install Windows 8 Pro.

If that is the case then, could somebody please send me link to download an Windows 8 ISO? I am helpless and couldn't find anywhere on internet (without having to pay for a new key, but I should not pay as the installer will use OEM key).

 

I just applied new thermal grease (coincidentally, it was also Arctic Silver) and I've noticed the same. Fan doesn't run hardly at all during web browsing, word documents, small applications, etc. Temps under small load and idle are down 4-5 degrees Celsius, hovering around 45. Under load, such as watching a HD flash video I was previously seeing around 55-57 degrees Celsius and CPU activity hovering around 65-75%. I now see temps sitting comfortably at 53-54 degrees Celsius under the same CPU load. My fan seems to have a trigger point at 55-56 degrees where it really ramps up.

 

I haven't tried replacing the thermal grease before and have a few questions.

I assume you remove that mostly black metal plate with the fan? If so, I think I saw three or four black screws. Any other instructions?

Once the plate is lifted up (does it need any prying?) do you simply wipe off the old grease and apply the new, then reassemble?

 

Just got my acer aspire

Btw, how much are you selling your RAM for?

 

Here's the exact kit I bought and its current price:
Crucial Model CT2K8G3S160BM - Newegg.com

I can do $70 shipped for the other 8GB stick to mostly anywhere in the USA. Please get more posts so that you can PM me instead and we can talk about this in private.

 

Is there any way possible to over clock this APU, it does not show locked in hwinfo. I know that pscheck does not work, but that because its a different type of design.
I know the GPU part of the APU can be over clocked to 497MHz, which helps when the CPU core is lock to 1.4GHz .

Just need to bump up the CPU bit more, or even somehow unlock the 497 MHz GPU limit.

 

Did you have any trouble getting HWiNFO to work? It crashes my Aspire every time I try and run it.

 

No not at all. I used the portable 64 bit version. No crashes at all.

Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2

 

FYI, the 64-bit only version doesn't play friendly. I uninstalled and then installed the 32/64-bit version and it works fine.

 

This laptop has been great so far for me but I'm still ticked about the battery life. I've learned to live with the v5-122p's disappointingly short battery life but it still sucks. I do hope to see larger capacity (internal) batteries in the near future like those offered for some laptops on ebay for example. In the meantime, I started looking for the fabled external battery that attaches to the bottom of our v5-122p and ran across this thread in the Acer Forum Discussions.

External Battery V5-122P - Acer Community

Thanks to Acer-Cory from that thread for making it known that Acer has now made the 3-Cell Second Battery (V5-122P) NP.BTP11.00G available and for sale in the USA. Cost is $99.99. Talk about nickel and dime-ing the consumer! Add $10 for ground shipping, $15 for two-day shipping, and $20 for priority shipping. I may have to fork over the cash as I see no other option at the moment.



3-Cell Second Battery (V5-122P) | Acer Store

 

Good to know, Mine crash also. I will download both and try it out.

 

For some odd reason, now both the 32-bit and 64-bit portable HWiNFO crash my computer too. I'll try out the non-portable versions next.

 

The Acer Store has added the V5-122P in the compatibility tab for the Acer Mini CP to VGA/LAN/USB Converter. Part number NP.OTH11.00C. I notice they are now calling the port this plugs into as the "Converter Port" (CP). If anyone purchases one, let us know how it works out.

Acer Store: MINI CP CABLE TO VGA/LAN/USB

 

Could you tell me what you did to get that WEI score on the cpu? I followed your instructions on installing the chipset and embedded drivers, the strange thing is it seems that you can only update the graphics driver after installing the embedded driver, when trying to install any other driver the checkbox for the graphics driver would never appear in the AMD installer.

I have installed a Samsung EVO 250 SSD and the performance increase is amazing, the cpu is definitely the bottleneck now.

 

@jk47
In Windows 8 all I did was install the embedded G-Series SoC drivers and AMD chipset drivers. I used the computer as normal and eventually ran the WEI. I do believe the score increased as a result of the drivers seeing as the Jaguar G-series SoC is almost identical to our Temash A4/A6. Its disappointing that AMD's own hardware/driver detection tool doesn't even recognize our Temash APUs and cannot give us the necessary driver.


What does this mean? Can you post a picture? I did a clean install of 8, then simply installed the drivers. I didn't have to first install the Acer AMD drivers or

Since the WEI was hidden from plain view in 8.1, I found this guide on how to run the WEI and get the current scores. Notice the CPU score now and also the memory due to my 10GB.

SystemScore 4.1
MemoryScore 6
CpuScore 6
CPUSubAggScore 5.9
VideoEncodeScore 6
GraphicsScore 4.1
Dx9SubScore 4.2
Dx10SubScore 0
GamingScore 4.3
StdDefPlaybackScore TRUE
HighDefPlaybackScore TRUE
DiskScore 5.9

How To Get Windows Experience Index (WEI) Score In Windows 8.1
Posted July 30, 2013 – 3:08 pm in: Windows 8 Guides
How To Get Windows Experience Index (WEI) Score In Windows 8.1

 

Thanks for the tip, hope they sell it in Sweden!!

 

Thank you so much for the reply. What I meant was that starting from the original OEM Windows 8 OS and trying to install any graphics driver that is 13.x wouldn't work because the AMD installer wouldn't show the graphics driver as an option when running the installer. Everything else appeared like the SATA driver and the Video Acceleration, just not the display driver. It only appeared after installing the SoC driver first, so it follows on from what you said about that driver allowing the APU to be recognised.

And thank you for the link to the Windows 8.1 WEI score, very interesting to see how much it increases. I wonder if it is linked to what is mentioned in this article: AMD APUs Get Better Proformance in Windows 8.1

I very much appreciate you sharing your findings in trying to get the chip to perform to it's maximum potential.

 

Acer has released a revised User's Manual for the V5-122P.

Acer | Download

 

Can't wait to see what it looks like on.

 

Here's link to the battery. I might pick one up myself for giggles.

3-Cell Second Battery (V5-122P) | Acer Store

 

Thanks.

But they lie:

 

How much backlight bleeding is acceptable for this kind of screen? On mine it's quite noticeable in darker scenes in movies, and annoys me quite a bit at times.

 

Over the weekend I purchased a 10.1" ASUS F102B-SH41T netbook for $355 after taxes. It came equipped with an 3.9W TDP AMD A4-1200 with Radeon HD 8180, 4GB of DDR3-1066 RAM, a 320GB HDD and a 10 point touch screen. I purchased it because of its size and weight, 2.4 lbs. It seemed like a decent computer I could take with me anywhere. I knew going into this deal the A4-1200 was the slowest Jaguar APU in AMD's current portfolio so I wasn't at all surprised in how it performed. Actually it performed surprisingly well for such a low TDP dual core processor. I was curious to see how the A4-1200 managed and it wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't that great either. Take Minecraft for example, my A6-1450 usually sees about 25-35 FPS on average, while the A4-1200 averaged about 10-20 FPS. I didn't do any benchmarks of any sort, I was just using it for those basic daily tasks I do. The 3.9W TDP means the A4-1200 will run cool no matter what. Even when pushed to its limits, the bottom of the netbook remained relatively cool. Cooler than my V5-122P of course. Still, it was not surprising to see both CPU cores at 100% even while doing basic multitasking. Lag was inevitible, some times clicking on something meant waiting a few seconds for any kind of reaction. Still I wasn't bothered by the A4-1200's performance.

What did bother me was the terrible TN display panel. Immediately I knew I had to return it and get my money back. The next day I did just that. Even with all the positives this netbook came with, the poor quality display ruined it all for me. That was the dealbreaker.

I have grown accustomed to my V5-122P's IPS display, even with its light bleed. The display that ASUS chose for this netbook was simply too grainy, washed out and had very narrow viewing angles. I only paid $25 more for my V5-122P-0600 but it also came with a larger capacity HDD, significantly faster A6-1450, a backlit keyboard and a good quality IPS display. In my opinion, the ASUS F102B-SH41T represents a bad value for the money at its current price of $330+tax. My recommendation is to go with an Acer V5-122P. :thumbsup:


On that recommendation and because I'm so satisfied with my V5-122P, I went ahead and ordered the Acer secondary battery and Acer CP VGA/LAN/USB adapter too. I will post pictures when I get them in a couple days. Here's my exact total with shipping and taxes:

NP.BTP11.00G - 3-Cell Second Battery (V5-122P) - $99.99
NP.OTH11.00C - Acer Mini CP to VGA/LAN/USB Converter - $34.99

Subtotal: $134.98
Shipping: $15.00 (two-day)
Tax: $9.38
Total: $159.36


Just a heads up for those that love small laptops like the V5-122P, I've got my eye on the MSI S12T. Besides lacking a backlit keyboard, it is a serious contender to the V5-122P. In some cases it will beat it. It will be available with an optional Kabini A4-5000, optional IPS display (with 10 point touch), two SODIMM slots for up to 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM, an mSATA port in addition to the 2.5" SATA port, Gigabit LAN, BT4.0, VGA/HDMI, and an optional 6-Cell battery. All this while weighing in at 2.86 lbs or 1.3 kg.

Spoiler

Specifications
CPU AMD Kabini A4-Series/ E1-Series
OS Windows 8.1
Memory 4GB DDR3 (Up to 16GB)
LCD Size 11.6” HD (Glare type) with Touch Panel 1366x768, 16:9
Graphics AMD Radeon HD Series
HDD (GB) 2.5” SATA HDD / mSATA SSD(optional)
Webcam HD Webcam
Card Reader SD
LAN Gigabit LAN
Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth Bluetooth v4.0
D-Sub (VGA) 1
HDMI 1(v1.4)
USB 2.0 port 2
USB 3.0 port 1
Mic-in/Headphone-out 1
Keyboard 87 keys
Battery 3 cell
Dimension 296(W)x 190(D)x 22.5~30.1(H) mm
Weight (KG) 1.3 KG (with 3-cell battery)

 

As of right now, no. There's no way to overclock the CPU. If anyone has any information regarding this, please do share your findings.

Otherwise, I recommend keeping your V5-122P plugged into the wall outlet and set to 'High Performance' to lock the CPU at 1.38GHz, or aka Turbo Dock as much as you can. FYI, while using the computer in this manner, the TDP is raised to 15W. The A6-1450 is pretty unique in this sense and so far there are no other Temash or Kabini APUs SoCs like it (Turbo Dock). Some people have speculated that we might see a Kabini with Turbo Dock Mode since new APU part numbers were discovered. I have yet to see any real proof of this claim.

Besides OCing the CPU, I would also like to see the use of 1600 MHz RAM for the A6-1450.

As much as you're willing to tolerate.

From what I've read, backlight bleeding is a common trait of IPS displays. It may just be the cheaper lower quality ones that exhibit this more than others.

 

I was able to get my previous issues resolved. However, I bought the cable on Amazon for mini Displayport to HDMI and I'm not having any luck. Does anyone have any ideas? It doesn't even detect that a display is connected.

 

Look what came in!



Basically this doubles the battery capacity. Instead of 3-4 hours, its now more like 6-8 hours depending how hard you push the computer. It can be more or it can be less. The second battery feels very light by itself and even when attached to the computer it doesn't feel all that heavy. I like that the weight distribution is a little more balanced with the front and rear of the computer too. The back end of the computer is raised ever so slightly allowing for more airflow underneath. The battery can be installed and removed at any time as long as the internal battery has a charge. The external battery has two "hooks" that attach to the black plastic just under the hinges and locks into place using the finger bolts. Very easy to connect and disconnect.

When using both batteries, the computer will deplete the secondary battery first. Charging seems to take a lot longer now because of the doubled capacity even on a 19V 3.42A 65W AC adapter.

 

Really nice, thanks for sharing pics

 

Very nice! Thanks! Does the battery wobble at all or is it pretty rigid?

 

I have the HP TouchSmart 11 model, which I think is somewhat a rare part, although the exact same APU as the Acer. Yeah no overclocking with the A6-1450, although the HP is easy, set on high performance and turn cool sense off, and that's it, 1.4GHz all day long on both mains power and battery power.

There is likely never be any memory overclocking, as the intergrated memory controller will not scale any higher than its pre-set, although could be possible through BIOS, but never know, someone maybe able to figure out how to software unlock if possible. Future looks good with PS4 and XB1 consoles using the same tech under the hood, therefore lots of interested peoples wanting to crack it open.

The standard loaded HP / AMD software for the graphics driver has AMD overdrive built right in and works. I can overclock the GPU core to 497MHz right out of the box. With Turbo locked in at 1.4GHz on all 4 cores and 500MHz GPU, this thing flies and still never gets hot. Battery last for ages too. It is the little chip that can

 

My daughter's V5-122P is taking a trip to the Temple Texas Depot. The earphone jack is defective. While it's there, I'm noting that they should check out the seating of the display due to the bleed. We'll see what happens. BTW, battery looks great.

 

The battery feels rigid without any wobble whatsoever. However, I can see it being easily broken if say the laptop was dropped and landed on a corner of the battery or someone grabbed it and tried breaking it off. It's only really being held on by the two plastic hooks and 2 small bolts. Take caution.

I'm surprised the HP A6-1450 can sustain 1.4GHz on battery, impressive. The A6-1450 is an impressive chip indeed. I can also adjust the GPU core clock using Catalyst to 497 MHz using the Acer Windows 8.1 drivers. I thought I was the only one that noticed that.

Spoiler

Driver Packaging Version 13.152.1.3-130925a-162913C-Acer
Provider Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1331
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Class/{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 9.14.10.0984
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.12422
AMD Catalyst Control Center Version 2013.0925.645.10236
AMD Audio Driver Version 9.0.0.9902

How's your battery life? The lack of IPS display and a backlit keyboard was a deal breaker for me when I was deciding between the Acer or HP. Have you seen this: HP Pavilion 13z-p100 x2 PC | HP® Official Store

 

Battery life is better than any of my several laptops, this thing kicks butt, under load the battery meter move very slightly. I can have a heap of stuff open too and it just keeps on going. I can easily see 5-6 hours on a single full charge, and that is actually using the laptop with the clock locked on 1.4GHz. Locking the clock speed makes it very responsive. Never gets hot, fan spins slowly, can leave on top of a bed without any need for cooling mat as it barely gets warm. Really this is what all laptops should be like, and the strange thing is as it is so good, I am using this more than my fast machines. I got the HP on sale for half the cost of the Acer, no doubt the Acer is pretty sweet with IPS, but this was all I could get my hands on without paying to much in NZ. At first I was not impressed with the clock at 1GHz on battery, was way to slow and at that stage thought about getting rid of it, but once figured out keep it at 1.4GHz it became a instant keeper.

 

Any success in trying the Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter ?
I'd rather not tie up a USB port with a network adapter.