Acer Timeline Ultra m5?

As I mentioned from an earlier post I had a lot of problems when I tried to move my programs to Win8 instead of doing a clean install. However it got so bad that it eventually forced itself to do a clean install to repair the damage and after that I had no more driver problems. For the wifi though I downloaded manually the driver for it. I don't have any problems with it now.

 

Hello, I just purchased the M5-481TG-6814 and I am currently on the 1st day of using this laptop. Gotta say, after a whole lot of researching to figure out what would be the best laptop for the bang, settling for the TimelineU M5 series seems like a decision I would not regret unless some mechanical problem plagues this laptop one day.

There are just a few dark spot and questions I have about upgrading a few things, specifically regarding the mSATA, and the Main HDD with an SSD. Even with all the excellent information provided in this thread, i feel a bit lost, since the last technology of laptop I bought was 6+ years ago lol...Lot has changed!

After reading through all the posts, and seeing that there are a few options and ways to go about doing some mSATA + SSD combination changes, is there a best option?
A: remove mSATA SSD + upgrade to a SSD?
but would this loose the system cache ability that was used on the mSATA SSD? Or can you partition the SSD for
cache?

B: Upgrade the mSATA SSD + upgrade to a SSD?
Now, does putting in an large capacity mSATA have any particular benefits, or is there a recommended minimum
size? can the mSATA be used as the partition for the Intel Rapid Technology, Cache, and storage?

In the end, to me it seem that using an SSD would be an best choice for boot up, programs, games.. Just don't know if there are benefits to A bigger or removed mSATA?

Thanks for your time everyone.

 

hey guys my room mate and i bought 14 timeline m5-481tg at roughly the same time a little over two months ago. his hard drive failed, and he has been without a laptop for a little over 3 weeks, and the fan on mine is making a very obnoxious clicking noise. it sounds like a loose or bad fan bearing. i dont want to have to send it in for repairs because this would take far too long, but i don't know where to get the replacement parts, (i live in florida) does anyone have any advice on what to do?

should i just send it in?

a couple side notes:
-my backlighting is very uneven, as in one side of the keyboard is much brighter than the other.
-the logo on the palmrest reads "aspire m" while my room mates reads "aspire timelineU" much larger and different font.
-touchpad is elan touchpad, not synaptics like everyone elses.

 

As far as the MSATA having a battery life impact... not really, the HDD to SSD, more so, maybe 1/2 hr to 1 hr more, depending on use is what I experienced with an earlier laptop and this one. Can't justify that energywise because I never tried to use a power polling app when I had the HDD installed. But yes, that configuration is what I'm running on my system now.. so yes, it works fine.

This thread is about the M5, not M3, but since they are so similar, I'll bite. You need more information... what exactly happens when you attempt to run the shut down command on Windows 8? Does it just hang midway? If all else fails go back to 7...

 

I believe you're asking if you remove the 20GB MSATA and upgrade the HDD to SSD, if you lose the Rapid Start Technology (RST)... To be honest, I do not recall if you can create the hibernation partition on the boot drive, I suspect not, but you're welcome to try and report back.

Larger capacity MSATA would in general be faster to use for RST.. the default 20GB one is not all that fast... not to mention the additional storage space... that's it really.
Benefits to a removed MSATA? very minimal reduction in energy usage, perhaps.

If you're not satisfied, yes, just send it in.. If you really want to get creative.. swap his hard drive into yours and send yours in... that way you get all the problems fixed in one shot and you get to use his laptop with your hard drive since he hasn't been using his anyway.

 

Hi geelaw87,

I just cracked my m5's screen as well. I wonder how did you get it fixed?

 

I just ordered this laptop today and one of the first things I'm going to do is replace windows with Linux Mint. Is it any trouble to install the OS to the SSD? Also, I read that there were some weird issues with the track pad. I went to the acer website and realized that they only support windows but was wondering if there are 3rd party drivers somewhere.

 

So I took the plunge and went for the MKNSSDAT240GB mSATA 240GB SATA III MLC and the Samsung 840 Pro 512 SSD, plus added 8gbs of ram and followed Vacaloca's advice and went with the Intel 6320 Bluetooth/Wifi Combo. Many, many thanks to Vacaloca and Smerdk for sharing their experiences on this. I managed to install Windows 7 on mSata drive.

I went crazy trying to get the bluetooth to work with a clean instal of Windows 7, then I read on amazon that you need to install the bluetooth and wifi driver before actually installing the card. So now I'm going to re-instal windows, instal the bluetooth and wireless drivers, and then insert the card.

But as long as I'm at it - does it makes sense to install Windows on the Msata? Or would I be better off (in terms of performance and battery life) installing on the Samsung SSD?

-c

 

So I fixed the bluetooth - can't believe it was disabled with fn+f2, just had to turn it off.

I installed windows 7 on both the ssd and the msata - the msata appears to be a good bit faster, although I didn't run any tests.

One of the disadvantages, however, may be that it appears rapid intel start does not work on it. First, I received a message that my computer doesn't meet the requirements. Now I have this annoying message when I start up "your system does not appear to have intel rapid start technology enabled."

Thoughts?

 

I just installed a new SSD by following the procedure described here, and there is just one problem: I am unable to get a tight fit on the right-rear side of the case. This is where I installed the new Crucial 128 SSD.

There appears to be some blue padding material beneath where the old drive was sitting. I suppose this was intended to cushion the drive from shocks. If I can scrape away the foam, it should be possible to close up the case.

Two questions: a) Did anyone else encounter this problem with the Crucial SSD? b) Is it safe to scrape away the blue padding?

Thanks!!

 

Question regarding backlit keyboard on battery power. Is there a setting somewhere to keep the backlight ON while on battery power, as it is now, it will turn off when not in use and turns back on when I hit a key. I need to find an always on option like when it is plugged into a power source. I am using windows 8, I dont see backlight key setting anywhere

 

I just picked up one of these during the holidays and for the price I paid i am pretty pleased. Although I am experiencing one odd occasional error.

During boot occasionally (1 in maybe 5 or 6 boots) it will display the "A disk read error occurred hit ctrl-alt-del to retry". The very first time after I unboxed the machine it gave me this message and I was immediately thinking the drive was DOA. But if I hit ctrl-alt-del the next time everything boots normally. Nothing is in any of the drives (CD or USBs) and I double checked in Bios for the boot order making sure the HDD is first out of any other options. I can't really determine a pattern of why this is happened.

Anybody else experiencing the same / similar problem? I thought about updating the Bios since I believe I have an older version on this machine.

 

anyone got the original sofware such as expresscache/rst from cd's etc and the OEM folder.

I gaied the M3 and put it on windows 7 down from 8 and Acers stupid site doesnt have anything for it in general >.>

 

ok so i'm on windows 8 with the m5-581tg. i replaced the wifi card with the intel 6230 and i still can't get bluetooth to work. anyone have any idea how to fix this?

 

I had this problem with Windows 7. Turned out the bluetooth was turned off by the hardkeys. I pressed fn + f3 a few times and it was back up. I hope your problem is as simple as that.

 

Hello!

I'm just bought my Acer M5 (128 gb SSD, i5 (3rd gen), GT 640M LE concrete name: Acer Aspire M5-481TG-53314G12).
While replacing the existing 2 gb DIMM module with a 8 gb adata DIMM I realized that there an empty space (look at the photo):



Can I place a regular SSD like the Samsung 840/830 with 256 gb there?

I'm sorry for my bad english...I'm german and this thread was the best and detailed one I could find about the M5.

 

I have the Ultra m3 from what I have on my configuration that space fits only a 7mm hard drive/ssd

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

2,5 inches right?

 

yes 2.5inches but specifically 7mm models

 

ok. last question =)

Regarding performance, emission (noise) and temperature...is it better to use the existing 128 GB SSD AND install a another one or is it more senseful to use only one 256 GB SSD (removing the already installed 128 GB SSD)?

And where are the cables I need to connect to the SSD? If you need a pic from the interiour in higher resolution just tell me

 

A higher resolution photo of the circled area would be a big help. I'm gonna see if cable port matches my m3 then all you need to do is search the supply number for it I can get.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

The Dolby Theater v4 program helps my laptop speakers sound really nice, problem is in games like borderlands 1 and far cry 3 (more often in borderlands, almost always in that game) the program will turn itself off. I then have to go and manually turn it on. Any idea why this might be and what I can do about it?

 

ok there is the same pic in higher resolution.

Directupload.net - lutojpyd.jpg

actually I don't know where to connect the ssd because in my configuration I never had a hard drive... so I don't know if there are the required connection possibilities

btw: which supply number do you mean?

 

I have circled where it would connect to if you had to configuration with a normal HDD/SSD

Directupload.net - 67prqxy7.jpg

I had a look and cant see to fin the part number to the cable connected to my hard drive on my M3.

Anyone with an M5 have a look

 

I'm sorry but what do you mean?

 

As you can see the connecter I marked isn't a normal one it requires a special cable and I was saying I would look and first d the party number of it so you can search for it to use.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

ah ok now I got it =)

I'll look for it sometime

 

I tried that and it's still working. The wifi works fine but bluetooth won't turn on

 

I recently started to have a problem with my unit. Sometimes when I lift my laptop it completely shuts down, forcing me to boot again. Anyone else experiencing this issue? I guess some internal wiring might be at fault. I am based in Hong Kong, anyone knows how the warranty procedure goes? Should contact my vendor or go straight to Acer?

 

You can try vendor if they have a return policy, otherwise, yes, consult with Acer.

 

Question for you guys. do any of you have the recovery discs and can you access the acer programs stored on them.

If you can could you please upload the diskkeeper software please and oem folder.

I have an m3 hat came with windows 8 so when i downgraded to 7 i never got diskeeper or any of the other acer stuff.

 

Hi all, I was bored tonight and actually read through the entire thread. I think I'm going to purchase this laptop tomorrow, but first I had one question.

Since you can't boot to the mSATA would I be better off just removing it and going with a 512GB 7mm SSD?

 

i read through this thread adn you can boot to msata

 

You can boot to the mSATA, but only if you have *just* the mSATA installed. If you care for 2 OS's on different drives, what I did for that was:

1) install Windows 7 to the 7mm SSD (or regular 7mm HDD if you please)
2) install Ubuntu on mSATA w/ grub installed on the root partition
3) Install/use EasyBCD to create a boot entry that loads Ubuntu from Win7 boot menu.

 

Send me a PM with your e-mail and I'll add you/send you a link to the driver disk files I'm just uploading to my box.com account. You might need the latest version of 7-Zip to unzip if your usual zip-client doesn't recognize the splitting/naming.

 

replied.

acer quoted me £53 for recovery usb for my laptop and another reseller quoted me £20

downside is thats only with windows 8 files so thats a no go. and all i want is the software which if acer were smart they should suppl on their site and have it detect the laptop model on installation.

 

Hey there vacaloca,
I tried to PM you, but there was no option when I clicked your name. Might be because I've been a lurker for some time and just recently registered. I have a question if you don't mind answering.
I finally decided it was time to upgrade my ram and saw that if I do not care for the deep sleep mode, I could just "search for RapidStartConfig and run it...disable deep sleep, reboot, and only then wipe/remove it". The problem with this is that I searched for this file, but I don't have it. I know it should be under Intel > irstrt. The folder is there, the .exe is not. This leads me to believe it has not been installed properly when I reformatted the laptop a while back. I mean for this folder to exist means I did install it? I see it in my uninstall program list.
Any help is truly appreciated, Thanks again.

 

I play a lot of games (cs:go, la noire, skyrim, etc) and i'm getting a lot of fan noise. no big deal,except now i'm starting to notice a fast clicking noise coming from the area where the cooling fan is located. the clicking matches the speed of the fan so i know it has to be related.. the problem is i already sent my laptop in once for the same issue. it got fixed but now its starting to act up again. anyone else have/had this issue? it seems the m5's cooling system just wasnt designed to hold up to extensive gaming.

might as well keep it. its 20GB extra storage/cache you didn't have before. or upgrade the msata drive so you can have even more storage.

 

Hey guys,

So i recently just bought this laptop and having a couple of problems.
So far, I have done a clean install of W7 ultimate and installed all the drivers from the acer website. The only problem I am having is with the touchpad driver.
I wanted to install the Synaptic drivers just because i like them way more than the elan ones, however upon installation and trying to use it, none of the scrolling functions or gestures work. I went into device manager to see what was wrong and looking into the synaptic options, there is only an option for Buttons. Also, when i use the elantech drivers, everything works fine. Is there a way to get the synaptics to work?

 

If you had Synoptics touchpad it would have worked- since you apparently have Elan it doesn't.
You can't just choose drivers according to your preference.

 

Oh okay that makes sense. I was wondering also is there a website that has the latest elantech drivers? Or am i only able to get them from the acer support site?

 

After W8 upgrade i miss the diskeeper driver , can i have the link too ?

 

Multiupload.nl - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

Diskeeper drivers and software, use the expresscache guide in samsung forums with this program as theres is propriety to their systems it wont work on acers but the guide works great.

defaulted back to windows 8 on system (originally came with it) with Efi and gpt partitions.

after a few disc ccahes my boot tim is 8 seconds without a ssd just diskeeper.

 

Some here had expressed interest in getting higher capacity SSDs a while back... They are coming... near-TB -- 960GB (for 2.5 7mm form factor) and near 1/2 TB -- 480GB (for MSATA and even M.2 formats) Crucial M500 SSDs should be out in Q2 2013:
AnandTech - Micron/Crucial Announces M500 SSD Line of SSDs

Also Mushkin did a 480GB MSATA as well, online retailers are limited for that one so far, but still about $1/GB:
Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT480GB mSATA 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) RAM Experts

 

I've never been able to instal Intel Rapid Start after I installed my 240gb msata. Everytime I try, I get an error that "this system does not meet the minimum requirements." Can some one please point me to a solution? Thanks

 

You need to make a partition on it the same size as your ram. The in diskpart format the partition and set it for hibernation.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

hey all, just bought this the 481TG for my wife, with the 500GB HDD + 20GB SSD option. I read in this review (ArsTechnica) about the HDD/SDD setting being suboptimal, due to a lack of RAID support in Acer's BIOS.

Has anyone found a way to change this? Anyone play with the different BIOS versions on Acer's site?

Thanks!

 

If you want a laptop that is RAID capable, look for one that comes configured that way. SSD caching is enabled by Diskeeper software, not what ArsTechnica mentions. If you put a Samsung 830 or 840 SSD in this as your main drive and install Windows 7 from scratch with all the latest drivers you'll be amazed at how fast everything is. Or wait for the SSDs I mentioned a few posts ago. You could also replace the (relatively slow) mSATA drive with another much faster/larger SSD as well.

I updated to the 1.12 version of the BIOS and didn't notice any additional features. v1.x BIOS is not capable of updating to the v2.x versions.

 

Thanks for the info vacaloca. We're satisfied with the laptop as is, just wanted to see if there was a quick, free way to give it more pep

 

hey,

i'm new here.
If i buy a Acer M5 with a 128GB SSD insite, how is the SSD configuration?
Is Intel Rapid Start Technology preinstalled/preconfigurated? -> example: 120gb windowspartiton and 8gb IRST-partition?

because if i buy a acer m5 with a HDD+20GB SSD (msata), the configuration is 320GB Windowspartition(HDD) and 16GB Expresscache(diskeeper)+ 4gb(IRST)