Acer Travelmate P645

Hello P645 owners!!!

I am also one of you. P645 is a great notebook but I have a problem. Fingerprint reader does not work in Windows 7. I can see in the device manager that the driver is installed and the device is working properly. Unfortunatelly, I don't see "biometric devices" in the control panel.

I use the Win 7 Pro that comes with the notebook. If it won't work, I will have to switch to Win 8...

Thank you and best wishes

Bohumir

 

@Bohumir -

I have the P645 with Windows 7 and my biometrics work fine. However I do not see biometric devices listed in Windows control panel, nor do I find the Acer biometrics device under the control panel category called credentials manager. I suggest reinstalling the Acer credentials manager software (you can probably download it from the Acer site.

With it's business-class orientation and lack of touch screen, I see the P645 as a far better Windows 7 machine than Windows 8. That said, if your biometrics/credential manager software revives under Windows 8, or if you plan to migrate to that OS anyways, then great. But if you like Windows 7, it seems a bit overkill to try to revive biometrics by switching the entire OS. Just my opinion. I'd sooner just reinstall 7.

 

Alright, I got multiple corners with paint being chipped off, and two of the spots are exposing the aluminum metal. This laptop is only a month old.

My temporary fix is using a Sharpie.

About two weeks ago, I dropped my laptop about half a meter and it hit the concrete at the corner. Only damage was a small chipped paint spot. The build quality (other than the display being a bit too flexible) is good, but I'm not getting a good opinion of Acer's paint job.

 

Hey everyone, as one of the early posters on this thread, I figured I'd give an update on various things after about 6 months of ownership:

1) I just shipped the laptop to Acer for repairs . The issue I'm facing is that the laptop works just fine when plugged in, but when on battery, it will just randomly lose power, instantly shutting down within 20-30 minutes of becoming unplugged (could be 10 seconds or 40 minutes...). This is not related to bad connections (happens when the laptop is completely steady), or drivers/OS since I've done full restores across multiple OSs with no luck. Battery appears in good health (based on software reads and the way it drains when powering the computer back up after it shuts down). Mine developed this issue at a terrible time, when I was doing field work abroad, and I hope Acer Depot warranty will be good. As a sidenote, I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't send me a prepaid shipping label...

2) Mine has held up to the test of time just about fine. There might be a tiny bit of paint missing on the corner of the screen, but otherwise it looks brand new. I didn't drop it, I think the paint issue was linked to backpack/computer bag zippers.

3) I plan on installing an SSD in the 2.5" bay, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Thanks for all the info added about this! This is an awesome feature for a laptop of this size and weight, and honestly, a game changer. I was thinking of putting a regular HDD for greater capacity, but I feel that would undermine the battery life significantly? Has that been anyone's experience? Any battery life change from installing an SSD?

4) I do get some occasional issues with drivers and software. The fingerprint reader sometimes acts up and will read the first scan during bios bootup, and after that won't read anymore until reboot it seems. Just weird stuff, but nothing too crazy. WiFI drivers were definitely complicated. I've used Intel's recent drivers (can't recall the version) but they caused some issues under Win7, so I reverted back to Acer's original and it seems to have fixed things a bit.

Overall, I really love this laptop still after 6 months of use. I've gamed on it without problems or instabilities, I've done field work with it and the battery life remains STELLAR!, the keyboard i'm fully used to and type just as fast as I used to on my T500.

One thing I wish Acer was better at is keeping pace in terms of driver release. Intel (and others) are pumping them out...

 

I looked into the Windows Event Viewer today and it stated that the TPM chip started failing its self-tests around last week.

Also, the WiFi is starting to behave oddly. It would stop loading webpages even when the WiFi signal is at max, and IE11 and Palemoon web browser always thinks there's no connection. I would have to disconnect and reconnect the WiFi for be to continue loading pages.

 

Hello,
I'm thinking about buying this great laptop. I have a question. Who is the manufacturer of the FHD display? Do you have some problems with a light bleeding?

 

Has anyone else installed Windows 10 Technical Preview? I decided to install it on the old recovery partition (takes up about 19GB of the 28GB free). FYI if you are going to use a bootable USB flash drive, the flash drive has to be formatted in FAT32, otherwise the UEFI BIOS doesn't recognize it. If you use the Win 7 USB tool, make sure the flash drive is formatted in FAT32; alternatively, if it's NTFS formatted, transfer all contents off the drive, format FAT32 then retransfer all files back.

To get it to boot, make sure the BIOS has USB booting enabled, and enable the boot menu. When you restart, press F12 to get the boot menu options, then choose USB.

It looks pretty, but right now it's all but unusable to me, because if I put the Acer to sleep it, it doesn't wake, but instead reboots. When Microsoft asks for feedback I'll give them a piece of my mind, lol!

 

Hi, don't know the answer to your question about manufacturer; the screen is nice and even. Do note that technology marches on, and ASUS has the new ZenBook UX303, which has superior specs to the P645 for about the same price I bought mine ($1300 versus $1200).

 

The P645-MG has issues with hibernating with Windows 8, most likely due to a driver not being meant for Win 8. I doubt Acer ever fixed the issue.

The current 3200x1800p display has major issues with color accuracy, especially with yellows being rendered as mustard green, due to the inherent drawback of the Pentile display tech used in the display.

If you really want the UX303LN, I would advise waiting for the possibly cheaper 1080p model which has a much better color accuracy and still sharp enough resolution at 13.3".

 

My laptop's battery is at 12% after 2 months of college usage. What's Acer's battery warranty policy on the battery wear?

 

Hi guys,

I'm thinking about buying a p645 and wanted to quickly confirm that I am not mistaken:

I am planning to buy an ACER TravelMate P645-M-54204G52TKK from here: ACER TravelMate P645-M-54204G52TKK/4200U/14"HDWUXGA/I-/4D3/500/--/W8P - NX.V8VEG.006 (German site, I get a student discount). I want to change 2 things:

1) I am planning to buy 4GB - PC3L-12800 DDR3L-1600MHz 204pin SO-DIMM DDR3, so I have 8 GB. Its cheaper than their upgrade service (59 EUR). Or would it be wise to buy original RAM? Installing it shouldn't be a problem.

2) I don't like the 500 gb HDD and don't need much space, so I want to exchange it with an 265gb SDD. The HDD should be in the place next to the RAM slot, right? Does that mean I don't need an extra cable when I exchange the 2.5 HDD with a 2.5 SSD? The price for an SSD would be around 90 EUR (Crucial MX100 265gb), that would be much cheaper than the upgrade on the website where they charge 160 EUR.

Is that feasible or do I forget something important? What happens to the 20 GB mSSD? Could I also exchange that one, leave the 2.5 slot open and save some weight? Or is the 20 GB mSSD soldered to the mainboard?

Thanks in advance

 

Mine gets down to 12% after about 7 hours of use. If you get there after two months of use, I'd not be complaining much.

 

No, I meant the wear level. According to the HWMonitor, my battery's total capacity is 88% of its original stated 55500 mWh.

 

1. You should be fine upgrading the RAM. Just keep in mind that there are around 20 screws securing the bottom panel to the laptop, and that a 4 GB RAM module issoldered to the motherboard (the other should be removable).

2. If there's a regular HDD included, I would assume there's a 2.5" connection for you to use. On the US model with the 256GB mSATA SSD, there is a sticker (possibility warranty seal sticker) on the SSD. I'm not sure if there would be one on the 20GB mSATA SSD. If there is one, then I wouldn't recommend removing the mSATA SSD if you want the warranty.

 

Hi All,

My left shift key is broken on my Acer Travelmate P645 MG. Do you guys know where i can purchase a replacement one?
I bought this laptop last year, and it is a OK laptop. In January i will definitely buy something else. Probably an Evo15s from Origin PC.
I am in Europe (Vienna)

Cheers

G

 

You should still have a warranty on it, unless if only the US models have the two year warranty.

 

I still have the warranty, i bought this laptop in the US. The thing i need for work, if i send it it will take ages before it gets back. I have been having a couple of issues with this laptop, especially while running on battery. The laptop just shut down itself, i guess i am not the only one facing this issue. One other thing is the LAN connector, sometimes it works, and sometimes it just doesn't want, i might call the the online shop to get a RMA number. Anyway thanks

 

Hello everyone, new to the forum here.

I just ordered me a P645 MG (discrete graphics 256gb SSD) model and waiting for it to arrive.

This machine is replacing my eight year old 15" macbook pro (I'm deep into all of the OS's, as a power user of windows, linux, and mac OS x) that actually still runs great after being used, tortured, used and abused a lot, disassembled and reassembled the GPU fan and upgraded to a larger HDD 4 years ago.

I don't mean for my first post to be obsurd, just spilling my feelings here about the mac hardware vs pc hardware as far as portable notebook computers go.

Upon trying to find myself a newer machine as the specs of my previous daily driver were limiting me to basic web. video, and photo editing... I stumbled upon a good deal of the Acer P645 on ebay. I accept the fact that coming from being a macbook user switching to the P645 is going to have some perks and quite a bit of small-detail shortcomings.

Reading reviews before I placed my bid, I was finding it interesting that many of the reviews I find compare the offers of PC ultrabooks to the latest offerings of the macbooks. A whole lot of what reviewers and owners of these ultrabooks find as shortcomings are things my eight year old macbook has always done so well...the little things such as keyboard backlight brightness; why in the world is it that my antique macbook is able to adjust brightness automatically of both the display and the keyboard brightness at nearly infinite variables of brightness and current 2013-2014 ultrabooks in a similar price-range struggle so bad at that? It's just a bit comical to me. Adding to the list of a jumpy/jerky multi-touch trackpad on the majority of windows PC's, tinny horrible speakers on the majority of ultrabooks, classic barrel-type power sockets, having to spend as much money as a mac to get an ultrabook with a comparable display and yet the displays suffer light-leak in the corners regardless. Majority of these ultrabooks containing dedicated graphics also seem to suffer heat issues (throttling down of CPU/GPU pretty harshly) the more I read, sucking air in where your leg goes instead of through the keyboard or keeping the air to traveling through side-vents only.

I'm just a bit baffled at the way people talk about macbook hardwave vs the ultrabooks out there and how STILL inferior the "little-things" are that are often on the con-list of the ultrabook tech reviews. I am very glad that I was able to purchase this ultrabook for less than half-price knowing that my eight year old macbook does better at the majority of the shortcomings of the best of the ultrabooks.

I am excited to be the owner of a high spec'd and well-built machine that I hope will keep me happy, being only .3lb heavier than a macbook air and including beefy graphics is pretty dang awesome that I can throw it in my DSLR backback without it weighing me down as much as the macbook pro line would. It seems to be a great successor regardless of the little aesthetic shortcomings of what I am used to on apple laptop hardware. I also ordered the acer sata connector to add an extra 2.5" 1TB hard drive in the vacant 2.5" bay.

 

Was anyone able to figure out how to get Windows 10 to sleep/wake properly? Everything seems to work perfectly, other than that.

I have tried to install the Intel HD 4400 driver straight from intel but the installer (both the exe and trying to manually install the driver from the .zip was not compatible.) Bummer.

 

Still haven't gotten sleep to work in Windows 10. Oh well, when it's released, hopefully.

When I first got my P645 and upgraded it to 8.1, I originally installed new graphics drivers from AMD and it botched sleep. I would suggest uninstalling your video drivers, then reinstall the official Acer driers for 8.1Pro.

Here's the link: Download Drivers and Manuals | Acer Official Site

Select Notebook, Travelmate, P645-MG, and 8.1 (64-bit). There are drivers for Intel and AMD. Hope this helps!

 

You can also install more up-to-date graphic drivers from Intel's and AMD's websites. Intel has a page on how to manually override OEM graphic driver installation restrictions.

 

I oddly have been able to get sleep/wake/hibernate working in 8.1 with the latest beta driver from AMD.
BUT- the remaining issue is that the display can't fall sleep and wake back up, it gets stuck off, I cannot figure that out.

If I uninstall the AMD driver entirely (running generic microsoft driver), everything functions perfectly, aside of no AMD GPU function.

When I run Acer's latest drivers, the catalyst control center doesn't seem to work.. I get an error prompt that says there are no configurable settings. Argghhh....

 

I found out that you must install the Intel VGA Drivers from Acer Website, afther that you can install the official Mobility AMD Drivers from AMD Website...
With original Intel Drivers i have real big issues with uefi booting, sleep mode etc.

the only thing is that the Acer Intel Drivers are 1 year old

 

Makes sense, cool.

Is this under Windows 10 or 8.1 ? I figure it's got to be very similar compatibility between the both. This laptop was behaving identically in both 8.1 and windows 10 as far as graphic card driver compatibility goes.

Yeah, the latest official intel drivers do the same for me... It will sleep, wake, hibernate, etc but I can't let the display fall asleep while the system is running or it will get stuck off.

What exact OS and driver configuration are you running? I wish I could run 8.1 with stability.

 

I reinstalled Windows 7 to fix a possibly corrupted Windows Explorer (took 5 minutes to open a word document, on a freaking SSD, and it frequently crashed).

I was able to install the latest GPU drivers from Intel and AMD using Intel's and AMD's site. I only installed a few drivers from Acer's website, drivers such as WiFi and LAN were directly from Intel's site.

EDIT: Windows 7 sleep and hibernate works fine. I'll be upgrading to Windows 10 after there are official drivers certified to work on the new OS.

 

Yes, everything works perfectly in Windows 7, even all of the drivers straight from Acer.

Windows 8.1 is the real problem where things get weird... the drivers on Acer's site even state that they are for Windows 8.1 but fail to function properly. I have run the windows 10 preview and it acts exactly the same in windows 10 as it does in Windows 8.1. Hopefully we see some fixes soon

 

Mr. Plus: Do you have an update on your situation? It sounds identical to the issue I started having with the notebook, it is essentially useless on battery, randomly loosing power when not plugged in, and failing to wake from sleep/hibernate on battery.

 

It's been about a year since I got my P645. Overall it's still a very good machine, with one potential major issue. First, FYI there's a new BIOS update, 2.09. Get it while you can!

I am pleased to confirm the HD cable solution posted earlier indeed works. I got it at Newegg for $15, and I currently have a 500GB SATA drive in the bay, unpadded, with no problems. It's a bit heavier, a bit more noisier, and I don't know what the battery life hit will be, but the extra space is very welcome. Second, I went ahead and got the Intel 7260 Wireless-ac card and successfully installed it. Of course, I don't have an -ac router, so I can't report any performance gains but at least I'm future proof! Finally, does anyone know if in the future we could add a 16GB RAM module? Currently have 12GB (4+8) and it's plenty, but just in case.

As of the most recent build sleep still doesn't work for Windows 10 Technical Preview. Finally, and most unfortunately, I have also experienced the sudden loss of power bug while on battery life. It started happening after I played a 3D game on my machine, which causes the fan to whirr loudly. I don't know if that was the cause or not. In my case, the loss of power happens relatively quickly the first time you go on battery power, but once you reboot it doesn't happen again for a much longer time, if at all.

I currently use the P645 as my main computer so I don't use it on battery that often. When I do, and if the bug repeats itself, I'll definitely bring it to Acer's attention! Despite this, I still think it's a terrific machine, and could easily see myself using it for the next 2-3 years minimum. If touch actually becomes indispensable with Windows 10 then it may become obsolete, but otherwise it is the best laptop I've ever had (weight, screen, performance, battery life, ports). No DVD drive is ok, and while not having a removable battery makes me itch, it's fine for now.

 

Hi everyone,

I just spent a long time readying the 18 pages, checking all the links and pictures provided. This forum thread is terrific, great job everyone for sharing the discoveries and tips! Many thanks

I have been researching about this laptop for about 6 months as I need a new machine to replace my very old (6 yo) VAIO Z (z11, 1st gen, 1st iteration!) that still works well BUT it needs to go to the bottom drawer, NOW

Quick question to everyone:
> Same question as Pitt Fred (thanks for all the pics a few months ago buddy!): has anyone tried to fit in a 16GB RAM in there instead of the 8GB recommended?

> For these that have added a 2.5” SSD in the empty bay: have you switched your main / boot partition to that additional 2.5” SSD? I am asking, as I am contemplating buy a Samsung EVO 850 500 GB (that I understand blasts the competition in terms of performance as of today, Dec 2014). Therefore, if your 2.5” SATA SSD would have R/W performance as good as or better than the mSATA SSD, it would make great sense to me to have the better SSD handle the booting parting (in my case that would be the new EVO 850 vs the mSATA coming with the laptop).

> In this thread, the cable needed to add in the 2.5” SSD was first reported to be “DC020019W00”, however more recently “DC02C002200”. Anyone having a view on this? I can only find 1 eBay vendor for the “DC02C002200”…

Many thanks to all,

B.

 

nftypjs, many thanks for this! It replies perfectly to one of my questions in the previous post.

I am gonna go for the Samsung EVO 850 512B instead of the $30 cheaper Crucial MX550 512GB as I pan on migrating the booting partition the the EVO.

One question pops up now: does the Toshiba mSATA drive that comes with the laptop have the sleep lower power standby mode ?!?!

 

Yeah, and a bit of a mixed bag overall.

So my last post was on October 5th, and as mentioned, I gave a detailed description of the problem (only on battery, blah blah) and so Acer looked at the computer, cleaned the fan, reflashed the bios, and sent it back. I'm excited although incredulous this would work, and of course, within 30 minutes of opening it, it was clear things were not fixed. So I called Acer again, explained the problem again, and this time they provided me with a shipping label. This time, I wrote a bullet list of key aspects of the problem, printed it, and inserted it between the screen and the keyboard before shipping. I received it back just a few days ago... admittedly, I dragged my feet in sending it back after I found out it was still messed up.

Anyways, Acer changed the battery, softloaded the unit, and said the diagnostics passed. So this time, it does actually look fixed. I've been running on battery on and off for a couple of days now and haven't had a single problem. But the image they softloaded has an issue, after I cleared my partitions and reinstalled without recovery (using image from this new softload), I kept getting Windows corruption errors and problems with Windows Updates not installing. Tried a couple of things and then just went back to the original image from when I bought it, and it works like a charm. Running latest Bios, which I flashed within a day or two of getting the laptop back.

I should also say that I added a Crucial MX100 512GB today, and it's working great. Used a little piece of double-sided tape to keep the drive in place, but I doubt it's needed. Battery life doesn't seem negatively affected from my limited testing, and the drive is quite a bit faster than the stock M2. I haven't booted on the new drive, and don't plan to for now.

TLDR: It was a bit of an ordeal due to having to resend the laptop and corrupted softload by Acer, and shipping wasn't cheap the first time, but it seems the battery is the issue. I suspect it's the controller or some other electronic part of the battery pack, because the battery behaved normally otherwise.

PS: I have however seen something strange, which I had seen before repairs also, and often after the sudden shutdown. That is, sometimes, when I boot the computer, the screen has a pre-drawn pattern on it, which remains from the Acer Bios screen to within Windows. After a reboot, it generally goes away, but not always. The pattern is white or letting light through (shows on dark screens) a bit of a "frame" of ~1" around the screen, with a heavier edge on the top left side. I'll try to post a photo sometime soon.

 

Hi everyone,

I just realized that the CES is around the corner! I actually might be in Vegas during that week but won't be able to get in

Realizing that the CES is around the corner, it came to my mind that nearly every PC maker should release new products using the 5th generation of Intel's Core i7 processor, code-named Broadwell, with die shrink of Haswell from 22 nm to 14 nm. A bit of performance improvement but a great battery life improvement.

For those of you that know a lot about processors and those that are more aware than me about Acer products releases, should I buy very soon a P645 i7 4500U for $1,200 (Newegg price right now), or should I wait for ACER to update the P645 with Broadwell ?

Thanks!

 

That's a tough question because we haven't really seen what Broadwell can do in terms of the balance between battery life and performance. There are currently very few models out with Broadwell, mostly the Lenovo Yoga 3, which is the first to use the new chip. Its performance, battery life, and screen have been disappointing to say the least.

This has been attributed to a lot of different reasons, including problems with Broadwell itself or the way OEMs are having a hard time adjust their designs to the chip (in terms of battery life, cooling, and adjustable TDP (new feature in Broadwell)). As of now, I think the jury is still out on what the actual reason(s) are.

In the meantime, Intel released a bunch of different SKUs with varying levels of performance, but they are mostly untested at this point. So it's really up to you. If Broadwell is fine and OEMs adjust to it well in the coming months, Broadwell should deliver a nice battery boost (maybe 10-15% I'm guessing), but it could come with a performance drop as well. If these issues aren't resolved by OEMs or are tied to Broadwell itself, than it might be worth skipping it altogether.

What I can tell you is, the P645 is a great laptop as long as it runs fine (which mine appears to be at this point). It is easy to open and upgrade/clean, the battery life is tremendous (with a bit of tweaking the power settings and brightness 4 "clicks" up from minimum, I get ~9-10h of MS Word-type of work with small documents, or taking notes at meetings), and the performance is pretty awesome. I played TF2 quite a bit on it, and also Metro 2033 Last Lights, and they both run fine even for extended periods of time (though settings have to be adjusted downwards in Last Lights to get 30-40fps, but that's expected).

At the same time, it remains quite expensive even a year after release, so maybe you should try to get it when it's on sale or something?

 

last week i tested the Intel VGA 10.18.10.3643 from NV7 Modell - this drivers are newer and work perfekt with the P645
after that i disabled driver signature check on boot and installed the modded Catalyst 14.12 Omega driver from mahmoudelfar.

Modded Catalyst drivers for switchable graphics notebooks: Modded Catalyst 14.12 Omega Driver (14.501.1003.0) For Switchable Graphics

now all works like a charm with latest VGA drivers (tested on Windows 8.1 x64)


EDIT:

yesterday i have also tested newer Intel Drivers from leshcat (Catalyst 14.11 Beta UnifL v1.0 Public Testing)

http://leshcatlabs.net/downloads_unfil/

run the Setup and extract the files, navigate to C:\Drivers\Catalyst_14.11_Beta_UnifL_Public_Testing\Intel\10.18.10.3958 and install the drivers.
and than install the modded Catalyst 14.12 Omega driver from mahmoudelfar

all works fine so far

sometimes it's really hard to find latest (working) drivers for intel/amd switching graphics cards

 

Brounoh,
Not sure about the technical details of the Toshiba. I've been running it as my system hard drive since I got the computer and no issues with power drain on sleep mode. If it's unplugged it goes into normal standby mode for a time, then hibernate if still unplugged for a longer period of time (which actually takes a bit longer to boot up than a fresh boot, that's mostly an SSD/hibernation issue), but if it's plugged in it is in normal standby mode. I would assume it uses more power in standby than the newer EVO's or even the older model EVO's just from reading up on some of the literature about the SSD's available.

I ran the powercfg -energy in CMD and the info says the supported sleep states are: S3 and S4 true, S1 and S2 false. I run the smaller Toshiba which is slightly slower than the EVO as system purely because of the size balance of programs vs files/storage on the two drives. As I understand, the actual noticeable difference between running your system off the EVO vs a slightly slower Toshiba would be negligible unless you're running some serious video editing or other write intensive programs.

I do realize the new 2.5" EVO's have smaller sleep power usage, but I'm not sure how much that translates into standby time percent usage. Apparently 2.5" 840 EVO's don't have a Devslp mode (which is the super low power standby) but do have one of the lower active idle consumption of that range. The 850 EVO's have improved on the active idle and also have the DevSLP mode which translates to extremely low power consumption when DevSLP is turned on (1.5-3mW).

According to Toshiba's stated information on the model of HDD that is in my notebook the 256gb version ( http://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/product/storage/pdf/SSD_HG5d Series_brochure130426.pdf)
the drive does have DevSLP at 5mW maximum, 55mW during sleep, standby and 60mW during idle, and between 2.2 and 2.6W for read/write.

Performance wise, idle power is probably the most important thing for power consumption, but if you go with the newer EVO or the toshiba, DevSLP should help out.

Hope this helps.

 

Work is offering me a new laptop, Acer Travelmate P645.

We have been offered two configurations, one with low res display and intel gxf and one with IPS and Radeon HD 8750m. There is no doubt that I would like to go for the IPS screen but my main concern since I'm running Fedora is the Radeon?

Does anyone run linux with this radeon card or does anyone know if its possible to disable the card in BIOS and use the integrated one?

Looking forward to hear from you.

 

I don't know about Linux, but I do know that not only does the Radeon auto-switch with the integrated graphics (Radeon is invoked as needed), but that you can custom configure it so that it will or will not be the prefered card under certain conditions or applications. The configuration does not have to be done in the BIOS - there is a configuration utility in Windows if memory serves.

I have the IPS/Radeon P645 and it's the best laptop I've owned. Had it since May, no problems. Great form factor for traveling, too.

 

kidziti, Thanks for your reply. In some BIOS's you can change PCI Express to different settings, Auto (both gfx), IGD (intel only) and so on.

does anyone have an opportunity to check if this is possible on P645?

Thanks.

 

I looked in the BIOS of my P645 (current version 2.13) and saw no such settings.

 

Review of the Broadwell-refresh of the P645 on the german notebookcheck available.
Gets an overall of 88% - even longer battery runtimes (08:45h in Wifi-test). Overall they seem to be impressed.

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Acer-TravelMate-P645-Notebook.140243.0.html

Could anyone here say something about how structural rigidity compares to the rival notebooks from Dell, HP and Lenovo?
I'm asking usual day2day wear n tear, tossing it around, maybe falling down a flight of stairs etc.

 

Hi,

we are in France and we just brought the P645-S new model (i7-5600U, 8 Gb, 256 SSD Kingston pcie, wifi ac, no discret graphic card). We would like to add a second HDD (SDD) but we don't easily find (no stock or long delivery, high shipping cost, ...) the cable.HDD you used in your travelmate ref : 50.V8RN2.003.

Kissman, could you, please, tell us where have you found/bought your cable ?

So far : in comparison with an old VAIO S13 (i5, HDD, etc..) the user is happy with P645-S
benefits :
- the slight weight (1,5 Kg, it's 0,5 Kg less than the Sony)
- CPU power (a little faster)
- SSD : very big enhancement for him
- the screen FHD matte (anti-glare)
disadvantages :
- no discret graphic card
- external display vga (LG 22M35A) or hdmi (BENQ GL2250HM) : poor resolution, colors are bland, for a better view you must be in front of the sccreen.
==> but we found that W8.1 was responsible for some of the problems with the sharpness of the image with the zoom setting (125%). It seems impossible to set a different zoom for each screen (local and external).

Exact model : Acer TravelMate P645-S-79QD / Acer ref :NX.VATEF.002 (french model)
Ultrabook - Core i7 5600U / 2.6 GHz - Windows 7 Pro 64 bits / Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bits - 8 Go RAM - 256 Go SSD - 14" 1920 x 1080 ( Full HD ) - Intel HD Graphics 5500 - 802.11ac - black
1222,62 euros





Regards,

Coolatsa

 

Hi,

I finally contacted directly the acer support (France) who just sent me a quote :
- less than 3 euros per cable ref : 50.V8RN2.003
but 20 euros for charges (preparation, shippement,...)

I bougth 3 more cables than necessary for us so if someone need one let me know.

Cheers,

Coolatsa

 

Hi, I have a P645-M which I'm very happy with so far. Light, fast, quiet, 14" HD screen easy on my not-so-young eyes. I've upgraded to 12GB RAM, but the 500GB disk drive lets the side down a bit. I'm thinking of getting a 1TB Crucial MX200 SSD which I hope will work after cloning from the Windows 8.1 GPT-partitioned drive (evidence on forums suggests that cloning to an SSD with Windows 8.1 doesn't always work).

This probably sounds dumb but does anyone have advice about removing the old drive? It seems pretty solidly wedged in with a rubber surround. I pulled at the rubber but it started to come away minus the drive. Maybe a spudger would help? Thanks!

 

After a disappointing Asus UX501 that I sent back after one afternoon of use, I have ordered a maxed out P645-SG (mat IPS non touch FHD, 17-5600U, 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HD, GT840M with 2GB )
I plan to change the main SSD by 500GB MX200 and the 1TB HD by 1TB MX200. Hope that it will go well without the need to order extra cable...

Any update on this operation ?
I will get mine in 2 days and I also plan to change the HD by a SSD.

 

I haven't plucked up the courage to replace my drive yet... hoping to hear from someone with experience in yanking out the old one! I'm still very pleased with my machine though. Blissfully quiet (replacing an Acer TravelMate 8371 which started off very noisy until I reflashed the BIOS.)

 

Hi guys... unfortunately I have to say: i do not buy such crap like Acer again! This should be TOP of business class notebook, but this... thing...

I have p645MG for half of year... there is problems which I found:

• docking station supports only one monitor... wtf???? 4 video out connectors and I can connect only one monitor at the same time! Ok, i can connect one on digital output (HDMI, DVI or DP) and one to VGA. but who want connect todays monitors to analog output? I have 2x 24" Dell 1920x1200 and I cannot work
  
• notebook overheats and due this - plastic support under notebook are separating!
• keyboard is after half of year intesive using destroyed... i am writing every day only few A4 pages of text... today I am without "space"
• spare parts from Acer... ehm, bough cable withou problems, but cage for HDD - half of year and still no in stock
• software from Acer (driver or apps - no matter what) is terrible and non functional e.g. fingerprint reader software
• ahh, combination of carbon fiber and aluminum alloys with magnesium - wheeeeereeeeee??? After few weeks, my notebook have scuffed corners like Aspire series or some other cheap crap...

I thought of the Acer bettered compared to previous years of tragic products and support, but no I must use "Acer promise" offer and sell this piece of *********... (sorry for this word).

 

Sorry to hear about your problems Kissman.
I got a Travelmate around 2005 and it has lasted 4 years always on the road. My wife got a 3820TG and it was a fantastic machine until recently. So I only got positive experience with Acer. Hopefully their support will do something for our space key and damaged case. good luck

 

I'm also sorry to hear about these woes. When I bought my Acer 8371 four years ago (a bargain, presumably due to overstock by Acer), I was so pleased with it I bought three more for a backup and for family (plus another for a friend). They're still going strong although there were two screen replacements - a weakness of these machines. It has taken years to find a replacement that wasn't too bulky/noisy/glossy/high-res, and I'm happy with a 2.5x speedup compared with the 8371.

So I'm hoping the P645 will last as long - I don't mind replacing a keyboard close to the warranty expiry date if necessary (easier to get a local shop to do it than sending it away). I bought the Core i5 version so as not to risk fan noise/overheating and it has the built-in graphics, which should also run cooler. Melting/warping is definitely not good; I will look out for it. I hope you're able to find an adequate replacement. It's tough choosing laptops these days.

 

Can you show post steps and pics for disassembling? I need to replace the keyboard with a better one. Has anyone done it?

 

Here is my experience with p645
Its 256 gb SSD,
8gb ram i7
I am liking the form factor and the weight. The keyboard is kind of crappy and needs getting used to, (I am looking to replace it with a better keyboard if possible). I put a 256 GB SDXC card and it works nicely!! (95$)

I am also thinking of putting in 2nd SDD of 512 / 1TB (please give pointers)

What is the exact size of the 2nd drive? Do I need a caddy?

Few points:

The Intel SSD driver is buggy causing the newly booted machine to hang up. Uninstalling it solved the problem. Tried win 8 but reverted back to 7 because could not get the charms bar to go away on right drag.