Aspire 5610Z-2273 Video "Stutter"

I have an Acer Aspire 5610Z (Model 2273) that came with Windows VISTA Premium. I thought I had a pretty good deal at $800 until I got it home.

It came with an 80GB HD and 1 GB of RAM. I thought that this would be adequate for my purpose: Web Surfing, DVD watching on-the-go, Office documents and the ocassional game of C&C Generals.

I was in for a RUDE awakening. The initial bootup of VISTA took 20+ minutes, after which I was prompted to make my own DVD restore disks. Acer is pretty cheap if they can't include a restore disk that would probably take twenty cents from their bottom line.

After VISTA configured itself, the laptop proved to be sluggish, so I removed all of the Acer "extras" they so graciously included in my desktray. Even then, VISTA bogged the computer down so much that it was barely useable. When I attempted to play a few older games (C&C Generals, SIMS, ect) I was met with blue screens of death (something I have not seen in years).

I decided right then and there to install WinXP-Pro. Because the laptop came with the 80GB drive divided into two 38GB partitions, I reformatted it, making one partition 76GB and one partition 1.5 GB (to store drivers and important recovery items in case I wished to reformat the C: in the future).

I at first used a copy of WinXP-Pro with no service packs. This copy would not install - froze up several times. I then used a copy with SP2 integrated into the install. This install completed and I was left to locate only a few drivers (modem, LAN, wireless, keyboard goodies, and media card reader).

I used the EVEREST program to determine the actual components built into the Acer and located drivers from their respective websites.

NOW THE PROBLEM:
Everything on the laptop works under WinXP (except the keyboard goody buttons for DVD playback/volume control). The only problem is that when I play a video or DVD, the audio/video "stutters" ocassionally.

It is not the video file or the DVD. I have tried different players. This is not the problem- I have verified this. It is either the driver or the hardware of the laptop. I am not the only one that suffers this problem (I have read about it on several other sites as well).

Everest identifies the hardware in this particular model as:
CPU: Mobile Dualcore Intel Celeron M420 T2060 1.6GHZ
RAM: 1 GB DDR2
Video adapter: Intel GMA 950 / Intel 82940GML/945GT Gfx Controller
Audio: Realtek ALC883

Acer Tech Support is worthless by email - they never responded to emails. I called them and a Tech Rep stated that they would not entertain any questions about operating systems that did not come with the system originally.

I was just wondering if someone else had come across this problem and how did they solve it?

Any help would be so much appreciated!!!

~Chili~

 

Did you get the lastest video driver from Intel ?
Also try to use VLC player, better than windows's own.Also download the lastest versions of the needed codecs.

 

I tried the following drivers from Intel:

Intel GMA 950
Intel 82940GML
Intel 945GT

and the ones from the Acer Euro website.

Some are better than others, but they all produce the stuttering effect.

As I mentioned before: it is NOT the player. I have tried 12 different players and they ALL produce the stutter, including the one you suggested above.

I am not a novice computer user, I have been installing systems for the U.S. Army for over ten years. I am currently in Iraq with this laptop I grabbed on the way out and now absolutely hate it.

I am thinking because this laptop is Dualcore, maybe there is a setting or patch that I need to run? This is my first Dualcore processor. I have never had a problem with WinXP-Pro before with any computer I have installed.

~Chili~

 

Hi Chili,

I'm surprised you found Vista to be sluggish. I'm running it (RC1) with full Aero effects on my Acer 1690 which has a much lower spec than your 5610Z and found it to be only fractionally slower than XP.

Anyway on to your video problem. Have you tried reducing acceleration in:

Control Panel > Display Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot

and/or

WMP > Tools > Options > Performance

It's surprising the extent of the problems that can be fixed by adjusting those little sliders.

Charlie Danger
www.bltt.org

 

Thanks for the suggestions, turns out it was a Bios problem. I updated to the latest (3.50) and the stutter went away. I knew iut had to be hardware-related.

Anyway, if anyone experiences a similar problem, I recommend updating your Bios to the latest version.

Bios for the Aspire 5610Z (2273) is located at:

ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5610/bios/

Make sure you use the latest (highest number) in that directory! (Currently 3.50).

-Chili

 

I have the same problem

i have the aspire 5610z (2273), with vista pre-loaded

CPU: Mobile Dualcore Intel Dual-core T2050 1.6GHZ
RAM: 1 GB DDR2
Video adapter: Intel GMA 950 / Intel 82940GML/945GT Gfx Controller
Audio: Realtek ALC883


I have the same problem with DVD playback. All my dvds shutter with video/audio, when playing through media center and meid player. Also tried VLC player, it won't play any of my movies.

Was thinking of updating the Bios like you did Chili. but the bios is for winxp. can i update it with the same Bios?

 

I have an Aspire 5610Z and I put XP Home Edition on it. I was able to stop the stuttering problem by uninstalling the Legacy Audio drivers from the device manager, my guess is that they conflicted with the RealTek Audio drivers causing the stutter.

 

Gokou20,

The BIOS update was released to fix these video and audio problems. It can be run from XP or VISTA and has improved the functionality of my Aspire by leaps-and-bounds.

It will not do your laptop any harm. Just make sure you have the computer plugged into the wall during the BIOS flash (NOT off of battery power!) and do not touch the computer during the update.

Make sure you get the CORRECT BIOS for your particular model or you will have an expensive paperweight.

Cheers from Iraq~!
(Looks like I will be here until the Democrats surrender the war!)

~Chili~

 

^ He's prob dead on ... but I'm always careful with BIOS updates.

I think your partitioning was a bit crazy though next time think 10GB max for XP1 plus if you're clever another 10GB max for XP2 and leave the other free space for personal items and even install games to this location.

As has been suggested I use VLC for Video playback but you may wish to consider ffdshow (most recent Alpha one) from source forge the all in one codec pack. Don't install individual drivers unless necessary.

Reduce screen res to 16bit too and see of that helps.

PS Oh you said Vista in tha case disabe all the bells and whistles and stick with plain vanilla XP Classic view it helps a lot ... andle andle

PPS Disbale ALL unused hardware i.e set up another scheme where un-used hardware is didbaled and try again.