Confusing specs on my Aspire 5100-5355

The specs on the box and on the sticker say it has "Radeon Xpress 1100 HyperMemory", but DM says, under Display Adapters "ATI Mobility Radeon X1300". Did I get a bonus or are these two different things? Someone in another forum who bought the same laptop is curious about the same thing.

 

The Xpress 1100 and the mobility radeon X1300 are two different GPUs. The Xpress 1100 is an integrated card (part of the chipset on the mainboard) whereas the X1300 is a dedicated card and also more powerful than the Xpress 1100.

So If you have the X1300 while the box and sticker say you should have the Xpress 1100 then consider yourself very fortunate . I know some versions of the aspire 5100 came with the X1300 then I guess yours could be one of them.

Too make sure you in fact have the X1300 (and there isn't some mistake) you can download one of the computer scanning utilities (like pcwizard etc) and check and see what GPU is detected.

 

PCWizard says X1300. Yahoo.

Since I have you here, gotta problem. When I rremvoe a USB key, I click the "remove hardware" thing, it says its safe to remove, but the key remains lit, and the computer gives that "error" sound when I remove it. Any ideas?

 

When I remove a USB key drive I hardly ever click on the remove safely icon I usually just pull it out (but not everyone is comfortable with this). Windows does make a sound when the drive is pulled out could this be the sound you are hearing?

As for the light issue that is nothing to worry about even my sandisk drive does that, as long as it is connected to a usb port it is getting power so the light will be on until it is unplugged.

 

A long time ago I read this usb thing up in the windows help and support and it says right in there that you do NOT need to saftely remove hardware, it can just be pulled out. only when you computer is running in a certain mode do you need to disable the hardware. this mode is NOT the windows default so don't worry, be happy, you have an X1300.

 

Hey, got one more question. Do you guys pull your battery out when you're not using it (running pugged in)? I'm thinking it might extend the battery life.

 

You should take a look at the battery guide thread, it will answer all of your battery related questions.

I prefer to leave mine connected in case of a power failure but take a look at the pros and cons in the guide and decide what you want to do.