Got TM 8204: Clean Install Info, Drivers, NTFS, etc

I just got my 8204 and I would like to do a clean install of Win XP Pro and switch the file system to NTFS.

When I did a clean install on my 5720 (sending it back), it did not give me an option to format the HDD in FAT32, so will there be an option for a NTFS format on the Acer?

Acer did not include a driver CD with the notebook nor do they have anything posted online for the 8204 yet. Can I use most of the drivers from the 8100? Where can I get the chipset driver for the 8204? Which drivers are required for the comp to work properly?

I will post a review later this week, but I already miss my Sager 5720...

Thanks for the help!

 

The drivers are available on the Euro FTP site pinned to the top of this forum, but be warned that most of the drivers there are older than what's on my machine at least. I haven't seen the actual revisions that came on my machine for DL anywhere.

Changing to NTFS is a simple as opening a command prompt (Start > Run > cmd), then entering:

convert c: /fs:ntfs

It will then convert the drive to NTFS upon the next reboot.

Why do you want a "clean" install? The only thing on your system is drivers and a few Acer utilities. If the Acer utilities don't turn you on, you could always just uninstall them. That said, if you are going to start over I'd at least recommend using the Acer ePower Management utility - it gives you far more fine grained control than the standard Power applet in control panel.

 

is it really that easy to convert to NTFS? Don't u have to reformat?

 

Convert does reformat - that's its purpose.

- Ed

 

Not true: Microsoft Support: FAT32 to NTFS

 

No need to reformat, it just changes the filing system. I like formating with NTFS when installing the OS at the first time (just for piece of mind), but you wont have to.

 

Remember that converting to NTFS will mess up the backup routine that Acer have on these machines (from what I hear) so you will need Ghost or some other way to recover the machine back to "base" state.

 

I attempted it after recieving mine and disliking the fact that they partitioned the drive in FAT32... but i didn't succeed...fully. I found that very little is actually supported with drivers even on acer's site(which might be different now). So long story short: I made the erecovery disc, bought my own XP, installed it(converted to NTFS and formatted), found nothing was supported, popped the Erecovery disc back in and booted from it, re-installed the Acer-windows, it didn't make any of the silly partitions so when it was all back up and running i used partition magic to convert to NTFS.

Everything seems to be working well now so far and i've got my one partition in NTFS, i find the only annoying Acer "feature" is the VCM tool which pops up sometimes. Oh and that NIC card problem that everyones been having but it seems that when you open the Acer Orbicam applet that problem stops so go figure.

I'm super happy with it so far and when all the drivers are supported i might wipe it again and re-install my own OS just to justify purchasing that OS

 

I don't agree with your train of thought. Reformatting esentially erases everything on your machine. Coverting does that it converts the way the operating system saves data to the hard drive. It leaves everything intake on your machine.

 

Fair enough. Convert changes the format while preserving the data. My use of the term "reformatting" was wrong.

 

Dredging this thread from the depths

My company recently purchased an 8204 for me as a work laptop.

I asked that the hard drive be replaced with a 7200 RPM HD. Actually, I will be doing the replacement.

So my question is, what is the recommended course of action in this scenario? Use Ghost to copy the HD? I'd rather do a clean install the way that *I* want the machine and build it from there. But from what I understand, there are no driver disks and the drivers online are extremely outdated.

Would it be possible to build the recovery disk and then pull the drivers off of there manually?

Any ideas, input, etc. would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

hey..i never thought of trying to pull the drivers from the eRecovery disk. cuz they should all be accessible there. stupid me..i've installed windows so many times over the years and this time i've never thought of doing it.

i think, just as windows is trying to install the new drivers, you can tell it to look in the eRecover disc. but never tried it..

 

I'm gonna give it a shot and I'll update on how it goes.

Is there a link to procedures to how to create the recovery disk? General instructions? Hints on drivers? Anything would be helpful.

Coming from the Asus world, I'm somewhat disappointed in the total lack of drivers on the website. Asus has, by far, one of the best software and driver download sites.

 

Start here: http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/tm_8200.html then follow the link to their ftp site.

- Ed

 

Ah, thanks

The US site is woefully lacking.

 

Also, if u haven't made the eRecovery disc yet (on first boot up), i think it should be in one of the programs in the Empowering Technology suite.

i do agree with u saying Acer has a lack of support...too too bad!

i'm gonna look into these ghost programs to make an exact hdd image on the dvdr(s)

 

Hope this information could help you to make a clean reinstall of your 8204WLMi notebook.
I assume that we have all necessary stuff downloaded from Acer euro ftp site and we already made recovery disk.

Let's do a couple of things before we start.
First, we need to update BIOS. Just download the latest version (3309 at this time) and follow instructions for update.
Flashing in Windows mode runs fine. Hit F2 key while rebooting, go to BIOS settings and check the new BIOS version. It should be 3309.
Second, run Intel EEPROM utility. Run "install.bat" to copy "iqvw32.sys" driver needed for "eeupdatew32" utility into \system32\drivers\ directory. Go to Start, Run and enter "cmd" to open Windows command prompt. Execute utility via "eeupdatew32 -nic=1 -d TEKOA_A3.txt".

Do fresh installation of Windows XP SP2 now. While installing you may want to format C: drive as NTFS volume. Nothing special on this step.
Now open "Device Manager". You should definitely notice a number of ugly yellow question marks in the device tree:
- Acer Module;
- Ethernet Controller;
- Network Controller;
- O2Micro .....;
- SM Bus .....;
- USB 2.0 Web Camera;
- Video Controller.
Our goal is to get rid of all of them in the next steps. Be prepared to reboot your computer after each small step.

1) Install Intel Chipset Driver (chipset.zip). SM Bus... question mark is gone now.
2) Make your notebook sound much better installing RealTek Audio Driver (audio.zip). You would be asked for modem driver installation as well,
so be ready to unzip "modem.zip" file also.
3) Install ATI VGA Driver (vga.zip). Our desktop looks much better and works faster now. Video Controller question mark should be gone.
4) Wireless LAN Driver (802abg.zip). Network Controller question mark should be disappeared. You've got wireless connection now.
5) TouchPad Driver (touchpad.zip).
6) O2Micro Smartcard Driver (smartcard.zip). O2 Micro... question mark is gone.
7) Acer VoIP .... (acervcmsetup.zip) adds those weird toolbar at the top of the screen. You've got voice now.
8) Install Camera Driver (ccd.zip). USB 2.0 Web Camera question mark should be gone.
9) Card Reader Driver (cardrdr.zip)
10) Acer GridVista (acergrid.zip) goes next.
11) Acer GraviSense utility (gsensor.zip) is the last one.

If you get back to Device Manager now you should note that there are only two yellow question marks left.

12) Right-click on the Ethernet Controller question mark and select Properties->Reinstall Driver->and point it to the unzipped directory from the "lan.zip" file.
This installs LAN Driver.
13) Right-click on the Acer Module question mark (if you do not see it just turn on your Bluetooth switch on the front panel to get the blue light).
Select Properties->Reinstall Driver-> and point it to unpacked "amt.zip" file. This installs bluetooth driver.

14) Install launchm.zip (Launch Manager) in order to get three silver buttons next to the LCD screen to work.
15) Install eframe.zip - the framework for all other Acer utilities, followed by edata.zip, elock.zip, eperfor.zip, epm.zip, epresent.zip,
esettings.zip. The green "e" button should work now.
enet.zip is going to screw up your network drivers installation, so just skip it unless you need this utility for some reason.

You may want to upgrade to Catalyst 6.2 drivers now. Solution from Ed found in hardware part of the forum worked fine for me.
I just quote it here:
"I got it updated on the X1600 using the desktop drivers and the program at http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=602
First install the drivers. You'll get the INF error.
Then run the program above. Be sure to select the INF file for your OS since there are two: one for Win2K and one for XP.
At this point, go to the device manager, right click on the display device and select update driver.
Tell the wizard that you'll install from a known location, and that you have a disk.
Select down through C:\ATI\SUPPORT\6-2_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_30152\Driver and select the inf file for your OS
(starts with C2 or CX for Win2k and XP respectively).
Select your card from the list that's given - it should be there.
Reboot and go."

This is it. Have fun!

 

Very nice Heron, thanks for giving a step by step tutorial for those who've never done something like this before... or at least never done it on their TM 8204.

 

Heron - nice detailed review - thx!

I'm a newcomer to PC's, so this may be a stupid question ..... do you do a fresh install of Windows from the recovery disk made at inital startup? (I'm assuming so, since Acer doesn't include any discs or copy of Windows XP)

Secondly, did you reformat to keep the C: and D: partitions, or would you recommend consolidating it into a single C: drive? I never used partitions in my Macintosh systems before, and unless there's a compelling reason to partition in XP, I'd probably rather not.

TIA

 

The best reason I have to partition is to separate your data from the OS. If you OS completley fails, and you only have a single drive, there is a good chance your data will be lost. By having a separate drives, as long as the hard drive can spin, you have a chance to get at the data. Also, I'm not positive but I would believe if your system gets hit by a virus/worm/etc, I don't know if they will/can search for data from drives other than the C.

 

Yeah, it's a Winders thing, though it also holds for Linux.

- Ed

 

iBorg,

You have to do this installation using original Microsoft Windows XP CD.
Just some hints:

1) Insert Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM drive and reboot your computer.
2) While rebooting goto BIOS settings and change the drive boot sequence there (make CD the first boot drive).
Use F5 and F6 keys to change drive position in the list of drives. Hit F10 to save settings.
3) Your notebook should automatically detect the CD, and a message "Press any key to boot CD" will be displayed for a while.
4) Press any key and the CD will begin to load files that are needed to begin the installation.
5) After a while you have to select the partition on which you wish to install Windows XP.
Choose the drive C: as a system drive. Or alternatively if you wish to delete current partitions you can do so.
Once you've deleted partitions you will be asked to create a new one.
At this point you can choose the size that you wish. Usually 15-20Gb is quite enough for system drive.
The rest of the disc space could be allocated for your data.
6) The next screen asks if you wish to use the NTFS file system. Yes, you do. Format partition(s).
7) On the next system reboot switch BIOS drive boot sequence back and continue Windows installation.

 

Hey guys, in case you haven't already done so, make an "Application CD" from eRecovery. I just read it in another acer thread.

go to the eRecovery, then go to "Recovery Settings", then "Burn Image to disk" and then choose "Application CD", and of course Facotry default image is also there if you haven't done that already.

I just made one today, it has all the drivers, manual, and utilities on it, and it puts it in this GUI interface.

 

Did you mean the recovery disc that you make when you first startup the 8204? (since no disc, Windows XP or otherwise, comes with it?) Or can you only do this with a purchased WinXP disc??

It sounds like you repartitioned the harddrive, making a smaller C: drive - would there be any problem with combining the C: and D: drives into a single partition? (I badckup regularly, so I'm not too worried about data loss) If you partition a smaller C: drive, e.g. 15-20 GB, as you said, do you leave that for just the operating system and Acer things, and load everything else onto the D: drive?

Thx for your help - I want to do this right the first time!

 

Why are you all reinstalling win xp from a oem cd ?

I do this too some weeks ago on my 8204 but i finally switch back to acer preinstallation... why?

Because of missing patches like:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256/

that is not available anywhere for download... you have to patch registry too if you want to fix usb 2 problem about battery usage (see orbit webcam).

So my suggestion is not to install from a fresh oem cd, clean the garbage of acer preinstallation... remember to remove asian chars suppoort from "international language options" that will load more data at boot and use more disk space, remove all acer utilities (all of them are bugged, power management too), remove not needed programs and service from start up (eg. logitech camera ones or realtek ones... thinks will still work for normal use)... convert to ntfs using the ms utility convert and if you want more speed think about buying disk keeper that will optimize your disk...