Steps to take for a newb with a new 8204

I just got my travelmate 8200 a few days ago and was wondering what steps to take in terms of updating drivers and such. The only thing I have done so far is download critical windows updates but was thinking about updating catalyst and also some bios updates (is this necessary?). This is my first out of the box laptop so I need some help and don't want to make a mistake. Please help. Thanks in advance.

 

Hi..

Got my 8204 on Feb 1st. Finally have it operating swimmingly.

If you experience any problems with connection to a network, router, or DSL or cable modem, you will need to apply the Intel LAN firmware update available at the Acer support website. Initially we all had a strange problem of not being able to connect through a network connection or the connection would be painfully slow. This issue may be resolved now in new units shipping these days, but in case it hasn't there is a fix for it.

There is a new BIOS update also available on the same download page of the support website. (version 3311, there is a thread about it here in the forum) I have downloaded it but am a little hesitant about installing it. I always get nervous about BIOS updates as i have in the past made a boat anchor out of a machine while applying one. (that one turned out to be HP's problem and they replaced a motherboard for free when it was out of warranty.) I am not sure what the BIOS update addresses though. Call tech support if you have any doubts.

As for the other drivers and applications the last time i checked there weren't any new ones. Everything that i have seen that is available both on the website and the Acer FTP site is the same as the versions that i have on my machine.

Catalyst drivers? As far as i know there are no new updates for this. The ATI drivers for the 8204 you need to get them from Acer at this point. After having thoroughly gone through ATI's site, they say that drivers for this machine need to be acquired from the manufacturer. As of about 3 weeks ago i could not find anything relevant to this machine on the ATI website.

It seems that a lot of people here are bent on doing a clean install of windows and wiping their hidden partition. Don't understand this obsession at all. The hidden partition is small compared to the total drive size, and all of the Acer software that installed on here is highly relevant and useful. Just update windows fully. And make sure you have created all this initial backups that eRecovery manager has prompted you for. Ok, i say get rid of Norton or Mcaffee security that they have installed on there (don't remember which) and replace it with a real firewall and antivirus. For antivirus i use NOD32 (Kaspersky is good too) and for a firewall, i use Look 'n' Stop. Yes cheesy name but really good. If your not familiar with software firewalls or data protocols, this is not the firewall for you. Sygate Personal firewall or Tiny personal firewall would be good. Zone Alarm is pretty good, but takes up a lot of system resources these days and the constant annoying alerts and popups are a pain. Not nearly configurable enough either.

Wow, I did go on.. Enough!! Thats my $2 worth

Have fun

 

Just a couple of comments:

1. If you decide to update the BIOS, be sure to download the winphlash utility so you can do it. I updated to 3311 a couple of days ago, and it appeared to make the screen a bit brighter, which may or may not be an issue for you.

2. Although the official position is that you should get ATI driver updates from Acer, lots of us have updated to either the Catalyst 6.3 or Omega drivers. I updated to the Catalyst 6.3 _desktop_ drivers using mobilemod to work around that fact that the X1600 is not listed in the .inf file for the driver. The procedure I used is in a thread on either Catalyst 6.2 or Catalyst 6.3 - do a search. It works fine, but I can see how getting error messages as part of the installation could be disturbing.

Also, I wouldn't bother reinstalling XP or trying to remove the recovery partition.

On the other hand, these changes may not net you all that much, and it is your first out of the box laptop.

- Ed

 

Hey EdF

Is there any significant difference with that Catalyst update? Is it worth the work?

Thanx

 

I didn't see anything particularly significant, but I'd done the 6.2 driver update first. Does work with the avivo encoder, so if you're encoding dvds, that should be a benefit. The process sounds complicated, but it's not that bad really. Understand that I don't do gaming or much 3D stuff, so I may not be noticing for that reason.

- Ed

 

The catalyst give you much more options to configure your video card. Its not a necessity. I would also suggest looking at the Omega Drivers, if you are into gaming.