AMD C-50 CPU and 6250 GPU performance(Acer 522 review)

Yeah SC2 runs fine but once you get to 100+ units it gets slow. Although playing it at around 10 FPS is still enjoyable for me.

Update on Dragon Age 2

Once you start getting more AI companions it starts bogging down the system. It still is playable for me even though it runs at 15 FPS.

 

I'm planning to buy this laptop tomorrow and sell my current one, but I wanted to ask one thing, is the speaker sound good and loud? From what I know its mono but that don't bother me much

 

No the speaker is quite soft. if you plan to watch movies in a noisy area, youll need speakers or headphones

for normal usage It is satisfactory(Audio is probably the only gripe I have)

 

Oh thanks for the reply. I guessed so, but I won't use it at noisy area anyway I think I will be fine

 

ordered mine with 1 day shipping from amazon (prime) They were the cheapest on the net... I am guessing after I first turn it on and reg my warranty a fresh install is in order and a replacement of the hdd and addition of memory...

EDIT:
Heres a question.. I have the old memory pulled from my envy... should a 2gb stick from that work in the acer or will I need a different brand

 

What I did was, right when I got the RAM chip in. I turned on the netbook to test it before assembling it back together. As I am sure you already gathered, taking off the keyboard is something you prolly only want to do once in this pc's life time.

 

It should work fine. Brand doesnt matter as long as its a DDR3 SODIMM.

 

lol. Didn't think it would work but you can play Rift with this netbook if you're just grinding by yourself. getting 15-25 fps @ 800x600.

 

Im looking to remormat the harddrive since alot of people say it feels better and faster after. Overall just more responsive.

Im really not sure what the best method would be to reformat the 522. Ive bought the windows 7 home premium upgrade from starter, that the source was selling as mentioned in a couple post back(not installed yet), ive also upgraded the ram to 4GB.

Could someone right a tutorial or guild us noobs like me through this process. I know the 522 contains hidden drivers on :c drive which need to be used. Should you format the harddrive to do a clean install or just reinstall windows?. Also worried about the keycodes and what needs to be done

Im really quite lost which would be the best way to reformat and reinstall windows.

 

Just reinstall windows. You dont need to wipe the Hard Drive Clean.

Win 7 should keep your own files anyway.

For the drivers go to C:, view the hidden folders by clicking organize-Folder and search options-view tab-show hidden files

Then copy the drivers in the hidden folder titled OEM

 

Is there a way to reinstall without the windows 7 cd/dvd? or do i need to buy windows 7

When i used to reformat my old windows 98 and XP computers in the past i would format the harddrives then install via the windows cd's that i bought. Im a little out of touch with computer now and i know you dont even need the cd anymore since you can download and only need a keycode... i think

 

Of course you need a copy of Win 7. Acer has eRecovery which does not use a DVD but it will still install all the bloatware it has

 

lak8...if you look somewhere in this post i explain where to dl legit windows 7 (from ms),then how to make a multi edition so you can install starter,and then software that lets you copy onto thumbdrive your legit win info and then how to transfer that to fresh win 7 starter install..........

-well i got my netbook back from bb (via acer)...acer told bb they didn't do anything and bb said they couldn't reproduce my wierd click/buzz sound once about every 30 min or so.....well someone along the chain did something becasue noise is now gone....i notice under battery and keyboard tabs that someone took it apart,and as harddrive info was all the same,im guessing acer replaced fan....

-anyone update to win 7 sp1....no idea why...but man was that a slow install.........(perhaps it was because i went back to default 1 gig ram (took out 2 gig for when it went back to acer,and was to tierd tonight to fiddle with putting back 2 gig stick)

 

is there a main thread (owner lounge or something) in the acer section for the laptop?

 

I think this is is the main thread LOL

 

so anyone know where i can get a replacement keyboard for this model?

thks

ok i got my part number and ready to order, here is the number KB.I100A.088

thks

 

So I received the netbook on Tuesday and have finished upgraded ram to 4 gigs(took ten minutes with the help of the video), windows x64, installed everything i need, adobe cs4, office, wamp, dropbox.. if you use multiple computers than you should check out dropbox http://db.tt/TLc4k9e free 2 gigs of online storage.. extra 250 megs if you sign up with that link... makes a new folder on your desktop that is shared between all computers and stored online... , installed media player classic, tons more stuff...updated everything.. thing runs like a dream. 0 complaints. I will update this when I start doing photoshop, fireworks and dreamweaver work concurrently and know how this thing will handle it.

Very happy with my purchase. Thanks everyone on this board for steering me in the right direction.

One question I have is with the touchpad. I installed the drivers from this board because i forgot to save my driver folder before formatting. I downloaded the folder of drivers. When i go into the settings for my touchpad, it just gives me options for left and right buttons. No mention of the different finger gestures and for example when i try the zoom one on a web site.. nothing happens. it just scrolls. Wondering if this is the same for anyone? Maybe the x64 driver doesn't have the capability(I doubt that's it). Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

just replaced my 1 gig stick back to 2 gigs

tryed this method to pop keyboard (went real easy)

-get a razor thin putty knife,slide it between body and keyboard on right side towards the top
-with a credit card push the little tab above the insert key inward
-while doing this lightly pull back on putty knife,the right side of keyboard should pop up
-now simple slide the credit card towards the left

worked real easy for me.....

 

I created a owners thread in the Acer section of the forum

 

So I'm getting that graphical glitch again that a couple of us have had before and have some new information:
-Does occur on external monitor so it's not a monitor issue
-NEVER occurs during fullscreen video or gaming (COD4)
-not a ram issue since I've replaced my ram
-seems to increase on flash heavy sites.

I still think it's a driver issue. So I'm going to try ending Catalyst Control Center (CCC) and restarting it. I'll report back here.

So I shut down CCC and started it again. It stopped. Then at the exact moment that the CCC icon appeared in the system tray from me restarting it, it started glitching (lines) again. The icon disappeared when I moused over it so CCC crashed on my first attempt to start it (this always happens) so I then started it again. The issue disappeared again. Then it came back after a bit. So then I ended catalyst without starting it again. The issue continued. But slightly less frequently. So then I tried disabling and then reenabling the radeon driver. This made it worse. And caused changes in the positioning of the lines. I then started CCC again. While it was loading the lines stopped. This time CCC loaded successfully without crashing. Followed by the lines returning. So i really don't know what to make of this all. I hope for a driver update at some point to see if that could be the issue. I've had the issue on and off with drivers (CCC#) 11.1, 11.1a and 11.2. A restart always solves the issue. And it's usually a few days to a week or even 2 before I see it again. I was lucky it was happening while I was watching a habs game and could test the external monitor and video output. The flash heavy site where the issue was prominent was nhl.com where they display current game stats. The site with the fullscreen video where the issue didn't occur was CBC.ca live streaming.

 

Alright I have one complaint and that is really it. Other than being confused about the mouse drivers, the mouse sensitivity is making me a bit crazy. Really every time I type something the words get jumbled up because the cursor jumps into the middle of my sentences. Anybody figure out a way around this? I can use external mouse and keyboard but won't have i around all the time.

 

The ELAN drivers? they have gestures in the options

as for the jumping

Yes it happens to me and no I havent found a workaround for it since it doesnt really bother me. Disabling the trackpad would help since it is near the palm rest

 

Yeah i don't think there was any elan drivers in the folder. I just went back 3 pages to a post you reposted for someone with a quick list of drivers also. Synaptics driver is there but I have that one and there are no gesture or sensitivity options. i am thinking that I am missing a driver somewhere.

Also, every hour or so I am hearing a pretty crazy noise coming out of this thing. Almost like a hd failure noise. The one that just makes your heart stop and depresses you real fast. But everything continues to work fine. It is only for a second. I think the only other moving part in it is the fan so maybe the fan is getting caught on something. It is so fast that I can't tell exactly where it is coming from. I need to get my insurance started on this thing asap.

Any help on these ELAN drivers would be appreciated. Thanks Shadow.

 

How is this netbook for noise? Does the fan stop under light webbrowsing? As good as silent if using an SSD?

Thanks.

 

Was trying to upload it but saw it was 100mb... (I dont know your OS version)

saw the the site

ELAN PS/2 Port Smart-Pad Drivers - Download Device Drivers - DriverAgent.com

get the Acer version 7.0.6.5(The version that comes with 522)

Yes I can barely hear anything.

 

Installed the drivers... thanks shadow.

I barely hear anything out of this baby 99% of the time as well. Everything is very quiet. Once in a while i hear a sound out of it like if you ever loaded a disc into a mac cd drive before. Not one with a tray. Just a slot. Not a good sound but everything continues to work so will get insurance on it and see what happens. I feel if it was the HD making the noise than the computer would freeze up. Must be the fan? No clue. Otherwise, doesn't make a sound and runs great.

Also had dreamweaver, photoshop, fireworks, firefox and an ftp program open and was doing graphics work and everything ran fine. Speed of the programs was more than adequate.

 

by any chance,do you have K-lite codec installed?

i notice after i installed version 1.1.7 same thing as you describe...i tryed uninstalling but still same line issues...i reimaged from image i made (clean install,default drivers,win updates sp1 ect) and no longer any issues...

 

Hmmm i am currently using the latest K-LITE codec.

I havent seen the tearing issue for quite some time already

 

I did see a tearing issue that you described once. I was installing the 11.2 video drivers. But this was on my previous 522 which I took back. That one had a bad hard drive in it. My new unit I have had no problems.

 

With a RAM upgrade, would this machine be capable of playing HL2 and its Source-engine ilk (Left4Dead excluded) at a consistent frame rate? Resolution doesn't matter. I'm fine with taking it down to 640x480 if necessary in order to maintain a steady 30 fps at medium details. I wouldn't be playing anything newer than this, as that's what my MSI is for.

 

I'll try the Half Life 2 Demo. although if it can play Left 4 dead at acceptable fram rates I couldnt see why HL2 couldnt run.

 

Then don't go out of your way to download it. It's not a huge deal.

About a RAM upgrade, does this thing take a standard DDR3 module? I've read conflicting reports about having to use RAM sticks of a specific density in order to be recognized by the system.

 

Their normal every day laptop ddr3 ram sticks.... I just used a 2gb that came Stock in my envy 15 (i upgraded it to 8gb so I had 2 x2gb left over)

Ill be playing some tf2 and css on this thing tonight and will post my results here

EDIT:
This laptop can MAX out torchlight PERFECTLY!!!!! at around 40-55 fps

 

?????????????? Huh?

I tried torchlight and I was playing it at lowest setting and it cant even deliver stable 30FPS?

 

Really??? not sure how your doing it then.... ill post a video of it...

 

That would really help a lot

DId you change any settings on the AMD Catalyst?

If we could somehow let the GPU do all the work.. I think that is what you did.

 

Hey, do you think this would work for our Acers?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/427347-windows-tax-refund-acer-notebook-acer-aspire-1410-1810t.html

 

care to say what version of linux you have working...so far ive had no luck with cdlinux or puppy

 

Half Life 2 I played at

ALL HIGH at 720p (without Bloom)

30-50 FPS but will go to low 20s when outside, inside 40 AVG.

 

anyone tried guild wars? will probably try it this week end but was wondering

 

Can you try it on medium details and without bloom?

 

I am going to try guild wars eventualy. Id imagine it wont run that bad. I remember this game running on my p3 with a ATI 7000.

Btw for most of the source games if you launch it in directx8 you will likely be able to play the game with acceptable frames thorughout (because our cpu's). I just havent had the chance to test it yet. Ive been downloading Rift. (I have really slow internet)

Here is the difference in pictures.
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/2301/dx8si9.jpg
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/517/dx9mk9.jpg

You know what forget Rift. I am gonna install these games instead.

 

Hello all, I recently picked up a 522 (my first netbook) largely due to this thread

I love it, and just tossed in a 4G stick of RAM and installed Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. However, like someone before me, I can't get the zoom gesture to work with the touchpad now. I've tried the three drivers listed on Acer's website (Synaptics, ELANTECH, ALPS), and while each of them actually allows the touchpad to scroll, none of them can do the zoom gesture, it just scrolls if I try it. Does anybody know a sure way to tell which driver we should be using? Or am I just doing something wrong?

Thanks!
John

 

i did clean install of win also (32 bit)....before i wiped clean i checked all the hardware specs....mine was using the Synaptics...my zoom is working on new install.

 

odds and ends:

-i notice that not updating to win 7 sp1 has solved my graphics tearing issues (stock vid drivers from dvd and no sp1)...i also noticed that when having sp1 and using usb stick, if you clicked on item in usb stick and tryed to move it...it would try and launch

-for fun i tryed installing xp pro on it....had everything working except wifi...(broadcom default for win 7 will not load...have tryed others from acer site for xp and they also wont load or detect wifi.......working on it still.
-used video driver from amd site for c-50 (download and install dot.net 2.0 first),sound/lan/card reader/acer launch manager all drivers from dvd worked....have not tryed cam,trackpad drivers yet....

 

Pulling trigger close, anyone give me a wow performence count? at everything on low at 800x600? please thanks! Press ctrl+r to get the FPS on the trial account

can someone do it with 2GB+ I'm planning on upgrading the ram !

 

Another question, how's the keyboard for typing. It says 93%, how it would that compare to 12" laptop

 

The forums at Laptopvideo2go contain a repository of WiFi drivers. Perhaps you can find a compatible XP set there. The site is down at the moment, though. Can you post links to where you got all the XP drivers? I'd love to buy this machine and put XP on it.

 

well from first hand experience coming from a 12in older netbook it did take me a little longer to get used to the keys... the letter keys are the same size as a normal keyboard... its all the other keys that are smaller

 

thxs for link (its still down but will keep trying)

as for drivers...default acer win 7 starter has built in program that allows you to make bootable default backup image and also programs and driver dvd (so i used drivers off that)

lan/sound/card/acer manager xp drivers from above made dvd

xp video driver here ATI Radeon? Video Card Drivers

and for above to install completely install dot.net 2.0 first
Download details: Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)