Here is a link to Acer Drivers.
It is far better than the previous ftp links.
Both 32bit and 64bit are available.
It is far better than the previous ftp links.
Both 32bit and 64bit are available.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
If you have disk partitioning issues and you need to do stuff like moving primary partitions around, I recommend Partition Master.
- Firstly, it is free.
- Secondly, it offers advance functions that rival the capabilities of payware.
- Thirdly, the Windows Interface is easy to use.
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Here is another Acer Fan Control Program called A1CTL by Noda
I prefer this one as no installation is required just need to run with Admin permission.
Another Acer Fan Control Program called 1810tray by Intek.
Originally meant for Acer Timeline 1810 but works well on other Acer Laptops as well.
Works for Acer Aspire Laptops as well.
I prefer this one as no installation is required just need to run with Admin permission.
Another Acer Fan Control Program called 1810tray by Intek.
Originally meant for Acer Timeline 1810 but works well on other Acer Laptops as well.
Post Your Computer Related Problems here
Possible Solutions:
Although sometimes I might not be able to solve your issue I can probably point you in the right direction.
FAQ:
My laptop is hot even when not doing anything:
First Download and Run HWMonitor to check if it is really hot internally.
Also a hot laptop can result in sluggish gaming performance as the computer detect high internal temperature and attempts to reduce performance to reduce the temperature increase.
Hot CPU/GPU Possible Solutions:
Hot GPU only Possible Solution:
WebCam solution
Driver Error Messages:
Possible Solutions:
FAQ:
My laptop is hot even when not doing anything:
First Download and Run HWMonitor to check if it is really hot internally.
Also a hot laptop can result in sluggish gaming performance as the computer detect high internal temperature and attempts to reduce performance to reduce the temperature increase.
Hot CPU/GPU Possible Solutions:
- Check you have AMD Processor Driver Installed IF YOU ARE USING WINDOWS XP.
- Download Acer Fan Control and decrease the temperature for the Fan to Activate so the fan will spin more often to bring down the temperatures.
- For advance users
- If you have sent it for repairs open it up and replace the thermal paste using a better brand like Arctic MX2 the technician probably didn't replace the thermal paste when they dissembled it.
- Replace the default thermal pads and thermal paste to a high quality type such as Arctic Cooling MX-2 or Arctic Silver 5 after dissembling the laptop.
- Run Acer Fan Control Utility while gaming.
- Tear away the air filter at the bottom of the laptop to allow better air flow (I did this)
- UnderVolt your Processor
Hot GPU only Possible Solution:
- Check if PowerMizer is enabled
- Replace the default thermal pads and thermal paste to a high quality type such as Arctic Cooling MX-2 or Arctic Silver 5 after dissembling the laptop.
- Run Acer Fan Control Utility while gaming.
- Tear away the air filter at the bottom of the laptop to allow better air flow (I did this)
WebCam solution
- Use the Bison AP Driver the SuYin one is really problematic and the Bison Driver Work on the WebCams and try to make sure the webcam cable is not too taut.
Possible Solutions:
- Update Microsoft DirectX
- Search and Update Display Drivers (Check What Graphics Card you possess)
- For Nvidia GFX card use Nvidia Driver or use this Universal Recent Nvidia Driver don't worry about stability as Nvidia Drivers are always very stable even the Beta Ones
- Update your Device Drivers (Check all the links for the device driver for your particular laptop model)
- Drivers to Update:
- Chipset, Audio Driver, Display Driver, Touchpad Driver, Wireless Adapter Driver
- Optimize Synaptic TouchPad
- Use Windows Vista Tweaker to disable extra programs you don't need
- Uninstall Trialware from Acer (If you have trialware preloaded from the disk image)
- Run Disk Clean Up and Sdelete to Zero unused harddisk space(Write Zeros to unused Space)
- Tweak Firefox and Internet Explorer
- Edit the Acer Aspire Shortcut Buttons to point to the programs you want to launch
- Remember to burn the recovery partition to DVD if your laptop comes with Vista Preloaded
- Make Windows Start Faster
Hardware Reset:
- Remove all power sources including Battery and AC Adapter.
- Press and Hold Power Button for 60 Seconds.
- Turn on Computer.
Possible Solutions:
PLEASE FLASH YOUR BIOS ONLY WHEN YOU NEED THE FIX, DO NOT HAPPILY FLASH WHEN YOU LIKE IT ACCIDENTS CAN OCCUR.
- Update BIOS Acer Aspire 4530 BIOS 1.3334 here (1.3335 has a weird bug)
- Try to recover it first by holding Down Alt-F12 on Boot (With D2D Recovery Enabled in BIOS (F2)) if it doesn't work follow this
I want to install Windows Xp in AHCI mode but Windows Xp cannot detect Disk Driver when BIOS is in AHCI mode
Solution
If you encounter Blue Screen Of Death, note the error messages + Check the Event Viewer logs and post the offending files below.If the BSOD occurs randomly it can be due to damaged RAM.Run memtest86 to test for faulty RAM.(Press F8 in Vista to select Memtest86 test)
Wireless Not Detected Properly.
- Make sure you install the launch manager with the wireless driver.
- The launch manager switch is tied to the wireless card operation.
Saturday, 16 May 2009
First if your Laptop is still under warranty doing this may void it!
- If you are not comfortable with opening your laptop do not do it.
- I hold no responsibility for any damage done to your laptop.
- If you follow this guide carefully and do it meticulously nothing bad should happen to it.
- Do not handle electrical components at the metal contacts or circuit board, hold it by the edges.
- Read this guide once and fully understand it before proceeding.
1) Disconnect ALL POWER (inclusive of battery pack + AC Power Adapter).
2) Ground yourself to make sure you are free of static.
3)Remove all the dummy SD & PCI Card from the Perimeter of the laptop.
Unscrew the screws circled in Red.
Then using a flat-head screw driver and lever the catches boxed in Green.
The laptop support pads are boxed in Blue if any of them fall off reattach them with new double sided tape.
The front panel should pop up as shown.
Gently pry it out.
You should see the following:
The left box shows the White Connector which consist of VGA/Monitor Port + Webcam port
Above it is the LCD Monitor Grounding Cable
Below it is the Microphone Cable
The right box shows the Wireless Antenna Cable for extended Range Detection of Wireless Networks
Removing the Keyboard
Next pry out the keyboard gently
The Flat Ribbon Cable is the PS/2 Port
Lever the Connector and disconnect the Cable
DO NOT BREAK SUCH CONNECTORS ON THE MOTHERBOARD IF THEY ARE BROKEN YOU HAVE TO GET A NEW MOTHERBOARD !
You should see something like the above
Next flip the laptop around and remove all the screws circled in Red.
It is actually ALL the screws you can see at the base.
Removing the Harddisk
Next, Unscrew the screws circled in Red (3 from the Harddisk Region, 2 from the Wireless Card Region).
Disconnect the Wireless Antenna from the Card boxed in Yellow by levering it out.
Don't pull it out vertically !
I noticed in my room white wire on top, black wire below, gives better connectivity.
Disconnect & remove the harddisk by sliding it towards the right and pull it out via the black flap.
Next unscrew the screws circled in Red (3 in the Harddisk Region).
Removing the LCD Monitor
Flip the laptop around.
Disconnect the box in blue and unscrew the screws circled in Red.
The top blue box holds the VGA Monitor Connector and the WebCam Connector.
The bottom blue box holds the Microphone Connector Cable.
The Red Circle above the top blue box hold the Monitor Grounding Cable.
Notice there are engravings beside the red circles.
60 stands for 60mm screw the long ones
45 stands for 45mm screw the short ones
There are only 2 types of screw you will encounter in this guide.
When removing the Monitor make sure you don't pull it out vertically, you might damage the plastic cable groove.
Follow the groove and remove it.
Next unscrew the screw circled in Red and disconnect the connectors boxed in blue.
The blue box on the Left is the Audio Connector for the laptop internal stereo speakers.
The blue box in the Centre is the Connector for the Acer ShortCut Buttons Panel.
The blue box on the Right is the PS/2 Connector for the Synaptics Touchpad.
The blue box on the Top is the Power Switch and LED Light module (The green circuit board on the top).
Removing the DVD Drive
The yellow box indicates the CMOS Battery (replaceble) you don't need to remove it.
In Case you need the CMOS battery data:
Next Slide out the DVD Drive by pushing it out towards the Right.
Unscrew the screw circled in Red (There are 2, 1 at the Top Right Corner, 1 at the Centre) .
Notice there is a screw like symbol beside each of them.
Here comes the difficult part.
It is now possible to separate the casing from the motherboard but there is one obstacle.
It is the Audio Adjustment Knob Region boxed in Red.
The Audio Adjustment Knob is integrated to the motherboard separating it from the motherboard is impossible.
So you have to carefully push the casing down so you can create a gap at the audio adjustment knob to pull the motherboard out.
Start prying from the top right corner.
DO THIS SLOWLY!
REMEMBER HASTE MAKE WASTE !
DON'T BREAK THE MOTHERBOARD BY OVER-STRAINING IT !
ENSURE ALL SECTION OF THE MOTHERBOARD IS WELL-SUPPORTED!
Heat sink Removal
Unscrew the screw circled in Red and disconnect the connector boxed in blue to remove the heatsink.
I will not post a picture of the dissembled outcome as I had applied an excellent layer of Arctic Silver 5.
If I remove it I have to reapply it.
To get a nice layer it takes a lot of time and patience more then the time taken to dissemble this laptop.
In short
Remove the thermal pad on the GPU.
Clean the GPU surface, CPU surface and Heatsink surface with Rubbing Alcohol (Google)
DO NOT USE WATER AS IT IS A GOOD ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR!
Spread high quality thermal paste over the GPU and CPU surface (I recommend Arctic Cooling MX-2 or Arctic Silver 5).
Replace the parts.
Removing the Bluetooth
Turn the motherboard around
The bottom yellow box is the bluetooth card
There is 1 screw holding it
The top 2 boxes is the unused USB Connectors.
For Future purpose if you suddenly need to add a Wireless 3G card which has internal USB for Laptops you can use them.
Note:
You don't have to remove the motherboard from the casing to gain access to the USB Connectors or Bluetooth.
Removing Internal Speaker and Touchpad
Turn the plastic cover you removed around.
You will see screws to remove the Internal Speakers and Touchpad.
Just unscrew and remove them accordingly.
Note:
You don't have to remove the motherboard from the casing to gain access to the USB Connectors or Bluetooth.
It took me a long time to come up with this very simplified guide so please show appreciation by clicking the google ads if it helps you =)
To reassemble it just reverse the process.
WHEN IN DOUBT ASK!
Thursday, 14 May 2009
For some of you who seldom perform OS re installation you might not know the differences clearly.
First, reformatting is usually done when the operating system is corrupted beyond repair.
Usually when your machine is bogged down a lot of malware, reformatting solves the issue faster than finding fixes for each malware.
Personally, I prefer reformatting because certain types of malware corrupts System Files beyond repair.
What reformatting does is that it destroys the partition tables and recreate them.
In Windows it would be C:\ partition.
The old data is still present but it is no longer readable by normal methods as all the references to the old data is overwritten (It is like the content page is destroyed hence the book appears as new because all indexes are gone, the old data is still present but there is no link to access them properly) but this is a "as good as new" for end users who want a new OS installation.
Disk Erasure Tools is usually used by organizations with highly sensitive information.
Tools such as DBAN or Secure Erase removes all traces of data by overwriting the whole hard disk with other data.
Differences between DBAN and Secure Erase
- DBAN writes by Sector therefore when bad sectors are redirected data erasure maybe incomplete. However Secure Erase writes by Cylinders so complete data erasure is guaranteed.
- DBAN takes a longer time compared to Secure Erase.
Why is this so?
Secure Erase is the standard included by hard disk manufacturers to clear sensitive data as a feature requested by governmental organizations.
Quoted from the Data Sanitisation Tutorial
Quoted from the Data Sanitisation Tutorial
Complete eradication of user data off drives can be accomplished by running data Secure Erasure utilities such as the freeware “HDDerase” downloadable here. It executes the Federally-approved (NIST 800-88) Secure Erase command in the ATA ANSI standard, which is implemented in all recent ATA drives greater than 15-20 GB. A similar command in the SCSI ANSI standard is optional and not yet implemented in drives tested. Normal Secure Erase takes 30-60 minutes to complete. Some ATA drives also implement the standard Enhanced Secure Erase command that takes only milliseconds to complete.
It uses a standard ATA set hard disk native instruction set to wipe the entire drive quickly.
You might have heard that 1 or 2 pass of overwriting might not be enough to clean the hard drive however this is not true as nowadays hard disk comes in high density capacity.
For a similar sized hard disk 5-10 years ago it can only contain like 30 or less GBs.
Hence when you overwrite such high capacity hard disk it is impossible to recreate the original data.
An analogy I can think of would be you have 2 trays of coloured arranged sand, one fine, one coarse.
If you imagine each particle to be data, if I substitute half with sand particles of another colour randomly, the tray with the fine sand will look more messed up then the tray with coarse particles.
Sdelete is like a DBAN inside Windows.
What it does using the -c (clean command) is it takes all the unused hard disk space and overwrites them.
You can also use it to overwrite the data region for a particular file.
Usually when you delete something in Windows it only remove the reference to the file and marks the region from occupied to unused.
When you use sdelete, it will remove the reference to the file and overwrites the region with random data before marking it from occupied to unused.
I hope you understand more about hard disk from this simple introduction.
Well I came across this link from one of the formers.
It is suppose to recommend the computers you according to needs.
I will only ask you to use this tool to see what selection you can make, it is far more accurate than those salesmen in Computer Stores.
However as of yet there are only 64 laptops in the database fairly limited, however the database is expected to be expanded.
AMD Laptops only account for 2/64 of the laptops in the database.
It is quite obvious this "tool" is designed to counter "Mac purchase simplicity".
What about desktops?
My recommendation for Desktop is to build your own, for best value for money without sacrificing performance.
Microsoft Silverlight is required for certain functions in the Computer Selector.
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