Acer Ethos AS8951G/AS5951G Owners Lounge

[Fr3@k]

Hello and greetings from Austria
I`m looking for the AS5951G, an at this point i have two questions about expandability of the device. Can i add an second harddrive to the AS5951G which come with no second drive? And the second does the device have 4 or 2 ramslots?

[MANoWAR]

Alright it looks like I'm going to buy the Acer Aspire Ethos 5951G (the 15.6" version). It's not sold in any stores around here so I would have to buy it online. I just want to know what you guys (I know you all have the 18" version) think of the laptop's shell. Does is feel solid and high quality or is there a sort of cheap plastic feel?

I'm a little reluctant to purchase this computer online because I won't know the feel of the laptop until I get it but it seems perfect for me. Also, I'd be buying it on Amazon from a vendor called "Beach Camera". Has anyone bought a laptop online before on a site like Amazon? I'm also a bit reluctant about that.

[sammcc]

sammcc, please let us know ,if the cable and bracket are compatible and if the second hard drive work!

Sorry, wasn't that clear? Yes, I tested both and they work perfectly.

Alright it looks like I'm going to buy the Acer Aspire Ethos 5951G (the 15.6" version). It's not sold in any stores around here so I would have to buy it online. I just want to know what you guys (I know you all have the 18" version) think of the laptop's shell. Does is feel solid and high quality or is there a sort of cheap plastic feel?

I said in my newegg.com review that it is "like a high end component stereo system. It feels very solid and well made". The top is aluminum/magnesium, as is the area surrounding the keyboard. The wrist rest and bottom are plastic, but they don't feel cheap.

Hello and greetings from Austria
I`m looking for the AS5951G, an at this point i have two questions about expandability of the device. Can i add an second harddrive to the AS5951G which come with no second drive? And the second does the device have 4 or 2 ramslots?

We haven't heard much about the 8951G's little brother, but I assume it's the same as the 18" screen which has four ram slots (two under the keyboard where they are not easily accessible) and an extra hard drive bay, but you'll need to purchase the HDD cable and brackets as I mentioned in my previous posts. I'd recommend talking to the folks at Notebook Solutions, Parts, Service & Support to make sure it's the same cable.

[writecat]

More Bluetooth woes... I just got my 8951G from New Egg, can't get the Bluetooth to work at all. There's NO sticker on the bottom of the laptop that says Bluetooth, but the box side panel says "Bluetooth 3.0 + HS." I tried clicking the little switch on the front which did bring up the dialog box that let me "turn on" Bluetooth, but still, nothing. I went to Acer site, did their "Hardware Vendor Detection" which shows LAN, VGA and Wireless Lan. I even downloaded the driver for Bluetooth for Atheros. Still nothing, except now, pushing the switch on front does nothing and Fn + F3 does nothing. I popped in a Bluetooth dongle and... I have Bluetooth. I sent a message to tech support but got back a nonsensical answer (I won't dog on them too much because I couldn't write anything in whatever that person's native language might be) but I think they referred me to some pay-pay-the-minute service, citing that Bluetooth isn't part of the computer. Yeah, go figure. It certainly isn't a part of mine.

Otherwise, it's pretty sweet and it weighs less than my old 17" Dell.

[sammcc]

More Bluetooth woes...

I haven't tried bluetooth yet, don't have anything bluetooth to hook it up to. The us.acer.com site does say it has Bluetooth 3.0 and Device Manager does have Atheros Bluetooth Bus under System Devices. When I switch it on, a gray bluetooth logo shows on the screen for a moment and a blue logo shows up in the notification area, right clicking it gives me a bunch of options including settings, join a personal area network and add bluetooth device.

You downloaded the atheros driver from Acer Driver Download ?

Anyone else have any experience using bluetooth yet?

[MANoWAR]

I said in my newegg.com review that it is "like a high end component stereo system. It feels very solid and well made". The top is aluminum/magnesium, as is the area surrounding the keyboard. The wrist rest and bottom are plastic, but they don't feel cheap.

i did all the research and was really happy with the laptop's specs and its looks. your post ensuring the build quality helped me decide.

i'm buying the Acer 5951G tonight

[zealouz]

Anyone else have any experience using bluetooth yet?

Bump this...I'm about to install an atheros BT module in my 8943G-9319...I've been waiting for the right time to pull the trigger on the 8951G...would be a bummer if it didn't come with BT or if the BT is faulty. Please keep us informed on this BT issue.

[writecat]

You downloaded the atheros driver from Acer Driver Download ?

Yes, I did download it from there. I got a new email that gave me a new number to call, I'm going to try it tomorrow, see what they say. I'm betting there's no hardware. The device manager shows a LAN card and it has "Bluetooth" as a choice and it's enabled, but there is no sign of Bluetooth outside that. I'll probably wind up curious enough to pop the back off at some point.

Oh BTW, I saw somebody had problems with the fingerprint reader; mine worked like a charm. I got three perfect swipes on my practice run and three on both the security runs for two fingers. But I have small hands, that could be a factor. Use a really light touch, like you're rolling an thin-shelled egg.

[sammcc]

Yes, there is bluetooth. I just tried pairing with my iPhone which didn't work (the iPhone kept saying Not Connected when the computer had actually added it) but the phone and computer definitely saw each other and attempted to pair so there's definitely bluetooth hardware.

[vgorilla]

Sometimes I wonder if Acer marketing people make posts on here.

This really is a great computer. You can read the specs and know exactly what is great about it.

In my opinion, these are the weak points.

1. trackpad remote - the remote is really only useful if you are going to use acer's media software. The sacrifice is there is no touchpad driver available, and will there likely never be according to my conversation with Acer engineering. That means no sensitivity adjustments or turning off tap-to-click, or gestures (unless you find a 3rd party app). The pointer positioning is unstable. The pointer always has a little wobble in it, even if the finger is steady. This can make dragging tricky. Very inconsistent responsiveness. If you can use a mouse, no problem.

2. screen - not very bright and poor viewing angle. The colors start to shift a few degrees off center. With the computer in my lap and my eyes about 2 ft from the screen, if I move 3-4 inches to either side, there is noticeable shift and the far side of the screen gets dim (looks about 1/2 as bright).

3. sturdiness - this is a thin (for an 18") laptop, so some lack of sturdiness is to be expected. The portion of the clamshell with the keyboard is reasonably sturdy, with exception of the circular pieces at the hinge. The screen portion is remarkable flimsy. 1-2 lbs of pressure can deflect the acer logo on the back of the screen about 1/4 inch

In fairness, lot of other laptops suffer from these same (and other) problems.