Acer Aspire 5020 Series AMD Turion 64 Notebook Review (pics, specs) - FOLLOW-UP

[Kurt_Aust]

Found a better way to install the launch manager that doesn't give you a UAC pop-up.

This is the big one, to get the Launch manager to work correctly (and hence the wireless button) is a major operation.

First run the Vista x32 Launch Manager installer and reboot.

Then run the XP x64 Launch Manager installer and reboot. When installing you will get a message about a locked file, choose to replace it on reboot.

Note that to alter some aspects of the configuration you will have to run the 'Launch Manager\Fn.exe" file as an administrator.

[svperstar]

I'd just like to throw in my few cents on this laptop.

I've had it for over 3 years and I've had it on repair 6 times (yes 6 times). The computer wouldn't start, or kept rebooting after a short while after turning it on. This was related to the harddrive overheating and breaking down. Since the warranty went out I've had to buy one new harddrive (3rd replacement since I bought it). And now this monday it broke down again. Same problem again. So now I'm off to buying my 4th disk.

So for those of you that have problems with the computer booting - Remove the harddrive and see if it starts up (for example on a windows install cd or something).

/J.

[Kurt_Aust]

I'm going to revert back to XP x64, Win 7 is a vast improvement over Vista but I still prefer the XP GUI. Also the fact that there is no theatre mode video output under Win 7 as yet is something of a showstopper.

Still one thing that has always been a pain for me is that as I run a limited user account for safety reasons, I have to authorise several driver type applications with admin rights on each logon. Since my last install I've poked around with AutoIt and one can script those authorisations as described below.



On running as a limited user:

One of the best ways to protect your system from malware is to run as a limited user, only switching to an administrator account for updates and installations. One of the major flaws of Windows is that running as a limited user can be a truly frustrating (limited even) experience.

Apart from the usual problems associated with running as a limited user, on the AA-5024WLMi none of the hotkeys work, most importantly the wireless button. After a fair degree of trial and error I’ve managed to get my laptop to behave with limited privileges and now I’ll tell you how to do it too.

1. You need to set up 2 accounts, one will be your Admin account and one your User account (both as Administrators for now).
2. Run “msconfig”, on the startup tab, deselect “WButton”. Exit and reboot.
3. In your Admin account add a shortcut to “WButton” (found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Launch Manager\) to the start menu startup folder.
4. In your User account add three shortcuts, “HotkeyApp”, “OSDCtrl” and “WButton”, in that order, to the startup folder.
5. Right click each of the User startup shortcuts and select properties. Under Shortcut\Advanced select “Run with Different Credentials”
6. Set passwords (at least on the Admin account) and set the User account to limited.

You can now log off and log back on to your limited account. You will get one failure message and be presented with 3 “Run As” boxes. On each select to “Run as Admin” and enter your password. You should now have full functionality and the protection that comes with a limited account.


AutoIt: You can avoid the annoyance of the error message and the 3 "Run As" boxes by using the AutoIt script shown below (skip steps 4 & 5 above).

WinWait ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Launch Manager\HotkeyApp.exe")
WinActivate ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Launch Manager\HotkeyApp.exe")
ControlClick ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Launch Manager\HotkeyApp.exe", "", "[CLASS:Button; TEXT:OK]")
Sleep (20000)
RunAs ("Administrator", "ComputerName", "Password", 0, "HotkeyApp.exe")
Sleep (5000)
RunAs ("Administrator", "ComputerName", "Password", 0, "OSDCtrl.exe")
Sleep (5000)
RunAs ("Administrator", "ComputerName", "Password", 0, "WButton.exe")

Replace ComputerName and Password with the appropriate values for your system (if running 32-bit windows change all occurances of "\Program Files (x86)\" to "\Program Files\"). Compile the script and place at "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Launch Manager" then add a shortcut to the compiled script to the startup folder of each limited user.

[bertdel]

5 years old and still going strong. its about to get a ml37 and 1gb adata ddr 400 plus new bezel and outer case. can someone point me in the right direction on how to up date the bois, start to finnish !

[Kurt_Aust]

Important: Make sure your battery is fully charged and you are connected to external power before updating your BIOS.

1. Download and extract the v1.20 BIOS, read readme.txt and extract the FBB033WW.zip file.

2. Fire up Nero or similar CD burning software, choose the "Bootable Data Disc" option, add the extracted BIOS files to the compilation, burn the disc (use the standard boot image) at low speed and be sure to tick the verify option.

3. Boot off the CD (may have to alter BIOS settings to enable F12 boot device option) and run the file BOL120.bat from the DOS prompt.

[Kurt_Aust]

Yes Virginia, your laptop can read 4GB SD cards, all it lacks is an updated driver.

You can get it from HP's download site or just grab the appropriate attached file.

The drivers for Vista will probably work for Windows 7 as well.

It did seem a bit strange that my laptop could read 4GB cards under Linux but not under Windows.

[vir7ual]

Kurt_Aust I love you! Your SD Cardreader Driver is pure gold, thanks so much!

Also, the 1.20 Bios can be upgraded in Windows. That's how I did it, worked just fine. no need to do it the "old School" way


My 3023 is now 4 or 5 Years old (don't remember if I bought it November 2005 or 2006) and I faced the same problem as svperstar - The original 80GB 5k4rpm Samsung drive broke down, and the new 160GB Samsung I put in kept freezing for no apparent reason except probably the heat (56°C instead of 55. duh. should have bought a WD or Seagate instead of that cheap Samsung crap. ). (Well, what finally broke that drive was me, being pissed at it for loosing my work again due to a hard reset, I hit the table with the fist, and the drive didn't like that, but it was unusable anyway ) so now, and for the last 1 and a half years I'm running XP off of an 8GB ADATA Compactflash (with a dual CF-to-IDE) (ADATA and Transcend Cards are almost the only CF cards recognized as "fixed" drives.)
The card's gotten a bit slow by now but it works fine, is super-heat- and shockproof and despite slow transfer speeds it boots and shuts down quite fast thanks to the flash mem's excellent access times.


And now thx to your new driver I can finally drop the SDHC usb Stick and keep my 4GB card in the laptop's reader as additional "HDD". Together with the 2nd 4GB CF Card I've got a "huge" 16GB storage capacity now
(Also, I use NTFS despite the fact it causes more writes than FAT32, because due to the small size and slow transfer rates I needed the compression feature. )


Oh, and I use the overclocker tool from this thread, but only to speed up the FSB or whatever AMD calls it. 225MHz, which brings the RAM to 187MHz and the Sempron to 2.03GHz. It's quite an improvement and is really stable for several days. 233MHz is my upper limit, it gets instable after a couple hours. The Memory management feature isn't stable though.


I wonder if the cardreader/driver also accepts above-4GB SDHC? Anyone tried?

[Kurt_Aust]

I gave the CD method of updating BIOS as that will always work and you don't have to worry about any errors in the Windows installation corrupting the process.

You cannot update the BIOS from within 64-bit XP and I suspect the same is true for 64-bit Vista and Windows 7 as well.

I've got a 250GB 7200rpm Seagate drive in mine and it hasn't given me any trouble although I did once have trouble with a bad RAM module.

I for one haven't tested above 4GB.

[bertdel]

5 years old and still going strong. its about to get a ml37 and 1gb adata ddr 400 plus new bezel and outer case. can someone point me in the right direction on how to up date the bois, start to finnish !

well in the end i installed a ML40 and 1gb Adata running at DDR400, i also install win xp to remove Acers split hard drive set up. but after a year and a half of running it today it made a nice POPING noise and everythink went dead, i dont fancy stripping it right down again as i know i will be looking at a blown power regulator on the motherboard, its time for its departure into the recycling bin. good by my faithfull servent its time for a new Laptop !

[dlwoodjr]

Holy thread resurrection....

Don