2013 Archives

[alan6101]

I've had my refurb from ebay for 4 days now. I did upgrade the ram and put in an ssd within the first hour but so far no complaints. It does have the broadcom wifi chip in it. I was going to order an intel chip the same day I ordered the R7 assuming it would be bad but decided to wait and see. So far I haven't had any issues with wifi.  

Has anyone who installed an SSD removed the small caching ssd? Or disabled it? Did it make a difference? 

[pzi123]

My R7 picked up from Best Buy last week does normal wifi throughput - on average 20Mbits/s with lows below 10 and hights above 30.  This is comparable with my MacBook pro side-by-side.

Openning of the case is a mess - some of the middle screws are covered by rubber legs that need to be peeled off and then put back together - mine stuck back up ok.  The hard drive is very slim - I could not put my MacBook 2.5 sata in - too thick.  Memroy is right on top - very easy to replace with single 8g dimm.

I am pleasantly surprised with the machine and windows 8.  That tablet mode is great.

[peterr]

To taminrob,

Been following this thread since the beginning looking for an answer to this Wi-Fi issue and your the first to come up with a real solution, (to bad Acer can't do the same). The intel card you installed is it the Intel 7260HMW? Also can you post your results.

Thanks Peter

[taminrob]

Hey Peterr,

Glad I can help...Yes, that's the card I installed, as of right now I haven't tested any transfer speeds between machines, but as far as internet speeds, Im maxing out at the 37 Mb down and 4 Mb up, which is slightly higher than what I am supposed to get.  Also, I live in a split level home, the router is on the main floor pretty much on the far side of the house, but I have great signal throughout the house and I have not lost connection at all since installing. 

To be fair, I did not have issues with my WiFi before I changed the card, I just wanted to have the latest and greatest and am planning on upgrading my router shortly to wireless AC. 

My suggestion, don't put it off, it really is easy to do...the hardest part, as mentioned earlier, is getting the back of the machine off...you have to SLOWLY peel off the long rubber strip by the hinges and the one inch strip in the center towards the front to access all of the screws...then carefully remove the back of the machine.  DON'T FORGET TO PUSH THE BATTERY DISCONNECT (small hole in the back cover, paper clip should fit). 

While you are there, you will see the RAM too, if you are planning on upgrading that, I would recommend doing that at the same time so you don't have to keep taking the back off...if you aren't sure what type of RAM to get or what size, go to www.crucial.com and run their system scanner, it will tell you exactly what type of RAM you need...I went for the max of 8 GB (took my system to a total of 12 GB) and don't regret it...Photoshop loves the extra RAM...you can use the information you get there to buy it from wherever you would like, or you can get it from them ( I did, their prices seemed to be in line with everyone else and they have a good reputation). 

Only other thing I can think to mention is to make sure you plug the antennas into the same place on the new card that they came off on the old card...it will affect performance if you do not. 

Once all that is done, button the machine back up, fire it up, install the driver for the new card that you downloaded earlier and you are good to go...don't forget to rerun the Windows Experience Index...not that it matters, but your scores will go up from the RAM upgrade.

Good luck!  Feel free to ask if I left anything out or if I totally missed what you were after...glad to help!

[TrueBlue7_77]

you must be joking of course

Anew PC and take it all apart

I would bve very careful with altercations

as to void the warranty

[taminrob]

To each his own...This does not void the warranty...read the instruction manual that came with the machine and it tells you how to upgrade the RAM...As a general rule, changing out the RAM, HDD or wireless card will not void the warranty as they are easily accessible with the back cover removed...you will notice that there is no security sticker covering anything on the back of the machine.

But, you may be right, it could happen I suppose.

All I offered was a suggestion for a solution, if you would prefer to wait for ACER to handle it, by all means, go that route...if you want to fix it yourself for less than $30 and 20 minutes, then here is a viable alternative.

But yes, on a brand new machine, less than an hour home from the store, I opened it up, changed the HDD for a SSD, upgraded the RAM and upgraded my wireless card to the newest standard...My machine, my choice and I have the knowledge to complete those upgrades without relying on Geek Squad. 

[kriis]

Do you have Bluetooth working with this intel wifi card? I can't force it to work (the BT on/off switch in W8 is greyed out)

[alan6101]

I'd be interesting in hearing about the BT functionality on a 7260 too. I have ordered one for my R7 after doing some more testing I have a decent wifi signal and no dropping connection issues but it's just not as fast from distance as my macbook pro. I still say the refurb from ebay is a good deal. $699 plus $30 for wifi card and 20 minutes of time to swap.

[TrueBlue7_77]

My solution is a lot easier while waiting on a fix

I have a usb wifi adaptor

I run a kool 40 download speed while waiting on a fix

why take chancesmessing with screws and cards

Just my 2 cents

TB

[TrueBlue7_77]

Some people race the cars and others are just the mechanics that build them

Let the mechanics do what they  do best

Ijust want to race them and use them to use for work

Most people here obviously arent mechanics

I suggest everyone be very careful before they tear their new pc apart

\ TB