Notebooks & Netbooks

[septitank]

This travelling notebook is used for multimedia purposes only. And it´s got intel i7, 8GB ram and Geforce GT 750M and a SSD harddrive entirely reserved for OS (Win-7 of course). All user apps and data are kept on external USB3 drives for portability and faster disk i/o operations thus. It really provides an excellent browsing, gaming, multimedia editing/watching experience when it works. So there aren´t really need for upgrades. So what upgrades would be worth buying ???

Suggestions:

• OS Power Buttons: When unaware you easily press the power button when lifting or moving the flipable screen. Remove it and replace it with 3-4 operative system power buttons. Fx. there has to be a button for Windows 7 for compatibility. So when pressing this button: the computer immediately switches to Windows 7 desktop and power on if nessecary. There should also be a power button for a newer operative system, so when pressing it then the computer immediately switches OS and power on if nessecary to this one. The new OS should definitely not be another Microsoft product. See funny video-clip of their leader:  ->>> Link. The new operative system should be a normal desktop OS with more support for portability (installing apps as portable on external drives). And there could be more OS power buttons for fx old DOS, Linux, etc. And don´t forget the ability to force a power shutdown by holding power off ...
• This computer is already so fast regarding CPU, RAM, disk i/o and graphics that it doesn´t really need upgrades anymore. And the screen is big. If it was any bigger it would inconvinient travelling with it. The screen light quality is also good from various angles.
  WiFi could be better. This PC´s got Intel Wireless-N 7260. As promised the Aspire R7 is like the Star Trek Enterprise a little adventure. The Enterprise has lost communication and it needs the wifi card fixed. Online support didn´t wanna announce that cause it would spoil the adventure of course.
  A better WiFi would not nessecarily be a faster one: After visitting several hotels and public WiFi areas, sometimes an external WiFi adapter with bigger antennas get much better link quality. So the upgrade worth buying would be something internal that works just as well as an external adapter in public places like hotels, libraries etc.
• The computer could still be lighter. Though it must still have ports for at least two external harddrives and a mouse. Fx. sell notebook power supplies to all public places so that the users don´t have to carry and bring the heavy power supplies anymore. Haven´t found any use for Mini-display port, HDMI port, external volume or the card-reader. Perhaps that could lighten it too. (Could use and extra USB port though instead of a USB-HUB).
• Maybe the screen-leg (that can be moved 170°) could also be a little telescopic so that when you want to watch a movie, you can pull the screen even more close, since you won´t be needing the keyboard. Because a closer screen equals a bigger size television quality.
• Lights-out: There are 2 bright power lights (exclusing the keyboard backlight), 2 bright blinking external harddrive light, 3 bright blinking USB hub lights, 3 bright blinking USB ethernet converter lights (hotel only had cable connection) right now on this PC. This means that when it´s dark this Enterprise really lights up the room and the blinking is annoying. So they have all been overtaped and painted with a black pencil. Why doesn´t the keyboard backlight power out auto when watching fullscreen movie or not using the keyboard after 30 minutes?
• Maybe it would be fun if the computer could auto adjust screen brightness by using the webcam to trace brightness in room? Or maybe Acer could setup some software so the webcam could be used as a security cam tracing motion.

[septitank]

1. About the webcam: It should have a hardware close lid, so that any possible spyware can´t take pictures anonymously of the user.
   
   
2. The TPM module in BIOS got spyware on the user as mentioned in its description about remote attestation. That kind of policy is old communism and should be trashed.
   
   
3. The late Windows 8´s got spyware on all user actions and of no use to the computer owner: check App History in the task manager. And any OS that combines login with an internet connection is just crap. Get rid of it.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Maybe booting in UEFI mode is not better than in Legacy mode, if the announced speed-enhancement is only because that the UEFI mode program skips some previous system checks.
   
   
5. This Aspire R7 was bought with 256GB SSD drive. That´s quite big for just one OS and could easily room three or more. But those R7s sold with 500 GB harddrive must have a crappy setup, because: A fast PC is not all about boot time. The only two things that seems to freeze the operating system these days are slow internet connection or a harddisk locked because of disk i/o operations. If a computer user app is editing large data files on the system drive it may delay the system which normally uses the drive for potentional RAM (pagefile). It´s just a fact that double work on a harddrive lower its speed just as much, fx. copying a large file from and to the same harddrive is double slower than copying it to another drive. That´s why a newer OS should support portability instead of installing apps and data together on the system drive.
   
   It may seem peculiar that a new notebook requires something external to be much faster. But placing user apps and user data on portable harddrives seperates disk i/o operations so that disks and computer data buses are used at their full potentional. There are even RAID setups that have further enhancements.
   
   Another reason to seperate user apps and data from the system drive is portability. It´s a popular question "how fast does it boot?", but it´s more important "how fast user apps and data can be moved". First of all there is really no benefits from having apps installed compared to having apps portable!
   
   Fx. on this computer all programs (even programs with launchers and data saved to registry) are portable either by using junction and a batch file or because of the free portableapps. (Using "junction" and a batch file requires a bit of education that´s why a newer OS could support portability better.) This makes user stuff easy to use with a new computer when changing or a public computer for special needs or just swifting computer between home and work.
   
   Third reason to seperate user apps and their data from the system drive instead of having them together like it´s meant to be with the R7s sold with the 500 GB harddrive is security and maintanaince. Because it is much easier to maintain a system drive only with the OS on it. Fx. 1) if there were user apps and their data too on the system drive, it might be difficult to know whether a certain file is an intruder or belongs to the system. 2) if the system has to be reinstalled or reset to factory settings, then there´s no need to reinstall all applications and their settings as well. 3) The system can be kept like it was just installed by using security software to freeze its state.
   
   The best security software like Rollback RX or Deepfreeze - that make anti-virus software needless - secure the state of a harddrive so that any data changes to it can be reverted on reboot. But if user apps are installed on the system drive then these software programs have to take new "harddrive pictures" of the changes. By not installing anything the operative system can with such security software be kept like recently installed.
   
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   If the notebook had - beside a small system drive - two disk modules where a portable 1-2TB harddrive could be inserted, then there wouldn´t be need for USB3 ports except for the mouse.
   
   
6. About the intel graphics controls: Intel hd graphics control panel has got a setting on aspect ratio that doesn´t work. Where it is supposed to work there´s either a big black border (see link) or a 4:3 aspect appearing stretched to 16:9 (fx. Battlefront). It should be applied to fullscreen only so that any program appears without any black border regardless of resolution, or optionally so that certain older programs designed for 4:3 screens appear as 4:3 with black border on the two horisonts regardless of resolution.

[septitank]

• Cooling: Usually when running 3D Video Games this PC with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics card get 80-85° degrees hot displaying 45 FPS+. Now with this new game "Call of Duty Ghosts" running with 30 FPS+ the temperature went up to 91°. This suggests a cooling upgrade. (The PC has never been overclocked.)
• Fan: The only hardware sound from this computer comes from the fan and two external USB drives, and it doesn´t really bother at any time. So better cooling but just as quiet ...

When running multimedia there are several controls/meters to check for optimal experience. Fx. 3D Video Gaming has requirements like FPS, RAM and disk usage; internet browsing has ping value and transfer rate; etc.. Such controls could be improved in a future OS.

Windows 8 has been banned by the most popular hwbot.org as OS for benchmarking. Here´s the example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brkDKgvXKko#t=0 that also contains link to the hwbot article. Hwbot.org is sort of a forum for overclockers, just like formula racers have forums where they compete but about motor engines.

On this PC there were some gadgets All GPU Meter, All CPU Meter and Drives Monitor Gadgets + their adherent programs PCMeter and CrystalDiskInfo to show information regarding performance. And the Windows Experience Index showed 5.9/7.9 for aero graphics. That was 1.2 point lower than an earlier result. And it turned out to be these gadgets (don´t know exactly which) that did it. So now the only gadgets installed are Retro Clocks, Windows Live Gadget Calendar, GPU Observer(because the Nvidia GPU icon doesn´t show temperature) and Drive Activity. Here´s a picture: http://s18.postimg.org/48ri9afmh/desktop.jpg

So when doing a 3D video game it is possible in-game with fullscreen overlay to check FPS using Fraps. The FPS value makes it easy to configurate video graphics. But it would improve if it was also possible to check disk i/o performance and GPU temperature on a fullscreen overlay.

[septitank]

About the 91° GPU temperature here is online support response:

============================================================================================

[edited to comply with guidelines]

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Notebook: Acer Aspire R7-571G with graphics card GeForce GT 750M
Nvidia driver: 331.65
Overclocking: no

Hi, while runnning "Call of Duty Ghosts" game the GPU temperature showed 91°.
Usually it just shows 80-85° and run quietly.

Is it possible to get more efficient cooling internal for the computer ? Fx. something that a repairshop can install or replace the current with ?"

============================================================================================

So maybe cooling doesn´t need upgrading after all if it is just this unit ...

[septitank]

There are two free upgrades available for R7-571G: WiDi & Error 10 fix

1. BIOS 2.09 fixes an error. Not entirely though, because after installing the BIOS upgrade (and resetting its options, fx. Legacy boot) there was a new event error: "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because..." But there is a microsoft fix for it: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2545227 Download: Fix it. And when you then delete windows event logs, the problems with ID 10 should be gone. So kudos to Acer!

2. Acer's driver download pages are just terrible! Fx. you can find newer cool stuff like WiDi for your R7-571G by looking in the R7-572 categories. You can get WiDi for free when meeting the system requirements. It may though not be just one simple download and install, because the WiDi app also requires another underlaying driver thing, that made it work on this PC. With WiDi your PC can wireless connect to a TV screen and use it as secondary.

Unsolved: Video games like "Thief 2014", "Company of heroes 2".. that uses Dx11 run with big black borders when put in lower resolution than native 1920x1080. Maybe only a problem with both Intel HD + Nvidia Geforce.

If you want to install Windows 7 - which is more of a desktop OS than the later - where is the Acer support pages for that? 1. Legacy boot has to be enabled in BIOS in order to run win7 setup, that else will freeze when loading driver disk.sys; 2. To get the latest drivers, there are R7-571G Win8+Win8.1 [all] + R7-572G pages too, and then there are Nvidia support for the newest Geforce driver and Intel support for quite alot.

[septitank]

After about 1 year voices are cut in headphone sounds regardless of driver installed??? Speakers work fine.

Looked inside notebook in order to upgrade ... what a stupid layout! to make room for one mega big SSD drive that could house mSatas instead with 4-6 times the same size! This Aspire R7-571G now has 1TB mSata EVO 840 samsung installed and working (windows 7-64: WEI calculating performance to max. of 7.9/7.9). Without the space for the SSD casing it could have housed 4-8 TB mSata harddrive. And since it`s difficult to fill just 2 TB harddrive with apps, movies and data, there`s hardly need for USB ports except for mouse and WiFi and maybe a second media.

Besides the SSD drive casing is missing in this machine; when bought according to info it´s got a SSD drive, but it hasn`t; it`s got an mSata instead smaller in dimensions but with the same size, which is bad, when you`ve bought upgrades. So machine specifications are incorrect. Because the mSata has to be thrown out for the new and the SSD is impossible to install without the connecting casing, so it might as well be thrown out also. This install movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLWdiLxLoyI is misguiding!!

So recommended upgrades: Get rid of the harddrive completely and make 2-3 mSata slots instead. That`s 2-3 internal TB harddrive completely silent and enabling max performance.

And make the battery external!!! It´s big and heavy and only used belove 1% of the time on this PC for multimedia purposes. Just sell an external battery that likewise connect to the power slot!!!

Even if the intel 7260 wifi is working okay in this machine, the external Sveon 1020 (http://www.sveon.com/fichaSNT1020.html) still have 10x better connection in most public areas with wifi around here, so maybe at least the wifi antennas ought to be external too!

Can Acer recommend a secondary tablet for this PC that could power on the USB? Purpose would be a second screen for movies while working on the main with easy data transfer between the two; or to use the second as a remote control for the main. And also recommend a video manager so when harddisk is filled with movies, it can run them sort of like TV channels.

[septitank]

BTW: After getting rid of external USB drives and installing a big mSata 1TB card, it`s now got a different security system working 100% without virus scanners or windows defender to slow down CPU: The 1TB mSATA card is split into 2 partitions with about 60GB for windows. The system partition is protected with Rollback RX, so at any time it can be wiped clean back to installation state. The problem with that is, that saved data by programs and apps on the same partition get wiped too. But 1) library folders can be relocated in windows customization without any problem to the other partition; and 2) if apps are installed on the other partition too, then with Sandboxie the installation can be virtualized so all its modifications to windows registry and saves to appdata folder are actually on the other partition too, meaning that when system drive is wiped clean, to the programs it still looks like they are installed in registry and can be updated as well.

[PenguinJim]

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septitank wrote:

Besides the SSD drive casing is missing in this machine; when bought according to info it´s got a SSD drive, but it hasn`t; it`s got an mSata instead smaller in dimensions but with the same size, which is bad, when you`ve bought upgrades. So machine specifications are incorrect. Because the mSata has to be thrown out for the new and the SSD is impossible to install without the connecting casing, so it might as well be thrown out also. This install movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLWdiLxLoyI is misguiding!!

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Hey, that's MY video. LET'S STEP OUTSIDE AND SORT THIS OUT.

If your R7 model is one of the ones without a 2.5" drive as standard, Andrik managed to find the part number for that missing connector: 20.M9UN2.001

Acer Support should be able to help you out.

[septitank]

@PenguinJim Hey thanks for the info! Because none of the computer store workers around here could figure that out.

But still it`s disappointing to see, that the material inside doesn`t match the description. This machine is the same R7-571G.

[septitank]

Another upgrade suggestion: After installing a new mSata - the 1TB 840 EVO samsung, that works super, it seems like a waste, when it can be reused in another new Aspire R7. So maybe Acer could make it easier to replace mSATAs, because those rubber things and different screwdriver tools are three too many nuisances when doing so! The ideal would of course be both mSATA (disks), memory blocks, graphics card and wifi card easy replaceable for user and that the sale could be customized without some units, so units from older Aspire R7 could be reused.

Again about the batteries when you placed the GeForce GT 750M in the R7 G serie you might as well have removed the big batteries: Because those gamers who buy that extra hardware - most of them - are probably going to use a USB mouse (required in most games) and also be power plugged in, since the electricity requirements for video games will heat up the graphics card to 90° and run the battery dry in less than an hour! And even if the battery was able to support more hours, the gamers will still be using a USB mouse and sitting somewhere! The mobility (lightweight) is ideal for travel but not using it while travelling - regarding gamers and the G serie. And the Aspire R7 is better than nowadays all-in-one PC desktops, because the all-in-one´s have big more than 20" screen - mostly useless for use with less than 1 meter away from the screen; plus the Aspire R7 can close down the screen so the screen is protected, while the all-in-ones just have a sensitive screen not good when on the road travelling a lot. That´s why Aspire R7 without batteries!

Found out that the problem with black borders in games set to run in lower resolution than native is because of Microsoft DirectX11. Fx. Company of Heroes has a setting "Shader Quality" that determines which DirectX 11 or 9 the game should run. And when set to ULTRA it uses Dx11, so that when resolution in game is set to lower fx. 1280x720, it will display big black borders around a 1280x720 image up to native 1920x1080. It happens in several games and only with Dx11, and the problem is verified by other users (https://communities.intel.com/thread/44539). In other words it was not a computer error.

About WiFi upgrade suggestion: Some hotels just have poor wifi coverage, so it doesn´t matter whether the internal WiFi card is broadcom, intel or b/g/n or ac. Bought for fun something called long range external WiFi adapter. It only had one antenna. And even if the signal appear stronger, the software kept loosing the connection. So screwed off the antenna and tried it instead screwed onto one of the plugs on the http://www.sveon.com/fichaSNT1020.html. The antenna was exactly double as long as one of the snt1020s, and the software actually boosted the signal strength on a bad connection from 70% to 80% and also reported lots of other networks around. If one antenna is screwed off the snt2010 it still keeps the connection, it just reroutes the connection through the antenna with highest signal strength, so there isn´t really need for two antennas. Maybe the best accessories would be if the computer had an internal WiFi card and two antennas - one the default internal and then another unscrewed external. The software would then choose the best signal. And as accessories Acer could then sell two different kinds of external antennas (without adapter and just as screw onto some plug) straight omnidirectional antennas small or big and also a small parabolic antenna!

And maybe Acer could also find use of the Microsoft Research Virtual WiFi technology. It´s no easy installation, but many public places with internet access often have more than one router available in the area.