New Owner Acer 5551

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Hello All,

 

I just was given an Acer 5551-2648 after my old and tired laptop cratered. I've been searching the web, learning a lot, but a few questions remain:

 

The Acer support site lists bluetooth drivers for the 5551, but AFAIK,  it didn't come standard with BT.

 

I know I can just use a USB BT dongle, but I would rather not use up a USB port.

 

Does anyone know what form the BT capability takes? Is the BT card a separate card or is it integrated? There is an Athero WIFI half mini PCI card installed now, and there are Athero wifi/BT cards available in the same form factor. If that would work, it would be great.

 

Integrated or separate, does anyone know the part # for the BT add-on?

 

Also:

 

- Does anyone know what lives in the compartment at the rear of the machine, next to the battery?

- The 5551 has a full size keyboard with a numeric keypad. At present, the numeric section acts like a cursor (arrows) control. Pressing NumLock switches it to a very fine (pixel by pixel?) cursor control, but no combination of keystrokes I could find turns it into a numeric keypad. The previous owner claimed that the numeric keypad did work at one time.

Much searching on the web found the same question, but no answers.

 

I can't afford to shell out for a new machine right now and I would like to get the most out of this kind gift.

 

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully welcomed.

 

Thank you.

Tommy-Acer

Bluetooth:

Not all of the Aspire 5551 series shipped with bluetooth.  Please review these articles:

How to tell if your computer has Bluetooth

My computer has a Bluetooth icon, button or software. Does that mean my netbook or notebook has Bluetooth support?

The bluetooth board was a seperate board from the WiFi card and required running a cable a good length in the chassis.

.

I do not know if substituting an combo card would work or not, that is untested and unsupported.

.

The compartment next to the battery was for the optional 3G module.

.

I'm not sure why the number pad would not be functioning as a proper number pad.

If you have not, you may want to attempt to restore the system to factory defaults prior to setting up your own personal apps and data.

Please review this article:
Reloading your Acer Computer

Tommy-Acer

Bluetooth:

Not all of the Aspire 5551 series shipped with bluetooth.  Please review these articles:

How to tell if your computer has Bluetooth

My computer has a Bluetooth icon, button or software. Does that mean my netbook or notebook has Bluetooth support?

The bluetooth board was a seperate board from the WiFi card and required running a cable a good length in the chassis.

.

I do not know if substituting an combo card would work or not, that is untested and unsupported.

.

The compartment next to the battery was for the optional 3G module.

.

I'm not sure why the number pad would not be functioning as a proper number pad.

If you have not, you may want to attempt to restore the system to factory defaults prior to setting up your own personal apps and data.

Please review this article:
Reloading your Acer Computer