Aspire One AO533 or Happy with Atomn455 ram limits the OS that limits the maximum supported RAM?

henman

Well the verdict is in after the Jury deliberation! I'm found guilty of only being able to have 2 paltry gb of RAM:-( Two attempts failed so that's all I can use in this $h!tbox. Perhaps your netbook uses the same case and I can get a motherboard off of ePay for next to nothing and rebuild it the way it should have been!LMAO
Anyway Jack thanks for the info and after installation I did a full update as well by the only way I know how because I couldn't find the software update so I used sudo apt update in terminal and this should make some improvements. So far a bit faster than Ubuntu 18.04.3 and others mention it's faster as well. 

JackE

I think the cases might be similar in size but much different in design especially to access the mainboard. The 722 has only one screw on the entire base cover. Then It just slips off exposing everything. HDD, RAM slot etc. Super easy to go from 2GB to 4GB and also sports an SSD now. I still think it's best to buy the whole machine off ebay for about $50 Jack E/NJ 

henman

Anyway I discovered the little icon at the bottom right of the task or tool bar and also gave me more options and updates including a new kernel so I updated it some more As the updates get installed it performs smoother and faster. It almost appears to be more user involved and providing more options compared to Ubuntu but perhaps  I didn't discover as much before??

Other than this, at the last computer shop I stopped at for an attempt to be absolutely  sure 4gb was not an option, they were somewhat amused at how small this netbook is and IMHO realistically a slightly bigger processor, or even one that was capable of a bit more RAM would have made this AO533 more presentable and some of the reviews also indicated some lacking features that the competition had and Acer didn't and yes the competitive models had a few more features and faster USB and used the same CPU.

Most likely we are talking pennies and not dollars for a few more options and one obvious example is the more than pathetic little 2200 3 cell battery along with 1 GB of RAM ;-)

Oh and BTW this version of Mint seems to be more appealing than Lubuntu a so called lite version of Ubuntu and to me it was like driving a Volkswagen after driving a BMW so I took it out and put Ubuntu back in. After that I was on Zorin Lite 12.01 I think it was?

I will also keep updating Win10 and see how it is before I consider 8.1 just for the option of having a Windows OS for some programs I need. Other than this Mint will most likely stay on this Acer. 

JackE

>>>Anyway I discovered the little icon at the bottom right of the task or tool bar and also gave me more options and updates including a new kernel so I updated it some more As the updates get installed it performs smoother and faster. It almost appears to be more user involved and providing more options compared to Ubuntu but perhaps  I didn't discover as much before??>>>I will also keep updating Win10 and see how it is before I consider 8.1 just for the option of having a Windows OS for some programs I need>>>

Yep. You're probably referring to the update shield. Updates come fairly fast and furious particularly on a Monday or Tuesday. But, unlike Win10, major ones improve performance without adverse side effects.   So which Windows programs do you think you'll need that the WINE overlay or Linux equivalent can't handle? Win10 can't even handle some of the apps that ran fine on WinXP, Win7 & Win8.x in compatiblilty mode.   Jack E/NJ

henman

Have you  ever played around with Android? I tried but probably too new a version and it wouldn't proceed past the selected option.  perhaps later I will look for an early version. 

JackE

No except on a small kids 4GB tablet on sale from Toys-Я-Us when I travelled more and didn't care much if I lost it. Which I did a few years ago. Dropped out of my back pocket sitting on a park bench. Didn't notice it was gone till I got back to the hotel with a real computer.  On which I received an email from a good samaritan who found the thing still running with my email address on it. And instructions to pick it up at a nearby convenience store. I then promptly checked my back pocket. And sure enough it wasn't there. And the rest, as they say, is history. I think it still runs Lollipop. Haven't used it lately. Jack E/NJ

henman

What deceived me on these was trying out a display unit that had Linpus Lite and another equiv with XP! I procrastinated too long and they sold out. Next to arrive was this AO533 and I assumed they were as fast but in reality yes they are a tiny bit faster but with that loser Win7 Starter struggling with 1gb of RAM it was slower. 
Right now it's a tad faster with 10 but it also has SSD and 2GB and set for best performance. Mint is also faster than Ubuntu and with Ubuntu 18.04.3 is was slower than 10! 

JackE

>>>What deceived me on these was trying out a display unit that had Linpus Lite and another equiv with XP! >>>

Did you happen to notice which Linux installer was being used by Mint? Jack E/NJ

henman

By installer I suspect you are referring to the layout and I found this is Ubuntu as the icons at the bottom and throughout the installer are the same. Zorin is also Ubuntu as well but how it is set up makes all the difference. It is totally sad when your OS makes your hardware struggle worse than Win 10!
I used Lubuntu a lite version of Ubuntu and didn't like it and went back to regular Ubuntu. I ran Zorin Lite as well longer than Lubuntu on my Acer but in reality Mint doesn't advertise Lite or regular versions, just 32 or 64 bit indicating it's meant to be used on everything except perhaps my old turn of the century HP Omnibook meant for Win2000! It's sad when Mandrake 7.0 worked like Win2000 making me realize how bloated and resource hungry the latest OS are!
BTW
my IBM Thinkpad with a 1.6ghz Pentium is running the almost latest Dabien flavor except 32 bit and runs it quite well. Also seems to me Mint is Debian based as well? The power and Ram are a bit smaller than my Acer. Never tried it on my Acer but it wouldn't be that hard. It's easier to install Linux after Windows than the other way around. 

By rights there should be some threads posted entirely about upgrading and what can and cannot be done such as ram limits. 
Also if you contact Acer for information on upgrading RAM and HHD on my Acer Aspire One AO533 they tell you it's non serviceable! I saw others inquiring about this on the same model as well. It's sad when YouTube or the OEM manual paint a different picture! 
The Youtube vid I put on my post has mistakes! She shows taking all those screws out but says leave the one painted black, well in reality that is one of only 2 screws you DO remove and all the rest you leave!! If you leave the one she tells you to, a threaded post will get broken off of the back cover! It is mainly held in by claws you carefully pry out and only two screws. Yes the poking of the screwdriver is required to pop one corner off resulting in the cover being easier to remove but only two screws. They are also marked as being one of two required to remove and a search led me to a free OEM disassembly manual that can be viewed online or downloaded. 
Mid there is a sticky or thread dedicated to legacy hardware, that would be helpful to many! 
If there is it should be broken down into subdirectories such as regular laptops, netbooks, desktops, etc. and also it should not only provide limits or types of RAM that can be used, if could be used to indicate OS upgrades as well. My little Acer runs Win10 Pro 64 bit and it's acceptable to me as well. For those running into performance issues, it can be set for best performance which helped and made it perform better than Ubuntu. 

JackE

Mint is a debian/ubuntu mix. It's installation is by Linpus. Jack E/NJ

henman

Isn't Linpus extinct since 2014?
Otherwise the logos, layout and other GUI's look similar to Zorin, Ubuntu and of course Mint all somewhat derived from Ubuntu with Mint having Debian influence. From what I read being involved with Debian was another reason for its better performance??
Another thing that puzzles me is that "Beaver" nonsense and since the beginning of time Linux has always been associated with the Penguin. It was this way when I started looking at Linux back in the 90's and my pet peeve was the command line usage in the terminal! If one doesn't know the commands, one can be SOL. 
On a comical note I have a Dell Dimension 4600 or as I call it a Dull Dementia 4600 with 10.56 on it after watching a YouTube of one running IDenieb but what turned me totally off is Apple commands are proprietary and if I'm going to go through all the trouble, I may as well learn Open Source commands instead of that nonsense!! 
Every ***** update required a patch of sorts as well. 
Other than this, the Intel 2.8ghz with DDR RAM and originally intended for Win2000/XP performed better with 10.5 on it. 
It booted and shut down faster and operated smooth as silk and faster as well but I felt it was too much of a hassle. 
As you may know the difference back in the late 90's, early 2000's installation required TOTAL partitioning and setup all from scratch including the proper format for the partitions including /,Swap,Var,Temp,Home and now it's all somewhat automated installation and limits how much one is required to know! 
It was a much higher learning curve back then but learning makes you able to deal with it much better! 
That little crumb of previous experience allowed me to get my HP OmniBook performing like a champ with an older version of Puppy intended for legacy hardware with very small amounts of resources. 256 megs of RAM would not run the live version which runs entirely in RAM!
To get my Penguin to hatch I set up a 2GB swap and once it was finally installed it performed very well. Sad to say a copy of Mandrake 7.0 from the early 2000's installed faster and better than the stripped down Puppy! 
Mandrake became Mandriva and then nomore. It was one distro I experimented with the most. 
I found the slightly older Acer Aspire One somewhat interesting with Linpus because it had very simple GUI layout BUT at the bottom of the screen in the task or tool bar was an Icon that if selected would toggle it to a conventional Linux layout. 
On a closing note Jack, have you ever seen that Russian Distro called Linux XP? I have a copy and it's amazing how much it was taylored to look very much like XP but it only worked for a limited time and required an activation key :-(
Other than that it was simple to use and helped the conversion over but needed an unobtainable key!

JackE

Never used LinuXP. LinpusLite still seems to be available on new ACERs in the Asian market. Lotta requests to install Win10 on those. 8^) IMO, they'd be better off with a more polished & stable GUI like Mint. Jack E/NJ

henman

A long overdue update!!

I found a local source that had the 4GB RAM and let me give it a try to see if it worked. It won't post with the 4GB and for sure 2GB is all it will accept.

Is there any threads for legacy computers to post information not provided for them? As it is It has been described as non serviceable for my AO533 for the Hard drive but anybody feeling adventurous will discover how to get into these. By rights posting for others what I have done including various versions of Windows and Linux as well. Ubuntu was slower than Win 10 PRO and Win 10 Pro can be tweaked for maximum performance sacrificing battery life of course but then it runs about the same as Win 7. And as Per your suggestion Jack I used Mint with better results! Lately I have been experimenting with antiX on much older hardware and they still provide 32 bit OS. My annoyance is the BS live version. It just doesn't work if you have a couple hundred megs of RAM because live runs totally in RAM! The only way it can run is to install and set up a swap partition!

JackE I finally updated my Linux Mint and that was somewhat comical! Because I had the earlier version, it required Terminal commands to upgrade to the next version and this took about 3-4 hours which is slower than a clean install. Then I was prompted for another upgrade using a GUI icon and only took about 1/2 hour. It was like upgrading my Ubuntu to the latest from 18.0.4 to Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS which involves clicking a GUI icon as well.

JackE

Thanks for update. Seems like you're having fun. The legacy and software forums generally have info for older hardware https://community.acer.com/en/categories/legacy and https://community.acer.com/en/categories/ssa

As you've concluded, it's often easier, safer and less troublesome to clean install rather than try upgrading the same boot drive. This goes for the major rapid fire Windows revisions (Win10 upgrades masquerading as Win10 updates)  as well. It's always an adventure doing this since you really don't know if the upgrade process will successfully finish or not. Since HDDs/SSDs are so cheap nowadays, I usually pull my old drive out, set it aside, and  clean install on a new drive. Then transfer my personal files from the old drive to the new drive.

Jack E/NJ   

JackE

Thanks. Might be helpful to post your personal messages here on the regular forums so others might benefit.