Acer Aspire Laptop E1-521 Advice Win 8 to Win 10

Larryodie
Larryodie Member Posts: 1,719 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
edited February 2022 in Aspire Laptops
I'm cleaning an E1-521 laptop that hasn't been used in maybe 7 years.
I've uninstall numerous unwanted programs and installed Malewarebytes. Updated for a couple of days.
Pretty good now. Still slow when I compare to my TC-895-UA92
My question is should I upgrade to Win 10. It has never asked to do so.
She mainly runs WORD as most everything is done per her I-Phone now ?

[Edited the title to add additional content]

Answers

  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Larryodie

    If it was my laptop, I'll surely do the upgrade to Win 10. In fact, I did upgrades/install all my newer or old PCs ( including a couple of them that were 14 and 12 years old when I retired them) for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions if possible.

     One of the old PC had 2 GB RAM maximum but was able to run Win 10 in both 32-bit and 64-bit, but due to the 2 GB limit, I was not able to open more than 6-7 tabs in Google Chrome, and no more than two tabs while I had another program running. Win 10 already tried to allow maximum user accessible RAM possible. For people having 4 GB or more RAM PCs, the minimum RAM needed to run Win 10 will be way over 2 GB.

    I suppose you already know how to download Win 10 from the Microsoft site to a flash drive and do a clean install to the PC, if not, come back and post a thread again. Also, I suppose you know to change the existing HDD to a 2.5" SATA3 SSD for higher performance. There is no way you can have the performance of a newer PC with NVMe SSD for the existing laptop, but using the laptop for light duty things such as surfing the internet, pay bills and E-mails...etc. should be still capable and acceptable.

    Or if you don't mind, changing the laptop to a Linux machine. General performance in Linux distros are faster than Windows.
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,719 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    edited February 2022
    No Linux, nor SSD  upgrade for her. Any new $$$ will go into new laptop. This one is 10 years old.
    I got hung up that MS needed a PRODUCT ID and I couldn't get into ACER Product support with the serial number or SNID #.
    I updated BIOS to 2.12 last night. I'll try again later.

    I have a WIn USB drive but I could never get an F12 to work.


  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Larryodie

    What is the reason that you pulled it out of 7 year retirement ? 

    Once again, if it was my laptop, should I decide to put it in service again, I'll at least replace it with a SSD, because I don't like 5 minute bootup time. Even though I may buy a new laptop in the future, this SSD will be usable as additional drive for the new laptop, no waste of $$$.

    Have you tried Fn+F12 to reach the boot menu? Strange enough, for the same Aspire desktop, I had to hold down Fn key and hit F12 to reach boot menu for wired keyboard. Just tapping the F12 key will reach there with a new set of wireless keyboard.
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Larryodie

    Since you just updated BIOS, check if there is any option in BIOS that says "enable F12".
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,719 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
     I think that she quit using because it was too slow as it was full of junk programs and virus checkers. It hadn't been updated in 7 years. She had grown kids and grandkids using it too. 
    I'm wondering if the CPU age & generation (maybe 7) is to be a hindrance even with a SSD. 
    I have to try this tomorrow. THANKS. Also I still can't get ACER to accept any serial # or SNID ??

    Recovering from a recovery backup To recover from a recovery backup on a USB drive: 1. Find your recovery backup. 2. Plug in the USB drive and turn on your computer. 3. If it is not already enabled, you must enable the F12 Boot Menu: a. Press F2  when starting your computer. b. Use the left or right arrow keys to select the Main menu. c. Press the down key until F12 Boot Menu is selected, press F5  to change this setting to Enabled. d. Use the left or right arrow keys to select the Exit menu. e. Depending on the type of BIOS your computer uses, select Save Changes and Exit or Exit Saving Changes and press Enter. Select OK or Yes to confirm. f. Your computer will restart. 4. During startup, press F12 to open the boot menu. The boot menu allows you to select which device to start from, select the USB drive.
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Larryodie

    When I got my old Dell laptop using entry level 5th gen i3-5005u CPU from a relative I found it very slow (as expected from a laptop using 5400 RPM HDD). Once I replaced it with a 2.5" SATA3 SSD and did a clean Win 10 32-bit installation, the performance was then acceptable. I did not install any third party anti-virus software for it. I don't think an aged CPU will degrade the performance, unless it got overheated by aged and cracked thermal paste.

    Even installed some Linux distros to different rather fast flash drives and boot up from the USB 3.0 port of the Dell and the performances are basically  O.K. without the expectation of like a PC using NVMe SSD.

    This laptop is still being used everyday for internet surfing by my wife. For some reason, she likes this laptop better than the other more powerful desktops, probably because it can run old programs from the 32-bit OS.

    Still haven't figured out the F12 boot menu ?
    Without the F12 boot menu, changing the boot order of the Win 10 flash drive to a higher priority should allow the clean Win 10 installation too.
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,719 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    I've got it booting to the recovery drive by the procedure I posted earlier. Note that F5 moves the selection down and F6 moves it up. 
    I'm doing a complete system backup before I wipe it to install WIN10. 
    Thanks for your help and I've advise her up $$$ for SSD. 
    Thanks ttttt for your help as I learn as I live. 
    Electonics is all that I've ever done at 80 years old.
    45 years of TV/VCR repair
    7 years of IBM Field Engineering on large mainframes
    2 years installation on Nike Zeus
    4 years USAF Comm-Nav repair of fighter jets. 

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,536 Trailblazer
    The Aspire E1-521 came originally with Windows 7, but was billed as compatible with Windows 8, so was released right at the cusp of the change over. The only thing I'd do to it would be the SSD upgrade. That is what will give the biggest noticeable performance boost. Anything else isn't worth the effort unless you are planning on this machine being in full use for the next few years, and then I'd max the memory and upgrade to W10 using a fresh install of the 64bit version using the existing key.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,719 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Thanks Billsey.
    I have recovery usb drives for Win 8.1 and Win 10.
    She uses MSWORD2007. She said she doesn't have the original DVD nor a license number so I'm afraid that we'll lose it if I recovery on a new SSD.
    She is going to try the way it is now and make a decision. 
    It does rattle around loading programs as would be continuously last night. All seemed OK 
    Thanks and I'll keep y'all posted.
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Larryodie

    Isn't the license embedded in the motherboard? It should, and changing to SSD should not affect it.

    In case your laptop needing another license, you can get one from third party vendors for around USD $20-$30. This will be more affordable than typical retail versions of USD $100-$140.