Acer Iconia W510, can you upgrade it to Windows 8 Pro???

jdell
jdell Member Posts: 4 New User

I work in an educational establishment and we have bought a couple of the W510 tablet/hybrids and we are using them as technicians at the moment with the aim of giving them to staff at the moment they are only running the base version of Windows 8. Is it possible for me to install Pro? I have access to it via Microsoft volume licensing so if it will work I can install it now.


Thanks

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Answers

  • Plinko
    Plinko Member Posts: 12 New User

    Yes.  I've upgraded my w510 to Pro without issue.  As long as it is not x64

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    I upgraded with the retail kit, no problems & except I had to download media center seperately. If you have Enterprise edition you can also use Windows to Go.

     

     Be aware that with WTG you will also need to add the Intel driver package (downloadable from the Acer support site), The same applies if you replace the OS with Windows 8  Pro rather than upgrading.

     

    As mentioned, the Intel Clover Trail chipset only supports the 32 bit version.

     

    Is easy to tell if need drivers, without the Intel driver the touch scream won't work.

  • jdell
    jdell Member Posts: 4 New User

    Can you boot from a dvd or cd outside of the OS?

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    Sure: I have booted from flash, SSD, SDHC, rotating, CD, and DVD (WTG works nicely from a 120GB SSD). However unless you change the BIOS from UEFI to Legacy (many other threads on how) it will only boot signed Windows 8. 

  • jdell
    jdell Member Posts: 4 New User

    Thanks so much for the help. Can you point me in the direction of a thread with how to switch the bios on it, I have been looking but not founc any actuall instructions.

    Thanks

     

  • tmcmanus2828
    tmcmanus2828 Member Posts: 5 New User

    I just installed Windows 8 Pro clean install, and now the driver package I downloaded from Acer support site won't install I keep getting an error. Where do you get the drivers for Windows 8 Pro x32 on Iconia W510 tablet? Acer makes this way more difficult than it needs to be.

  • tmcmanus2828
    tmcmanus2828 Member Posts: 5 New User

    Never mind I found out when you do a clean install of Windows you have to install the oldest driver package first, and then the drivers will install. I tried installing the newest package, and they wouldn't install. I guess it was trying to update the drivers instead of installing them fresh. Weird stuff.

  • m4f1050
    m4f1050 Member Posts: 12 New User

    To get the most out of the 32GB Iconia W510, only losing 228mb:

     

    1. Delete recovery partition, create a Primary partition where recovery was.

    2. Delete the other partitions and expand the Primary partition leaving 528mb free.

    3. Select the primary partition and hit NEXT, it will create 300mb partition, 128mb partition, and 100mb partition.

    4. It will prompt you they are not in the right order if you wish to continue, press CANCEL, go back and delete the 300mb partition, extend the Primary to include those 300mb, then hit NEXT, and THEN hit OK to the msg they are not in the right order.

     

    NOTE: Not sure if you lose warranty, so IMHO it's not worth gaining 300mb if you are going to lose warranty...

  • tmcmanus2828
    tmcmanus2828 Member Posts: 5 New User
    For those that want to PXE boot the Acer iconia W510 to WDS or MDT it does work. You have to use the Acer Asix USB ethernet adapter. It's the only one I found the BIOS supports, and shows up in the boot menu. I luckily had an Asix USB NIC that came with an Acer Aspire S7-391, and was able to test it. I tried other NICs, and it didn't work. You may have turn off secure boot and use legacy mode to get it to work, but once The OS is installed you can turn secure boot back on. If anyone knows of a another USB NIC that will PXE boot to Acer products please let me know. Another way to image the iconia tablets is to use WinPE with Imagex, and diskpart scripts. I have a step by step documentation on how to do it with WinPE 4.0, so if anyone's is interested I would be willing to share it. Just let me know. Hopefully this information will save someone else some time, research, and heartache.
  • m4f1050
    m4f1050 Member Posts: 12 New User

    Well, interesting enough, after gaining 300mb and reinstalling Windows 8 (Pro) and all the software I had (including Office 2013,) I now have 11.0 free gigs when I only had 5.27 with Windows 8 (non PRO)...   Acer, what are you doing to Windows 8 that's taking up almost 6 gigs???

  • tackerson
    tackerson Member Posts: 1 New User

    We are looking at deploying around 900 w510s in the next two months.  Our current imaging solution is not 32 bit UEFI compatible or any UEFI for that matter.  @tmcmanus282 I sent you a PM.  I would be real interested in your documentation if you are still willing to share.  

     

    Tack

  • tmcmanus2828
    tmcmanus2828 Member Posts: 5 New User

    Tom that wont  be problem. I  have a documentation on my PC at work, but I'm not there right now. Once I get to work I will find the document, and email it to you. If you have that many devices to image then this would help speed up the process. It also lets you create a base image with all your software on PC then you can capture the  image, and deploy to the rest of the tablets. We have Windows Deployment Server (WDS) setup, and we use it to apply the images at work. If you don't have WDS setup then my docmentation will help. If you do have WDS setup then you can buy the USB NIC that Acer sells, and it will let you PXE boot the Tablets. The USB NICS' are around $20, and you can get them from Acer store. It will say they are out of stock when you order the NIC, but they will send it in a week or two, so go ahead and order it even though its not in stock. Only problem with WDS is you cannot image a tabet in UEFI boot, and you will have to set the tablet to legacy boot to be able to PXE boot to WDS. You can image a tablet in UEFI boot using imagex, and diskpart. My documentation covers imagex, and diskpart. Hopefully i haveng confussed you with the two deployment options. Give me a day or two, and I will email the documentation to you.

  • m4f1050
    m4f1050 Member Posts: 12 New User

    That would be something interesting to know, shoot it my way too if you can please.  Thanks!

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    Tackerson:

     

    Be aware that the ventless W510 must have the power management features that are built into Windows 8 to prevent overheating/shutdown. This is the reason Intel does not recommend Linux.

     

    The easiest way to upgrade from Win 8 to Pro is to buy the "Windows 8 Pro Pack" light blue box. No DVD, just a key to unlock what is already on the disk. Worked fin with my W510-32 GB.

  • m4f1050
    m4f1050 Member Posts: 12 New User

    I dont recommend upgrading, but fresh install, I got 6 additional GB free when I fresh installed Win 8 Pro.  You can still get the key but not sure if it will work or not, I used my TechNet key and it worked.  Something to try, you can always install Win 8 Core (that's that it comes with?) and see if you get 11GB free after install, because the restore dvd after installing everything you get like 5 GB free only.  Also, I got rid of the 300 MB partition (instructions a few posts back) so that's a bit more space for 32gb machines.  32gb is not much to begin with...

  • gentong
    gentong Member Posts: 32 New User
    hi mate.. from what u explain on how to get 300mb recovery partition is not clear enough to me.. how did u manage to delete and combine partition? which software did u use?
  • m4f1050
    m4f1050 Member Posts: 12 New User

    When you say use legacy mode you mean flash other boot besides EFI?  That's for the hard heated...

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    Are  two ways, you can run Diskmgmt.msc (left) or from a  command prompt, DiskPart.exe. Either will allow you to manipulate or erase partitions.

     

    It is a really good idea to know what you are doing since changes are permanent. Personally consider a half gig to be trivial.

     

    Diskmgmt is on left, Diskpart on right. 32 GB W3 with a 32 GB SD card (D).

     

    partitions.JPG

  • m4f1050
    m4f1050 Member Posts: 12 New User

    From the Windows 8 install.  In EFI you require 2 partitions:  System and LBR?  Can't remember names, but the Recovery one you can delete, expand the one you are installing those additional 300mb are good.  This is on the Windows 8 Pro 32-bit setup, not sure using another OS/software.

  • gentong
    gentong Member Posts: 32 New User

    we want to know, what software did u use to delete or expand partition ?

    last night i tried to delete recovery partition (400MB) & 100 MB & 128 MB, then reboot..

    unfortunately it failed boot...

    i did it from win8 acer bundled..

     

This discussion has been closed.