Acer 8200 & Vista

Does anyone knows if will be possible to run Windows Vista on the ACER 8200?

Regards,

 

The 8200 should be able to run Vista, at least, the 32-bit version. If yours is a Core 2 Duo machine, it can run the 64-bit version as well.

 

Vista will run but I hope you don't need your wireless, unless it's the 2100 chipset.

Intel will support other wireless chipset numbers besides the 2100 series later in 2007.
I found this out only after installing Vista 64bit. Same problem with 32bit Vista.

From Intel's website:
Support for Microsoft Windows Vista*:

1. An Inbox NDIS 6.0 driver is provided for the Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (driver not yet available for download; anticipated availability Late Q4'06).
2. Intel® PROSet/Wireless Network Connection Software is not supported on Microsoft Windows Vista*.

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-023579.htm

It's back to WinXP SP2.

 

What the hell are you talking about?

Did you actually _read_ what you pasted?

The Intel 3945abg works fine in Vista. Only the Intel software utility component is incompatible with Vista. The drivers work fine with Microsoft's wifi management. The driver has been included with every build of Vista that I have used (starting at 5384).

 

What I'm talking about was clear based on an install I recently performed.

Vista Beta 2 didn't support my Intel wireless 3945abg card, if it was inbox it was sleeping and the Intel site was also unhelpful.

Perhaps the Vista Release candidates have the drivers.

The post didn't need the unnecessary neg and you are unhelpful in providing a better answer.

 

I gave the correct answer. Your negative reputation will be reported to moderators

 

LOL .....Most people only skim read what they copy & paste.

 

i've a 5672, and the wifi card is intel 3945abg... you don't need any extra drivers, vista support it by default. an updated driver is on windows update.

 

I am currently running Vista RTM on an 8204 setup to dual boot with the Acer XP install. I have been running it since the Beta2 versions. It runs very nice on the 8204. I did not have any problems with the wireless it detected the card, installed drivers and runs great.

 

Any good reasons to install it rb999?

I've got the 8204, and XP seems to run just fine, I'm just not sure what Vista really brings to the table, is it much faster, or much more efficient or....

 

The best way to determine that is to download and install Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx

It will tell you what hardware requirements are required, which drivers are automatically updated etc.

 

rb999, what version of BIOS are you running? Did you install any drivers?

I just installed Vista on my TM8204 - everything seems to work just peachy, got a "Vista Experience" score of 4.5, all the shiny effects are enabled, detected the X1600.

The only problem is, it won't wake from sleep. I put it to sleep and that's it. When I try to wake it, it crashes completely. There is some HD activity, and the indicator lights show it's waking up, but the screen stays dark. Sleep key (putting it back to sleep) does not work and CAPS-Lock and Num-Lock do not turn on their respective indicator lights which leads me to believe that its totally crashed.

My BIOS version is 3319.

Thanks!

 

I am running bios 3517 with Vista Ultimate RTM on my 8204. I did update the following drivers.
Latest ATI video drivers from ATI website (version 8.31.100.3.2.1)
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html
Realtek HD codec sound drivers version 1.55
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
Synaptics touchpad drivers version 9.10
http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm

Everything was detected initially by vista except the bluetooth module. It showed up only as an Acer module. I manually forced the drivers to a cambridge silicon generic bluetooth radio driver and it seems to work fine. I have been using a bluetooth mouse without any problems.

I have not had any problems with the sleep as you describe. I am running the default balanced power settings and the machine wakes up from the sleep mode just fine. Even the wireless reconnects as it should.

I am not sure what could be causing your problem unless maybe it is bios related. You may want to update the bios. Be aware that the 3517 bios package will not work with the winphlash program though. There are a couple of threads on here about this. I used the dos based phlash program after booting with a dos boot cd. It does work and I have not had any problems with the computer after doing the update.

 

rb999, thanks a lot for the info - now sleep mode works!!

Following other threads, I installed Bios version 3516 - it was posted at the same time as the 3517 but has the advantage that it works with the WinPhlash utility. 3517 seems like a worth-while upgrade, reading the release notes, but see below for DOS Boot Disk woes.

I did not install any of the other drivers - Vista built-in drivers recognize the ATI X1600 as such so I don't think they need updating. Except perhaps for speed but I mainly want this to work as this is my main work machine.

Thanks a lot for posting them though, I have downloaded them and keep them ready if there are any problems.

Making a DOS CD isn't all that easy, I have all NTFS volumes and DOS doesn't recognize them. When I did make a custom CD with the BIOS versions, Phlash16.exe told me that it won't work when Himem.sys is active. However, the whole DOS section of the disk my CD burner burnt isn't visible so I can't, say, edit autoexec.bat.

 

Update: I had some troubles with Bluetooth, so I installed the WIDCOMM bluetooth drivers from here:

http://www.broadcom.com/products/bluetooth_update.php

Now everything works!