Aspire 5100 tune-up

Hi all, I've recently bought an Acer Aspire 5100 with the new Turion 64 x2 Processor... So far it is a great piece of machinery, but I have a few questions on tuning it up, boosting its performance and so on... If you have any idea on how to help on any of the following, that would be very appreciated... So, here's what I want to know:

1. Bluetooth - doesn't have it integrated, and I don't want to buy the usb dongle...is it somehow possible to manually insert the bluetooth device (I'd dismantle the whole notebook if necessary)... I've got this idea because it is bluetooth ready (when you activate the external bluetooth button on the front, it says "No bluetooth device"...)...thus it means the BT slot/connector in the inside is empty...or am I wrong...?

2. Shared graphics card problem - It's a nice Radeon X1100, but limited to 128 MB of RAM... Eventually I'll upgrade the RAM to 2 GB (now I have 1 GB), and is it possible to force the graphcs card to use more MB... The Bios setting only allows to use 32/64/128 Mb...Is it possible to bypass this and make it use let's say 256 MB of RAM?

Thank you for all your answers

Vanja

 

Forgot to write down:

It's an Acer Aspire 5102WLMi.

Few threads below there is mentioned that instead of X1100, it is recognized as a X200... Yep, I have the same problem... So, when will the new drivers be released?

 

1. Regarding BT: you might find such a dongle on the market but beware that fiddling with a laptop can cause serious damage to the machine (if you don't really know what you are doing) and it will (most probably) void your Warranty.
2. in order for you to be able to allocate 256 MB of RAM a. the graphics 'chip' must be able to use such an amount of memory and b. you would have to unlock/add such an option in the BIOS. Basically, drawing the line, the final answer would have to be NO.

 

Hm, let's put it differently... If I could find which Acer Aspire laptop is most similar to mine, which has a BT, could I buy it as a spare part? Are such things available on the market?

Considering the Graphics chip and the 256 MB... would a different BIOS help? The one from the Acer which does have that amount of graphics memory (and similar to my model)...?

How about CPU clocking, is it possible... going through BIOS didn't reveal that option...?

 

1. BT: you could try, but I presume that the cost of an internal BT and the problems that might arise are much to big compared to the simple solution og a BT USB 'stick'.

2. using a DIFFERENT BIOS may make your machine stop working.

3. overclocking the CPU is possible. However a. I presume that even a decent overclock of the CPU would NOT raise your overall performance by much and b. the cooling 'unit' of the CPU in a laptop does NOT allow for a decent cooling of such an overclocked CPU (you can NOT compare overclocking CPU's and cooling solutions from a regular desktop machine to a laptop). If it's how enough right now, imagine what might happen if you overclock it...

 

Thanks for the answers...

The last thing I'm wondering, what is the easiest way to connect two computers wirelessly... Here's the situation, my notebook and the desktop PC are about 5 metres one from the other (but there is a lot of walls on the path...sinc I'm upstairs, and the PC is downstairs...)... Obviously, Bluetooth wouldn't work, so what is the cheapest way to connect them? There is a lot of Mb transferred from one to other, so it should be some kind of a wireless network (need speed, and no cables - because it would need 30 meters of cable then...)... And I guess I will need a wireless router to begin with... Any chance to make use of the integrated wireless card on my notebook?

 

The CHEAPEST way to interconect them is by using a crossover cable. Go to any IT shop and you should find one. or go to an IT Service and ask someone there to build you one. Basically it's just normal UTP cable, but some pins are changed. And this is the fastest with regard to transfer speed.

Secondly, you can get a wireles USB dongle for the desktop and create an ad-hoc connection between the laptop and the desktop.

Thirdly, you can buy a wireless router which, depending on the type of internet access that you have, will enable you to have internet access for BOTH computers.

 

I am a new member and was doing a search when I came upon this thread. I have a 5102 WLMi with 1GB of memory and I am sharing 256Mb of that with my graphics. It is an option in my bios. I had been wondering about upping my memory to 2GB with the hope of allocating more to the graphics, ie. 512Mb. However, it is probably neither possible nor necessary.

 

Welcome to the forums

Yes sharing the video memory with the X1100 is an option that is controlled in the Bios. If you go into the bios you should IMHO set it back to 128mb if you are not gaming because you are using too much unnecessary memory. It is not possible for the X1100 in the 5102WLMI to get to 512mb, even if it could with the X1100 that would not make any difference in performance as it simply isn't powerful enough to use or need it.

 

just update the bios to the latest version (2.83) like i did and you can change the memory to 256 mb ( 512 only supported in 2.72 if i remember correctly ) just read the instructions on how to update your bios and you'll be fine

 

how do you actually get to the option to change the shared memory to 256mb, because when i click on the program to flash, it does it automatically and i cant change any settings cause it disables my keyboard and mouse pointer im sorry for being such a noob.. but i really want to change it to 192 or 256mb for the extra performance. if its not tooo much trouble can someone give me a step by step guide please
thx in advance

 

oki i did it up to 256mb and it crap i prob get +3 frames more in games, and it is not worth the ram sacerfice, i would not recommend updating as it is crap. Anyways thx