Acer Aspire 5002 WLMi US Notebook Review (pics, specs)

by Barbara Varian, Texas USA

Overview and Introduction:

After searching for several months for a laptop that satisfied both my inner geek and my very limited budget of $1,000, I stumbled upon the Acer Aspire 5002 in a Black Friday sale. After about a week working with this laptop, I find it to be a great buy. Outfitted with a Turion 64, the 5002 has power at a cheap price.

A good mix between a desktop replacement and a budget laptop, the Aspire 5002 is a great choice for students and light-travel business types alike. Made by Acer, the Aspire 5002 is not direct to the US from Acer, but instead must be bought at a distributor such as buy.com or Circuit City. My model, purchased at Circuit City on Black Friday, seems to be of a slightly different build than the standard. I note these differences below in red.

Specifications of the Aspire 5002WLMi as reviewed (standard specs in red):

• AMD Turion 64 ML-30 processor (1 MB L2 cache, 1.6 Ghz)
• 15.4" WXGA CrystalBrite TFT LCD
• 100 GB Toshiba MK1031GAS Hard drive (4,200 rpm) [80GB hard drive (4,200 rpm)]
• DVD-Dual (DVD RW/CD-RW)
• 1 GB DDR [512MB]
• SiSM760GX graphics card
• 8-cell Battery
• 802.11b/g wireless (with Acer SignalUp and Bluetooth) [ Bluetooth optional ]
• Windows XP Home Edition [Windows XP Pro ]
• Weight: 6.7 pounds (7.4 with adapter)
• 1.5" thick, 11 inches deep, 14.3 inches wide
• 3 USB ports, 1 type II PCMCIA slot, 1 VGA connector for an external monitor, 1 phone jack, 1 Ethernet jack, Line-in, Mic-in, Stereo-out
• 1 year limited warranty stock ( I did not purchase any other warranties)

Reasons for Buying:

Instead of buying a cheaper (not to mention more powerful) desktop, I opted to purchase a notebook. This was mainly for three reasons: First, I could take my computer with me to class and type up my notes (as well as IM during my calculus class). Second, the laptop saved space in my cramped dorm room. Finally, I could bring my computer home with me for the holidays and for summer breaks.

My budget (a meek $1,000) greatly limited my laptop scope. In addition, I needed something that could multitask, and I wanted to be able to take my laptop to class. As such, my requirements demanded a moderately mid-grade computer: at least 512 RAM, 12-15.4 inches, 1.6 or higher processor, and a reasonably large hard drive in which to store various video and audio files.

I immediately disregarded HP strictly due to its high cost: I simply could not get what I wanted out of the computer at a price low enough to fit my budget. Sony also fit this category. As such, this basically left me Dell and Toshiba. I considered Dell a better option, simply because I could personalize my laptop on their website and have it shipped straight to my dorm. Some comparable options from Dell to the Aspire 5002 that I considered were a nicely configured Inspiron B130 and a standard Inspiron 6000.

Where and How Purchased:

Acer is an international company, and does not ship direct to the US from its website. Instead, consumers will need to buy from a distributor such as buy.com or Circuit City.

I grabbed my Aspire 5002 for $880 after taxes at a Black Friday sale at Circuit City. Running a quick search on Google, I found standard configurations for around $1,000. A similar Inspiron 6000 configuration to a standard Aspire 5002 would have run about $1,200, give or take $200 due to small personal preferences and Dell's wide range of coupons.

Personally, I would consider the Inspiron 6000 series to be slightly less pleasing than the Aspire 5000 series due to the higher cost. That said, to the average user they would probably be rather interchangeable.

Build & Design:

The closed lid of the Aspire 5002

While not built like a tank, the Aspire 5002 has a reasonably good build. The lid itself is silver plastic, while the sides and bottom of the laptop are standard black. The inside of the notebook has a black frame for the screen, while the desk space is the same silver as the lid. This gives it a nice look overall.

The lid is fairly sturdy and gives moderate protection to the LCD screen, though it does give a little when closed. I blame this on the locking mechanism of the laptop itself (a single piece, rather cheap plastic slide that sits in the lid). The lid does give a little when twisted, but not so much that I feel that the LCD screen would be in jeopardy.

Screen:

My Escher sketch reflects perfectly from two feet away. This is under normal lighting-no flash

I have no problem using this notebook's screen as a mirror when it is turned off. The screen on the Aspire 5002 is incredibly glossy and reflective when hit by any outside light. That said, it gives a crisp and clear picture no matter what brightness is selected. I ran Dead Pixel Buddy and could not find any dead pixels. In addition, I couldn't find any leakage.

Speakers:

The speakers of the 5002 are just plain rubbish. Very tinny and lacking any bass what-so-ever, the speakers of this laptop probably should just be plain avoided- look into purchasing a set of headphones or speakers for this notebook.

Processor and Performance:

The AMD Turion 64 1.6 Ghz the Aspire 5002 sports keeps it quite fast while not completely draining the power. In addition, the gig of RAM I have on my model makes multitasking a breeze. It takes 34 seconds for the 5002 to load up completely to the login page.

This notebook is fairly zippy, but I would not recommend it for gaming. While the Aspire 5002 does just fine in image editing and the like, it probably would be rather sluggish when loaded up with some of today's graphic heavy games. The integrated graphics card borrows 64MB of Ram from the computer, and simply doesn't seem up to the task of handling the games on the market.

Benchmarks:

I ran Super Pi, PCMark04, and HDTune to generate some benchmarks for the Aspire 5002. Following are the results

Notebook	Time
Acer Aspire 5002 WLMi (AMD Turion 64 1.60GHz)	2m 14s
Dell Inspiron 9300 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
Asus Z70A (1.6GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
Sony VAIO S360 (1.7 GHz Pentium M)	1m 57s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz)	1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

The overall PCMark04 score for the Acer Aspire 5002 was 2,392 PCmarks. Below is a table with the full results compared to a ThinkPad T43 Pentium M 1.86GHz/ATI X300 equipped notebook.

[/TD]

Futuremark PCMark04 Scores
	ThinkPadT43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300 64MB graphics)	Acer Aspire 5002 (1.6GHz, SiSM760GX graphics card)
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	3.33 MB/s	2.46MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	27.19 MB/s	24.22MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decompression	23.4 MB/s	19.51MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Processing	10.88 MPixels/s	9.92MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning	1914.17 MB/s	1323.49MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Grammar Check	2.82 KB/s	2.45KB/s
File Decryption	54.11 MB/s	48.38MB/s
Audio Conversion	2496.87 KB/s	2105.03 KB/s
Web Page Rendering	5.27 Pages/s	3.69Pages/s
DivX Video Compression	51.71 FPS	43.04FPS
Physics Calculation and 3D	159.19 FPS	40.74FPS
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines	868.44 FPS	202.42FPS
Futuremark 3DMark05 Scores
3DMark Score	727 3DMarks	N/A
CPU Score	3414 CPUMarks	N/A
Gaming Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon	3.3 FPS	N/A
GT2 - Firefly Forest	2.2 FPS	N/A
GT3 - Canyon Flight	3.4 FPS	N/A
CPU Tests
CPU Test 1	1.18 FPS	N/A
CPU Test 2	2.9 FPS	N/A

Below are the results gained from running the hard drive benchmarking program HDTune:

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The Aspire 5002 sports a large keyboard with tons of function keys

I love the keyboard of this laptop. It is spaced just right for quick typing, and has a function for just about anything you could ask for, including a touchpad on/off button and an imbedded number pad. The keyboard gives a bit of spring, and emits a dull click. It doesn't sag at all.

The touchpad is very responsive, and has imbedded scrolls on the bottom and side. While these respond well in iTunes and Windows Explorer, I can't make them work in Firefox.

Above the keyboard and to the right sits a few customizable hot buttons that the user can customize to open webpages or programs of their choice.

Input and Output Ports:

The Aspire 5002's left side consists strictly of the optical drive.

The right side of the Aspire 5002 is quite busy.

Users who use multiple dongles and plug-ins will probably hate the right side, where most of the ports are. Here we find two USB ports, a type II PCMCIA slot, the Ethernet and Phone connections, and a fan slot. Oddly enough, there is a blocked S-video port here as well.

Note the on/off buttons for Bluetooth and the Wireless card in the center

The front boasts the notebook's two unremarkable speakers, a blocked Firewire port (indicating the design team may have originally intended to integrate FireWire, but it was left out to reduce costs), the power notification lights, a Bluetooth device button, the wireless on/off button, the mic-in, the line-in, the speaker-out, and the third USB port. The buttons kind of annoy me... I frequently turn my wireless card on/off due to the laptop hitting my belt when it sits in my lap.

The back of the laptop consists of the VGA connection and the adapter plug in.

Wireless:

The integrated 802.11 b/g wireless card works great. I can get wireless throughout campus without a problem. My build comes with Bluetooth, but I haven't used it.

Battery:

The Aspire 5002 runs about 3 hrs and 15 mins on a single charge. Heavy use cuts this down to about 2 and a half. This doesn't even come to close to comparing to the Inspiron 6000's battery life of over 5 hours. That said, it lasts long enough to get me through class, and doesn't extend beyond the back of the notebook.

Operating System and Software:

The Aspire 5002 that I have came with Windows XP Home, but most 5002s will come with XP Pro. Acer packaged in Norton Antivirus 2005, three System Recovery disks, and a system boot disc. It did not come with a Windows Home disc.

The 5002 has a distinct lack of preloaded software: It comes with Acer Arcade, Acer's user-friendly media center, and some various utility programs such as the touchpad software. The Acer Aspire 5002 came with no text editing software outside of notepad. I was surprised by this, as most Dells at least come with WordPerfect.

Customer Support:

I haven't had any problems with this laptop, and as such haven't had to contact customer support. That said, the Aspire 5002 does come stock with a limited 1 year warranty. Circuit City tried to sell me extended warranties, but I declined.

Complaints:

My biggest complaint of this notebook has to be the fan. The main vent sits underneath the laptop right where my leg goes under to support it. I constantly have to remind myself that it's there in order not to block it. The notebook does run a little hot (though not as hot as many Dells), but it seems that the fan is on almost to excess. To make things worse, the fan is quite loud, to the point I think twice before taking this laptop to class.

In addition, the main 100 gig HD is formatted Fat32, and is partitioned into two drives of 50 gigs a piece. The partitioning, while bugging me at first, turned out to be a positive when I reformatted my laptop. The second drive is not reformatted, and as such I didn't have to reload my extensive video and audio collection. However, I do feel that the drives should have been formatted NTFS, as this is far more efficient.

Praises:

I experienced a virus about 3 days after getting this laptop, and the reformatting process took only 26 minutes. In addition, the preset partitions that first bothered me turned out to be a blessing, as the second partition is not reformatted, and as such I was able to keep all the data on that drive.

Some small things I love about this notebook are the user-programmable buttons on the desktop, the neat sound program packaged with the notebook (this has a great built-in equalizer), and the speedy (and very standard) optical drive.

Conclusion:

I really like the Aspire 5002, and have already recommended it to a friend who just entered the market. Great for businesss users and students alike, the Aspire 5002 packs a lot of punch for the dollar. That said, gamers should probably look elsewhere, as the integrated graphics card of the 5002 really isn't made for high powered games.

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Standard DVD RW/CD-RW
• Great keyboard layout

Cons:

• Loud Fan
• Poor integrated graphics card
• Glossy screen is hard to see at times

Pricing and Availability: Acer Aspire 5002

 

always refreshing to see a girl write a review, seems to me they always write better anyway, we need more of them doing reviews

the pictures are great here, especially the extra diagramming. the glossy screen is as reflective as any other glossy screen really, it's just sort of how they are when you have strong indoor lighting and the screen is dark.

oh, i would recommend a laptop to college students 99.99% of the time, it's such a great tool for that lifestyle.

 

Great review!

To get the scroll function to work in Firefox, just download the latest drivers from
www.synaptics.com

 

Just a heads up, you can convert a fat32 drive into ntfs in windows (but it's not reversible).

 

Very nicely done Barbara!

Good pictures, smooth content = great review. And, you got a steal on that - $880 is amazing.

 

Hi does any one know how to clear the cmos > I sold this Laptop Aspire 5002WLMI Now he's got passwords mixed up Can't get into Bios Thanks Sheldon

 

Great review and sweet deal on the lappy... good job.

 

Hi,

It is great to see Acer 5002WLMI reviews here. I bought the laptop after Thanksgiving sale from CircuitCity. This laptop works fine so far except I couldn't do the factory default backup DVD burn during the laptop setup process (Acer backup CD burning failed error=1005). I tried different brands of DVD media about 15 times but all failed. It worked when I tried the CD backup burn but that would need 4 CDs burn which I would prefer just 1 DVD burn. Has anyone experience this.

I have called the technical support a couple times. They either recommended me to burn backup DVD with Acer eManager or restore the system using eManager and try again but none works so far. One technician even said my DVD burner could be bad so I went back to CircuitCity for a replacement. However the new one I got home has the same problem.

Anyone who has experienced the similar issue please let me know how you solved it... Acer technical support can hardly help after several phone calls. Most of them said they have never heard about this and want me to ship it back to Texas for repair. But this is brand new...

Thanks a lot.

Archstone

 

One more report about Acer 5002 wlmi. I suspect this laptop has overheat issue. After power on for 2-3 hours the touch pad becomes unstable. The cursor no longer follow your finger and it jumps around. The issue can be temporarily solved by restart the computer but it will happen again. I end up with using mouth to continue my work. The reinstall of touchpad driver didn't help and the service technician didn't have better idea too. The only way they like to said is "send it back for repair". This is what you don't like to hear when you buy a new computer.

Mike

 

respect u av obviously spent alot of time on that n i av found reviews so helpful when luking for my laptop

 

Great review!..

BTW if you want to reduce heat and reduce the fan noise, you could try UNDERVOLTING. ML-28/30 really respond well for UNDERVOLTing. (one of our member has 1.05V instead of 1.45v). Check L2000 ML-34 undervolting thread in HP forum.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=20249

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=33962

 

I finally returned the 5002 WLMI back to CircuitCity. There are two reasons for the return. One is Acer technical support can't come up with a quick solution for a fix. The other one is that I lost confidence in Acer quality. It came out two problems in the first week of purchase, how many more would I get for a long run. I can't afford my time dealing with their defects though Acer 5002 WLMI has a lower price as compared to similar spec of other brands. Time is money too.

Please be careful if you want to buy high cost product from CircuitCity. There is a 15% restocking fee if you want to return the product even if the prodcut is defective. Their policy said you can get replaced with the same one in 14 days but they actually may give you hard time when you request so. CircuitCity tried to fix the computer for me in the store (instead of giving me another one, maybe they know the other 5002 WLMI are bad too) and their technician spent more than two hours still couldn't fix it. The technician tried to download different drivers from whatever web sites to get a fix but failed in front of me. CircuitCity's customer service did not want to give me another one because they said they've been giving me more than once of replacement so they insist that they could fix this one for me and wanted me to leave the computer in their store for repair (obviously they did not go by their service policy that you can turn in the bad one within 14 days). I feel strange that if they keep giving me defective product due to the bad manufacturing lot even more than once, does it mean that I have to accept the bad one? I refuse it because I am buying a new computer which is in good condition. I am not buying a refurbished computer and I don't want their repair. I don't want to waste my time in their store longer than that. There came with a nicer technician saw me stand there more than two hours waiting for the repair and talked to their service manager then they let me get my money back.

I post my experience for your reference if you are interested in Acer 5002WLMI. The price is attractive that is why I bought it. However the manufacturing quality is not well maintained (at least for the current lot date code made in 0510). The unstable touchpad is not very good. I can go without DVD burner because I already have one on my desktop but unstable touchpad make operation miserable.

Mike

 

Hey guys- Thanks for the positive feedback! ^_^ It's good to feel loved.

Personally, I haven't had a problem with the touch pad flipping out on me. That said, the comp does run fairly warm- the fan still bugs me sometimes. The heat does not, however, exeed that of most dells... It may be possible that you had a lemon. >.< I will second the notion that Circuit City has poor customer service... Everytime I go in there I feel that I have to track down a sales person. Rawr.

The dvd drive has glitched on me twice, both times when I was trying to move big files onto the comp. I don't honestly know if this is an issue with the hardware, or an issue with the dvds themselves. Both times it popped up with a data read error. I just popped the dvd out and then back in, and it read fine.

I have burned about 9 dvds with this comp, and 3 cds. I haven't had an error with the burning process yet. I used the NTI Burner software that came with the comp.

After a few weeks of this comp, I'd keep my review about the same.

The lack of a firewire port bothers me more than I thought it would. I've had a couple of instances where it would have been useful. (File transfering between comps, hooking up the ipod). The lack of an s-video port hasn't bothered me at all.

Barb

 

Hi Mike.

I got the computer about one week ago. In my opinion, when it comes to laptops computers it is a matter of how lucky you are. After all, regardless the brand,they are all made in china.
Anyway, I have downloaded the AMD DashBoard for Turion64 and when you are on the desktop, without doing anything, the temperature is 50 degrees. But, as soon as you run a processor demanding application, such as a Prime Number Generator, or even Google Earth software... it raises to 65 degrees.
I have been trying to find the Turion64 chip datasheet on the AMD website but I couldn't find it. Only to check the operation temperature rates.
DO you know where can I find this information. Is 65 degrees a reasonable temperature for a laptop component, even being the processor????

Regards
Alejandro

 

the laptop work ok so far. i have a trouble with the dvd burn. most of the time they just burn 2x , if anyone know why, please email to me. [email protected]
stuff on my laptop.


acer
aspire 5002 WLMi
-AMD turion 64 ML-30 processor
-15.4 WXGA acer crystalbrite TFT LCD
-100 GB HDD
-DVD dual (support DVD+R double layer/DVD+- RW)
-512MB DDR
-802.11 b/G wireless lan

 

Excellent review and I agree with you - this a great computer.

However, I am wondering if I can upgrade the video card. When playing some of the newer games out, this computer runs slow. I think the graphics aren't up to snuff. Is the video/graphics card upgradable? If so, what is compatible? I can't find this info anywhere!

 

Hi there.

For those of you having problems with DVD burner please verify model numer and firmware version. If you have a driver labeled SOSW-833S ( a liteon btw) withs firmware VRS1 or VRS2 go to this site http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?category=14&manufactor=17 and download firmware VRS3. It's designed for Acer OEM and it works- i made an upgrade on Aspire 5003 (the difference between models is only CPU). It works fine so don't worry. You may also use prog called K-Probe to check PI/PIF levels (quality check) and disable RPC.

 

How is it for gaming? I know the intergrated graphics card in it sucks.

If any of you guys have World of Warcraft can you tell me how it runs at the lowest settings?

 

bumperssss

 

Hi Gang,
Great site wondered if anyone can help me. I have the following

Acer 5002 WLMI Turion 64 ML-30
1.6 GHz 512 Meg ram
dual layer dvd
80 Gig hard drive

Anyway I have networked a few computers at home and xp home which was preloaded on the Acer wasn't cutting it so I loaded up Xp pro got all the drivers from the recovery disk but 1 I cannot get the USB to work on the Acer. For some reason when i try and download from microsoft site the latest service pack It keeps giving me an error message. What I really need is a driver for the USB.

Thanks,

 

It runs fair to poor at lowest setting imo.

It is playable, but I haven't been back to a major city since I've installed it, and don't even want to know what a 40 man raid would look like. lawl.

 

for example The SIMS 2 - almost unplayable...

 

Hey Guys,

I have the exact same laptop that barbra has. I do agree there is a serious overheating problem =\... My fan is loud and blows out air that can possible burn the human skin (sarcasm... but close). Also, i got the "blue screen of death" about 10 times.... especially when running "Guild Wars". Normally i just use this laptop for school purposes and playing some warcraft 3 and it works flawlessly (yes im old school). I dont recomend using the NTI Burner because i have wasted several cd-r discs trying to burn music. Just use the one built into Windows Media Player. I was just wondering if there was anyways to upgrade the graphics card. (you can change the graphics from 64mb shared to 128mb when your copmuter starts by pressing F2). The speakers are an abomination to music. Other than those basic problems, this laptop is supurb
^_^

 

I would like to post my review of my own ACER 5002 WLMI

Spec:
AMD turion ML-30
15,4 WXGA ACER Crystalbrite TFT LCD
80 Gb hard drive
512 DDR
DVD-Dual
802.11 b/g
Windows XP home
SIX 760gx chipset

Paid: 950$ CAD in winter 2006 at Microbytes ( http://www.microbytes.com/)
I bought it here because it was near of my school.

Reason for buying:

I wanted a non-expansive laptop without 3D capabilities but with fast boot. I wanted a computer only to work. (Students tasks)
Furthermore, I wanted a computer with a Pentium or Turion processor.
I had a budget of 1000$ CAD (before taxes and warranties)
I hesitated with the ACEr 1691 but it was 100$ more expansive but had Pentium M 1,6ghz and a real ATI graphic card. (I should have go with the 1691)

The Screen:

This is the best component in this notebook. I LOVE it Some people don't like the glossy effect, but I like; for the same price you have a mirror to look if you are still beautiful after 3 hours of boring work

Speakers

The speakers are not excellent, but I was not expecting a Media center. (Anyway when you work at the library it is better if you work with the speakers off)


Design:

Very subjective point of the review... This notebook looks great! Slim, thin.


Performance

A) Startup

1- With windows XP home, Avast antivirus and Fast Start of Open office
--> 37 at 42 seconds

2- With Linux Ubuntu 6.06 LTS 64 bits edition
--> 52 at 57 seconds

B) Misc

--> I didn't make benchmarks, but installing office softwares is enough fast.


C) DVD playback

The 5002 WLMI inclue ARCADE software that have the ability to read DVD like Windows Media center screen.
Picture-> http://c.kemp.free.fr/arcade.JPG
The main problem is the swarming. It is very obvious in dark place and even more with gray gradients.
Without the swarming, it is very good.


D) Games

Only tried an old game: Test drive 6 demo and the result was good. There is no problem of afterglow with this game. Fluid...


E) Office tasks

The Turion ML-30 is a 1,6 ghz processor. It runs Open Office and Gimp very well..



Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is very good. I can type fast. However be careful to not touch the touchpad that is really near the keyboard, you will make big typing errors! ( Example: You are writing at the third paragraph and suddenly you type at the fifth paragraph...)

The touchpad is great (a bit too near from the keyboard). I like very much the scroll button between left click and right click.


Wireless

I didn't have any problem with the Wifi with windows XP


Battery

In theory 3:30 hours, but in practice it is more 2:45 to 3:10 hours. It is just enough for my course of 3 hours..,


Bundled software

You have ACER Arcade, ACER GRID VISTA and Cyberlink POwerproducer 2 gold and a NTI CD & DVD-MAKER 7 + Norton Antivirus free trial. No office software


Noise and temperature

Wow this notebook is very loud and hot! This is the BIGGEST PROBLEM. I just wonder why Acer technicians didnt install a better fan or cooling system. I mean the CPU is 35 watts at 1,6ghz and approx 8 at 800 mhz and it made the same noise and heat that my father's old notebook (First generation of Pentium 1,6ghz for laptop at full speed)
Furthermore this notebook is hot! Put this notebook on a table and not on your legs. This is an advice because with BBQ sauce, your dog will eat your legs!


Linux issues

Just dont try to install a 64 bits edition of linux ubuntu, it is a nightmare. The printer is not working, the hotkeys are not working, the 3D graphic chipset is not Working, the Wifi is not working (in Ubuntu dapper drake but was working in breezy badger if you have patience). A lot of drivers are not available for 64 bits...
I didn't try the 32 bits edition of 6,06 Ubuntu but some people on Ubuntu forums told me that it was more simple to use 32 bits. (Furthermore, the Acer 5002 has less than 4Gb of RAM so there are no advantages for the 64 bits.

For breezy badger 64 bits this is the trick:

First try to find this driver: bcmwl5.inf
It was on these website: www.s2ii.com/blog/ or http://roguestar.dynu.com:5555/acer.html but they are unavailable

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils make gcc g++ linux-headers
sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l


(this part is not working but you can try )
wget http://www.archernar.co.uk/acer_acpi/acer_acpi-0.3.tar.gz
tar zxvf acer_acpi-0.3.tar.gz
cd acer_acpi-0.3
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe acer_acpi
echo "enabled: 1" >/proc/acpi/acer/wireless
/etc/init.d/networking restart
sudo gedit /etc/modules
acer_acpi
ndiswrapper
sudo gedit /etc/init.d/acer-acpi
#!/bin/sh
echo "enabled : 1" > /proc/acpi/acer/wireless
ln -s /etc/init.d/acer-acpi /etc/rcS.d/S38acerwifi


And after reload terminal and write at every startup this before entering in network settings:
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
iwlist wlan0 scan




CONCLUSIONS


I do NOT RECOMMAND THIS NOTEBOOK because the Noise and the temperature issues are too severe. However, if you find how to change the cooling system, maybe it would be a good note book. (And you could tell me how to change it by the time!)
It is sad, because it was the perfect notebook for me.


Pros

Screen (8,5/10)
Keyboard (8/10)
Performance for office software (8/10)
Price in winter 2006
Design (8,5/10)
80 gb hard drive (8,5/10)
512 mb RAM (7,5/10)


Neutral:

Autonomy (7/10)
Speakers (6/10)
Low 3D perf
Stepping of the CPU (800 mhz at 8 Watts/ 1 600 mhz at 35 watts) 7/10




Against

Noise (3/10)
Temperature (4/10)
Linux 64 bits compatibility (4,5/10) (The CPU is working!)
Linux 32 bits compatibility (Unknown but surely better)