Of late, many retailers have been offering basic notebooks that are very attractively priced. The Acer Extensa 4420, which retails for between $399 and $699, is one such notebook that I recently purchased for my wife to surf the internet, check emails, and manage her recipes.
The Acer Extensa 4420 has the following specifications:
- Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor TK-57
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition operating system
- Memory: 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
- Optical Drive: Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
- Screen: 14.1" WXGA TFT-LCD CrystalBrite widescreen display
- Hard drive: Hitachi 160GB 5400rpm SATA hard drive
- Graphics: ATI Radeon Xpress X1250 graphics with 256MB dedicated memory
- Audio: Acer 3DSonic stereo speakers with high-definition audio support
- Wireless: Acer InviLink wireless LAN (802.11b/g)
- Ports: 5-in-1 media card reader, Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; V.92 high-speed modem
- Weight: 5.3 lbs
- Dimensions: 13.03" x 9.76" x 1.17 / 1.61"
Prior to purchase, I had considered the 14-inch HP Pavilion dv2910 and the Toshiba Satellite M305, as well as the Gateway T6836. The HP Pavilion dv2910, at one point, was being sold for $549 after rebate, which made it very tempting since it was a Core 2 Duo machine. But I decided to wait and go for a notebook for as low as I could find, preferably $400 or less, without compromising too much on the specifications.
I purchased this notebook from Best Buy when they were running a special for this notebook. At that time, this notebook was on sale for $399, which is not too bad for a thin and light notebook, considering the specs. In my opinion, this machine offers tremendous value for money, especially in these difficult economic times.
Office Depot also recently sold a variant of this notebook at the same price. The Office Depot model featured bluetooth and a webcam, both of which are conspicuous by their absence on this particular model.
Build and Design
This is my first Acer product, so I was initially a little apprehensive about the build quality of this notebook. When I played around with the notebook at Best Buy, I was taken aback at how solid this little notebook felt. Build quality is pretty decent. Acer’s Extensa line of notebooks features magnesium alloy casing which is tough yet lightweight. The screen lid has rounded edges and does flex a bit, but nothing to worry about too much. Also, I find that if strong pressure is applied on top of the lid, one can notice small ripples on the screen. I would say the overall design is rather bland, certainly not eye-catching, but not downright ugly either. Weight, as mentioned earlier, is 5.3 lbs. This makes it really convenient to carry around the house, or on a plane.
The Acer Extensa 4420
Front: Speaker, IEEE 1394 port, Infrared port, USB port, Line-in jack, Microphone port, Headphone jack, Bluetooth toggle switch, Wireless toggle switch, Speaker
Back: Cooling vents, RJ-11 (modem) port
Right Side: PC Card slot, two USB ports, S-Video out, Ethernet port, VGA port, power jack
Left Side: Kensington lock slot, Optical Drive, one USB port, 5-in-1 media card reader
Screen
The 14 inch screen is glossy and reflective, with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800. It is very clear and bright with no dead pixels. Watching movies is generally an enjoyable experience. Backlighting appears to be even and I cannot notice any light leaks anywhere on the screen. The screen can be quite grainy and colors may appear distorted if you’re viewing the screen from an angle, as opposed to viewing the screen from directly in front.
Acer Extensa 4420 screen
The Acer Extensa 4420 at nightThis notebook features Acer’s GridVista technology, which splits the screen into up to four sections, allowing more efficient multi-tasking. For a 14-inch notebook, though, I wonder how productive one can get with several tiny windows open at once. However, GridVista can be used on a second monitor simultaneously. The picture below shows how GridVista works.
Speakers
This notebook has two speakers located at the front, and angled downwards. This rather poor design means that sound is delivered downwards. Speaker performance is exactly as one would expect for a low-priced 14 inch notebook. Sound is not loud at all. You are better off using headphones. According to the User Manual, this notebook features speakers with 32-bit High Definition Audio, but I suspect this to be more of a software function.
Processor and Performance
Having never worked extensively with an AMD based machine before, I was quite apprehensive about the performance of the Acer. For general tasks such as surfing the internet, listening to music, watching a movie or using MS Office, this notebook performs flawlessly. It is fast, and can handle multiple programs simultaneously with little to no lag.
The machines comes with 2GB of RAM, and although this is sufficient, it might be a good idea to upgrade to 3GB, since the graphics card borrows up to 640MB of memory, and could bog down the system, especially when running CPU-intensive applications.
I have not installed any games on this machine, but I would imagine that the X1250 graphics card should be capable enough to handle quite a few games at medium to low settings. I read a review about how one user was able to get Crysis running at low resolution on this laptop.
Benchmarks
In this section, we’ll compare the performance of this notebook with other notebooks.
PCMark05 comparison results (Higher scores indicate better performance):
Notebook PCMark05 Score Acer Extensa 4420 (1.9GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-57, ATI Radeon X1250) 2,960 PCMarks Apple MacBook (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, Nvidia GeForce 9400M) 3,961 PCMarks Dell Inspiron 13 (1.86GHz Intel T2390, Intel X3100) 3,727 PCMarks Lenovo ThinkPad X301 (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, Intel 4500MHD) 4,457 PCMarks Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100) 3,283 PCMarks Sony VAIO CR (1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, Intel X3100) 3,612 PCMarks Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950) 2,446 PCMarks Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 4,153 PCMarks Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 3,987 PCMarks Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB) 4,189 PCMarks HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 4,234 PCMarks Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400) 3,487 PCMarks Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX) 5,597 PCMarks Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) 3,637 PCMarks Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400) 3,646 PCMarks
3DMark06 comparison results (Higher scores indicate better performance):
Notebook 3DMark06 Score Acer Extensa 4420 (1.9GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-57, ATI Radeon X1250) 304 3DMarks Apple MacBook (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, Nvidia GeForce 9400M) 2,116 3DMarks Dell Inspiron 13 (1.86GHz Intel T2390, Intel X3100) 470 3DMarks Lenovo ThinkPad X301 (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, Intel 4500MHD) 712 3DMarks Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100) 504 3DMarks Toshiba Tecra A9 (2.20GHz Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 130M 256MB) 932 3DMarks Toshiba Tecra M9 (2.20GHz Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 130M 128MB) 1,115 3DMarks Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950) 122 3DMarks LG R500 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS 256MB) 2,776 3DMarks HP dv2500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB) 1,055 3DMarks Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB) 1,329 3DMarks Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 532 3DMarks Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB) 1,408 3DMarks Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU) 1,069 3DMarks Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB) 2,344 3DMarks Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB 2,183 3DMarks HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 827 3DMarks
Vista Windows Experience Index:
wPrime results:
32M - 42.338 seconds
1024M - 1344.567 secondsKeyboard and Touchpad
As with many Acer notebooks, this one features a keyboard with a gently curved layout, allowing the keys to be full size. The keys feel quite solid and travel just right. I was amazed to find little to no keyboard flex on this machine. I do notice, however, that there is a large space between the keys and the edge of the keyboard. I’m pretty sure, after several months of use, there will be large quantities of dust and other stuff, trapped in that space.
Acer Extensa 4420 keyboard
The Power button is located on the top right, above the keyboard, along with a set of programmable Quick Launch Buttons. These buttons include:
- Empowering button – launches Acer Empowering Technology tools (refer to the Operating System and Software section)
- Windows Lock button – locks Windows
- Presentation button – for presentations
- Sync button – synchronizes the notebook with another device.
- Internet Browser launch button – launches Firefox (or other Internet browser).
- Email client launch button – launches Outlook (or other email client)
- User Programmable button – can be programmed to launch a program
Refer to the picture below for more details. Although these buttons are a tad smaller than I would have liked, I find them to be extremely useful, especially the Internet Browser button, which I use all the time.
Quick Launch Buttons
One useful feature is the inclusion of separate € and $ keys positioned just above the arrow keys. Anyone dealing with currencies and spreadsheets would find this to be really useful.The Synaptics touchpad is located below the keyboard, centered under the space bar. Although it is rather small, I find it to be very responsive. Located immediately below the touchpad, we can find the left-click and right-click keys, separated by a 4-way scroll button, which allows the user to scroll up or down, left or right of a page.
Input and Output Ports
For a budget notebook, this machine features a pretty decent selection of ports. Even though this is a 14 inch notebook, it has four USB ports, one on the front, one on the left side, and two on the right side. Headphone and microphone jacks are conveniently located on the front side as well. A complete list of ports is given below:
- Four USB 2.0 ports
- PC Card slot (Type II)
- IEEE 1394 port
- 5-in-1 multi-card reader
- Headphone jack
- Microphone jack
- Line-In jack
- S-Video out
- VGA port
Wireless
The wireless card (Broadcom 802.11 b/g) on this notebook has been impressive. It has been able to hold a consistently strong signal. A Wireless Toggle switch is conveniently located at the front, along with a Bluetooth Toggle switch, even though this model does not feature Bluetooth.
Hard disk
The 160GB, 5400 rpm hard disk drive is made by Hitachi, and runs fast and quiet. The hard drive is already partitioned into three parts, the smallest of which is a hidden partition that contains the OS recovery data. This notebook also features Acer DASP (Disk Anti-Shock Protection) technology, which protects the hard drive from shocks, by absorbing the impact from a bump or a drop. I have not tested this feature, and do not plan to.
Hard drive protection located at the bottomBattery
This notebook features a 6-cell Lithium-ion battery pack. Battery life has been quite impressive without being outstanding. Under Power Saver mode, the notebook averages almost 2 hours with a few open programs and wireless running.
This notebook comes with a 65 W power adapter that is lightweight and easy to carry around.
Acer Extensa 4420 power adapterHeat and Noise
When using the notebook continuously on one’s lap, it gets unusually hot after more than a half hour. The single fan that is provided, is located at the bottom, near the back right corner of the notebook. The fan kicks in frequently and can be a little distracting, especially if you’re concentrating really hard or trying to do some really serious work. However, if located on a desk or table, with proper ventilation, heat is minimal, and the fan is not required at all.
Operating System and Software
As mentioned above, this notebook comes with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition (32-bit) with Service Pack 1 (SP1) preinstalled, meaning this notebook was up and running straight out the box. An Operating System DVD is not provided. Instead, the pre-installed Acer eRecovery Management tool prompted me to burn a couple of System Restore DVDs, as well as another DVD containing all the requisite drivers.
Acer includes a suite of tools (Acer Empowering Technology) that may prove to be useful to many users:
- Acer eNet Management – a tool for managing network connections (wired and wireless)
- Acer ePower Management – a power management tool
- Acer ePresentation Management – a tool used for connecting the notebook to a projector
- Acer eDataSecurity Management – an encryption software to protect the hard drive from unauthorized access
- Acer eLock Management – a software to lock external media (USB drives, optical drive)
- Acer eRecovery Management – a backup / recovery software
- Acer eSettings Management – a utility to access and/or modify system BIOS settings
Some people may find these software programs to be useless, or may prefer to use some other programs, and thus may consider this software suite to be bloatware. I find the software to be rather useful, and not intrusive or resource-hungry.
This notebook does not have much bloatware. 60-day trial versions of Microsoft Office 2007 and McAfee Internet Security 2008 are also included, both of which I immediately uninstalled.
Customer Support
I have not had an opportunity to use Acer's Customer Service till date, so I cannot comment on their efficiency. A 1-year International Travelers Warranty is included with the purchase.
ConclusionFor years, I have never recommended Acer notebooks primarily due to their relatively mediocre build quality. After using the Acer Extensa 4420, I find that I am going to have to revise my opinion about Acer notebooks in general. Sure, it is not a ThinkPad or a Pavilion, but at its price point, you'll be hard pressed to find a sturdier notebook. This notebook has indeed lived up to my expectations. I anticipate strong sales for this notebook during the upcoming holiday season. It is not the latest, greatest or fastest out there, but it will suit the needs for the majority of buyers out there.
Pros:
- Terrific price / value for money, especially in these difficult economic times.
- Light and portable.
- Very nice screen.
- Adequate performance.
- Not a whole lot of bloatware.
Cons:
- No built-in webcam.
- No built-in bluetooth.
- Gets very hot.
- Power and Quick Launch buttons are a little small.
- OS Recovery DVD not included.
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Gets very hot... Hmm... I guess AMD just can't keep them mobile processors as cool as Intel's.
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I have not installed any games on this machine, but I would imagine that the X1250 graphics card should be capable enough to handle quite a few games at medium to low settings. I read a review about how one user was able to get Crysis running at low resolution on this laptop.
mr bean's review?? thats.. LOL -
Having this laptop shown on the front page almost made me think technology suddenly took a step backwards.
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It certainly can play "old" games, Crysis on the other hand
(I also have the same notebook, but it is a travelamte 4520 with TL-58 cpu)
For $399 that is what can be expected.. nothing fancy. But performance is much better than netbooks -
Always good to see what you can get with your money these days!
$399 for a lot of computer. -
Red_Dragon Notebook Nobel Laureate
wow an acer...with a good screen!! lol to me this was always a problem with acer's they seem to be greatly improving including the gemstone series.
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Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator
Thanks for the review, jetstar. This Acer certainly isn't fast, but will more than suffice for the basic Internet surfer.
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My Acers laptops (Aspire 5100 & Aspire 5050) both cooled well enough, both of them had AMD turions, the 5100 was a TL-52. I bought my 5100 for $950 in May of last year. Dang technology moves! It has a webcam but only an ATI 1100.
That laptop is much better than what I would expect for a $400 budget box. -
great review thanks
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Thanks for your comments everyone. I appreciate your feedback.
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I think this review is undeniably good value-for money and performance is adequate for basic use. My one criticism of the review is the screen: 1200x800 resolution isn't that great, it's the same resolution as my 12" D420; while adequate, I wouldn't call it "good".
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nice review
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Interesting, I just visited the Acer website and this model is not listed ... only a 4220 ...?
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Good reviews!Thank you !
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Does that mean your 12" isn't great either? I mean similar resolution to a 10"! -
However, your logic doesn't exactly follow. 1200x800 is good for a 12" and I'm not sure you'd want it any higher. 1200x800 isn't so good on a 15", which is a significantly larger screen. I'm not saying it's bad, it's certainly "good enough" at this price point, but it's not something that I'd count as a strong point.
Also, difference between 12" and 10.6"= 1.4"; Difference between 12" and 15"= 3" (and, in practice, it makes a big usability difference due to the screen height, etc.) -
Graphics: ATI Radeon Xpress X1250 graphics with 256MB dedicated memory
Isn't the Radeon Xpress X1250 integrated graphics? -
I own this laptop (typing on it now) and I think it's worth adding a few points...
First of all, ditch Vista like a bad habit. My 4420 came with a blank hard drive (thank god). It runs much better with XP. It even runs nice with the Windows 7 public beta. To be precise, it runs freaking great with Win7.
The Bluetooth functionality is actually completely "there" in this computer, it's just missing the adapter. 40 bucks at eBay and a shipment from China, and I got the missing adapter, installed it, and now my Extensa 4420 has natively integrated Bluetooth, as if it were designed like that from the start. No mods, no nothing - the connector's there on the board, the switch is (obviously) there on the front, it's just teasing you. I bought my module from pc_digi on eBay, here (link may die in about a month though).
Support, on the other hand, is a pain. XP drivers are all half-working and broken; I had to get my 3GIO driver, IDE/SATA drivers, WLAN drivers, etc, from a different source, because Acer didn't provide the proper drivers. Once I got those, everything worked great. I can package up the drivers I used into a neat little bundle for anyone that wants them... if anyone cares...
Gaming performance is absolutely dismal. About 25-30FPS in TF2 at 800x600 and medium settings (lowering the settings doesn't really help). It is integrated video on a very tiny chip, with driver-shared graphics memory (which means it doesn't appear to be missing, but the driver/system uses more memory than usual). The N/B and graphics controller are both combined on a very, very small chip right next to the (socketed; S1) CPU.
The CPU is utter crap. It was like they dug specifically for AMD's lowest class CPU. There were only two Turion 64 CPUs (which this is - NOT an Athlon as the CPU is branded) that came with 256kb L2 per core, and this is one of them. It does use the 65nm process like the new Falcon Xbox CPUs - the new ones that don't overheat or break anymore - so it's a cool and powerful CPU, but it's sorely limited by the 256kb L2. It's about as good as a Pentium 4 of the same clock, but two of them (it is dual core). I plan on upgrading to a better (512k L2 per core) Socket S1 CPU.
The memory isn't much to complain about, it's got 2gb of RAM, CL5 (latency). I have 2gb of CL4 on order from Newegg, which should help improve performance if the BIOS adheres to the SPD data on the new modules. Hard drive isn't great either, just mediocre. It's Hitachi's lowest end model and I hope to upgrade to a nice 160gb 7200rpm drive. 160gb is enough for me to dual-boot Windows 7 and Windows XP on this thing, and they coexist quite nicely.
The DVD burner is a mystery device. The drive supports PIPO scanning under Nero CD/DVD Speed, perhaps after applying the much-sought-after DX14 firmware update for this mystery drive. It's an Optiarc AD-7560A, which isn't even manufactured or even supported by Optiarc, according to CDFreaks. It doesn't support bitsetting, possibly due to the vendor mixup (optiarc not made by optiarc). It's also relatively slow with read speed, as it doesn't seem to like "spinning up" - possibly a noise/power thing they decided to rev it down for.
Media reader is of excellent quality. It's the most "solid" media reader I've ever used in a laptop. It's a single slot that reads SD/MMC/MS/XD all in one slot - and somehow actually has a rigid "catch" for each media type; when you insert media, there's a spring actuator that catches and retains the stick when it's in the computer. You press the media in, it clicks in, you press it again and it clicks out. It's a single slot, which is a feat of engineering to get each media type to have its own "click". It works extremely well and doesn't pop up a drive in "My Computer" until there's actually media in the device. A++ for implementation.
I added a low profile, internal-port eSATA PC card, which added the functionality of eSATA without anything sticking out. I'm quite disappointed at the lack of ExpressCard slot on this laptop, but evidently, I'll survive. PC card performance (with the eSATA card) is very much more than sufficient. I got that from ebay as well (seller: liveinbluesky99).
Gigabit Ethernet. Can I say more? Yes, I can. IrDA. Firewire. Modem. 4 USB ports on each convenient edge. 2+ hours of battery life (not "up to"). Its 65w charger charges the battery at about 1:1 charge rate while it's running (it takes about as long to charge as to discharge), but that's a limitation of the AC adapter (upgrade it and get faster charging). It's fully compatible with Notebook Hardware Control (pbus-167.com) and its charge rate/temperature/CPU speed facilities. This thing has more connections and convenience than I even find much of a use for. IrDA may seem outdated but it's a godsent for a traveling PC tech that may encounter an older laptop that only has IrDA, and you can use it to send diagnostic tools without a Flash drive handy. Add Bluetooth and you can have modern communications.
Seriously, I love this thing. It has a lot of upgrade potential but its major bottleneck is that god forsaken slow graphics chip. It's about as slow as an old FX5200 AGP. It's quite bad to be honest. But hey, for this price, can you really complain? -
Falcon4! what a great review! I have some other questions though, and would love to get your opinion (i registered for this site just to get your advice).
how can i contact you? -
Right here in this thread, I'm sure other people could benefit from our little Q&A.
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Hmm...
Cons: Absolutely zero visual or audible low-battery warning... no blinking light, no battery indicator light, nada. Just all of a sudden, bam, hibernate.
Worst power management design ever... if only there were some way to program ACPI to flash the power LED orange when the battery is low. During the hibernate process, it flashes orange just fine! >.< -
Falcon
You mentioned that you had the drivers for this (SATA etc) can you let me know where you got them from (or send them to me)....I've been loosing hair fast over this one. I too received it without on OS....just a blank HDD, but not been able to source the correct SATA driver (let alone anything else)
Did you put the drivers on memory card and add them during install (F6)?
Thanks,
James -
Hmm, good question. I don't recall any particular place, but I do remember looking up south bridge drivers and having to manually install them (using "update driver"). ATI's installer doesn't install all the drivers packaged with the set (ironically enough).
I think when I installed Windows, I just did it normally, since the controller uses IDE emulation. It didn't need an F6 (but I would have just used nLite integration anyway). Then after installing, it was stupidly unstable - it was blue-screening every 5 minutes.
I solved that problem by tracking down one very hard to find driver: the ATI PCI Express (3GIO) driver.
Well, long story short, after starting to write this post, I decided to just break down and build a full driver-pack for the Extensa 4420 under Windows XP. Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/208517019/Extensa_4420_DriverPack.rar
(sorry about Rapidsuck, I have my own file-hosting service but it's not reliable at all)
The oem*.inf drivers are the drivers that were hard to find. Update the two "Standard PCI to IDE controller" entries with this folder and it should find the right driver. For the 3GIO driver, look under System Devices for " PCI Bus" with the Device Instance ID of PNP0A08 (see Details tab of the device). It won't come up as an unknown device as Windows loaded a default driver for it. For the cardbus controller, open PCMCIA Controllers, and update the driver for the generic device listed, with the driver from the CardBus folder.
Hope this helps!! -
Thanks FalconFour!
They helped out a lot. Did you have any issues with the Broadcom WiFi card? At the moment the system does not recognise it......just says "PCI ethernet controller" with the yellow ??'s......did you have to install drivers for that?
Thanks, James -
Yes! The driver provided by Acer for the wireless and the modem aren't for the devices they put in the darn computer (so they don't install). You just update that driver and point the search to the folder you extracted the driver-pack to. It's one of the oem*.inf files. If it asks for files, again point it to the same folder. I just didn't remember exactly where I picked up those files, so I ripped the driver INF/SYS files out of my own computer
Acer Extensa 4420 User Review
Discussion in 'Notebook News and Reviews' started by jetstar, Nov 27, 2008.