New Acer TravelMate 8100 Available

Golf: Thanks and "congrats" on your own purchase of the 8104! eRecovery is just Acer's back-up system - you will soon see - I mentioned it only because I was impressed by the time and space it allotted on a DVD vs. my own experience onto CD's! Evidently it backs-up the entire installation onto CD's/DVD - though, not quite sure what the difference might be by just using the Recovery CD's? Figured out the "Stand-by" issue I was having when closing the lid - whew! Watch closely how you set-up things in the ePower settings is all I can say! Still working on the "display" issues. Am really impressed with the exhaust fan - though it runs all the time - it's keeping the working areas of the laptop - namely wrist rests, etc., very cool - though you can feel alot of heat coming out of this port (working as intended no doubt!) - my 803 was as close to a "short-order grill" as they came - you could literally fry an egg on the left wrist rest of the Acer 803! Let us know what you think - and when you receive yours via Newegg, OK?

 

raguu: will do! I recall another proud 8104 owner stating that the system , on first boot, prompted them to burn a ghost image. So that is what I think you are describing?

Will it work the same after loading all your software to burn a new more complete image?

My IT friend suggest we use convert.exe to change to NTFS..what are your thoughts? I suppose that we could keep the c drive as fat32 and the d as NTFS. Someone posted that if your NTFS it all then there are issues getting the ACER software to load.

Any personal comments?

 

I don't think converting to NTFS will effect anything. when I got my 1681 it had two 30GB FAT32 Partitions and XP home installed on it. First thing I did when I got it was upgrade to a 60gb 7200 RPM drive. I made one big 60GB NTFS Partition, installed XP Pro, and reinstalled all the Acer apps and drivers from the recovery CD's. Never had any problems with it.

BTW: Ragu, How is the hard disk speed with the 100GB 5400 RPM?? Is it s pertty quick drive?? or should I count on getting another 7200RPM??

Acer Aspire 1680WLMi w/ Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM Drive

 

So I just got mine 30 minutes or so ago...

- Keyboard angle is nice. It helps keep your hands away from that dang touchpad. (I use a USB trackball.)
- Not frustrated with the USB port placement yet. Yet.
- keyboard feel is plastic-ish. More clicky than the IBM Thinkpad keyboard that I know & love. But not unacceptably bad. Probably preferable to the slightly squish Apple keyboard.
- Display is pretty. WSXGA+ resolution is still a bit awkward for poor ol Windows, though.
- Fan noise is definitely there & almost always running when plugged in and sitting on a carpet. No big surprise. Does, however, sound better than the "undervolted to save power but net effect is that we're being cooled by the beating wings of a dying bumblebee" effect that the Thinkpad T40 gives me.
- Hard drive is barely audible; only the slightest of squeaks when it's working really hard. Kind of like my Seagate Barracuda in the insulated Antec Sonata when it was brand new.
- Wireless connection comes up as being weaker than my T40 while sitting right next to it. Not sure if there's going to be implications to that.
- After figuring out who & what it is, it wants to back itself up to a DVD that I don't have yet because it's my first DVD burner.
- Speaker quality doesn't sound very good. Passable, but not really listenable.
- The visible look of it when it's open is big & no-frills. A little bit ugly, perhaps -- but I'm the sort of person who thinks that 17" displays don't belong on laptops and that the 12" PowerBook is the best looking computer in existence. The comparison to the somewhat mis-proportioned 15" Powerbook is certainly there in a "prototype that didn't quite meet the style requirements" kind of way.
- Back of the display is a hard plastic, unlike the softer backings that used to come on Thinkpads (T20s, for example) and that makes me happy. Makes me less worried about my cat becoming jealous of my new toy.

I'll post gaming benchmarks at 1680x1050 for what I've got when I get 'em (later this evening). In the meantime, go re-read dkoo's findings; mine shouldn't be too different.

 

Golf: I'll probably use Norton Ghost to create a duplicate or back-up image once I've finished loading all my required software. I loaded some software last night - man, the DVD burner is one vibrating little guy on the 8104 - I thought it was going to take off! Although it does appear to be made much, much more rock solid than the CD burner on my 803. I'm running PartionMagic 8.0 on the machine as we speak merging the 2 partitions - then I'll use it to convert to NTFS - then I'll give you guys an update on what I think of the H.D.D. speed - one thing's for sure - it is very, very quiet. I also noticed that "QtZgAcer.exe" is running in the background on the laptop and at boot-up seems to run for an inordinate amount of time - Task Manager shows it eating up 98-99% of my processing power - so I just shut it off though "msconfig" - I think it is actually the Acer Launch Manager running in the background - so it shouldn't have any effect - but man was it ever eating up resources! Anyone else notice that? I am still thinking of pulling the 100 GB H.D.D. out and installing one of the Hitachi 60GB 7,200 RPM's in it - anyone have a good source for them? I looked on pricewatch.com and it appears you can get one for about $140. Rick

 

guys, I got my 8103 yesterday and it is INDEED Pentium M 750 processor (1.87 GHz 533 Mhz FSB). So don't worry it being the older 745 model, I had the same doubt before too [ ]

 

raguu: I am really enjoying my 8104! No problem with the keys and it certainly doesn't look plain!

About your Ghosting comment: it appears that the ACER E recovery would make the ghost at any time; have you tried it?

I was told that I could run convert.exe after loading everything and joining the network and the NTFS would not affect the two partitions...is this correct?

The screen is great too!

 

Golf: Glad to hear that you too are enjoying the 8104 - it is certainly sleek and silent - I do wish that fan would cut-off a little more often - but I've got everything set to 100% - so what else should I expect - the exhaust fan does seem to be blowing hot air - so I suppose all is working as intended! PartionMagic took care of merging the two partitions, converting to NTFS and renaming everything with the C: extension in about 30 minutes- so all is well in that regard - one large 90.2GB partition. I'm very familiar with restoring an image with Norton Ghost so I'll just use that - but for my initial back-up - I did do an eRecovery DVD - I had bought a DVD+RW and had it waiting just for that initial exercise that some of the other new owners cautioned about. Keep us posted on anything else cool that you stumble upon. As for your question - you can convert to NTFS anytime - also merge the partitions, too - but the sooner the better - less to move around/convert. Hey, has anyone ordered the Port Replicator? Rick

 

Just for the record, World of Warcraft seems to play at 1680x1050 over a mere 802.11b network just fine. (Didn't wander the streets of Ironforge or try to push the display too hard though... Just enough to test the whole wide, pretty screen.)

I am now a happy customer.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by kiezkahse

 

raguu: what version of Ghost are you using? I have several and just recently purchased 9.0.

I haven't checked their web site to verify is our drive is supported.

Have you completed a ghost?

So far the only issue I've found is I can't tell when the caps are on because of the small & dim indicator light.

 

kiezkahse: Glad you're "happy" - but you are getting way off topic - let's keep it focused to the 8104 - which is more than deserving on it's own merit! You might as well be speaking Russian - to me at least! Rick

 

Im on the VERGE of ordering it but somehow the new powerbooks stopped me! Been thinking if i need to spend 2200 for an Acer I can get a 15" powerbook for the same price.
The new line with the processor appears to be as fast...

Sorry guys for the slight digression ...ive just been thinking about this for several nights

 

Like many of you I am also very interested in how the 100gb 5400 rpm drive compares to a 7200 rpm drive. There is another forum where many people have posted test results of various drives. If some one can run the HDTUNE utility on the 8104 and post the results that would be very helpful. We would then have a better feel for the speed improvement the 7200 would give.
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7661
http://www.hdtune.com/


Also, has anyone run the Super_pi utility to calculate pi to 2 million digits. It would be interesting to see how the 8104 compares with all the other laptops posted in the forum below. I think this pretty much just test cpu speed.
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2657
ftp://pi.super-computing.org/windows/super_pi.zip

Thanks

 

wow i didn't even know this thread existed... i was mostly looking over at the 'acer' forum and seeing how dead it was.

raguu - you can change the stand-by setting by opening ePower and clicking on 'Advanced Settings' on the top right corner (you have to click on the graphical icon) and going into the Power Button and Password.

The other annoying thing about ePower is that it restarts the Wi/Fi, bluetooth, and all connectivity options everytime the power scheme changes like by plugging it the laptop in - suck when you in the middle of downloading something...

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by raguu

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by dkoo

The other annoying thing about ePower is that it restarts the Wi/Fi, bluetooth, and all connectivity options everytime the power scheme changes like by plugging it the laptop in - suck when you in the middle of downloading something...

<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Welcome to the thread

Is this ePower annoyance fixable? Does it look like this is a hardware issue, or perhaps acer could release a patch to fix this behavior? Do other travelmates do this as well?

Arima W622
Athlon 64 (Turion) 3200+ | 1gb DDR400 low latency | 60gb 7200 rpm (hopefully SATA w/ NCQ) | 128MB X700 radeon | 15.4" 1680x1050 screen | 1.25" thin | 5.69lb | 4.5 hours battery life
sign me up!

 

servus! great forum here!

can you, the owner of this amazing machine, please give specifications of AC Power Adapter. Can i plug it to 220 Volt here in Germany? Do i need only the right plug?

acer rules [ ]

 

joeld,

it's doesn't seem like a bug really, i think the app just isn't smart enough to check if the settings are the same from one scheme to another and leave it alone if it is. typical lazy programming - something changes so let's just reset everything!

one thing to do (unless Acer releases a new version) is just to uninstall ePower and use Windows power settings cause the only thing it really has other than the pretty and intuitive interface are the ability to customize the connectivity options but since the laptop already has dedicated buttons for turning on/off WiFi and Bluetooth, you're not losing that much...

kavaler,

3-pin 65W AC adapter (Input 100-240V, 1.6A, 50-60Hz, Output
19V, 3.42A)
there is a socket for connecting a cord (it's not builtin) so i assume you can just plug in the right cord for europe - but if it blows up i take no responsiblity =)

has this laptop not been released there yet?

 

great news, cause AC adapter can 220V/50Hz [8D] so i need only the right connector, german differs from us. Here i can buy only from online shop for 2800-2999,-€, now multiply with 1.3 and you have price in $

 

Does anyone know any US suppliers with 8103's in stock? Asus have pushed back the dates on resupply to March 15th [ ]

 

geek, I got word of mouth from an actual supply buyer and he said Acer has now run into problems with manufacturing, probably a supply issue such as ATI cards, DDR2 memory or some such. That's why the new ETA is a full month later than the last one. He even felt that that was gonna be hard to meet. He was thinking more like April. I've cancelled my order with PCNation after an exhaustive google such for one last shot. I'll stand pat for now and see if maybe someone else comes out with an equally equiped sonoma notebook. Trying to snag an Acer has taken way too much of time the last 2 and a half weeks [ ]

-Kevin

 

Sigh. I've already sold my existing laptop so now I'm left with just a super slow Crusoe Lifebook 2120. It's going to be really tough to wait. I'm afraid though that cancelling the order will lose my place in line for when stock finally does come in.

The specs on the 810x seem hard to beat at the price; are there any other X700 machines in this price range?

 

Nothing else sonoma based that has that graphics prowess yet. If that Dell 9300 actually comes out next week I might jump on that.

-Kevin

 

YAHOO!!!! An Acer 8104 is flying to Colorado tonight and tomorrow I will join the lucky group of new owners of a bouncing baby Acer!
Thanks to a tip from alexrud on Monday night at Notebook Forums I was able to get this beauty from Newegg in a small window of opportunity. Thanks again "Poor College Student". Whoever was #2 at CDW is now #1.
Aahh! Sleep will be hard to find tonight.[ ]

 

I've had TM8104 for quite some time now.
My 2 cents on it (from a perspective of a high schooler):
-fantastic graphics performance
-fan is not noisy when you are on the go. its only if u play intense games that the fan will whirrrrr crazily.
-wish it was more portable. but it is still manageable. considering the features this has, i can't say much...can i.
-i've had no problems with the 5 degree curve. in fact, its more comfortable than a regular keyboard in my opinion.
-there were some concerns that the keys were flimsy,...highly doubtful they will just pop off one day. solidly built and feels great.
-and when the fan does turn...the air is hot as hell.
-touchpad gets as hot as the air coming out from the fan after a while...
-palm rests don't get hot though so that's a good thing
-sound is not great...but its definitely better than my 700mhz desktop computer...hahah.
-acer e management is great. i observe battery hours of close to four hours if i just use it to word process and surf the net
-some annoyances with it hybernating if one closes the latch? i don't find that much of a big deal. my dad's samsung X20 did that too. i think a lot of notebooks to that in fact..
-haven't played any games yet because high school sucks. but i'm sure it'll be great.

ugh...lemme stop rambling

Google Adsense =

 

where did your dad buy his samsung x20? none of them are available in the US at all

 

Dunno what the Acer power app is like but wqith normal XP you can enable/disable hibernation as well as configure what the closing the lid does in the power settings in control panel.

 

Can someone with an 8104 run HDTune and post the speeds for the 5400rpm drive that comes in the 8104.

http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7661
http://www.hdtune.com/

 

Here you go - ACER Travelmate 8104 running HD Tune 2.10 - approximately 15 mins. after boot-up:

HD Tune: ST9100823A Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 5.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 36.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 27.9 MB/sec
Access Time : 16.9 ms
Burst Rate : 75.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 4.9%
H.D. Temp : 33 degrees C

 

ACER 8104 CAME TODAY!!!!

Just unpacked and taking pictures. What a beauty!
My thoughts soon.[ ]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by raguu

 

Sweet Numbers I was suppose to get my 8104 last week, then this week , now in 2 weeks. Why do I want a new one ....Here are some numbers from my Dell C800 (time to retire)

Transfer Rate Minimum : 1.2 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 19.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 14.6 MB/sec
Access Time : 20.3 ms
Burst Rate : 47.3 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 6.4%

Temp a whopping 52 Degrees !!!! (been on all day)

 

HI everybody; Has anyone run the Super_pi utility to calculate pi to 2 million digits yet with their Acer 8104. It would be interesting to compare the new processor with previous versions with regard to this!
Thanks


The link for program is at: (was posted earlier as well)
ftp://pi.super-computing.org/windows/super_pi.zip

 

Wouldn't it be more interesting to calculate 1M on SuperPi ??

Anyway, maybe both?

Tks!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by siestaseaturtle

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by mahesh_u2

 

SuperPI calculations: 1M = 39s & 2M = 1m 36s

CDW has the Port Replicator for $103.84 - website shows minimal specs, if any really and shows lead time of 1-3 days. Also is now showing TM8104 lead-time at 1-2 weeks vs. +2 weeks when I bought mine.

 

Raguu: How about some pictures and a detailed review which we are all waiting for?

 

Athreya: Have you seen this review: http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=62009

Outside of some of my "first thought" comments, this review (and on-going forum) with photos cannot be surpassed! Let me know what you think if you haven't already seen it? Did you end up passing on the TM8104 due to the limited availability issue?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by raguu

 

thanks raguu.Im still waiting for cdw to get back to me on availability! i admit though that im tempted by the new powerbooks!
any thoughts?

 

raguu: Quick question for you:
Did the cdw price of 2170$ include everything? (or were taxes and shipment extra?)

Gang: Has anyone else got a better deal at CDW or elsewhere?

Has anyone tried for the 1GB addl RAM anywhere?

Is the additional warranty worth taking? Which one?

CDW is out of stock and expects some 50 notebooks within 2 weeks.

 

Raguu: The CDW website shows that the DVD drive is NOT a supermulti and 802.11 b/g only.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=733812


Can you confirm what you bought is indeed the super multi drive? THis is important for me for I get DVDs of different formats from all over the world in my work

 

Raguu - did you get a special discount? CDW site shows a price of $2999.95 on the 8104...

I wonder why the 8103's are delayed so much more than the 8104's, given the small difference between them.

 

Athreya: I can at least vouch for it's "hot swappable-ness" - I just yanked it out - it reads: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, DVD Writable/CD-RW Drive, Model: GMA-4080N (AARB10)- Manufactured January 2005 !!! And "Device Manager" yields the following on the Wireless NIC: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection. Oh, and BTW - I loved the Apple Powerbook at first sight/demo - however I am Microsoft Resource "rich" and just couldn't see myself having to BUY the "Mac" versions of all these thousands of dollars of software! I was especially impressed by it's ability to multitask, program on top of program, all the while watching a DVD and surfing the 'net and never miss a beat! If I were to try something similar on the 8104 it would just screech to a halt. In fact, when I first fire this thing up in the a.m. - I'm always dissapointed how just MS Outlook and iHateSpam alone choke this thing down to a snail's pace - literally.

Geekraver: I talked CDW into a corporate discount price = $2170.00 + $108.88 tax + $27.96 2nd Day UPS shipping = $2306.84 Total

 

thanks a lot raguu.
You mean EVEN with the new sonoma 2.0 and 1gb RAM it takes ages to fire up? Gosh...

I use not much thirdparty software: Office XP, Blackberry, ipod, MSN Messenger, io2 digital pen,
Thats all..presume these will work with the powerbook?

So apart from the software do you think that Powerbook even the G4 is faster/ better than the 8104?

 

Athreya: Yeah, you'd have to see it to believe it - but certain programs still choke the 8104 (not nearly as bad as on my 803 but still disappointing) - even if only momentarily - vs. what I saw on the Powerbook - but I'm so wrapped up in Microsoft and Windows products it would ruin me - to start anew with Apple. You will have to at least buy the "Mac" version of Office XP and probably not much else - if you go that route - though just about all MS products will have to be re-purchased - with the obvious exceptions of the free stuff, i.e. I.E. browser and MSN messenger.

 

raguu thanks!its very disappointing to hear that a brand new top of the line processor on Windows is slow!

You may want to read the article on www.anandtech.com which does a fab comparison of the two and concludes that mac is slow on some office programs. But otherwise a terrific review

 

we were talking abt a g4 vs sonoma

 

I'd be willing to bet that the delay you're experiencing would be the same on a similarly (software configured) p4/athlon desktop system. If I am wrong, then I'm disappointed as well.

Arima W622
Athlon 64 (Turion) 3200+ | 1gb DDR400 low latency | 60gb 7200 rpm (hopefully SATA w/ NCQ) | 128MB X700 radeon | 15.4" 1680x1050 screen | 1.25" thin | 5.69lb | 4.5 hours battery life
sign me up!