Comments on: 5 things I don’t like about the Acer Aspire One http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/ Using mobile devices since they weighed 30 lbs. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:51:40 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: luke c http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-70616 luke c Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:33:09 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-70616 i have linux linpus version of this, i find it easy to use and very nippy if not multi tasking, even games run smooth to a certain point. overall really good for the money, however i need help finding a 3d modelling program. as stated i have linpus lite version, and i want a free modelling program for 3d modelling and prefereably a link or guidance on how to install too, as i am not used to writing codes for linux to run things. email me anything helpful at minime9123456789@yahoo.com as i only just came across this site and never really go on here. thanks for any help sent in advance and i really hope there is some sort of pragram out there, even if it is slow or laggy or whatever. i have linux linpus version of this, i find it easy to use and very nippy if not multi tasking, even games run smooth to a certain point. overall really good for the money, however i need help finding a 3d modelling program. as stated i have linpus lite version, and i want a free modelling program for 3d modelling and prefereably a link or guidance on how to install too, as i am not used to writing codes for linux to run things. email me anything helpful at minime9123456789@yahoo.com as i only just came across this site and never really go on here. thanks for any help sent in advance and i really hope there is some sort of pragram out there, even if it is slow or laggy or whatever.

]]> By: FireRaider http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-59236 FireRaider Tue, 26 May 2009 00:19:13 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-59236 forgot to add, if all drivers are installed properly, there should be no reason to worry about using external monitors under windows. See igfxcfg.exe for setting up that stuff. I for one usually put my main desktop on a 1280x768 tft monitor, and extend it with the laptop's own 1024x600 for stuff like... let's say winamp. I may buy a bigger screen though... forgot to add, if all drivers are installed properly, there should be no reason to worry about using external monitors under windows. See igfxcfg.exe for setting up that stuff.

I for one usually put my main desktop on a 1280×768 tft monitor, and extend it with the laptop’s own 1024×600 for stuff like… let’s say winamp. I may buy a bigger screen though…

]]> By: FireRaider http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-59235 FireRaider Tue, 26 May 2009 00:04:25 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-59235 Things slightly change once you put XP SP2 on it ;) I'm VERY satisfied with mine. Bought it because of space issues in the students' home where I must live, couldn't keep my desk pc around, and it's just AWESOME for its size. I'm even working in 3dsmax (3d modeling software) on it and bustin' a few caps in counterstrike and quake 2/3. And it's excellent for watching movies or sketching stuff with a wacom tablet :D Not to mention the cool design, good lcd display, 1GB of ram, quite resistant (it fell off my desk and didn't break). Card readers for my phone and camera, it can connect to the Internets pipe and it's got 110 GB of storage for all your perverted needs... what more could you want from a COMPUTER the size of a book? Only problems: 1.) BIOS. It totally sucks. Boot-Passworded it and locked myself out of it (all passwords need to be at most than 8 chars, and must be entered with capslock). And finally, laptop just died after a reboot and had to flash it. 2.) overheating problem when it's sitting on cloth or soft surface. 3.) the speakers are a total ripoff, even for a laptop. Like... my _phone_ sounds better and louder than those! 4.) the battery life, ~1hr with hard drive usage, ~2h when running stuff from memory stick and minimum brightness 5.) screen to tiny, photoshop doesn't quite fit in 600 pix height :( 6.) processor is a bit slow. could have been a bit more powerful. Also, I feel it still should have had some sort of dvd unit in it, though I use an external one if I have to. But don't get me wrong, I still love it. I'm typing from it :3 Things slightly change once you put XP SP2 on it ;)

I’m VERY satisfied with mine. Bought it because of space issues in the students’ home where I must live, couldn’t keep my desk pc around, and it’s just AWESOME for its size.

I’m even working in 3dsmax (3d modeling software) on it and bustin’ a few caps in counterstrike and quake 2/3. And it’s excellent for watching movies or sketching stuff with a wacom tablet :D

Not to mention the cool design, good lcd display, 1GB of ram, quite resistant (it fell off my desk and didn’t break). Card readers for my phone and camera, it can connect to the Internets pipe and it’s got 110 GB of storage for all your perverted needs… what more could you want from a COMPUTER the size of a book?

Only problems:
1.) BIOS. It totally sucks. Boot-Passworded it and locked myself out of it (all passwords need to be at most than 8 chars, and must be entered with capslock). And finally, laptop just died after a reboot and had to flash it.
2.) overheating problem when it’s sitting on cloth or soft surface.
3.) the speakers are a total ripoff, even for a laptop. Like… my _phone_ sounds better and louder than those!
4.) the battery life, ~1hr with hard drive usage, ~2h when running stuff from memory stick and minimum brightness
5.) screen to tiny, photoshop doesn’t quite fit in 600 pix height :(
6.) processor is a bit slow. could have been a bit more powerful.

Also, I feel it still should have had some sort of dvd unit in it, though I use an external one if I have to.

But don’t get me wrong, I still love it. I’m typing from it :3

]]> By: Kevin C. Tofel http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-48858 Kevin C. Tofel Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:20:21 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-48858 Yup, that's sound advice, but I think you're missing my point. The integrated Intel graphics in the Acer Aspire One are capable of externally displaying up to 2048x1536 resolution, so the issue isn't hardware as you're implying. The res can be changed but requires modification of files in Linux and most mainstream consumers won't have the knowledge for this. I would have liked to see Acer provide a simpler software menu for this. Yup, that’s sound advice, but I think you’re missing my point. The integrated Intel graphics in the Acer Aspire One are capable of externally displaying up to 2048×1536 resolution, so the issue isn’t hardware as you’re implying.

The res can be changed but requires modification of files in Linux and most mainstream consumers won’t have the knowledge for this. I would have liked to see Acer provide a simpler software menu for this.

]]> By: egojen http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-48854 egojen Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:46:45 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-48854 About using an external screen: When you use an external screen, the screen gets its "picture" from the computer's video card. So if your computer's video card only offers a low resolution that's what you'll get on your external screen, no matter how excellent the screen might be. This is why you couldn't change the screen resolution when connecting your Asprire One to an external screen. And this is true for ALL computers. So if you want to use your note-/netbook with an external screen check the resolution your computer's video card offers, first, and then decide what screen to use. About using an external screen: When you use an external screen, the screen gets its “picture” from the computer’s video card.
So if your computer’s video card only offers a low resolution that’s what you’ll get on your external screen, no matter how excellent the screen might be.
This is why you couldn’t change the screen resolution when connecting your Asprire One to an external screen.
And this is true for ALL computers. So if you want to use your note-/netbook with an external screen check the resolution your computer’s video card offers, first, and then decide what screen to use.

]]> By: David F. Spencer http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-43779 David F. Spencer Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:52:02 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-43779 I have had my Aspire One (Linpus Lite version) for a month or two (I have had an Asus EeePC for many months) and in spite of some of the criticism here of Kevin Tofel's review, I would say he managed to do a remarkable job of hitting the negative features of the One (certainly the base version). The touchpad/mousepad is about the stupidest design I have seen, with the clattering buttons placed vertically beside the pad itself. I can't use the touchpad with one hand, it's too awkward. As well, the touchpad surface is too shallow (I assume to keep the size of the unit small). The issue of SO-DIMM RAM upgrades is just bizarre. They should have either used an access door on the bottom (as the Eee and all notebooks I've seen do) or at least made it fairly easy to lift up the keyboard to access the memory slot. I bought a SO-DIMM to upgrade my unit and eventually I will take the One apart to do that, as much out of spite as anything. I found the Linpus Lite unsuitable and not because it's linux (because I have used linux for more than 12 years) but because of the problems of installing additional software. [On the Eee the Xandros linux is, by contrast, fairly tolerable.] I have replaced the Linpus with Xubuntu 8.10, which has generally gone quite well, although network configuration, particularly for the wireless, has been a real headache. To try to conserve the 8 gig SSD's life, I have formatted it (and an 8 gig SDHC card in the front left card slot) to ext2, and used the SSD for '/', '/usr' and '/home' partitions (on the assumption they receive fewer write cycles) and used the SDHC card for the 'swap', '/tmp', '/var', and '/usr/local' partitions. That way the SDHC is more likely to run out of read-write cycles first and that card can easily (and fairly cheaply) be replaced. Obviously neither the SSD nor the SDHC are particularly snappy performers. I have had my Aspire One (Linpus Lite version) for a month or two (I have had an Asus EeePC for many months) and in spite of some of the criticism here of Kevin Tofel’s review, I would say he managed to do a remarkable job of hitting the negative features of the One (certainly the base version).
The touchpad/mousepad is about the stupidest design I have seen, with the clattering buttons placed vertically beside the pad itself. I can’t use the touchpad with one hand, it’s too awkward. As well, the touchpad surface is too shallow (I assume to keep the size of the unit small).
The issue of SO-DIMM RAM upgrades is just bizarre. They should have either used an access door on the bottom (as the Eee and all notebooks I’ve seen do) or at least made it fairly easy to lift up the keyboard to access the memory slot. I bought a SO-DIMM to upgrade my unit and eventually I will take the One apart to do that, as much out of spite as anything.
I found the Linpus Lite unsuitable and not because it’s linux (because I have used linux for more than 12 years) but because of the problems of installing additional software. [On the Eee the Xandros linux is, by contrast, fairly tolerable.] I have replaced the Linpus with Xubuntu 8.10, which has generally gone quite well, although network configuration, particularly for the wireless, has been a real headache.
To try to conserve the 8 gig SSD’s life, I have formatted it (and an 8 gig SDHC card in the front left card slot) to ext2, and used the SSD for ‘/’, ‘/usr’ and ‘/home’ partitions (on the assumption they receive fewer write cycles) and used the SDHC card for the ’swap’, ‘/tmp’, ‘/var’, and ‘/usr/local’ partitions. That way the SDHC is more likely to run out of read-write cycles first and that card can easily (and fairly cheaply) be replaced. Obviously neither the SSD nor the SDHC are particularly snappy performers.

]]> By: Kevin C. Tofel http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-42734 Kevin C. Tofel Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:03:15 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-42734 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Chuck, you shouldn't have any issues using an external optical drive on the AAO.</p> <p>Laurie, I agree with your first comment. That's why the 2nd to last line in the post reads "If I had the $399 unit with XP and the hard drive, I might feel differently as a few of my disappointments would likely disappear." ;)</p> <p>The XP version wasn't readily available at the time I purchased the AAO. And I didn't "dislike Linux" as you said... I disliked the customized implementation of Linux that Acer used. That's a very subtle, but key difference.</p></div>

Chuck, you shouldn’t have any issues using an external optical drive on the AAO.

Laurie, I agree with your first comment. That’s why the 2nd to last line in the post reads “If I had the $399 unit with XP and the hard drive, I might feel differently as a few of my disappointments would likely disappear.” ;)

The XP version wasn’t readily available at the time I purchased the AAO. And I didn’t “dislike Linux” as you said… I disliked the customized implementation of Linux that Acer used. That’s a very subtle, but key difference.

]]> By: Laurie Porter http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-42735 Laurie Porter Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:32:25 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-42735 <p>I'm sure your dislikes of the Aspire One would have been much less had you opted for the XP version. At only $20 a difference, why didn't you?<br /> Disliking Linux is being unfair to the Aspire One as Linux has nothing to do with the machine or its "real" potential capabilities. The mouse buttons are a bit noisy but I'm more concerned about the size more than the noise they make, they could have been bigger. Your right about the RAM slot, what a pain to get to that but those with the XP version need not worry and the same goes for the painfully slow SSD, why even bother when there's better out there (XP version again).<br /> You mention the screen resolution, currently I have my Aspire One hooked up to my 42" HDTV and I can output to 1920x1080 AND play GTA Vice City at full tilt. This to me is very impressive for just a netbook. Maybe you should play around a bit more and then give a fairer review of your dislikes, if you can really find one that's worthy of the price tag. In my opinion its the best netbook on the market for the price, features and the capabilities for such a small device thats branded basically as a browser.<br /> BTW, I purchased the Linux version with 1gb RAM & 120gb HDD. The difference in the UK for the XP version with same spec is around $55 so I went for the cheaper one and installed XP myself. For those who are wondering which version to get and not sure how to install XP all you need is an external USB DVD drive. Plug it into the ACER, turn on and you will see an option to boot from a USB device. Choose this and XP will start installing. I had no problems at all with install and any drivers you need for XP are on the Acer website. Installing XP was the best thing I did for the Aspire one as it unleashed its full power and boy was I impressed, in fact, I was kind of shocked at how good it was once I installed Vice City and Need for Speed Underground. Even Return To Castle Wolfenstein played smoothly with all graphics setting up AND online. Maybe I should Hush up, if Acer see this they will put the prices up. It's a terrible machine Acer, honest! You ripped us off! Ha Ha!<br /> Peace!</p> I’m sure your dislikes of the Aspire One would have been much less had you opted for the XP version. At only $20 a difference, why didn’t you?
Disliking Linux is being unfair to the Aspire One as Linux has nothing to do with the machine or its “real” potential capabilities. The mouse buttons are a bit noisy but I’m more concerned about the size more than the noise they make, they could have been bigger. Your right about the RAM slot, what a pain to get to that but those with the XP version need not worry and the same goes for the painfully slow SSD, why even bother when there’s better out there (XP version again).
You mention the screen resolution, currently I have my Aspire One hooked up to my 42″ HDTV and I can output to 1920×1080 AND play GTA Vice City at full tilt. This to me is very impressive for just a netbook. Maybe you should play around a bit more and then give a fairer review of your dislikes, if you can really find one that’s worthy of the price tag. In my opinion its the best netbook on the market for the price, features and the capabilities for such a small device thats branded basically as a browser.
BTW, I purchased the Linux version with 1gb RAM & 120gb HDD. The difference in the UK for the XP version with same spec is around $55 so I went for the cheaper one and installed XP myself. For those who are wondering which version to get and not sure how to install XP all you need is an external USB DVD drive. Plug it into the ACER, turn on and you will see an option to boot from a USB device. Choose this and XP will start installing. I had no problems at all with install and any drivers you need for XP are on the Acer website. Installing XP was the best thing I did for the Aspire one as it unleashed its full power and boy was I impressed, in fact, I was kind of shocked at how good it was once I installed Vice City and Need for Speed Underground. Even Return To Castle Wolfenstein played smoothly with all graphics setting up AND online. Maybe I should Hush up, if Acer see this they will put the prices up. It’s a terrible machine Acer, honest! You ripped us off! Ha Ha!
Peace!

]]> By: EosBlue http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-42736 EosBlue Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:28:45 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-42736 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>I'm getting the Acer Aspire One with the 120 GB HD. It's mainly going to be used to surf the net on the road. I assume that with an external optical drive, I will be able to install programs with no problems.</p> <p>Has using an external optical drive been a problem with this computer?</p> <p>Thanks for any input.</p> <p>Chuck</p></div>

I’m getting the Acer Aspire One with the 120 GB HD. It’s mainly going to be used to surf the net on the road. I assume that with an external optical drive, I will be able to install programs with no problems.

Has using an external optical drive been a problem with this computer?

Thanks for any input.

Chuck

]]> By: Laptops http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-4698 Laptops Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:16:14 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-4698 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>That's why I stick to my Dell.</p> <p><a href="http://www.dell.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.dell.com</a></p></div>

That’s why I stick to my Dell.

http://www.dell.com

]]> By: Chris http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-4699 Chris Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:27:58 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-4699 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p>I was just in a store today with the Acer Aspire and I hooked it up to an available 19" wide screen monitor. The netbook was able to adjust resolution on the external monitor to a 1400X900(or aproximate) resolution with 24bit color. Overall it did not look that bad. I have been looking for something that gave the exact specs on monitor resolution, but this netbook does do better than 1024x600 on an external monitor.</p> </div>

I was just in a store today with the Acer Aspire and I hooked it up to an available 19″ wide screen monitor. The netbook was able to adjust resolution on the external monitor to a 1400X900(or aproximate) resolution with 24bit color. Overall it did not look that bad. I have been looking for something that gave the exact specs on monitor resolution, but this netbook does do better than 1024×600 on an external monitor.

]]> By: Kevin C. Tofel http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-4700 Kevin C. Tofel Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:28:01 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-4700 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p>Sorry zoobab, the unit was returned about two weeks ago.</p> </div>

Sorry zoobab, the unit was returned about two weeks ago.

]]> By: zoobab http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-4701 zoobab Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:23:57 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-4701 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>If you still have an Acer Aspire One, I would be interested if you could backup your /etx/X11/xorg.conf file and write a new one with the resolution you want for the external screen.</p> <p>Here is a quick howto on how I did it for the EEEPC:</p> <p><a href="http://zoobab.wikidot.com/how-to-use-the-asus-eeepc-as-a-desktop-machine-with-an-external-screen" rel="nofollow">http://zoobab.wikidot.com/how-to-use-the-asus-eeepc-as-a-desktop-machine-with-an-external-screen</a></p> <p>I would be interested in your experiences before buying one (mail me at zoobab-at-gmail-com).</p> <p>I am pretty sure it is possible to have a higher resolution on the output, but I want to know if it is speedy enough to play movies.</p></div>

If you still have an Acer Aspire One, I would be interested if you could backup your /etx/X11/xorg.conf file and write a new one with the resolution you want for the external screen.

Here is a quick howto on how I did it for the EEEPC:

http://zoobab.wikidot.com/how-to-use-the-asus-eeepc-as-a-desktop-machine-with-an-external-screen

I would be interested in your experiences before buying one (mail me at zoobab-at-gmail-com).

I am pretty sure it is possible to have a higher resolution on the output, but I want to know if it is speedy enough to play movies.

]]> By: Nan http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-4702 Nan Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:13:03 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-4702 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p>Hey guys, i bought the blue One and its the P-SSD 1800. upgraded to xp myself with the 8gb ssd, its actually quite fast, cept the booting time took exactly 1.30 mins, but after tweaking, its 45 seconds now. my only issue is that batt life can only hold 2.25 hours.. still waiting for the 6 cell batt.. other than that, its actually working great... and it does look gorgeous..</p> </div>

Hey guys, i bought the blue One and its the P-SSD 1800. upgraded to xp myself with the 8gb ssd, its actually quite fast, cept the booting time took exactly 1.30 mins, but after tweaking, its 45 seconds now. my only issue is that batt life can only hold 2.25 hours.. still waiting for the 6 cell batt.. other than that, its actually working great… and it does look gorgeous..

]]> By: Kevin C. Tofel http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-4711 Kevin C. Tofel Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:06:54 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-4711 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Yup, as I mentioned in the post, I had the Intel SSDPAM0008G1EA SSD module. The write speeds I saw when using XP weren't even close to the advertised speeds, causing me to wonder if the main issue was how XP "saw" the flash memory. Regardless, it was to slow; write speeds were abysmal in my testing. </p> <p>See <a href="http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/08/if-you-want-xp.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/08/if-you-want-xp.html</a> for the benchmarking.</p></div>

Yup, as I mentioned in the post, I had the Intel SSDPAM0008G1EA SSD module. The write speeds I saw when using XP weren’t even close to the advertised speeds, causing me to wonder if the main issue was how XP “saw” the flash memory. Regardless, it was to slow; write speeds were abysmal in my testing.

See http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/08/if-you-want-xp.html for the benchmarking.

]]> By: Neill http://jkontherun.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2/#comment-4714 Neill Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:57:28 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/five-things-i-d-2#comment-4714 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>From the nokia forums (for the n810):</p> <p>""Another interesting thing worth noting is that Acer Aspire One is shipped with two possible types of SSD - slow (with read 20-25MB/s and write 5-7MB/s) and not so slow (with read 30-35MB/s and write 12-15 MB/s). Looks like the white models are with the faster SSD and the blue ones with the slow, but that's not for sure. You can check whats yours by looking in the BIOS -> Information -> HDD Model Name -> SSDPAM0008G1EA is the slow one and P-SSD 1800 is the faster one.""</p></div>

From the nokia forums (for the n810):

“”Another interesting thing worth noting is that Acer Aspire One is shipped with two possible types of SSD – slow (with read 20-25MB/s and write 5-7MB/s) and not so slow (with read 30-35MB/s and write 12-15 MB/s). Looks like the white models are with the faster SSD and the blue ones with the slow, but that’s not for sure. You can check whats yours by looking in the BIOS -> Information -> HDD Model Name -> SSDPAM0008G1EA is the slow one and P-SSD 1800 is the faster one.”"

]]>