AAO seems right decision

Discussion in 'Acer Aspire One' started by ccuina, Dec 26, 2008.

  1. ccuina

    ccuina

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    Although first post here, have been an avid reader for past 2 months while trying to decide re: kiddos Xmas gift. As benefited a lot from posts here, think could give back a little.

    I was quickly sold on AAO as saw a unit on Fry's and was very impressed with keyboard size. However, decided to look into Asus, MSI and HP as well. However, the more I researched, more inclined towards AAO and HP's 2133. Finally took the plunge and bought 1 AAO150 120GB XP, and ordered a similar 2nd one a couple of days later.

    Being Xmas presents, just been using for 1 day, but so far very impressed.
    a) Keyboard: Nice size, very comfortable to type. Wife, who's non-techie, praised it thus a good sign. Space key seems to be a little hard in one of the units.
    b) Touchpad: Quickly got into the side button arrangement. I expected to be a hard experience given some threads, but so far OK. Likely to be paired with a wireless mouse while @ home.
    c) Fan: Maybe I'm lucky, Acer took care of it, or I'm less sensitive to noise, but have yet to hear it.
    d) Screen: Nice size & resolution. Could use 1" extra screen height, would give a try to the firefox add-ons/toolbars documented in posts.
    e) Temperature: Another great point. Kiddos spent all day with the AAOs in their laps and no complaint/burn. I have had it ~6 hours so far, and a slight heat, but can be withstand.
    f) Battery life: Have 3 cell model and haven't timed, but by various posts seems ~2-2.5hrs tops and I'm pretty close.
    g) Start-up: A screamer, both on boot and shutdown. Granted, they're still light in terms of apps/services, but beat my work laptop by a good 2 mins either way.

    Both AAOs were updated today to latest f/w, as well as MSFT XP & Office (between both ~30 files & 110MB). Already printing on remote AiO, as well as accessing networked HDDs Also able to see the 2 Macs @ home. Still pending for upcoming days :
    a) Connect to 15" LCD, shared via a 2 port KVM.
    b) Connect to local printer (likely to be shared too).
    c) Test belkin wireless mice.
    d) Install anti-virus. Most likely will give a try to AVG, as in my experience NAV does slow down machines.
    e) Get cases. Soft ones provided offer no protection. Yesterday got the Belkin vertical for Eee PC @ Target, but too small. Today ordered Case Logic's verticals, which should fit per AAO size and caselogic's site.
    Hopefully will be ableto report continued success in upcoming days.

    As many have reported, some 120GB badged units ship with a 160GB HDD instead. This was the case in 1 of my units, which also featured the Lite-On webcam. Other unit got 120GB HDD and the Suyin webcam.

    Needless to say, kiddos (12 yr) are very happy . Spent all day playing with AAOs, tweaking desktop (eg wall paper, etc), loading iTunes and updating profiles and MSN.
     
    ccuina, Dec 26, 2008
    #1
  2. ccuina

    rgarjr

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    Nice to hear the kids are happy with their A1. These are very good machines which makes them a great bang for the buck.
     
    rgarjr, Dec 26, 2008
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  3. ccuina

    ccuina

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    Thanks rgarjr, I've had a hard time getting A1s out of kiddos hands to keep tweaking, thus a god sign they're liking them.

    To keep reporting progress:
    a) AV installed
    b) SmartDefrag installed
    c) MSFT Works finally removed thanks to a couple of good posts in this forum
    d) 15" LCD mon. and HP deskjet printer shared via a USB KVM (concerned if printer could be shared that way, but what else could I ask for $15, specially if already needed to share monitor?). But arrangement worked out, and there's now a USB connected printer upstairs and a wireless printer downstairs :)
    e) I'm starting to hear the fans, thus looking into A1CTL (tried to download today a couple of times, but server too busy). Regardless, still too early in the day and no major noise buildup at home :)
    f) Units do heat a bit, but much less than laptop @ work
    g) Kids desks already got space for A1s, today's task is clean up cable mess

    Didn't shared before, but units are Win XP as didn't wanted to support a 3rd OS @ home.

    Still too soon to claim victory, but so far everything looking good re: A1s.
     
    ccuina, Dec 28, 2008
    #3
  4. ccuina

    hemplacrosse49

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    Hey I just got my AAO too, where did you get the lastest f/w?
     
    hemplacrosse49, Dec 29, 2008
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  5. ccuina

    JimmiG

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    The AAO is definitely one of the best netbooks in the price range. It does have a few flaws, but overall it's a good compromise between size, weight, price and features.
     
    JimmiG, Dec 29, 2008
    #5
  6. ccuina

    ccuina

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    After 1 week of continuous use on 2 units,and having faced 1st major issue "deaf mic" in one of them -but solved- still a happy owner. No regrets.

    All cable clutter has been taken care of, and both A1 are sharing an external 15" mon, as well as an HP DeksJet through a USB KVM.

    @hemplacrosse49
    Got 3308 f/w at acer euro ftp, however not working now. But you can get from macles http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/11/acer-aspire-one-bios-3308.html. There's also a BIOS section under drivers in this forum.

    Hope this helps
     
    ccuina, Jan 3, 2009
    #6
  7. ccuina

    robandjeanne

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    I like my AA1. I have a 160 GB, xp, 6 cell battery. Officially mine is an AOA 150-1048. I've been plagued with deaf mic, and no amount of removing and installing Realtek seemed to help. I had just about given up on the internal mic, and rolled back to the original Acer supplied R1.94 Realtek drivers. However, on a hunch I followed part 7 and 8 of ccuina's post (on 1/2/09 at 1:36 AM) although I swear I had tried this same thing many times before. This time I did not remove or install anything, I just went to the control panel and checked the mic volume in Realtek HD Sound Affect Manager. The mic had been selected so I just cranked the volume up to max. I then started sound recorder (for those actively testing their mic I suggest you add a shortcut to easily start sound recorder). I then clicked on the record button, tapped on the bezel where the mic is, and saw huge squiggly lines from the taps being recorded. Of course then I recorded my voice, and it came out great. This whole deaf mic issue has been a bit of a mystery to me, and I think I tried 5 different Realtec drivers without solving the problem in the past. Apparently r1.78 is not necessary with mine, and as I mentioned I'm simply running the original stock r1.94 Realteks. This time, to make sure my AA1 remembers the mic fix, I created a system restore point with the label Mic Works. The long hours of trying different things are worth it. The mic is alive!
     
    robandjeanne, Jan 3, 2009
    #7
  8. ccuina

    ccuina

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    Glad my post help you getting mic up and running. Hopefully will survive a power down/reboot, although if it doesn't you can use the restore point. My "revived" mic has been doing OK for past 2 days
     
    ccuina, Jan 3, 2009
    #8
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