New Aspire One, Now Fully Upgraded!

Discussion in 'Acer Aspire One' started by cbracer1, Nov 15, 2008.

  1. cbracer1

    cbracer1

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    Hi All,

    Just wanted to thank the folks who created and contributed to this site. I got my AAO on Monday and have been enjoying it. I ordered a Dell Wireless 1505 wifi card, a Corsair 1GB dimm, and a Seagate 7200.3 320GB hard drive to go along with it and they arrived today. Like a giddy little school boy I tore into the AAO and began upgrading with the help from guides and links provided here. Everything seems to be working alright although my backspace key became a casualty of war. I broke one of the tiny little nubs that holds it in one of the loops. It works, but pops out every once in awhile. I put a little dab of Gorilla glue on the loop to hopefully hold it in place, but I have a feeling I'll be ordering a replacement keyboard. I'm in the middle of an XP install right now, then I'll start my Ubuntu install, and then if I'm not too tired I'm gonna try tackling an OSX install tonight. It's funny I'm using my 4 year old Dell 15.4" laptop to post this as XP installs and it feels gigantic after using the AAO for the last week. Thanks again for the wealth of information. I look forward to seeing what other mods people figure out they can do to the AAO.

    -Mike
     
    cbracer1, Nov 15, 2008
    #1
  2. cbracer1

    juersio

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    Why did you buy a wifi card if the AAO already comes with wifi?
     
    juersio, Nov 16, 2008
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  3. cbracer1

    melhiore

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    Probably because OEM Atheros WiFi card works in very funny way - there was a lot of problems with this unit and they are still present in some machines. I replaced mine with Intel 5300 802.11N and I had couple of reasons to do that: better range, better speed, smaller power consumption etc...
     
    melhiore, Nov 16, 2008
    #3
  4. cbracer1

    juersio

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    Ah ok now i understand.
     
    juersio, Nov 16, 2008
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  5. cbracer1

    Arctic_Eddie

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    I had a similar problem with the built-in wireless. It would connect ok but had poor sensitivity compared to my other laptop. I purchased a TP-Link TL-WN620G extended range unit. It plugs into a USB socket and comes with a four foot extension cable. The sensitivity is much better as I can see all the routers in the neighborhood. In North Carolina recently, I duct taped it to the window and was able to connect to a public router at the health center over a block away. While at home I use the built in unit as the router is only a few feet away.
     
    Arctic_Eddie, Nov 20, 2008
    #5
  6. cbracer1

    cbracer1

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    Well I installed OS X 10.5.4 and the Atheros based wifi card that comes with the AAO is not recognized and getting it to work under OS X is either very difficult or impossible. Plus I figured since I had to take it apart to get to the RAM and HD I might as well swap the wifi card out for a 802.11 A/B/G/Draft-N card (Dell Wireless 1505 card) in case I upgrade my router. That card works out of the box for OS X, and with the proper drivers for XP and Linux installed works great. I'm hoping I never have to open my AAO again, though with the announcement today of a 10" AAO I might just have to to get all of the upgrades I just installed and swap them into a 10" AAO if they up the resolution to 1280x800 (No confirmation of this, just speculation at this point). I will have to order a new keyboard as my Backspace key is broken now.
     
    cbracer1, Nov 26, 2008
    #6
  7. cbracer1

    jknights

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    Location:
    Oliva, Valencia, Spain
    I've just bought an AAO 512Mb Linux with 120GB disk.
    I have ordered 1GB RAM and Dell 1390 Wifi card.
    My intention is to put OSX and Linux on it.

    Do you have any hints on installing OSX.
    If you want to PM or email me that is fine.
     
    jknights, Nov 26, 2008
    #7
  8. cbracer1

    info

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    Hello cbracer,
    I've seen a video of OSX running on the AAO, but was unclear as to how people are obtaining the OS (retail?). Was it very difficult to install? Finally, if this is really doable by people who are not all that familiar with Macs, I was wondering if you could point me to what you thought might be some *reliable* step by step instructions on how it might be accomplished. Thanks for any input.
     
    info, Nov 26, 2008
    #8
  9. cbracer1

    Spire

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    I've just compared 3 notebooks (2 with intel wlan and the aa1 with atheros) and the atheros has much better range. Speed are the same.
     
    Spire, Nov 27, 2008
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  10. cbracer1

    rory

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    go here
    viewforum.php?f=14
     
    rory, Nov 27, 2008
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  11. cbracer1

    sinker442

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    Same here. Discovers twice as many networks my 2 laptops do. Atheros rules (they are used for wifi hacking too :twisted: )
     
    sinker442, Nov 27, 2008
    #11
  12. cbracer1

    info

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    Ooops, seems I missed that part of the forum. Thank you rory.
     
    info, Nov 27, 2008
    #12
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