Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Acer aspire 4720z - My New Laptop

I have been using a normal assembled system for a very long time. Now, I decided that the time has come to move to something bigger and better. Before I bought my laptop, I was very much interested in buying a HP or Compaq notebook. But once I entered the shop, it's owner Ali, who was my friend, advised me to buy the acer. He convinced me that this laptop not only is half the cost of a HP or Compaq with a similar configuration, but also the best he has ever used as he had already bought one for himself. The total cost for me came up to Rs. 29,400 inclusive of the taxes in chennai.

Now coming to the real thing and how it works.

This is the Hardware Configuration that the system comes with:

CPU: Intel Pentium Dual-Core 1.6 Ghz t2330
Memory: 1GB of DDR2 Ram.
Hard disk: 160GB SATA
Graphics: Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator x3100

other configs:
RICOH 5-in-1 card reader
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
802.11 b/g wireless LAN
Inbuilt acer crystal webcam
Winbond CIR Transceiver
Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter
Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
DVD Super Multi
4 USB ports

The system's hardware config is good enough for running windows vista. But for some strange reason, it doesn't come with Vista. It comes with a command line version of linux called Linpus Linux. If Acer wanted to put Linux in it, they could have gone for some higher end version like Fedora or some Debian release.

I initially installed vista after I got my laptop. Installing vista was like walk in a park, with Vista itself detecting most of the drivers. However, it is recommended that you manually install all the drivers that comes with the Resource CD. Once all the drivers are done with, the laptop works out pretty well. I got a rating of 3.1 in Vista which is higher than what I got on my home system which was only 1.5 . Definitely, for a man working with a single core(no hyper-threading) processor , this was more than to ask for.

Everybody knows that Vista cannot be used without licensing. So I installed ubuntu, in a couple of days. Thats when the probs started showing up. First no sound, then no wireless, I felt I was in a no-where to go island. But thanks to Google and Ubuntu support forums, I got all fixed up.
For all users out there, who suffer from driver problems with ubuntu. try googling and especially goto ubuntuforms.org. They got step by step illustrations on how to get thru the installetion of sound and wireless in ubuntu. They work to some extent. One major thanks to ubuntu. It detected my bluetooth automatically.

Recently, I had a problem with my card reader and must really admire acer's customer service. They fixed my laptop back to factory condition in 2 days.

I love my Acer!!!!!

13 comments:

Onimusha said...

I Do agree, acer is good. But certainly not agree that your cofig will come at half cost for Compaq.
I bought HP-Compaq C773TU yester day,
1.86 Ghz Core 2 Duo,
2 GB RAM, 160 HDD @ 35000 Rs.

Arun Srinivasan said...

ok agreed!!!!!! and my congrats on the new laptop!!!!!

prices are coming down too rapidly!!!

My friend has notched upon the same laptop as mine for around Rs.26,500.Forgot to mention in the post I bought my laptop at the start of March but didn't have time to mention about it in blog due to exams.

But your model was around 39k when I bought mine and I think u must agree that at that moment this one sounded much better for me.

Your 2Gb ram is good. But I don't think there will be a lot of performance difference in your core 2 duo and my dual core. There ain't enough apps out there that efficiently use up the 64-bit processing power and even u might be using only a 32-bit OS.

My PC was a 64-bit single core and I struggled to get the maximum out of it.

It's a great laptop. congrats!
Happy blogging!

Y V Haranath said...

Hi..arun

I bought the same laptop as u, i want to upgrade the RAM. The installed memory was 512x2. does it have empty slots to upgrade or else i have to replace RAM.

Arun Srinivasan said...

My friend haranath, u have only one choice when it comes to increasing ram you have only one choice and that is to replace the two 512 Rams and get two 1gb Rams or a single 2Gb ddr2

I would like to know what OS u have gone for in your laptop.

That would help me make up my decision.

Y V Haranath said...

Thanks for replying...

I am using VISTA . I bougth this in USA , r u sure it doesn't have any free RAM slots.

check out this:

http://www.satech.com/acer-notebook-memory-acer-aspire-memory-acer-aspire-4720z-memory.html

Arun Srinivasan said...

In that case, you can check this software to check whether you have the free slot or not

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php#about

its called cpuz

Do some google with the stuff before using it.

It clearly states the memory you have in each slot.

All the best!!

Y V Haranath said...

ya you r right ...thanks a lot...did u find any new stuff for our laptop like how to access the hidden recovery partition ?

Arun Srinivasan said...

please confirm that the recovery partition is hidden??/

mine is not!!!!
(bcoz I renamed the disc's name from none* to {some drive letter} using acronis disc director)

check this

You might be able to hit F12 or F8 during boot to access that drive.Most manufacturer's allow for a user to get on there and check the partition and use them

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Recovering+the+Vista+Bootloader+from+the+DVD

further please check whether the chipset comes with a D2D recovery. In that case the vista recovery cd that came with the system might allow you to see the recovery partition and you can run a program called D2D32.exe to recover your vista partition if necessary.

all the best!!!!

Unknown said...

HELLO EVERY BODY AM JOEL,LAST WEEK I WENT TO A SHOP TO BUY A LAPTOP,THE SHOP KEEPER SHOWED ME ACER 4720Z ... WHEN I SEARCHED THE ACER WEBSITE IT SHOWED THAT ITS A 1.6GHZ PROCESSOR,, BUT THE SHOP OWNER TOLD IT NOW A DAYS COMES WOTH 1.7 GHZ AND 2 GB RAM AND WILL COST 30500 ..ANY WAY I BOUGHT ONE..AM SURPRISED WHEN I RIGHT CLICKED ON MY COMPUTER AND SAW THE SYSEM DETAILS... IT SHOWS 1.8 GHZ AND THE PROCESOR IS T2390...IS IT POSSIBLE.. STILL THE STICKER IN THE LAPTOP SAYS ITS A T2370 PROCESSOR WITH 1.7GHZ...AM A BIT CONFUSED... ANY ONE PLZ TELL ME WATS REALLY HAPPENING?

Arun Srinivasan said...

please check the details properly friend..............


If it is T2390, then it must be a 1.86GHz pentium dual core.
or it could be T2370 is 1.73 Ghz.

Worst possible scenario - Might be acer could have stuck the wrong sticker........

Further do check if the core splits in system properties are identical, I had a problem in my brother's system where the OS addressed one half of a 2.4 Ghz Pentium dual core as 2.66Ghz and the other as 2.0GHz. I have been trying to figure out the actual reason.

All the best, for the new laptop!!!!!

DSRS said...

I AM HAVING ACER LAPTOP WITH WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE AND WINDOWS XP AND IT IS VERY GOOD WORKING SYSTEM WITH AVAST PROFESSIONAL AND I BUYED FOR 36000 AND I AM VERY WITH SPEECH CHEK UP IN VISTA WHICH WORKS WITH WORDS THAT I HAVE SAID THANK YOU AND IT IS GOOD LAPTOP THAN ANY BECEASE OF EMPOWERING

Arun Srinivasan said...

Sriram ............
Congrats on your new laptop.......

Can you post the exact model number and configuration of your laptop?

It'll help many people like you who are looking for a laptop.

katiejo said...

Hello..

I have an Acer Aspire 4720Z laptop which was purchased about a yesr ago.

After a couple of 5 wk visits to the computer doctors at Acer. it has worked fine...sort of. Still having trouble with the connection constantly going on and off.

But thst's not why I'm writing. The Vista PC is having major audio issues and none of the recommendations from Microsoft or Acer (online, mostly FAQs), have fixed them.

Until about 5 days ago, the audio was fine. Now, in chat programs, I cannot hear the person on the other end, although he/she can hear me...that's in GoogleTalk, TokBox and Skype. In Windows Live,
we can hear one another, but the
person with whom I'm chatting sounds like Porky Pig yelling out of a tin can!! The pitch is tinny
to the point that it reminds me of the old 'robot' movies or little green martians saying "do not worry, we come in peace", if you get my drift.

I need HELP!!! in the worst way..I absolutely do not know what to try next.

Forgive this excessively long note, but you understand the frustration, I'm sure.

My daughter and I have been trying all the programs I can think of...but she can't download Windows Live in anything but Japanese and she doesn't speak/read enough of the language to understand what's on the page, despite the fact that she lives there.

In sany event, thanks for your patience in reading this through. All help greatly appreciated.

ktjo