The Acer Guy

Any of you own a Gemstone Blue 8920?

Have you found a bag for it?

In an amazing oversight , Acer seems to have forgotten that people actually like to lug portable computers around and don’t have a custom bag big enough for it (yet?).

I’ve been getting requests from customers about this and can’t come up with anything. My only suggestion was Timbuk2 but apparently they don’t make one big enough either.

If you have found something big enough for the 8920 can you post it on the comments section here please? It’ll help a lot of people avoid a lot of scratches.

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It looks like I’m about to go down with my fifth flu this winter (no, I am not kidding) but before I do, I need to ask if there’s someone out there who knows his or her way around iTunes under Vista.

Got a mail from Liz who’s having problems burning CDs which is one of the main reasons she bought her Extensa 4620Z in the first place.

In her mail, Liz writes:

When I go to burn a disc using iTunes I get a message that reads “attempt to burn a disc failed unknown error 2131″ & it ejects the disc automatically. After some research on Apple Support and reading user discussions it seems that many Dell users that have the same cd drive as I do have had the same problem. Some were able to get Dell to provide new cd drives for them and now Dell has made a patch that you can download to fix the problem and burn cd’s.

I e-mailed Acer Technical support yesterday and am yet to hear a response.
I phoned Geek Squad at Best Buy where I purchased the Acer and they couldn’t help me. I then phoned Acer Technical Support and was told Vista and iTunes are not compatible and there was no patch coming from Acer and nothing that could be done so I can burn cd’s from iTunes. I asked if downloading the Dell patch would work and if it would void my warranty and I was told that if I did that and had a hardware malfunction it would void my warranty (I’m not even sure the Dell patch would work just grasping at straws here).

It is very frustrating that burning cd’s from iTunes was one of my primary reasons to buy a computer and this computer doesn’t do what I want. Any help or suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated!

Now I’m relatively familiar with iTunes but have never heard of this particular problem. Also Simone doesn’t have access to an Extensa model so he suggested trying to burn using NTI CD-DVD maker / MPlayer or any other burning software by changing the settings within iTunes so that it imports audio files in the MP3 format which you can then burn with NTI CD/DVD Maker but it’s a long-winded solution…

Liz is toying with the idea of downgrading to Windows XP and I’d really like to help her out before she does. Anyone out there with suggestions?

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Hi everybody.

I need your help. Or rather Jimmy does.

Jimmy was about to buy an Aspire 5920 (6313 model) from Best Buy but they’re no longer listing them on the site. Do any of you from the US know of any other online stores selling them? Thanks.

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Got another question in from Amine about the Aspire 5920.

My question is about the FAN, it kicks in way TOO often, even in 2D mode. Do you have a way to control the fan speed of the laptop ?

Now the obvious answer here is to just play with the Empowering Suite software. With ePower Management you can adjust the settings a little bit, but it’s not a complete solution. In fact, Amine’s response was:

When I unplug the PC from the outlet, the fan sure calms down… there is some sort of power management link between the power outlet and the notebook. It seems as if you unplug it, both the gpu AND cpu are underclocked, which makes the fan turn slower. Playing with empowering does lower the fan, but it does not replace the fact of unplugging the pc from the power outlet.
my question is : how to obtain the SAME result using a software, because i keep my laptop plugged in all the time. I want the quiteness of unplugged laptop with the ac outlet in. (same usage of course).

Now I don’t know of any other solution to this (other than Empowering Technology). So this time it’s an open question. Do any of you know of a software solution to this problem?

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On another post, I received a question from Troy about getting sound from the HDMI output on his Aspire 5920.

I’ve come across this problem before on my home theatre set up so I thought the problem would be similar.

What you have to do is go into Control Panel –> Audio Devices (DO NOT click the Realtec CODEC but on “Audio” in Windows Vista) and select HDMI as the default audio ouput. When you use the DVD, the audio will be redirected through the HDMI bus and you’ll be able to hear it on the TV. You might need to change it back once you’re done though.

Here’s a screenshot of the “Audio” menu you should see. It’s in Italian but hey, beggars can’t be choosers

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I received an interesting question from Eoin (Fitzer) and Colin earlier on and thought I’d write a thread about it.

Eoin asked “I would like to reassign the ‘dummy’ bluetooth button…is this possible?”, while Colin wanted to know “is there any way of making the media touch buttons on the right usable with winamp or any other media player than windows media player?”

Well I checked with the Acer support guys and there are two things is something you can do with the media keys: disable them (so you don’t keep accidentally brushing against them when you type) or reinstall them which should allow you to reassign the functionality.

For the first (deactivation), you have to disable the function form the touchpad driver (sorry it’s in Chinese, but I’m sure you can figure out where you have to click).

Then uncheck the item

The media key will be disabled.

If you’re not happy with that, the second solution I have been given is to remove the launch manager and reinstall it by going into Control Panel -> Manage Programs and Applications. You’ll need a reboot but in theory that’ll let you reassign the controls. I don’t have a 5920 available to play with so I can’t vouch for any of these but feel free to play around and see if either one works.

UPDATE 1: I’ve crossed out the reinstall option because I’m not happy recommending it. See my comment below.

UPDATE 2:My man Simone’s being cryptic today, and has asked me to invite 5920 users to install iTunes + Quicktime and see what happens to the Arcade button (top right). Emm, let me know as I’m in the dark.

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