• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Getting a new laptop - Reformatting step 1

B

Battalion23

Member
Heya ,
Getting the Acer TM8204 tomorrow, and buying it only after reading all the reviews about it , and every little thing I could find. Most people mentioned that for some reason it's still on FAT32 and not NTFS . Sure, It took me half an hour to find out the differences between them , realizing it's not that much for me, but if mos people did the switch, there's got to be something there, and if I'm buying a very nice notebook, I should run it right (updating drivers and all) . So , after reading how to do it (format, and re install win xp) I'm ready, only one question in my head . I'm getting the laptop tomorrow, and it comes with xp sp 2 , but accrding to all the sites, it's OEM , meaning ... there's no fancy box and stuff, or there's actually nothing? 'cause if I'm getting a cd and my serial that's ok, no prob. If I'm not getting a cd, am I still getting a serial ? If I use my old desktop win xp sp2 cd , and put the new serial >?
too many questions, so little time, brain to small...
Help!!!
 
it's an OEM machine, you'll be getting an OEM license. At the very least, you'll be getting a hologram sticker on the machine somewhere, that will include your Product Key. The vendor may or may not include an actual CD with the package, but should provide either a download option or some sort of restore application.
 
You'll find that OEM's usually install tonnes of crap on by default - My Asus laptop was using 350Mb of RAM upon first boot 😱
And, they only provided me with a restore disk - Which seems clumsy and probably reinstalls all the crap again.

I ended up downloading an XP OEM disk, n-Liting it and re-installing using my OEM key (Which I'm led to believe is more or less legal 😀) - 77Mb RAM usage on first boot. 🙂

You may have to do something similar if you want to get your laptop running how you want it to.
 
Ned, I'm not sure this is what I should do , but I'm running out of options, if you read my new topic "help , acer 8204 ... "
I'm not sure if the acer guy was bullshi^&ing me and only the acer xp version would fix my problem, or any xp .
Now, can you explain in very simple terms how to do what you did?
meaning , I know how to download, I know where from , I just need to know what . Than I just burn it to a cd, or should I create an "image cd" ? then I can start all over and use my original and legal serial for xp ?
and how would I format this xp without doing any damage , and without losing the ability to start the new xp cd immediatly after the formatting?
thanks.
 
ok, I've decided not to believe acer (that claims that only their version of xp has the secret driver for the pcmcia, and I have to buy it for 50$ ).
I got a xp pro cd from my old desktop , I'm ready.
1. I want to format everything , I don't have any information I need on the machine, I just want to format it completely.
2.after I format it , will it restart and automatically go to the win xp cd ?
3. where do I choose which file system I want and how I devide the partitions ? (I'm planning on doing it fat32 (because I have to ! read my other many topics) , with 2 partitions , and after I install all the drivers and they all work (hopefully) , I'll convert the 2nd partition to NTFS .
how do I do it ? easiet way , small words , and I have all night to try , and try again. I just don't want to get to a situation where nothing works and I can't even boot it up.
Thanks .
 
IS that Pro CD you have an OEM CD? Id verify it to be sure, before your stuck with a 1/2 loaded OS.

- boot off the CD, delete all the partitions
- repartition (Id do 1 , but if you want 2, thats your biz)
- format them how you like and choose which partition to install on
 
Okay... didn't undertand much.
actually, I've already used this xp cd, and everything works great with it. I'm not sure it'll solve the problems acer expected , but I have time and I'm willing to try. so , let's say the cd is ok. and start again -
how do I boot off the cd , and delete all the partitions ? where , how ?
2 - repartition ? I need to have two, both fat32 , I'm going to install everything, and hopefully it'll work and then I could convert the second partition to ntfs.
3 - format - how ? where ? dos ?
I hope you tried to explain it simple , but it didn't work...
sorry.
 
if anyone wants to pass some time and knows how to do all this , I have another laptop here I can use to go step by step on the new notebook...
 
Just a suggestion: ever think of linux?

The two main arguments against it are hardware compatibility and configuration headaches. You seem to have both issues with windows right now, plus a heaping helping of licensing bull caca.

I'm not a rabid linux fanboi, I know that there are situations where windows is a better solution. If you arn't going to be using this laptop for serious gaming, you might want to give it a try.

Ubuntu tends to have pretty good luck with laptops, pretty good wireless and suspend support. You can download a liveCD and see how well it will work with your hardware.
 
can't , spent my whole life with win , and I once thought of linux or apple , but I just can't. I just need to fix it once, and then I'll run on it for the next couple of years. I want a good , clean installation , and to see that all the components are recognized and working fine. Then, and only then I could finally start loading all my programs, pics , music and all ... and I need to start already , 'cause I don't have time...
 
Make sure it is an OEM disk if you have an OEM key else it won't work 🙂

An optional step is to use nLite to 'rip' out stuff from Xp you don't need. I find this really useful as not only do you get a smaller install (i.e more harddrive space for apps), it installs ALOT faster (Mine takes under 15minutes) and RAM useage will be a lot lower because it's not running unneeded stuff in the background.

It may seem a little daunting at first to do, but all the options have a detailed description of what they do and so you really can't go wrong. nLite will create a bootable .iso for you to burn too.

But like I said it is optional.

To install your OEM XP put it in your CD drive and boot from it. You will want to delete all your disk partitions, and then remake them how you see fit. If you want your OS on one partition and everything else on another (apps etc) then give the OS partition around 5Gb (1024*5 = 5120Mb)

After that, the installer is self explanatory...

Oh, one thing - Make sure you download your network / modem drivers before you install so you can get back on the net to download the rest 😀
 
Oh, another thing. Just use NTFS for all your partitions.

To boot from the XP CD, put it in your CD drive, and restart the PC - If your BIOS are configured correctly it will automatically boot. It could be the case you need to go into your BIOS and change the boot order (you'll know what the option is when you see it) so that it first tries to boot from the CD drive.
 
Ok, formatted once, did everything ntfs , installed win xp , still the pcmcia problem. If acer technician didn't lie, and the acer win xp cd has that driver you can't get anywhere else, and I do get one, there should be no meaning to the file system. Of course the acer technician says it'll only work in fat32 , but that's easy to prove wrong, right ?
I'll get an acer xp cd , format my c partition again , still in ntfs (didn't see any fat32 option in the formatting section after booting from the win xp cd , just saw ntfs and quick ntfs ) , install acer xp , and everything should work just fine? I wish.
If you bought an acer 8204 , or know anyone who did , and probably didn't want the fat32 system , ask how he did it. did he prepare the acer xp recovery cd, then formatted it in ntfs and installed everything and it's fine ? or did he keep the win partiotion in fat 32 and just converted the second partition to ntfs ?
I saw some reviews and comments in all kinds of sites from people who bought it and wrote about the stupidity of fat32 , but they didn't write how exactly they got rid of it , and I can't contact them through that site, I can only leave my own review, which I did , but no one's answering.

BTW , like 5 days passed , didn't get any response from any acer rep , and I've emailed almost every department, and left ,my phone number all over their service centers.
also called to try to ask about the bluetooth phone , 'cause for some reason it started charging and I hope that it'll still work even if the pcmcia card is not working , but the tech support guy kindly asked me to ... "wait until the week starts, and maybe than a technician there would have an answer" . good job hiring.
buy acer products, not acer support.
 
Ned Flqnders: I'm pretty sure that Acer does provide some drivers online. I have a 1714SMi, and I found all the drivers I needed on their website.

This topic seems interesting, becuase I have a SONY laptop that has a recover CD, and it has too much crap on it, so I am now wondering if I can remove that crap and just install a normal Windows XP install.

Will update tonight, if I remember, after reading up on this thread and the links in it with more care.
 
Most recover CD's are in a different format to a normal XP disk. You need to find the 'i386' folder on the CD before you can cut the stuff you don't want with nLite.
If you can't find that folder (as was the case with my Asus Recovery disk) you'll need to download an XP OEM disk from the internet (Preferably SP2).
 
I don't care about cleaning, I'll have the rest of my time to do that. Acer does provide all the drivers for that computer online, but after talking to 4 customer reps in tech support, they all came back to me with the same answer "you are not supposed to change the file system, and only with fat32 and the original acer xp that pcmcia should work. I asked them to send me the missing driver , and they said they can't it's embedded inside the acer xp cd, which I can buy for 50$... and then , if I switch to fat32 again , it MIGHT make the pcmcia slot work.
Blah blah blah , I found a connection to an acer xp cd without paying, but I'm not sure I wanna check it. see , though the device settings say it's unknown (the pcmcia) , the bluetooth phone is charging in the slot , and therefore - it should work. logically, the bluetooth phone is an independant unit, and it's only connection to the slot is the power to charge (just like your regular bluetooth headset) .
Now I finally found someone in acer who gave me the password for the phone , but after pairing , all the lights blink like they should (power led off - no need of charging, blue led blinking slowly - paired) , I keep hearing this repeating chime ... no warning on the computer, according to him I'm linked and ready to go... and on the acer phone console ... still nothing works. I wanna know if these problems are from the driver problem ... or just something I forgot to press. I'm still on the line for acer support, now counting .... 20 minutes, nice.
good of them for not writing about the access code for the phone no where...
and even the support guy didn't know..
Like I keep saying , everyday, buy acer , don't get acer support
 
Ok - Now you're confusing me - Why are you talking about bluetooth, I thought your problem was with the PCMCIA slot?

Anyway I think these are the drivers for your Notebook; [l]http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/tm_8200.html[/l]

There are Bluetooth ones there - Install them. Regarding this FAT32/NTFS problem - The file system is transparent to the application, the OS deals with the reading/writing. So I can't see why FAT32 would allow a driver to work. It's a joke they won't give you the driver for YOUR hardware. Perhaps you could go direct to the manufacturer of the slot?
 
The problem is that on the device list I still have two unknowns.. 1 PCI PORT 2 PCMCIA MTD-0002 . I have the all the drivers in the list you sent me , I got them all from the acer US site before I started messing with the computer. Thing is all of them are installed but still these two devices have no driver. According to Acer , only the xp that comes on the computer, or an acer xp cd that I can buy , would have the actual drivers for it , and no , they can't send them to me 'cause... 'cause I have no idea why. Now , I wouldn't mind the pcmcia not to work, to be honest , I don't even know if I'll use it in the future. Problem is , one of the main reasons I got this computer is the bluetooth phone. I talk on skype and msn a lot with my family abroad. This phone is a nice gadget, but it'll also help me. Now, I thought that since the phone goes into the pcmcia slot , it won't work 'cause the driver isn't there. when I thought about it logically, the bluetooth phone is independant. just like a bluetooth headphone, which is it's own transmitter and reciever , and only needs ac to charge it's tiny battery. That's what the slot gives my phone , the ac. and it does charge it , even if the slot doesn't work with other cards, it charged my phone. Now , I got stuck for two days because acer didn't write anywhere that the phone's first passkey is 4444 ... and the guys in support had no idea either. I tried guessing, but I only tried 1234 and 0000 ... finally someone got back to me with the passkey. So now I can pair them , good. the phone is paired with the computer, I turn on the MSN , open a voice conversation with someone , and ... nothing. the manual says it should happen automatically, it doesn't. Acer provided a software besides the bluetooth connection console, which shows me connected. IT's called acer vcm , and I'l suppose to see the phone in the list there, but I don't even though it's connected. the list doesn't even update, and the buttons there "scan again " and "connect" are not even pressable. What I'm thinking , is maybe because the driver is not working and there was no data connection in the dock , than the vcm program doesn't even bother to look for it. What's so frustrating is that almost everything else works. the bluetooth console shows connection, even the vcm bar shows a "incoming call" signal , but than when I press "external audio device" nothing happens and I just talk to the phone like an Idiot.
after I try all the combinations to make it work, I'll find that acer xp cd , format everything and start again and maybe I'll crack the "acer hid something in their win version" myth.
Don't worry , I still didn't put anything on the computer besides the xp. I'm waiting for everything to work perfectly before I start loading my stuff.
Thanks .
 
You could try this:
- Open Device Manger
- Right-Click the unknown device and select "properties"
- Switch to the "details" tab
- You'll see a long string for the "Device Instance ID" -- look for the codes next to "DEV" (Device) and "VEN" (Vendor)
- Go to www.pcidatabase.com, and search by vendor and device code. You should be able to find the manufacturer and model of that chipset. Then you can likely go to the manufacturers website or google to find the drivers.

It's hard to believe that your bluetooth chipset is some unique part -- even if the manufacturer doesn't supply them they might be available for another notebook.

-Russ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top