Acer Aspire One D255 Netbook - a mini review

[vhelp]

My new, first netbook: Acer Aspire One D255



CPU: Intel Atom N450, 1.66-GHz
Display: 10 inches
Ram: 1-Gig
HDD: 250-Gig
Graphics: GMA 3150
Network: Wi-FI 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1
Webcam: 1.3-Mpixels
OS: Windows 7 startup edition
* 3 usb ports
* VGA connector
* Ethernet
* card reader
* audio jacks
* battery life: aprox 4h, 55m (pc world synthetic tests) or 9 hrs while surf over wi-fi only

My first review. It works!

Some reviews say doal boot and windows xp, but on mine, it has win7se, but I read somewhere that the dual boot is located in the Acer folder though i'm not that interested anyway. I actually wanted winxp because that is what i have on my video workstation pc and am most comfortable with. But first few minutes of win7se and I was a bit frustrated.. the keyboard and mouse adds more to it, and will take some getting use to. But all that is expected in such a small unit, so that is ok. The one thing I am not a fan of is Office 2007, count 2010 as well. These have a redesign of pretty much everything, and I hate the displacement of the usual functions like undo. It took me some time to find it, sheesh. The new wordpad is build around this new look. I had a bit of a hard time with the app. I much prefer the simpler winxp version. But I don't want to complain about the Acer netbook. I only want to give it a positive review. Its new to me and I must admit, I am behind the times in these things. I got the Acer netbook for two reasons, for the potential usb2 video capturing and for the wi-fi prospects. I will test the wi-fi features when I take it into work with me.

Reviews: pcworld_p1; pcworld_p2;

-vhelp 5440

[vhelp]

I also took down some notes and things of anything I could think of that came to mind and I want clarity for, below.

1. Does anybody have some tips and things or a good place of resource to get the most out of this machine?

2. I was hoping to image it right away to a 2gig or 4gig memory card or else a usb flash drive if possible. I basically want to just reimage the unit whenever I feel it needs it and popping in a card or flash drive would be very ideal for me.

3. would getting an external keyboard be good for this unit, I saw a nice small keyboard with great tactile response though it is ps2 connector i think, and also a remote mouse, i think i have one laying around somewhere but am not sure. I would use these for when I get frusted or need to do serious work right away and can't be bothered with the built in keyboard/mouse.

4. I'm pretty sure will need to update the 1-gig ram to 2-gib, i hope that is possible.

5. I am hoping that I can install my Office 2000 Pro, I may need it for the excel and access databases that I design at work, for homework or when the power goes out on me, which happens often.

6. Because this unit has built-in wi-fi, do I need to be concerned with someone spoofing me even though i am not connected to any nework/router? I mean, because i am in an apt dwelling, everyone else here has verizon or cable and are all on wi-fi (those tennants I spoke) and i'm fearing that they may see my unit or be able to randomly "pole" it, I don't know. I don't know anything about setting up a network folder or drive or access level to let outside sources (router) see any part of my system(s) parts.

7. Encryption, passwords, firewall, etc. Not sure how I should set these things up on the Acer netbook or if I get a router--see below.

8. Setting up as a wi-fi (to a 1TB usb2 hdd) after several days researching (and giving up once already) I think I got it down now, I just need a router with printer/usa external hdd feature, connect the usb2 hdd and setup my netbook to see the drive.

9. not sure which (best) Router I should get. I will be the only user on any of these devices. I will probably be only dealing with files for the most part. But I was told that I can wi-fi videos if I wanted to from any of my 1TB hdd's. So I want to explore that as well. I am still on dial-up so there's nothing for me on that end, unfortunately because I'd still love to be able to surf wi-fi albiet slow.

10. usb2 port, for capturing video to an external hdd. That is next on my list of tests. This is especially important to me because I want to rule out one big trouble maker, noise. My desktop pc adds some noise to the captures that is big trouble when encoding the videos. So if this proves better quality videos, i will be using this as a video capture system.
Answer: yes. Success.
After several quick captures, from vhs and directv satellite, the hunch about the noise from my current video workstation is true, but when I connect usb2 capture card to this netbook, there is no noise. Also, when connected to directv receiver, there is no dropped frames, but when connected to vhs, there are some but are due to the firewall app installed and i have not optimized the netbook yet. But I was using the internal hdd and it is not optimized. I tried capturing to my usb2 flash drive, that was a success. I'm pretty sure I will have success with my external 1TB hdds as well though i hadn't connected it yet. I will post some sample clips later.

-vhelp 5441

[Forum Troll]

I have this machine.

The stock 1GB ram, combined with Windows 7 SE is a miserable experience. Don't even try.

Upgrade the ram to 2 GB, downgrade the OS to XP SP3, and you'll be extremely happy.

[vhelp]

You are so correct. I've had nothing but miserable troubles. win7se is just so much trouble, i don' know how people can say good things about it.

cons:
It eats all your ram memory: task mgr says 85% (or more when browser open) ram usage.

It crawls in cpu performance: task mgr says 52% on average when nothing is open, 92% to 100% when just the browser is open.

I didn't realize it at first, but it seems that there is so much "bloat" software and browser-ware installed on this unit, the task mgr had like two pages worth of garbage installed.

The mcaffe antivirus and firewall were constantly eating cpu and ram, stalling everything.

win7se is soo bloated on this machine, how can anyone servive it.

pros:
Well, at least i got the chance to test the wi-fi, and it does work well for what i needed (or would need) it for.

forum troll, how were you able to remove win7se and install xp ?

I don't have the skills level to acomplish that, and my only copy of xp home edition is already installed on my video workstation pc. I will look into getting that extra 1gig ram, thanks for that tip.

If I can't get an xp install somehow, can you provde some tips onhow to remove everything ? ..firewall, antivirs, and all the bloat. The wi-fi I would use at work so I have the firewall protection. thank you.

-vhelp 5442

[usually_quiet]

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, Avast Free, and Comodo's free firewall on a 3GHz dual core desktop with 2GB of memory. The OS and and security software eats up about 1GB of memory. Windows 7 SE should require fewer resources, however 2GHz ought to be considered the minumum for Windows 7 32-bit. I've only run into problems when I'm running Google's Chrome Browser with many tabs open.

Going back to using Windows XP is your call, but there are things I like about Windows 7. It takes some time to get used to the differences, but if you can install more memory, give it a chance. Replacing your antivirus and securty software may help too. You can try what I use, for an antivirus. Avira, and Microsoft Securty Essentials are supposed to pretty decent too.

I would normally advise starting over with a HDD format and clean OS install to remove the bloat and the antivirus, but I have the install discs for the OS and other software I own. I'm not sure how that would work with a system restore disc. You may need an external optical drive for OS and software installation. (My sister has a netbook, and with no internal optical drive and no home network, that is what she had to use.)

Some of the programs installed on your netbook are likely to be trial versions, and you will need to replace them, or buy them if you want to continue using them.

[vhelp]

The browser looks non-standard, google always showing. I tried removing it by diactivating it but in the task mgr is still showing signs of living. While on wi-fi this afternoon, surfing over to the yousedit and megaupload (trying to upload sample clips) but browser displayed "page not displayable" message, and when I tried same url on my workpc next to it, all was good. I don't know what this machine is doing other than it seems unreliable in some cases. Strange, because iTues webpage is blocked from our workpc, but over wi-fi i can access it and other blocked pages. Anyway, i'm not giving up on this. I picked up a carry bag, mini usb mouse, and cooling fan for it. Tomorrow i'll have another 1gig added to it, see if that'll help.

-vhelp 5444

[usually_quiet]

The browser looks non-standard, google always showing. I tried removing it by diactivating it but in the task mgr is still showing signs of living. While on wi-fi this afternoon, surfing over to the yousedit and megaupload (trying to upload sample clips) but browser displayed

Google always showing where? If it is the search box, to the right of the URL box, click the arrow at the right end of the box and you can change to another provider. There is a manager for search engines and add-ons, including toolbars under "Manage Search Providers".

You can change the homepage by clicking Tools->Internet Options as usual. If its a Google toolbar giving you problems, I think I had to get rid of one toolbar using Control Panel->Programs->Uninstall a program.

[vhelp]

I took the netbook back to the store to have the OS swapped, win7se to winxp, and also to have the 2-gig ram installed. I asked to have it bloat-free. They would do it. So, i'm anxiously waiting for its return so i can continue testing out the usb2 capture capabilities now that I know it can handle it and since they will remove the bloat and reformat/ image to winxp, i know it will be much faster and responsive, cpu definately won't be in the 50% plus range anymore which means vhs captures will be better, i hope, so we shall see. Anyway, i know its is good machine. The cooling fan i got for it really works. I just bought a usb modem, it works perfectly, so i can't wait to get the machine back. Next i'll try and see if i can configure it to be wi-fi (I have no idea at the moment, but maybe if i hook up a the included either cord to it and my new wi-fi router it might work, i don't know) so that I can at least use my ipod touch, am not worried about the slowness since that's all i know and the ipod is just a tiny url window etc, not much worried with the speed. So if I get that much to work, i'll be very happy--tips will be very welcomed. Anyway, thanks for the home page tip.

-vhelp 5446

[vhelp]

Well, here's the latest news, sorry the lateness. I've had the netbook for a new days now. Anyway, but after nearly two weeks the tech(s) did actually nothing to the unit. I guess they couldn't get into my pc to unlock it and also didn't know how to install the ram. they said cound't downgrade, win7 to xp because of liciense issues. But they did at least refund my money and gave me the 2gig mem for free. So i've been trying to get accustom to the win7 nonense. So far i managed to get it to look more xp'ish by removing all the bells and whistles. And, removed a lot of the pre-installed software. I kept what I thought I should keep. So far, the cpu resources has reduced a lot and now seems to be down to 2% give or take. Now, I have to figure out how to install the 2-gig mem in this unit. From what I heard it is not an easy task. Still, I do love this little guy. I just can't believe how much they veared from the original flavor of the netbook. Sort of kills the notebook thing because they are both the same, really. Well, i'm not tech guru, my vic-20 days are long gone and forgotten

-vhelp 5451

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