Acer Aspire 1700

[Pinchy]

I'm hoping for someone with hands on experience with this laptop, as I have searched the net and havent found much..

Ive got this Aspire 1700 laptop, and want to upgrade the CPU, RAM and hard drive.

Its currently got:
Socket 478 2.6Ghz P4 @ 400FSB
512mb (2x256mb) PC2100 184-pin DDR RAM
80GB 3.5" 7200RPM IDE hard drive


I want to turn that into:
3Ghz P4 @ 533 FSB
1GB PC3200 (2x512mb)
250GB 3.5" 7200RPM IDE hard drive


Now, the questions :

CPU - Finding a 478 3Ghz CPU with 533 front side bus is quite hard. If I got an 800FSB model, what would happen? Would it run at 533FSB or would it just not work?

RAM - Does it take normal DDR RAM? I know its 184-pin, but is there anything special about it?
Also, Acer say max RAM is 1GB (2x512mb), but I think thats because 512mb sticks were the only thing around when the laptop was made. Now, with 1GB sticks, would I be able to put 2GB in it, or wont the motherboard support it?

Hard disk - Same deal with the 2GB RAM thing. Acer say that it can take a 120GB hard drive, but can I put something bigger in it...like 250GB or 400? Or would it just not work. I mean, its a normal 3.5" desktop hard drive with a normal power molex and IDE port.


Thanks in adv

 

[Polaris573]

What chipset does the motherboard use? Even if the chipset officially supports 800MHz processors there is still a chance that the BIOS would not. Your laptop does, in fact, take 184 Pin DDR RAM which I found rather surprising since many use SO-DIMM. It should be able to support 2GB just fine. There shouldn't be any problem with installing a larger hard drive.

Acer 1700 Manual

 

[Pinchy]

SiS M650 Northbridge chipset, no southbridge (in Everst anways).

Thanks for the answes . Yeah it was designed as a "desknote" not a laptop, so it takes a lot of desktop parts. Just one thing...how sure are you on the 2GB RAM/hard drive (im not too fussed about the CPU, its moreso the RAM and hard drive).

 

[peach1971]

Found these SiS M650 specs:

 

[Pinchy]

Well that proves the 2GB of RAM is possible (unless there could be BIOS limitations?...).

 

[peach1971]

Just be prepared for RMA in case of BIOS limitations.
Looking at my experiences, I´ve never seen such BIOS limitations. Only chipset limitations.

 

[sfan]

I'm hoping for someone with hands on experience with this laptop, as I have searched the net and havent found much..

Ive got this Aspire 1700 laptop, and want to upgrade the CPU, RAM and hard drive.

Its currently got:
Socket 478 2.6Ghz P4 @ 400FSB
512mb (2x256mb) PC2100 184-pin DDR RAM
80GB 3.5" 7200RPM IDE hard drive


I want to turn that into:
3Ghz P4 @ 533 FSB
1GB PC3200 (2x512mb)
250GB 3.5" 7200RPM IDE hard drive


Now, the questions :

CPU - Finding a 478 3Ghz CPU with 533 front side bus is quite hard. If I got an 800FSB model, what would happen? Would it run at 533FSB or would it just not work?

RAM - Does it take normal DDR RAM? I know its 184-pin, but is there anything special about it?
Also, Acer say max RAM is 1GB (2x512mb), but I think thats because 512mb sticks were the only thing around when the laptop was made. Now, with 1GB sticks, would I be able to put 2GB in it, or wont the motherboard support it?

Hard disk - Same deal with the 2GB RAM thing. Acer say that it can take a 120GB hard drive, but can I put something bigger in it...like 250GB or 400? Or would it just not work. I mean, its a normal 3.5" desktop hard drive with a normal power molex and IDE port.


Thanks in adv

Did the CPU upgrade work ?

 

[Pinchy]

Never tried the CPU...but the hard drive and RAM did

 

[mendor]

i have an acer aspire 1700 too and i tried to install a WD HDD 500GB but only regognised the 137GB.even before installing the windows i try to partition the hard disc with partitionlogic and it showed me only 138 gb instead of 500gb. please advise what to do...

 

[Polaris573]

Windows does not recognize hard drives greater than 137 GB in size until service pack 2 is installed. Install service pack 2 or slipstream service pack 2 onto your disc so that Windows detects the entire drive during installation.

 

[mendor]

I allready install windows xp sp2 but still dont regognise the full capasity of HDD.i install the WD as a primary disk.BIOS regognise the model of the disk but before installing the windows i tried to partition the disk and the programm only regognise 137GB.maybe is a BIOS issue...

 

[mendor]

Never tried the CPU...but the hard drive and RAM did

what version of BIOS do u have ? 3c13? because a have an older version and it doesnt regognise hard disk capasity over 120 GB

 

[Pinchy]

No idea man its almost been a year.

You got the jumper on the drive set to master?

 

[Polaris573]

Let me make sure I understand. You tried to partition it before you installed windows but you have not tried again after installing service pack 2 correct? If so then click start > control panel > administrative tools > computer management > Disk Management. There should be a second section on your hard drive that says unpartitioned space (or something similar) after the 137GB partition. Right click on it and format it using your favorite file system.

 

[Pinchy]

Does BIOS say its 138GB or 500GB?

 

[mendor]

No idea man its almost been a year.

You got the jumper on the drive set to master?

No the jumper is set to "cable select"

 

[mendor]

Does BIOS say its 138GB or 500GB?

BIOS regognise the Hard drive by its real model.but cannot/dont know how to see if regognise the capasity

 

[mendor]

Let me make sure I understand. You tried to partition it before you installed windows but you have not tried again after installing service pack 2 correct? If so then click start > control panel > administrative tools > computer management > Disk Management. There should be a second section on your hard drive that says unpartitioned space (or something similar) after the 137GB partition. Right click on it and format it using your favorite file system.

i triedn that and there isnt any second section on the hard drive.

 

[Pinchy]

Set the drive to master and see how it pans out.

Also to check what BIOS recognises the capacity at, just go to hard drives, when you see it hit enter and it will give you information about the drive (eg, capacity)

 

[mendor]

Set the drive to master and see how it pans out.

Also to check what BIOS recognises the capacity at, just go to hard drives, when you see it hit enter and it will give you information about the drive (eg, capacity)

i set it to master and then to single but nothing change in both cases.i will try reformat the disk and use a tool from western digital's site.maybe that will do the work...(even i dont think so)

 

[mendor]

Set the drive to master and see how it pans out.

Also to check what BIOS recognises the capacity at, just go to hard drives, when you see it hit enter and it will give you information about the drive (eg, capacity)

i have updated the BIOS version to a3c14.still nothing...although i have an external HDD drive at 160GB that is regognised by windows..i dont know if this is of ant importance.

 

[itpeg]

320 GB on an Aspire 1700

Nice post! Just what i was looking for. Anyways I tried every method I knew and also some which I read on the post but no luck. It seems the Mboard itself wont recognize the HDD above 137GB. I had similar problems with older boards which would not support HDDs above 40GB so I would always format and partition the HDD (only keep a single partition) and install the OS (back in the days of win98) on a different system which supported HDDs above 40GB. I guess I will have to do the same here but WinXP will not work on different systems so I will just partition on other system and then install WinXP on that same partition without deleting it. I hope it works or if you try it first then lemme know. Regards

 

[mendor]

Nice post! Just what i was looking for. Anyways I tried every method I knew and also some which I read on the post but no luck. It seems the Mboard itself wont recognize the HDD above 137GB. I had similar problems with older boards which would not support HDDs above 40GB so I would always format and partition the HDD (only keep a single partition) and install the OS (back in the days of win98) on a different system which supported HDDs above 40GB. I guess I will have to do the same here but WinXP will not work on different systems so I will just partition on other system and then install WinXP on that same partition without deleting it. I hope it works or if you try it first then lemme know. Regards

Did it work afterall?

 

[itpeg]

Havent tried yet. Will surely do it in the evening - im still in office. Reg

 

[mendor]

if anyone knows will a PCMCIA card with e-sata connected with an external disk work at my laptop (acer1700) ?