yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows 8 General] alpharetta:
I read good review about Acer W500 and people installing Windows 8 on it. I just bought a used Iconia W500 with the attention to tryout W8. However the tablet package I got does not have any document or CD (restoration CD I assume) with it.

When power up, Win 7 show up, I tested a little bit and quite disappointed with the performance on both the Acer tablet and Windows 7 on it. It is far down away company to Dell Streak 5 and Samsung Galaxy S II.

Questions to the experts:

1. Should I upgrade the tablet (hardware perspective) so that it can run faster? Or just exchange with other brand name tablets, which has more power?

2. I still want to stick with Windows 7 or 8, because of the nature of my works. I need windows. What other android tablet which allow me to install windows 8 on it?

3. As for the Iconia W500 I have right now, please guide me how to back up Windows 7 first? What software do I need to make the back up the entire OS? I do have portable USB external drive about 500 GB. I also have USB portable DVD drive.

Thanks

Alpharetta
[Windows 8 General] JulianoLoren:
1. Should I upgrade the tablet (hardware perspective) so that it can run faster? Or just exchange with other brand name tablets, which has more power?

Upgrade :D
[Windows 8 General] lijojohnson:
Hi, keep in mind that windows 7 and the windows 8 developer edition does not support ARM processors (windows 8 will, soon). The processor in the tablet you have now must be a x86 processor for it to be running windows 7.

Also, check the start menu for restoration media creator or something of the like. Machines nowadays do not come with restore media. But they do come with a program to create that restore media.
[Windows 8 General] CruciasNZ:
I installed Win8 on my HP Mini 500 and there is a performance increase across the board.

Boot up is faster

Ribbon explorer makes it really easy for touch

Win8 has a dedicated keyboard for tablets

Less system resources used by junk processes
[Windows 8 General] beartrap:
I got a W500 for Christmas and a 64gb hard drive. I immediately swapped out hard drives before the first boot and put Windows 8 on it. I love this machine with Windows 8. I didn't load any of the Acer bloatware and only loaded what I had to have. It is speedy and very responsive. Windows 8 dp has a lot of room for improvement, but is better than Windows 7 for this machine. Everything works as it should and I don't see any reason to put Windows 7 on it.
[Windows 8 General] sruthika:
Is socialite working?
[Windows 8 General] beartrap:
I hadn't tried until I read your post. No, it is not.
[Windows 8 General] xiadz:
I've just finished swapping to windows8 on my iconia w500

the first thing is It was not so easy.....I've made it from USB drive and swapped for 64bit one.

System is more responsive

Ease of use comparing to Win7 much better

I see that I need bigger HDD the 32 Giga one that it came with was already on 23.7 from 29.8 avaliable in just 3days of use!!! That was on win7

now on win8 and it is on 17.9 after updates.. so not to good not to bad.

i've already found mSATA 64gb for 83£ wich is the cheapest here in Uk

AFAIK thais the only update You can do to your Iconia W500

my opinion swap ssd and go for win8 you will like it more

Regards
[Windows 8 General] geebake:
I bought a refurbed W500 cheap the other day. I had W8 up and running within about an hour. I didn't bother backing it up first.

Since then, I've done lots of monkey and have learned a great deal.

W8 32 bit seems to be the best way to go. The drivers from Acers site work to get the g sensor and screen rotation stuff working. The only thing that doesn't work correctly is Firefox. You can't click on bookmarks from the touch screen.

W8 64 works but the drivers don't work. There's also no reason to have 64 bit windows running with so little ram.

BTW I installed from an external DVD. The USB method appears to work, but is seems to be more of a pain. I had to buy an external DVD drive and got a writer for $32.

I'm very impressed with the performance. W8 runs great. Almost was recognized by the OS and all I had to do was install drivers for the G Sensor etc.

The Metro stuff is silky smooth.

After an install and a fairly judicious disk cleanup, I have about 20 gb of space remaining. I disabled hibernation to get rid of the enormous hybernation file.

There are still little quirks in W8 but it's not even a beta. I have high hopes for newer builds.

This thing is the tablet I've wanted for a long time. For $368 and the cost of the external drive, I couldn't be happier.

FYI, I also have Ubuntu running on it now and still have 12 GB free.

Greg

FYI, to get the thing to boot to the dvd: Shut down, hold Windows Button and Volume Up and press Power. Took me a while to find that.
[Windows 8 General] rockhumper:
Hey when you say the drivers for 64 bit do not work can you be more specific about what drivers? I installed 64 bit on my touch screen ASUS all in one desktop and it worked, but the touch screen drivers did not work. So it was a very poor experience for me...I mean the whole point is to be more touchscreen friendly....I have not found any solution yet to this issue for my computer and I Was surprised the drivers were not easily identified and working with such a new computer....let me know what you all think. Thanks!
[Windows 8 General] geebake:
In the case of the W500, the G-Sensor driver is where the problem lies. It only means that the screen won't auto rotate when you flip it around. I'm sure you don't do that with your all in one desktop so it's probably not an issue common to both models.

The touch screen on the W500 works perfectly out of the box. In fact, the only driver I had to install to make it work was the G-Sensor driver.

Interestingly, I found another issue. In 32 bit W8, Firefox doesn't work completely correctly. When you open a menu (ie bookmarks) you can't use the touch screen to select anything in the menu. Works fine if you use a mouse. However, in 64 bit W8, Firefox works perfectly. So you're left with a choice. Proper screen rotation or correctly working Firefox. I'm sure this will get resolved with either a Firefox update or perhaps the full beta of W8.
[Windows 8 General] shakshak1:
I have Iconia W500 for a month now.

If you would like to keep Win7 (for any reason), connect an ext hdd and create a windows image on it, you can restore it later any time.

I installed Win8 32 bit, you will have a completely different experience - Win7 is a S##t on W500.

Installing Win8 is pretty easy --> http://www.microsoftnow.com/2011/09/how-to-install-windows-8-on-acer-iconia-tab-w500.html

BTW: I faced some minor bugs in W8 but on the other hand, you have a decent windows tablet.

Go for Win8 and you will like it :)

Good luck.
[Windows 8 General] luigi90210:
like yourself I also got an acer w500 tablet because I have been reading good reviews about this tablet with windows 8. I bought mine brand new because any tablet after dec 2011 was upgraded to the amd c60 processor, tbh I love it, it is the definition of mobile computing

So to answers your questions

1 only upgrade if you want to spend 1000+ for a tablet as good as the w500

2 stick with windows 8 once you get used to it, its much faster than windows 7 in terms of productivity. And no android tablet will allow the installation of windows.

3 Google will be your best bet for that, because I got mine new, I have all the recovery disks.
[Windows 8 General] IM0001:
Got the W500 less than 2 weeks ago and first thing I did was install Win8RP on it.

Easy as pie. Just extract the Win8ISO directly onto a fresh USB drive and boot off that.

Once Win8 is installed, you will need to install the Gsensor driver from acers site, and the Device Control app to turn on Bluetooth for the first time. (Windows will install the generic BT drivers but they are sorta wonky)

You will want to get the latest ATI Beta drivers (I like them at least) from guru3d.com (The 9.0.0 JUNE base drivers, not to be confused with the 12.X version naming), also the official Realtek drivers from their site (not the Acer ones) and the Atheros Bluetooth drivers from http://www.atheros.cz/ (Just get the DRIVER FILES ONLY download for your OS (x86/64). No need for anything outside of that. To install the BT drivers, just extract the files to a folder, and go into device manager and update all the bluetooth devices it shows by point them to the folder that has the extracted drivers. Once you do that you should be able to turn on and off the Bluetooth from the Wireless tab in Windows 8 Settings and you can delete the device control app from the system.

The Bluetooth remains a bit wonky, My guess because it isnt an official Win8 driver, but it does work for the most part. It may say it cannot turn off the BT on occasion but do it twice and then wait a second, it usually will get the radio disabled on the 2nd try lol.
[Windows 8 General] luigi90210:
i just installed the acer drivers for this tablet from acer's website, no issues with Bluetooth, rotation, graphics, audio ect. i think you just downloaded the wrong Bluetooth driver, just get the one from acer along with the device control app, it makes everything a whole lot simpler and it works like a charm, no hangs, drops, ect.
[Windows 8 General] Nagelzz:
Hey dude. I had a W500 for some time, but sold it, but that's not my point.

Regarding the G-sensor fix, i figured out how to fix it.

What you need to install is:

G Sensor Driver

Auto Screen Rotation Blocker

HID Monitor for acer Ring

(From http://support.acer.com/product/default.aspx?modelId=3853)

If it doesn't rotate after this, try and find the HIDmonitor.exe file on your computer, then run it and try again.

I put the file in startup to make sure it always worked. And it did :)
[Windows 8 General] arpu26:
Hey guys,

I want to buy one for desktop replace. Is it good for cheap price? How's performance for browsing? Sometimes I need to open few heavy websites.
[Windows 8 General] the-wrangler:
Depends what you use it for really..I haven't used my desktop since I bought this. Love it. Side note, my keyboard only pops up when I use the metro IE and touch a input box but not with the desktop IE. I have to press the keyboard icon on the taskbar for desktop browsing. Any one have any ideas why that'd be?
[Windows 8 General] arpu26:
My work is testing websites. So I will plug with hdmi to my monitor. Can it handle with second monitor with extended desktop? What max resolution can it have? Also I need to have opened 3-4 heavy websites. Have it enougt power for that?

Now I'm working with very old and laggy Athlon XP 2500+ 1,8 Ghz 512 GB RAM PC.
[Windows 8 General] arpu26:
What is program compatability on Win8?
[Windows 8 General] the-wrangler:
Ah gotcha, someone else may be able to chime in because I'm unsure if it would handle it or not. Sorry mate
[Windows 8 General] phailyoor:
It will work with an external monitor. I have tried it with a 1920x1200 display and it works fine. It will lagg on very heavy websites though, especially on a larger fullscreen display.
[Windows 8 General] arpu26:
Thanks. Maybe I will wait for MS Surface or something.
[Windows 8 General] iamwin:
Guys! Im new on w500. Mine has the stock 32gb SSD. Im just wondering, is it possible to install windows 8 on SD card? Or if not, is it possible for windows 7 to be installed on SD card? Im thinking of dual booting my tab, one OS on the SSD while the other one is on the SD..

One more thing,supposed I repartitioned the SSd and installed win8, will the recovery dvds restore my tab to factory default (revert partition to single 32gb)? Thanks in advance!
[Windows 8 General] N3croman:
I got W500 - done clean install of Windows 8 Enterprise trial, waiting for the upgrade possibility.

Windows 8 works fine, but I had to install the Device Center and driver for the orientation sensor. Better place for discussion about W500 and Windows 8 is probably here:

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/acer-gateway/
[Windows 8 General] iamwin:
Thanks! I just downloaded win8 rp and win8 pro (rtm,i believe) iso. Which one would you recommend? Also,i would like to know if i could run win7 virtually from win8? Is it possible to install win7 (virtually) on my 32gb sd card? Thanks again!:)
[Windows 8 General] iamwin:
finished installing win8 pro on my w500. however, why is it that Acer ring is lacking most features?
[Windows 8 General] vans2:
Just bought and downloaded Windows 8 onto a W500.

It is really easy and as far as I am concerned well worth the £25 or so.

Once you have downloaded the software you get a choice of how to instal it. There is not enough free space with a 32gb SSD to do it from inside Win7. That is not a problem because you get the option to make a bootable USB, I used an old 4gb USB drive.

Then reboot to bios (power button, Microsoft button, then quickly F2).

In BIOS choose to boot to the USB, then reboot.

Windows does everything else. It works well even with no Acer drivers installed.

bing maps and be tiles flow really well. Video from a 64gb sd card is also working well.

So far I have not been able to get screen rotation to work. Also I am still getting use to Windows 8, I have needed to google just to find out how to do some of the basics

Google chrome has a YouTube bug. In full screen mode I cannot stop, pause or reduce the video. iE does not have this issue.
[Windows 8 General] iamwin:
that's what other w500 users who bought the official windows 8 (released Oct 26)..they were not able to make auto rotation to work properly.. but on the previews, autorotate works perfectly...what could be the problem? maybe the missing drivers? i would stick to my Windows 8 RTM (Pro) rather than going to the official windows 8 until a fix will be released. My windows 8 RTM will be valid till March 31, 2013 though. I still have a couple of months to enjoy my Win8 RTM while waiting for the fix on autorotation..

may be somebody can request ACER to release a patch or something for this bug...
[Windows 8 General] vans2:
That is good to know, it will save me a lot of time trying to fix the unfixable.

Does Device Control work with RMT? When I try to open the app it produces a "Program has stopped working " error.
[Windows 8 General] vans2:
I found the fix on another forum. You need to download the latest AMD driver, I went to the AMD site and used their auto scan function, it detected the update needed. After it loaded, Device Control worked and so does rotation.
[Windows 8 General] iamwin:
thanks man! :)
[Windows 8 General] raskell:
I presume you are still talking that the AMD driver update and screen rotation are working for 32 bit? When I first bought my W500, I upgraded it to 64bit windows 7 Professional on a 128GB MSata drive. This tablet is much better suited for Windows 8. I had essentially lost most of my interest in using it with W7, but when W8 launched last week, I grabbed a half price copy from my local computer store and the migration to W8Pro from dvd was childs play. it is SOOOOO much nicer with W8 on it. I had never tried the preview launches because the path back to W7 looked a bit messy (i.e.: a full wipe and reinstall) wich would not have been all tha bad. I have been using the W500 now daily in some form or another. I haven't grown bored at all with it. Screen rotation is the only thing not working for me on 64bit, but I did download a screen flip app that sits in the desktop system tray, so manually flipping the screen is only a few swipes away. It seem a bit awkward in Portrail Mode to me. I can do almost everything in Landscape without problems, but if anyone knows of a fix for the G-Sensor in 64Bit, please post it.
[Windows 8 General] DarkLG:
I remember installing a rotation driver when I used windows 8 preview on w500.
[Windows 8 General] vans2:
Yes, I am using 32bit Windows 8 with the AMD driver update.

Out of interest, what is the advantage of using 64bit? Is it notably faster?

Thanks
[Windows 8 General] keenan316:
64Bit Editions can address more than 4GB of memory, 32bit is limited to 3.5GB. So if you have 4GB of memory or more then you'll need to install 64bit to make use of all of it..

Sent from my GT-N7000 Rocking RocketMIUI v6 .... Buufed!!
[Windows 8 General] raskell:
I wouldn't say it is any noticeably faster. In general, having a CPU and hardware capable of running 64 Bit and loading a 64 Bit O/S is, in some way, future-proofing the device. I know that 64Bit has been around a long time and it seems like 32 Bit has been the workhorse just about forever, but I still remember the days of 8 Bit machines, in the early 80's. Eventtually, 64 Bit systems will be the dominant and 32 Bit should phase out, but who knows for sure. I also remember when the V6 was introduced, it was to make the V8 obsolete within a decade, and that didn't happen either.

One other not so obvious is the issue of encryption. With 64 Bit machines, you can take better advantage of higher security, if you need that. The USG Agencies still limit the maximum limit of encryption to 128Bit (I believe that's where it is) which to me, means they must have the ability to de-crypt 256 Bit.
[Android General] scandiun:
I usually use a simple patter to unlock, so it's easy for everyday use, but if my phone is stolen anyone could find the combination via brute force.

I would like to set a method so after, say 5 intents, it requires a long password / other thing.

i haven't found it on the operating system itself, even on Android 4.0.3, so anyone could help?
[Android General] shockem:
I doubt there's a way. Unless you use a lockscreen app plus a main password. Or use face unlock in ice to have it unlocked by face or use password if face unlock fails. Good luck.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] wxcolon:
Hey guys, still having the issue with my screen flipping when I turn the screen off.. Any answers to how u can resolve this? I've wiped all and re flash but still no luck. Thanks guys :)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Eddiepapi:
What rom?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] seagullchris:
Try doing gyro sensor calibration
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] wxcolon:
Caulkins 2.6. It did it on his previous version as well but not before that

galactic FIRE!
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] wxcolon:
I'll try it out.

galactic FIRE!
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] jimlivingston:
Same problem here. Also on C2.6. I've found that if I can launch the browser by touching where the icons 'should be', it goes back to normal. That or I can simply reboot when the error occurs.

Also, the screen isn't simply upside down. It is also mirrored. Yet, the actual location of the dock icons are where they belong. It is just that they are misrepresented on the screen. Even the effects (button presses) are misrepresented on the screen.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MikeC84:
It happens with the ics rotation animation. Remove the ics rotation animation and you will not have that problem.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] JohnCorleone:
Or remove the CRT animation. I believe you need to choose one or the other
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] wxcolon:
How would I go about doing so? I'm still a little new to all of this.

galactic FIRE!
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] wxcolon:
Caulk released new version with fix!

galactic FIRE!
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] JohnCorleone:
Yup, new Calkulin build has no CRT
[HTC Amaze 4G] windcan:
hello i just got an amaze and with its camera and video quality i think i need a better sd card as my current one is class 2. any recommendations and letting me me know what the phone can handle without paying for more than i need would be greatly appreciated.

thanks very much
[HTC Amaze 4G] Angelus47:
The Amaze can handle a class 10 memory card. This would be preferred as it has the fastest read and write speed that I know of. I am currently using a 16GB class 6 SanDisk and it works really well.

Hope this is helpful. Or maybe someone else can give you more info.

Sent from my world to yours using an HTC Amaze
[HTC Amaze 4G] nguyendqh:
This should do the trick.

http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-...H4U0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1325371114&sr=8-2
[HTC Amaze 4G] windcan:
Looks like it may be worth it to go straight to class 10.

Thanks
[HTC Amaze 4G] Totòòò:
PNY class 10.
[HTC Amaze 4G] jimczyz:
I just got a Samsung 32gb class 10 and it works great.
[HTC Amaze 4G] windcan:
what is "PNY"?
[HTC Amaze 4G] HuskyHamburger:
PNY is just a brand
[HTC Amaze 4G] marleyfan61:
Picked up a Lexar 32gb class 10 for $45 on boxing day. (for you Americans, that's the day after Christmas)
[HTC Amaze 4G] Violated:
lol
[HTC Amaze 4G] gregb882:
Confused

My Amaze is on it's way to my door this Wednesday, and I too am on the hunt for a good class 10 micro SD card. I had a Patriot 32 GB ordered from Amazon (it had 4+ stars), but then I started reading specific user ratings. It almost looks as though there is a problem with quality/consistency with many of the 32GB class 10s. The Patriot, and several others, had quite a few recent users complain that their class 10 doesn't run any faster then their old class 2 or 4. (The complaints I tried to focused on are from users who had run speed tests and didn't just provide seat-of-the-pants analysis.) Admittedly, I was going for as cheap as I could (the Patriot was only $47), but I looked at several others and they had spotty speed comments as well.

Does anyone have specific knowledge or insight on this? Is it an issue with lower cost manufacturers whereby one card is great but the next can be dreadful. Is it the nature of the beast?

I appreciate your comments.
[HTC Amaze 4G] Sharpshooterrr:
A class 10 card isn't the way to go with smartphones. Best to get a class 4.
[HTC Amaze 4G] windcan:
really, class 4, why?

too late for me, order my 32gb class 10

curious to understand this whole thing

thanks
[HTC Amaze 4G] marleyfan61:
I could understand saying a class 10 isn't necessary, but to say it isn't the way to go, a class 4 is best doesn't make sense. Care to explain why?
[HTC Amaze 4G] gregb882:
UHS-1 Cards

I just read where UHS-1 class microSD's "were made for mobile devices". Something about being specifically designed to work with those operating systems. Anyone have experience with any of those? They're awfully expensive.
[HTC Amaze 4G] antiquezip:
If you uses a class 2 SD card with a capacity of less than 16Gb and mostly uses it to transfer small files between your phone and PC - that would be sufficiency enough.

If you intend to use a bigger card, say, 32Gb or 64Gb and you are doing a lot of transferring MP3, movies, pictures ect ... especially if moving BIG files, say, more than 1 Gb each (e.g a full MP4 movie may take up to almost 2Gb)

OR

You are frequently backup your SDCard contains and moving them between PC and phone. You will appreciates the higher speed/class of your SDCard. Higher class means higher speed in reading and writting hence saving you a lot of time.

You will not notice much differences between a class 2 and a class 10 card when using it inside your phone though.

An SDCard speeding test's result will be differ from devices and that's exactly manufacturer's stated on their package/info, but, basically you got what you paid for. As we all know, Sandisk is the most expensive card out there and there is a reason for it, just do a little research and you'll know why. Sandisk classed their card at the

minimum

speed that their cards are capable of, whereas other manufacturer tend to class their card at the average speed that their cards capable of. Meaning a classs 10 Samsung/PNY/Patriot card may not capable of reaching the claimed speed (because, well, results are varies on devices) and the result maybe a little lower than claimed (I've tried Samsung class 10 and PNY class 10 test and the result is somewhere more or less than 9Gb/s writting).

Anyway, a class 2 16Gb Sandisk card is good enough for an average user whereas a higher class/capacity card will increase performances for those who demand more for their task/hobbies/usage