Windows 7 on an Acer C111

[lozmatic]

Has anyone managed to install Windows 7 on their C11*?

If so, how does it run?

[Zem]

I did an upgrade installation of Windows 7 on my C111 starting with a fresh install from acer recovery cd's (Windows XP Tablet Edition), put on sp3 for XP, upgraded to Vista Business Edition and finally to Vista sp1 (Vista sp1 is necessary for an upgrade installation of Windows 7). I decided against a fresh installation of Windows 7 because I hoped I could force windows to use the all the rather old acer tools and drivers - and to my surprise it worked fine. (Some time ago I did try a fresh install of Vista and there were difficulties with installing wlan and bluetooth drivers, also automatic screen rotation didn't work then).

I enjoyed the new tablet input panel very much, the handwriting recognition works great and feels really smooth compared to Windows XP. The system seems to run just as fast as it does under Windows XP sp3 (I did upgrade the Acers hardware though with a newer harddrive and additional 1024 MB RAM).

There is however a big catch in it: Windows 7 beta does not provide a build in driver for the Intel 855gm graphics chipset, there is no compatible (wddm-)driver available from Intel and Windows 7 does not support the older xddm-driver model which was used under xp (and is still supported by Vista), so you are forced to stay with the standard vga driver. As a result there are two major drawbacks:

1) Screen rotation doesn't work: the standard vga driver doesn't support a screen resolution of 786x1024 (1024x768 does work fine though)
2) Hibernation will fail

I do not have much hope that there will be a solution for this issue, which really is a shame. Windows 7 would be a worthy upgrade otherwise.

[lozmatic]

Ah, shame about the vga driver.

Do you think that a fresh installation of Win 7 would work as smoothly as what you did? I don't have Vista as the intermediate step.

Cheers,

Loz

[Zem]

With a fresh installation of Windows 7 you will have problems with some of the drivers refusing to install - though it may help to run the setup routine in compatibility mode. Same goes with hardware related software tools from Acer (e.g. software button). Under Vista the system didn't even recognize the build in bluetooth/modem device which was not an issue when I did an upgrade installation.

On the other hand if you just want to make a testdrive of Windows 7 and can do without the little gizmos, go for it! :)

[Zem]

I finally managed to install the xddm Intel driver for the 855gm chipset following the instructions provided by "amcl" at www[dot]sevenforums[dot]com/drivers/637-installing-video-driver-intel-855-centrino-chipset-3.html (sorry, I'm obviously not allowed to post url's on this forum yet) - it's the very last message on the site. Basically you first have to install the Intel 945 driver which comes with Windows 7, ignoring all error messages, reboot the computer and then exchange the faulty 945 driver with the 855gm one.

Screen rotation is now working as expected, I still have problems though with hibernating.

[Zem]

It's running, finally!:) Following the suggestions made by torbenm and BigJimmy at "sevenforums[dot]com/drivers/637-installing-video-driver-intel-855-centrino-chipset-6.html#post91001" I finally managed to install the Intel xddm 855gm driver on Windows 7 RC. Screen rotation is working as well as hibernating. The system seems to run stable. So far I haven't experienced any BSOD while watching videos even though 3d-acceleration remains on default (full) settings.

The driver installation however is a bit strange: using driver version 6.14.10.4656 (you can get a copy at "justendeal[dot]com/driver/855gm_vista_driver.zip") you will first experience a black screen while the installation progresses in background. Give it some time until the harddrive stops spinning and the system settles down. Now do a hard-poweroff (push the powerbutton for some seconds) and reboot. The driver should now be properly installed.

Some further comments before you start:
1) Do remove any other 855gm driver you might have tried before from device manager (agree also to delete the driver files when being asked).
2) Reboot and repeat step 1) until there is only the standard vga driver or unkown device listed in device manager.
3) Disable integrity check: at cmd-prompt (run as admin) submit the command: bcdedit /set nointegritychecks on
4) Extract the 855gm driver, open device manager and manually update the standard vga with this one
5) When the screen goes blank DO NOT:
-- plugin an external monitor
-- switch monitor output to external (fn-F5 key)
-- reboot the computer using (blindly) cmd-prompt (shutdown /r)
-- switch resolution using (blindly) cmd-prompt and pushing alt+enter
=> doing any of the above seems to make windows switch back do standard vga driver (screen comes back again) but will prevent the new driver from being installed properly.
6) Instead do a hard shutdown: push powerbutton a few seconds until the machine shuts down
7) Reboot and enjoy.. :)

Some little annoyances remain:
1) Sound-control using the fn-key doesn't work (perhaps a driver update would help - I haven't tried yet)
2) Wlan connection is a bit stubborn: it will find the network but refuses to connect (authentication problem?) - that is until I plugin a wired connection to the same network. Doing that the wlan will connect also and remains functional when unpluging the cable - so what the hack?! I didn't have any wlan problems when using Windows 7 Beta.

Update wlan: I fixed the issue by using a static ip address instead of a dynamic one. Somehow Windows 7 seems to confuse my home-routers dhcp-server, though I don't really understand yet how or why it is able to do so.

[rogerwillson]

hi there...

It´s been nearly a year since the first Tablet PC notebooks hit the local market, and since that time, Tablets as a category have been somewhat quiet. Acer´s Travelmate C111 marks the company´s latest entry into the Tablet sphere. The big change that the C111 brings to the table is the inclusion of a Centrino badge and Bluetooth connectivity. The C110 we tested was powered by a 1GHzMHz Mobile Pentium M processor,OS Windows 7.. 512MB of SDRAM and sported a 40GB hard drive. Tablets still sit very solidly in the enterprise space – or, presumably, the very affluent enthusiast one – so it´s little surprise to see that the C111 is somewhat underpowered in the graphics department; it uses Intel´s own homegrown integrated 855GM graphics processor.