InsaneNutter

Before going ahead and installing Windows 7 on my Ferrari 4000 I did a quick Google search to see if anyone else had already done so, I couldn’t find anything so I thought I would write a post up about my experience and hopefully answer any questions some on looking in the future might have.

I could just write it’s the best thing you could do for your Ferrari 4000 and it would be true, but I’ll go in to a bit more detail than that

Installing Windows 7

You shouldn’t have any problems getting the 32bit or 64bit version of Windows 7 running on the laptop, unlike with Windows Vista you don’t need to install hacked graphics / chipset drivers to get the laptop to successfully go to sleep and resume from sleep or hibernation. Everything really does work out the box, Windows 7 has drivers for most of hardware in the laptop and anything it doesn’t have drivers for can be simply downloaded and installed by doing a Windows Update.

The only thing you won’t have drivers installed for after a Windows Update is the card reader, don’t worry though the Windows XP drivers for the card reader work perfectly fine in Windows 7.

Download 32bit card reader drivers for Windows 7
Download 64bit card reader drivers for Windows 7

To install: unzip the drivers then go to device manager (click the windows logo in the bottom left, right click on computer, click properties then device manager in the top left)

Right click on the card reader or unknown device and click update drivers, point it to the folder you unzipped the drivers to and they will install.

Hardware:

Everything installed and working fine.



If you have had Vista installed on the laptop you will notice the Windows experience rating is exactly the same.



Something I quite liked in Windows 7 was the fact it can detect your battery has had it and you need a new one.



When I got the laptop in 2005 the battery lasted for around 3 hours 15 mins, it now lasts for about 15mins if I’m lucky.


Speed improvements

Compared to Windows Vista SP2 the laptop feels so much more responsive with Windows 7 installed, I’m sure you will notice a significant speed improvement.

It might be worth mentioning I upgraded the laptops 1gb of ram to 2gb when I got Vista but by all accounts Windows 7 works perfectly with just 1gig of ram.

For a 4 year old laptop it handles Windows 7 perfectly, I really wouldn’t worry about having to upgrade to a new laptop to run Windows 7.

That’s about it, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Attached Files

	cardreader-32bit.zip (3.47 MB, 1486 views)
	cardreader-64bit.zip (3.44 MB, 1601 views)
	bios.zip (1.49 MB, 553 views)

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blehxpo

Hey I also have a Ferrari 4000, but its still at 1gb, and my brother has installed Window 7 Ultimate(64bit) on it. The main question I wanted to ask is that how come the graphics rating is only 1 and under the Display Adapter it says its a Standard VGA Graphics Adapter. My guess at first was that the graphics card is not compatible with Window 7 so I tried looking up stuff and found your post. THanks

InsaneNutter

Have you taken the laptop on the internet and run Windows update? There should be a driver updated called “ATI Technologies Inc. Driver update for ATI Mobility Radeon X700” this will get your graphics card working.

Also install all other updates on Windows update except the language packs.

The only drives you should now need are the card readers which are included in my original post.

After this check device manager, no items should have a yellow ! by them and you should also have no unknown devices as seen in the screenshot below.

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msvirick

I have a Ferrari too, but I upgrade to Windows 7 gave me 2 problems
I have lost the aero interface and also lost the sound.
I think my ferari 4000 has a Realtex sound. Are all Ferraris 4000 not born equal.
Thank you for your post. There seems to be some hope

InsaneNutter

Did you run Windows Update after installing, you didn’t mention if you had or not?

You should get sound and graphics drivers from there if needed, the only drivers not on Windows Update for me were ones for the card reader.

Failing that try the XP sound drivers on the Acer Europe support site: Acer Europe - Service & Support, Drivers & Utilities, Downloads, Notebook, Ferrari 4000 Series I would think all Ferrari’s have the same soundcard as the Acer website doesn’t have multiple drivers for different sound chipsets, I could be wrong though.

For Aero:

Click the start orb > right click computer and select properties, click windows experience index in the middle and then press the refresh now button.

When that has completed aero should be enabled if it’s not already (providing you got the graphics drivers from windows update)

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msvirick

I did run the upgrade, but will do the rest.
You have been most kind

arkitekt

Hey. I have an Ferrari 4005 and since 2005 i install Vista x64 and now 7 x64. I have all drivers installed correctly and the laptop runs very fast, but when i use the program Lavalys Everest, i found that my processor is downcklocked (i think it works at 1989 MHz instead of 2000 MHz) and the FSB is lower than normal, too. The only way that i found to correct this is to use ClockGen and adjust it to the normal speed. I use SysTool too, because this laptop don't support ddr400, but i need to adjust the values every time i log in. Anybody have the same problem? I have searching on internet for a mod Bios, but i have no lucky with that. Anybody know if when I overclock my laptop by sotware the bios temporarily modifies the values (I use the 3a27)? Because if so, i'm going to create a backup of bios and i flash this new one. Thanks.
P.S.: If someone wants, I can upload the necessary drivers for the portable on rapidshare or megaupload.

InsaneNutter

When your laptop is not under load the processor should be under clocked, this helps keep the laptop cool and uses less battery power.

Mine under clocks to 795Mhz when it's idle, then when I started playing a game it would clock its self back up to full speed, an extra 11mhz is not going to make much difference at all.

Mine also only clocks to 1990mhz, I believe this has always been the case though.

CPUZ screenshots attached.

Attached Thumbnails

       

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arkitekt

My laptop never goes down or up the 1989.8 MHz! The thing is, if i overclock the RAM to DDR 400 without the little overclock on the CPU, the RAM is assumed at DDR 398 instead of DDR 400, then something is wrong about the CPU difference. And even without any type of overclock, the Ram clock is wrong, (165.8 MHz instead of 166 MHz). I attached some images that show the problem. I can't understand why Acer never do an update for the Bios that gaves support for DDR400, because i use software overclock for this and it never had overheating. I have a Desktop, with a Asus K8v-SE Deluxe Motherboard and a Athlon 64 3000+ Processor, and it has Bios support for DDR 400, and it´s the same platform that the Ferrari 4000.

Attached Files

Acer Ferrari.rar (2.58 MB, 138 views)

InsaneNutter

Acer have your money, I don’t think they can care less now sadly.

Same with drivers, Acer never bothered to work with ATI to get the mobility drivers certified for Acer laptops so I was never able to download any official drivers for Vista. I had to resort to using a program called mobility modder which modified the drivers for desktop pc’s to work with laptops. At least with Windows 7 proper working drivers are on Windows Update.

Acers after care service leaves something to be desired too, it cost me over £100 to a new exhaust fan and cpu cooler fitted in the laptop.

£40 to send it to Acer
£40 to get it back
£10 for the new part
£10 for labour
And some other charge I don’t remember now.

I was never told on the phone I would be billed for them sending the laptop back to me. I guess that’s my fault though as I never took out the extended warranty.

The sad thing is I have the same problem again, just don’t really want to pay £100+ to get the laptop fixed again.

Great laptop, Acer could improve in some areas though.

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