Acer ACERNOTE 950 Annexe 1

Getting Started

This chapter introduces this multimedia notebook and gives first-time operating instructions.

1.1 Overview

This system supports the Intel Pentium ™ proces sor, pack ing the process ing power of a multimedia desktop PC into a compact, slim and lightweight notebook suitable for use on the road, at the office or in your home. Combining performance, versatility, and a host of advanced powermanagement featur es plus multimedia capabilities, this notebook helps you work with unmatched productivity and reliability.

The system features a modular design. It supports multiple configurations with its unique storage, accessory and power bays. The storage bay holds a user-upgradeable 2.5-inch, high-capacity hard disk drive. The accessory bay houses a 3.5-inch, 1.44-MB removable diskette drive, a 5.25-inch, removable IDE CD-ROM drive, or a secondary battery for more power onthe-go. The power bay accommodates a battery pack or the AC adapter.

Chapter 1

The easy-to-open modular housing design, with innovative use of latches, grooves, and sliding compartm ents, makes upgrades eas y. The hard disk, diskette drive, CD-ROM drive, keyboard, touchpad, battery pack and AC adapter are easy to install and remove, thanks to the unique housing.

This system supports PCMCIA technology, allowing flexible use of up to two type II or one type III PC cards. Hailed in leading industry journals as the technology that will revolutionize portable com puting, the PCMCIA interface allows you to use credit-card-sized fax/data modem car ds , SRAM car ds , 1.8inch removable hard disks, SCSI interf ace cards and other devices. Thus, you enjoy benefits similar to those of add-on cards in desktop PCs.

Getting Started 1-1

An innovative feature of the notebook is the palm rest. Located below the keyboard, it provides ample palm s pace for your typing comfort in any work environment. The touchpad, centr ally located in the palm rest, responds to precise finger movem ents, m aking it easy to control curs or movem ent under graphical user environments like Windows or OS/2.

Another important feature is the high-performance graphics display. This notebook supports a large DualScan ST N color or TFT color LCD, off ering excellent display quality and brilliant colors. This notebook can also accommodate an external ultra-VGA monitor. This feature allows you to perform sim ultaneous operation of your LCD and the external VG A monitor, an advantage for giving presentations. Simultaneous display allows you to control the presentation from the LCD and at the same time face your audience. You can even connect an LCD projection panel for largeaudience presentations. PCI-bus video with graphics accelerator and 1MB video RAM provide faster video performance.

Advanced power management features such as automatic LCD and hard disk power-down, system standby and suspend modes enable this notebook to conserve battery power. The notebook houses up to two battery packs for longer battery operation. Battery packs supported are nickel metal-hydride (NiMH) and state-of-the-art lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries. The system has both visible and audible battery-low warning features that remind you to recharge your battery.

Special features include a serial infrared (SIR) port which allows wireless communication with other SIR-”aware” systems. Onboard 16-bit stereo audio capability plus the optional CD-ROM module gives you true “multimedia-on-the-go”. You can also plug in a PCMCIA SCSI card connected to an external CD-ROM drive, or “park ” the system to the optional docking station with a CD-ROM drive and multim edia comes alive on your notebook.

The system also supports a local-bus architecture. A local bus is the interface around the CPU. The major purpose of local bus is to enhance CPU data transfer throughput, as well as to provide a solution for I/O bottlenecks caused by running on old 16-bit ISA bus architecture.

Most importantly, this notebook incorporates advanced technology that makes performance upgrades easy and economical.

1-2 User’s Manual

1.2 Item Checklist

Remove all items from the carton and save the pac king materials for f uture use. If any of the following items are missing or damaged, contact your dealer immediately.

The notebook computer

•

AC adapter1 (includes power cord and DC-in cable)

•

Battery pack

•

Manuals (includes quick guide and user’s manual)

•

Check for optional accessories

4-/8-/16-MB RAM modules

•

External numeric keypad

•

MS-DOS and application software documentation

•

System utilities diskette

•

PCMCIA fax/data modem card

•

, if any:

Port replicator

•

External battery charger

•

Additional battery pack

•

Additional AC adapter

•

File transfer (interlink) cable

•

Carrying bag for system and accessories

•

The AC adapter is inserted into t he power bay of t he notebook during packing.

Optional accessories may differ from area to area.

Refer to the README files of the s ys t em utilities in their respecti ve s ubdirectories for information.

Getting Started 1-3

1.3 LCD Display

The system supports four different LCD display configurations as shown in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1 LCD Display Configurations

Type Size Resolution

DualScan STN color 10.4-inch 640 x 480, 256 colors DualScan STN color 10.4-inch 800 x 600, 256 colors TFT color (active matrix) 10.4-inch 640 x 480, 64K colors TFT color (active matrix) 10.4-inch 800 x 600, 256 colors

Open the display by sliding the two cover latches toward you as shown in Figure 1-1. Lift the display and tilt it to a comfortable viewing position.

Figure 1-1 Opening the Display

1-4 User’s Manual

A microswitch, located near the LCD cover hinge, detects the opening and

closing of the LCD display. The LCD backlight goes off when you close the display without turning off the system power. Reopening the display turns on the backlight again.

If you connect an external monitor to the system, you can still view the display through the LCD.

Microswitc

Figure 1-2 The LCD Display

The LCD power-saving feature turns off the LCD after a pres et period of inactivity to reduce power consumption. Pleas e refer to section 4.6.3 for details.

To close the display, fold it down gently until the latches click into place.

To avoid damaging the display, do not slam it when closing. Do not place any object on top of the notebook when the display is closed.

Getting Started 1-5

1.4 Front Panel

The front panel has three bays that house rem ovable components. Thes e include the storage bay, the accessory bay and the power bay. Figure 1-3 shows the front panel.

1 Storage Bay 2 Accessory Bay 3 Power Bay

Figure 1-3 Front Panel

Front Panel Features

1 2 3

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Storage bay Accessory bay

drive, an optional 5.25-inch CD-ROM drive, or an optional secondary battery pack.

Power bay

AC adapter.

This bay houses a 2.5-inch hard disk drive.

This bay houses either a 3.5-inch, 1.44MB diskette

This bay houses either the primary battery pack or the

Module Installation and Swapping

To remove a module:

Bay Lock

Module

Turn the power off before installing or removing a module. The system MUST NOT be in standby or suspend mode.

Remember to enter the Setup utility to make the proper settings.

Release the bay lock of the bay you want to remove the module from. Pull the m odule out of the bay.

The AC adapter and CD-ROM drive have built-in locks on the units themselves.

n o p

HDD module FDD module NiMH battery

NiMH battery

CD-ROM drive module

AC adapter + Extender

6-cell Li-Ion battery

Figure 1-4 Bay Modules

Getting Started 1-7

Table 1-2 lists all possible module combinations.

Table 1-2 Module-Bay Combinations

nn Storage Bay

HDD module HDD module HDD module HDD module HDD module HDD module HDD module

oo Accessory Bay

FDD module FDD module FDD module CD-ROM module CD-ROM module Extended NiMH battery Extended NiMH battery

pp Power Bay

NiMH battery Adapter (with extender) 6-cell Li-Ion battery (with extender) Adapter 6-cell Li-Ion battery NiMH battery Adapter (with extender)

When the 6-cell Li-Ion battery pack is installed in the power bay, do not install a secondary battery pack.

You can add an extender module to the AC adapter if you want to use it with the diskette drive or secondary battery. Similarly, you can attach an extender module to the 6-cell Li-Ion battery for use with the diskette drive.

Attach the extender to the AC adapter by connecting the two modules together and sliding the extender into place.

Attach the extender to the 6-cell LiIon battery by connecting the two modules together.

1-8 User’s Manual

1.5 Rear Panel

The rear panel consists of peripheral connectors. Open the port cover to access the CRT, serial, parallel and ex pansion ports. The rear panel also includes other ports and connectors. Figure 1-5 shows the rear panel.

1 Serial infrared port 4 Parallel port 2 External CRT port 5 Serial port 3 Expansion connector 6 External PS/2 connec tor

Figure 1-5 Rear Panel

Rear Panel Features

1 2 3 4 5 6

SIR

Serial Infrared (SIR) port

This lets you accomplish wireless

communication with SIR-”aware” systems.

External CRT port Expansion connector

This connects a VGA or SVGA monitor.

This connects a port replicator or a

docking station.

Parallel port

This connects a printer, pocket LAN, or other

parallel device.

Serial port

This connects a m ouse, modem, scanner, or other

serial device.

External PS/2 connector

This connects an external PS/2-type

keyboard, keypad, mouse or trackball.

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