Toshiba BRnR LX.FR406.035, BRnR 4000, 4005WLMi User Manual

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Acer Ferrari 4000 4005WLMi Notebook Reviewed by Barry Little - September 21, 2005 Manufacturer: Acer, Inc. Model: LX.FR406.035

Few names personify the word legend in the world of Formula One racing and exotic dream cars as Ferrari. When Acer, one of the world’s top five PC manufacturers, joined

forces with AMD and Scuderia Ferrari to create the Ferrari 3000 notebook back in

October 2003, they had an immediate winner on their hands. A year later, Acer blew

the industry away with the Ferrari 3200 and 3400 notebooks. They were a tough act

to follow, but like all true champions who never rest on their laurels, Acer went back to the drawing board in their never-ending quest to perfect their racing-heritage

notebook. On May 26, 2005, the Acer Ferrari 4000 4005WLMi Notebook was

born—lighter, faster, more powerful and feature-packed than any of its predecessors. Today, we’ll take a look at this race-bred beauty to see if it’s truly worthy of its namesake.

Whether on the racetrack or in business, strategic partnerships are crucial to

success; so the partnership between the Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile)—the governing body of international

motor sports, AMD and Acer was a natural and logical choice. Cutting edge technology is crucial to the advancement of auto racing, and you’d be hard pressed

to find a more cutting-edge company than AMD, whose award-winning Athlon™ 64 Processors made them a force to be reckoned with against long-time rival Intel.

Acer immediately recognized that the high profile relationship between one of the world’s top racing organizations and a company who was seriously challenging Intel’s dominance and winning, was a unique opportunity to increase their name recognition and market share. Unlike their competitors who either dismissed or ignored the AMD and Ferrari partnership, Acer knew a good thing when they saw it, and got on board immediately. The rest, as they say, is history.

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Now a little about Acer from their website:

About Acer

Acer ranks among the world's top five branded PC vendors, designing and marketing easy, dependable IT solutions that empower people to reach their goals and enhance their lives. In 2000, Acer spun-off its manufacturing operation to focus on globally marketing its brand-name products: desktop and mobile PCs, servers and storage, displays, peripherals, and e-business solutions for business, government, education, and home users. Established in 1976, Acer Inc. employs 5,600 people supporting dealers and distributors in more than 100 countries. Revenues in 2004 reached US $7 billion.

Acer Ferrari from Past to Present

Below is a table summarizing the features and specs of Acer’s Ferrari-series

notebooks:

Series Processor Operating

Ferrari

AMD Athlon™ XPM processor 2500+

system Microsoft®

Windows® XP Home Edition preloaded

Display System

15.0” SXGA+ TFT LCD

memory 256/512 MB 60 GB or

HDD Optical

higher

devices DVD-

DUAL drive

Dimensions & weight

330 (W)x272 (D)x31 (H) mm

2.93 kg (6.45 lbs.)

3000 Ferrari

3200 Ferrari Mobile AMD

Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 processor 2800+

Athlon™ 64

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Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition preloaded

Microsoft® Windows®

15.0” SXGA+ TFT LCD

15.0" SXGA+ TFT LCD

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512 MB 80 GB Slot-load

512 MB 80 GB DVD-

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DVDSuper Multi drive

Super

330 (W)x272 (D)x31 (H) mm

3.014kg (6.64 lbs.)

330 (W)x272 (D)x31 (H) mm

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Series Processor Operating Display System HDD Optical Dimensions &

processor 3000+ XP Home

3400 Ferrari

4000

AMD Turion ª 64 ML-37 or ML-30 Mobile Technology

system memory devices weight

Edition preloaded

Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition, Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (Service Pack 2) , or Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2) preloaded

15.4” WSXGA+ 185-nit color TFT LCD,

15.4” WXGA 185-nit Acer CrystalBrite color TFT LCD

Multi drive

512MB/1GB 80/100GB Slot-load

DVDSuper Multi doublelayer drive

3.014kg (6.64 lbs)

363 (W) x 267.5 (D) x30.5/34.3 (H) mm

2.86kg (6.3Ibs.)

The Ferrari 4000 arrived in a larger box with additional packing to protect it during shipping.

Courtesy of Acer

This attentiongrabbing design would look just as much at home on the showroom floor of a Ferrari dealership, as it would on the shelf of your local computer store.

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No mistaking Ferrari's commitment to the product here.

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Ferrari's holographic sticker of authenticity.

The inner flap displays multilingual instructions on unpacking the

Ferrari 4000.

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The first thing that greets you when you open the box is this Quick-Start fold-out

As you can see, the Acer Ferrari Notebook has evolved quite a bit over the years.

Let's see just how much...

Packaging

FedEx delivered the notebook in a large box filled with Styrofoam packing peanuts. Additional protection was provided by the Acer factory box sealed with tape designed to show any tampering of the contents, and had shipping labels from the Acer plant in China and its final destination at an Ingram Micro distribution center in California. The boxes were in good shape and showed no sign of rough handling or damage.

The Ferrari 4000’s display box has the clean, tasteful and expensive look of a high-

quality automotive publication gracing the glass top of a living room table with its glossy finish. Striking photos of the notebook are set off against a black and carbon fiber-background, with Acer’s corporate logo, “Ferrari 4000” in sleek, red letters, and Ferrari’s world-famous “Prancing Horse” crest. A closer look reveals the brushed

aluminum “Ferrari Official Licensed Product” logo and holographic sticker on the side

of the box. First Class all the way—but then, you’d expect nothing less from anything

with the Ferrari name on it.

Let's get this thing unpacked.

The only thing missing is that new car smell.

All of the software and accessories are in this box.

Here's a closer look at the Quick-Start fold out.

You have to give Acer’s marketing team credit; the box is designed to do more that just grab your attention and protect the product (though it does both exceptionally

well). Opening the box, unpacking it, and removing the Ferrari 4000 from its

protective wrapping invokes almost the same awe and excitement as sliding behind the wheel of the real thing.

The Notebook

To say that the Ferrari 4000 lives up to its four-wheeled namesake would be an understatement. Gone is the predominantly Rosso Corsa (Ferrari Red) finish of

previous models. For this incarnation of the Ferrari notebook, Acer decked the lid of

the 15.4” Wide-Screen LCD display with real carbon-fiber—the same tough,

lightweight material used in race cars—with the Acer corporate logo in the upper left-

hand corner, and the Ferrari crest right in the middle. Acer’s SignalUp™ Technology

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places two PIFAs (Planar Inverted F-Antennas) inside the top of the Ferrari 4000’s

LCD display, creating a perfect omni-directional signal sphere for enhanced wireless network reception even in low-reception areas, as indicated by the SignalUp logo on the red styling strip running along the upper edge of the LCD display.

WHOA!

Unlike the previous Ferrari notebooks, the Ferrari 4000 is decked out with a more conservative black motif with Ferrari Red accents— and a genuine carbon-fiber lid!

Acer's corporate logo in the upper lefthand corner.

The world-famous Ferrari "Prancing Horse" crest sits in the center of the lid.

Let's take a look at the Ferrari's undercarriage. The battery slides into the back of the laptop.

The 71 W Li-ion battery fully charges in 2.5 hours, and lasts for 3.5 hours in use—not bad for a laptop with this much power.

At 14.29 x 10.46 x 1.2/1.36 inches, the black and red-trimmed Ferrari 4000 certainly

isn’t the smallest notebook around—but at a svelte 6.3 pounds with the battery installed, it’s certainly one of the lightest in its class, made possible by the carbonfiber lid. Up front, a pair of 16-bit stereo speakers flank a 5-in-1 Card Reader that accepts Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MMC (MultiMediaCard), SD (Secure Digital) and xD-Picture cards; a built-in Microphone, Infrared Port, Power and Battery Indicators; a Headphone/Speaker and Microphone jack; a Bluetooth wireless button/indicator and a Wireless LAN button/indicator.

On the left side of the notebook, we find a DB-15 Female VGA port next to the ventilation slots, to connect either a monitor or LCD projector; an RJ-45 port for the

The Wireless Network and FCC certification sticker, with another Ferrari hologram sticker

The 2.5" 100GB 5400 RPM hard drive.

The integrated controllers for the Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet NIC, Bluetooth Wireless Mouse, and the IrDA Fast Infrared port.

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The Acer Ferrari 4000 comes with

1GB of DDR333 RAM. It can be expanded to 2GB; but with only 2 sockets available for memory, you'll have to remove these two 512MB soDIMMs first.

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Ferrari 4000’s integrated Broadcom NetLink 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet adapter and an RJ-11 port for the built-in Agere Systems AC’97 56K ITU V.92 modem; a USB

2.0 port; a 4-pin IEEE 1394 “Micro” Firewire port; and one PC Card Slot that accepts

any standard Type II PCMCIA card.

The latch on the left releases the DVD burner; the one on the right, the battery.

Here's the rear view of the Ferrari 4000 with the battery installed.

A DVI-D and S-

video/TV-out

(NTSC/PAL) port lets you connect the Acer Ferrari 4000 to a wide range of supported devices.

The 124-pin connector to park your Ferrari 4000 in an Acer eZDock docking station.

On the right, we find a standard DB-15F

External VGA display port for monitors

and projectors next to the ventilation slots.

From left to right: the RJ-45 port for the integrated

Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet port; the

RJ-11 port for the

Agree Systems AC'97 56K modem; a USB

2.0 port, and an IEEE-1394 4-pin Firewire port.

Moving to the right side of the notebook, there’s a Kensington-compatible Computer Security Lock and the power jack for the AC adaptor; a Panasonic/Matshita Model UJ845S Slot-Loaded, Dual-Layer DVD-RAM burner. Upon closer inspection, you can tell

that the faceplate has been painted red, rather than made of red plastic; yet the color matches the rest of the notebook’s hi-impact red-trimmed plastic chassis and

accents perfectly without the slightest variation. But this is a Ferrari, so you’d expect

nothing less when it comes to quality and attention to detail. There are also three

more USB 2.0 ports next to the drive. Out back is a 124-pin Acer ezDock connector for Acer’s docking station, an S-video port to connect the notebook to a TV or display device with an S-video input, and a DVI-D port that connects to monitors or other devices that support digital video connections. The Model 10696SANYOZF01 Sanyo

Up front is the Type II PC Card slot with

removable dust cover, and the PC

Card slot eject button.

On the left side of the laptop, is the AC Power Jack, and a security key lock that accepts any

Kensingtoncompatible Computer Security Lock.

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The optical drive supplied with the Acer Ferrari 4000, is a slot-loaded

Matshita UJ-845S DVD-RAM drive that

can read and burn to a wide range of standard-sized CD and DVD media— including dual-layer

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Finally, we have three more USB 2.0 ports.

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71w Li-ion (Lithium Ion) Battery Pack snaps in the rear of the notebook, takes 2.5

hours to fully charge, and holds that charge for an average of 3.5 hours under normal use. Carefully turn the notebook over, and you’ll find the latches that release the battery and Matshita optical drive, as well as compartments containing the Wireless LAN, hard drive, and memory. There’s also another set of ventilation slots.

Here's a head-on view of the Ferrari

4000. Not only is it slim, but at 6.3 pounds, its one of the lightest notebooks in its class. The series of perforations flanking the ports in the center are the 16-bit stereo speakers which sound surprisingly good for a laptop.

...and here it's disabled. You'll see a similar message displayed for the Wireless LAN and speaker volume.

The Acer Ferrari 4000 is equipped with a versatile 5-in1 card reader that supports Memory

Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital (SD) and xD- Picture Card. Further

to the right is the Internal Microphone and part of the Infrared Port.

Thanks to Acer CrystalBrite technology, everything from spreadsheets and presentations, to movies and games look simply fabulous on the Ferrari 4000's

15.4" XGA widescreen LCD.

From left to right: the other half of the Infrared Port; Power and Battery LED indicators; and an Audio-Out jack for things like headphone and speakers.

The Ferrari 4000 signature logo adorns the LCD display.

Here are the button/indicators for

Bluetooth (left) and Wireless (right)

communications. The laptop powers-up with Bluetooth and Wireless networking enabled by default. Both can be manually enabled and disabled by pressing the appropriate button, or by using the Acer Launch Manager.

The red styling strip running across the top of the Ferrari 4000's LCD display isn't just for looks. Dual PIFAs (Planar Inverted F-Antennas) are installed underneath to improve wireless signal reception—part of Acer's SignalUp technology.

When using the button/indicators to manually enable or disable either the Bluetooth or Wireless LAN, the status will also briefly show on LCD display via the OSD (On Screen Display). Here, Bluetooth has been enabled by pressing the Bluetooth button/indicator.

The Ferrari 4000's "sponsors."

When you’re ready to “pop the hood” and get down to business, you’ll be greeted by

Acer’s gorgeous, high-contrast 15.4” WSXGA+ CrystalBrite™ LCD display with a

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native resolution of 1680 x 1050; Acer’s 89-key ergonomic FineTouch™ keyboard,

and a generous-sized touch pad framed in aluminum-colored plastic with matching mouse buttons and a neat scroll pad button in the center. To the right once again, is the Ferrari’s Prancing Horse crest, and on the left are OEM logos displayed like sponsor decals, of the primary components that power this race and sports car-

inspired beauty: the AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Technology Processor, ATI’s X700

Mobility™ Radeon

GDDR3 VRAM, and the familiar Microsoft “Designed for Windows XP” label with a

surprising twist: Windows XP x64 Edition is also listed on the “Designed for” label as

well.

The Ferrari 4000’s boot screen consists of a full-color photo of a Ferrari Formula One

car and a simple “Press <F2> to Enter Setup” message at the bottom for entering the notebook’s BIOS. When Windows XP Professional SP2 starts, a .WAV file of the F1 racer shown on the boot-up splash screen roars through the dual 16-bit stereo

speakers, while Ferrari World provides some cool desktop background imagery that changes monthly and displays the latest calendar on your desktop. A Ferrari World

Flash-animated screensaver protects the 15.4” WXGA+ LCD display while impressing passers-by. The surface surrounding the keyboard area, which Acer refers to on the Ferrari 4000 home page as their “Soft-touch Coating,” not only makes for a comfortable palm and wrist rest but feels—not surprisingly—like the surface of a racing slick tire.

PCI Express graphics controller with 128MB of high performance

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Here's the Ferrari crest again.

A close look at Acer's 89-key FineTouch ergonomic keyboard. As you might expect, it may take a brief adjustment period to get used to, and you'll either love it or hate it (I love it).

The generous-sized touchpad is one of the smoothest, quickest and most responsive ones I've ever used on a laptop—but that's to be expected when the laptop is named after a premier exoti-car and race car. The center button is used for scrolling.

At the upper-left, above the keyboard, the Power button on the left fires-up the Ferrari 4000. On the right, the more conventional Num and Caps Lock indicators are joined by a Hard Disk activity LED that's filling in for the MIA Scroll Lock indicator.

Let's get properly introduced to the Easy-launch buttons in the upper-right hand corner, above the keyboard. Working our way from left to right:

Mail, Web Browser, Acer's eManager, and one Userprogrammable

button. All can be modified and configured through the Acer Launch Manager in the system tray.

Ferrari World's

wallpaper applet automatically puts a cool, new Ferrari photograph and calendar directly on your desktop every month.

In the upper left-hand corner of the keyboard, you’ll find a power button and a Caps Lock, Num Lock and Media Activity LED protected under a transparent dome. In the

upper right-hand corner are Acer’s Easy-launch buttons. The button with the Mail icon (an envelope), launches your default E-Mail program; the Web Browser button (the planet with the ring around it) launches your default browser. The Acer eManager button (with the fancy letter “e”) launches Acer’s eManager application. The last button (with the letter “P”) is User-programmable, to launch an additional

The Acer Ferrari 4000 runs as fast

and as good as it looks.

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program of your choice. All of the Easy-launch buttons can be reconfigured to your

liking with Acer’s Launch Manager software.

As with most notebook keyboards, engaging the <Num Lock> key or pressing the <Fn> + <F11> keys changes the keys to on the right-hand side of the keyboard to a numeric keypad for numeric data entry. The <Fn> (function) key used in

combination with specifically-labeled keys perform the usual shift-key functions from blanking and toggling screens when a monitor is connected, to putting the notebook in sleep mode, adjusting the volume of the speakers and toggling the touchpad on and off. The keys are just the right size and have a firm, but quiet touch. The slightly curved ergonomic layout of the keyboard will probably require a brief period of

adjustment to get used to. If your local retailer carries the Acer Ferrari 4000 or other Acer notebooks that have the same keyboard—some of the Acer Travelmate 3000 and 4000-series notebooks do—I’d recommend trying it out in a store first to make

sure that you like it, before making a commitment. The generous-sized touchpad with its 4-way scroll-button is the fastest, most responsive I’ve ever used on a notebook, requiring only the lightest of touches without any skipping or lagging.

This is the Acer Ferrari 4000's boot

screen. Pressing <F2> here will take you straight into the BIOS; Hitting <Alt><F10> will take you into Acer's eRecovery System. Let's take a look.

Acer's eRecovery loads from a special hidden factory partition. Type in the password (six zeroes by default, which can be changed) and press <Enter>

This is the eRecovery Main Menu, which uses the arrow keys for navigation. Press <Enter> to select the highlighted System Recovery option.

Here you can restore the Factory Default Image, which resides on eRecovery's hidden partition, and will erase everything on the hard drive and restore the Ferrari 4000 to its brand new out-of-the-box condition. You can also restore the laptop from an image created on CD or DVD media with eRecovery under Windows XP.

Remember the password you typed in earlier? Here's where you change it...

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....like so. Now let's

reboot and check out the Ferrari 4000's BIOS.

The engine beneath the Acer Ferrari 4000’s hood is a fast and energy-efficient 2.0

GHz AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Technology ML-37 Processor with a 1GB cache,

mounted in a Socket 754 motherboard powered by the new ATI Radeon 200P chipset, with 1GB of Single-Channel DDR 333 RAM upgradeable to 2 GB. Mass storage is provided by a Seagate Momentus ST9100823A Ultra/ATA 1000 5400 RPM

100MB IDE hard drive with an 8MB buffer and 12.5ms access time.

The Acer Ferrari 4000 uses the ever-popular and widely-used Phoenix BIOS. This is the Information Screen which gives a peek at what's under the Ferrari 4000's impressive hood.

This is the Main Screen where you can configure basic system settings: Quiet Boot determines whether you see the cool Ferrari splash screen on boot-up or the more pedestrian textbased BIOS and system startup info.

You can tell the Ferrari 4000 to automatically detect and use a second external display if detected on powerup, or force it to look for and use both the laptop's LCD and external display for those fussy external display devices that need a little coaxing.

You can activate the Ferrari 4000's Gigabit Ethernet NIC's ability to boot from a network here.

Xpress

Included with the Ferrari 4000 is a Bluetooth rechargeable wireless mouse. Powered

by two rechargeable AA batteries, the full-sized scroll wheel mouse is colorcoordinated to match the notebook with the Ferrari’s glossy Rosso Corsa finish, black rubberized “Soft-Touch” side grips, and an ambidextrous design. With the included USB charger cord, it takes approximately five hours to fully charge the mouse, and the charge lasts about a week and a half under normal use.

Enabling this will bring up a menu of options that will let you choose which device in the Acer Ferrari 4000 to boot from.

D2D is the Disk-toDisk Backup and Recovery system,

which can be accessed by hitting <Alt><F10> while the laptop is booting.

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The LCD Auto Dim automatically lowers the brightness on the LCD display to conserve power when the laptop is operated on battery; then

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With the exception of the Infrared Port, both the Serial port A: and Parallel port entries are useless, as the Ferrari 4000 has neither.

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Adding, changing, or clearing system passwords is done here, at the Security

Screen. Here, the Supervisor Password

controls access to the

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You'll probably want to leave this enabled.

brightens the display when the laptop is plugged into a power outlet.

BIOS.

This enables or disables the password protection on the hard drive for the aforementioned D2D utility which is run from a special hidden partition on the hard drive, or Acer Recovery through Acer eManager.

Here, you can select the boot order the Ferrari 4000's available bootable devices.

And finally, here's the Exit screen where you can load system defaults and save or discard any of the BIOS settings.

Acer even throws in a Ferrari Red cleaning cloth to clean the notebook with—a good thing, since the reflective carbon-fiber lid shows fingerprints easily, and the rubberized surface around the notebook’s keyboard has a tendency to show dust, lint, and oils from your hands (or food if you’re an eat-while-you-work person). The supplied cloth handles the typical build up of dust and minor smudges on the lid and elsewhere without any problem, but you may need additional help from a soft, lintfree cloth dampened with cool water for more the more stubborn cleaning jobs. The

26-page User’s Guide has the same black, carbon-fiber and Ferrari Red motif as the notebook, and gives you the basics on operating the Ferrari 4000 (with more

detailed info in the notebook’s online documentation).

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Pressing the third Easy-launch button (with the "e" on it) brings up Acer's eManager Menu, which groups the Ferrari 4000's most commonly used Acer utilities together for quick and easy access. Let's take a look at the first option—Acer

ePresentation.

Acer ePresentation

provides a fast and simple way of setting the Ferrari's screen resolution when it's connected to a projector, without having to dig through the Display Settings applet under Windows Control panel.

Clicking the Help icon on the ePresentation screen brings up this useful mini-guide on the utility.

Next, is Acer eRecovery for creating and restoring system backups, and reinstalling system applications and drivers.

Type in the password (default is six zeroes)

Software

Nowadays, the average notebook computer ships with enough pre-installed software

and utilities for two notebooks; most of it will never be used and just hogs disk space

and system resources. If you’re looking for full-blown office suites and the usual myriad of trial programs, “added value” shovelware and System Tray slop, you’ll be

disappointed with the Acer Ferrari 4000. But if you’re looking for a hi-performance

notebook that provides a pretty clean and decent foundation for installing the

applications and utilities you want installed, rather than wasting hours uninstalling all the junk you don’t want, the Ferrari 4000 is for you.

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Pay attention to this warning if you don't have the AC adapter plugged in before starting eRecovery—it will save you a lot of grief.

Note the options here. You can also reinstall all of the original drivers and utilities.

The first option lets you create backups and change the utility's default password.

The "Acer System Series CD" is stored on the special hidden factory partition on the hard drive. You can browse its contents, install the drivers, and view the complete Acer Ferrari 4000 User's Guide in Acrobat .PDF format, from here.

Note the options here.

Acer eRecovery requires a separate FAT32 partition on

the local hard drive to create or delete a backup snapshot image of the laptop's current configuration under Windows. The first and third options are grayed because I created a single NTFS

partition on the Ferrari 4000.

Here's what's on the "Acer System Series CD." These are for the 32-bit version of Windows XP only. If you want to run Windows XP Professional x64 Edition on the Ferrari 4000, you'll have to download all the 64bit drivers from Acer's Support Website.

I can create a Factory default image to the DVD burner. If the two FAT32 partitions were left in place on the hard drive, any user-created images would also be displayed, as well as the option to create the image on the second drive partition. Note that while you can convert the C: partition to NTFS, the D: partition on the hard drive must remain FAT32.

This is the Install screen for the drivers.

Next is Recovery Actions . Online help is available at any time for all eManager functions by clicking the Help icon in the upper right-hand corner of the menu.

The full User's Guide, which is available in a number of languages, is launched from here.

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The Acer Ferrari 4000 ships with four CDs; a three-disc recovery CD set consisting of a bootable System CD that loads Symantec’s Ghost, and two Recovery CDs

containing the actual Ghost image of the factory OS, driver and utility install. In spite

the Acer OEM Windows XP Start Here booklet, there is no CD with the actual

Windows XP OS included—an unfortunate but growing trend followed by many OEM PC and Notebook manufacturers these days to rein in costs.

Here's the guide. You can print it out or save it elsewhere on your hard drive where you can have quicker access to it.

The fourth CD contains Symantec’s Norton Antivirus 2005, which Acer does not preinstall on the Ferrari 4000. This way, you have the option of installing your own

favorite antivirus program without having to worry about any potential conflicts due to something that an uninstall of Norton might have typically left behind—a good move on Acer’s part.

Other software included and pre-installed on the Acer Ferrari 4000 is Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0; an Acer-branded version of CyberLink’s PowerDVD 5.0, and an Acerbranded version of NTI CD & DVD Maker Version 7 which also includes NTI Backup NOW! Version 4. Acer also includes a pre-installed suite of utilities for getting the most out of the Ferrari 4000:

● Acer eManager—a slick little front-end for the following apps: Acer ePresentation—if you’ve ever fought with screen resolutions

when connecting a notebook to a projector for that all-important PowerPoint slide presentation, ePresentation will make the process and your life much simpler.

Finally, there's Acer eSettings.

As you can see, you can change a number of the Acer Ferrari 4000's settings.

A number of changes to the notebook's display settings can be made with this option.

The Display Device configuration screen.

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Acer eRecovery—although the Ferrari 4000 ships with a set of

recovery CDs, eRecovery lets you make an additional set quickly and

easily, allowing you to bring your Ferrari 4000 back to life after a

crash-n-burn. Backups can be performed to the hard drive, or to CDs and DVDs. One thing I’ve learned the hard way a long time ago, is that you can never have too many backups. You can also run

eRecover outside of Windows, by pressing <Alt><F10> during

system boot-up.

Acer eSettings—allows you to make system and security changes in

Windows without having to go into the notebook’s CMOS on boot-up.

●

Acer GridVista—a utility with four pre-defined display settings that

allow you to run multiple windows on the same screen. With dual monitor support, two displays can be partitioned independently of each other. This utility makes arranging and working with multiple windows on both the notebook and an attached second monitor a lot quicker and easier than manually resizing and positioning the windows on both screens.

●

Acer Launch Manager—a system tray applet that allows you to assign the notebook’s Easy-launch buttons to launch any application you choose. You can also enable or disable the Acer Ferrari 4000’s

Bluetooth and Wireless network on system start-up.

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Now let's check out

Boot Options.

Here's a summary of the laptop's configuration.

Info on the Ferrari 4000's graphics processor chip...

The most commonly changed settings normally performed through the BIOS on system boot-up can quickly and easily be made here. The changes will be in effect the next time you reboot the Ferrari

4000.

Details on the Ferrari 4000's powerplant— AMD's 2.0 GHz Turion 64 ML-37 Mobile Processor.

...and sound system.

Next, we have Security Settings.

Here you can see the version of the BIOS.

Again, this option saves you from having to go into the BIOS to set and modify system passwords and configuring any smart cards you may be using for security.

This gives you the laptop's serial number.

Finally, System Information gives you a look under the Ferrari 4000's hood.

This displays the amount of memory installed.

Although Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is supported on the Acer Ferrari 4000,

only the 32-bit drivers for the notebook are shipped with it, so you’ll have to go out

to Acer’s support page for the Ferrari 4000 and download the necessary 64-bit

drivers.

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Battery Life

Designing a notebook has always been a delicate balancing act between size, weight, performance, heat, and battery life. It’s nearly impossible to maximize one area

without making compromises in others to achieve that balance. While the Acer Ferrari 4000 is no exception, it does strike a reasonable balance between power and

power usage for a laptop chocked with hi-performance components, while running fairly cool, even under full load.

Although the Ferrari 4000’s battery has a rated recharge time of 2.5 hours and

runtime of 3.5 hours, as you’ve probably guessed or have experienced if you already

own a laptop computer (or any other battery-powered gadget), advertised battery

life and recharge times don’t always jibe with the ones in the real world.

I use the Ferrari 4000 connected to a power outlet about 85% of the time. On

battery, I average roughly around 2 to 3 hours battery life before getting the usual low battery warnings, depending on what I happen to be doing on the notebook, and how many applications I’m running on it at any given time. Two hours or less is the norm if I’m doing anything disk or graphic intensive. I can usually squeeze in a 90minute DVD movie before having to hunt for a wall socket, and am doing good if I can get through a couple of levels of a game. Depending on how low the battery gets, it does take anywhere from an hour to two and a half hours to recharge. Depending on individual usage, battery life and recharge time is one area where your mileage definitely can, and will vary.

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To see how long it really takes a battery to discharge and recharge, I used the Battery Eater 05 Utility. All power saving options and hibernation were disabled

during the test. The notebook’s default power saving scheme Portable/Laptop was used to insure that the processor would automatically scale its speed accordingly to

the workload imposed by Battery Eater Pro, as it would if the Ferrari 4000 were used

while on battery power under normal circumstances. The “Classic” test was used.

System Info

Manufacture Model ModelEx

OS Windows XP Service Pack 2

CPU Manufacture Advanced Micro Devices CPU Model AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-37 CPU Frequency ~801Mhz CPU Extensions | Ext. MMX | SSE2 | Ext. 3DNow!

Level 1 Instructions 64 Level 1 Data 64 Level 2 Data 1024

Total Memory: 1023Mb Memory slots 0 ( )

Adapter ATI MOBILITY RADEON X700 Resolution 1680x1050 OpenGL render device MOBILITY RADEON X700 x86/MMX/3DNow!/SSE2 OpenGL driver version 2.0.5079 WinXP Release Vertex shader version 2.0 Pixel shader version 2.0

S.M.A.R.T. Supported and Enabled HDD Model ST9100823A HDD Serial 3LG0NMBK HDD FirmWare 3.01

Device Name ZF01 Manufacture SANYO

Serial #

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CPU Info

CPU Cache Info

System RAM info

Display Device Info

Hard Disk Drive Info

Main Battery Info

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Unique ID 10696SANYOZF01 Chemistry Lithium Ion Temperature Thermal Control Not Present Designed Capacity 71040mWh Full Charged Capacity 67828mWh Designed Voltage 0V Current Voltage 0V Manufacture Date 0/0/0 Cycles Count 0 Cells count 0 Force charge support Not Supported Force discharge support Not Supported

Benchmark results

CPU BEmarks 0 GPU BEmarks 0 RAM BEmarks 0 HDD BEmarks 0

Work Done

Pi calculations 81880 Cycles HDD read\write 12107 Mb Fames Rendered 641333 Frames

Benchmark Options

Resolution 640x480x32 FullScreen Enabled Mode Classic

Results

Total time 0:83:97

Result Graph

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Well, the results speak for themselves. It took 84 minutes for the battery to be fully depleted by Battery Eater 05. It also took 3 hours, 27 minutes and 51 seconds for

the battery to fully charge again.

Keep in mind that Battery Eater is designed to completely drain a battery by running an endless loop of vigorous processor, video and hard drive routines that typically do not occur under normal use—but it is useful in determining just how well your battery will hold up and recover under the most extreme conditions.

Benchmarks

3DMark05 Professional

The industry standard of 3D synthetic benchmarks, Futuremark’s 3DMark05

designed to measure the performance of the latest generation of DirectX

9.0

graphics cards with a series of high quality 3D tests, CPU tests and feature tests and has support for Pixel Shader 2.0 and 2.0b. The latest version of 3Dmark05, Version

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1.20, was used for the test. The default settings for the benchmark were used, and the video driver control panel settings were left at the default “Application Preference” for all quality settings.

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No surprises here for the Mobility Radeon X700 with its 128MB of RAM and the Turion 64 ML-37 processor, as the results are pretty much what you’d expect them to be.

DOOM

id Software’s remake of the classic first-person shooter that started it all, powered by a spectacular new graphics engine with incredible lighting effects and nearphotorealistic visuals.

The retail version of the game was used and patched to Version 1.3. The tests were performed at 800x600 and 1024x768—the two resolutions where the game was most playable. High Quality and 2x antialiasing were enabled. DOOM

’s default anisotropic filtering setting is 8x, so that’s where it was left at. Vertical sync was disabled. The video driver control panel settings were left at the default “Application Preference” for all quality settings. Each test was run five times and the results were averaged.

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Two separate maps were used for the benchmark. The first is Demo_1, which is the

default DOOM after the demonic invasion, where you confront a number of Imps and UAC personnel turned into Zombies.

benchmark, and consists of the Mars City Underground level right

The second map, VIAVGA_D3, is a custom-recorded DOOM VIA Arena and is available for download. This visually intensive benchmark is based

on one of VIA Arena’s premier custom-made multiplayer maps for DOOM

benchmark created by

. Not only is this map designed for lots of fast-and-furious deathmatch fragging, but it’s perfect for stressing even the fastest video cards and CPUs.

Because DOOM3 scales well visually at lower resolutions, the game still looks pretty good at 800x600 and 1024x768. Since the majority of environments in the game are dark, using higher antialiasing settings to eliminate jaggies isn't as much an issue as it would normally be. Acer doesn’t specify in the documentation or their website what the response time for the 15.4” WSXGA+ LCD display is, but I detected no ghosting while playing DOOM

or any other game on the Ferrari 4000.

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As you can see from the chart, the 800x600 resolution gives the best overall frame rates. At 1024x728 the game is still playable, but you can expect some hitching and slowdowns with multiple enemies on the screen. With only 128MB of video memory on-tap, at 1280x1024, DOOM first-person shooter, even with antialiasing turned off (although 1600x1200 was selectable from the menu, the game wouldn’t run at that resolution, defaulting back to 640x480 after performing the required restart of the game after changing resolutions).

Half-Life 2

The follow-up to the most influential first-person shooter since id Software’s DOOM, Valve Software’s Sci-Fi first-person shooter epic powered by the Source engine,

rivals the DOOM

engine in both visual quality and the ability to push the video subsystem to the limit. Unlike DOOM or near-darkness in Half-Life 2, so visual jaggies from disabled or low levels of antialiasing are going to be more noticeable in the game.

The retail version of the game was patched with the latest updates downloaded from

Valve’s Steam online service. The tests were performed at 800x600 and 1024x768—

the two resolutions where the game was most playable—with 2x antialiasing and anisotropic filtering enabled, and the High Quality setting enabled for all visual effects. Although the game looked better with 4x anisotropic filtering, the frame rates were way too choppy for comfortable gameplay, even when moving through a level with no enemies present.

played, not surprisingly, more like a slide show than a

, you don’t spend 95% of your time in darkness

Once again, the driver control panel was left at the default “Application Preference” for all quality settings and Vsync disabled. The benchmark was performed with the

HardwareOC Half-Life 2 Benchmark Utility Version 1.4 (downloaded from Guru3D). The utility’s default maps—HardwareOC D13 C17, where Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance’s robot guardian Dog, attack a Combine checkpoint and Dog destroys a Combine APC; and HardwareOC Coast, where Gordon encounters City 17’s Ant Lions, were used.

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The highest resolution supported for Half-Life 2 on the Acer Ferrari 4000, is

1400x1050—a resolution high enough to get by with, without using antialiasing and with Trilinear filtering enabled—if it wasn’t for some very distracting driver-version

related visual anomalies related to the HUD (Heads Up Display) and some seriously

sluggish frame rates, particularly during the larger firefights with Gordon Freeman and the Resistance against the Combine troops.

As we can see from the chart, if you’re willing to live with occasional, brief moments of slowdowns and chugging when there’s a lot going on in a level, the 1024x768

resolution is a good compromise between looks and performance on the Acer Ferrari 4000—provided that you don’t get crazy with the antialiasing and anisotropic filtering

settings. If frame rates are more important, the game doesn’t look that bad at 800x600.

For gaming, the Mobility Radeon X700’s 128MB of GDDR3 Video RAM and 8 parallel pixel pipelines just isn’t enough to run the latest titles at the highest possible resolutions with all the visual effects cranked to the limit. While bumping the RAM another 128MB to 256MB definitely would have improved performance and allowed

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higher resolutions and antialiasing settings, it also would have added to the cost of

an already expensive notebook that was designed for general all-around use and not specifically for gaming. But look at the bright side: there are a number of laptops in the Ferrari 4000’s class that can barely run games like DOOM

all.

PCMark04 Professional

PCMark®04 is Futuremark’s application-based benchmark for measuring overall

system performance, utilizing portions of real applications instead of including fullsized, actual applications with specifically created scripting code. This keeps the cost of the benchmark within reach of the average enthusiast, makes the benchmark easier to use, as well as providing a smaller installation footprint to avoid hogging unnecessary disk space.

The latest version of PCMark04, Version 1.30, was used for the test, and the default settings were used.

and Half-Life 2—if at

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File Compression 3.1 MB/s File Encryption 30.8 MB/s File Decompression 24.3 MB/s Image Processing 12.3 MPixels/s Virus Scanning 1532.7 MB/s Grammar Check 3.1 KB/s File Decryption 61.1 MB/s Audio Conversion 2613.5 KB/s Web Page Rendering 4.6 Pages/s WMV Video Compression 45.8 FPS DivX Video Compression 49.7 FPS Physics Calculation and 3D Graphics Memory - 64 lines

Again, the results are what you would expect for a laptop of this type. For general-

purpose use, the Acer Ferrari 4000 should have no problems handling a wide variety

of business and entertainment tasks, satisfying all but the most extreme power users.

174.0 FPS

1612.1 FPS

The circled System Tray icon is Acer's Launch Manger.

Impressions and Conclusion

Whether it has four wheels or can sit on your desk and can be carried around in a

bag, when you shell out the bucks for a Ferrari, you’d expect it to be the pinnacle of performance, styling, quality and functionality. The Acer Ferrari 4000 4005WLMi

Launch Manger is the utility that you can use to enable or disable Bluetooth or Wireless LAN support and configure the Easy-launch buttons located above the upper right-hand corner of the keyboard.

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You'll see this the first time you use Launch Manger to disable Wireless LAN support.

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The circled System Tray icon is Acer GridVista—a utility that allows you to view multiple windows on the same screen using four pre-defined display settings, and works with both single and dual displays.

You'll need to check off the Extend my

Windows desktop on this monitor option

under the secondary monitor in Display Properties.

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Notebook fires on all cylinders and hits all of these attributes on the mark, with few

exceptions.

Right-click on the GridVista icon in the System Tray and select Options to change the utility's settings.

Right-clicking the icon and selecting Grid Display for each available monitor will bring up a list of grid configuration options.

GridVista will place three buttons in the title bar of all applications that can be dragged and dropped into a grid. The first button has options for making a window transparent and snapping it to a specific grid. The second button locks or unlocks a window to a grid. The third enables or disables a window in grid to always be on top.

A screen capture of a GridVista four-grid display on the Acer Ferrari 4000's LCD display (left) and a connected 17" LCD display (right).

This is what a GridVista configuration looks like on a dual display. It's important that the resolution on both displays match for best results.

I was very impressed with the styling and performance of the Acer Ferrari 4000. The

notebook is s a real head-turner wherever I take it. Whether I was reading E-Mail, working on a spreadsheet, playing games or watching a movie, AMD’s Turion 64 ML37 Mobile Processor teamed up with ATI’s Mobility Radeon X700 video, Gigabyte of RAM, and spacious, speedy hard drive, easily ran circles around my previous Intel

Centrino-powered Toshiba Tecra A2, and the bright, sharp 15.4” wide screen LCD

display never disappointed (not a dead pixel anywhere). While the sound obviously wasn’t going to compare with a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 sound card playing through a

set of Logitech 5.1 speakers, the 16-bit stereo speakers in the Ferrari 4000 did an

admirable job for their size and power, though they did tend to clip a bit in some games with the volume pushed up.

Keyboards, touch pads and mice are always a subjective matter. What might be acceptable to me may be unbearable to you. I personally found the slight curve and

tactile feedback of the Ferrari 4000’s keyboard more enjoyable and comfortable to

type on, especially for extended periods of time, compared to the keyboard on my previous Toshiba laptop, whose layout was a bit too cramped for me (in fact, I’m

typing this review on the 4000 now). I permitted a colleague of mine to try the Ferrari 4000. An hour later, she came to the conclusion that while it was a nice

notebook and she was blown away by the styling, the 15.4” wide screen, and the

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performance, she preferred the keyboard of her IBM ThinkPad over the Ferrari 4000

keyboard.

The touch pad on the Ferrari 4000 was the most responsive I’ve ever used, but for

doing any work for an extended period of time, a mouse is still a better choice—

which is why Acer included the Bluetooth wireless mouse with the Ferrari 4000.

Although the size and styling of the mouse is a plus compared to some mice, the lack of any kind of indicator showing how much charge is left—whether built into the mouse itself similar to some of Logitech’s cordless mice, or even a software-based

System Tray icon, is hardly reassuring. And contrary to the documentation, it did not

work as a regular USB mouse with the batteries removed and the charging cable attached (which could have been a bit longer). With batteries, the mouse is heavier than a regular full-sized corded mouse, with responsiveness that varies between average and below-average. I personally prefer something lighter to carry around in my bag on a daily basis that has much more responsive performance and better

precision, so my Salamander Red Razer Diamondback mouse is now occupying the

compartment in my notebook bag where the Acer Bluetooth mouse used to be. The mouse also flaked out on numerous occasions, forcing me to push the Bluetooth button at the front of the notebook on and off several times and underneath the mouse, before it finally started working again.

I was surprised to find that the Ferrari 4000’s 100 GB hard drive was split into two 50 GB FAT32 partitions. As it turns out, Acer eRecovery requires the second, empty

FAT32 partition to store backup images—the rationale being that all of your

programs and data would reside on the C: partition, while the eRecovery backups

would be stored on the D: partition. Storing backup images on another partition on the same hard drive may be fast and convenient, but if the hard drive crashes, not only do you lose your current data, but everything you backed up as well. Since I

make image backups of all my systems to my Buffalo TeraStation NAS on a regular basis with Acronis True Image, needed the full 100 GB disk space and prefer

Windows XP’s NTFS file system over FAT32 for its better performance and reliability, I used Vcom’s Partition Commander Version 9 to convert the drive into a single 100GB NTFS partition, while still maintaining the option of using eRecovery from the Acer’s hidden partition or CDs to return the notebook to factory condition if I choose.

One totally bizarre and unexpected issue I encountered with the Acer Ferrari 4000 was with NTI’s Backup NOW! 4. When backing up and restoring files with Backup

NOW! the program changes the case of files that it backs up. For example, backing

up a file named mywordfile.doc would be backed up and restored as Mywordfile.doc.

I was able to duplicate this anomaly on several other machines that I installed the software on.

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The Acer Ferrari 4000's Realtek AC'97 Audio Control panel

thankfully lacks the gaudy-looking skins used by other OEMs, using the default Windows theme instead.

Here you can select headphones or the built-in 16-bit stereo speakers.

A variety of environment effects are available to choose from—though Generic is the bestsounding one of them all, particularly when listening to music, playing games or watching your favorite DVD.

The Graphic Equalizer can also be used to tweak the sound to your liking.

S/PDIF-out settings can be made here.

Microphone settings are adjusted here.

I went to NTI’s website and looked for an update. Unfortunately, the NTI Backup NOW! 4.0.2202 update, which is listed for NTI Backup NOW! 4.0.2202 or earlier does not install on the Acer-branded version of Backup NOW! that ships with the Ferrari 4000 notebook because it isn’t a “Full/Retail version” of the software. Ironically, NTI’s CD & DVD Maker 7 bundled with the Ferrari 4000 does not engage in this kind

of digital monkey-business with file names. Updates specifically for the Acernotebook only version are available on the NTI website. Since CD & DVD Maker and

Backup NOW! are two separate packages an integrated suite like Roxio’s/Sonic’s Easy Media Creator 7, as they appear to be, applying the update to CD & DVD Maker

7 has no effect on Backup NOW!

This is the General tab that summarizes The Ferrari 4000's audio capabilities. Here we see that the Ferrari 4000's sound system is powered by the ATI's 4730 audio controller with Realtek's ALC250 doing Codec duty.

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Acer ships

CyberLink's PowerDVD 5.0 with

the Ferrari 4000. While it's not the latest version, it gets the job done.

The Acer-branded PowerDVD player is skinned to match the Ferrari color scheme.

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Ice Cube kickin' ass in xXx - State of The Union.

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While this issue wouldn’t be a problem for the most part, people who use software to create and manage websites and publish their sites to web servers that have casesensitive operating systems should avoid using NTI’s Backup NOW! to backup their work. There’s no good reason for any backup program to change the case on files.

An Acer-branded version of NTI CD &

DVD-Maker Gold, Version 7 is included with the Ferrari

4000. With it, you

can burn Data CDs, DVDs, and Mixed Mode CDs...

If you’re used to going out to ATI’s website and downloading the latest-and-greatest drivers for increased performance and functionality, you may be in for a rude shock

with the Ferrari 4000. The verification software on ATI’s site will scan your laptop to

determine if you can pull down the latest Catalyst Mobility™ Radeon laptop isn’t on the rather short list of approved vendors, then you will not be able to download them from ATI’s site—nor will you be able to install the “regular” Catalyst drivers (standard and .NET/Catalyst Control Center versions), which will immediately tell you that the graphics chip is “not supported” before aborting the install.

...create videos in a variety of DVD and CD formats...

...make photo slideshow discs...

...back up files and folders or create system images

You can also make copies of CD and DVD discs (copy-protected discs may prove to be problematic).

drivers. If your

OEMs often build specific hardware features into their notebooks that require custom-written drivers from vendors like ATI to support them. Installing “generic” drivers usually break those features. Since stability and reliability is somewhat more of a concern for laptops than DIY gaming rigs, ATI’s hard-line approach to restricting video driver updates to specific vendor systems for the Mobility Radeon isn’t as “Draconian” as it may appear to be. Still, if your favorite game won’t run properly on

the Ferrari 4000 without the latest-and-greatest Radeon drivers, fear not: there is a utility that you can download from DriverHeaven.net called the DriverHeaven Mobility Modding Tool that allows you to download the latest Catalyst drivers and install them

on your laptop. Be advised it’s one of those “Use at your own risk” deals. Be sure to

keep your Acer eRecovery CDs at the ready…

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Because there's only one optical drive and burner in the Acer Ferrari 4000, you'll have to copy the source disc to a temporary file on the hard drive, then onto a blank CD or DVD disc afterwards. This isn't such a bad or inconvenient thing, as it's usually a more reliable method of duplicating CD and DVD discs, due to the wide range of quality in media and other factors that can often prevent a successful drive-to-drive copy.

You can design your own CD and DVD labels and jewel case liners with NTI

JewelCase Maker.

NTI CD & DVD-Maker

can also burn and play audio discs, and has a Wave Editor.

The NTI WaveEditor is your typical .WAV file recording and editing utility.

NTI Backup NOW! 4 supports backups to disk and other popular media. I ran into a strange bug with the software changing the case on files it backed up.

NTI DVD Fit has the ability to compress dual-layer movies down to single-layer size, and remove unwanted features, before burning them without having to split a movie onto multiple DVD discs. It won't work with copy-protected movies, though.

NTI File CD is the packet writing software for CD-RW and DVD±RW discs.

As razor-thin margins continue to shrink and competition becomes more ferocious each day, PC and notebook vendors are out to reduce their expenses and maximize profits while keeping pricing within reach of their target markets. I suspect it won’t be much longer before three-year warranties for notebooks and PCs are the

exception, rather than the rule. Although Acer puts the Ferrari 4000 through what

they describe as “an extremely vigorous Q&A process that guarantees it will perform without problem or incident for 20,000 hours,” considering its $2,000+ price tag and the fact that no matter how tough the Q&A process or how high the quality of parts,

sooner or later, something is going to break (usually after the warranty’s up), a warranty longer than Acer’s One-Year International Traveler’s Warranty, is not

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unreasonable to expect. There are a number of extended warranty options available, but if you want the extra peace of mind, you’ll have to pay for it.

The Acer Ferrari 4000 ’s styling has been toned down quite a bit from the previous

3000-series notebooks (although some folks will still find it a bit too flashy for their tastes), but its performance, functionality and quality hasn’t—in fact they’ve gotten better. Although it’s not an absolute must, it would have been nice if the integrated Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet controller supported Jumbo Packet Frames. Finally, tweakers looking to enhance system performance will undoubtedly be disappointed by the rather sparse Phoenix BIOS (Version S3A17 on my unit), which allows only the most basic of settings necessary for configuring the notebook.

Leveraging both Windows XP 32-bit and Windows XP Professional x64 support with AMD’s latest 64-bit mobile processor and other best-of-breed components in a lightweight, powerful, stunningly beautiful and surprisingly flexible package, the

Acer Ferrari 4000 4005WLMi Notebook is every bit a winner as the exotic sports

cars and F1 champions of the same name.

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Final Score:

Summary: Highs: Acer takes their series of Scuderia Ferrari-sponsored

laptops to the next level with the Ferrari 4000 4005WLMi Notebook. Powered by AMD's Turion 64 ML-37 mobile processor,

ATI's Mobility RADEON X700 PCI Express graphics processor and RADEON XPRESS 200P Motherboard chipset, with 1GB RAM, 100GB hard drive, a gorgeous 15.4" WSXGA+ LCD display, upgraded

Ferrari styling with a genuine carbon-fiber lid, the Acer Ferrari 4000 4005WLMi Notebook is an eye-catching powerhouse in a

lightweight package. SignalUp™ Wireless LAN and Bluetooth Wireless supported (Bluetooth Wireless Mouse included with

notebook). FineTouch™ ergonomic keyboard with "Soft-touch

coating," and generous-sized touchpad with a separate 4-way

scroll button. Slot-loaded DVD-RAM drive (supports dual-layer media). 5-in-1 Card Reader and a generous number of I/O ports makes the Acer Ferrari 4000 one of the most versatile and flexible notebooks in its class. Acer eManager, GridVista and Launch Manager utilities makes common tasks from system backup and recovery to presentations a snap.

Lows: Bluetooth wireless mouse has average response time, is a

bit on the heavy side, doesn't work as regular USB mouse without batteries as stated in documentation, and has no system tray battery life indicators. Bundled backup software tampers with case settings of files. Acer eRecovery requires a FAT32 partition. Minimal configuration options in BIOS.

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Acer Ferrari 4000 4005WLMi Notebook

Manufactured by: Acer, Inc. Distributed by: Various retailers

Specifications:

Operating system

- Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

- Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Platform

- Processor: AMD Turion 64 ML-37 processor (2.0 GHz)

- Chipset: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200P

Memory

- 1 GB of DDR333 memory, upgradeable to 2 GB using two soDIMM modules

Display

- 15.4" WSXGA+ TFT LCD, 1680 x 1050 resolution

- 16.7 million colors

Graphics

- ATI Mobility RADEON X700 with 128 MB of external DDR VRAM, supporting ATI Powerplay 5.0, Microsoft

- DirectX 9.0 and PCI Express

- DualView support; external display at up to 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution, 85 Hz

- MPEG-2 DVD hardware-assisted capability

- S-video/TV-out (NTSC/PAL) support

- DVI-D (true digital video interface) support

Audio

- Audio system with microphone and two built-in speakers

- AC'97 compliant

- S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) support

Storage

- 100 GB ATA/100 hard disk drive

- 5-in-1 card reader supporting Memory Stick®, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital (SD) and xD-Picture Card Optical media drive

- Slot-load DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive

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Communication

- Modem: 56K ITU V.92 with PTT approval;

- Wake-on-Ring ready

- LAN: gigabit Ethernet; Wake-on-LAN ready

- WLAN: integrated Acer InviLink™ 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ solution; supporting Acer SignalUp wireless technology

- WPAN: integrated Bluetooth

Size and weight

- 363 (W) x 265.7 (D) x 30.5/34.3 (H) mm

- (14.29 x 10.46 x 1.2/1.36 inches)

- 2.86 kg (6.3 lbs.)

Power

- ACPI 1.0b power management standard supports Standby and Hibernation power-saving modes

- 71 W Li-ion battery pack

- 2.5-hour rapid charge, 3.5-hour charge-in-use

- 3-pin 90 W AC adapter

Special keys and controls

- 88-/89-key Acer FineTouch™ keyboard

- Built-in touchpad with 4-way scroll button

- Four easy-launch buttons

- Two front-access buttons: WLAN LED-button and Bluetooth® LED-button

I/O ports

- 124-pin Acer ezDock connector

- Four USB 2.0 ports

- IEEE 1394 port (4-pin)

- Ethernet (RJ-45) port

- Modem (RJ-11) port

- External display (VGA) port

- S-video/TV-out (NTSC/PAL) port

- DVI-D port

- Microphone/line-in jack

- Headphones/speaker/line-out port with S/PDIF support

- PC Card slot (one Type II)

- 5-in-1 card reader

- DC-in jack for AC adapter

System compliance

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Page 39

- Mobile PC 2001

- ACPI 1.0b

- DMI 2.0

- Cisco Compatible Extensions (CCX)

Warranty

- One-year International Travelers Warranty (ITW)

Page 39 of 39

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Toshiba BRnR LX.FR406.035, BRnR 4000, 4005WLMi User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual