I was in need of a laptop, and this last memorial day weekend I chanced upon one with promising specs.  On whim I plunked down the money, and walked home with it, not even knowing what it looked like.  It was a gamble, one that turned out quite well.  Enter the Acer Aspire 5315-2326.  As far as computers and laptops go, it has the portability of a laptop, but the power of an above average desktop.  As far as graphics go, it has a good graphics chipset for a laptop.  Research shows it was made to meet the requirements of Windows Vista’s Aero.  However, like many desktops, even the above average ones, this laptop had a bottleneck with Vista.  Tweaking it helped, but I wanted more speed.  I was tempted to install Windows XP Pro SP3 on it, but a few people gave accounts of experiencing driver issues and fan failure after the computer exits sleep mode.  This stopped me from going through with the install.  I also wrote an article on it.  However, new information, as well as first hand experience has rendered it obsolete.

Acer does have drivers for the laptop.  The ones for XP are a hit or miss, some work, some don’t, others simply aren’t included.  In some cases when I downloaded drivers, the zip archives were corrupt or damaged.  All of the drivers for Windows Vista are present.  Despite how they are labeled, some drivers for Vista will also work with Windows XP or 2000!  The fan problem has two scenarios.  Some 5315 models are defective, like so many all in one unit machines are.  The fan is a heavy contender for this.  The second scenario is specific to sleep mode.  The fan will run after sleep mode, as long as it was running as it shutdown.  Otherwise it would stay off.  The problem is the bios.  People reported versions 1.19 and 1.21 had issues.  It has been resolved in later bios versions.  Anyone with 1.34 has reported the issue is gone.

There is also a website out there that deals with installing XP onto the 5135-2153. Included is drivers and a massive followup of comments (1000+) of installation success and woes.  Some people with my model of laptop, report that some of the drivers do not work.  Using this as a rough guide, I downloaded the drivers off of Acer’s website, scavanged for the ones that were missing or simply didn’t work, and dove in head first.

Everything worked.  Except for the wireless driver.  I tried everywhere, then went to Soulpass and downloaded the driver as a last resort.  It worked.  I nuked the test install, spent three days getting to a clean install, and installing all of my crap.

The verdict?  It has been working fine, with no problems, for nearly a week now.  XP is much faster, and more responsive.  Applications that are incompatible with Vista, are compatible on XP.  Gaming has turned up more framerates.  Unlike with Vista, networking is stable.  Oh yeah, this version of XP has more features built into it, and operates like an operating system should.  The fan that many people had problems with, works just fine for me.  In fact, the fan doesn’t spin as wildly or as loud as when Vista was installed.  Due to the lighter load of XP, the heat coming out the back vent is much cooler than when Vista was installed.While it was a pain to get this up and running, it was well worth it in the end.

Of course, my old article has also turned up hits for people wondering the same thing as myself.  Does Windows XP run on this laptop?  I’m also getting search results for drivers for this laptop.  So, without further delay -

Sata Driver - You’ll need this during install to get Windows XP to even acknowledge this model has a harddrive.  It’ll create a directory with the drivers that you need.  Copy them to a floppy or a USB stick for use during install.  The driver you need is the third one in the list.

RealTek Driver - Once XP is installed and running, install this before any other drivers to prevent issues that other people have experienced.

Intel Chipset

Intel Graphics Driver

Lan Driver

Launch - This is the driver and program for the green quick launch key in the upper right corner of the 5315.  It’ll activate the program of your choice when the key is hit.

Launch Patch - Patches a security vulnerability for the launch program.

Touchpad - This is the driver and program that enables or disables certain features of the 5315’s touchpad.  The detection program will not work!  Instead, navigate to the ALPs folder, and install that driver.  ALPS is the program and driver that comes preinstalled on this laptop for Vista!

Wireless Driver - Credit goes to Alex at Soulpass for finding this driver.

Modem Driver - Install this last!  Doesn’t have a setup file.  You’ll need to manually install using have disk through add new hardware, or by updating the driver through the device manager.  The one you want, is of course in the XP folder.  Windows XP didn’t show the drivers as compatible, so I told it to display them anyway.  I chose the first one in the list.  I have nothing to test it on, but XP hasn’t reported any problems with the driver or modem.

Zune Desktop Theme - This one is optional and purely cosmetic.  I think Windows XP’s default interface leaves much to be desired.  Windows has released a theme to go with their Zune player.  Incidentally, this theme matches the dark theme of Windows Media Player 11.  Coincidence?  In any case, this goes great with with the colors of the 5315.

Note:  Windows will automatically detect the webcam.  It’s listed as USB Camera in My Computer.  Any standard program that works with webcams and scanner software, will also detect it.  The Acer Empowering Technology is an optional program that gives access to quick settings and computer information.  It does not work on XP as far as I know.  However, the Soulpass article has a version for download that might work.  I’ve untested this, so do at your own risk!

Happy installing!