Thank you fastvince!

Traker1001 I didn't intend to come across as berating you for not calling acer (when you actually had). I was trying to encourage everyone with this problem to at least call/lodge a complaint with acer in some way, or they will never think there is a problem or that the magninude of the problem makes it worth fixing.

Looks like the way to run these boxes is with the old bios and and an add-in network card.

Not a problem.

Are you guys getting full surround via your hdmi? I can only seem to manage to get stereo, Although, Not sure if this was the case before I started screwing with the drivers.

My TV (sony-55") has built in speakers, If I set the audio on my TV to surround sound, I am getting it. I do not have a home theater setup. I am just using my TV's built-in speakers.

I would just like to give a sincere and big "thank you!" to everyone on this thread for their invaluable assistance!

I have been a lurker on this thread - as I have an Acer x1200 to which I downloaded the newer bios, resulting of course in my sound not working - and have been hoping for a solution to get my sound working again. Due to the efforts of the contributors of this thread, my sound works fine now (but the network card is unstable again...but currently sound is the most important to me).

Even though I will freely admit that I am one step above an imbecile when it comes to bios, the version 2 bios posted in the link worked for me without a problem (once I thought to bring winflash up, that is).

All this being said, though, I believe we should still press Acer for a guaranteed fix to the network card program. I have been an Acer customer for many years (I still have one of their laptops which has proven rock-solid - except for the WD hdd frying...), and up until now I have been satified with their products. This x1200, however, is shaking my belief in the company. When I spend my money on a computer I expect it to work as it is advertised; this model is definitely not doing that.

I myself have been pestering Acer "support" for some time now about this problem and their need to provide a solid fix for it...usually a message every two days. Some are returned answered, some are not. However, I would hope that everyone in this thread will join me in pressuring Acer for a good fix for the network card problem - one that specifically will not screw anything else up. If this problem isn't in a senior tech's hands by now, it certainly should be. After all, we just only want what we paid for and was guaranteed us, right?

Anyway, thanks again for the great help and fantastic community support shown here! I do appreciate it very much, and I hope to be able to contribute something in the future.

I too have been a lurker on this thread also fallen victim to the BIOS "update".

Acer support is a complete joke. For a device that I've had for just over a month they want me to pay to ship back a device that only needs a BIOS fix? They've got to be joking. I guess I'm too used to Dell's quality customer support. First they hang up on me, or perhaps we were disconnected? But they have my number and information and we were in the middle of a system restore, so couldn't they have called me back? And then the next guy (who was actually very nice) sounded completely confused when I told him this nonsense happened after a BIOS update. He was like "why would anyone update their BIOS? You should never do that". Then I explained that I not only received instructions from Acer through email, but also been instructed through the "Acer Manager" software that came on the computer. And that was it. He had no ideas what to do, only to send me shipping instructions via email. A waste of time.

I've attempted to revert back to the old BIOS without any luck, but I think I want a fully functional network adapter anyway. Hopefully Acer will issue a new BIOS before the end of the decade and I'll be happy. But who knows, perhaps the next one will give us network and hdmi audio, but remove something like USB. Perhaps Acer's motto should be "either working half as good or half as good, pick one".

Anyway, does anyone have a level 2 or level 3 tech support email address that perhaps we can all email to explain this problem to? It's been over a month and there seems to have been no attempts from Acer to rectify this problem.

Sorry for the the rant, but we all shelled out hard earned money for these computers and are upset about what we get. Acer owes it to us to do something about this situation.

BTW, I've also posted this problem to www avsforum com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1046863 and www aramistech com/reviews/acer-x1200-mini-pc-450/ . We're not alone.

PS: I don't have more than 5 posts, so I can't link URLs.

Acer now has an updated Bios on their website. Updated 28 Aug, 08. I installed on my x1200 and it worked fine. My HDMI audio and Lan now seem to work correctly. Finally a solution.

Thanks

Here it is, if anyone searches here : http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/dat...ts/NWR01A3.exe

This is intresting, It works great, It is still the A03 bios, and the timestamp in the actual bios is Jul 13. I am guessing that all the had to do was a very minor tweak of the A03, And it took as long as it did. Go figure...

Good news on the bios. My x1200 that I got from BestBuy hasn't seemed to have any problems so far (as purchased), though I haven't used it enough to know if I had the network problem.

Been able to play ripped Blu Ray (mkv) on it using Core, BS Player, and Media Portal and they all look great, no tearing or anything.

My big problem is audio. I got a new Samsung 650 at the same time, and I was thinking I could just run the HDMI from the Acer to the tv (which does work fine), and then the optical out from the tv into my Onkyo receiver. The problem I have is that the tv only outputs stereo via the optical when it's using a HDMI source, which leaves me with two options. 1) trying to hook audio from the Acer to the Onkyo, or 2) running the HDMI through the receiver (I'd have to buy a new one that supports that)

The lack of SPDIF out on the Acer is by far my biggest disappointment. I've seen posts on here about hooking a port up to the motherboard, but I haven't read that anyone's actually tried it. People mention the $30 Turtle usb, but that you'd have to switch to Vista 32 and lose out on half your RAM.

I was wondering if anyone has tried using a Creative Labs USB Sound Blaster X-Fi 5.1? I see that it has x64 support (via the MS Compatibility list), it runs USB 2.0 and has optical and coaxial out. Looks like it's about $60, but that beats a new $300 receiver.

I haven't been able to get anything but stereo from the X1200 hdmi port, Even connected directly to my yamaha receiver. I have tried different OS's xp,vista, vista 64, And all with different combination of drivers, I have always got either stereo or nothing, Few times I get stereo until I tried to play 5.1 then the whole setup just went mute.

As far as adding the spdif port, I took the system board out, The way they have the audio cluster setup, You would actually have to find a complet cluster and re-sauter the complete cluster to the system board.

I don't like the USB options because everything I have seen only capable of 5.1 and possibly not DTS at all, call me spoiled, I really like to take advantage of my 7.1 setup if I am going to spend more $$ on this thing.

With that said I have been looking at an internal card that looks promising.

The ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express Interface Sound Card

newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829132006

If you have multiple PCI-Express slots (ie If the one PCI-Express slot is already being used by Video)
Newegg again?
Newegg Newegg Newegg, I've never seen more links to the business from anyother tech forum. It's all over the place here, (even I post links now)
I think they should hand us out freebies for all these links

There is 2 pciE slots in the x1200, What would you be using 2 half height pciE slots for?

I like newegg, Descent prices, Ok support, and good product selection.

Since Fry's has a good return policy I decided to go out and pick one of those X-Fi Surround 5.1 USBs up. Plugged it in, didn't have to install anything and now I've got 5.1 optical out (including DTS) running into my receiver. So, if you're looking for SPDIF from the Acer in Vista 64 in an easy way this seems pretty good.

Hey, just posting to say thanks to everyone who helped out in this thread. I noticed the post from chuckster pointing out the new BIOS, I installed it, and everything is working great now. I'm still a bit upset at Acer's lack of good tech support, but at least they finally got around to fixing the problem.

Thanks for the update mlaboss

I was hoping the original thread starter would come along

I installed this bios update last night to get my audio working and it works but very briefly. Windows boots gets me to the login screen I hear sound and before I can even login my screen goes blank. Tried switching ports on my TV haven't tried another cable yet but I will tonight. I didn't try the HDMI before the bios update because I new the sound was broken.

Any other ideas?

Go to safe mode (repeatively press F8 function key on Windows startup)
Select the Safe Mode option
Log into your Administrator account

Once in safe Mode, (Yes) select:
Start->Run-> Devmgmt.msc ->ok

Once Device Manager opens, select the + sign on Display Adaptors
When the submenu opens, showing your installed Video card...
Right click on it, and select Uninstall (or remove)
Once the process has been completed, restart normally

In Normal mode, you will need to load your Video drivers again

Any further help, you should create your own thread in Audio and Video, stating the fault, and what you have done.

Well I went into the bios and disabled HD audio and that takes care of the HDMI display going off. Unfortunately this also kills all audio.

I will try the safe mode suggestion....

Not sure why this should be in another thread this thread is pretty specific to the X1200.

So I just picked up this system that was bundled with the 22" monitor since I needed another one anyway, and after reading through this thread, I am wondering if the audio will work if I just run it through the TV speakers on my Panasonic plasma as I don't have a home theater system hooked up to it. I saw a post in this thread that made it sound as if this would work. If not, then I assume I can just use the standard audio out with an RCA cable to input into the plasma.

I hooked up the X1200 to my Panasonic plasma and it looks great but there was some overscan so I will have to figure that out later. For now I just used the NVIDIA screen adjust tool to get it to look right.

I was hoping that I would have the latest BIOS update since there was a big sticker on the box stating the BIOS info, but I didn't so I will try the new one from the link above. I am hestitant to flash the bios on a new machine though but I do want the HDMI audio to work so I guess I will have to suck it up and do it. Any suggestions on the best way to go about it?

So I hate to be "that" guy that resurrects a dead thread with his first post but I have been Googling, reading, and re-reading this thread as well as every other relevant page and forum regarding this issue.

I have the latest BIOS installed (the one that everyone claims HDMI audio works and has LAN stability). And I have the latest Chipset and Graphics drivers from nVidia's website... I think...

The one thing I've noticed is that in Device Manager>Display Adapters, it says I have the GeForce 9200... These machines have the 8200...

Also, in the sound devices, I have a Realtek HD Audio Device and an nVidia HD Audio Device. However, the Realtek device is the only one that I can control in the volume controls. I've tried disabling it but then I have no volume controls. At least, there is no audio device according to them.

Any ideas? I'm running XP SP3 if that helps at all.

Thanks in advance.