IBJamon

Yeah... you have a point. That's pretty much what I have been doing for now, but I was hoping someone else found a way. But the included Blu-Ray software can play Wreck-it-Ralph, which is pretty current, so I'm not sure what to say there... but it seems okay, at least for now. Oh well. I may try to finagle it to see if I can come up with something. IBJamon

Thanks. I hope to get my new hard drive today, so fresh install is a-comin'. The only/main reason I want powerDVD is that Blu-Ray support is flaky at best with VLC - yes it can play the main title most of the time, but I'm one of those weirdos that like special features, menus and stuff. But if there is no way, then it is what it is. Thanks a bunch! Does anyone here dual-boot with Linux? Do you recommend sticking with UEFI, or should I just do it the easy way and enable legacy mode? IBJamon - - - Updated - - - Oh, and I looked at Splashpro. While I'm sure it's a nice player, it doesn't seem to support Blu-Ray disks. That's the main reason I would want a player - VLC meets most of my needs otherwise. I tend to buy or rent/stream most of my movies, though I do consider format shifting a right that I will utilize from time to time. But the PC Blu-Ray player rat race is one that aggravates me more than a little... buy a new version because the maker thinks that they can sucker you out of more money for an 'upgrade', and if you don't new movies stop working? That makes me sick. If there was full-featured Blu-Ray software that was reasonably priced, and was buy once, I'd think about it. But as it is now, I'll take what I can get... IBJamon

I don't know if it would cause more battery drainage or not (do they publish specs on power usage for wifi cards?) but yes, you should (in theory, I haven't tested the Y580's hacked BIOS myself + wifi card) be able to upgrade it. The cons? Well, I suppose voiding a warranty (until returned to stock) could be a con. IBJamon

I have a Y580 (which uses the same 2230 wireless card) and you won't get over 150Mbps because the wireless card is only single channel... which is one of the major motivations in upgrading it, in my opinion. IBJamon

I see a lot of threads (here and elsewhere) talking about the Y580, and modifying partitions, etc. instead of just doing a full wipe. I understand that a full wipe (or in my case, a new HDD coming) may lose OKR, but other than that, is there a downside I am not aware of by doing the full wipe? I assume getting to the BIOS from the OKR key will still work, right? I have a Windows 8 version of the Y580, with the 8.01 BIOS. I have already backed up to my network drive the full install + driver partition. I also made a clonezilla of my current drive, so I know I can experiment, but it's time consuming, so if the collective wisdom could point me in the right direction, that would be great. Also, is there a way to transfer the PowerDVD to the new fresh install? That's probably the only software that I care about on the factory image. I have always had split partition schemes, with a smaller Windows install + Linux dual boot + a larger data drive for games, etc. Is there a good reason not to do this? Thanks, IBJamon