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    [3820TG] Extended Battery life Bios

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by dooms33ker, Jun 17, 2011.

  1. dooms33ker

    dooms33ker Notebook Consultant

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    I have modified the vbios for owners of the 3820TG with the ATI 6550m card that should improve battery life while gaming and browsing with the discrete GPU.

    The clocks and voltages are as follows:

    3D mode - 600/800mhz @1v
    Low Power 3D mode 450/700mhz @.90V
    2D mode - 100/150mhz @.80v

    Playing Mass Effect on power save with low power 3d clocks nets me 1:50-2:00 of gameplay @ 720p with a steady 30fps.

    Windows battery meter is showing 6 hours of ilde/minimal use battery life with the ATI GPU enabled.

    My particular 6550m is overclocked to 670/900mhz @1V with MSIAfterburner and runs perfectly.

    I am including the BIOS file which must be flashed with a USB thumb drive using phlash16. Create a bootable DOS flash drive, (search google how to do this)reboot into DOS, then type:

    phlash16 force JM31119.WPH.

    Make sure you have the power adapter plugged in whilst flashing and let the program finish before doing anything.

    I am not to be held responsible if you brick your machine but can assure you that if followed properly this should increase battery life and decrease heat.

    This BIOS is ONLY for the Acer 3820TG with the ATI 6550m card, not the 5650m.



    https://rapidshare.com/#!download|846l36|2348874303|JM31119.WPH|4203|R~0
     
    dooms33ker, Jun 17, 2011
    #1
  2. dooms33ker

    dooms33ker Notebook Consultant

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    Just download the stock ACER 3820TG BIOS to get phlash16
     
    dooms33ker, Jun 17, 2011
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  3. too456

    too456 Resident Angry Bird

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    Do you have to manually switch the profiles or is it done automatically? Just asking, since it will not work for my 5650.
     
    too456, Jun 17, 2011
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  4. eyelo

    eyelo Notebook Geek

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    interesting
    is it possible to undervolt the integrated gpu? that's more battery life than i get on igpu
     
    eyelo, Jun 18, 2011
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  5. dooms33ker

    dooms33ker Notebook Consultant

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    I set low power 3D to be used with power save mode on battery through Windows. You can use either low power or standard 3D depending on your preference, though low power 3D will likely give you an extra 30 minutes of gaming.

    You can make a BIOS yourself for the 5650 by using PhoenixTool and Radeon BIOS Editor. Search around the forum for how to do that as I can't make/test a 5650m BIOS.
     
    dooms33ker, Jun 18, 2011
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  6. dooms33ker

    dooms33ker Notebook Consultant

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    I don't believe so since the Intel chip is integrated into the CPU; I could be wrong though.

    Also not that the 6 hour battery life is when idling, browsing the web will give you more like 4:30-5:00
     
    dooms33ker, Jun 18, 2011
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  7. PeterDLai

    PeterDLai Notebook Consultant

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    What kind of discharge rates are you getting on the 2D mode?
     
    PeterDLai, Jun 18, 2011
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  8. dooms33ker

    dooms33ker Notebook Consultant

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    ~9000mw/~12000mw
     
    dooms33ker, Jun 18, 2011
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  9. too456

    too456 Resident Angry Bird

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    That's weird. While mine is idling (wifi off, on Intel GPU, brightness on a quarter), it discharges at about 8000mw.
     
    too456, Jun 19, 2011
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  10. dooms33ker

    dooms33ker Notebook Consultant

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    My rates were @ 50% brightness with the ATI card turned on.
     
    dooms33ker, Jun 19, 2011
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  11. gingerboy92

    gingerboy92 Newbie

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    i have a question. can you unlock the hidden menu's in this bios?. i need to use intel graphic alone in linux(ubuntu) because of the unstable linux driver for ati graphic.
     
    gingerboy92, Jul 9, 2011
    #11
  12. Sxooter

    Sxooter Notebook Virtuoso

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    There's no reason for that if you're running a late model kernel, you can just put this line at the end of /etc/rc.local to turn off the ATI GPU:

    echo "OFF" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
     
    Sxooter, Jul 9, 2011
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  13. gingerboy92

    gingerboy92 Newbie

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    tried that a million times.. never worked before.. each time i do that(and relogin/rebooting), the only thing that appear is black screen.
     
    gingerboy92, Jul 9, 2011
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  14. Sxooter

    Sxooter Notebook Virtuoso

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    Hmmm. What distro are you running? I'm on Ubuntu 10.10. Hibernate doesn't work right but suspend does.
     
    Sxooter, Jul 9, 2011
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  15. gingerboy92

    gingerboy92 Newbie

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    im on ubuntu.. tried it ubuntu 11.04, 10.10, and even 11.10 alpha.. but never managed to get it to work.. maybe im just tooo stupid to do it. :D
     
    gingerboy92, Jul 9, 2011
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  16. Sxooter

    Sxooter Notebook Virtuoso

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    Nah, it's probably something simple tho. Are you running the fglrx driver or the open source ATI driver? Turning on the fglrx driver screwed up my machine, but running the open source ATI driver works fine. I'm on a 4820TG so there could be some minor difference between it and a 3820TG I'm not aware of that causes problems.
     
    Sxooter, Jul 9, 2011
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  17. spAik

    spAik Notebook Enthusiast

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    can you do the same with an overclocked ati instead of an underclocked? :)
     
    spAik, Jul 21, 2011
    #17