3820TG Owner's Lounge - Part Two

Thank you for your reply!
The latest Acer AMD/ATI driver is this VGA_AMD_8.752.0.0_W7x86x64.

I have this installed as we speak. But this driver is version 10.7 in Catalyst control center.. Is this really the newest driver possible on the 3820tg with the HD5650 setup?

 

You can Google it. You can also read the updates page on the AMD website and it'll show it too.

8.752.0.0 = Catalyst 10.7

 

I am aware that 8.752.0.0 translate into revision number 10.7.
But i asked if 10.7 really was the newest driver for our system?

Cause if i go directly to the AMD site, it gives me the latest driver with revision number 11.5. But this driver wont work with the 3820TG because of the switchable possibility or?

Thats why i wondered if revision 10.7 really is the newest driver for our laptop you see.

 

Acer and AMD are not affiliated with one another on drivers. What you see on Acer's site is the newest drivers they put out, but you can always update to the newest ATI drivers by following the installation steps in the first post.

Updating to 11.5 should be no problem.

 

Thats what i thought.
But when i follow the guide i stumble into problems, and thats why i asked questions, to work around them.

Now the first issue i came across is that the stock driver (revision 10.1) From Acer no longer is available on the Acer site. Only the one with revision 10.3. Now im not sure if thats the reason for my problems. Thats why i asked for an updated guide concerning using the latest drivers from ATI.

 

Maybe some clearer instructions here? After a fresh install I was using Hendrikson's instructions of: Install Intel VGA> in BIOS set to discrete> install ATI drivers> switch BIOS back to switchable. But this German beta driver is a little harder to follow. You must leave switchable on, which I didn't know, and if you don't speak German you can't read the warning and the install just hangs.

I'm not experienced enough myself but if too456 isn't around maybe someone should edit his driver list and instead of alphabetical order maybe it should be listed as suggested install order. Also, when it comes to the graphics there is only one option in his list, which is different then what's on the Acer website and what's on the ATI site. It was slightly confusing.

Just personal opinion.

 

I am using Acer 8.752.0.0 driver and Catalyst 11.5. This is as detailed as I can remember:

1. Uninstall ATI Catalyst Install Manager ( Important)
- Chose to uninstall ALL component
2. Install Driver Sweeper ( Guru3D - Driver Sweeper (Setup) download from Guru3D.com)
3. Reboot into Safe Mode (Spam F8 before Windows logo show)
4. Run Driver Sweeper and select to clean all ATI driver (dont do this if you have not uninstall ATI in step 1 or else BSOD)
5. Reboot
6. Install Acer latest driver for your card 8.752.0.0 for 5650.
7. Reboot into Discrete - Dont be alarm if screen is on low resolution
8. Go to device manager, select ATI graphic card (if exist), press "del" to uninstall it
9. Install Catalyst 11.5
- Chose Custom installation
- Make sure select all component
- Make sure "Success" in view log
10. Reboot back to Switchable
- Make sure Driver is updated in CCC

 

Hello
For my driver listing, I only list the latest, unofficial drivers, which basically means that they are not endorsed by Acer to work, but I tested those that match my specifications and I'm quite sure they work. If you want the Acer ones, it can be found at the Acer support page.

As for the driver install, I'll add pictures once I reach home, but a rough guide:
1) Download the driver
2) [optional] uninstall the currently installed drivers. I did not do this and it works fine so there should not be a problem if you skip this step.
3) Extract the files to C drive if it does not do so automatically
4) The setup should run automatically, if not run install.exe in the root of you C drive
5) Click on Install/Uninstall
[warning] your computer must be in switchable graphics mode. Not dedicated mode.
6) The Catalyst Install Manager should start, select 'Express Install' or 'Custom Install' if you want to customize the installed items.
7) It will install, then delete the install files. Reboot and done.

A note of caution though: You may have to do some parts manually as the automatic install system does not work sometimes. You'll then have to disable driver signature enforcement and manually start the installer. I'll post detailed instructions once I get home.

 

Hi guys!
Thanks for taking the time to revisit this installation guide!
I am now running the latest revision 11.5 on my system =)

Thanks alot =)

 

Hi everyone,

I was trying to OC my 6550M with the AMD GPU clock tool, I put it from 100 to 110 and 150 to 165 and tried the resident evil benchmark. My fps went totally crap - not aboe 10 or so. When I restored default clocks fps went back over 50.

I'm kind of new to this OC business, why is it behaving this way?

This is on a totally fresh install with all Acer drivers from official page.

Thanks

Edit: I just realized the default speed of the card is 600/900 right? So maybe I actually set it much lower with the tool and that's why my fps was crap. But when start the program the values are at 100/150 which is why I assumed there was a x6 multiplier - this is wrong?

 

100/150 are 2D clocks that automatically switch to 3D clocks of 600/800 unless you choose another frequency manually- which you did.
If you want to OC you have to set values higher than 600/800 but remember that you have to reset them afterwards- these won't get back to 100/150 automatically when you're finished playing.

 

The 100/150 are idle clock frequencies for the GPU. When the GPU is not being used, the clocks are set to idle by power saving settings. You underclocked your GPU.

Bronsky

Edit: Guess I was too slow.

 

Cool, thanks

 

Try the gaming profile from my sig. That would keep your CPU well in the 80s.

Same, have a look at the gaming profile in my sig.

On BIOS switching, I get constantly 6 hour when web surfing, and about 9-10 when vieweing PDF slides and I exit from all background app (email notifier, Dropbox, Skype, etc.) All on 6 cell, on about 60% brightness (that is actually quite bright on the 3820TG). I could never get similar results while using the switchable drivers.

 

wow! the Custom Fan Profiles gaming mode work really well! My max temperature now in low 80s! I always thought the default fan profile will max out with my temperature increased to 90s... no?

Anyway, thanks!

ps: Just read thru your explanation on first and second line of the .txt. So, at default profile, the fan is not operating at max speed even after 85°C! i m keeping the gaming_profile 24x7... ^.^

 

I used the custom fan profile mod and got my card up to 800/1100. At 750/1065 I had 9632 in 3dmark06. I'm very satisfied

Thank you zsero for the fan mod, nice stuff.

Waiting for my setFSB code so I can play with the cpu, I have a i5 480M @ 2.67 - is it worthwhile to OC?

 

In a word, yes. The question is if it helps in 3D games. That might require throttle stop and SetFSB but I'll leave it to the gamers to address. The Arrandale OC's really well.

Gaming profile sounds interesting. It is amazing what the owners have been able to tweak out of this computer.

Bronsky

 

Seriously? The fans don't max out when you game and temps go up?
What do they run at when hot? 75%?

 

Playing around with OCing and getting some weird results:


FSB@133, GPU@800/1100
RS5 Bench fps: 66.8
Heaven DX11 2.5 fps: 16.9

FSB@153, GPU@800/1100
RS5 Bench fps: 60.3
Heaven DX11 2.5 fps: 14.5

I did these more than once so it's not some freak occurrence.
Why would the fps go down at a higher FSB? (With or without ThrottleStop made no difference)
I'm using setFSB with Asus G73JH Clockgen (which abo told me to use).

 

Tried "bcdedit /set useplatformclock true" ? Read more:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...must-read-setfsb-o-c-game-problems-fixed.html

 

Discussions about the fan speed here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/562576-acer-aspire-timelinex-3820tg-mods-tweaks-only-15.html

Amazing stuff. No one know why Acer didn't use max speed in high temperature, except may be Acer engineer themselves... not sure of any disadvantages, but i m already enjoying a cooler CPU...

 

Yup, this solved this. Thanks!
------------------------
Another question.. has anyone played with their TDP/TDC settings in ThrottleStop on the 3820TG with good results? I read that I might brick the whole laptop which wasn't really encouraging. Although my machine seems to bsod at some point after 153FSB even if the temps are really low, and if I check ThrottleStop logs the multiplier is staying above 21 consistently - does this mean there's no point in fiddling with TDP/TDC?

After playing around I ended up with i5 480m @ 3380Mhz & 6550M @ 800/1100
Went from 7875 3dMark06 score to 10230 a 29.9% increase.

<3

 

Yes, 75% seems like a good bet. Its a really stupid feature of the stock Acer profile. Thats why I made the gaming profile.

You cannot do anything with system instability over about 155 FSB, as the RAMs cannot handle it. Most of the 3820TGs max out between 150 - 160 FSB, its just that processors with different multipliers get higher frequencies. I wouldn't use Throttlestop as I have never ever got throttled on a 3820TG with an i5 CPU. The only reason is if you have an i3.

 

Not all RAM are the same, and to draw conclusions like that is a bit bold. My experience is that Throttlestop did help me to OC my i5 from 3.3GHz to 3.5GHz.

 

Hi all. Great thread!

I searched all the 3820TG threads but couldn't find any consensus on the best memory brand/latency choices as far as overclocking goes when upgrading to 8GB.

Can any of you chime in?

This would be for an i5 480M/6550 version of the 3820TG.

Thanks!

 

I have A-data S599 128GB SSD, and when I wake up the laptop from sleep - sometimes it shutdown/restart, but not wake up.
Also the write speed are about 100MBps, witch is slow...
Some advises ?

 

I have Corsair 8GB in exact the same model as you. I did some editing of the timings and got a very nice overclock for a 8GB kit! I did post it here but it has mysteriously dissapeared.

 

Could you share your Throttlestop settings? I've ran it with just Multiplier set to Turbo and pushed On and didn't notice any difference. How did Throttlestop help you to OC from 3.3 to 3.5?

 

How many hours did your 3820 battery last with the 9cell?

 

OCZ is the biggest SandForce partner and even they suffer from issues (mostly the ones you have). Luckily they fixed most of the issues in the recent firmwares. I think A-DATA is just way behind OCZ's firmware, that's the price you pay for a cheaper brand. I'd just sell them and buy Intel 320 drives.

Why is it odd? Almost all 3820TGs here in the forum max out at around 160 FSB, and its even less when using 8GB RAMs.

 

Is there any place online that still sells the 3820Ts with the Radeon 5650 dedicated graphics?

I've found a few *without* the 5650, but not a one with.

Or should I just wait for the 3830's to come out? I am interested in the 5650s being able to outperform the 560Gs in the 3830s with overclocking though.

 

TMK, the 3820T has only ever been equipped with a single Intel GPU. No ATI GPU. The 3820TG had the 5650 GPU earlier in its production run, then it switched to the 6550 GPU.

Finding a new 5650 equipped 3820TG is very unlikely. You'd probably have to consider a used unit to get one.

Thanks for replying!

I tried just now searching using your username and Corsair, and couldn't find anything, not even your last post above! It's a great thing that Bronsky links to so many various posts in the OP because searching for them later doesn't seem to work.

I take it you did such editing with something like Thaiphoon Burner.

Would you mind posting that information again?

 

I have also a S599 in my 3820TG and even if I do not use very often the sleep (boot in 25 sec, shudown in 5sec), I never had such issue with it. Try to update the firmware with the update available on Adata website (you may need a desktop, I was not able to flash directly in 3820TG), and to install last Intel RST drivers.

For write speed, how did you test it? Incompressible or compressible data? For your information, a F120 or a Vertex2 120 have sequential write of about 130MB/s with incompressible data.

 

I found my post now:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/561840-3820tg-owners-lounge-part-two-63.html#post7404436

 

Stickied on the first page now. Thanks.

Bronsky

 

On the Intel Graphics, about 8 hours, but if you really wanted to push it up to 10 (with CPU undervolting and low screen brightness).

I just ordered a 6-cell today, the 9-cell is ugly!

Mine works, but the vertical viewing angles kill me... the maximum brightness is much too low too

Would be nice if there was an easy way to know what screens fit.

 

Good day lads,

Just got this beast of a machine today in the following configuration:

i5 480/6550 HD

Curious about 3 things at the moment, searched the forums but could find an answer to 2 of them.

1) For some reason when I leave the dongle from an optical mouse in the usb port, on windows restart the system beeps really loudly and doesn't want to start up. The only solution is to take out the receiver and restart. Would be nice to find a way to keep the receiver in, so that on every restart I don't need to take it out.

2) There is a strange cracking sound coming from the notebook every 10 or so seconds, sometimes it doesn't come at all. Sounds like the HD I guess. Was wondering if everybody has this problem as well. Its not very loud, but annoying never the less.

3) And lastly was wondering about the OCing. Before I OCed my 3dmark06 score was somewhat around 3300. Then I installed the newest catalyst drivers available from the acer drivers site and OCed to 650/950. The system seems to be quite stable and I am getting a score of 8200. When I try anything higher, tried 660/1030 but after some time I started to get artifacts while in windows so I OCed down a bit. What do you think would be the optimal config for this perticular system ???

Thanks for your time in advance guys.

 

For the first problem, try going into the bios and set the hard drive to be the first in the booting list. Do remember that if you ever want to boot from an external disk drive you will have to change the boot order again.

As for the second problem, try the little application that quietens the hard drive down, search this thread, I'm not too sure what it's called, never having experienced this problem.

For the third one, it really is up to the system in question since each system is different. The safe overclock is usually 650/950, but if you want to push it further then here's how:
1. Leave both clocks at stock (ie. 550/800)
2. Overclock ONLY the core at 10mhz increments.
3. For each increment, download ATiTool and run the artifact scanner for an hour or so. If there are no errors, increase by another 10mhz until errors occur or there are yellow artifacts appearing on the window.
4. Repeat step 3 with the memory, but with the core at stock clocks.
5. After finding the maximum threshold, use the maximum clocks of both the core and memory minus 10 or 20 mhz for both to guarantee stability. Then run ATiTool, this time for a few hours to make sure that it is entirely stable. If there are artifacts then reduce the clocks of both the core and memory by 10mhz until it is stable.
6. Done!

However, do not run the GPU at overclocked clocks all the time because this will shorten your GPU's lifespan. Only use overclocked clocks when playing games.

 

@beast1944

1) May be it's due to Boot up sequence that try to boot from a USB. If so, can be fixed in BIOS to boot up from HDD as first choice.

2) Should be because of the HDD insane head parking for power saving. Can be fixed by QuietHDD.

3) 3dmark06 at 3300 is too low. Most of us benchmark at 1280x768 should be able to get 8000++ at stock. I was able to push my 5650 to 774/1113. No artifacts detected until last night when I play The Witcher 2. So now, my optimum OC for gaming is at 770/1100. Most 6550 can push higher than that.

 

Hey, I am wondering if this laptop is still worth to get or has it's time passed?
I can get this laptop for $699CND

 

Wow, thank you guys for the quick replies, will definitely try your advices.

Got QuietHDD, today, it indeed gets rid of the cracking sound, do I need to add it to the startup folder for it to start every time ??? Are there any downsides to this program ??? Speed wise perhaps ???

@cowithgun Jesus, 770/1100, that's amazing, really need to give OCing a try. Btw when I ran the ATI tool it didn't find a kernel driver, and when I run the artifact tool, the hairy square doesn't seem to rotate, is this normal ???

 

The way I do it is with the /NOTRAY parameter on a shortcut in the Startup folder. That way I never notice it running but it's always preventing that issue.

 

Thank you PeterDLai.

Got one more question, when I use the GPU Clock Tool on none OCed settings, so the normal catalyst settings its showing that the engine is 99.99 and memory 149.97. Is this normal ??? Or is it some windows thing where it under clocks it unless needed.

 

Hi!

I tried search a lot, but I still cannot solve my problem on my 3820TG with ati's 5650 gpu...

Sometimes when i plug out my notebook, switch from ati card to intel doesn't work... After few seconds pops out message that my gpu is in use, but how can I find out what process use my gpu? After reboot works everything good, but it's quite annoying... Thank you

 

Any program that has GPU assisted processing (graphics acceleration) might be the cause of this. I found that exiting Windows live messenger did the trick for me.

 

Almost any program running will do this. If you're running IE, it won't switch. It's no big deal ... don't be so annoyed.

Bronsky

 

Thank you very much for tracking that down! That's exactly the kind of input/feedback I was looking for.

Anyone else that wants to volunteer their 8GB overclocking memory brands/specifics is welcome to do so. I'm trying to get some definitive research/results as prior to purchasing any SODIMMs.

You rock dude! Your contributions have really made these 3820TG threads the invaluable resources they are.

 

FYI - if you're Canadian, Memory Express dropped the price to $649.99 CAD.

Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG-6829 w/ Core i5-480M, 4GB, 500GB, 13.3in HD, Radeon HD 6550M, Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

It's out of stock online but they do have limited quantities at B&M stores according to the site.

Unfortunately they don't ship to the States though.

 

Muahahahha!! Muahahahah!

Finally for a change someone can see how Canadians Feel every time we try to order anything From Amazon or pretty much any other major dealer in the US! I.e. "sorry, We don't ship to other planets"

And plus, fine, if all those American retailers don't want our business, lets spend it at places like Memory Express with our strong Canadian Dollar!

That is where I got mine from.

 

Yeah I saw that site and unfortunately I can't travel halfway across the country for it; I was kicking myself for not seeing it earlier lol.

I am Canadian also, so it would've worked out good.