3820TG Owner's Lounge - Part Two

Damn. I tried to to update my Ati drivers from 10.6 to 11.6.. I finaly managed to get rid of the old ones (it wont uninstall them without Driver Sweeper program) and I got the new ones from other site. Result= My "Switcable Graphics option" was gone. ! So are those ones that recommended here working? Do i have to do something at BIOS? I have to admit that Acer sucks! Ati Sucks! Intel Sucks! Why is it so hard to update your computers graphic drivers? With Desktop PC it was so easy, uninstall, install new ones, done.

 

If you pulled out all your haid and want to have a "standard" video card I would strongly suggest to use BIOS switching. Look in my sig!

 

If you download the Mobility Catalyst package from AMD, install it in discrete mode. If you download the hybrid drivers, install it in Switchable mode and for god's sake don't uninstall any drivers if you're installing the stock AMD driver because the Intel package will disappear and switchable graphics technology will disappear too.

 

What did you do? Did you uninstall both the ATi and Intel drivers, then install the stock drivers? If you did, then uninstall the ATi package and install the Acer driver package, then switch to dedicated mode in bios and install the AMD stock package. Or, you could download the hybrid driver I mentioned in the last page. It updates the driver to Catalyst 11.6 and updates the Intel HD Graphics driver as well.

 

I installed that your package and it WORKS!!! Thanks Mate! http://forum.notebookreview.com/7480048-post800.html
Well, there is that option "Switchable Graphics" that was lost, but it doesn't seem to work, but Ati is ok and games are working.

 

Switchable graphics should work fine. Did you use the manual switch or pull out ac switch? There should be an option to enable pull out ac switch.

 

hi to all, i have a problem. i buy a 3820tg with the hd 6550, i've made a fresh install, all work fine, except for the Ati card...i've tried acer driver, hybrid driver, nothing. the problem is that, when the computer is on discrete graphic, every 3-5 minutes it freezes, than show me a colored screen, sometimes white, or blue or green ecc and works again with a message "amd driver is now restored"

 

Its working great. I mean that software one on win7 desktop that when you click desktop with right mouse button and then get to choose "Switchable graphics". Sometimes that is bit slow, but it works. Also tried that if i take power cord of, then it changes automaticly to intel graphics, just as i wanted it.
Thanks again too456!!

My win7 is starting slow, it runs slow, so what should i do? I have uninstalled a lot of acer programs, on startup there shouldnt be any extra programs to run(is there a list of those compulsory programs?), i dont have viruses, i have used cc cleaner, spybot and ad-aware.. I also defragmented drive C. I'm using usb flash memory 4gb to run win7 faster.. but this feels like a bloody old win95 computer. What could i do? I dont want to reinstall win7. I use firefox and sometimes it takes couple of minutes to start it up..

 

There might be a problem with some GPU circuits. Try to RMA or get it fixed under warranty.

 

sorry, what is "rma"?

 

RMA=Return Materials Authorization, i.e. send it back in for repair. use the Acer site to initiate it.

 

ok thanks i will try

 

Right! But since rezendevous mentioned he/she was upgrading to 8GB, I pointed out that the 1333 wasn't necessary since at stock the 3820TG would run 1333 at 1066.

 

The latency for the 1333mhz ram would be better at cas 7 instead of cas 9 for 1066 ram

 

i think i've messed up the laptop...i've wiped out the hard disk, without have done before the recovery disk.i thought that them were in the box but nothing...howewer the recovery partition is here, is there any way to restore to original conditions the laptop?
EDIT
i've resolved

 

How did you solve it?

 

it's simple, first you need to check if network boot is enabled in bios settings, if yes, then disable it. Save changes, reboot and press Alt+F10, this should work
an important thing, you need to format the hard disk before the procedure, of course not the recovery partition

reading on the internet, i think i will have a problem on warranty...i bought the laptop in germany, but i live in italy...do you know if warranty applies?

 

There should be a one year international warranty when you buy your laptop. You could try your luck, but I'm not too sure to be honest because Acer's policy differs from country to country. Check your warranty booklet that came with the laptop in the box.

 

if i buy the 3820tg with the Radeon HD 5470 can i upgrade it to the 6550 OR 5650?

Which card is best? cause im under the impression that the 5470 is crap compared to the 6550, and does the 5470 only come with the i3 processor or the i5 too?

sorry they made so many damn variants of this laptop its mind boggling

 

Nope. It's soldered to the mobo. You have to change mobos to get a different GPU.

The 6550 is fastest, the 5650 is 5 to 10% or so slower, and the 5470 is about half as fast as either of those GPUs. For most people the difference of the 5650 and 6550 is minimal. I think some earlier models had i5 4xx series CPUs and 5470s. Note that you CAN upgrade the CPU, so find the GPU / mobo combo you like first, then look at getting a faster CPU later. Fastest / most over clockable arrandale seems to be the i5 5xxM series CPUs.

 

ok thanks, where can i still buy the 6550 model?

 

I think all the new 3820TGs are now gone, off the shelves. So it'd be used, like ebay etc now.

 

yea if i were so lucky...maybe ill just go 3830...dam i really wanted the dual cooling so i could OC

 

In fact no... at Newegg Business they had plenty in stock. A guy who works to Newegg logistics said it was Western Digital asking Newegg to clean the stock. They did this in the scheduled daily deals, and there was a hot discussion at SlickDeals about it hours before. Many people there have bought 3 units, many people had a distraction and got frustrated. I bought only one... already in my cart with a $10 off coupon I confirmed the order at 1:00:28 EST. Two minutes later people were not able to complete. I ended up paying $189 for a 256GB SSD.

It was one of the best deals ever to me. I don't even know what to do with the Corsair Force 115GB i've bought for $131 some days ago.

 

That drive is slower than Intel G1... I would keep the Force...

 

Actually, it uses JMicron612 controller, so it slower than almost anything .

 

It is an 5400 RPM SSD...

 

I think that's actually backwards. Unless I have it wrong!

Most 1333 DDR3 SODIMM's are CAS 9 at stock. Most 1066 SODIMM's are CAS 7 at stock. I think there's a HyperX module that Kingston makes that is 1333 CAS 7 at stock but I can't remember.

Of course that's all at stock values.

Using something like Thaiphoon there's are often room for change and improvement but that is strictly YMMV!

 

1333 ram runs at cas 9 @ 1333, but cas 7 @ 1066, so if you are not using an i7 you should be getting cas 7 @ 1066.

 

Good Evening Lads,

So I recently installed the 11.6 drivers hoping that some of the problems I was having in 11.3 and stock would be gone, but they still remain. One Very Annoying problem in particular is with wrong lighting or textures. To best sum things up you should take a look at the following pictures:

(Dark Void - Weird Black triangles when shooting)
http://oi51.tinypic.com/2lxguc8.jpg

(Fable 3 - Grass messed up, and during gameplay you sometimes get these weird textures that fill up most of the screen)
http://oi52.tinypic.com/211mmnc.jpg

I first thought that something was wrong with the drivers but considering that I often get a "The display driver has stopped working and has recovered" and sometimes the laptop freezes completely, and all of this on normal clock, so NO overclocking. Could it be a faulty GPU ??? And how would I check this ???

 

If you have loaded the Acer drivers and it is still doing this, the unit needs to go back to Acer. Although it could still have some software issue, the odds are that your GPU is failing. Get it to a depot.

Bronsky

 

My first 3820tg had the same issue, I had to rma it. It stopped with ocing but after 20-30min it would come back in-game. The artifacts are starting small and getting bigger till you see them.

 

I was thinking, if i change the thermal paste, i will void the warranty?

 

If you don't screw anything up, no

 

Technically any work you do on the computer can void the warranty. As a practical matter, it's not a problem. If you're worried about the warranty, leave it alone.

Bronsky

 

i've already open up notebooks, for cleaning dust etc, but i never reapply thermal paste, is it difficult?

 

Nothing special, depends on the paste. I strongly recommend Arctic Cooling MX-4, it is very easy to apply!

 

1) if there is anyone here wanting to sell an i5 3820tg with the 5650 or the 6550 im very interested.

2) has a fix been released for the 3830's throttling issue yet besides the Throttlefix which only regulates the CPU at 1800mhz?

 

Your interest in buying a used one instead of a 3830 only makes me want to keep it more and more. Thank you!

 

I practically had to GIVE AWAY an i3 5650 not too long ago. I needed the money.

I'm still in touch with the buyer and they love the thing.

 

well its an obvious choice if the 3830 still has that terrible throttle issue

 

Can't find it via search right now:

How is the display panel connected to the MB, what kind of connector?

greets

 

There is a new VGA driver available @ acer:
_global-download.acer.com

How should i proceed with update?
Current status (since a few months ;-)):
1) installed last official Acer driver.
2) installed 11.2 with switching discreet

Should i uninstall something?

 

That driver is still very old. If you want it, just install over your existing installation and it should work fine. If not, then do a complete uninstall using driver sweeper and install the latest driver.

 

Yes I want to try it out... maybe w7sp1 will be available now without the unofficial driver.

I think i will uninstall the old official Acer driver then if possible the normal ati.
After that I'll install the "new" one.

Do you know which ati-driver-version it contains?

 

It will.

Intel part - 8.15.10.2189
ATI part - Catalyst 10.9

 

Yes, it supports Windows 7 SP1. Only versions 8.15.10.2104 through 8.15.10.2141 are affected.

 

is this driver customized by Acer ? maybe it solves the problem that sometime i cant switch to ATI without a restart...

at the moment i use the newest 11.6 but i prever a stable over a fast system

 

Yes that driver is customised by Acer, you should not have any problems with it.

 

hey, i sent my computer to acer 1 day before the guarantee ending in order to fix my fan problem. They fixed it, though now i keep getting blue screen.

MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION 0x0000009c
caused by driver: hal.dll
crash adress: ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00

its my fifth today and its a laptop i use for school so its really ugly... i cant do anywork since i cant save anything for too long