3820TG Owner's Lounge - Part Two

This is what I do:
1. Select "Express uninstall all ATI software" when uninstalling the drivers.

2. Boot into "Safe-Mode" when asked to restart computer.

3. Run "Driver Cleaner.NET" (I prefer this) or "Driver Sweeper" to remove remaining files.

4. Still in Safe-Mode, open device manager and make sure the drivers are uninstalled (you should see "Standard VGA adapter" or something like that).

5. Reboot into Windows and install new drivers.

 

And you download the drivers from ati.com without modding?

 

You can use the original drivers, just like in a desktop computer if you use BIOS switching. Look at the link in my sig!

I use BIOS switching now for half a year and it is a 100% stable, fast and really nice way to use your AMD card. It removes all the Acer rubbish around the graphic system, and your laptop works just like a desktop with a dedicated video card.

Since I use the official drivers I have absolutely no issues at all! (OK, I found an mp4 file which restarts my laptop, but that's it

Also, I use DriverSweeper from here. Just follow the guide Apex wrote!
Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

 

Nice. And optimus still work?

 

We have ATI cards, no optimus here

Just wondering, is your battery life a result of using bios switching? I only get about 5 hours on my 6 cell.

 

So it doesn't switch to integrated graphics when on battery?

 

You can, it's just not automatic like optimus is.

 

I get about 5 hours on AMD, and 6-8 hours on Intel. If wifi is off and I only do PDF reading, then I get 10 hours on the standard battery.

Yes, in my experience BIOS switched Intel gives me MUCH BETTER battery life than software-switched Intel. I think it's just a bug with the Acer driver, but with Acer we never get these issues fixed.

An other bug on my system is that my power usage is about 1-2 W more when I wake up the computer from hibernation or sleep. If I restart the computer, then it gets back to normal.

Also, what makes a HUGE difference is terminating all the background programs in the system tray. Skype, Dropbox, Virus Scanner, Email notifyer. These programs keep waking up the Wifi, so it cannot go into power saving mode. If there is absolutely no network traffic on my Atheros card, it doesn't use more than 0.2 W, after about 5 minutes of idling.

AMD with WIFI and background apps: 11 W
Intel with WIFI and background apps: 8 W
Intel with WIFI and without background apps: 7 W
Intel without WIFI and reading PDF: 6.2 W

 

The 3820TG automatically switches to integrated graphics when you are on battery. It'll automatically switch back to ATI graphics when you are plugged into an outlet.

You also have the choice to choose which graphics you want to use in either situation.

Nvidia Optimus is different because it automatically switches by application and not by battery/power outlet.

ATI doesn't use Optimus; only Nvidia graphic cards do.

 

@zsero

What program lets you track usage like that?

edit: @mod - sorry for bad posting formatting :x

 

Does anyone have the watermark remover? (RemoveWatermark_20090509.7z)
The ftp link is broken.

 

The direct link I have now for the watermark remover is here.

 

Is there a way to uninstall the watermark remover?

 

You will have to copy a fresh copy of user32.dll.mui from a Windows 7 install disk and replace the one on your system. and rebuild the MUI cache using Watermark Remover.

 

BatteryCare

 

You can try BatteryCare or BatteryBar, but the battery life estimation of BatteryBar's is terribly screwed - it will say that you have 2 hours of battery left, and show that for about 4 hours :/

 

Thanks zsero

So I've been having a problem with the switchable graphics and updating the drivers didn't help. I can switch to dedicated just fine. But whenever I try to switch back to integrated gpu, it won't. When I try, the screen flickers once (usually it flickers twice i think?) and says it has switched to igpu, and then i just see the desktop normally but I can't click on anything. I think the computer is still responsive, but the display just doesnt update. I can get back to normal if i put the computer to sleep and wake it back up again, but the gpu never switches.

Any ideas? I don't really want to reformat.

 

So... i replaced my 2 year old 1410 11.6" for a 3820TG.
The reasons was the need for a sligth bigger screen, since sometimes in my work i have to do presentations to my clients and doing that in a 11.6" is a little embarassing.

Still wanted a thin, small and light notebook, and as i loved the 1410 keyboard and battery life the logical decision was getting the 3820TG.

It keeps the 1410 looks, the keyboard and is affordable.

My opinion in this laptop compared to 1410:
- Speed has improved with help of i3-350m processor;
- Offcourse a little bigger and heavier but not too much relevant;
- Trackpad could be bigger, and at same level that palmrest;
- Laptop could be shorter since has BIG bottom screen bezel;

My major concerns:

- It heats allot compared to the 1410, even in light tasks;
- 320GB HDD has annoying constant headparking;
- Battery life only of 2h30 ?!?!

This last i can't even understand how in normal use it has this battery life as i did 4.5h in 1410.
I had to install W7Pro because of some needs, and choosed 32b due to his compatibility, can be for that the low battery life ?
Are you using 32b or 64b ?

Also how do i disable ATI graphics ? Tried the find drivers in Acer site but there isnt all there.

When i press F key it only increase or decrease screen brightness, should do anything else ?

EDIT:
After some reading i found BIOS Edit post, but that sounds a little tricky for me. There is any diference in using this method and disabling normaly the Ati card ?

 

I got a bit more than 6 hours on intel with wifi....
so 2h is... not likely, exept if you're always on ati (which is not the best idea if you want battery life )
for graphic switching, install only drivers from acer, intel first and amd next.
3820tg doesn't heat a lot, but ejects a lot of heat. Inside, it keeps cool. If hot air comes out, it's usally a good sign.

 

Can someone please tell me what the average battery life should be when playing unplugged and using the AMD graphics? I play the MMO, City of Heroes, a lot and my average battery life from 100% to about 10% is a little over an hour.

Also, I'm having some major freezing issues while in game. It will be smooth for about 10 seconds and then BOOM completely frozen for about 2-3 seconds. I know the graphics driver setup on this laptop can be a little quirky to get fine tuned and ready to game so maybe I'm missing something in the settings or am not using the correct driver (got from amd's site)

Lastly, about how much would this laptop sell for now? I love the little guy but barely ever use him. This is a plus, however, since it's still practically brand new. Total time on that laptop is less than a week.

 

I don't understand what you say. The solution I recommended means that you have to go to the BIOS when you want to switch graphics cards. This is the only way for getting rid of the hybrid graphics system. The settings are:

IGD - your laptop has ONLY an Intel card
PEG - your laptop has ONLY an AMD card

Did you set your laptop to IGD?

 

Hm. I may try out bios switching. Is there anything else I need to do besides uninstalling the hybrid modded drivers and cleaning it up with driver sweeper and then installing each driver (intel and amd) seperately in their respective modes?

 

Nothing, that's it. Just use the latest official drivers from Intel.com and AMD.com. And possibly you might need to install driver - reboot - install driver - reboot for the Intel. At least it required this double installation on mine.

 

hello great thread,

i have an Acer 3820G, i5-480M, with an 5650, every time i activate the 5650 the right fan starts to run, everyone knows how to switch off or break this fan, I use the book only for desktop and not for gaming

 

i might be easier to remember if you wrote the full name )

Integrated Graphics Device
Pci Express Graphics Device

 

Installing each driver individually would not give you the option for switchable graphics anymore. You'll have to reinstall the hybrid drivers (Acer's) then update the AMD driver. Not many people have been able to update the Intel drivers.

 

I've been wondering what exactly does that P button do?

You see, I've had this laptop for over a year now, but I dont think I've ever used that button... when it comes to switching graphics manually I stick to the drivers provided.

 

When reading the manual, it says P button can change power mode or can be programmed for something else.

My first experiences with this laptop is driving me crazy...
It's noisy, it seems slower than my previous SU2300 and battery life sucks big time (average 2h30).
Is this really rubbish or am i doing something worng ?
I notice most users have a I5 model, but mine is a I3-350, should it make so much difference in speed and battery from what you are telling ?

 

My 4820TG is very quiet and is only slightly louder (fan spins nonstop) when I play Starcraft 2 or some FPS game. I also have the Core i3-350M and it is more responsive than the Core2Duo E6420 in my desktop PC. I get an average of 5-6 hours of battery life with the Intel GMA HD (on dimmed screen brightness).

There must be something wrong with your laptop. The 3820TG should be better than my 4820TG.

 

Damn, i can't figure out what.. Discharge rate of battery on idle, IGP, wifi and third leven screen dim is around 12W but it wont last long (win7 estimates 2h at 66%...).
Also the nonstop fan in left side is anoying. I used 1810tray utility and fan only kicked very few times, but 3820 tray utility doesnt seem to work that well...

 

Aylafan,

After installing the Acer's hybrid driver and updating the AMD driver, does the AMD driver updates the Intel driver too? I am interested in updating the GPUs driver, and mostly the Intel one and still have switching.

I tried forcing to update the intel driver after installing the Acer's hybrid driver. It updates the intel driver but it causes issue where the AMD gpu is not recognized once the laptop switches to Intel gpu.

I think the AMD catalyst/control panel control the switching. But it needs to know which driver to use for AMD gpu and for Intel gpu. Thus, why the hybrid switching works only either with Acer's own hybrid driver or the modded driver, and I can't force updating the Intel driver manually without breaking the switching.

Thanks.

 

Honestly, I haven't read that many successful attempts on the Intel drivers. My recommendation is to update the AMD/ATI drivers (if you choose to) and to leave the Intel driver alone.

 

Try my quiet fan profile from my sig. Don't care about Win 7 estimate, use BatteryCare and let it run for a while.

If you want to update Intel your ONLY choice is to use the modded Hybrids or BIOS switching.

 

I see. I guess I am stuck with this hybrid driver for now unless I use the modded one. I am still hoping Acer would release update.

Yes that's my only two options I guess.

Is using modded BIOS safe? For 4820TG too? I thought I've seen people having issue with the modded BIOS if I am not mistaken.

 

I have a problem with card reader.
When I put the sd card in the slot does not happen anything until i restart my laptop. After restart in computer appears SD/MMC and i can read the card.
In computer /manage/device manager/alcor micro usb 2.0 card reader say that the device is working properly.
Another method to read the card is to click to scan for hardware changes in alcor micro usb ........ when the sd/mmc card appear.
If anyone has encountered this problem i would appreciate the help.

 

I would not flash with the modded Insyde BIOS on the 4820TG. Several people have already bricked their laptops. I was just one of the lucky ones who got it to work, but it's not worth the risk and it wasn't that stable. I recently flashed back to the default BIOS.

 

I concur, the modded bios for the 4820tg is not stable. For the 3820tg, i think the modded bios works great.

 

I just bought a notpal U2 for the 3820tg, it's a bit too big, but temperature stay below 70 degres under load (15 minutes of prime95)... which is amazing x)

I might try to overclock a bit to see what I get.

 

Ok, that left me with modded hybrid driver.

 

I don't know what is on the 4820TG land, but on the 3820TG it is not even modding, it is just a simple byte in the CMOS, to SHOW the Intel menu. The menu is already there, it is just hidden.

So my BIOS is 100% original, except that I can SEE the Intel menu. I don't understand how could it be dangerous or unstable or anything. Just modify the CMOS, it is the actual setting of the BIOS, nothing can go wrong with that.

In my experience in half a year my system was 100% stable. The hybrid drivers on the other hand gave me one of the most troublesome experience when I tried to upgrade.

Try the gaming profile from my sig! It will give you about 10 degrees when overclocking.

 

@zsero

Hi, can I flash the 1.19 Modded Bios in Windows environment?

EDIT: Done through DOS. All works fine...

How can I use the latest intel drivers? I tried to install the official intel drivers, but the installation process give me an error.
Should I uninstall the old drivers?

 

Still can't get Windows Update to install SP1. Just updated to the latest official Acer drivers, without updating to the latest AMD drivers. Only thing I haven't tried yet is using the modded hybrid drivers and watermark removal.

 

does this laptop support SATA III SSD's?
this one for example
NCIX.com - Buy OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5IN SATA3 Sandforce SF-2281 SSD Solid State Disk Flash Drive - OCZ Technology - AGT3-25SAT3-120G - in Canada

thanks

 

You can plug a SATA 3 drive into it, but it will work at SATA 2 speeds.

 

Try downloading the service pack directly from Microsoft here. You should not have any problems if you installed the latest official Acer drivers since the driver version of the Intel package was 8.15.10.2189 which does not have the problem.

 

thanks for the help

 

only sequential read are slower, 4K will be with SATA2 the same, so it is better to buy a Crucial m4, then Vertex 2, the crucial will work slower in sequnetial reads an SATA2 because of the SATA2 limitation, the 4K read/write will be the same liken on SATA3, because SATA2 is sufficient for this, so at the end the M4 will be faster then the Vertex 2


is there a possiblity to regulate the right fan, if intel graphic is enabled

is it possible to regulate the voltage of the ATI, i want to undervolt the card

 

Mine 3820TG is the only one with i3-350M and 5470 ?
All comments i see is regarding model with i5 and 6550, did i get the scraps acer was left ?!

 

Yes...

But I want the computer to change to Intel graphics when on battery. I don't want to enter bios everytime I want to change graphics.

Guess I have to use these drivers then:
Grafiktreiber (ATI/AMD) & Hybrid (ATI/AMD + Intel) & Realtek Audio Treiber + HDMI >>> Download + Anleitung - Acer-Userforum.de

 

Uninstall the one from Acer, download from Intel.com, install the one from Intel.com

BIOS on IGD => right side fan is OFF