3820TG Owner's Lounge - Part Two

no i cant adjust the resolution with the function key but i did not try through the control panel...restarting does fix the issue unless i switch to intel and back to ati then its black again...basically the switchable graphics is out of commission at the moment

 

Which bios version are you using? Mine does not have this problem on bios v1.19.

 

So if I want to OC my GPU, is 3820tray all I need?

Should I download the fan profile that makes my fans spin faster or can I do without it?

 

You can OC your GPU with MSI Afterburner or AMD GPU Clock Tool. As for fan profile, I don't go above 80 on full load at 670/1040 on the standard fan profile so I don't think it's needed. However I did repaste my laptop so you might want to take that into consideration.

 

Looking for hybrid drivers and all I can see is 11.6 on the German site, so I'm presuming I just have to update to 11.8 using the trick as per usual, yes?

 

The Catalyst 11.8 hybrid driver is on my driver list, it's linked on the front page.

 

im running 1.19 as well...did you install the ati hdmi driver or stick with the acer driver

 

I don't use the Acer drivers whenever possible since newer is usually better because of stability and performance fixes and Acer hardly ever updates its drivers. For what it's worth, I used the driver from Realtek, although I don't see how the HDMI audio driver can influence display setting.

 

Is the latest drivers for ATI 5650 8.771.1 ?
From : http://support.acer.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?modelId=2069

The newest drivers for bluetooth don't work
Broadcom Bluetooth Driver (3.0). 6.3.0.6000

 

Installing the latest ATI 5650 catalyst drivers. First make sure you install the stock Acer ATI vga driver. And then Intel HD Graphics driver. Then go into the systems bios (F2 on boot) and set the vga mode to discrete in the second screen. (See screenshot below) Install the newest ATI driver over the top of the existing and then reboot the notebook. Go back into the bios and change the options back to switchable.
Thanks to Hendrickson


At first I'm impressed about numer of posts on this thread Finally i found site which could help me (it already did with instalation of drivers from AMD website ) I've just OC my Radeon using AMD GPU Clock Tool, set it to 670/1070 and started Crysis 2 on all low settings, with only 1366x768 resolution. 30-40 FPS, the temperature reached almost 100*C and I think that's not a good score. Is this normal for my laptop specs?
Second thing is that my acer has no integrated bluetooth. Is it possible to install other BT module? (That's quite not important issue, I'm using it rarely)
And the last thing. My recovery parition has been broken and deleted. Could I create a new one for system restore?


Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG
i3-350M 2.26GHz
HD 5650M
4GB RAM DDR3

 

And that works 100% without issues?

 

Yea, it works for me now, i did it yesterday Nothing dangerous i think And finally allows you to download AMD drivers, not only older ones from acer page

 

This method only allows you to use the Intel HD Graphics driver provided by Acer which isn't that new You could try the hybrid driver or the modded bios, both give you the latest drivers available.

No, that is not normal at all. What are the temperatures on stock clocks while playing Crysis 2? You might need to repaste your laptop.

It is possible, but you need to get a card like the Atheros AR9002WB-1NG which has both a WLAN module and Bluetooth module (AR9285 and AR3011 respectively)

No. You have to use recovery disks if you created them.

 

yea i meant Realtek sorry. thats the only thing i could think of being a variant of our installs...besides the fact that your running a 5650 and im running a 6550...maybe thats the problem?

 

Its working great its switching gpus without problem.

I tried to install the intel drivers, but windows told me that i already had the newest drivers... guess windows update found them.

 

Hello everyone!

I have to admit that I didn't read every page of this thread... so many pages.

My 3820TG has and always had a problem: When I start the laptop with the Intel card and then switch to the ATI card, games are slow. After restarting, so that Windows starts with the ATI card, games run fine.

I just did a little benchmark with SSF4:AE

Start with Intel, then switch to ATI, start game: 20-30 frames per second.
Start with ATI, start game: 90-100 frames per second.

The first time I noticed it was when I played Witcher 2 and I was wondering why it lagged even though it ran fine with the same settings before. After some time I found out it's that "boot bug".

Does anybody know this problem? My only idea would be something like: Maybe Windows doesn't unload the Intel driver properly? But I just checked what happens if I start with ATI, switch to Intel, switch back to ATI, start game -> games run fine, too.

Is there a fix for this? And does anybody else have it? I can't be the only one with that problem. I'm running the standard Windows 7 which already was installed on the notebook when I got it.

 

I had this problem when i first got this laptop as well, the problem fixed itself for me as i set it up i guess. just update all your drivers to the latest set and you should be good to go.

 

What are the framerates when booting from the Intel card and running the game on the Intel card?

 

Hm... had changed the video settings to something higher so I had an average FPS of ~80.

Changed to Intel, restarted, after restart it changed back to ATI... and somehow this time it was STILL running with ~80 FPS. Now I'm confused. Maybe it ONLY works if it changed to Intel before when I unplugged the power plug?

Will check that out...

EDIT: Unplugged, it switched to Intel, plugged in again, it switched to ATI, started game... normal speed...

EDIT2: ~17 FPS on Intel now.

 

anyone get cloudy horizontal lines on their bezel? there is cloudy spots around the camera too, the bezel part. Not sure what causes this.

 

It works for ATI too, u see?

If stock clocks means something like default clocks (sry I've been learning english for a year) it will be 80 degrees. Which temperatures should my GPU have in "normal" conditions? And what do you mean repaste laptop? Sry for my newbie eng

 

yea your default gpu clocks (no overclock), normal running temp for me is about 48-50 degrees celcius, repaste means to re apply your thermal paste on the cpu and gpu (google thermal paste) i recommend the brand MX-4 made by arctic cooling

 

Super Street Fighter 4 : Arcade Edition

~80 FPS when I start with ATI and use ATI for the game.
~17 FPS when I use Intel for the game.
~31 FPS when I start with Intel and use ATI for the game.

So... help... what's causing this problem?

 

is your laptop plugged in when you start with intel then switch to ati cause depending on your catalyst power settings your ati card can still run with less performance to save battery if your not plugged in

 

If you have ePower installed and you're switching to ATI while on battery a number of things could be happening but the most common is ePower limiting the power of the GPU. Try disabling ePower if you have it installed and set the windows GPU power settings for maximum performance while on battery.

 

simply check your clock speeds with gpu-z

 

So I have 49-51 degrees while working on windows, so its a normal temp as U said Boost, but what is the normal temp while U're playing?
I thought "paste" like "drop" now i understand ofc i know what the termal paste is and how to apply it, thanks for advice
So what is the stable OC for my radeon? This "problematic OC" increased up FPS for about 10 . It is a good result?
I'd like to mention that I was playing Crysis 2 with that high temp for about 5-10 minutes no more .
And some kind of curiosity.
They say Crysis 2 is more stable and has lower requirements than Crysis.
Lie!
My results:
Crysis 2 - ALL low settings, 1366x768 gives 20-30 FPS
Crysis - Some of settings max like textures etx. about 4(DX10), only shaows medium, antyaliasing off, 1366x768. Rest high or medium and what? 30-40 FPS

 

I just beat crysis 2 last night lol, my max temps were on average 78c hitting a peak of 80c on flat surface and around 72c with the laptop propped up on 2 dvd cases under the middle of the laptop (really makes a difference with heat) also i use mx4 thermal paste and the gaming fan profile from zsero.

I averaged 35-40 fps on high settings and 1355x768 with an oc of 810/1020 but i now run my clocks at 815/1030 (only benchmarked not fully tested thru gameplay)...make sure you also using the latest drivers which can be found here on too456's guide.

 

Is there a way to create an icon on desktop to activate Bluetooth instead of using fn+f3?

 

If I'm using the BIOS switchable method, how should I update to the latest drivers? I'm still using the latest drivers available on Acer's site, which means no SP1 still. No matter what I do, I keep on getting the old drivers and not the newer ones.

 

theres a link to the latest drivers page about 2 posts up, download the hybrid driver from that page and clean install it

 

THE point of using BIOS switching, is that you do not need the buggy hybrid drivers (let it be from Acer or modded). Just download the latest official one from amd.com

Is it just me, or do others think too that 90% of the 7000 posts so far was connected to the buggy switchable drivers? It's crazy. For me so far, since I'm using BIOS switching I have a 100% stable, bug-free system, which function exactly like a desktop computer with one graphics card at a time, thus no swichable craziness and bugs.

 

Downloaded the

Alps Touchpad Driver v7.6.303.207 [NOT TESTED] [Updated] - Checked 1/9/2011

listed in too456's post - worked for a few hours now the touchpad doesn't respond

 

boostjunkie92 did you manage to fix the blackout problem?
I'm having the same issue with my 3820

oh, and the touchpad seems to have fixed itself

 

Then what about the Intel drivers? And how would I use switchable graphics when I'm on Auto mode in the BIOS instead of Intel integrated mode? Lack of proper drivers means it won't work correctly.

Also, is anyone experiencing problems connecting to a WiFi network? I had problems in the past where I couldn't connect to the university's WiFi network. A driver update fixed that, but now it's happening again.

 

Interesting idea; however, I would prefer to have the option to choose switchable graphics or ATI then to have the option to choose ATI or Intel only. Just my personal preference.

The modded BIOS I tried "for the 4820TG" before allowed switchable graphics, ATI or Intel, but it was very buggy and sometimes I couldn't get into BIOS without rebooting 5-6 times. However, the modded BIOS is not recommended at all due to people bricking their laptops.

 

It's plugged in.

I will check the GPU clock when it's running normally and when it's too slow.

Update:

"Default Clock" according to GPU-Z is 100 , memory 150 for ATI before playing, 600, 800 while (and shortly after) playing.
When I start with the Intel card, then let it automatically switch to ATI the "Default Clock" is 300, memory 300 (in the sensors section its saying 100, 150 though), while playing it stays at 300, 300.

A search for "ePower" on my system doesn't show any results.

EDIT: I changed the ATI Powerplay settings in the Windows 7 energy settings to "best performance" on battery (even though I'm on the power plug) and now the clocks seem to be ok. I somehow don't get 80 FPS anymore though... its like 70 FPS now... even when I restart with ATI... O_O

 

I will try the modded bios for the switching problem, seems to be the best solution. Can you give me a link where I can download the newest modded bios? I can't find it...

 

I guess the Powerplay settings fixed my problem. I don't know WHY I have to set the battery settings to best performance, but it helps. I ran 3D Mark 06 for more reliable results:

(7869 3DMarks when I got the laptop)
7816 3DMarks when I ran it today, started with ATI
7956 3DMarks when I ran it today, started with Intel (a bit weird... and best result in SSF4:AE so far: 80+ FPS, don't really understand why the performance is still changing a bit, but it's not a lot anymore)

Thanks for the tips with GPU clocks and power settings! (I still don't know why I'm the only one with those problems though...)

 

same here. Mine won't work after resumed from sleep. Roll back driver and working fine now.

About the modded hybrid driver. Not sure how many time we have to say it. Don't use it. It's buggy like zero stated. Use the modded bios.

 

Do not use the modded BIOS. Many people have already bricked their laptops. So to save you the trouble and headache; I will not provide a link to it. It is the worst solution right now and very risky.

 

i guess ill try the old method and install the amd and intel official driver set

is this the correct intel card driver?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...ltimate, 64-bit version*&DownloadType=Drivers

 

installed 11.6 Modded Hybrid Drivers linked in Bronsky's first post, everything seems to work fine now, no blackouts so far

what do you use to monitor temperatures?
I just quit GTA IV after 2hrs or so and saw the little 3820tray monitor-thingy screaming it's 81 degrees there and clocks on the 6550 turned down to 100/150

 

Yes, Modded Hybrid drivers should be fine

maikvalberg - I think you got confused with the Modded BIOS which is something totally different.

 

no, 11.6 modded hybrid drivers works fine. But i'm thinking about flashing a modded bios, where i can switch instead of catalyst switch

 

In that case, avoid the Modded BIOS at all costs.

 

theres no difference besides the annoying fact that you need to restart your computer if you want to switch graphics

 

First of all, BIOS doesn't need to be modded. Just use the CMOS method (guide in my sig), without doing anything with your BIOS, its 100% safe and you can "restore BIOS defaults" in 1 click when you need warranty.

Lack of proper drivers for what? On Intel only mode you use the latest official Intel driver from Intel.com. In AMD only mode you use the latest official AMD driver from AMD.com. Cannot be easier.

Sorry, you don't know what are you talking about. 3820 CMOS editing is 100% safe! Also, how do you need to reboot 6 times, to set one switch in BIOS?

Again, how many times do you provide false information. 3820 CMOS editing is 100% safe! You don't need modded BIOS for a 3820! The full guide is in my sig (written by prikolchik).

 

I think the hybrid driver is better for people who want to switch within Windows instead of rebooting in order to change the graphics card. Both solutions have their pros and cons, so it's really up to the user him/herself to decide. While the modded hybrid drivers are buggy with some systems, the drivers will work fine for most laptops. As for the modded bios, as long as the user follows the instructions properly to dump the CMOS and edit it correctly, there will not be a problem, and even if there was a problem, simply resetting the CMOS battery will reset all the settings. If the user wishes to download the modded bios from kizwan (zsero: there is a modded bios to enable the Intel menu), he/she runs the risk of bricking the laptop, but that can usually be solved with the Crisis disk recovery tool. Hope this clears up matters

 

the modded bios for 4820tg doesn't work well. Sometimes, it won't let you enter the bios. It has weird lines at bios start up. And it can even bricks your laptop. However, the modded bios for 3820tg is working fine, behaves just as the official bios. You shouldn't be afraid to flash the modded bios for acer 3820tg. I used to have the acer 4820tg so i know. Remember that with a acer laptop even if you brick your laptop crisis recovery will help bring it back almost 99% of the time. It's not that hard, unlike other laptop brands.