3820TG Owner's Lounge - Part Two

You most likely have a huge build-up of dust in your fans. What I did was I cleaned them myself by taking apart my laptop to access the fans. If you're decent at handling the components of your laptop, then I would suggest you take apart the whole unit to the fans only. I would also refer to the assembly manual provided by Acer on their website beforehand in case you are not familiar with the chassis.

Assuming you have taken apart the chassis to it's motherboard and bare fans:

1. Unscrew the fans from both heatsinks
2. Be careful with the threaded tape as to not rip them as we will be reusing them (or you can buy some at the local hardware store)
3. Clean out the fins as best you can of all traces of dust
4. Take out the fans, go to your sink with Q-Tips handy
5. Use a Q-Tip dabbed with 1 drop of water (You may need to use multiple Q-Tips depending on the dust build-up)
6. Begin to carefully wipe down the fan and fan blades of both the GPU/CPU. BE CAREFUL NOT TO BREAK THE BLADES
7. Use a DRY Q-Tip and dry up any water residues in the fan or just simply clean it up
8. Rescrew the fans back onto the heatsinks

Good luck with the fix! For future reference, be sure to clean your desk once in a while for any dust that gets stacked as your laptop's fans suck this in and eventually build up in your fans to create that scraping sound.

 

Today my 3820tg died. I'm no pro myself so I don't know what to check. Tried booting the pc from both battery and AC power, but nothing happens. Not even the light that usually shines blue when cord is connected shows any signs of life. Since I got no warranty left I suppose this is farewell, unless you guys got any suggestions?

Thanks

 

Got something similar after letting it unplugged and with no battery for a weekend (I use it only at work). When i tried to open it it was dead. I let it plugged-in for 10-15 min, and after quite a few presses on the power button in this 10-15 min and some shaking the laptop, it was finally resurrected from the dead

Never encountered this since then, although i let in a couple of times unplugged over the weekends.

If you can't make it work yourself, take it to the service, maybe you are lucky and no major component is broken, so it will be a easy fix like a detached welding...

 

My temperatures have been slowly inching up in the past few months and I am planning on doing a repaste job soon. Can I use the same thermal paste (I have some arctic ceramique 2 from a previous laptop job) on the GPU and CPU? And are there any places where thermal tape or pads are used that will need to be replaced?

Thanks

 

You can use the same paste on the CPU and GPU. There are also thermal pads that you can reuse. They cover the controller. Just be careful when you remove the CPU and GPU clamps and note the location of the pads.

 

To all those disassembling their 3820tg's for whatever reason:
when taking out the mainboard be careful with the fans so as not to break the screw mounts which hold the heatsinks attached to them (especially on the cpu).

In my laptop the mounts got loose after about 2 years of using the computer and since the fan + heatsink act as a lever i suspect it's easy to break this. I'm guessing Acer used some cheap glue to attach the mounts to the mainboard which degrades in time.

I tried soldering these mounts but it turned out to be too difficult.
Eventually I used superglue and for a month now everything seems fine.

 

hi guys.

i have a problem with formatting my 3820tg. i clean-formatted the computer (win7 sp1) and install all the offical drivers. i first installed chipset then ati and after that intel vga driver from the acer website. but i can't get the catalyst control center and switchable graphics. also i can't get the same battery performance before format. battery was lasting 3:30 hour and after format only 1:20 hour. i tried everything, formatted my laptop 4-5 times and everytime i get the same problems. i canot use the ati gpu. only when i change the BİOS settings i can use ati.

sorry about my bad english.

 

Can anybody tell me the last driver version that could use the P key to switch GPUs and the brightness function keys? Had to reformat and currently using the Acer site version.

 

It sounds like you're only using the ATI GPU. You probably don't have the original drivers installed for the Intel IGPU. The battery life issue is related to the ATI GPU always being on, depleting your battery. You need to go back to square one. Install the Acer video drivers so that you have switchable graphics. That should solve your problems.

 

I haven´t read this thread for a while..are there working windows 8 drivers for switchable graphics?

 

I doubt it and as far as I know the Nvidia switchable cards made in the same time frame work fine with Windows 8. I think I'm going to go back to Windows 7 and am going to think twice before purchasing a mobile ATI GPU again. This whole business of get your drivers from the manufacturers website is really frustrating. Nvidia stopped that a while ago.

 

So no one get this switchable graphic working on windows 8? Frustrating...

 

I have it working fine. I just use the latest non-beta drivers from leshcat

 

Hey guys, I'm getting gpu problems with my 3820tg.
When I use leshcat drivers, I cant switch between my discrete and integrated card. I get an error saying the video card cant switch because resources are in use. Also, while I'm on discrete, I'm unable to adjust the brightness.
After some experimenting, I found out I can manual switch between the video cards by going into device manager and disabling and reenabling the discrete card.
Anyone know whats wrong or have a solution to fix this? thanks!

note: I recently switched back to the acer drivers and it is working flawlessly however performance for some games seem a bit sluggish compared to the newer leshcat drivers.

 

My 3820TG has died . I get the dreaded BIOS beep: 1 long, 2 short, meaning the GPU initialization failed. It all happened when my ATI card had vanished in Windows and I wanted so see what's wrong and re-install the leshcat drivers, so I entered the BIOS and set the GPU to "ATI only". After that it didn't boot, probably because the card is borked. I suspect that the solder connection is bad and it might need a reflow or reballing.
Does anyone have experience with those things, a broken 3820TG or any idea on what I could try?

 

Does your brightness work on both discrete and dedicated? Last time I tried leshcat drivers a few months ago that was still a problem.

 

That issue still remains on the discrete as far as I know. To change the brightness on the discrete, I switch to integrated, change it to whatever brightness level I want, and it remains at this level when I switch back to discrete. Not a perfect solution, but works for my purposes.

 

Hi everyone!

After trying a lot of different drivers from Leshcat's website, I found one working flawlessly on windows 8 64bit on my 3820tg. Everything works fine (no black screen after sleep, brightness control working on both discrete and integrated).The only thing I haven't checked is performance in games (the only one I played recently was NFS most wanted 2012 and worked fine, even if on low settings).

the only thing that doesn't work are most metro apps, don't know if it's a driver related issue

I'm using the "Catalyst 12.3 Pre-WHQL UnifL" from leshcat. It was a little difficult to figure out how to get them installed, but it now works fine. What's important for installation is:

0- remove any previous ati driver installed (can't remember if it is really necessary, but for me a fresh start is always a good start)
1- Make sure that .NET framework 3,5 is installed
2- reboot the pc in "Disable driver signature enforcement" mode
3- Install normally, but DON'T tick any addictional feature, leave it as it is by default
4- cross your fingers

hope this helps ;-)

 

Guys is the right side of the laptop the GPU?


My right side fan isnt working...

 

A week later is it still working OK?

 

If I recall correctly, the right side fan is the GPU.

 

Hello everyone,

I have a 3820TG since 08/2010 but from few months I had very major issues..
Especially artifacts when using HD5650 GPU... And some times BSOD...

After a while having these troubles I decided to make some clean up in the laptop thinking that the problem has occured by dust...
But this did not change anything.. So I did not think that it was an hardware problem..

So in trial purpose I put in a blank hdd and installed stock drivers on freshly new windows installation (win 7 64bits)...
But the artifacts remains..

I tried every stock drivers (from Acer's website i.e. 713; 752; 741 and 771) and also many leshcatlabs drivers (11.6; 11.7; 12.6; 13.4; 13.5)
The pain was that each time I formated again and reinstalled win 7 64bits from scratch...
But the problem remains so I finally think that I had an hardware issue...

But by using the AMD GPU Clock Tool, I noticed that when I decrease both the Engine Clock and the Memory Clock between 400 and 500 Mhz the problem disappears as long as I still using the ATI GPU...
Because when the graphics switch back from Intel graphics (eg. by re-plugging the AC cord) the default clocks come back..

So in order to get a fonctionnal laptop I disabled the Intel Graphics in the Bios and thus the clocks that I defined (~400 MHz) remains until next boot...
But when everybody is running with overclocking I should downclock the default values by nearly the half...

So what could be happen to my laptop suddenly ?

PS 1 : I also noticed that in GPU-Z the Bus Interface is actually at x16 1.1 (not 2.0), is this could be the problem ?

PS 2 : I have latest BIOS 1.19 with the INTEL menu enabled (but with all value remained to defaults ones except "discrete" for the video mode)

PS 3 : I also apologize for my english..

Thank you..

 

I'm using bios switching with my 3820tg and it has been working flawlessly since. I enables me to use the latest drivers for amd and intel without worrying about compatibility.

 

hey guys, any good and cheap SSDs to recommend for this computer?

 

Depends on where you live The computer only supports SATA2 which means that paying more for a Sata3 disk won't give more speed, even though it is compatible. Good luck!

 

@sanjibukai


had same problem, but havent done that deep and painfull investigation the only thing i noticed causing BSOD is graphic swithing when there's a firefox or chrome browser open (mainly I run ati on gpu 665mhz and mem 900mhz as i work with 3d soft or some gaming , but it takes some time toi crash, that's why the problem was so illusive! BSOD occurs mainly wathing youtube or youtube page was left open. so now when swithing grapics i close and reopen browsers,- no BSODs since!

how is that done? I am getting very annoyed by that automatic swithing, I want to control manualy that, as often i need only 5-10min off the AC and that swithing thing goes on and distracts me (not to mention that i have to close and reopen browsers for there's a chanse of BSOD)
and if i stay longer from ac outlet i would like to swith manualy by myself to save power

 

Help need info, very long thread here haven't read yet

Does 3820tg supports 16gb ram? (2x8gb)
I googled little, so there's some small chance, so should I try to search for compatible modules and begin testing?

still haven't found cheap 13" notebook up to 2kg and with powerful graphics, and next gen. intel cpu to support 16gb ram

 

Just bought myself one of these and is on its way. I really can't believe I haven't had one in the past; such power in such a small space, mine has the 6550 not that that matter really and an i5.

Also nice to see a nice cooling design in such a laptop. Looking forward to getting it up and running, will more than likely be installing the backlit keyboard as well. Not sure about the switch though, have to see if there is anything I can contribute to that design. This little thing has one heck of a following, like the organisation as well. Keep up the good work.

 

All I can say is: welcome to awesome ;-)

 

Can mention, I've two of these computers and since day 1 they had infrequent BSODs for no obvious reason at all. After a year, I realize it is Zonealarm and AVG together, or sometimes alone which causes the BSODs, specifically on this computer but not on any other computer. So if you have any of these two installed, uninstall them and install other programs.

 

Hmz it seems the next dual fan design from acer will be the r7 with gt750m, ulv cpu and 1080p touch ips screen. If you look at the photos it has dual rear vents....

 

should we install the original ati driver from the acer website, before installing the leshcatlabs's driver?

 

Really I test on very clean win 7 install without any software installed..
I had frequency issues but I do not know why...

 

Just curious to see if anyone else on this forum is running 2 external monitors?

I'm planning to buy 2x 24" External LCD Monitors for my 3820tg hooking them through the VGA and HDMI ports. I was just wondering if there is any significant FPS Drops when gaming or straining?

 

You won't be able to put two plugs at the same time, and even if you do so, probably one of them will not be working. Solution is to buy graphic extension device, like matrox dual/triple head. With this device i'am able to plug double 1920x1200 monitors and for my normal work (3ds max, after effect) it works smoothly. Hovewer it would be a big deal to render 2x1920x1200 far cry 3 realtime.

 

Two monitors will work: Multiple Screen Outputs on the Acer 3820tg laptop (HD 5470) - YouTube

Not sure about the FPS drop. You will need to cut the VGA cable somehow because the ports are too close together for normal cables to both fit at the same time.

 

I will probably wait on the haswell version before I buy one . Just hope the ULV i7 wont bottleneck the 750m which should be Gddr5

 

There is a quality difference between VGA and HDMI, I wouldn't use double external monitors with 3820TG because of that.

 

I use my 3820tg every day, and i am really happy with it.
One thing i a bit dissatisfied with though, is the wifi.
I have trouble connecting to the internet at school i.e.
Which card should i substitute my current one for ?

 

Intel 6200 would be an obvious choice. Just don't buy one described as being meant for Lenovo- it wouldn't work.

 

On June 1st, this thread turns three years old. The original thread was started by Hendrickson on June 1, 2010. http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...nge-info-benchmarks-tweaks-mods-upgrades.html My first post on that thread was on that same day. I was looking for a way to import the 3820TG to the US at that time. It was not until late June that I was able to convince Computeruniverse in Germany to send me a unit in the US. Unfortunately, it was shipped by way of the S.S. Rotterdam, a slow boat to the Port of Newark. Some of you may remember the stories I wrote to kill the time waiting. AFAIK, I imported the first 3820TG in the US.

Hendrickson's thread was so popular that it exceeded 1000 pages, contained 10,000 posts, and had more than 967,000 views. It grew so large that this thread was started by me at the request of Downloads. This thread has added 324 more pages, 3,240 posts, and has been viewed an additional 548,975 times. That is over 1.5 million views for the two threads combined. This thread was popular enough to be considered for the NBR amazing content contest placing 5th among some awesome competition.

All of this is a testament to the amazing little notebook that Acer built when it developed the 3820TG. I still have seen nothing to equal its combination of price, power, performance and weight. I used mine as a mini-workstation, using firepro drivers on the HD 5650 DGPU. It is a shame that Acer could not follow the 3820TG with an improved model. The 3830TG was a disaster. The movement away from AMD was a mistake, since the Fermi GPU simply generated too much heat. The abandonment of the dual fan cooling system was also a mistake. In all, the Acer TimelineX was the most easily modded, best performing notebook of its time. When I no longer had a need for serious graphics capability, I sold my 3820TG. To date, I still feel that it was one of the best computers I've ever owned. Congratulations to all of you that still have a 3820TG. Good luck finding a successor.

 

There are just some machines that get it right.

3820TG
7738G (once modded)
Alienware M15X
Alienware M17X R2
MSI GX660

 

Well said! I still have mine, still going strong. I have mine modded with 3G card and bought me an extra 9 cell battery. When doing long haul flights 12h+ I play Crysis a couple of hours on the ATI card, do work and watch a movie or two on Intel and still have juice left when landing. I still get positive comments from other passengers sitting there with similary sized laptops but not nearly as versitile. Still looking for a worthy replacement.

 

What official AMD drivers are people using? I got an update while I was using AMD 12.10 and it told me to update to AMD 13.4. I did the update but even though the drivers say it installed correctly, it doesn't work at all.

I'm using the modded BIOS method of switchable graphics.

Edit: It works! 13.4 ftw.

 

hello,

im still using my 3820TG, decent little machine, i bought an additional 6 cell battery for it, but when i attach it, the computer doesnt see it,

is there a trick or a mod that will make the laptop "see" the new battery?

thank you

 

To preface this informal graphics results post: My 3820 has the i5-450m that comes with the HD 5470. Also upgraded to 8GB RAM.

I decided to go out and buy a full 1080p monitor today that connected to the HDMI port, and continued using my standard 1280x1024 LCD monitor on the VGA port.

There is around a 27-33 FPS drop and the temperatures increased by approximately 7 degrees ever since running this set-up.

My caution to you folks is this: Unless you have the variation of the 3820 that comes with the HD 5650, do not attempt to game with a dual external display set-up!

 

Hi.

I'm worried about my 3820tg's temp's. Sometimes when I'm watching regular YouTube clips and browsing the net my laptop reaches 70 degrees C and thats with my laptop placed on a cool flat glass-table in a dustfree enviroment with an ambient temp of around 25 degrees C. I did a stress test with Aida64 to see if the computer got any kind of heat controll/protection but it reached 94C after just a minute or two (i turned it off at once).

Thing is that the computer broke just before the warranty ended about a year ago, so I sent it in, they replaced the motherboard, the HDD and the display as they all were faulty and got it fixed. Once I got it back I noticed that the laptop was much nocier than before but I didn't really worry about it back then. It's not untill now that I've started to monitoring the temps so it's possible that the temps has been out of hand ever since I got it back from the repair. Could they have miss-placed the heat paste or blocked some ventlation exit?

Is there anything I could do? any tip is much appriciated

Thanks /LaGolfa

 

Your temps are well within your computer's operating range. To be sure, they're pushing into the higher end of the range, but your ambient temp is high too. Arrandales tend to run hot. 94C is not an unreasonable temp. in a stress test. 105C is max temp and the CPU will throttle at 103-104C. A dusting and repasting would probably get your operating temps down 5-10 degrees but you don't really need it, unless you're obsessive - like me.

 

Yeah once max temp hits > 90C I usually tear a machine down, clean out the fan and radiators and re-paste the GPU/CPU. My Sony SA (my replacement for my 4820TG) was idling at 70 and hitting 80 to 90C just playing youtube vids so it was past due. idle dropped to 40 - 50C and max temp under load is in the 90C range.

The 3820TG has a REALLY good cooling system, so running at 94C is quite warm for it, but your CPU can run at 105C max, and will shut itself down at 130C before thermal runaway can occur. Long term high heat can slowly kill off your battery and eventually maybe degrade the motherboard capacitors, but 94C is not dangerous to your machine, like Bronsky says.

First just try cleaning out the radiators with an air duster and see if your temps drop after that. If they stay under 90C at load I'd just leave it alone. Note that 3820TGs with a repaste are known to run pretty cool even under load but probably not that much cooler (80C maybe).

 

You guys... now you made me go down and pick up some arctic silver at the local store! Been browsing around for a new computer purchase but since I haven't found a laptop to replace this one I've been looking into building a desktop computer.

Maybe a repaste and a decent overclock can keep me away from the stores for a while longer.

Will be back to post before and after results if I can piece it together again!

Just one question: what temps are you getting on the GPU? I'm getting 95 degrees on stock clocks running 3dmark06 and 99 degrees at 650/950. Seems high to me...