ACER TRAVELMATE 8172 11.6" Thread

@Swisscheese: I've i3. both have a TDP of 18W and the i5 even has the lower clockspeed. But when I look at your battery life you're probably right because yesterday I was surfing at full brightness (outdoor) while listening to music and the batterie ran out after 6:08h... Idle, w-lan deactivated and brightness at low the battery-notification shows 11:07h!
But maybe it's your fan again? xD


btw: 3dmark06: 1297 such as death666angel

regards,
rager

 

Hi ragerr,
Do not forget that the i5 has the turboboost features which the i3 does not have ;-) :

Core i5-430UM is the first ultra-low voltage (ULV) microprocessor from i5-4xx line of mid-class mobile CPUs. The i5-430UM was introduced at the end of May 2010 together with 5 other budget, mid-class, and high-performance ULV parts. Main advantage of this model over other i5-4xx mobile microprocessors is a very low power consumption, which was attained by lowering default CPU core voltage and frequency. This Core i5 model is clocked at 1.2 GHz, although, when a Turbo Boost feature is activated, its frequency can be pushed to 1.73 GHz in single-threaded applications.
...
Thanks to enabled Turbo Boost feature, Core i5-430UM may significantly outperform i3-330UM in single threaded applications, despite the fact that the base core frequency and all other features of both CPUs are alike.

 

Some more voltage measurements.
- lowest screen brightness and WiFi+Bluetooth off, with all energy settings to lowest/maximum battery gives anything between 7.5W and 8.5W.
- lowest screen brightness and WiFi+Bluetooth on (being connected to the internet via my 11g router and having a bluetooth mouse active), with all energy settings to lowest/maximum battery gives anything between 9.1W and 10.8W
- highest screen brightness and WiFi+Bluetooth on (being connected to the internet via my 11g router and having a bluetooth mouse active), with all energy settings to lowest/maximum battery gives anything between 11.9W and 12.7W
- highest screen brightness and WiFi on (being connected to the internet via my 11g router) bluetooth off, with all energy settings to lowest/maximum battery gives anything between 10.3W and 11.6W
- screen brightness 50% and WiFi+Bluetooth on (being connected to the internet via my 11g router and having a bluetooth mouse active), with all energy settings to lowest/maximum battery gives anything between 10.2W 11.3W
- highest screen brightness and WiFi+Bluetooth on (being connected to the internet via my 11g router and having a bluetooth mouse active), with all energy settings to maximum/lowest battery gives anything between 17.7W and 18.1W
- using LinX stresstest and highest screen brightness and WiFi+Bluetooth on (being connected to the internet via my 11g router and having a bluetooth mouse active), with all energy settings to maximum/lowest battery gives anything between 32.5W and 34.3W.
And after 10minutes I get 71°C for the 2 cores, the keyboard is lukewarm on the left side, the bottom is warmer on the left side (where the exhaust fan is), the right side is mostly cold.
- when in stand by it uses only 0.5W, very nice.

So, with light usage and lower brightness, 6 hours should be possible, with 8 hours being maximum under ideal conditions. And I still haven't figured out if undervolting with CPUID is possible.

 

how grave is it exactly that this thing doesn't have hdmi? what does it mean? what can't i do then?

 

@Death66Angel & ragerr

thank you for the 3dmark results, now we know that the high i5-430 value was not dependent on the turbo boost technology

 

Hi Schwuppe,
First I also thought I needed HDMI. Now I have the Travelmate without HDMI because of its mate screen.
Here are the facts:
i5-Travelmate 8172 (German Acer webpage): External screen via VGA port supports up to 2560 x 1600 @60 Hz; no HDMI port; internal screen; mate

TimelineX 1830:
VGA port up to 2560 x 1600: 60 Hz
HDMI™ port up to 1920 x 1080: 60 Hz / HDMI™ (High-Definition Multimedia Interface™ with HDCP (high-bandwidth digital-content protection); internal screen: glaring

When your are considering the typical use of a notebook, then you do not carry around a bigger screen. Sure, you could connect it to your HD TV screen or the one of your friend. My HD ready TV screen has a DVI and a VGA input. I connected it to the Travelmate over VGA and watched some DVDs. I could not see much differences compared to hooking up my desktop over DVI to the TV but I am not that demanding when it comes to picture quality on a TV screen.
If you absolutely need a digital connection for your Travelmate 8172, then it offers you an EasyPort socket, where you can connect an optional £ 94 Acer EasyPort IV replicator that features also a DVI-D port.

 

The HDMI port offers the ability to also output audio (uncompressed formats or bitstream) to a decoder (AVR) and supports HTCP digital rights management. The digital nature of the signal means you will have better sharpness, although VGAs can be very good too, but generally higher resolutions may turn become blury (1680*1050 and higher).
The main difference will be, that you will not be able to use this travelmate as an on the road media player for TVs, as long as you want more than DTS/DD audio and need to play back encrypted BluRay. Normal 1080p material with DTS in .mkv files will still play fine. And you will be able to output the signal to any sort of normal monitor and up to higher resolutions than the HDMI.

 

for those like me who cannot decide between i5 and i3 cpus:
in the german review of an Asus notebook with the i5-520UM ( Notebookcheck: Test Asus ASUS PL30JT-RO030X Subnotebook) there are some screenshots with cpu frequency running multi threaded applications, the turboboost rises the multiplier only up to 11x giving 1460 mhz, compared to the default core clock of an I3-330um this is only 19% higher in multi threaded scenario

 

That test is quite strange. How does the i5-520UM processor beat the i3-330M processor in single-core R10 Cinebench? The turbo-boost of the i5 goes to max 1.86GHz, while the i3-M has a standard 2.13GHz. The i7-640UM was tested by anandtech.com with the R2 MX11 from Alienware and it barely beat the i3-330M, and that although it can clock to 2.27GHz (one multiplier above the i3-330M).
Edit: Gnargh, I just realized that all their real numbers are with the 33-overclock. Wth kinda bull review is that? They use battery tests with the stock-clock but only show the comprehensive performance results with the overclock?! So without the overclock, it's about as good as an M600 from AMD.

 

Acer Travelmate 8271 options:
Intel® Core™ i3-330UM Processor (3M cache, 1.20 GHz) BASE CLOCK: 1.2 GHz, No Turboboost

Intel® Core™ i5-430UM Processor (3M cache, 1.20 GHz) BASE CLOCK 1.2 GHz, WITH Turboboost: 1.73 GHz

Why for heaven's sake does nearly everyone claim that the i3 is faster (I did not mean deathangel with this statement; he is talking about the slower i5-520UM with a base clock of 1.06 GHz; nevertheless with turboboost feature the maximal clock is higher)??? You have the UM (ultra Mobile version) in the Travelmate as stated on the Acer homepage:
* Intel® Core™ i5-430UM/i5-520UM/i5-540UM Prozessor (3 MB L3 Cache, 1.20/1.06/1.20 GHz mit Turbo Boost bis zu 1.73/1.86/2 GHz, DDR3 800 MHz, 18 W), unterstützt Intel® 64 Architektur, Intel® Smart Cache
Intel® Core™ i3-330UM Prozessor (3 MB L3 Cache, 1.20 GHz, DDR3 800 MHz, 18 W), supporting unterstützt Intel® 64 Architektur, Intel® Smart Cache
* Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipsatz


Please note that you DO NOT have the i3-330M with the Travelmate 8172:
Intel® Core™ i3-330M Processor (3M Cache, 2.13 GHz) Base Clock: 2.13 GHz, no Turboboost

The reduced Base clock of the UM-Versions is due to energy saving.

Please tell me if I am wrong.

 

Swisscheese, my comment was directed at the notebookcheck test that whtjim linked to. There, they compare the i5-UM processor to non-CULV CPUs and they have tests saying the i5-UM is faster than the i3-330M non-CULV. Which is just insane. However, after typing that first paragraph, I noticed that they only tested the Asus laptop with its build-in 33BCLK overclock. Which means it runs much faster than on stock clock. But they in turn tested the laptop batteries while on stock-clocks. And they are not very good at stating that they tested most of the performance tests that are easily readable (those in the graphs) with the overclock option turn on. While you have to read a small paragraph to get 2 numbers for the non-overclock version.
In general, I find that review to be a bit off-putting for that reason.
Other than that, I have not seen many people saying that i3 are generally faster than i5 of the same line .

I just finished my first battery test:
After 10 minutes of setting it up and doing some browsing, I let it idle @50% brightness and I got 8 hours on the head (10:41 to 18:43). Not stellar, but good enough for me.
Edit: 4 hours of continuous playback of a .mp4 (1024*576, ~3Mb/s) @ 50% brightness.

 

Man, either those 10.2" netbooks have huge bezel or the manufacturers of sleeves are very cautious.
I bought this sleeve:
Hama Notebook-Cover "Comfort" 26 cm Schwarz: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör
and it fits perfectly and the extra space for mouse, usb storage, PSU is cool when you don't use a dedicated notebook bag.

 

I just got my 8172. I was using the Netbook Asus EEE 1000H.

Comparing the displays, the netbook clearly wins. Better colors and more contrast. It also has a wider viewing angle. On the 8172 you have to tilt the display optimally to have the best picture. Watching a movie on the acer with 2 people results in a general worse picture, although it has the bigger display.
On the plus side it seems to be brighter. I must admit though, that the 1000H has a really good display, which the later eee pcs did not have.

I don't have a spyder 3 or something similar. Did someone calibrate the monitor with some hardware and would be kind enough to post the graphic driver settings?

The display also changes the brightness on its own depending on the displayed image. If it is bright it will increase the backlight. If it is dark vice versa. What's doing that?

I did not reinstall windows, but chose to uninstall all the software. Looking back I should have just reinstalled Windows, it took forever.
What Acer Software do I really need? Did someone compile a list of recommended drivers/apps after reinstalling windows? So far I noticed: The Launcher App is needed for WLAN/BT switching. Where is the overlay for brightness and volume changing?

The keyboard is really nice for typing, but it annoys me, that I cannot adjust brightness or volume with one hand. The fn + arrow keys are just too far apart. I guess I need to be looking for third party tools to assign some other hotkeys.

I will still keep this notebook though. I think after proper calibration I can live with the display and there will also probably be some solution to adjust brightness and volume with one hand...

Otherwise I find the 8172well made and much faster than my netbook. I can even play some games on low settings (Starcraft 2). The Resolution 1366*768 is perfect for this device.

 

Anyone know if this is available in the UK/Ireland yet?

 

Anyone knows, if the 8172 has a miniPCI-e? Otherwise I will unscrew it and look for it...

ragards,
ragerr

 

I don't think there is, if it was there, it should be next to the RAM:


At least not on the easily accessible parts. I didn't get the whole case off because 2 of the screws were too tight and I didn't wanna ruin anything after having it for 2 days .

 

thx for posting! Too bad... This means no extra SSD

 

What are those solder pads next to the RAM? Looks like a connector could be soldered there.

 

Together with the 2 screw threads (?) at above it, I think it is very possible that it is a connector for a mini pcie slot, full height. But I don't do modding of any kind like that .

 

Here an update to my 3G-module-not-being-reliable-saga:

I previously reported that my 3G module would cut the internet connection every 5 min when plugged into the mains.

Unfortunately this is history now - it does it on battery as well.

Tried all the obvious:
- re-install drivers
- new install of Win 7 (Prof 32 bit, that came with the notebook)
- new install of Win 7 ultimate 64 bit
- use Acer connection software
- don't use Acer connection software

Made no difference!

The strange thing:
This happens mainly in my office with good signal strength (download rates around 2.5 Mbits/sec).
If I use the notebook in my appartment where the signal strength is marginal -- yes you guessed it -- it works perfectly for hours !

Anybody any idea????????????????

 

The only thing I could think of before proclaiming that it is broken, is trying another SIM card if you haven't already. :/ Very bad for you mate.

 

yeap, got a new sim card as well -- still didn't work.

And if I connect an external modem it works fine with both cards.

So my analysis: 3G module is kaputt

Send the damn thing off for repair this morning !

 

Hope you get it fixed mate!

I have just used the VGA port of this unit with my 24" HP w2408h. It works well as the only output and also as an extended desktop with the laptop being in it's native resolution and the 24" monitor as well. Looks as sharp as any of my HDMI graphicscards . Pretty surprising, but it means if you only want a bigger resolution, the missing HDMI is no broken leg. But you still can't use HTCP (?) encryption.

Also, has anyone with an 8172 figured out how to configure the finger print sensor as a scrolling device?

 

Hi frank.beetz,
do you have new updates for your umts problem?
best regards from Germany
Frank

 

Hi,

in the last issue of the german c't computer magazine they mentioned an issue with the CPU's power consumption in the 8172 as well as the 1830T (11.5 W in idle) leading to a battery life of 5 hours

did any of you observe this problem?

5 hours seems a little short compared to similar CPU / battery combinations

where's the best startingpoint to search for fixes?

maybe a BIOS update can help?

bye

blupp

 

Unfortunately no news on my 3G problem yet.

The notebook arrived at Acer on 29.07.10 (according to the e-mail they sent).

Since than (2 weeks) absolutely nothing was done to the machine.

Just called and talked to the most arrogant Service Support Person on this planet. He finally admitted that the required spare part was not in stock and it wouldn't arrive until the 17.08.10

When I asked if I could give the computer back and buy myself a machine that works, he was very well trained and pointed out that Acer is not obliged to do that and that they had the right to repair it.
The repair could take a while and there would be no hard limit as to how long such a repair must take before they would consider a refund.

Lessons learned:

1. Never buy from a website again in Switzerland (in this case architronic.ch) because they will not help you to get a functioning product allthough it was them who collected the money (I guess you guys in Germany have a better law in place for these cases?)

2. In future I will spend the extra buck and buy a Sony notebook again -- they just work!

 

Hi blupp
I read about that on notebookcheck.com
they say it is due to the intel graphics settings

if they are right, it is just a software issue
no need for a BIOS update

 

Hi lemontea,

thanks for your help

that was the last issue standing between me and the 8172

edit:

now i found an additional one:

the i5-540UM version is going to be available in october (according to notebooksbilliger.de)

i think i'll wait...

 

So I'm finally getting my 8172 on tuesday (can't wait!) and I was wondering, since the units in the US seem to only come with 2GB and I really need more for my development environment, has anyone here had experience upgrading from 2GB to 4GB? If so, what brand/model did you use and did you have to get two new sticks or just one?

Thanks, Nir

 

Ah, never mind The 8172 arrived with two small but visible scratches on its cover so I'm sending that one back as well. I'm giving up on small&powerful laptops for now and getting a cheap, powerful, big, ugly 15 inch Lenovo to do my coding on, and I'll stick with my Samsung N110 netbook for everything else for now. Quality control for 11.6-12 inch laptops just doesn't seem to be there right now. I've gone through an 1810T, UL20A, T115D, 1830T i3, 1830T i5, UL20FT, and now the 8172, and every one of these had some kind of glaring manufacturing problem (respectively, non-functioning arrow keys, loose keyboard panel, paper tab stuck to the screen, bad touchpad buttons, bad touchpad buttons, loose keyboard panel again and finally the scratches on the back). Maybe I'll have better luck with the next generation of more powerful netbooks.

 

You are lucky mate -- at least you could give yours back.

I am stuck with mine that didn't work properly out of the box (Quality Control?).
After 3 weeks at Acer they still haven't found the required spare part!!!!

Unbelievable - how can they sell a product without any support in place?

 

Ah, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. The PC laptop market just appears to be a minefield right now, that's why I'm restricting myself to ordering from whatever/whenever Amazon happens to have in stock. I need them as a safety net. I don't get it, I went through something like five or six laptops in the past few years and I never had issues like this before. I just assumed I'd be getting what I paid for and I always did. Now it just seems like manufacturers are playing a game of 'what can we get away with' with the consumer.

 

can anyone comment on the build quality? how does the plastic feel? is it sturdy? how are the hinges?

is the 8172 the only option if i'm looking for an 11.6" laptop with an intel processor and a matte screen?

 

Hi
also wanted to say that I own this fine piece of hardware. (im from Austria)

After reading the review of this subnotebook on notebookcheck.net I also found out that my GPU was stuck at 166mhz so i installed the Turbo boost driver and this fixed it.

Another thing I noticed is that i only see 2 cores in the task manager - shouldnt I see 4 with hyperthreading? (I have the core i3 model)

Maybe someone knows how to enable HT with the 8172 on preinstalled win7 home.

And another thing: Im not able to play 1080p youtube videos fluently (for example the final fantasy 13 ps3 trailer) eventhough I have flash 10.1 installed. (MKVs with coreavc in 1080p are no challenge on the other hand)

 

Wait a sec. What's up with an SATA adapter? From the looks of it, the computer itself only has IDE??? That would put a serious crimp on performance if swapping in an SSD. Am I reading/seeing wrong?

Does Device Manager list a bona-fide SATA AHCI controller?

(I'd be stunned if this computer has no true SATA/AHCI, but I was equally stunned when I found out the Alienware M11x didn't have Gigabit ethernet!)

 

Hi,

Don't be worried. Of course, this laptop has a Sata controller and a Sata HDD. The adapter mentioned is intended to mechanically connect the HDD with standard interface to the proprietary connector of that Acer laptop.

Michael

 

Thanks, Michael, for the quick reply. That's a relief.

That proprietary connector reminded me of an old-fashioned IDE connector, and the adapter looked similar to the one I used to use in reverse fashion to connect an IDE DVD drive to a SATA connector on my desktop's mobo.

I wonder why Acer sees the need to not use a standard SATA connector in the first place. The current set-up seems a bit Rube Goldberg-esque, no? My five-year old Travelmate 3004 (which is nearing the end of its days, hence my interest in the 8172) has just a standard SATA connector.

Just to make sure: if I put an SSD in the 8172, it will connect to an AHCI-enabled SATA controller?

Do you know if it's SATA I or SATA II? (Dare I dream that it's SATA III?)

 

Well, I made the plunge: I bought an Acer Travelmate 8172. It's a replacement for a five-year-old Travelmate 3004 that's giving signs of its age, like occasionally not coming out of suspend or hybernation. The TM 3004 has served me well.

I live in Thailand, and although the acer.co.th web site lists the 8172 (with several processor options), it was incredibly difficult for me to find one, even in the big tech malls (like Pantip and Fortune).

The price was THB24,503, which at today's exchange rate is roughly US$795 or GPB515 or EUR625. The sales guy threw in a (nice!) Acer computer bag, a Kaspersky 2010 Anti-Virus CD, and a keyboard protective film.

I was joking and said, "more free things, please," and he added:

a Kingston 4GB thumb drive,
a bottle of "Hi-Jet Clean Plus Wax for Computer and All Equipment," and
a 1480dpi USB optical mouse

It's a slightly different TM 8172 version, though. Notice the processor, and the model number:



I would have preferred an i5-powered TM 8172. I bought this in Bangkok after an extensive search. I decided I better get one of these in my hands before this store sold out. My town (two hours away) has a branch of the same IT store. Went there today and all they had was the old i3-330UM version, so I'm glad I snagged the i3-380UM version.

Stay tuned. I'll post anything that I find interesting, exciting and/or annoying!

Okay, I'll post something now: At the store, they display the models without the batteries, probably to reduce battery theft. Without the battery, I hesitated to buy it because it seemed a little flimsy. But, now at home, with the battery installed, it's just as solid as I had hoped for.

It does have a Thai & English keyboard, that I *might* replace with a US one.

 

never seen the 380UM in Europe and America yet, impressive.
I just has a multiplicator of 10 instead of 9 right?

 

Yes correct.

 

i ended up getting the core i3 8172 and it's better than i had expected. nice solid build and the perfect size.

 

I've been following the loooong -- I mean it's insane, and should be illegal , for threads to run up to 160+ pages -- threads on the closely related 1810T, 1830T and Travelmate 1872 models.

One thing I read was that several owners of new 11.6'ers noted that their battery capacity was -5% from the get-go. From day #1 their batteries were showing only 95% of their rated capacity.

Then, the other night, I read on a thread somewhere where it was suggested that discharging a battery -- i.e. running it down to near zero -- could reclaim that 5%.

I just tried it, with amazing success! After cycling the battery once, the reported "wear factor," went from 5% to 3%, i.e. my battery is showing 97% of its full rated capacity vs the 95% before I cycled the battery.

I did a second cycling of the battery down to near-zero charge, and now it indicates a "wear factor" or 0%. Now, this is the good part:

Designed Capacity is showing as 62,640 mWh
Full Charge Capacity is showing as 62,845 mWh.

I'd say it's worth cycling your batteries down to near zero a couple times -- especially if you were showing a -5% capacity from the get-go when the computer was new. It seems to have worked for me!

Bravo for the notebookreview.com forums! I probably never would have (a) thought to check the capacity of my new battery, and (b) attempted to recover any of it.

[edited to update the figures for charged capacity after second discharge cycle. Initially, it was showing still -3%, but after a reboot, it showed 0%]

 

Since Acer apparently has not issued a monitor profile, would you be willing to share your .icm file?

 

Hey guys, I have the following problem:

If I want to play the old counterstrike the game isn't performing well.
When I checked HWinfo32 to display the gpu frequency I noticed that it stays at 166 at most of the time, with some peaks to 333 and sometimes even 500.

When I'm running furmark it stays at 500...

because of this low gpu freq the game is really laggy. it's supposed to achieve 100fps but in some situations I get < 30 which is not acceptable.

in the newer counterstrike source it has 500 half of the time, but drops to 300/333 very often, so the performance is also worse than it could be...

I should note that I am on AC and the system cooling policy is set to active!
Intel graphics driver also set to highest performance... even the performance profile won't improve it.

-Is there a better way to monitor gpu freq? HWinfo32 can only dfisplay it, not monitor (gpu-z is unable to with the 8172T)
-Is it possible to stop downclocking and have it run at the highest possible frequency?

Could any of you verfiy this issue? Should happen with nearly every game...
Thanks!

Edit: Made two screens!
You can see the gpu IS able to clock higher. It seems as it thinks the load isn't high enough, that it should clock higher... I don't get it, you can't even play the old cs...playing cs with under constant 100fps is crap, the engine somehow depends on that fps.

http://www.abload.de/img/cs4qml.png
http://www.abload.de/img/furmark8pth.png

 

I can't even play icy tower (effects set to none, it can't even display the menu!) when I set the energy options for the Intel HD Graphics to BALANCED or power saver....

I've got the feeling "max performance" is what "balanced" should be and "max performance" is missing...

what's "max power saving" supposed to be, if it doesn't even have any performance at all on balanced?
this is driving me nuts...

Acer support is no help, maybe Intel has an idea...

 

Does the WiFi modem work with 5 Ghz signal?

And, is the max RAM only 4GB? The sister 11.6" Acer notebooks go up to 8GB, and I didn't think there'd be a difference, but the only Acer spec sheet I found said 4GB.

 

Hello i have now 8GB RAM with my Travelmate i5-470UM
The RAM are Kingston SO-DDR3 4GB PC2-10666, 1333MHz, Non-ECC, CL9, 204Pin, KVR1333D3S9/4G
The ram work fine but the FSB stay at 667Mhz in windows 7

 

hi everyone. i just ordered a travelmate 8172 with the i5-540um processor. i'm wondering if they're shipped with a windows 7 dvd, as i'd like to do a fresh install after i get it. if it doesn't come with one, does anyone have any suggestions, other than just removing programs from the control panel? i have a copy of windows 7 32-bit, but it's not the pro version. i'm going to need the xp mode. thanks.

 

Orioon, install the Intel turbo driver from Acer's website. I read somewhere (maybe this forum, but I think it was another site) that Acer assumed that the Turbo functionality worked without the driver.

 

For make a windows pro OEM installation
make a copy with a ei.cfg file with this line

[EditionID]
Professional
[Channel]
OEM
[VL]
0

put the file in the source folder
The best is to do a bootable usb key with this change
For information you could also intalling win 7 pro 64 bit with the key of the 32 bits