ACER TRAVELMATE 8172 11.6" Thread

I was thinking the same however the acer thinks it is a defect and support told me : "Also please be informed that all machines of this model doesn't have this clicking sound."

By the way I can return it to the seller for a replacement with a brand new one.
I'm still not sure whether I return and wait for more than a week.

 

That doesn't sound very professional of them. The wording makes it sound almost like it's a feature while in fact the sound is being made by the HDD and they have no idea which HDD model exactly do you have.

Just to be on the safe side- can you post SMART status of the HDD (i.e. from HDTune free version)?
It's possible that the HDD is in fact failing and our judgment is completely off on this one, so let's rule that out first.

 

It's possible that the call center don't understand what is happening. That's why I am trying to find someone with same model if they are correct.

smartctl info is below.

smartctl 5.40 2010-07-12 r3124 [x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, smartmontools

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: WDC WD3200BPVT-22ZEST0
Serial Number: WD-WX31AB0P8239
Firmware Version: 01.01A01
User Capacity: 320,072,933,376 bytes
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: 8
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Thu Jun 30 12:21:11 2011 PDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (8400) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 100) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x7035) SCT Status supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 153 133 021 Pre-fail Always - 1333
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 664
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 87
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 84
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 1814
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 10
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 199 199 000 Old_age Always - 4585
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 110 099 000 Old_age Always - 33
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 34 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 2 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

 

SMART status is OK- it's WD specific APM issue. Your HDD has been on for 87 hours and during that time heads have been parked 4585 times which means on average every 68 seconds.
For comparison- my Hitachi drive parks its heads on average every 2222 seconds (every 37 minutes).

 

Gaaaah, is it true that the ACER TM8172 11.6" i3-380M 2GB 320GB (LX.V1303.003) does not have HDMI? I was so close of buying one just now. Please say it is not true or direct me to a similar model with HDMI (preferred 11.6 and not larger screen). I do not have HDMI in my DELL Vostro 1400 and miss that feature...

 

Sorry, but the TM8172 does NOT have an HDMI port. Only a somewhat "classic" VGA port.

 

Thanks, I found that out and have just unboxed my new Lenovo X121e which has HDMI, 1366x768 matte screen, built in 3G modem. I wanted to go with the 8172 but I have missed HDMI on my DELL Vostro for three years. Extremely happy with the Lenovo after the first hour. The keyboard is extremely nice and as a long time business user, 3 or 4 IBM/Lenovos before this, I really like the track point, the red joystick for moving the pointer. I tend to almost never use the touchpad due to that, much more convenient. I'll be back with an Acer later on.

 

I can't find any online Acer specs for the TM8172T any more. I read through this thread, and though asked earlier a few times (I was one of the inquisitive ), there was no confirmation: can anybody verify that the TM8172T uses the SATA-2 (3Gbps) interface?

I see on the intel.com site that the HM55 chipset supports SATA-2, but would like to make sure that Acer didn't tinker with that.

I'm considering an SSD, and would like to be certain of the SATA capability. Thanks!

 

Hi can I check if Acer 8172 (TM8481T-2464G32i) can upgrade it's graphic card?

 

No you can't upgrade the GPU.

 

Thanks, Is there any suggestion or do i need a new pc for playing diablo3? The game lags big time with this underpowered integrated graphics card.

 

Definitely a new notebook. You can't significantly improve the current one gaming-wise.

 

Thank you... seems like I need to wait for the quarterly computer fair to look for a new laptop.

 

Yes, I just added a Samsung 840 EVO (250GB) into my 8172T and can confirm read/write speeds of ~270-300MB/s which should be the interfaces limit.

Enabling FullDiskEncryption via the Acers bios also worked like a charm.

...now I am waiting for a AR5B22 BT 4.0/WiFi a/b/g/n card, hoping that the 8172's BIOS is not locking out other wifi modules
I also ordered an Acer sourced one... hoping it might work in cas ethe other one does not

 

No it doesn't whitelist Wi-Fi cards or anything else for that matter. The only way it wouldn't work is if you bought one meant for Lenovo.

 

jepp succesfully replaced the b/g/n Atheros against an AR5B22 a/b/g/n Module 5GHz, here I am
and a 9cell battery is on its way to me

even with the "slow" i3-330UM the 8172t is pretty usable in this config, 250GB SSD (SATA 2G is limiting speed), 8GB RAM, a/b/g/n WiFi... and a US-Keyboard for 11EUR from China
still getting ~5-8h worktime from the original Battery (on linux) on Windows however it is down to a mere ~3h dunno why
and there is an issue.... whenever I wake from suspend on linux my wifi is hardware disabled and I need to press Fn+F3 2times to get it working again not a big bummer and the only issue remaining

 

attempted revival of old thread

if anyone still has - what was the diff in the 8172T model, and do either/both the 11.6" 8172 / 8172T have matte non-glossy displays?
I was looking at picking up a model with the i3, hd4000 to replace an older laptop but need the non-glare