Acer 1410, 1810, 3810, 4810, 5810 Timeline Drivers, Software, Tweaks and Settings FAQ

I won't be updating the start post anymore.

If anyone else (Der_Mali?) wants to copy the info and start a new thread please go ahead. I can close this one.

 

@Phil
I understand that you are a very busy man on these boards
I'll open a new thread with updated info soon. Please let this one open for now, because the power saving discussion right now is very interesting and important imo

Edit:
When I open a new thread, I will concentrate on 1410/1810t/1810tz. So it will be important that other 13.3"+ timeline users gather info and help keeping the thread updated.

 

Hello,

Sorry for changing the topic, but I want to know how to turn on my sensor keys, and especially the Wi-fi one. Now the 3 sensos keys on the top of the keyboard are not working, not even lighened... so I want a hardware way to switch off my wifi...

Is it drivers issue(and which one handles these sensors) or it is a hardware problem... I bought my 3810TG brand new, few days ago...

 

Hi there; I am eager to try out your instructions on my AS1410 but the link to the vtenable python script is dead..... please update....

Has anyone else tried doing this... does it work?

 

Maybe someone can post the modded bios file itself......

 

@dextrorotatix
Works for me, here is a copy.

 

That was fast!! Thanks......
Will keep you posted how it works our for me...

 

That's not the right script... that's MaxL's original script with the unedited values.

I'm not sure why Phil deleted the script that I attached, but these values need to be in the beginning instead of the one's that are there:

Code:

VSS_OFFSET = 0x00180048
VSS_SIZE = 0x3fb8

PATCH_OFFSET = 0x1af
PATCH_VALUE = 0x01

 

did not work for me.... got this...


C:\>C:\python26\python.exe C:\BIOS\vtenable.py C:\BIOS\backup.fd C:\BIOS\vtbios.fd
Loading BIOS...
Loading VSS...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\BIOS\vtenable.py", line 85, in <module>
raise ValueError("Invalid VSS signature")
ValueError: Invalid VSS signature

C:\>

 

Okay .....will retry

 

Did not work this time either :-


C:\>C:\python26\python.exe C:\BIOS\vtenable.py C:\BIOS\backup.fd C:\BIOS\vtbios.
fd
File "C:\BIOS\vtenable.py", line 6
SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\xd7' in file C:\BIOS\vtenable.py on line 6, b
ut no encoding declared; see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0263.html for detail
s

C:\>

i changed the offsets as per the new values :-

#!/usr/bin/python

import sys, struct

#VSS_OFFSET = 0x00180048
#VSS_SIZE = 0×3fb8
VSS_OFFSET = 0×00180048
VSS_SIZE = 0×3fb8

#PATCH_OFFSET = 0x1af
PATCH_OFFSET = 0×1af
PATCH_VALUE = 0×01
PATCH_VARIABLE = u"Setup"

def hexdump(s,sep=" "):
return sep.join(map(lambda x: "%02x"%ord(x),s))

def ascii(s):
s2 = ""
for c in s:
if ord(c)<0x20 or ord(c)>0x7e:
s2 += "."
else:
s2 += c
return s2

def pad(s,c,l):
if len(s)<l:
s += c * (l-len(s))
return s ............................................................

 

Sorry, that has to do with the way that the forum converts characters.

just use this file

 

Thank you once again.... here goes

 

No luck....


C:\>C:\python26\python.exe C:\BIOS\vtenable.py C:\BIOS\backup.fd C:\BIOS\vtbios.
fd
Loading BIOS...
Loading VSS...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\BIOS\vtenable.py", line 104, in <module>
raise ValueError("Variable not found!")
ValueError: Variable not found!

C:\>

Am I doing something wrong here?

 

Well the first few errors were on our part, since the script got deleted. This latest error, I currently am stumped as to why it's giving you that.

I know it's a lame answer, but now that you have the correct script, maybe go through and start over?

I'm busy right now, but if you want to send me your bios file some how, I could see if the script works on my computer and send it back to you later.

 

Intel has drivers listed for Windows 7 for the graphics card now:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...et+Family&ProdId=2991&LineId=1101&FamilyId=39

But these are newer:

None listed as specifically Windows 7 for wireless, at least based on a quick glance.

 

@leedr
Which version number does it install? Is it newer than 1883?

 

I just extracted it. Looks like from the INF it is Graphics: 8.15.10.1872, so no, actually not newer. I'll delete my post When you do recreate this thread, probably would want to link to the most recent ones...on page 5 or 6 of this thread.

Anyway, it is encouraging that Intel is releasing drivers for Windows 7...but then the official release is only about a month from now so OEMs will be needing them ASAP.

 

I just followed the instructions you posted with the updated vtenable.py script. Works perfectly!! Thanks for your hard work. Time to install VMWare.

 

@ mikrosoft

i tried the instructions to the letter.....
but it did not work
could it have anything to do with the fact then i am running windows 7??
Ive checked my current bios/laptop model/script file........

BTW could you somehow send me the modified bios?

 

After running Battery Bar for a day on full power and then a couple almost complete discharges Battery Bar shows 5:17 as the Full Lifetime of my Acer 1410 with the 4400 mAh battery in Win7 64 bit. I have done most of the tweaks recommended (drivers with Power Save modes including video, WiFI, etc) and was running the screen around 30% with dimming at 2 minutes and screen cutoff around 7 minutes + HD shutdown, etc and the Win 7 Power Saver profile. I was also using a Verizon Wireless card instead of WiFi today so that may have affected things but that is pretty standard use while traveling. I have no clue how long this would take to drain while watching a movie.

The 5:17 time seems pretty good to me and would be enough to use the laptop sporadically with suspends most of the day. What are people seeing with the 5600 mAH battery? This is WITHOUT Acer ePower btw.

 

Batterybar with AS1410 5600mah battery reports 7hours runtime with Win7 64bit 128GB SSD. I think I have acer epowermangement 64bit compatible installed as well.

 

Battery bar reports 7:10 right now on my 5600mAh. It's still moving though.

 

08:29 here. 1810T, Windows 7 HP 32 Bit (without ePower).

Edit:

 

Impressive!

 

Is that first run though? As batterybar will adjust itself to become more accurate after a few discharges.

 

Third or fourth run. On first run, the full charge time was under 7 hours. But i keep an eye on it.

 

Im getting tired of this. I bought this laptop(3810t with ati graphics and u3500) because of its great batterylife. But in windows vista i got around 5 hours of batterylife so i installed windows 7 x86 and now im getting around 3,5 hours of batterylife. I installed all of the new drivers, did max batterylife savings on wifi and vga but still no luck. Can anybody help me with this?

 

@postcar
Did you install ePower software? If so, uninstall it and try again. ePower Software conflicts with Windows settings and resets them after every reboot. At least it was like that on Vista.

 

at first i didnt had it installed, but i installed it to see if it would change anything but it didnt. So now I don't have acer power management installed.

 

@postkar
Install the latest graphics driver 1883(see Timeline Tweaks in my sig).
Open the graphics drivers control panel, select custom settings(I don't know the exact name, I've got a German Vista), select all available checkboxes(Rapid-Memory-blabla, Smart 2D blabla, Display blabla and Render Standby blabla).

 

8:18 for my 1810t
(5600mAh, vista 32, acer EPM uninstalled, RMC uv)

 

I tried to use the undervolting guide described here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5312927&postcount=87

However the creating a DWORD named UnlockVid with the value 1 doesn't seem to work for me. I still only have 2 indexes in rmclock, 6.0x 1.0250V and 7.0x 1.0250V.

If I've understood it correct UnlockVid is supposed to make the hidden ones show up aswell. I'm trying this on a 3810T.

Am I doing something wrong or does someone know what I should do to fix it?

 

@wbm:

Those are the only multipliers available to the su3500 cpu.

UnlockVID just opens up the ability to change the voltage.

 

Ahh okay, thanks for the quick reply. Pretty pointless to try and undervolt it then I guess

 

Actually, it's great because on my 1410, I am running at .875v completely stable on both multipliers, instead of using the stock voltage of .9v or whatever it is.

Battery life has increased, CPU temps have went down.

 

I've managed to completely misunderstand the program, for some reason I thought it was supposed to list the different multipliers and the different voltages they could be run at. Should have read the whole guide before asking questions or atleast had a better look at the program first.

I'm more used to clock in bios, not with fancy programs

I'll do some undervolting tomorrow, hopefully I won't have to ask any more stupid questions then.

 

3810t with su 9400 + ssd
batterybar = 7:17 max after a week of use

 

And I'm back with more questions!

I wanted to control my fan so I downloaded SmartFan according to some instructions here on the forum. However I got the error msg "Can't get access to the Acer embedded controller" when I try to launch it.

I'm running win7 on 3810t and I have set Use_Alternate_Control =1

I found someone else having the same problem in another thread on the forum but couldn't find any post with a solution (the thread was 127 pages long so I only looked through the 6 pages after the error was found).

Is there a solution for the problem? Thx in advance.

 

@wbm
Are you running 64bit or 32bit Win7? Are you running SmartFan as Administrator?

 

I'm running 64bit win7 and yes I'm running SmartFan as Administrator.

 

ok i did that but still no changes
this is my batterybar:


as you can see not allot of battery
its using up 19. 825mw while i saw a picture of someone else's timeline which was using up like 7 mw.

 

I also tested howmuch battery it uses up in high performance mode with highest brightness, turns out it uses up about the same as it did in power saving mode

 

@postkar

Nearly 20W
That's definitely not normal. It seems something prevents the processor from switching to higher C-states/deeper sleep. Did you try reinstalling Vista and check the power consumption there? Also what is your CPU load when checking with Task Manager?

SmartFan doesn't work in 64bit Vista/Win7, sorry.

 

I was wondering if anyone has considered a way or hack to make the keys illuminated on the 1410. I've been checking around and some people have done it with other brands of laptops. Other than battery drain (it could be switched) I really don't know why more manufacturers don't consider this. A lot of times I use my laptop while my wife is watching TV and the room is too dark to see the keys. The USB snake lights work, but are a hassle. Any thoughts?

 

Too bad SmartFan doesn't run on 64bit win7, is there any other option to control the fan on 64bit win7?

Here comes another question, I tried undervolting with rmclock but it doesn't seem that the voltage actually changes. I've followed the guide in this thread but no matter what I set the VID in profiles to it shows up as 0.9000 in cpu info.
Except if I raise the VID it shows up as 0.9125V in cpu info (doesn't matter how much I set it to tho, always shows up as 0.9125V).

Anyone have any idea what is wrong/what I've done wrong?

I dit make the DWORD UnlockVID and set it to 1.

This is btw if I set rmclock to mobile in advanced cpu settings, if I set it to desktop I get the same behaviour but 1.0125V.

 

@wbm
What is your SuperLFM voltage(multiplier 8x)?
Set your power scheme to battery saving and check the voltage with CPU-Z when idle.

 

There is no SuperLFM to pick in the profiles, all I have there is 6x and 7x.

In power saver mode CPU-Z says x6 and 0.900V (same in other power schemes).

 

@wbm
What processor do you have in your 3810t?

 

I've got SU 3500