Acer Aspire 1410 and 1810 Timeline 11.6" Thread

Thanks. For the BIOS update I only need the _x64.exe right, not the _x86 one as well for some reason? The download was a .zip with both of them.

(also I thought 64bit executables weren't .exe?)

 

If you have the 64-bit version of WIN7 installed, then yes, you need the x64.exe.

But remember to close all other programs during BIOS flash and be sure to be connected to AC!

 

I didn't go from 3115 to 3303 directly, I flashed the 3117 first etc.

 

Does it make a difference? I figured it overwrites everything anyway, right?

EDIT: and is there a BIOS changelog somewhere?

 

Got a question about BIOS updating. Is it safer to run the bios update from safe mode? I have not put in any updates yet and I only have windows live messenger, ESET NOD32 v4, ICQ, installed with Vista SP1. I have the bundled mcafee and windows defender (both with real time scanning disabled) running in memory. I'm concerned about possible interruption from these 3 anti-malware programs. I opened the v1.3303 BIOS x86 software to take a look and only responded no to the prompt after viewing I have BIOS v0.3113. Not even sure why the new version begins with 1 and the old begins with 0.

 

Thx guys! Seeing as it's that cheap & I already have a DX acct. I'll give it a go first

 

I have flashed mine successfully from a normal boot.

 

hey did u find a solution to this problem? I have the same.. however it only occurs when the lid on the 1810 is closed..

 

Not really. I'm using the latest Intel driver now. When the problem occurs I do a reboot and that sometimes solves it.

I have the problem with the lid open. I always keep the lid open, it's better for cooling.

 

First, to prove that your problem is Wi-Fi, you should connect the 1410 to your router using Ethernet. If you have no issues with streaming or downloading, then Wi-Fi is the culprit. The Intel 1000 bgn operates strictly in the 2.4 GHz band which is prone to interference problems from cordless phones, microwaves and baby monitors. Make sure you do not have any 2.4 GHz phones or baby monitors powered on and no one uses the microwave while you try streaming over Wi-Fi again. If that does not work, then update the router's firmware. FYI, we have a 1410 SU2300 in the family and have no Wi-Fi issues.

 

My wifi is pretty spotty also. Since I have wireless phones, a baby monitor, and the occasional microwave interference that explains my problem. I'll bet most of my neighbors are probably sending out a lot of 2.4ghz traffic also. Seems like a bad idea to even use that frequency. Thx.

 

I have the same setup^. And have 'some' connection issues, but! We generally have 3 laptops and 1 computer all wifi connected to a lnksys router w/comcast, or is usually in places where there are already massive signals from neighbors etc.

You can go into the wifi settings via device manaager and turn on intel burst technology, which they say they preset to off. Intel says it causes the wifi to be a bit more aggressive compared to other wifi signals connecting to the router...

 

My 18010TZ arrived the other day!

I've used it a lot over the past 2 days, and my impressions are mostly good. My previous netbook/notebook is an Asus 1000H. So these impressions are in comparison to that model.

1) MUCH faster! Love the superior speed and multitasking. This was the main thing I wanted in a new Netbook, so the 1810TZ delivers for me here. 3GB RAM seems fine for me, so I feel good now about not getting the T model.
2) Better keyboard feel overall for me. Wish the arrow keys were bigger though.
3) Screen NOT AS GOOD as the EeePC 1000H. This is the only really disappointment for me. The 1810TZ's viewing angle is really poor, there is no vertical angle where the entire screen is evenly lit. It's OK for most uses, but for graphics and movies etc. you can tell it's not too good. Also the colors are washed out compared to my 1000H. But the slightly bigger size and resolution are improvementsat least.
4) Sound seems OK to me. Maybe I'm just not too particular.
5) Windows 7 is nice. I like it.
6) The price was too high IMO. I paid $550 (free shipping, no tax) at Amazon. I think it should've been $500, but hey, these are hard enough to find.
7) Blue is nice! I couldn't order the black one, it out of stock, so I took blue. Now I'm glad, because it's really good looking in person.

Overall I'm pleased with the Acer 1810TZ. I'm only disappointed in the screen, mainly because of the terrible vertical viewing angle. If that was better, I'd have no complaints at all. In comparison to my Asus 1000H, it's quite poor. But it's something I can live with. I buy a new $500 - $600 netbook/notebook every year or two, so this should serve me well for the next 12 - 16 months or so.

EDIT:

8) Battery life really is AWESOME! It's everything they advertise. I'm getting right around 8 hours per charge. Sometimes more or less depending on activity of course. But this sort of battery life SPOILS you! I never want less now!

 

I can understand your disappointment with the screen. The 1000H has one of the best screens ever.

On the other hand, the 1810tz screen is quite good when compared to average notebooks. Especially if you keep it at the right angle.

 

Yes, you're right. The 1810 screen is OK. Very bright, and perfect size and resolution for a netbook IMO. Definitely not bad, just not the best.

I'm just really appreciating the 1000H screen more now I guess, especially in terms of viewing angle and color saturation. But the 1810TZ blows it away in every other way.

 

Maybe it's possible to improve the washed out colors. You can try changing the gamma setting in the Intel GMA settings.

Edit: setting the gamma at 0.9 or even 0.8 looks a lot better to me.

 

Thanks Phil, I'll play with the gamma a bit.

 

The su2300 is dual core.

 

my 2300 1410 was 400=$ - 20$ bing cashback, no shipping, no tax

 

This is why I was asking. I have the bundled mcafee, the windows defender, and eset nod32 v4. I can set all their scanning to disabled but that doesn't unload them from memory and eset nod32 v4 I'm betting still processes data/activity even when all 4 components are disabled.

Another question I have is can anyone confirm if the acer vista key or the arriving win7 upg key allows you to install 64bit win7 provided you have the 64bit media/disc? My system came with 32bit vista btw.

 

I'd like to chime in here
Two possible solutions
First, (And I have had people disagree with me on this point, but its a fact), overheating/bandwidth overload will casue frequent drops.
It is an issue that can just suddenly appear for no apparent good reason. Keep your router well ventilated. You may even train a LIGHT breeze on it, but keep it light, as too much cooling with also cause problems with routers.
Second, and if your router supports it, do a Tomato flash. I dont know how tech savy you are, but its pretty simple. Tomato will essentially turn your 20 dollar router into one meeting the performance of those costing over 200+
I dont have the specs in front of me, but I beleive the router must have a min of 8 megs on board mem. This is an issue I often with Xbox/PS3 gamers who play online. They accuse their carriers of throttling, when 99 times out of 100, its their cheap router choking on too much bandwith and overheating.
JUst google toamato flash. There's a great guide on Wikepedia. I suggest this flash to any and all who's hardware supports it. One of the greatest features, is that it will unlock your signal power, enabling you to, "Turn up" the power. Most routers default at radio signal of around 14-24, yet are capable of 100 or more. I keep my Buffalo at 75, and get a signal half way down the block. Before Tamato, the signal was hard pressed to reach my bedroom.
I do network security consulting in West Los Angeles, and have been in the business a long time.
Though obvioulsy a new one for you, too me, this sounds like your problem.
Good Luck,
R

 

One more thing on the 2.4 GHz, is that is why there are channels, most default at 6, but if a router meets interference, and is set to DHCP, it will just find a clear channel, and you DHCP enabled wifi card will scan and pick it up.
This doesnt sound like a signal cross-over. Sounds like a cheap router.
Dont get me wrong, I go as cheap as is humanly possible on most things, but in this case, spend 50 or 60 on a decent router, and tomato may not be necessary I use and always recommend a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, but there are others as good.
Search it on Amazon and read the reviews, then decide, but save yourself the headache of a 15 dollar Airlink.

 

Finally have my 1810T, loving it so far.

What is the switch on the right side of the battery slot on the bottom for, though? (not the lock, the other one)

 

just updated the bios. My original was 3113 made in august 2009 this 3303 was made in september 2009. 5-10 releases in a month is a lot. This one seems to have enabled booting from a memory card as a USB HDD.

Which has faster transfer rates? Class 6 SD card or a ReadyBoost capable USB flash drive like Verbatim Stor 'n' Go Pro 1GB?

 

Bought a HDMI cable today, but the graphics are really bad on the TV? I know there are different types of cables, and some better than others, but do the cables really make that much difference? I tried scaling and everything, but the graphics are like VGA :S

 

I have fantastic picture to mine, make sure your resolution is set properly.

 

Very interesting....can I reinstall the factory firmware if for any reason I don't like the Tomato stuff?

 

I used to fiddle with this stuff with my WRT54G. The answer is yes--

 

hello I just got my 1810tz last week and im really happy with it, but there is one i dont like about it at all and that is the battery.

coming from a samsung nc10 which i think had a really good battery and recharge very fast. but this one is really slow to recharge sometimes it takes like a whole day to recharge when im using it.

and beside i dont really get the 8 hours+ like acer say. i only get about 5 hours out of it with wifi on, im using win 7.

and thats okay too i dont mind it that much since this laptop is much better and faster than the samsung nc10 i had before. but today i noticed one thing that really make me want to send it back for a refund.

and that is the BATTERY WEAR i have had the samsung nc10 for like a year and i have been using that everyday netbook with and without the power supply. and the battery wear on that one is still only 10%.

only 10% after one year but the acer 1810tz i have only had for about 1 week and i have been using it the same way i did with the nc10 and the battery wear on is is already 3,4%, which is about 2000 mWh i have lost out of 62160 mWh. im using batterybar pro v3.

so i want to ask if this is normal or is it only my battery? the battery is the most important thing for me to replace my netbook which had a really awsome battery life. if anyone have any idea whats wrong please give me a reply thanks alot.

 

The battery is locked in by two switches. I don't have any other switches on the bottom except for those two.

Cheers,
Kermee

 

What, if any, performance gains did you see from the Tomato stuff?

 

One switch is (obviously) to lock or unlock the battery to secure it into the computer, the other actually ejects it from the laptop when you want to remove it.

 

I used DD-WRT and Sveasoft. They are all similar in that they enhance the wi-fi beyond the vendor default OS.

My house is relatively pretty good with signal. I get the max 54 Mbps (ironically, the N stuff drops off pretty quickly with the newer routers) regardless, which is why I stopped using these alternative Wi-OS.

The only advantage I saw was the increased range and retained 54Mbps speed. We used to have a renter on the second floor (the router is in the basement) that was complaining of weak signal. With the DD-WRT OS, she was pretty happy with the increased signal.

Anyway, I decided to install a second wireless router on the first floor, since I needed additional ports (for the XBOX and a media TV box) anyway.

I'm guilty of being a part time geek. I did it for the novelty and enhanced control of the router. I've sold some of the routers since then. The WRT54Gs are pretty cheap on eBay.

 

since you've been in the business for a long time do you think you could find the time to tutor me on configuring my unlocked speedstream 4200 and after my dlink di624 router?

The speedstream is the biggest pain, I'm a novice and looking to learn about all the port forwarding rules and firewall rules and want to be able to understand how to configure it. I tried using portforward.com but the structure inside my units don't look the same and I can't ask a webpage questions about what what means what.

 

Check in your display settings on your laptop. You can adjust the resolution of the secondary display and I'm betting the HDMI shows up as a 2nd display in your display properties. Somewhere a few levels in on the personalize settings (right click on desktop).

I don't know why no one on any of these threads have brought this up but there are 20-50 advanced items with changeable settings for each power mode. Go inside your power settings (Fn + F1 is a shortcut but there's other ways to get there too). First level is Power Options and lets you chose which power mode to run on right now. Click the link to "Change plan settings" this brings you to the second level "Edit Plan Settings"; screen brightness, sleep timer etc. Now click "Change advanced power settings" and look at that a plethora of power saving options so you can reduce the power of more items and features to your liking per plan. Also notice on this small dialog box the link near the top that says "change settings that are currently unavailable" it opens admin level hidden options but don't be afraid to play in it.

The way I have it set I can play flash videos fullscreen just fine on power saver (and with the bundled mcafee, windows defender, and ESET NOD32 v4 all running together) and still get at least 5hrs (the meter tells me up to 9hrs honestly) and I'm running Core 2 Solo 4400mAh battery usually on wired LAN. The majority of users on here have only been switching between power saver, balanced, high performance but I havn't found any users customizing power consumption of each plan. Was one of the first things I did and the battery meter tells me I can get 9hrs on wired LAN. Hibernation and wake-up consumes 5% battery last time I tested but I had well over 2GB of ram in use (2xIE7 windows about 10-20 tabs total) so that's a lot of data to put onto the HDD and read back after.

 

HDMI is spectacular on our Samsung LCD TV (especially the new XBMC). No tweaking was necessary, it just worked.

 

Congratulations
There are two switches for the battery; one is a toggle for releasing the battery, the other is a lock to prevent accidental releasing.

 

Agreed. I have a Spyder2Express calibration tool and it really helped quite a bit, so the 1810's AUO panel still has some more potential then it's out-of-the-box defaults.

Still, it doesn't come close to my Dell M1330's Toshiba panel in terms of color, angle, etc. It's also more glossy, more reflective then the M1330, so there are difference between glossy panels...

 

My battery seems to work as advertised - I get around 7 - 8 hours (or more) depending on settings and usage. Keep in mind the battery readings will fluctuate a lot, so check it often to get a better idea what life you're really getting.

Did you condition the battery per the instructions from Acer? You're supposed to fully charge and fully discharge the battery 3 times. And don't leave it on AC with the battery installed for long periods of time (i.e. remove the battery if you plan to leave in plugged for many hours or days).

Also check your settings. Turn Bluetooth off if you don't use it. Etc.

 

Maybe people who've calibrated their displays should post the ICC profiles in case they help people who aren't comfortable with the default settings?

 

Make sure you are in Energy saver mode, and make sure Aero is disabled. Also dim your display. You should get at least 8 hours.

If you have Bluetooth make sure it's turned off.

Try a deep cycle. Run down the battery to 0% and fully recharge.

3% is not strange, it can stay like that for two years. And 3% on 8+ hours is very little time.

I'd like to see that too.

also changing the gamma to 0.9 helpes quite a bit.

 

Phil,

How do you change gamma to less than 1.0?

I'm looking at graphics properties --> color correction, and the gamma range is 1.0 - 5.0, can't choose less than 1.0. Am I missing something?

 

Chocolatecake, right click the Intel icon in the right lower corner, select properties, select color.

If you don't have this option install the latest chipset drivers from Intel, using the .exe file from Intel.com

 

yes the battery bar for windows always say about 8 hours but the batterybar pro which i have heard is better say about 4-5 hours. and i have also try to take the time myself which i found to be about 5 hours of normal internet use with everything turn on low and bluetooth off.

so im I the one with a bad battery and should i return it?

 

When I installed Batterbar it also reduced my indication strongly.

Even after deinstalling Batterybar my batterylife has diminished. I'm thinking batterybar uses a crappy driver that disturbs the Acer ePower driver.

I'll do a clean install and see if it improves.

cvt, your battery is fine. 3.4% is quite normal, even for new batteries because they have often been in storage for a couple of months.

In real life Notebookcheck measured 6 hours with Wifi on, 12 hours without:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-Timeline-1810TZ-Subnotebook.21322.0.html

8 hours should be possible on lowest brightness.

I believe the strength of the Wifi signal also has an impact. My hard drive is a WD 160GB. Definetely not the most power efficient.

 

I am using batterybar and it is working very well on my 1810tz with win7 premium. It indicated normally about 6+ hours with wifi internet browsing. I have experienced a time taking a flight from europe to asia using the 1810tz (w/o wifi & bt, dim screen): 8 hours ON (light word & excel working, reading zinio magazines), and additional 2 hours with wifi after landed. I am impressed with the battery life this little notebook offers. average consumption is 5.6W, according to batterybar. Cheers.

 

ah maybe Batterybar needs some time to "work in".

 

Ok, finally figured it out! My LCD is only HD ready and not Full HD! So the resolution is 1360x768 (TV's native resolution).

I guess it'll be much more crisp if I buy a full HD tv (1080p)

 

WOW are you kidding me 5,6W? mine is using 9-10W when im surfing the net and 15W+ when watching movies. how do you do that please let us know thnx

 

I have not tweaked anything much. But I selected the power saver profile of power management and that disables AERO effect. I was not watching movies during the flight. Tons of movies to choose from in-flight channels I was merely doing light work like working in MS word, excel and reading offline magazines. As of what I am doing now (typing a reply with WIFI connected), the batterybar is giving me a reading of 5.6W.