Acer Aspire 3810 Thread

I searched the forum but couldn't find a thread dedicated to the 3810 series.

First things first is if you have a 3810 you might want to check when it was manufactured as some have overheating microphone lead issues:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/acer-issues-recall-for-some-aspire-timeline-laptops/

Click here to see if yours is affected: http://customercare.acer-euro.com/customercare/AcerUpdate.aspx?CID=SG&LID=ENG&IType=JM31

Now that the bad bits out of the way lets move on shall we....

Link to the different configs you can get:

http://www.acer.co.uk/acer/productv...tx1g.c2att92=122&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=3793076916

Personally for the price I would go for the LX.PE602.045 version. Its about £480 and for the price it a steal. Performance wise it will cope with day to day tasks and even more resource hogging programs like Photoshop ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4bwZSZb0jI, yes I know its not an ACER 3810 but it uses the same Intel SU4100 CPU. As you can see its competant enough).

And the 8 hours battery life!! You can get a USB GPS receiver and use it as a Sat Nav system, with 8 hours battery life you'll be fine

So who's got one? What are your thoughts? Likes and dislikes?

I'm picking one up next week and am hoping to do a video review which I'll put up on Youtube

 

it is just another crappy Acer laptop with design flaws and bad quality of materials. Acer,the worst manufacturer in the world.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=424853
check here if you are affected...

 

Cool story bro

 

the worst part of this story was that i was advising other people to buy this piece of bad manufactured electronics.

 

So why is it so bad in your opinion? Please tell us what you don't like about it.

 

havent you read for the recall issue? and how bad acer service is? dont go for the cheapest with the most characteristics. you will regret it.

 

I'd like to hear from someone in the USA who has purchased an affected model in the past couple of weeks and which model and from what vendor they purchased.

Was your model on the list and was the serial number/manufacture date part of the recall or not?

If possible I'd like to buy an AS3810T-8737 from a vendor in the USA who's known to have units with serial numbers/manufacture dates which are not part of the recall.

My current plan would be to buy from a place like J&R Music World which (in theory?) doesn't appear to have a restocking fee.

Hoping that if the serial/manufacture date were on the outside package I would have the option to return (unopened) in case it was affected.

I want one of these before Christmas.

Comments?

elrasho I look forward to an update from you.

ps what's the deal with the SU9400 vs SU7300 3810 models? Is the 9400 preferred? How much better is it? I can't seem to find any 3810 models with an SU9400 only SU7300....Are both Intel VT capable?

 

I have one with the SU9400. The SU9400 model has been discontinued in favor of models with either the SU4100 and SU7300 cpu. I got mine in late July/early August and it is one of the models that has been recalled but I am not sending it in.

Both the SU7300 and SU9400 have VT.

 

dont send it and you will see it falling apart aka overheating, battery and mobo failure and HDD failure.

 

I've sent my 5920 to Acer before due to the left speaker crackling. They fixed it and sent it back within a week, Acer are fine when it comes to warranty fixes.

Im getting the LX.PE602.045 model. Comes with 4GB of ram but just a 250GB HD, it will do for now but I might upgrade it.

What I dont understand is how can the SU9400 models have 8 hours battery life with a Radeon HD graphics card in them aswell? Can you switch to onboard graphics to reduce the power used?

 

Also of course the SU4100 vs something faster*

Where are you seeing the LX.PE602.045 (AS3810TZ-414G25N) for sale? Is this in the UK/Europe only?

*I'd be very interested in any pointers to more info on comparisons/evaluations of these various processors (SU4100/SU7300/SU9400 etc.)

I'd be fine with less disk and a *slightly* slower processor (I think).

 

Dont feed the troll.

 

Yep im pretty sure its got the intel 4500MHD onboard and it switches to that when on battery, when plugged in it will use the radeon. I assume it can be set up differently if needed.

They all perform similarly, use the same amount of power (10w) and are all dual core. The difference that may affect some people is the SU4100 lacks virtulization which is needed for XP mode in windows 7. You can just type the model number into google and look at the ark.intel.com site, there you can compare up to 4 processors. Its a pretty good site.

 

Thanks, not seeing either the SU4100 or the SU7300 listed at the referenced intel site (unless I'm looking in the wrong place)

http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=26548

I'm wondering if the SU7300 is worth the extra $100 I'm seeing in street prices. This would include a bigger hardrive too but I don't care about that, only the perceived difference in speed between the SU4100 and SU7300 (overall system response 'snappiness' etc)

 

SU4100:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43568

SU7300:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42791

Dont let the logo fool you, pentium vs core 2 duo, theyre the same architecture just different brands. For me i wouldnt pay $100 for VT because its useless to me and the 1MB of extra cache wont make a real world difference.

Theyre both 64 bit, both dual core, both 1.3ghz with enough cache, both use 10w power, both have speedstep. Both tick all the important boxes, no real need for the $100 extra SU7300.

 

Thanks Soviet779, appreciated!

I just ran into another version of this model which I don't find mentioned at the US or UK Acer sites

AS1810T-8638 (LX.SA202.006)

How is this model different/how does it compare to the
AS3810T-8737 LX.PCR02.085?

They seem to be very similar if not identical. Is the 8638 an earlier model?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115670
http://www.handingchao.com/new-acer-aspire-timeline-as1810t-8638-11-6-inch-hd-display-black-laptop-review-over-8-hours-of-battery-life/

EDIT: oops nevermind, I see now this is an 11" model......

 

Brief update on this. Found some comments which give me hope.

recall issue with mic cable overheat, November 28, 2009
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3KQET...e=UTF8&ASIN=B002P8M6EI&nodeID=#wasThisHelpful
...
Acer recalled this product due to mic cable overheat issue.
This item is checked already and free from that recall issues?
...
In reply to an earlier post on Dec 3, 2009 8:56 AM PST
I have this model and went to acer website to check if mine is under recall, by inputting the serial number of my machine. Turns out mine isn't recalled. The site also says only machines built before 9/15 are recalled. Considering the fact 3810 was halted for a while in Sep and Oct, and I bought this in late October just a couple days later when this model started to sell, I think it is fairly safe to say all 3810tz-4925 are not under recall.

 

I searched The Ultimate ACER Resource Thread and didn't get any hits on power supplies.

I just bought a AS3810T-8737 and want an additional power supply to keep at the office.

I see there are many options out there (expensive to cheap), just wondered if anybody had any suggestions/comments in particular.

 

Congrats on the purchase dude! Let us know what you think when you get it. As for a spare power supply try Ebay, I cant seem to google US stores as im in the UK sorry mate

 

Does anyone know if you can boot from a USB DVD drive? I might want to install Vista Ultimate and format the HD first

 

Absoletely yes. I installed the win7 upgrade using a usb-ide adapter with an old dvd drive attached. Press F2 key when booting to select boot order.

BTW, Why wouldn't Acer send out the win7 upgrade on a usb key or an sd card for the 3810 which has no optical drive? Most people would pay a few bucks for that convenience.

 

i read somewhere that the 3810t was getting a longer-life battery soon.. but now i can't find the link does anyone know if this is true or just a figment of my imagination??

 

Acer is making a 9 cell battery: Link

 

Wow! Thats great news. Some Asus notebooks can do 12 hours so its good to see Acer competing with them.

 

the only concern is the weight and the battery quality. and hope the next timeline to have su7300 or better and ION2. it will be a killer hardware combination

 

fyi my info from a Dec 7 purchase from tigerdirect.

Whew looks like I just made it with a couple of weeks to spare.....

AS3810T-8737
MFG Date 2009/09/30
Acer Product Advisory : Serial Number - LXPCR0208594001B902300
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** YOUR UNIT IS NOT IMPACTED AND DOES NOT REQUIRE SERVICE ***

 

Dude I dont think its safe to be putting the serial number on the Internet.... or am I being paranoid?

 

I have a strange issue with my Acer Timeline AS3810TG-944G50n (SU9400). After starting the PC from standby mode the battery discharge power is more than twice as before. Somebody does observe the same issue?

I do measure the discharge power with the free tool "batterybar" ( http://osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/index.html). The discharge power is around 4800-6000 mW. After wakeup from sleep mode it is 10000 mW. I checked that with windows 7 64 bit and 32 bit edition. Settings for measuring: Energy saving mode and the display to lowest brightness and WLAN off.

What is the situation with your Timelines?

 

How do you get rid of all the bloatware without having to install a fresh copy of windows 7?

 

Only a new setup does really work.

 

ahh great, thanks for confirming that for me!! i thought i was going mad when i couldn´t find it.

does anyone know when the battery will become available?? if you can buy a 3810t with the 9 cell battery at christmas time that´d be great.

also, does anyone know if it is possible to hook up a ssd drive to the spare mini-sata connection that is available inside the laptop? it´d be great to run an ssd in addition to the standard hard drive!

 

Who cares about a 9 hour battery when you have 8 1/2 hours already, talk about spoiled.
Recall is bogus, anyone have a bricked 3810? Anyone?
I'm affected, but guess what- who cares, it's for something stupid that will never happen. And for those asking question after question- do you know how to use Google? Seriously.

 

Who is talking about 9 hour batteries? We are talking about 9 cell batteries. And the recall is not bogus just because you haven't done what Acer says can hurt the machine. Also, why are you so angry?

 

Just uninstall it via the control panel, you can also look for MCPR (not released for Windows 7), this was a utility to remove all traces of Macafee products from your system, as this was initially problematic under Vista, although it is not such an issue now as generally the uninstall routine works fine.

On my 3810T I uninstalled all the junk SW one by one, and it runs perfectly. Formatting the partition and doing a fresh install + drivers is a very drastic approach in my mind, and may prove detrimental as most OEM`s optimize the Windows image.

 

Anybody did already try the free tool "batterybar" ( http://osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/index.html) and checking the discharge power before and after starting the PC from standby mode? What is your power? Settings for measuring: Energy saving mode and the display to lowest brightness and WLAN off.

Normal power is around 5500 mW when LAN is on. The battery is 60000 mW. That means over 10 h of use with one battery! But when the drivers are not correct you will be far from that!

 

talking about 12hrs instead of 8hrs.. and even if it was just a small difference, wouldn't everyone want as much battery life as they can possibly get??

 

So hows everyone's 3810s holding up? Would be nice to see some user reviews here. Im still getting mine yet.

Also anyone know if you can upgrade the HD to a 7200rpm one?

 

I'd like to know if people with the SU3500 version can play 720 smoothly and, if so, what's the trick?

 

You tried using Media Player Classic: http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

its more efficient than other media players and so may help

 

" The KMPlayer" (KMP) it will play MKV`s that VLC wont touch (slideshow), with it`s own binary codecs the video is decoded solely by the CPU. KMP can run with external decoders like CoreAVC, which is presently the fasest SW decoding solution. KMP has a vast array of options and settings and does take some understanding to get the best out of, however the picture quality is outstanding and it will play many files that other media players wont open or refuse to play. As also mentioned MPC HC will also do very much the same plus or minus some features and is also an excellent choice.

With the SU3500 the best solution is to use DXVA utilizing the GPU and significantly reducing CPU load during decoding/playback.

" SPlayer" is an Open Source project and fairly easy to set up, it will default to hardware acceleration (GPU) and is literally developing by the day. dont be put off by it`s developmental stage as it`s very stable and quality of the decoded image is impressive.

" Splash Player" will also use the GPU automatically for decoding and is by far the simplest set up, this too is in development although not a the same rapid pace a SPlayer, and does not offer as many options.

My solution for my 3810T (SU3500 Vista SP2) & Samsung X420 (SU7300 Windows 7) is KMP and SPlayer, I can playback 720p perfectly on both and 1080p guaranteed on the far more powerful X420. KMP is by far the more tweak-able thanks to it`s myriad's of options, SPlayer is new and moving fast in the right direction.

I find now that I am using SPlayer more and more, even as I type, I am watching a full length 720p MKV on HDTV that is being decoded by SPlayer and a humble Acer Aspire One AOA-150, the original 8.9 inch Netbook, 1.6Mhz Atom CPU GMA-950 XP Home SP3 and the picture quality is perfect no dropped frames or stuttering, which speaks volumes...

All the above players utilize Binary codec`s and do not interfere or replace the system codec`s.

 

Thanks alot for the replies!

I'm not sure, but I think 720p movies played more smoothly when I received the laptop and at that time it ran on Vista. I installed Windows 7 pretty much the next week, and suddenly HD playback was far more crappy. I put this down to not optimal drivers for Win 7 (or something like that) but I still have the same problem. Also, maybe playback was more or less the same with Vista, just that I remember it a bit incorrectly. I'm not entirely sure, but nevertheless it seems a bit strange that the heavier OS Vista apparently played HD better than Windows 7.

Also, I'm using Media Player Classic Home Cinema with CoreAVC. Somehow, though, movies (not only HD) play better and look better with Windows Media Player. Why is this if MPC is supposedly a better choice overall? Am I doing something wrong here?

I'll try SPlayer or the Splash Player and get back to you.

Edit: Same choppy stuff with the Splash player

 

Now that my 3810T returned from repair I want to tune it a bit.

So far I have thought about installing an ssd drive and faster RAM if recognized. Then perhaps an Broadcom H.264 Acceleration Card.
Does anyone have other ideas? Currently I have installed Windows 7 and Ubuntu.

 

I got the 3810T with su3500 and intel gfx in august. I came with Vista and a windows 7 upgrade. Now I have installed the windows 7 upgrade, and it has become extremely slow at booting now.

Booting from off state with power connected takes a whopping 2 min 25 sec before I see the taskbar !

I've looked at eventlog and it seems there might be an issue with "iaStor" causing a delay, anyone else have same issue/solution ?

 

Anyone knows of any good deals on Timeline 3810tz?

 

Did you upgrade from Vista or doing a new installation with windows 7?

 

it was a fresh install.

 

My 3810 with SU9400 and Windows 7 64 needs about 75 sec.

 

I dont have any chop (720p) with Splash lite (new version will launch in a few days with many improvements) it will pixelate depending on the file played back, just the lack of features makes it a little limiting for what want. I have observed is that it has the lowest CPU utilization of all three that I posted previously, this is on Vista SP2 with the SU3500. Typically I will use SPlayer or KMP

SPlayer average CPU utilization (GPU Accel on) 50% - 60% 720p full size windowed, without GPU acceleration +35%
KMP average CPU utilization 70% - 90% 720p full size windowed
SPlash lite CPU utilization (GPU Accel on) 45% - 55% 720p full size windowed

Same media played on Acer Timeline 3810T (SU3500)

Best GPU accelerated video I have seen so far is with SPlayer under EVR+GPU, KMP will match and can exceed, only you will be pushing the CPU (SU3500) to the max. Drawback is video can stall/freeze under EVR (infrequently) VMR9 is fine, I generally use EVR (C/A) as the renderer on Windows 7 and VMR9 (HQ Subtitles) on Vista SP2, this results in smoother playback, VMR9 is also no issue on Windows 7

Both KMP and Splayer (no GPU Accel) have performance options Super Speed (KMP Alt+F) and Performance (SPlayer) these will greatly assist in smooth playback, at the cost of more advanced features.

Windows 7 uses Windows Media Foundation (WMF) and Media player I am pretty sure is doing more than meets the eye with video processing resulting in a very high quality image. Unfortunately there is no surport for the MKV container, Divx have a solution for a WMF plugin to play MKV`s and no doubt others will follow, although at present subtitles are still a big problem.

Are you using the latest CoreAVC 2.0? I have had success with 1.95 on Netbooks with KMP, yet Core (1.95) practically brought my corporate Dell (D620) video (MKV) to a halt. KMP`s own binary Codec`s works reasonably on it.
one thought is Anti Virus I am running ESET NOD32 which helps keep the overheads down, are you using the latest video driver from Intel?

It would be worth going over to the Windows 7 forum ( http://www.sevenforums.com) as they have a whole section on WMC/WMP

 

Holy MAMA, I tried the KMP and it actually works! I even tried some 1080 and that wasn't too bad either - not that I need 1080, but I had to check it out and it was almost better than on my other computer. Amazing!

Thanks alot for the greatly appreciated help! It's been bugging me since day one, but now I've finally (and hopefully) found the proper solution.

The problem was at its worst whenever I used subtitles or fast-forwarded to parts where the was dialogue. It doesn't seem to happen with the KMP though. Do you know why subtitles use to things up with MPC? Just so I know what to do should it happen with the KMP.

 

I'm getting a lot of chop in youtube HD video.....i noticed that my bios will not allow me to devote more than 64mb to video memory....why? Why can't I change it? I have 4GB......thats probably why HD video is choppy.....ANyone have any ideas?