Acer Aspire 3820T

My girlfriend is managing her farmville now, she likes my new gadget, looks like it's gonna be fight to death, a few minutes and I'll upload some.

 

Yep, sadly I do understand.

First off: Your laptop as supplied has no idea at all what was printed on its bottom !

It was installed with W7 using an OEM key that paired with the Acer certificate and acer BIOS is sufficient to persuade Windows that it is in a nice place and activated without neededing registration.
Acer paid for the right to do that install and in return MS gave them a sticker. Wind back 4 - 5 years and that sticker was a fully valid key and could indeed be used to reinstall the supplied OS. Or, apparently, to install the OS on some other older acer laptop you had around. MS did not like this. Especially when people started copying the 'unused' keys off the bottom of Vista laptops in stores to activate their own downloaded copies of Vista. so they block that process in some way . .

So some of the keys on the bottom still behave like retail keys but others do not. I don't know and anyway would not recite here which do and don't . . but I will say that generally if you find the paper key does not activate windows a call to MS confirming W7 was your original OS and you had re reinstalled the same version due to bloatware etc they generally give you a 1 time activation code. I recommend you stick to that approach rather than telling them you own your copy of windows

 

Here are the pics, as promissed...some unboxing, some showin off the 9 cell, and some without the battery, just to show how it'd look with the 6 cell.

Let me state I don't encourage anyone to smoke, just wanted to have something common as basis of comparsion, figured it'd be better than Euros, HUFs, or a bunch of DVDs, if anyone feels insulted, or shall these pics be against the forum rules, please signal, and I remove them rightaway, seriously.

The lighting is far from optimal, orange dominates as You can see, some pictures were made without flash, so that You might get the real colors, the lid is dark black, palmrest is grey.

Feel free to ask.

So, here we go.

 

Thanks!

Will try to keep You posted about recalibration details.

The notebooks weights a bit more than 1.9 kilos (like 4.18 lbs I think) with the 9 cell.

 

At least here in the US, it "is" an issue of ownership ... ownership of the license. The software is licensed (via assignment) to the owner of the Acer for reasonable use in that product. There is no question that, if the HD failed, that the licensee would be permitted to take reasonable steps to reinstall and reactivate the software. If software is capable of chaning its format, such as language, the altered use is reasonable and well within the license issued by Microsoft. I would think that there should be no problem activating that license on-line and if there is a problem, I would think that there would be absolutely no problem activating it via telephone.

I would think that Micrsoft has thought about this too. That's why, as long as your activation code matches the product and it is not already activated, I would think that on-line activation would work. I guess we'll see.

Bronsky

 

I think that's what I was saying.

 

You were suggesting that there was a need to be polite on the phone ... we yanks bristle at such things.

Bronsky

 

It hasn't been used yet or activated so i should be fine. I won't know till i try anyway so no point worrying till then.
If all else fails I just use my retail windows 7 I have here.

 

So battery life is less than the previous generation of Timeline notebooks? And are these low-voltage core-i chips?

 

Thanks, any chance of getting some screenshots up of some benchmarks? PCmark and 3dmark 06 for example?

 

On paper, this laptop tick the most boxes for me, except two minor ones: e-SATA or USB3 and an optical drive. The Sony Z series covers both points, but come at a much higher cost and come with a slightly slower GFX card.

Given that I am looking for a new laptop to replace a Sony (fan failure, which I understand is not uncommon with Sony, makes my current laptop a piece of high tech charcoal waiting to catch fire) I am leaning toward the Acer.

But I am wondering if there is any other I should consider. The Dell Adamos is too expensive and underpowered. I also looked at 14" and if it wasn't for my mistrust of Sony at the moment, the E series meet both the eSATA and my preference for Radeon cards compared to the 4820TG, yet at the cost of battery life.

 

Although it is a lot heavier (5.2lbs) and a larger display (14.5) you might want to look at the Envy 14. I price out am I5-540M/HD5650/160SSD at $1,500 before disounts. Min discount bring price to $1,350. It will be released on June 27th.

 

Sure thing, I'll post them after my retailer answered me whether it's be a whole laptop change or just the battery + fixing my minor chassis flaw (till I don't know what would it be, I don't start csutomizing the notebook with applications and stuff).

BTW I'm starting to get used to the 9 cell, it's still lighter than the Latitude E6400, E6500, Vostro 1310 was, plus my girlfriend seems to like the way it lifts the notebook making typing more comfortable.

Edit on the screen: viewing angles are poor, external monitor handling is OK, maybe recalibrating the screen the way the germans suggested might make black and dark colors keep their tone when the viewing angle is changed.

Sorry to hear Your notebook didn't arrive today, maybe germans are afraid of PayPal.

Edit: does anyone have a clue why my sytem utilises only 3.68 Gb of RAM?

 

Maybe thats the integrated Intel HD graphics taking up that ram?

 

Thought of that too, but it dosen't seem to make sense since the amount of utilised RAM dosen't change when I'm on the HD5650.

I've asked the germans too about this, I'll keep You posted.

 

Just heard from your German retailer Hendrickson. Looks like shipping an Acer from Germany to the US is a no-go. Although they can do it, there is no automatic waiver of the taxes and tarriff (what ever happened to all of these free trade agreements I've been hearing about?). It would cost 50% more than the German retail/VAT price to ship it to me. Then I would have to swap keyboards and spend another $250 to upgrade the CPU. There may be a way to get some of the taxes back, but you have pay up-front and file paperwork for a refund. Like that will ever happen. So I guess I'm stuck with the American market. Either Acer gets its TimelineX's to the US market in the next 30 days or I need to go with an alternative.

Glad the Envy 14 is available as a back-up. July is right around the corner. For what I was going to pay to upgrade an Acer 3820TG to I7 power and US keyboard, I can get a brand new HP Envy 14 with a 160 GB SSD factory installed, an awesome keybaord and a 1600 v 900, 350nit display. (~$1,350 USD). The Envy is not my first choice, but Acer is sure making it hard for me to buy one of its TimelineX's. The TimelineX model has had the most effed-up product release I've ever seen.

Still thinking about the Sony Z12 if it gets refreshed in time and sony makes all of the model's options available on US CTO. Sony's GT330M is really the minimal GPU requirement for my needs and doesn't leave a lot of room for growth. Tough decision. It also looks like the XPS 13 refresh will not have the kind of GPU specs that I had hoped for either. The XPS 16 refresh is putting an HD5650 in the 16. I would think that Dell would put something less powerful in its 13" unit. If they would just take the components being used for the M11x refresh and make it into a 13" ultrathin, they would have a winner.

Anyway, enough speculation. It looks like its Acer within the next 30 days or its time to decide on HP or Sony. Nobody can say we didn't try.

Bronsky

 

Acer is really loosing customers due to this. I don't understand them at all. What would the have to lose releasing the TimelineX series in the USA..Nothing. Some many users would go for that 5650 ATI gfx. And its price too.

Nevermind, The HP Envy 14 is a nice notebook. But 14" and the weight was just too much for me. So I've opted for the hard road and importing in on for Germany... Just a keyboard swap and hopefully hook up power to the keyboards backlights and im set.

 

My thinking is that I could always sell the Envy. I think the demand is going to be big for the Envy, especially given Asus and Acer's apparent lack of concern about the US Market. I just have to have a computer to prepare a presentation in July and to present it in August. The Envy would do fine. My 1410T will still be my portable. I could then get a low spec version of the 3820TG when the finally get here or, if they are selling the I7 model, just do the keyboard upgrade.

Just heard from computer universe, they wont ship to the US either. Today was supposto be some kind of press conference in New York. No word yet ...

Bronsky

 

From what I hear the New York press conference is off now but I believe there will still be one in Beijing.

 

Figures!

Bronsky

 

Also been disappointed over here. The Czech retailer Alza won't even ship to the UK and most of the others won't reply to my queries. That means I'll have to either fly over to Prague or order a German one and buy a copy of Win7 in English on top of the keyboard.

Ugh. Weighing my options.

 

The 3820 is supposed to be in Canada mid June i5 with the lower Ati card

 

3820TG owners sorry I missed seeing what the wifi card is, is it an intel 6300? Or atheros

Where i ordered mine from Germany just says Wireless N. Not the chipset.

 

What is the latest word on a US release?


I noticed on amazon.co.uk that you cant ship to the US

They had a nice pull out ad in Mens Fitness magazine. Would seem like a waste if they were not coming out with it soon.

 

atheros, here.

 

As far as we can tell, the first batch of Acers coming to the US will have no 3820TG's. Can't rule it out, but we've been provided some model #s and no 3820TG's in there. It looks like canada will get one with an Eng/Fr keyboard. I don't know if we will be able to ship from canada. Here is where the discussion is (page back a page or 2).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/464512-official-arrandale-timeline-thread-294.html

Bronsky

 

Thanks for the info. i guess time will tell. How lame of ACER to leave people out there fishing around for info.

I might be in Canada so i can pick one up if they show up there.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294

 

Thanks. Well, I am not in a hurry, so I don't experience the frustration others do. Unless my Sony fry before then, I'll probably hold till late summer before purchasing (may even find some 'back to school' offer).

But wow, 160GB SSD and a decent GFX card for $1500 is quite a good deal. It is a little heavy for some of the more active travelling (I like sub 2kg/4.4lb laptops).. though I note that 5.2lb is the going rate for most 14" anyway.

Are most people not bothered by the absence of optical drives?

 

I think most of us either don't need it or have a desktop or second PC.

 

Agreed. You can install through physical media by setting up a networked DVD drive on another computer. It's not difficult. The weight and space saved are worth the few times you actually need to install something using physical media. You can also use flash drives to install software that has been loaded on the drive.

 

I'm perefectly happy without the integrated ODD, haven't even used the erxternal one, don't know when it'll happen, it's just good to know I can bring it out of the drawer when I'd need it.

Plus the lack of ODD makes the notebook lighter, mine weights 1.9 kg even with the 9 cell.

 

Can't remember the last time I used an optical drive..

 

How long does your battery last?

Is it near the 12 hours as acer writes?

 

Apparently, we can overclock this model using setfsb has others have using the same chipset (HM55) overclocked there i5 430m's.



I'm trying to find out more info. Would be nice if we could boost up the processor 300-400 Mhz. Nothing risky just a nice free boost to make our i5 430m turbo like a i5 520m


If any 3820TG users are upto it, try setfsb here SetFSB_HomePage

Try using the following clock generators and see if using the getfsb tab works or not:

These seem to be PLL's that from laptops using the HM55 chipset, my be worth testing to see if they work?

ICS951462AGLF
ICS951463BGLF
ICS951464AGLF

ICS9LPR367AGLF

ICS9LPRS441AGLF
ICS9LPR600CGLF


I will try these myself when I take delivery of my 3820TG soon.

Users with ATI 5650's have also noted the cards a real overclocker. Stable overclocks speeds at 700Mhz core and 900 Mhz Memory have been reported in other forums I'm looking at. Just remember to monitor temps when gaming to insure its not getting to hot

 

Since I'm thinking of returning it due to its built issue, I use it on AC, haven't used it on battery therefore I haven't done a drain test yet, I remember it claiming a bit more than 9 hrs browsing on energy saver mode.

My decission has to be made till next Wednesday, if I decide to keep it, I'll do a drain test for sure and keep the forum posted.

 

From the Official Arrandale Forum:

 

I've just ordered my 3820TG from Germany and am trying to figure out how to install Win7 Eng on it with no optical drive. I think I have it all figured out as far as creating a bootable usb drive goes, but its going to be a pain swapping files around since my usb drive also doubles as my back up of my old laptop's HDD.

1. Move files to laptop
2. Format usb drive to be bootable
3. Move Win7 installation files over to newly bootable usb drive
4. Create separate folder on usb drive, dump old data back onto drive
5. Install Win7
6. Move stuff back over to laptop.
7. Wipe brow.

Anyways, does anyone know if the 3820TG is compatible with 3810T keyboards? Are all of Acer's 13" laptop keyboards interchangeable?

 

Hi Spectrum, welcome to the club. I have done the same as you. I ordered from Germany over a week ago and I'm waiting for my "super slow" DHL delivery. I live in Spain so its not as far away as New Zealand, but its taking just as long...

I have research the keyboards, from photos and also questioned sellers of the Backlit US keyboards. As far as I know the keyboards are almost identical from the 3820TG and 3810 series. From photos the connectors are in the same place, same size / number of pins etc

The differences being the 3820 and 3810 are, the FN logos are slightly different or in different keys F2 vs F3 etc, the 3810 is normally a shiney surface and the 3810TG matte keys.

I've ordered the 3810 US backlit keyboard, when it arrives and my 3820TG. I will confirm this works 100% or not. And also do a how to, on connecting / soldering wires to power the backlights for those that aren't scared of a little modding.

I've also got a memory card I'm going to use for the install. I have to do the same, move the files etc. Its a pain but hopefully I will only have to do it once!

 

Hi Hendrikson, good to know someone is in the same boat as me. I'm having it shipped to the UK actually, so I hope it'll be here in a week or so by UPS. Spain really shouldn't really take that long, should it?

Well, thanks for checking about the keyboards, I was going to call Acer's spare parts inquiries number tomorrow about it. So, are all 3810 and 3810TG keyboards backlit? I'm far too lazy to go through with the modding, but it would be good to know for the future if I ever get my hands on a soldering iron. I'll just order a UK keyboard off of ebay or something, pop it in and hope for the best. The 3820TG is supposed to be out here (w/ the ATI 4750, ugh) so maybe they have spare keyboards made for this model already, although ebay.co.uk seems to be turning up negative.

One more thing that you might know better than me: once you pop a new keyboard in, will the BIOS detect if buttons are in different positions or do you have to configure that in the BIOS or the OS? I know next to nothing about this.

 

I should have gone with UPS. I saw the UK spec of timelineX i3 / 5450 and 799 pounds not good at all!

As for the keyboard, no not all are backlit. Infact i think only 1 special 3810 business model was released with backlit keyboard however I can't find it. Must have been a limited run. At least we have the keyboard from it

The keyboard will just slot in as before and work the same, the FN buttons im not sure but should then match the keyboard? This i don't really know. Its nothing major, just small differences and extras for the back lights that won't work anyway without the proper plug in the motherboard. Which I'm certain isn't there!

When you get your 3820TG (most likely before me) please do post a quick review of it here and take photos etc.

 

Get a 4 GB (or larger) USB thumbdrive and follow the instructions given here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535816.aspx

It is better to have a separate USB drive for the install files in order to not damage your backups.

I'd also create the recovery discs (at least the drivers and application disc) before you start with wiping your disc.
For that purpose, install the 30 day trial of Phantom Drive ( http://www.phantom-drive.com/) which installs a virtual CD/DVD writer, so you can create an ISO image (which can then be extracted with 7-zip).
Either unzip the ISO to your thumbdrive which contains your Win7 installation set, or establish a network connection to your other computer and transfer the stuff there (at least temporarily).
Why that? Some drivers are often newer than those available on Acer website. Also, some preinstalled tools are not even available for download.

Michael

 

Yeah, this is the advice I was dreading, thanks for it anyways. If I made the usb as a bootable drive first, and then copied my backup files over into a random folder alongside the win7 files, how is there still a risk to those files?

I'm actually now thinking about ordering a US keyboard as you are. 5-10 days is really not all that bad. Having a backlit keyboard is nice, but usually if the screen is on there is enough illumination to see the keys if you can't touch type already.

 

It's your decision. There is a simple rule for backups: Don't touch them. Admitted, the risk is small, but Murphy's laws are stronger than the laws of physics.

Michael

 

You're right, Murphy's law has screwed me over enough times already. I just checked prices and a 4gb usb drive is now only around 7 pounds, so I'll save on the risk. I can't believe how drastically prices have fallen since I bought my first usb disk 8 years ago... Thanks.

 

the manuals of the box are multi-language, or only germany?

is curious

 

Haven't gotten mine yet, will let you know when I do. Anyone else ordered from Germany and got theirs yet?

 

I'll have mine tomorrow and let you know.

 

Thanks for all Hendrickson waiting soon your images and coments

a question, in no place is available with i5 520 processor config? for purchase

 

They have shown up in Taiwan. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6301940-post3088.html

Bronsky

 

Home [huh, it nixed my link. it was to the Acer Singapore website]

Yup, there you go, an i5-520 with the ATI 5650, but you'll have to go to Singapore to get it.

There are hints it might be coming to German. One website I was looking at earlier said that if they run out of the i5-430 model, they'll send you the next model when it comes out, although they also didn't say what specs this upgrade would have.