Acer Aspire 5740G Owners Lounge

SUB: How to update the BIOS?

Hi Guys,
I am planning to update the BIOS of my Laptop 5740G. I have downloaded 2 ZIP archives "BIOS_Acer_1.16_A_A.zip" and "BIOS_Acer_1.22_A_A.zip" from the Acer support site.
Do I get the benefit of V 1.16, if I just execute the V 1.22? (I mean does 1.22 includes the enhancements of 1.16 also?)

Also, please provide the detailed steps on how to update the BIOS? Because this is the first time I am doing the BIOS update.

Please provide your valuable input at the earliest.

Thank you,

Regards,
Akshara.

 

i didn't thought about that :S
thanks for every one .. i try by others methods

 

Most recent BIOS contains all updates of previous versions so go directly for 1.22.
In general all you need to do is extract the archive and run "flash.bat" and do nothing at all until your notebook reboots on its own.
Prior to BIOS update disable antivirus software and firewall. The battery should be inserted and fully charged for BIOS update.

DVDs seem to be Multilanguage and do contain the same files that the recovery partition does. Try on dome Portuguese forum or maybe some persuasion at the computer shop could buy you 30min with an exhibition unit.

 

@downloads:
Hi dude,
Thanks a lot for the swift response. I will follow as u suggested.

 

I have noticed that the display brightness bars have disappeared on my acer when i try to change the brightness settings. Anyone faced this? I think i noticed it only after the updates i did as on post 2. Could someone help me? I tried googling but nothing relavant yet.

 

What bars? Where? Be more specific.

 

You know how you press the volume buttons (- & +) and on screen it shows you bars on what the volume is. I think he's talking about that, but I didn't know changing screen brightness has that too. Maybe, I didn't notice it.

 

Well brightness doesn't have such OSD icons and never had. All these icons (for sound, Wi-Fi on/off, touchpad on/off) are part of Launch Manager.
You can see all available icons at C:\Program Files (x86)\Launch Manager\OSDRC.
As you can see none for brightness. Such icons are available in Launch Manager v4 but as I wrote in the update-post this version doesn't install on 5740G.

 

I have had the brightness bars before, just like the volume bar except that the bars were on the bottom stretching from almost one end to the other end of the screen. So i guess i wont be able to get them back as its not normal in this model to have brightness bars

 

You can try to figure out how to install Launch Manger v4 and make it work.
You need to delete one file (don't remember which one) in order to install it (otherwise it's gonna refuse- "unsupported system" or sth like that)
After that you would need to make it work- it still didn't if I remember correctly. I gave up because it wasn't worth my time.

 

i'm thinking the bios update will fix this, but kinda lazy to try until the weekend but is anyone else getting issues where your laptop is plugged in but not charging and the battery is less than 75%? even restarts unplugged etc don't seem to charge the battery.
I'm hoping that the chip inside the battery isn't faulty!

 

Mine often stops charging at 96%, but when I unplug and plug back in it goes back to 100%. However, I never got the less than 75% situation.

Also, I mentioned before that the freezing problem in games is due to the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology 9.6.0.1014 drivers. Install the Acer default drivers and the freezing disappears most of the time or follow "downloads" directions to use the new drivers.

 

What about when it's switched off?
Someone else had similar problem and in part it looks similar to the post from MS Technet that has been quoted here. Problem with that post was it didn't make sense- at least not entirely- maybe the problem is real but the explanation was wrong.
What battery do you have- mine is made by Sony AS07A41

That is the way it's supposed to be actually- most batteries do not start recharging before you go lower than 96% so you may be stuck at this level or any above it and it's fine.

 

I had the same problem as Mikey19 (posted 04-08-2010) - the screen was unnaturally blue, and I could not correct it- going through control panel it would not save the adjustments & apply them. Calling Acer's helpline was useless - on 2 occasions I had long waits. The first guy just said take out the battery & put it back in 10 minutes later - of course it didn't work. The next guy advised me to recover my system back to factory defaults - & just didn't get it when I pointed out these had not been changed. The E-mail from Helpcentre told me the second guy had fixed my problem.
The solution - there was no graphics driver installed. I just googled ATI Mobility Radeon & downloaded the driver for 5600 series - that gives access to control centre where you get access to fractionated RGB colour adjustment. Problem solved, & I can now photo-edit while travelling, which was the point of getting the notebook in the first place.

 

Application update

Chicony WebCam Application 1.1.158.203 (for Acer TravelMate 5740G)

 

Hi guys, I wonder if you can help me out.

I recently got a Gateway NV5924u. This models seems to be almost identical to the 5740g.

The battery doesn't charge beyond 96% after two days. Seems to be the problem could be solved with the BIOS update from the second post but I'm sure if it is the right one for my model.

 

It depends- if the battery stops charging at 96% it is a problem however if it doesn't recharge when it's at 96% and up it's all right.
Unplug the power cord and let the battery drain some more and then plug it back- it should recharge back to 100%.
To make it more clear- the battery loses some of its charge in time, you can unplug the cable for a few seconds (or it may come out on its own) etc- this causes the battery to discharge, however the battery will not recharge until it's below 96%. It's normal and it is meant to do so to protect the battery cells.
You have the problem only when you have battery at say 90%- plug the notebook in and recharges only to 96%.

EDIT: Do not use BIOS that's not meant for your model!

 

Thanks downloads for the comment.

I will wait for response on the matter on Gateway/eMachines section.

 

How does Counter - Strike:Source and DoD:Source run on this laptop? Im interested in this laptop so i would like to know that.

 

Hi Boys, Am set to pick up Acer5740g-6454 laptop on friday 23/4/2010 for $740.00 CAD. What do you guys think about this model and brand?

 

My first acer ever, overall good quality and is one of few laptops that has no overheating problems atall while maintaining silence.

I think only downside is slow HDD that limits computer performance.

 

All details maxed ofcrouse... pretty old games, so it handles them very good.

 

My Acer Aspire 5740G just shutdown by itself and it won't power back on. I tried pulling the battery out and plugging in the power adapter. Nothing turns on... I had this laptop for only a week.. None of the LED lights are blinking either.

I tried these steps, but it didn't do anything for me.

Disconnect the AC adapter from the laptop.
Remove the battery.
Press and hold the power button for about 30 seconds then release it. (You will not see anything happen)
Connect the AC Adapter to the laptop. Make sure the AC Adapter is plugged in.
Turn the computer on as normal.
Once Windows loads, insert the battery.

*Update*
I have sent the laptop back to newegg.com. They will send it to Acer to see if the problem can be fixed. If they can't fix the problem. They will send me back a new Acer Aspire 5740g. Sighs. Another 7-10 business days at least.

 

mine is the Sanyo AS07A31 4400 mAh 10.8V lith-ion

and it does not charge at all with unplugging /restart. currently got off my and performing the bios update 1.16 and then 1.22 LOL will see if this fixes the issue. if not i'll look into the bios itself and see if there is a option as battery charging is enabled(like alienwares)

battery currently at 28% :/

*update*
after bios flashing from 1.09 to 1.16 battery is now charging

 

guys i'll get my 5740g in a matter of a few hrs.....!
i was first looking for the vaio but unfortunately there was no way that i could get it any sooner than 3 weeks!

 

Well if you mean the severely-underclocked-Vaio (450Mhz GPU) you should be glad.

 

Both work perfectly, as with all Source games. Still need to buy L4D2, but 1 works 60fps locked all the time (Vsync)

 

uh... i'm not so sure...

the vaio and this aspire have the same GPU... :|

vaio :

core i3 @ 2.13ghz
15.5" LCD
3GB RAM
320GB HDD
ATI Mobility radeon HD 5470 (512mb)

Aspire

core i3 @ 2.13 ghz
3GB ram
320GB HDD
ati mobility radeon hd5470 (512mb)
15.6" LED

 

The severely-underclocked-one is HD5650.
HD5650 in Vaio is 450MHz for core instead of 550MHz.
I don't know what Sony did to Hd5470 is they did anything- but that wouldn’t surprise me.

 

well. i'm not sure about these clocks n stuff!

but how good is the gpu on the acer? no turning back for me right now already ordered it!

 

HD5470 in Acer has standard frequencies. You can see some game benchmarks for this card here.

 

actually the benchmarks are decent.... i played Modern warfare 2 on my geforce 6200 on my pc...!! i finished the game playing at 20fps!! i will sure enjoy the game on this

 

Hello there guys.

I'm posting here to ask you a question. I was thinking on buying the Acer 5740G-524G64Mn, but before that and since what I can see here, there are lot's of people that already have this laptop, I'd like to what kind of problems you guys have noted in this laptop. What CONS (-) can be appointed?

Best Regards,
Charles

 

No real problems- good build quality, low temperatures and quiet cooling system plus good performance.
Few things you need to take into account- no eSATA, no ExpressCard- if you need eSATA or any other interface that's not already a part of the laptop you are in trouble. That's not a con however- you just need to be aware of it and consider if you're gonna need it or not before the purchase.

The thing to after the purchase is BIOS update- some people had problems with GPU artifacts (solved later by driver update or 1.22 BIOS that updates ATI BIOS) and everybody need to update BIOS to at least 1.16- otherwise the battery may die on you rather soon.

Some people complain about the loud beep sound the notebook makes when the power cord is being unplugged. I'm not gonna comment on that

 

Nice.

Forgive me, my dumbness, but what is an ExpressCard ?

Best regards

 

That's next-gen PCMCIA.
ExpressCard

 

Anyone have any updates on the random pausing/freezing in some games? I still have the problem when playing WoW, and possibly in L4D2 as well.

 

guys, i got the laptop!!

i love the look and feel of it, unfortunately i don't have any games with me so i won't be checkin them out for quite some time....! :|

 

Try these solutions we came up with- in that order 1 and if it doesn't work 2.
My solution lets you keep the new AHCI SATA driver but if it doesn't help or you've never installed it in the first place use the second one by aylafan

Another happy user

 

I'll give it a try, thanks.

I'm somewhat sure that I was having the problem before I installed the new AHCI drivers though, in fact the problem was the reason I went with the new drivers. All the same, I will try disabling the processes from startup!

 

It's possible that you had the problem prior to the update but then again you had had the old version of Intel app running at that time.

 

Thnks for your answer. Ok then.

Another question, is this stuff of the laptop freezing while playing games is normal? This happens with everyone?

Best regards

 

It's probably nothing to do with the laptop itself- hardware is not to blame.
Most likely it's caused by some driver or setting or a combination of both- the problem with figuring it out is it cannot be replicated on demand- I for once never had this issue.
So we have one theory but you gotta wait to see what happens in testing- if it actually is Intel service accessing SMART status that causes it there's one more variable to consider- different HDDs.
Some people have Hitachi 500GB HDDs but there are others with WD 500GB and others with 640GB drives- the drive + Intel service may cause the problem- hard to say.

 

Ok then.

Another question. Now that passed more than a month, what you have to say about the laptop? At all levels. There is any anomaly (no freeaing issue couting) that you can tell? Noise, heat, errors with hard/soft ware?

Best regards

 

I know I shouldn't quote myself but then again I'm not gonna rewrite the same things again
That still stands- nothing has changed since.

 

dear all 5740 owners.

plz guide me can i use this laptop for about 5-6 hours a day?

is t good enough to be used long hours?

I DONT play game. i use laptop just for web browsing and reading pdf.
plz guide me .

 

you want to run it on battery only? or what?

 

not on battery.
the battery ISN't important for me .
the main issue is the quality of laptop parts for working 6-7 hours a day.

the library i study in it ,has a power supply on each table. so i can get the battery out of my laptop and just use the power supply.

 

No problem- the cooling is good so it doesn't overheat- the fan kicks in at low speed rather often but that keeps the notebook cool and it stays quiet.
To be honest I've never used it for 6-7 hours a day- always longer than that
It often gets left on unattended or left overnight for some downloading/uploading and son on- had no BSODs or any other unpleasant surprises.
All I can say- update your BIOS if your notebook comes with version lower than 1.16 otherwise you will come back here asking about battery not charging or other battery related issues.

 

Disabling the Intel storage management process has not alleviated my random game freezing, just an update.