Acer Aspire 5740G Owners Lounge

Looks about as good as it can look considering the notebook is only SATA II. Probably even a bit better than I would have expected.

 

I bought HDD case tray, because i wasn't using dvd-rom. Had problems when my case tray was connected, the computer freezed at bios bootmenu - whenever i removed the tray, computer started working. A simple fix was to update the bios from 1.22 to 1.28.. Amazing

 

I have figured out why my SSD speeds are worse than expected. I was under the impression that since Core i5 560M can encrypt/decrypt AES at ~1GB/s there will be no difference between unencrypted SSD and TrueCrypt full disk encryption.

Unfortunately I failed to realize that some of the optimizations and wear leveling procedures that are done by the controller do not have access to what is "within" an encrypted partition and as far as the controller is concerned it's just a disk that is 100% full.

Another important matter is the fact that I had overprovisioning set to 10% of the capacity and as it turns out changing it to 20% as Samsung recommends improved performance by quite a margin. AnandTech suggest that 25% is the ideal setting based on test conducted with SSD 840 EVO but I'm done as it is- already 20% essentially wasted.

While I managed to bring my read/write speeds to the level of an unencrypted SSD (I made one test with Samsung Magician before encrypting) I am so far down with IOPS that it's definitely not fixable- read IOPS unencrypted 47K, read IOPS encrypted 4,5K (notice the comma!), write unencrypted 30,8K, write encrypted 16K.

I'm afraid that's the performance hit I'm gonna have to take.

 

Hey andy, it works...i have been using the modded bios since 30th March 2012 and it works fine ...for 1.22 BIOS version...

There is a simpler method of modding the BIOS which is shorter than in post 4699...and with the modded BIOS definitely the performance is noticeable (no stuttering as in the case of software overclock...afterburner, overdrive ,trixx...etc)....U can unlock overdrive for our beloved 5650 or even any amd/ati card with overdrive disabled....

 

Hi!!
i'm having problems installing the gpu driver (5650 hd)
which driver is the best\latest?
thanks

 

13.9 mobile version is latest stable.Easiest way to chose the correct driver is to use the AMD driver detection tool which will download the correct driver for you.

 

Guys if anyone is still following the thread can you help me with some info? Is it possible to replace the i5-430M CPU with a second generation i5-2520M CPU because one of the fell into my hands? Thanks in advance.

 

No it's not possible. Only Arrandale CPUs will work, sorry.

 

I thought so, anyway, thanks for the reply.

 

every time i try to install the 13-9 catalyst driver it starts installing, my screen flashes and then i get a blue screen.
whats my problem?
my gpu is 5650m

 

In addition to Arrandales you can use "Clarksfield" (Nehalem) i7s, you will gain an extra 2 cores but sacrifice AES-Ni, depending on your workload that's a net gain or a loss.

 

That's true. I should have been less specific - first gen Core i3/i5/i7 will work.
As for AES-NI it's unfortunately not available on most CPUs of that generation. I had to upgrade to Core i5 560m to get it.

 

Hi everyone. Simple question, what hardware is upgradeable in our laptop? Let me know if I'm missing anything:

- HDD for SSD

I would like to keep the CD/DVD unit, is it possible or the SSD would occupy that place?

- CPU upgrade:

I suppose the best option is the i7 640M.

- GPU??

Not sure on this one.

- RAM:

This would be nice, but I reckon, very expensive as well.

Any other option?

Thanks!

 

Has anyone managed to run the brightness control in Windows 8.1?

 

Well, not just Arrandale but even clarcksfield CPUs will work on our laptops ,in my case i put an I7 840QM that allowed me to increase ram memory up to 16GB , solution ,this one , not possible with arrandale CPUs .

 

@boazzz

Yes you are right. I made that mistake once before. It somehow sounds neater to say Arrandale rather than "First generation of Core i3/i5/i7" but that is obviously Arrandale is obviously only half of an answer.

 

Enyone have issues with Battlefield 4 and 13.9 driver ? I'm facing some - while playng I get an directx error and the game stopps.

 

Ya 13.9 is unstable...even I got the directx error while playing Metro Last Light...switch to 13.4....I downloaded BF4 ....will play today....hopefully.. ;-)

 

Attempted to flash my Bios last night and for whatever reason when it restarted blue screened, promptly shut down. On restart theres no Bios so I guess its bricked.

I'd like to use the Phoenix crisis Disk to try and recover my machine but am finding some conflicting advise and links.

Can anybody out there give me advise and links to the correct app and proceedure to reflash from a memory stick?

thanks in advance

 

Here's the Crisis Disk with 1.22 BIOS for 5740G.

And in the first post of this thread the recovery procedure is explained in detail.

 

4tb External hdd (FORMATED in GPT) is being read as 2tb hdd when I connect it to Acer Aspire 5740G by USB cable. Checked with software DMDE.

The same 4TB external drive connected to Gateway 7811FX by eSata cable shows ALL 4TB !

Fresh Intel RST drivers downloaded - same problem

Can anybody check their system and tell me the version of Intel RST drivers that you use with Your 4TB or 3TB external hard drive please.

Acer Aspire 5740G-5309 Bios 1.28, Win7 Home(came with laptop)

Thanks!

 

no one is using 3tb or 4tb with their acer?

 

I think it has nothing to do with RST drivers or Acer because it's USB.
Internal Disk recognition always depends on BIOS, through USB you see a reflection of the ext. HDD-USB controller.
I think it's a Windows 7 problem, I had same kind of problem when I first put my
2TB USB on, with XP there was no problem.
Look in Disk Control where you can format and partitioning your HDD, what do you see ?
You can also try it with USB on Gateway, maybe ext. HDD-USB controller problem ?
For me WD Align did the job, but ill think it has something to do with drive letter, not Shure, long time ago.

 

-Disk Control shows ALL 4tb, and hdd formatted in GPT, BUT 4tb its not true. I use software called DMDE (google it) which show real info, and it shows me that windows see ONLY 1.8TB out of 3.6tb, therefore if I write over 1.8tb, data wrap around the space on my hard drive and started writing data at the beginning, overwriting the partition table and the first files put on the drive. People should check their 3tb/4tb drive and system BEFORE using it OVER 1.8TB!!! before 1.8tb its safe!

so the problem is my Gateway 7811FX (c2duo 2.8 win7 x64)connected by eSATA see all 4TB, but Acer aspire (i3 win7 x64) connected by USB see ONLY 1.8TB - and I need to find out why.
If anyone here with 3TB/4TB drives PLEASE test with DMDE(free soft) and let me know what you see.


it should look like this - but insted of 1TB it shows 1.8TB on my acer

 

How did you get USB 3.0?

In your config: Acer 5740G * 8Gb * i7-640M * Intel 520 120Gb SSD * HD5470 * USB 3.0 * Multiboot-Dos Ghost-W7U32-WXP32

 

When I turn on laptop on I have huge issues with my screens. The laptop will make the noise like something is unplugged/plugged and the monitor will go off/on/off/on. I am connected to an external monitor using vga. The monitor will either say out of range or no vga source. Both the laptops screen and external monitor will do this. I waited over 5 minutes of the screens going on and off before I finally unplugged the external monitor. The laptops screen does fine on its on.

Anyone ever had this issue?

Once the laptop has fixed the issue it does not do it until I reboot.

 

Sorry for the late answer, I was very buzzy lately.

What I want to say is, maybe the HDD-Chase Chipset is the bottleneck, have you make it yourself or buy it original with 4GB drive in it ?
Test USB with Gateway, does it work there ? No ?, then you have to update your USB-Chase or buy one with
decent chipset, Yes ?, then it must also works on Acer.
That the ext. HDD SATA-USB reports 4TB will not say it can handle it also, USB and eSATA are total different.
Was there no result with WD align ? it works for most drive's not only WD.
If nothing works you can also try to split the drive in 2 partitions.

For USB 3.0 see my post's on page 514 and 522, it's a bit tricky.
Same is possible for eSATA, or if you remove your DVD drive and put an extension cable from minisata to sata you will have there also " eSATA without power supply".

Good luck.

 

Yes, you right. Chipset in my old enclosure was outdated - supported max 2tb drive. Today I received New enclosure that support 4tb drives (Rosewill RX-358 U3C 3.5-Inch USB3.0 eSATA External Enclosure) and Acer can see all 4tb now when I connect it by USB cable!

...Old enclosure works fine with Gateway because it was connected by eSata(and it show all 4tb), but when I connect Old enclosure to the Acer by USB 2.0 - it shows only 1.8TB, because of Old USB chipset in enclosure.


Just saw your post's on page 514 and 522 and I like it.
Thanks for your idea! I would like to connect my 4tb enclosure to the Acer but with eSata. I might do "extension cable from minisata to sata" since I never used DVD drive.

UPDATE:
is it mini sata or micro sata to eSata (Female)? Im not sure what to get... any pic of extension/adapter that i need?

 

Not Shure for that, I see same pic.'s for both cables, slimline and micro, in Dutch Gistron
Not expensive, but you have to ask.
Don't let you mislead by "from""- "to", it will always works in two directions.
For safety you must avoid "hot plugging" because there is no kind of "protection buffer".

Good luck.

 

Hi,

In an effort to try and keep by aging 5740G going,(Core i5-430M,ATI Mob Raedon 5650)I was trying to update my ATI/AMD drivers.I have tried a few times before but mobility drivers have always been an issue.This time though I really want to solve this problem once and for all.

I'm still running the old 2009 driver 8.xx ATI driver.I've tried quite a number of drivers 11.11,12.10,13.4 etc but none of them installed.

On using the Device Manager route(the Have Disk? method) I get a message saying "The Driver selected for this device does not support this version of windows"

I'm running win7x64 and trying 64bit drivers.

Also,I have the old 1.09 BIOS running,I noticed in 1.16 had a ATI/AMD VBIOS update.Could this help? I'm trying not to refrain from updating my BIOS.

thanks in advance

 

I don't know if BIOS has anything to do with it(i have 1.22),but i never(very rarely) had issues with installing newer AMD drivers.

 

Tried updating the BIOS.When i try running the winphlash utility. I get an error saying Driver WDM Init Fail (Ox137). I downloaded winphlash separately and tried flashin.Still got an error.

I replaced the display(LCD Panel) once,could it affect the system in the above way?

 

no.

I had the same error, I google it and found solution and was able to flash 1.16 , but I cant remember what I did.

 

Use Dosflash from a bootable medium. From Bios V1.22 and higher there is a ATI/AMD update.
No way that a replaced LCD panel affect your system.

 

Urgent help please.

I connected my acer laptop to samsung tv hdmi port. Now, my laptop screen is completely black. Even if I disconnect my laptop from tv, the display would not come back. I tried Windows+P, Fn+F5. Nothing is happening. When I go to displays and try to detect my laptop screen, all i get is SAMSUNG (which is the tv display) and Available display on: AMD Radeon HD 6500M. It seems as my laptop is recognizing the tv as the laptop monitor and completely shutting off my laptop monitor.

My laptop was previously connected to a 27" acer monitor where dual display worked fine. But I went back home for the winter break and did not take my monitor with me. Got home, plugged it into the tv, and here we are.

Thanks for help, if possible.

 

Not really much help, but my hdmi and vga has been giving me problems. I got sick of it so I just reinstalled windows completely. VGA seems better, but it took my 30+ minutes last night to get my hdmi to receiver to work. Tried different cables and hdmi ports on receiver, reinstalled my ati drivers. Somehow I got it working by turning off the tv and receiver then turning them on.


If I get a black screen I can do the fn+f5 to get laptop screen to work.

 

My 5740G is always connected by hdmi cable (for the last 4years) to 46" Sony TV, then 46" Samsung TV(series 5 then 6) = never had problems, always works.

Try "Firmare update" for Samsung TV...

 

Checked for firmware update, none was available. I been stumped. I called a tech, but mostly all he said was, since the computer is not detecting the internal display at all, something might be wrong with the graphics pins on mother board. Something along those lines. I been googling a lot and most of the solutions were to use the FN Keys. My FN+F5 only says HDMI on it. FN+F6 doesn't respond at all so I am not sure. Would it be best if I try to contact acer, or is there no hope. I want to avoid a factory reset if possible because I have a lot things on this laptop.

Thanks for help.

 

Disconnect cable from HDMI first, then restart your laptop holding F8
Can you see "Advanced startup options"? if yes - select "Safe mode"

 

Anyone else have trouble downloading the latest(13.12) mobile drivers?When i run the driver verification tool that i downloaded from the mobile drivers page it says it will download 13.9 catalyst mobility utilty(x64) when it should download the 13.12 one.When i later run that catalyst mobility utility it asks me where to download the driver and the driver name is correct(13.12).But insstead of the driver it downloads a 46.5KB file which does nothing and can't be run.So we can't download the mobile 13.12 drivers at present.

 

Yes I have the same problem. Still I left the link to the AMD website instead of the usual direct link. The should correct it sooner or later.

 

I have also tried booting in safe mode, but it didn't do much.

Today, my laptop screen came back. The night before, I plugged my laptop into a VGA monitor to watch some movies, and then turned it off for the night. Powered the laptop up today with VGA unplugged, and the display came up. Not sure how this happened, but I am fine as long as it works.

Thanks for all who tried to help.

 

Try this direct link http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/13-12_mobility_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe

 

I found a direct link the same day i posted that and updated the drivers,but thanks anyway.Also it seems that it works now.The mobility utility just fills the bar instantly like it already downloaded the drivers(which it didn't do before i think),but it still shows a cancel button and it is still downloading so it kinda works now trough the normal methods too.

 

I cleaned up "the update post" from old non-working links and added a link for new Atheros Wi-Fi drivers (as of now these drivers haven't been tested by me though).

 

dear friends,
i have 5740G about 4 years and now time to give him second life for example - complete clean (radiators gpu, cpu new etrmal paste - can somebody give me video how to? or photo instruction?
next - new ssd hdd. now i have hitachi 500GB and it is very low. what is the best - buy new sdd and put in to empty space - 2 disc, or remove old hdd (use in external usb disc) and put new sdd? What model is best? New SDD are sata-3? can this laptop use that? or mayby run only in sata-2 mode? so i can buy chipest model?

thanks for the reply

 

I usually clean radiators gpu and cpu more often like every 6 month - not 4 years with can of air, on all my laptops.

SSD Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB 2.5 as boot drive + 500GB Hitachi as Data drive instead of DVD drive.

 

How to disassemble Acer Aspire 5740 - its very easy!

How to disassemble Acer Aspire 5740/5340 series laptop >> Inside my laptop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAXceMjVuXY

 

hi, i have an acer 5740g I7 620m with 4gb ram and would like to upgrade to 8gb ram.
what ram is recommended (a link would be nice) and what else can i do to upgrade the the laptop?
thanks!!!

 

Any DDR3 SO-DIMM around 1066-1333MHz should work fine.
The only other thing that you can upgrade are CPU, HDD, Wi-Fi card and battery if you feel like you need it.

Apart from RAM, SSD will give you the greatest boost in performance.