Acer Aspire 5740G Owners Lounge

need some info please regarding dvd/cd drive for acer aspire 5740g....
is it dvd+ or dvd- for making copies/backup?

tanx
Mepper

 

Both. People who had problems with burning backup copies forgot to mention the brand of their DVDs not to mention who the actual maker is.
In most cases unsuccessful or low quality recordings are due to poor quality DVDs.
Buy good quality media you cheapskates

 

+1 .........

 

Tanx for info..... what brand would you class as good quality? would i go just on price? Also as Laptop is new I need to make backups asap.. any idea how many discs I need

tanx again

 

Got it. I read there was an issue with the 10.5 in that second post so I assumed that to avoid troubles one should use 10.4. But then again, they will probably fix things soon enough

High Definition Audio Codecs, Vista, Windows7 Driver (32/64 bits) Driver only (ZIP file). Got it.

"k57_vista_2k8_x64-14.0.0.7". Got it.

Okay. Got it.

Okay. Got it.

Got it.

Okay. I add it with the driver-disc but I make a note to only use it in case of stuttering and errors.


Excellent reply, thank you

 

Best Blank CD or DVD Media - 2010 They recommend Taiyo Yuden as the best quality. I've never had an issue with the brand. Otherwise have a look on the website for other good quality DVD media.

 

You need 3DVD for Win 7 backup and one for drivers and apps.
As for media quality- what I usually do is I buy one disc (or 10 disc spindle/cake box) and test it before I buy more than that.
There are several factors to the quality of the recording- it can go bad even with good media if your recorder doesn't recognize the disc and has to use generic write strategy instead of one that's dedicated for a specific disc.
One media that surely is known to all DVD recorders in the world is MCC004 that is used by Verbatim in their most common x1-x16 media.
That is definitely a good one. TDK can also be trusted and is usually a bit cheaper.
There are other that are good but again- final results depends on your drive's firmware AND media quality and since firmware updates for notebook drives are basically nonexistent you have to choose DVDs to fit what your drive likes.

I agree TY were always the best but I have some problems finding a brand that uses them. Do you know who uses TY now?

EDIT: It looks like JVC uses TY but I don't remember seeing them in stock. I'll be on a lookout though.

 

Rebranded Taiyo Yuden media can be found under Fujifilm, Fusion, Maxell, Miflop, Panasonic, Plextor, Sony, TDK and Verbatim Corporation brands - straight from wikipedia.

 

Yeah the problem is a lot of others can be found branded by these companies too like CMC Magnetics or Moser Baer India and I don't want these.
Looks like I'm gonna stick to Verbatim knowing that it's going to be MCC004.

 

Hopefully that helps. I'd prefer just to buy the genuine TY media as over here in aust it isn't much more.

 

Power Cable Tip:

Just bought new Acer Aspire 5740G as my oldish compaq presario was on way out....Anyway i noticed my old power cable for the compaq was identical in "power in and power out" but the "jack" which connects to the laptop was only slightly different... it would fit into connection point on acer but would not quite push all the way in..so by trimming approx half mm off all the way round the collar/shoulder of jack it now fits like a glove...using a sharp knife carefully it took me bout 1 min to do... worth checking you old laptop cable before discarding it.... incidently the old power cable still works with the compaq after trimming piece off

 

Hi, I can see some "artifacts" on my LCD. I realized it's probably caused by LCD inversion (technical explanation here).

Display in my 5740g seems to be subject of issues with LCD inversion.
I made simple javascript which reliably visualizes the issue.
You can view the test page here (focus on the square on the top).

Here is how it looks on my LCD:

Little bit shaky but more apparent:

You can see the strips in angle about 30°.

And here is same test on external screen BENQ T221W (over HDMI):

Almost perfect. Only barely visible strips in angle about 60°.

This is the image when it's not moving (3x zoom):

With perfect screen it should look like this even when in motion.

Can somebody do the test and post a reply how your screen (on Aspire 5740g) views the page. Thanks.
PS: According the Lavalys Everest the screen in my laptop is LG LP156WH2-TLE1.

 

Taking a photo from a digital camera is highly inaccurate for this situation. Use the "Print Screen" button on the keyboard while you are doing this test. Then copy and paste the photo into Paint or Photoshop. Do it 3 or 4 times to see if you still have the same problem. Also, you will have to zoom in to 150% to get a closer look.

Editted: Nevermind, I see the problems on the first black box in the test.

 

Yep, mine looks exactly like yours.
LCD is AU Optronics B156XW02 V2.
That said I can live with this.

Taking a screenshot is pointless- screenshot shows what GPU renders. If it's an inverter or LCD issue screenshot is not going to show it. Just run this script and look at the lines on the top box.

 

I have been trying to modify the registry to implement the "PC Beep" volume function into the "Level" tab for Realtek 2.49 drivers, but I have been unsuccessful.

I exported the PC Beep volume function registry from Realtek 2.29 drivers and tried to import it into the Realtek 2.49 registry, but it is cleared from the registry when I restart Windows 7.

I guess there is no solution unless someone really knows how to modify the drivers from a deeper level.

Screenshot of the PC Beep volume function in Realtek 2.29 drivers registry that is missing from Realtek 2.49 drivers registry.


PC Beep volume function in Realtek 2.29 drivers registry that I exported from regedit.exe
http://www.mediafire.com/?tnbz4gecenq

P.S. The registry key changed names when I reinstalled Realtek drivers. So that is part of the reason why it didn't work.

 

well, i've seen a few people talking on a portuguese forum, with this issues! and they realized that bios 1.22 was the problem, they rolled back to 1.16 and no artifacts, try this =)

 

That's strange because in this forum some people who had pink, checkered box artifacts had to update to BIOS 1.22 to fix that problem.

 

Does anyone know the memory address of the BIOS within /dev/mem (linux)?
I want to dump the BIOS to fd for a project...

 

These are not artifacts and it has nothing to do with the GPU, nor does it have anything to do with BIOS. I still use 1.16 and I still see it.

 

ahh its not artifacts the correct word, is something like grains after a few people installed 1.22, they rolled back to 1.16 and stopped with those "grains"

 

Hey,
I have the exact same display from LG and I checked your test...mine looks totally fine. I have BIOS 1.22

 

5740G doesn't come with any Bluetooth utility or application like most of the laptops and Windows 7 bluetooth interface is not a user friendly when it comes to managing bluetooth connections and transfers... anybody know a nice bluetooth utility / application?

 

I have video BIOS on 0x000C0000.
I suppose the BIOS is 64KB long.
This command should do the job:

Code:

dd bs=1024 skip=768 count=64 if=/dev/mem of=bios.dump

PS: You need read access to /dev/mem, so prefix with sudo or whatever you like...

EDIT: sorry this is for video BIOS, not PC BIOS

 

hey guys i was converting videos ,

the temperature of cpu is showing 80-90 degrees , is it normal ? as its from last 10 minutes on turbo boost full 100% cpu utilization and video conversion .

processor is 430m .

is it ok ?


also the gpu temp is idle while video conversion , its only the cpu temperature that is rising to 80 .

i dont know whether Mediacoder video converter supports conversion over gpu as i was converting h.264 video in mkv format , so it was using cpu only .

is it ok with 81-82 to continue encoding my videos ?

 

^^ also , what is the cost of a simple 8 gb dual layer dvd and does acer 5740g supports dual layer burning ?

 

The temperature is OK- what you would expect when encoding videos.
You've already answered your other question- Mediacoder doesn't use GPU.
It's basically Cyberlink MediaShow Espresso or the converter included in CCC if you want to use GPU.

Cost of DVD DL differs- it depends on where you live but if you decide to buy some use ONLY Verbatims. The quality of the recording on the inner layer is always lower and with cheap DVD DL media it will be most likely unreadable.
The recorder in Aspire 5740G does support DL BTW

 

Im getting 79-82 when cpu is 100%...

 

so the temps are fine then .
also what will be the cost in rupees of general dual layer blank dvd's .

 

geez.. don't you have any shops near your home? -.-

 

I have played sims3 with e3 live on browser minimized , i switched between and was no problem , but when i exited from sims3 on screen appeared a blue screen with memory dump error It said the computer needs to be turned off to prevent further damage to the computer ,
Beginning dump of physical memory.
Physical memory dump complete.............contact system adminstrator, etc.
What does it mean? How can I prevent it? Is it a dangerous error?

 

Did you recently update any drivers?

 

Hi everyone.

Let me say it again, this thread is awesome! There's more information here than on Acer's website!

Anyway, I was waiting for Newegg to stock the Aspire 5740G 6979. Then when the date came, June 9th, I woke up to see the product didn't arrive, it was deactivated. Newegg couldn't tell me exactly why they stopped carrying the product. Acer could only tell me that the product is still on the retail market. So I called every retail store and nobody carried it. So I was depressed until I saw this thread and saw a user found another laptop, the Gateway NV5924u.

Gateway NV5924u 15.6" Notebook PC - Midnight Blue in PC Notebook Computers at JR.com

This looks great, since it's specs are identical with the 6979's (it's even lighter with better battery life). All I want to ask is, is this the only laptop in the $750-$800 price range that is comparable to the 6979? In other words, does anyone know of any other laptops similar to the 6979 and this Gateway? Thanks!

 

I just ordered that laptop homer. Hope all goes well. I absolutely love Acer products and was told this gateway pretty much is one. I'm banking on that because I had bad luck with gateway about 12 years ago. Hopefully now that they are owned by acer everything is straightened out. I ordered it from the same place as well. Only shop I could find that carried it.
Cheers.

 

So I bought a 5740g yesterday. It was on a whim.
Well I have never been so underwhelmed in my life!
Its just siting there I'm not even using it cos it sucks so much. It is the exact opposite to the feeling I had when I got the 5920g. 5920g ecstatically happy when i got it 3 years ago, 5740g, why did I buy this... 3 years later the sad thing for the new laptop is I still would be happier if i bought the 5920g.


Very frustrated as I cant really return it without it being faulty as I would feel like a , but I have never been so dissapointed ona new purchase in my life. I know its quite a cheap laptop but I was expecting so much more, maybe because my previous laptop a 5920g, was the same price 3 years ago, set the bar so high

I'm more of a desktop PC guy but I have a soft spot for laptops, because they are a full fledged PC in a tiny comfortable shell with no maintenance or fuss required. And very portable. And whats best is they usually have more features and capabilities than a desktop pc, not less, and they are 1/10th smaller than any desktop pc and weigh a 1/10th and use a 1/10 of the power etc.

I usually research things before I get them, but I was looking around to to max out upgrade my 5920g but parts were too hard or expensive to find and when yesterday i saw the 5740g for such a good price and just decided to buy it to replace my 5920g.



J a random blab about what annoys me about the new laptop as someone whos used to a 5920g.

This might be a rant but would like your views on it.

-Touch pad is total crap. My finger keeps jerking and grinding across it, I cant use it at all, worst touchpad design ever. Touch pads buttons 1 and 2 dont even have a separation between them! And No middle click! So now I need to use a mouse with the laptop!

-I'd rather a scroll wheel than buttons for volume!

-Missing bluetooth!

-Missing IF receiver!

-Missing media control buttons!


-I know its 16:9 format and a lot of laptops are doing it, but c'mon, the screen is too short and too wide! I feel like I'm suffering from claustrophobia and have tunnel vision when I use that laptop, and I have neither.


-The keyboard keys really annoy me. They have no smooth edge to feel, they just like solid 2d rectangles. I keep bumping into them trying to slide my fingers across the keyboard like I do with my 5920g.

-Getting ridiculous pings to my wireless router. Other gear works fine. Its probably just win 7 64. Means gaming is out of the question unless I move to vista or 32bit windows 7.

And the winner of why I hate my new purchase is...... The sound is hideous! It literally sounds like tincan with string speakers.
I don't know if its good luck or bad luck but it seems to be I'm spoiled by awesome cheap stuff from the past. It happened with my motorla e398 and now with my 5920g.
My old motorola phone has like twin stereo speakers and a sub! Got it in 2004 or something. When you put it on a table or the right surface it almost sounds like a decent sound system. NEVER again have I found a phone that sounds as rich. Every phone sound setups to this day me cos the are all crap.

Acer 5920g. Boom. I cant believe the sound that comes out if this unit with the right setup If you know what drivers to use, how to set up your sound program equalizer and settings, this unit has massive volume and deep rich sound. I got so used to it for the pat 3 years I expected all new laptops to be the same esp acer.
When i walked past the 5740G at the store I had a look and it sound dual surround or whatever and I just kind of took it for granted it would have the same set of speakers as the 5920g (could not test it). When I bought it and tried it at home I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't use those speakers for voice chat let alone anything else like music or videos. so it means I have to drag along a set of speakers with the laptop.

Also I saw 4 processor tasks running on this laptop somewhere I kind of stupidly assumed it had a good good cpu as I thought it it was quad core. The ati 5470 was dx 11 compliant so i assumed it will be at least decent.
All in all I assumed it will be at least a fair bit better than my 3 year old 5920g for gaming. I was wrong for all of them. IT sucks! Its almost the same. I then ran 3dmark06, with the EVERY ati catalyst setting on maximum performance, and not only does it look like crap but the score then came out which confirmed why gaming performance was so bad. 3410 3dmark06!
Heck that's what my 5920g gets!
And who knows what It would get with the settings on stock quality.

So to sum up. 3 years worth of improving and this new laptop has gone a few miles backwards from my 5920g and offered nothing new other than a faster processor which adds little to the experience of the computer.

I think I'm going to have to give it to my brother or something, as I was hoping to pas my 5920g to him and keep the 5740 to myself, but something I did not expect is for the 5740g to be much less mature and less of a computer than my old 5920g is.

P.S we have to keep in mind both laptops were the same price. I know there is probably a laptop that can fly for $20k

 

ROFL, so many problems... Why the hell didn't you use internet before buying it then? What a sad wh're

Oh and i have bluetooth =) . LOL

 

And whose fault is it? You haven't researched it so you assumed a lot of things and now it turns out you shouldn't have.

There are models with Bluetooth and without it- nothing is missing.
If you'd rather have media control panel and a wheel for sound control you should have had a look at the chassis before you bought it.
Complaint about 15,6" 16:9 screen is similar- it's in the specs. Don't like it- don't buy it.
Thorough research is one thing but not looking at the specs or photos is another.

I can understand you don't like the touchpad or the keyboard- as for the touchpad it's not bad but I've complained about it too. In the end I set it up to my liking in Synaptics properties and it works fine. There's also an unlikely possibility that you got an ALPS touchpad which is actually very bad- like all their touchpads.
The keyboard is- as always- the matter of preference. It took me few days to get used to it but in the end I like it better than the old Acer keyboards. It may be that you won't like it at all but also take into consideration that it's very different and it may take a few days of typing to really get used to it. I took a risk with the keyboard because I had heard many people claiming it's very comfortable to write on. As it turns out I agree with them.

 

Hey homer...
here is another good one from acer with the same specs, (like the big brother) except it's a 17" display...and very good price..
AS7740G-6364/LX.PLX02.404 Acer Aspire AS7740G-6364 17.3 inch Core i5-430M/ 4GB/ 500GB/ DVDRW/ W7HP Notebook Computer - Notebooks / Laptops - SuperBiiz.com

take care
Bart

 

I have to agree I feel its mostly my fault for not researching as I could have found out most of these things If I did thorough research. I felt this way from the start. My bad big time.
The laptop is what it is and most of the things I complianed about were there to find out about if i checked. Forget even the keyboard because as you say its down to personal prefrence.

But two things I feel I more than reasnably have the right complain about being crap an no amount of research could have told me until i bought it is the touchpad and the sound. The touchpad and the buttons are beyond , its unusbale for anything other than 5 min emergency use. NO one an say it is good.

Secondly, and the biggest drawback for me is the sound is also crap. No one can say it is good compared to the 5920g. Again, how was I supposed to know how it sounds. People were saying it had good sound.
I also saw it had the same writeup on paper, like that virtual surround sound, and it was realtek HD, virtually identical on paper to the 5920g, I don't think It was a far cry to expect a similar level of performance. Instead I get about 1/4 of the volume, totally distorted sound, with zero lower frequency response whatsoever. Heck the speakers crackle at less tha room conversation sound levels. They are pathetic.

Its a ok laptop for the price, but damn they could have done so much better for the same cost. I don't think that's unreasonable to say as the did exactly that in the past. I guess i as expecting it to be my 5920g replacement.


Oh P.S another thing that I can use agasint it is My 5920g has blu ray burner combo, 3 freakin years later you expect to get at least the same, if not more, but oh no its gone backward, DVD only, fark.

 

oh also the microphone is te. Not only does it not have directional beam recording, but the actual quality of it is crap too. 5920g mic is stereo and sounds great.

also the webcam is exactly the same as my 5920g! 3 years man....in computer terms that a lifetime, and they did either nothing or went backwards.

 

I agree that the touchpad buttons are too stiff- they get a little "softer" in time but still are a bit stiff. As for the touchpad itself- mine works fine. I've had a lot of notebooks- although some didn’t have touchpads yet (my Hyundai Neuron 386SL in 1990 ) but in general this touchpad is no better or no worse than average. My recommendation would be to update drivers and play with the settings- it may help as long as it's made by Synaptics.
If you got an ALPS touchpad you are... cooked (censored )
I don't know if their touchpads are so bad or their drivers suck but the result doesn't change.

Another curious thing is sound- first of all make sure that you have the latest drivers and that Dolby extensions are enabled- both surround sound and audio enhancer. That's all you can do.
Still I wonder about that- some people claim it's very bad others are happy with it. I wonder do they use different speakers or something? I mean I'm not deaf and I would say 5740G sounds rather good compared to Aspire 6920G (5 speakers and TUBA)- not as good as 6920G but still...
And it definitely sounds better than my previous laptop.
That could be difference of opinions but it's not because you've mentioned low maximum sound level and crackling at relatively low volume- that's something I don't get. What's more I usually don't even keep my volume above 1/2 when playing music

 

The touchpad is synaptics. There is no point trying any other drivers or settings. I actually have problem with the hardware, not the software . I find the surface is idiotic. Its too rough and my skin grinds agasint it instead of sliding. So I get grip slide bounce grip slide bounce.

The sound doesnt appear curious in any way from where I am sitting. My opinion is Its just the speakers are total rubbish. There is no point trying any other software or settings, the speakers have physical limitations which cannot be overcome by software.

But there is a possibility something fishy is going on here because as you point it it seems some people are too happy with the sound and others are too unhappy, beyond what may be personal opinion.

I can tell you mine crackle at full volume, the type of crackle where there is interfernce or too much power running through the speakers. Kind if sounds like a geiger counter.
As for the volume. I find even on full, its not enough for me to hear properly even normal TV episode chatter. By far the worst laptop speakers I have heard. I looked at the speakers through the top with a flashlight and confirmed they are what I expected, christmas card meolody speakers.

I cannot stress how poor they are comapred to my 5920g. I would say about 1/2 the "loudness" at best, 1/100th the bass, and 1/10th the quality in sound. They sound worse than cell phone speakees tbh, just there is two of them.

 

Hey everyone!

Just like i asked before, i want to know if the high pitch whine i hear in the left side of the laptop (in the fan area) will resolve itself in time. I wanna ask all the other users that had/have this issue if it is better to return my unit and exchange it for another one.

thanks

 

Well I've decided not to bother returning it as it represents pretty good value despite its many shortcomings, but I'm gonna give it to my brother as I cannot get used to that screen and poor sound and mic to have it replace my persnal laptop the 5920g. It should also act as a good HDMI out to the TV device when we need it. I'm just setting that up and it seems like there is many options. Anyone have any realistic explanations of them, not just the nonsense thats found in manuals.
Anyone know whether I should have GPU scaling on and off?
ITC processing on off?

Color pixel format? It seems full RGB pixel format PC standard looks the best by far, but its too dark compared to the others.

Lastly some opinions on whether I should update the BIOS on the 5740G. Its currently running V1.09 from 2009. Any point in updating to the latest ones?
They also include a update for the ati graphics card. Anyone have a changelog? It wont block the ati from being overclocked or anything like that will it?

 

Dont bother, mine does the exact same thing. I doubt it will resolve itself the whine is still going strong on mine after a day of full use.
Also you will find not many people can hear high pitched whines, so they wont beleive you. I thought about returning it for this reason as well.
I bought a powerline ethernet kit the other week and I could not stand it because the devices made a high pitched whine, No one else could hear it.
I can also hear most CTR TVs from like heaps far away because they also emit high pitched whines, other peopl cant hear it right next to it. I can also tell when the screen changes from black to white and when chanels are changed due to the high pitched noise they make wavering. Or if something gets in between me and the TV.

Anyway I wonder if acer would fix the high pitched whine under warranty. It would get annoying if I had to listen to it every day.

 

Hi,

We bought a 5740 G to my pal last month. He uses it mainly for gaming. He has a problem:

When he is playing games (DotA, Vampire Masquarade etc.) game freezes for a second every 10 or 15 minutes (random). I searched net for a solution. People say it is mainly because of WD 500 GB Hard Disk. Any solutions for this problem?

Thanx all.

 

Sounds like hdd thrashing. Try freeing up as much space as you can on the hdd, then do a full defragment. You can also try using readyboost, thought this probably wont help much. Best advice is have at least 50% of the hdd free, and delete as many running apps as possible. Also have only one partition per physical drive. You may have to format if you've managed to clog the PC in a month.

Hey SEPS, in regards to the whinning noise, what do you think is making it? I suspect its most likley the ball bearings in the Fan assembly, though it could also be a whiny ICS. It seems to clam down when the fan is on low. Maybe we can open it up and put some grease in there to help stop the noise.

 

I really dont know for sure whats causing this high pitched whibe but, for sure, it goes along with the fan, and stops everytime the fans slows down (supposing it never stops RPMs 100%).

I suppose you could try and open it, since no warranty seal is present there, and see if you can do anything to solve it.

As for the freezing in games, use quietHDD as refered in the 1st page.

cheers

 

Poor sound and mic? LOL, there is nothing wrong with the sound- its fantastic. Also the mic is good. I use it a lot in ventrilo and in game called CS:S. I asked people opinions about my mic quality and they said its pretty good...

 

Yeah, run QuietHDD and disble APM. It's WD 500GB sprecific issue.

You need to update to at least 1.16 (see second post of the thread)
BIOS 1.22 is in essence 1.16+ video BIOS so you may as well go straight for 1.22. No known issues.

That's the funny part isn't it? There's gotta be some difference in hardware or we are hearing impaired

 

Obviously your either stupid, haven't made a proper comparisson or really bad at juding these qualities. Not trying to be harsh, just stating what imo is the truth. What exactly are you comparring the sound and the mic to to claim it is fantastic? What is your review criteria? I'm comparing the onboard speakers to my 5920g, and the mic to tons of other mics I have used. To keep it simple it is much worse than the 5920g. No one said people cant hear you on it.
Also other people saying your mic is pretty good means not much more than the mic works.