Acer Aspire 5740G Owners Lounge

Hi downloads, do you have ideas, why I cannot OC my hd 5650 more than 640 and 900 within getting crash? My benchmarks are lower than yours, I have same 5740g i5 4gb 5650 only with 640gb. Anyone, any ideas please?

 

OC is always unit-specific. I'm half-lucky my core overclock of 670MHz is rather good but memory not so much. I've seen others OC their memory to 1000MHz or 1100MHz in some cases. That said the same people also couldn't above 640-650MHz for core. The lucky ones on the other hand could go up to 700MHz for core and 1000MHz for memory at the same time. You are just a bit unlucky.
Nothing can be done about that unless someone finds a method of overvolting core from 1.0V to 1.1V that HD5730 uses. That would result with higher temps but also higher OC.

 

Yeah, but really strange thing that same laptops so different handle with overclocking, hardware is same, but some people get high result and others are not. How can it possible be, is acer put not good graphic cars or what?

 

The card is meant to work @550MHz with given voltage and it is. If you get more of this you're lucky but you cannot say cards are not good just because they don't exceed the specification by a big margin. Keep in mind that according to ATI specs increase of 100MHz in these cards require 0.1V increase in voltage. You got 90MHz without any increase in voltage.
The same thing goes for CPU- some units overclock better than others. It may depend on many things starting from the silicon wafer and where your chip was on it all the way to capacitors and the voltage they provide.
My previous card would allow OC of a whooping 17MHz- more or less 5% of the original value- yours allows 90MHz and that is roughly 16%. That's not bad.

 

Yeah, maybe you are right. Anyway, when I was buying this laptop I expected better performance, because I can't play most new games in high settings without lag (gta 4, stalker, crysis). Maybe I expected too much from laptop, I don't know. But I think you should done all benchmarks with the default clocks, because people who will buy this laptop could not to get so high oc and get worse results, in that way will be dissapointed.

 

Yes you do have a point here. Maybe I should have. My reasoning was that I bought this laptop specifically for overclocking- bought this instead of something with HD5730 and made it into 5730 myself.
The other thing is that I bought it relatively early and all I could compare my scores to were people who managed even more OC than I did- so at that time I thought I was unlucky.
That said I don’t think there's much difference between my performance and yours in real gaming situations. Just take a look at Mafia II- I got 5.5fps more than TravelMate 7740G with no OC. 120MHz core equals 5.5fps- you've managed 90MHz so you would probably get 4fps gain- so you are some 1.5 fps slower than me. That is not something that makes a difference.
The games you used as examples are very tricky- I wasn't able to play GTA IV on high settings either but what's important even more than settings is what patch are you using. GTA IV is a dreadful console port anyway.
Playing Crysis on high is something very few can do- I scored 30fps in benchmark but I haven't played the game so I don't know how it really works.
But again I would be no more than 1fps faster than you.
Stalker has a terrible engine too- caused many problems in the beginning and only later versions became stable and pretty consistent.
In each of these games game settings and patch version make a lot more difference than 30MHz of core OC that separates us.
Work on those settings a bit- I got 3fps increase in Crysis without changing GPU clocks (from 27 to 30fps by setting the game to 64bit and something else- may be setting it to DX10)

 

Is the mafia2 demo worth downloading?
I played the Kane and Lynch demo...it's a huge download but very short demo..

 

I am downloading mafia 2 demo, soon will write my benchmark results and will compare, is 35 mhz of core makes difference. For now I am running 650 and 900, but I bet when launch and play game will crash. Here is my stalker call of pripyat benchamark results with 640 core and 900 memory:

Preset: High
Renderer: Enchan. full. dyn. lighting (DX11)
Video mode: 1366x768

Day: 24.2 / 31.5 / 42.4

Night: 6.7 / 38.9 / 62.3

Rain: 33.4 / 43.9 / 64.0

Sun Shafts: 4.4 / 26.6 / 34.4

So your results a bit better in this resolution and settings as mine.
But funny thing is about this stalker benchmark it runs in small window instead of full screen most times, but sometimes it run in full screen, like in Rain mode or which other. I don't think it supposed to happen.

Will see more from mafia benchmark soon.

 

No not worth a download because you are limited to 10 min driving around the city. So you have 10min to get where you need to and one shoot-out there and that's all.
It's gonna work fine on your notebook as you see from my benchmark so if you want to play it just buy it when it comes out and if you want to see how it looks just watch a HD-clip on youtube. The trailer is actually the demo mission.

EDIT:

Call Of Pripyat Benchmark
Cats 10.7 Freqs: 670/900
Preset: High
Renderer: Enchan. full. dyn. lighting (DX11)
Video mode: 1360x768 (I know- I'm cheating by 6 pixels)

Average scores:
Day: your score: 31.5 my score: 40.0 (127% of yours)
Night: your score: 38.9 my score: 40.0 (103% of yours)
Rain: your score 43.9 my score: 44.0 (100% of yours)
Sun Shafts: your score 26.6 my score: 22.0 ( 83% of yours)

It's pretty even if you ask me but you should retest so that all your scores were taken from fullscreen tests.

 

I finished mafia 2 benchmark with @ 640 and 900. Got 35.3 average fps on medium settings with antialiasing 1x and vsync off. Not found where to change in dx11 mode, maybe it set to default. Done twice and get +-2fps. So it is even worse than default hd 5650 with 550 core from here Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 ;/

P.S funny thing when turned off mafia demo screen become not bright but in settings set maximum brightness

About stalker bench, I can't get fullscreen somehow, benchmark runs windowed. I thought I'm good in computers before I bought this laptop, actually a lot of strange things happened with it. And downloads, do you never regret for buying this acer? When looking for laptop I choose between this and msi (don't remember model, with better gpu but old dual core processor). Sometimes thinking that should picked msi.

 

Yeah- that doesn't look good. Let's make sure we use the same settings- the only thing I changed in settings was to set them to High (originally it was on Optimal) that changed all sub-settings accordingly but I haven't messed with any of them.
Are you using Catalyst 10.7?
-----------------
EDIT:

No I've never had any regrets about choosing this notebook because that's the best you can get in this price-range.
You would have to be more specific about the GPU on MSI but again if it was better it was more expensive.
Mobility Radeon HD5650 is faster than ATI 4650, ATI 4670, nVidia GT240M, nVidia GT 250M, nVidia GT 330M (rebranded GT240M) and a bit faster than GT335M (rebranded GT250M), So the only mid-range card that is faster is HD5730 but that's basically the same card. Not to mention that after all the problems that MSI EX625 had (GPU dying, fan dying, special signs/letters for some languages not working, cracks in the chassis and few others) I wouldn't buy notebook from them.

 

Now I set it to all High and get 33.6 fps average. Yes, using catalyst 10.7

I was talking about this msi MSI GT628X GAMING : Neðiojami kompiuteriai : 1a.lt It's a bit expensive but has geforce gts 160m. I would love my acer is it would work as it should, I don't know what i'm doing wrong that performance is not as it should be..

 

hello guys im new here and i'm a 5740g user with 640gb HDD
my notebook have an LG monitor (i've read some people have samsung screens?-checked mine in everest) and there are no problems with the screen at all... no lines etc

so i have some questions to downloads and all others:

1.) i really liked your first post with all new drivers etc.Are they all the newest ones (i found newer drivers on broadcom site so please update all of them thanks!) ? After installing Atheros Wi-Fi driver v9.1.0.100 theres no more orange light at the w-lan botton showing that w-lan is active... but windows has no problems at all with this driver. Because i have no w-lan network @ home i cannot check if it really works or not... so i wanna ask if there are people using this driver with no problems or not..

2.) After installing ePower management there is no menu or something like that... where can i open it and change some values? there is nothing in taskbar or at system settings...on my notebook at least.

3.) Somebody have a better akku? ive seen some in ebay with double capacity(chinese ones). Are they save or are there any risks?

4.) after installing the new drivers from this site my windows benchmark scores raised from 5,6 to 5,9 ( http://img13.abload.de/img/5v2a0.jpg)
what values do you have?

 

Hi, I have same one with i5, 4gb, hd 5650, 640hd. Experience index is exactly same as yours, I'm using win7 ultimate x64. Have you tried OC your hd 5650? I wonder how far your card can go.

 

i dont think ocing a GPU in notebooks are that good for notebooks health... my temps are really good so i can do it but 2-3 fps more in games is not worth the risk in my opinion. i can do a short test run but not more... what tool do i need for OC hd 5650

 

About oc read in first post.

 

Hi guys,

any of you has something like this installed?



I got one on the way, but some other guy in another forum reported freeze problems upon boot on his 5740G. He says that even Ubuntu won´t boot with the 2nd hdd installed. I´ve read that many users here have that caddy with no problems at all.

Any ideas?

 

i have a western digital scorpio blue on my 5740 (640GB) runs fine and no problems!


ive testet 650/850 mhz easy going!

 

Hello,
this hidden 'Intel' tab can be enabled by setting CMOS token number 141h (they are numbered hexadecimal) to value 1. It's 141h in BIOS v. 1.22 (but I bet other versions will be the same).
To set the token's value use tool named SYMCMOS. I'm far from computer (typing the post on mobile phone), so it's hard to describe whole process. I can give you two hints:
1. you'll need a bootable DOS disk
2. use parameter '-u' for SYMCMOS
(please google for description how to use the tool for setting tokens)

There are lots of new options in the 'Intel' tab.
Please do NOT set the 'Primary Display' option neither to 'IGD' nor to 'SG'! YOU WILL BRICK YOUR LAPTOP!
Only way back (unbrick) is to use the Crisis disk. I recommend you to make one and try that it works (can flash a working BIOS in Fn+ESC boot mode) before any experiments.
That's all for now.
The bad new is that we still don't have working Switchable Graphics.
I've been hacking the BIOS of my 5740g for last two months so there is much more to say, but again I have only mobile phone right now and my thumb already hurts like hell.
More information at the end of next week.

 

I meant the HDD in a caddy just like the image shows as a 2nd HDD.

I got a OCZ Vertex 2 60GB and bought this caddy so I can have the best of both worlds, speed and storage.

EDIT: Try and go 650/1000

 

Do you have the hd conected by the dvd caddy accesory??

Have someone try this accesory mounted in 7540G??????

http://cgi.ebay.es/2nd-HDD-caddy-Apple-OptiBay-SuperDrive-Replacement-SATA-/280551413635?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosures_RL#ht_3547wt_1137

 

No need to use CRISIS disk. Just reset CMOS by disconnecting the CMOS/RTC battery. I agree for people to learn/know how to use CRISIS disk on their computer. It will be useful in the future.

 

Broadcom driver number updated. The rest of drivers are all the most recent ones to my knowledge. I do a search for a new ones from time to time and the post gets updated when I find something so check back occasionally.
Orange light is on my computer (with the same driver) but this can be changed in inf file- if yours is not on it's probably gonna blink when packets are flowing. I can post how to change this value if you want.

It's normal. We never did an actual test to confirm if ePower Management improves battery life or not but it has no menus and no values that you can change.

I've explained why you shouldn't buy a battery like this here

Waiting for more info than. BTW I think kizwan is right- removing CMOS battery should reset settings.

Yeah GTS 160M is more powerful than non-OCed HD5650 but it seems that not by much. It wins by 3fps in Anno 1404, looses by 6fps in FEAR 2, wins by a mile in Left 4 Dead and Modern Warfare, beats 5650 in Crysis by 7fps but looses in World in Conflict by 10 fps and Call of Juarez Benchmark is a draw. So it doesn't seem to be a lot more powerful- maybe in some games. It all depends on a price of the notebook relative to its performance.

 

I played Mafia II Demo & I found out that there are hidden bonus when you interact with objects like light switch, refrigerator, etc. I just got one playmates picture & she is naked. Also, I forgot that I'm playing Mafia II Demo because after exiting the house, I started to shooting people & steeling cars. I momentarily thought I was playing GTA.

 

Yeah, playing demo not much can do exepct killing everyone you met Actually mafia 2 looks pretty good. One thing I hate is that you can shoot straight to head from 500 metres with poor revolver and never miss. Not very realistic but for such game it shouldn't be It looks a little bit similar to gta only in past tense

And everyone, please write what games are you playing, settings, your 5740g configuration. I have i5, 4gb, hd5650 (oc 635 and 900), 640gb. I'm playing stalker call of pripyat, nfs shift, dirt 2, splinter cell conviction, and trying f.e.a.r 2 (but getting pixelate view, I hate it but still not find how to fix). Now downloading Kane and lynch 2: dog days. Waiting for Mafia 2 and Crysis 2 to come up.

 

I already have Kane and Lynch 2 but I'm hesitant to play it yet- I borrowed the first Kane & Lynch to a friend and I'm not sure if I want to play them in reverse order.
As for Mafia II- I'm waiting- it's scheduled to be out on Tuesday but I'm not gonna play it at once as I'm playing The Saboteur now.

Have you guys played Alpha Protocol? It's a bit unfinished -so to speak- but you won't regret it if you like similar games. Unlike in Splinter Cell Double Agent your decisions and dialogue choices really count and influence the storyline.

 

Haven't played Alpha Protocol but I think conviction is better. I recently finished playing Resident evil 5 and Singularity. Good games.

 

Where I can find the battery?

 

Splinter Cell conviction and Alpha Protocol are not the same type of game. In SC Conviction all you do is kill everybody and the only talking you do or rather not-do is where you watch a cutscenes.
Alpha Protocol is a type of RPG game where your decisions and your standings with different fractions affect the gameplay- someone may help you or try to kill you, refuse to cooperate with you or give you discounts.
I don't think you would like Alpha Protocol based on the games you've mentioned. That's the whole problem with recommending games to other people- we all have different preferences and expectations towards a game.

 

Well in conviction there is a little bit stealth but I must admit too few for such type of games, it became like simple third person shooter.. Will try double agent some day.

And guys, how much you payed for your laptop and in what country and when? I'm from europe and paid about 700 eur (892 usd) about 2 month ago.

p.s some good games list http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZahhojgTYA&feature=related

 

Try look in the HDD & memory compartment. On some notebook the CMOS battery is easily accessible (located at HDD & memory compartment). If it is not located there, I'm afraid you have to open the notebook casing.

 

I hope Conviction is just an episode not a general direction where Splinter Cell is headed. It's interesting- to a point- to see such a different gameplay but I sure hope that next one is gonna be more stealthy. As for Double Agent- as you know from Conviction Sam Fisher supposedly killed Lambert- it's true you could have done it in SC DA but I really doubt anyone did it especially that it didn't help you in any way. So in terms of story last two Splinter Cells are not coherent and rather silly.
It's a bit of OT but after almost 1900 posts I think we can take a break from 5740G for a minute and talk some gaming, right?

I paid some 700 euro (in Europe including VAT) 5 months ago.

 

Ofcourse we can talk about games. It's even not offtopic because this 5470g is for gaming and I think most of us bought it for that. For photoshop or other works enough slower pc. So guys what games are have you installed in your machine and playing now?

 

Just played F.e.a.r 2 and gpu temp reaches 90. Is it not too hot? Room is quite cold but I put my laptop on my knees when playing, so damn hot for my legs

 

Till now I've played Batman: Arkham Asylum, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dead Space, DiRT 2, NFS Pro Street, NFS Shift and Split Second. These days I'm playing Gears of War and downloading X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

My favorite among these is Batman: Arkham Asylum... Superb Game!

 

By the way, I have one thing more to ask. It is important. Do you guys take out your battery when laptop plugged in? Or leave it in lappie? I heard that high cpu and gpu temps is not good for battery.

 

I leave the battery in the notebook. It's going to lose its capacity regardless and it doesn't even get warm. I wrote about technical details several times in this thread so I won't repeat myself- to make it short- battery that is in the notebook will lose its capacity only slightly faster (if properly maintained) than one that's not being used.

 

Thanx for info. I leave my battery in laptop too. Just finished funmark gpu stress test with default setting (funny big hairy donut spinning in screen ) and get max 74. It was all the time 70-74 C. Actually I had to turn off test by myself because it last forewer. So strange why in fear 2 i get about 90 or even more.

 

Games that I have played till now:
Assassin Creed, Assassin Creed II, Devil May Cry 3 & 4, NFS Shift, Crysis, POP-2008 & The forgotten Sands, Tomb Raider- Legend and Underworld. Right now I am playing Bioshock & Resident Evil 5.
I didnt find RE 5 scary as compared to the previous titles. Do you guys know of some better survival horror games like 'Silent Hill' kinda.
I more thing, I don't know what but may be its related to the optimization. The games like bioshock & TR-Legend doesn't look as good as Assassin Creed II, RE 5 and DMC 4 but still they make the GPU more hotter than these games.
I know that Crysis is a highly acclaimed game but for me its the most buggiest and worst-optimized game that I have ever played in my whole life .Though there could be others also that I haven't played yet. And yes it was too short also. All you have to do is again & again enable the invisible cloak and run, run and run, Mission Completed!
Now, two games that I will be most desperately waiting for:
THIEF 4 & DOOM 4.

 

well I just discovered my ati cores and are :
core clock:550 mhz
memory clock:750 mhz

I haven't overclocked it or something like that , these are the default values found in catalist center... are they low or ok ?

 

It is low as 5740g has good cooling system. Try oc to at least 600 and 800, it's completly safe and not cause bigger temps. Howto oc read in first post. But I suggest to try how far your hd 5650 can go in oc. Try small steps with higher core and memory values in amd gpu tool or msi afterburner. Some people reach 700 and more of core and 1000+ of memory. Mine runs well only on 635 and 900. Good luck and write your results if you will try this.

 

Can any one extract their ATI 5650 VBIOS using GPU-Z? I have an Acer 7740g which also has the ATI 5650 but for some reason, acer has not released updated bios for the GPU. Your help is appreciated.

 

The GPU on Acer 7740g is integrated with the motherboard. It also true with 5740G. So, if there is an update for GPU BIOS, it will come with the system BIOS update.

 

This spot colour has worn off a lot on my laptop:


Couldn't find anything to put on there. Couldn't find any large transparent tape or sticker to put there. Any recommendations?

Also does anyone have manual how to open up this laptop? I took all screws off but the bottom is like clued on lol. ( I want to add new thermal paste )

 

There are screws under the keyboard. I believe, you will need to open this cover:-

 

And how do i open that? I have removed every possible screw i have seen lol =[ .

 

If I'm correct you need forced it a little bit. Be careful, you don't want to break it.

 

Use service manual for Aspire 5738G- it can be easily found on the net and the chassis is the same. If you do open the notebook would you mind taking some high resolution photos and posting them here?

 

Yes, use Aspire 5738G service manual. The cover I'm referring to earlier is called "Middle Cover". Need to force it a little bit. Be careful, there are wire under it & connected to the cover (there is a little board there).

 

well atm I run any game on high settings tweakd alillț bit to work...I am pleased atm, i'm kinda scared to Oc cuz I might fry it and I don't want to risk myself...just got this beauty