Acer Aspire 5740G Owners Lounge

Tip for testing undervolting (at 3d).

Lower the 3d clocks by half, then use an OCing program to test how far it will really go, that time it does not bash against its wall every time you start it up.

 

There's something wrong with my laptop's battery. It has been only 6 months and my laptop gives just 2:15 hrs of battery backup with wi-fi turned on,screen brightness at minimum and light surfing on the net. I even have the latest acer e-power management but i don't think it does anything significant.

 

Check the power draw and how much capacity the battery lost (using Everest and/or HWMonitor)
My battery had lost 13% of its original capacity so I'm down some 26min from my original 3h 20min.
I did a full battery run recently and got 2h 35min or something- less than 2h 54min that I should be getting in theory but that can be attributed to different usage pattern- more flash videos or more file transfers or simply more working and less reading.

 

EXACTLY (literally) same here like akafreak but HWMonitor shows my battery's wear level as 1%. still this kind of backup. What's wrong?

 

Thanks downloads. My battery wear level is at 17%. That explains the reduced battery capacity . Any tips on how to stop it from increasing furthermore or reduce it if possible? BTW a rep +1 from me. Thanks again.

 

3% of battery wear for me, after 9 months of use

 

You have to recallibrate battery to know the real wear level- discharge it fully and then charge it till it's full.

 

Hello!
I have a question for you.
Can the 3D be used with any game/film/image? Or there is some property that they must have to support the 3D vision?

Thanks.

 

I got my laptop back.

I'm gonna describe all what happends.

When I plug the baterry the battery led flashes. When I plug the cord the blue "charging light" doesn't light up. When I siwth it on the computer auto-restarts 10 secs later.

Whe I try to recover the bios my pen drives isn't read, the green light of my pen doesn't light. I wonder, in which one of the USB should I plug the pen drive? Is there any other way to recover the BIOS(cd, dvd, floppy usb)?

Should I format the Pen drive in Fat or Fat32? I have tested with 2 and 4gb, should I use other capacity? I used Kingston drive, should I use any other kind?

 

You got back from where?

BIOS recovery has been tested (using USB flash drive) on Aspire 5740G & it is successful. I don't know why it doesn't worked for you. It should be easy. What you can try now are:-
1) Use different brand (kingston, apacer, etc) of USB flash drive. Size should doesn't matter (512MB or 1GB or 2GB or 4GB).
2) In the CRISIS disk, put BIOS version 1.10 instead of 1.22.

 

It seems that my computer is not reading the usb drives..

I tried to quit dvd drive ann hdd and it doesn't works. I'm thinking I really broke my MB, anyway I just got a new bios chip. I wil install it tonight...

Man, this sucks...

 

@AlexFLCL:
It's only a theory, but...
If the battery was flat (discharged) and the charger was broken,
this would be exactly the behaviour I will expect.

I think that charging should be independent of BIOS.
I suppose that most of laptops, in contrast to mobile phones, doesn't need to boot to charge the battery.

Have you already tried to turn on our laptop without battery (only with charging adapter) to check whether it's working?
EDIT: Which light doesn't light up? That one near the power cord or the one right to the touchpad?

 

Computer turns on without battery and I have tried it with 3 different chargers, Anyway, my usb drive doesn't lights, so my computers is not reading the usb drive.

I have tested the recovery with 3 different usb's... =(

 

@AlexFLCL: Have you already tried to reset BIOS CMOS?
Look into Service Manual for the procedure.

If you inserted an empty flash chip, it will not work.
There's an emergency part of BIOS image called Boot Block which is normally not flashed during update (unless you pass "/BBL" parameter to phlash utility).
This part contains the code necessary to run Crisis Disk.

You will probably need an external programmer tool to flash the chip.
(I suppose it has SPI interface so it shouldn't be big problem to get one.)

EDIT: Do you remember how exactly did you brick the BIOS?
(Describe the command, procedure, BIOS image, anything closer...)

 

I bought a programed bios for 5740g Acer, it's suposed to work.

How I made a brick:
I tried to flash a wrong version, a parckard bell one through windows, and it failed. The I tried to flash back the 1.22 but failed too, so I flashed the 1.10, it lasted about 30min to flash it and once it was flashed it tried to restart but the computer never restarted.

It's not supossed to have any part broken but the bios. Anyway, it doesn't read my usb drives, it just does nothing but turn on.

 

Have you tried removing the small battery from the motherboard, that should reset everything right?

 

Guys I need your help. I think my hard disk's performance is getting low day by day. Which S.M.A.R.T monitor should I use so that I could paste a screenshot of it here and let you people analyze it. I have 6 months warranty left. If it turns out bad, would I have to give just the HDD to the service centre or the whole laptop?
By the way I recalibrated my battery by letting it to discharge to 7% after which it shut down. Now my wear level has increased from 1% to 4%. Now lets see how the backup goes.

 

The SMART software doesn't really matter but I'm used to HDTune and since it has a free version it should suite you too.
Post content of the health tab using "copy information to clipboard" button.

 

Here they are:
From HD Tune, ActiveSmart, Aida64 & Speedfan respectively.

 

It all looks fine. HDTune can't recognize them for whatever reason but all is fine on AIDA screenshot.
By fine I don't mean within the threshold- I mean absolutely fine- usual suspects show nothing.
I'd look into software if I were you- possibly reinstall/recover Windows if you can't find a reason for the slowdowns- it may be AV software or one of the drivers or a virus- plenty of possibilities.
Could you describe what's happening in greater detail?

 

I got my HDD replaced about a month after i bought the notebook because i had frequent freezes in games,while browsing the internet and everywhere else.I tried to reinstall windows, but partitioning and formating was taking like minutes(it took a few sec before that) and i couldn't get to the desktop after like 3+ hours.Then HDTune showed that i have (C5)Current Pending Sector (a.k.a. unstable sectors) which kept increasing everyday,especially after HDD intensive tasks.

If you have any symptoms like mine i would think about returning it to the service center until it is in warranty.And i had to give the whole laptop.

The HDTune screen shot doesn't look good at all for me, with all the unknown attribute and failed status.The strange thing is all the other SMART monitors are fine.
This is how my HDTune status looks like.

 

I found the reason downloads. The culprit was Spysweeper installed with Bitdefender. I thought it would be better to have an AV+ASpyware combination but I was wrong. There is conflict between them. There were frequent cases where my hard disk used to make a lot of activity and noise for several minutes for no apparent reason. Mouse cursor used to move but I wasn't able to click or select anything for several minutes.
So on your suggestion I tried a test to check the possibility of their conflict. I clicked on the virus-test file (from eicar) and both of them used to access it at the same time during which spysweeper went into a loop state generating copies of that test file indefinitely in its quarantine. Bitdefender said spysweeper is accessing a virus and spysweeper said Bitdefender is trying to access a virus file, both at the same time. Bitdefender was kind of stable during all this. So I had to manually shut down Spysweeper from the TM, waiting a lot.
Now I have uninstalled spysweeper and everything is absolutely fine now. Boot time is much much faster and the HD activity has reduced considerably, almost negligible in comparison to before.
THANKS for your suggestion Dexter. What a fool I was in using two security products in real-time.

EDIT: I think HD Tune has a problem with the Hitachi ones. I ran it as administrator also (in case of speedfan I had to run it as administrator to be able to detect my HDD). As you can see here HD Tune is not even reading the HDD temp. sensor.
Here is my HDD benchmark. Feeling more boosted now.

 

I have the same Hitachi HDD as you subrotobasu. I also use HDTune although version 4.01
It used to show the temperature until I installed AIDA- now it doesn't so I'm pretty sure it's a conflict between the two although I'm too lazy to uninstall AIDA just to check it.

 

Well in my case I installed Aida after seeing those 'red failed signs' in HDTune to take a second opinion. HDTune is behaving same for me, before & after AIDA.

 

Hi all.

I seem to be having problems with temperature on my laptop. I know this is a problem that has appeared several times before, to different people, so maybe there is any solution outside of the obvious? Anyway, here is a summary. I would be really grateful for any suggestions:

Problem:

Temperature in normal activity (web surfing, light word processing) for CPU: Around 50C.

Temperature in normal activity for GPU: Around 60C

Temperature on heavy load (playing a game, let's say Borderlands, after just 10 minutes) for CPU: Around 93C

Temperature on heavy load for GPU: Around 100C

All temperatures are taken on a room temperature of 17C, after hours of use of the computer and with at least two tools.

Possible solutions:

• Cleaning: Canned air to the rescue!
• More cleaning: But is it enough? Do I need to have it opened and cleaned?
• Laptop cooling surface: Is it worth it? What should I know to buy a good one? Any suggestions?
• Send to repair?
• Others?

 

Well Guys, about all my problems with the Bios, I bought the programmed Bios Chip, replaced the old one and put the new. Now my PC is totally working =).

It's time to flash the hacked bios! =D

EDIT:
I tried to reflash the bios again and all I got was a BROKEN BIOS!

This is unveliable! how could this be possible?!?!?

=_=

 

@Ikkyu

Your GPU temperature is way too high even when idle. Mine is 50*C or so with an ambient temperature of roughly 21-22*C which makes mine full 10*C cooler even though my room temperature is higher than yours.
The best solution would be to apply new high quality thermal compound to both CPU and GPU.
It's up to you if you decide to RMA it to make Acer do it (they won't be thorough and it won't be a high quality compound though) or DIY.

@AlexFLCL

So you've bricked it again? May I suggest you stop playing with BIOS

------------------------

There's new Realtek Audio Driver v 2.56 available.

 

I need the caddy Bios, I'm gonna buy again a bios, but I will ask the guy who sell it to put in it the 1.16 modified one. I'm a looser.

 

Get one of these, so you don't have to buy new/programmed BIOS chip whenever you bricked it again.
PRG-026 True-USB Willem programmer(GQ-3X) Full Pack
NANO BIOS Programmer for PC M/B BIOS repairing
(I haven't tested any of these item myself)

Did you tried BIOS recovery? You might want to check in Event Viewer if there is any ACPI or hardware error/warning message.

 

I cant recovery the Bios with the crisis disk. I think I'm getting a 8pin programmer. I think my hardware may be spoiled, Cant understand why I cant flash any bios.

 

Did you tried flashed BIOS in DOS mode? Yeah, get the programmer. You can be my BIOS tester IF I can figure out how to apply microcode update to 5740G BIOS.

 

Well, finally I bought the same BIOS I used to repair the laptop but I told the seller to put in the modified BIOS to make the laptop work with my caddy.

At least I know I can repair it for less than 15€... I think I'm having another 2 weeks girldfriend-time... hehe =)

 

Hello All!!! I have one question that bothers me regarding the dvd-rw on Acer 5740g...What's the maximum speed allowed for writing the dvd's? I use Verbatim and my maximum writing speed is 4x...Is it really that low or may be the Nero Version i use is rather old...Thanks in advance...BTW ! The dvd-rw label is LG GT31 N..

 

It's HLDS GT31N and it's x8. Since Verbatims MMC004 are always recognized by DVD burners you wither have some "special" Verbatims (i.e. ones with antiscratch layer or sth like that) and your DVD-RW doesn't recognize them or your Verbatims aren't genuine. In some countries counterfeit DVDs are available even in retail chains where you would expect to buy a genuine product.
Anyway- buy five or six different DVDs (different brands and/or models) and test them.
Speed is one thing- quality is another that's why I do a test of PI/PIF errors since my writer returns those values. That's how I make sure the quality is good and the DVD will be readable in future.

 

Thank you so much...I already had some doubts regarding the DVD-R Verbatim blanks from the moment i inserted a Samsung Pleomax DVD+R...IT seems that my dvd-rw have no likes for these and i should try with TDK,Traxdata and even Pleomax who's quality from what i know it's doubtful.But about PI/PIF errors? How do i check those and with what software..Thanks again for quick response...And another question regarding maximum speed that i can write:4x...Can you please post a download firmware update for the optical drive (i didn't find it on the internet,it's stressful)?

 

Nero CD/DVD Speed has a quality tab- you can run a PI/PIF scan there although don't count on that- most burners do not return these errors- they correct them but don not return the values.

 

Done! 4% after recalibrating. Should I consider myself lucky?

 

@AlexFLCL: How do you flash the BIOS? In Windows or DOS?
What tool do you use (version) to flash and what parameters do you pass to the tool?
It scares me how you brick one BIOS after another...

EDIT:
I use this PHLASH16.EXE.
And here is F.BAT batch file which runs the flasher.

It contains the following command:

Code:

phlash16.exe /x /c /s /mode=3 %1

/C - Clear CMOS checksum after programming.
/S - Silent operation (turn off speaker). (doesn't work for me)
/X - Ignore XMS memory manager check.

EDIT2: Must be ran from DOS (eg. DIY ViDock Setup).

 

Maybe I'm bricking it because I'm flashing in Windows, anyway, when I flash in windows All is working fine till It restarts.

Last time flashing the bios it fixed the blue charging light and brightness in screen, so It made what was suposed to do. They thing that pisses me off is being unable to run the crisis disk, that sucks. Is there any other way to do it?

 

Sorry if this has been come up again but i am still at page 20 of this thread ...
So i would like to ask if i can make a full system backup, like the one promped after the initial instalation of the Windows (I did that at that point but i want a recovery disk now that the windows are updated and some programs are installed)... Is this possible or it is like HP which gives you the option for one time only???

 

The backup you've made is not really a backup- you've burned an exact copy of the recovery partition- not your Windows partition.
If you burn another copy now that you have a lot of software installed you're still going to end up with a copy of the recovery partition.
What I mean is that your recovery disk is not a backup- it's always the same- factory state- no updated drivers, no Windows updates, no installed applications.

 

I'm not sure if I understand you. Do the crisis disk work on working system (non-bricked BIOS)?
"Is there any other way to do" what? Run the crisis disk? I don't think so. Only by pressing Fn+ESC before powering-up, as far as I know.
EDIT: But I guess that crisis disk only runs a minimalistic version of DOS and then runs PHLASH16.EXE in it.
I flashed once in Windows (from 1.09 to 1.22 I think) and it worked. But moreover only through DOS.

 

I have never tried the crisis disk with a working bios.

 

My Launch Manager will not "Remember" it's settings. Acer Aspire 5740. I open it up, select MSPaint click OK, close and it works. When I re Start the computer, I press the "P" button and Nothing happens. I have to go and reset the program.
What do you think is happening?
Gtar (John)

 

New wlan driver out:

Drivers download

 

Thanks for the heads up CaraMuuu.
Downloading as we speak. I'll update the driver post as soon as I test it.

 

there seems to be new drivers for 5950g, suitable for 5740

power management utility 5.00.3005 (it's newer than 5.01.3002 from 5553)
intel turbo boost 2.0.82.0
intel turbo boost driver 7.0.0.1118
new chipset drivers on intel site, too: 9.2.0.1021


edit:

intel turbo monitor updated to 2.0, too

 

Hi fellas,

I´m sorry to say that I have fallen for the Sandy Bridge "appeal". I have purchased a HP Dv7-5050es (Spain) in the US is the Dv7-4290us.

The price has just been about 150€ more of what I paid for the 5740G but I get 4C/8T and a 6570M with a 17,3" and proper speakers (not Dynaudio but not bad).

It´s been fun and I appreciate the help you gave me when I needed it.

I bid you farewell.

 

are the new atheros wifi drivers (9.2.0.113) beta?
The product version info in details tab under its file properties shows 9.15 beta. Can anybody confirm?

 

I hate making my first post a shameless "help me" one, but I bumped into this epic thread only recently despite having this laptop for almost 7 months now.

Anyway - my question is, what driver should I use for the 5650? I recently ran into this question as I was playing nba 2k11 (one of the few games I play) and I noticed I started getting some serious stuttering and so on - it was running fine on the 10.12's before. Unable to find a solution, I decided to go for a full clean install of win 7 (been too long anyway) - but I was wondering, what drivers should I use? Apparently the old 10.3a's are pretty good, but what are you guys running? What are your experiences?

P.S.
downloads, your dedication to this thread instantly launched yourself to the status of GOD in my mind.