Acer Aspire 8930G Owner's Lounge

Hi

I just bought on of these in the new year. Mainly to not only have a bigger screen, but also to have something with more storage space to the multiple OSs I need for my research (Windows Vista and Ubuntu for PhD Research and WIndows 7 for personal messing about). I was very excited about the CPU havign Virtualization capabilities, not only will this be very handy in Windows 7 when booting from VHDs, but also will mean no more restarting all the the time to go from linux->Windows->linux. I can just have windows running, and linux in a Virtual Machine, the hardware Virualization meanign that things were not sluggish.

I got the laptop just the other day, and from first glances it is very nice, BUT a few problems have cropped up, I was wonderign if I could ask for some help (ACER support seem to still be holiday by the looks of things):

1) How do I enable Hardware Virtualization. The bios does not have an option for it, even though the CPU supports it. This is a real deal kille for me unfortunately, there must be a work-around (I've googled and found nothing due to the Insyde type Bios thing they use)? There are no bios updated yet, and the googling I;ve found seems to suggest ACER don't care about this (they'll have to in a few months time when Windows 7 comes out though with it's amazing vhd support [sorry to go on about it, but I love it, so sad am I, he he]).

2) Is there a way of fdnign otu EXACTLY which model you have (002 or 003 version)? I want to find out if I have the 7200rpm or 5200rpm hard drives (just out of curiosity)?

3) Can you connect these as a raid array to speed things up (ie stripping raid)?

4) Was it a mistake that I got no disks (just a Blue-Ray demo)? How do I even launch the WinRE without a recovery disk?

5) Do I understand that the software they supply to play Blue-Ray (Cyberlink) will stop after a month or so unless I buy it? Maybe this is student thinking here, but surely the software that plays Blue-ray, this feature being such a large selling point for the 'Entertainment Laptop' should be perminant? If there is other software that will play Blue-Ray on the laptop, what is it, and can I back up the setup disks so I can install Windows 7 on it and then install the require utilities (I'm not worried about compatibility here, as most vista products work on Windows 7 [they learnt their lesso, he he], just the setup files)?

Thank you for your help here. Sorry for any typos, a mixture of being in a rush and Red Bull, yikes!

 

If you go to the Europe support site:
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_8930.html
They have the 64 bit drivers there, althoguh be warned the applications such as CyberLink PowerDirector aren't/

 

Anyone know where I can order Acer Aspire 8930-7665 in Europe? I live in Finland and I contacted Acer's customer service and they said it's not for sale in my country yet.

 

Try here, they have finland in the country box when registering:

https://www.acerdirect.co.uk/

Edit: 100% ship to Finland

 

Further to my earlier post about looking for more gaming performance out of my 8930-6445..............sometimes the solution is right before your eyes but you just can't see it. I'd been letting Acer power management control the 'power plan' & usually it operated in 'balanced mode', today I bumped it up to 'performance mode'. WOW. What a difference, previously in Fallout 3 I was getting between 15 & 25 fps, now 50 to 75 fps, 3dmark06 went from 3473 to 5088. I'm lovin' it now.

To the previous posters about installing 64 bit Vista.................just do it. I backed up all the drivers with the Acer software, formatted the HDD, re-installed x64 Vista & had full use of my HDD capacity. The only thing that you lose is the e-recovery capability as this uses the MBR which you lose when you reformat. As someone else suggested, just use 3rd party backup software.

 

I'm always on High Performance but my laptop still struggles with Fallout 3 WINDOWED and medium settings. Wth is wrong? I'm using 185.20 drivers.

 

what version of vista 64 bit did you install?

atm, i see 3gb of ram and the acer guy said that the other 1gb cant be seen be vista but its being used in background operations, is that true?


also i have DDR3 1066mhz ram but its only running at 800mhz anyone else?

 

my 8930g is lower spec and it runs fine near full.

im running it at 1076x786 or something like that. and settings are all max exept its 2xAA. i get 50fps which is fine, maybe its 64bit?

as some games run worse on 64bit but its strange as usually they are very old.
im guessing its either 64bit, the 9700m gt graphics card or drivers.

 

If your using a 32bit version on vista, it can only utilize 3-3.5gb of RAM, it may see 4gb but can't use it. There is no way round this in 32 bit as this is the limitations of the operating system. You would need to install 64 bit

Just a little word of caution, don't think the mods will be pleased talking about torrents. They closed the very popular windows 7 thread because of this.

 

Plasma,

Your machine has a way better spec. than mine so you should get better performance than that. I'm running the Nvidia ref. drivers from their website #179.28. I tried the 185 drivers & my machie took a performance hit with those.

owais,

I installed Vista Ultimate 64 bit & my RAM is clearly showing as what it is, 4gb.

 

Me too what is the fix for this?

 

Plasma even though it's on high performance have you actually checked the resource manager in Acer's empower tool? I had mine on High Performance and plugged in but the resources for cpu speed and graphics processor where still set to low. I have know idea why but I bumped them up to maximum and everything is working great now.

 

i have a mate and he has a 64bit 8930g. his 4gb of DDR3 1066mhz ram shows as
800mhz and NOT 1066mhz

it does say iv got 1066mhz(533mhz) ram but its running at 800mhz(400mhz)

im pretty sure this is the case with al acer 8930g's.

use CPU-Z to find out.
<img src="http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3051/rambu3.jpg"
As you can see, the ram is running at 800mhz, but has the potential of 1066mhz.

 

The thing is, one of the files in empowering technology got corrupted and was recognized by AVG as a virus. It then deleted it, rendering Empowering useless. When I press the 'e' button, it says "no path specified" or something.

I'm going to try 179.79 now.

 

Mine too, I wonder what the fix is for this. Has anyone reported this to Acer? Maybe a BIOS update is needed.

 

This is my first lap-top...it's great. i have the 9830-6059 with the Blu-ray player, 320gigs,9600m gt. Windows 64 premium, but only the T5800 processor...works good though...encoding,burning and some gaming it does it;s job....

One problem though, I can't seem to back up my Operating system,e-recovery does not want to work. I backed up my drivers no prob.

 

My deluxe software doesn't update either, but it does play my blu-rays....

 

how can you get it back?
i need to know how to get empoweing for 64bit vista anyway.

as it controls, sound and other stuff

i can get empowering programs for the 8920 but not the 8930g as its new. also the 8920 ones are 32bit so dont work on 64bit?

 

Call me stupid, but, is it a mis-reporting of CPU-Z and the memory is actually running at 1066 MHz or is CPU-Z reporting correctly and it is in fact running at 800 MHz.

 

well, if u click the empowering button (top right of laptop) and choose eSetting management, and go to memory, it shows it as DDR3 aswell.

iv had about 6 computers/laptops (a lot got returned cus i didnt like ) and CPU-Z reported correctly on all of them. even cpu-z can tell its DDR3 memory, but it's definitly not running at 1066mhz.

and because of the acer laptop bios, theres no way to change that at all.



anyway, i called acer up and found our that the 8920g/8930g/6935g all use the same empowering technology programs. and found the download for them on the site.
ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_8920G/vista/Applications/ - empowering technology's
also they have 64bit drivers for the 8930g here - http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_8930.html


know i know that 32 bit drivers cant be used on 64bit vista.
but can these empowering tehnology "programs" by used on 64bit as well as 32bit?


as if i could install 64bit and get empowering technologys and all the 64bit drivers from there site, i would have 64bit vista and all acer features exept the recovery drive you can use by pressing ALT+F10 (but why would i want that if i had a clean install of 64bit)

so basically, the main thing thats holding me back from installing 64bit is that wll those empowering technology programs work perfectly on a clean install of 64bit vista? as if they do there is no reason not to install 64bit.
as then i would have a clean install of vista 64bit with acer drivers and only empowering technology's. which is exactly what i want as there is no bloatware and i can use my full 4gb.

 

Hey guys I've decided to go for the lower end spec of the 8930G mainly to save myself some cash.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...u=539081&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null

I just have one last question before I make my purchase tomorrow. I'd like to be able to hook up my 17" monitor to the Acer as a secondary monitor. It's the standard VGA connection (with the 2 screws), is it possible to hook it up to the 8930G & if so is it straighforward or do I need anything extra to be able to do this?

 

its got blue VGA but no screws.

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/503754/ACER-AS8930G
thats £880 so its kind of in the middle and its got a good spec.

 

Owais,

The original empowering technology that came with your machine works with 64bit Vista. I reformatted my HDD after backing up the drivers (from the recovery partition) & then installed Vista Ultimate 64bit, everything works with the exception of e-recovery as that relies on having the original partition with the recovery files intact, obviously reformatting removes those files. You just have to find another backup method, not difficult.

 

by e-recovery u mean the recovery partition right and not the e-recovery program?

also i know that my 32bit vista code(bottom of the laptop) also works with any vista home premium 64bit.

but you need a different code for vista ultimate dont you? so even if i get a vista ultimate 64 bit download, i would need a key or it dont work with the full functions of vista?


anyway, i was trying to reformat my hard drive yesterday using the e recovery thing. i could only use the factory reset and not my recovery discs for some reason.
i went to : user backup > picked Recovery 1 (z: ) > and there was no recovery partion to pick from.

 

No, I mean the e-recovery prog., and yes, you'll need a full retail version of Ultimate, your key will not work with 64bit.

 

Hey guys just thought I'd let you know I finally got my Acer 8930G & I'm very happy with it! Many thanks to those of you who helped me out with I'm sure some annoying/silly questions, but it helped me greatly. On that note I have two more, hopefully final questions!

The only disc I received with my Acer was a Blu-Ray demo. I'm concerned that I should have also had a disc for Windows Vista included & possibly other software. Should I be concerned or is that the purpose of the eRecovery tool which I used to make a set of Recovery DVDs and a backup image of my hard drive?

Also when I fired up the Blu-Ray demo the programme which seemed to play it was Acer Arcade (I think) do you all use this or is there some better software I can download for Blu-Ray playback?

Cheers guys.

 

Acer doesn't include any windows or software cd/dvd's with your new laptop. You have them in the hidden recovery partition PQSERVICE and is what e-recovery is for. The disks that you have made using erecovery will put your system back to the state when you first got your system in times of crisis. Also, if you ever lose the disks or they become unusable, it is possible to run ERecovery outside windows, this can be done by pressing ALT+F10 when you first turn the computer on, on the acer screen. This will bring up the E-Recovery console where you can recover the system. This will work as long as you don't delete your recovery partition or mess with it in any way.

 

Acer doesnt give vista discs out. the only disc i got as well was the blu ray demo. a lot of companies do this like acer, sony and others.
you can make recovery discs which act like a vista disc as they reset your computer to the exact way it was when you made the recovery discs.

you can use restore your computer to factory default settings by pressing ALT + F10 when your computer is turning on(acer screen) and that does a factory reset to what it was like when it was new.
you can still download vist from the internet and install you get a clean install and then get all programs and drivers off the acer site.

also, i only use the acer arcade thing as well to play blu ray's. i tried vlc, divx player and windows movie player and none work. you can get programs to run blu ray's but i think acer arcade works fine as you can use the cinedash. soon stuff like vlc will play it anyway.

 

Thank you for additional info, just tried the battery trick and does work too, just new got it and all the toys didn't work, so happy you guys are here to help guide me! Have a great Day!

 

Just in case anyone is looking for a backpack that fits easily the one I got does the job. It is the Targus TXL617 backpack. Info can be found here: http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=txl617 on the Targus site. It can be found in places for $59.95. The space for the laptop is nicely padded and has absolutely no problem fitting the height, width, or thickness. The corners of the laptop at the top of the pack easily clear so you do not have to force the zipper around it at all.

Just an FYI, Robert

 

Hi,

Just got the low end 8930g from UK (John Lewis for the 2 year warranty) with the 9600GS as a quick gaming laptop replacement and I happy to say that I can dual box world of warcraft very well! As opposed to previous Geforce card I had this one keeps very cool and I can hardly hear any sound.

Given there are some loss of fluidity when in the open with the settings set to 3/4 to full quality with basic drivers but it goes away when single boxing.

The 5.1 sound wasn't that good (too much echo) but that's most likely due to the app or my settings. I've not tested movies so refer to another comment for better judgement.

I find the screen has a little bit of glare compared to the toshiba's I am used to but the machine is all I asked for. Very pleasant machine with plenty of gizmos to entertain! By mistake started the speech command application and found myself playing with it for an hour !

Summing up, low end 8930g is good enough for world of warcraft dual boxing and more.

 

I bought mine a few days ago and love it. Its this one here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115541

I also added a 2nd 320GB drive to it. Question though guys, does yours have bluetooth? Mine says its supposed to come with it, but it comes with Acer's famous "No Bluetooth Device." when I press the button. I'm taking it up with NewEgg, but their responses are quite slow.

Overall I love it though, great picture, makes the screen on the Latitude i'm writing this on look like crap. Not to mention a 1GB Geforce 9600 GT is amazing and runs Left 4 Dead quite well, almost maxed out.

 

Anyone tried to hook-up the 8930 via HDMI to a full HD LCD screen? Are you able to use the laptop as a decent blue ray player?

 

I have but I can only out put at a resolution with less than 1000 vertical pixels for some reasons

I think it's just me though.

 

I bought my 8930 primarily to use as a Blu-ray media player hooked up to my Sony Bravia Full HD TV via HDMI.

Works very well, running at a full 1920x1080 resolution. Looks stunning actually. The Acer Arcade Deluxe is OK, but will not play all Blu-ray discs. Ended up buying Arcsoft Total Media Theatre and this has played virtually all discs so far.

Very happy with the set up so far. Just be sure to turn off the laptop screen when playing a Blu-ray on the TV, as the HDMI copyright protection means that it will only work when outputting to one screen at a time. And also be sure to set the audio out to HDMI when playing Blu-ray on the TV.

 

How do you set up the audio to play through the TV or Speakers when outputting through HDMI?

I have a 52in Bravia XBR but I cannot get the thing to output 1920 by 1020.

 

Right click on the speaker icon on the bottom right to access the Sound controls, and change the Playback device to Nvidia HDMI Output as Default. You need to do this AFTER you connect to the TV via HDMI, and will also need to change back to Speakers when you have unplugged the HDMI connection, or else you won't hear any sound afterwards. If you want Optical Out, then choose the Realtek Digital Out option.

 

@Riker Which LCD screen do you have? I have a KDL40W4000.

 

The KDL40W4000 is a nice panel. I bought my KDL40X2000 a while ago, when Full HD panels had just come out.

 

Does anyone know any good blu-ray playing software for the 8930G. I've been using the Acer Arcade, but anytime I update it via the Live Update, McAfee detects trojans and renders it useless, meaning I have to restore it back to the default. This is proving to be annoying so I'm looking for a better program for Blu-Ray playback

 

Normal to have a black border around the image on the LCD?

 

i have tried my 8930g on my samsung 40" 1920x1080 while playing a bluray, but some of the sides are cut off.
same with you?

 

Is it true that the 8930G comes with a sophisticated remote control?

 

@owais / @plasma: So their might be some issues depending on the laptop~LCDTV combination, or better some LCDTV's lack decent input from pc sources. Or you have to tweak some settings on the videocard?? Just guessing...

 

The best if you read all the Blu-ray forums, is Arcsoft Total Media Theatre and PowerDVD Ultra 8. I bought both, and my preference is Arcsoft Total Media. I find its overhead is lower when running. It is compatible with the Windows Media Centre remote control that comes with the 8930. It has a simple plug-in for Media Centre also. The icing on the cake is that it also allows you to play Blu-ray rips off the hard disk if you are so inclined, which PowerDVD does not. It also supports DTS Master HD properly, unlike PowerDVD. It is useful to have both PowerDVD and Total Media Player because each of them will not play every Blu-ray disc out there, but combined, it is pretty much all of them.

 

No, it is not normal. Mine is full screen with no black borders. I suspect it is some incompatibility with your video drivers (I am using the stock video driver on the 8930)

Also make sure that your HDMI cable is fully 1.3a compatible.

Also, you are using a HDMI cable ?? I found that my 8930 couldn't output 1920x1080 when using a VGA cable, resulting in letterboxing, but no problems with HDMI. If someone can output 1920x1080 via VGA, please let me know.

 

I am using a HDMI cable and am outputting at 1920 by 1080 but the image is surrounded by a black border

Link to your drivers please?

 

I am only using the NVIDIA driver 7.15.11.7607 dated 27/06/08 that came with the system. I am not really a gamer - my 8930 is a media centre for the TV - hence, haven't bothered to change to updated generic drivers which can cause potential problems

 

The frontside bus of the mother and or the cpu is 800mhz everthing else will run at 800 mhz I have the same specs but the frontside bus on my T5800 2.0gz processor is 800 so evething else runs at 800mhz

 

you can set exceptions in your antivirus progam, turn off macfee during up date then set the exception not to scan C:\progamfiles\arcarde something like that

ps find out where arcade is exactly