Acer Aspire 8930G Owner's Lounge

Your heat sink is upside down, that pad thing is a thermal pad by the looks of it, replace it with thermal paste

 

Hi everyone,

I have an aspire 8930G that I bought two and a half years ago. I have been having problems with the DC jack - the wires running from the jack to the motherboard have been damaged (looking on Google, it sounds like this is quite a common problem!). I now have a replacement DC jack and cable from ebay, but I'm struggling to work out how to remove the old one. I have managed to remove the panel just above the keyboard so that I can get at it, but I'm not sure how to disconnect the DC jack cable from the motherboard - I can see the plastic connector, but it is very stiff. Has anyone here done this? Does the connector just slide out, or is there a tab or something on it that clips it into place? It might just be that I'm not using enough force, but I wanted to check first before I break anything!

 

Not sure if this has been answered, but my 18 month year old screen has just developed a distinct red tinge, with vertical running red lines. Any ideas?

 

if a driver reinstall/update doesn't solve it
it looks like it could be a fault with the gpu
also if you can connect it to and external monitor and see if its doing it on that also, if it doesn't it could be the screen on the 8930g

 

@Agony, I know there has been some talk about it but have you tried upgrading to the QX9300?

What motherboard model do you have?

I have the newer DDR3 equiped version of 8930g at T5800 . I have updated to T9600 (still very cool at 33c) though keen to try either Q9000 or QX9300 if supported.

In theory with most apps, a higher power dual core i.e. T9600 or x9100 will be advantageous over a Q9000/QX9300. What are your thoughts/experience?

Any other tips?

Thanks

 

Ok Ive done my research, now know the bios doesn't accept the QX9300 even with the Q9000 compatible motherboard.

Question is, can anyone hack the bios for QX9300? surely it can't be that difficult for the experienced? A move to QX9300 would be hugely increase in performance with 3-3.2 overclocking potential and I'm sure the 8930g can handle it.

I really don't want to get rid of 8930g, its such a nice machine. I've had a dell i7 720qm and usability doesn't come close.

I have an x9100 now in my 8930g, how do I overclock it to 3.6Ghz?

 

The only Acer to accept a Q9100 and up ever is the one I use, the 7738G.

 

My E8435 wont work. Have you use the standard power adapter 90 watt?
If you use the standard then my E8435 is defective.

Thnx for explanation PantryMaster

 

hi i really need some help, please can anyone tell me where i can get the latest acer arcade deluxe, i put on a new version of win 7 and wiped it out, ty in advance

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/182608-acer-arcade-deluxe.html#post3743192

Google is your friend!

 

Hello,

Thanks to this thread, I've already placed an order for an x9100 to replace the t6400 in my 8930g-6442. I've been really inspired to take this laptop as far as I can because overall I think it was a great purchase, and I've had a great time reading about other's successes here.

My next step would hopefully be a RAM upgrade if it is possible, though one tends to find many sources indicating that the 4gb the model comes with is the upper limit. However, many here seem to have gotten that to 6gb by adding a 4gb stick. My question is, which kind of memory to go with? My laptop came with ddr 2 so I'm not sure if I have the option of replacing it altogether with a 2 gb and 4gb DDR3 chip, or if I need to track down a 4gb DDR2 chip to add to what is already there.

It seems some versions of this model come with ddr3 memory. Does the ability to add ddr3 depend on the motherboard one is stuck with?

Aside from that, it seems the only other options upgrade-wise would be new hard drives and maybe some GPU tweaks as we also face some upper limits there (already have a nvidia 9600m gt and I'm not sure if the few cards out there that will fit in my machine are worth the money for the small performance boost they would offer).

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to your responses!

 

Each version of DDR has a different connector, you can only use the type your system came with.

 

if it came with ddr2 system ram then you can only upgrade with more ddr2 sadly
check with cpu-z just to be sure you do have ddr2 main ram as alot had ddr2 as videoram but ddr3 system ram so worth a check

 

Strangely, a scan from crucial reported ddr2 while CPU-z is reading ddr3.

I've gone with the following:
4GB Acer Aspire 8930G memory 1x 4GB PC3-8500 204-PIN DDR3 1066MHz SODIMM upgrade

Seems like it should work to me...
I've updated bios to 1.21, if that will help any.

Thanks for your replies, I'll report back with the results...

Cheers!

 

Hi, where did you get 1.21 from, have I missed something as it isn't in Acer downloads..
Chris

 

The link to the new bios file was provided here in another thread.

This is the link to the file:
Download backup.fd from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

I dl'd from that site and used the InsydeFlash app from a previous upload of bios 1.2 on this thread, and I'm happy to report, it went without a hitch! There was some question as to whether it really was an official Acer bios 1.21, but I can say that CPU-Z is reporting that "Acer BIOS 1.21" is installed.

The original uploader (it was in the VT thread, nearby....) had taken his laptop to be serviced by Acer Tech, who I'm guessing have access to this update which has yet to be officially released.

 

Thanks for that post MostlySatisfied. I'd held off on installing this unreleased bios but having read your post I went ahead and am glad to report that I too experienced no problems.

 

hi ive got a prob here i was trying to find and install a driver to make my cinedash work again i couldnt find one for win 7 so i went for a launch manager which i think was for vista, my comp needed a restart but uppdates were installing before it shut down

the comp froze so i had no choice but to kill the power now all i get is a black screen and nothing else on start up can anyone help please

 

Hi, thank you for that, I was aware of that thread but lost sight of it somehow...
Chris

 

I have a 8930g with the newer motherboard (DDR3), unfortunately it has the 1680x945 resolution and so I ordered a 1920x1080 screen only to find out it needs a dual lamp inverter and the current configuration I have only has a single lamp inverter.

Question is, would it be ok to install a dual lamp inverter? Its a fairly easy swap but would the motherboard be ok with it or are the newer specification motherboards only capable of running a single lamp?

This is the one I want to buy
new ACER 8920 8930 8920G 8930G lcd INVERTER dual lamp on eBay (end time 11-Apr-11 21:31:04 BST)

Help appreciated
Thanks

 

i would have thought it would be fine to swap the single for the double inverter
yours was only a single because of your screen and not because of the MB

 

I just plugged it in after wiping away old paste and reapplying. Let me know if TPM solution worked. If so it is possible that the cpu is defective. I am also wondering the effect of turning on the cpu without any paste/flipped pad which cannot be very positive and may cause the unit to shutdown/damage?.

I'm on V1.20 BIOS using plain old power adapter.

 

@ MaximusMeridus
I agree with shakennstirred.
Apart from this- it wouldn't make any sense for Acer to make two almost identical mobos for laptops with slightly different screens.

 

Without thermal paste it is very easy to destroy a processor, if there's not enough contact to the heatsink, then they tend to melt

 

Well most likely the thermal protection will kick in and the system will just shut off. It was only in the days of the athlon they would actually kill themselves.

 

yeah most systems dont even boot if the cpu isnt cooled on boot up
so no chance of melting these days

 

Yeah that happened to me once, back in the day.

 

i have been very lucky never had a cpu fail on me
had a few gpu`s fail though

 

I did it back in the early days of overclocking!

 

Anyone managed to update the (Ati) mobility video drivers on a 8930 or 8935G? I have a 8935G myself but due to the switchable graphics I'm unable to update them at all, official drivers just flat out refuse to install and uninstalling the existing drivers causes a black screen on boot that's only repairable by doing a full reformat...and if I uninstall the existing drivers the laptop refuses to install even the default drivers back. Weird.

It really sucks to be stuck with the default drivers when the laptop would otherwise still perform decently. :/

 

I'm sure I read of a fix for that somewhere, try in mxm thread

 

Checked it out but it seems to be all about upgrading the graphics card...I meant updating the drivers.

 

HI, you use the mobility versions, yes? ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver link for illustrative purpose.
Chris

 

Yup. Won't install, and won't install after uninstalling the existing ones either. Default drivers from Acer won't install back after uninstall either. Uninstalling all graphics drivers causes a black screen on boot also, so the laptop only works in safe mode.

Haven't tried only uninstalling intel drivers yet though and leaving the ati ones in...but I'm not really tempted to, it'd probably mess up the laptop again. As far as I know the laptop needs the intel chip drivers to boot properly because it switches to the ati drivers afterwards...if any of that makes any sense.

 

Ok, I have a bit of a major problem, my D drive has vanished. It was at something like 94% full too, had loads of things on it that weren't backed up.
In disk management it is listed as a healthy OEM partition, and has 222.90GB free.

It was there one minute, gone the next. ? Anybody know how to get it back?

 

Hi, check the drive letters in case it has somehow got the same one as your cd/dvd drive, if so you'll need to change oe or the other...

Finzy: Not sure then in your case as you've two gfx chips, are you sure it is actually using the ATI as the primary card?
Chris

 

It has no assigned drive letter any more.

 

It is obviously, otherwise my performance in games would be horrible.

 

I don't know what happened but usually you could use Diskpart and Assign to assign the drive letter. However, according to this link

DiskPart

it is not possible to assign a drive letter to an OEM partition. Having checked my Disk Management table, I too have the same problem as you - with the same size and amount of free space (in fact my whole disk has identical partition details to yours).

I recall having a D drive in the past, I didn't notice when it went but am wondering if it's got anything to do with having upgraded from pre-installed Vista to Win 7 (in-place upgrade as opposed to a fresh install). I don't know if this would apply in your case though as I don't know whether your Win 7 was preinstalled or whether you like me did an in-place upgrade as opposed to a fresh install? If I'm way off the mark then I'm sorry but I'm fishing for ideas here havig discovered almost half my hard drive is also inaccessible.

The only other thing I can think of is that we both have added second hard drives to our systems but I can't see how this would affect the partition table on the original disk.

As baffled as you.

[BEGIN EDIT]

OK - after further digging on the web - it appears as though the OEM partition in question may be related to the system recovery options. Now, if you've made your system recovery disks, and/or have no intention of using the sytem restore feature from hard disk then the following SHOULD be safe - but I won't be responsible if it all goes wrong so please be sure you have a full system backup and a way of reinstalling Win 7 first!!! Also - as you said you'd stored a lot of stuff on that space the following procedure WILL make that data unrecoverable and so you may want to try other options first.

OK, if you are sure you want to make that space usable and you don't mind losing that data that you currently can't access anyway (at your own risk as I haven't tried the final step in this procedure yet), do the following:

1 Open a command prompt as administator.
2 Type "diskpart" and hit enter.
3 Type "list volume" and hit enter. Note which volume holds your C drive (Acer). It should be the same as mine, volume 1.
4 Type "select disk 0" and hit enter.
5 Type "list partition" and hit enter. Check that you've selected the right disk (if you've got the 4 partitions listed (1=Recovery, 2=Primary, 3=OEM, 4=OEM) then you know you've got the right disk. Identify the OEM partition which has size 222GB, in my case it's partition 3.
6 Type "select partion 3"
7 Type "delete partition override" and hit enter.

At that point if you go back into Disk Management you should be able to create a new partition in the now empty space.

Sorry if this all seems to be spelt out in simplistic terms but given that messing with partitions is a dangerous business all the caveats are added for any other readers who may be tempted to try and recover that space without realising the full implications of what can go wrong.

Hope it's of some use...

 

I'm going to try and get my data back, if not, it's a good excuse for a SSD

 

Free Download Partition Manager freeware - Partition Manager, Disk & Partition Copy, Partition Recovery Software.

Trying this programme out, it allows you to assign a drive letter and make windows' chkdsk run on that partition, so lets see it it works.

Edit: success!! Managed to get the partition back by using something called Testdisk to write the partition into the MBR, windows boot repair (on the cd) and the partition manager software to give the drive a letter. \o/

 

Hey all, recently took the plunge and bought a T9600 to stick in my 8930G. Installation went like a dream but when I turn on the laptop I get nothing but a blank screen, bummer. Swapped out the T9600 for the older processor and everything goes back to working order. The laptop seems to be working (i.e the hard drives whir up, fans are a spinning and the cinedash panel lights up but nothing on the screen. Is the CPU borked or am i being a dunce?

P.S. i'm on BIOS 1.20 and CPU-z says my chipset is PM45 rev 07

 

CPU dead. 10 char.

 

Hi,

This afternoon, I replaced my original Vista Home 32 with Seven Pro x64.
I installed from scratch. After Seven installation completed, I ended with Acer drivers installation.

I was curious to see, if my card reader has been fixed by the change of OS.
see my previous post : http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/337227-acer-aspire-8930g-owners-lounge-184.html#post6881080)

Well, it's better but still does'nt work.
The good thing is that SD controller "pops up" in device manager when I insert my 4GB SDHC card and I hear a sound but... no drive appears in My computer

What can I do ? Do you think it's hardware related ?

TIA for your answers

 

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. I am an owner of an Acer Aspire 8930g. I live in the USA but I actually ordered it from Canada because at the time, it was the only place I could find one that had 2 hard drives and 1080p. Anyway, I have since upgraded it but had these problems before as well. When I try to watch videos, blu rays, dvds, you tube, it doesn't matter, at times it just shuts down. I don't know what else to do. It originally came with Windows Vista 32 bit (don't know why it wasn't 64 bit, it can obviously handle it). Anyway, I hated Vista so I did a dual boot with XP. It came with 2 320gb hd and 4gb ram. It still has 4gb ram(can't go any higher apparently) but now I have 2 1tb hd. I have installed Win XP and Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. I thought I had fixed my issues after that but it still shuts down when I'm watching videos or doing my karaoke stuff. I don't know what else to do. Can someone please help me? Tell me what I am doing wrong that keeps causing these shut downs.

Thanks!

 

Well a good start would be:

CPU temperatures.
GPU temperatures.
HDD temperatures.

 

Check the Disk Management (Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools\Computer Management). Check if a letter is assigned to your SD card drive. Be sure that the card is inserted when you do this.

 

Hi vatik,

I opened the "disk management".
Before I inserted my SDHC card, I could see "Disk 0" and "CDROM 0"
letters C and D are assigned to partitions on "Disk 0" (there is also an hidden partition on disk 0)
and letter E is assigned to "CDROM 0"

When I insert my SDHC card, I hear a sound but no drive appears in the the "disk management". The Refresh button is useless too

I installed the jmicron drivers available on Acer site and everything seems to be OK in the device manager (no question mark)

How can I troubleshoot this card reader, I see no error in the event log. I would like to be sure, it's hardware before disassembling the laptop...

Regards,


Laurentg0

 

Hey Guys

My 8930G updated successfully to Bios 1.21 .
@Laurentg0 It could be your Memory Card? try putting it in a different computer

 

anyone have the 1.21 bios with the SLIC?
thanks