Acer Aspire 8930G Owner's Lounge

All right, thanks for help guys.

 

Hi All
I have a 8930G 584G32Bn ( UK model )with bios v1.05 .... is it worth updating the bios to v1.06 from acer uk website ? cannot find out what the update fixes .
I found there is bios v1.10 on the main acer website (.com)
If i should update should i go for the v1.10 ?

My laptop is working fine ...no problems .

If i do need to update will it cause any problems ? loss of fingerprint login , loss of data etc or will it start and run the same as before bios upgrade ?

Any help most appreciated
karl

 

Do NOT upgrade if it's not necessary. If everything is working fine I suggest you stay put for now.

 

many thanks for the advise , will leave it as it is then , if not broken then dont try to fix it

One other thing , is it worth upgrading to vista 64bit ?
is so can you dual boot it with the 32bit version ?
if so can it been done via the partition already on the 320gig hard drive or is it better to fit a second hard drive and install it on that ? or just wait for windows 7 ..
thanks for the help

 

I looked into this and decided that it wasn't worth doing. It doesn't really gain you much.

I installed Windows 7 on my second HDD, and it works with no problems. It should also work with no problems on a different partition on the same drive, but given the cost of SATA HDDs, and the ease of fitting a second one, it would be rude not to!

Steve

 

For those who have added a second HDD to ther 8930G - This may be a stupid question but where did you get the tiny mounting screws and insulator/shield from? I guess I could take two screws from the fitted disk to use on the new one. Thanks.

 

Many Thanks for the info steve , did windows 7 install easily ? did it create a dual boot option screen ...
so now you can either boot to vista or windows 7
Also what is the best second hard drive to get ?
i also would like to know where to get the fitting screws etc for the second hard drive ..

Thanks
Karl

 

I used the Windows 7 beta (build 7000) and it installed with absolutely no problems. I was armed with a Vista DVD in case I couldn't get back into Vista, but that wasn't needed. All I got after the first reboot was a nice little boot menu, Vista or Windows 7.

I got a Western Digital 320GB SATA HDD from Amazon ( Lnk)

I didn't use any screws or insulator/shield to fit the new HDD. It simply clips in place. Once the lid is back on the bottom, it's not going anywhere. Actually, as it's such a large laptop, mine never goes anywhere anyway!

Steve

 

There are a couple of places selling the insulator, I found them by googling for "lumirror hdd". I am not going to give out URLs as at least one of the sites has exploded parts information which appears to be legal but might be considered differently here.
I guess the importance of this depends on how worried you are about RF interference.
I do move my machine about a bit but maybe I could get by with some double sided tape or similar to give it a bit more security.

 

thanks for the info ...wil look into that hard drive ...then can try windows 7

how about this one -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1JV0Y4PAGG23N7E8611S

its sata II 7200rpm 16mb cache....will this work or better sticking with what is originally in it ?

 

Hi, that's what I'm using in mine...
Chris

 

So i guess thats one will be just fine then have you noticed any difference in speed or noise ?
cheers

 

Hi, it seems 'snappier' but I'd only had the laptop a few days before I put in the extra drive so my result are hardly objective...
Chris

 

Hi fellas, I'm new here...so be nice. I got a question. I can't decide which 8930 to purchase. Which one do you think is the better buy?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115555

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115558

Which would you recommend? Thanks for your help!

 

Neither, go for quadqore ;-)
And get HD resolution 1920x1080

Even if the system can't handle games at max settings at that resolution (just use other widescreen resolutions), the movie experience is just WOW...

That's just my 50 cents.

If you are still going with either one, I would suggest you google the processors to check the differences, since thats the only part that seems to be different between the models.

 

Hey guys, I'm new here. I've been eyeballing this sweet laptop for a while now, and have just a few burning questions left that I've been googling all over the interwebs for. Perhaps someone could bring me clarity

I'm reading different things about the screen brightness all over the place. One retailer/website/review says 200-nits, the other 220-nits, one other 250-nits and Acer told me it's 300-nits (what I hope ofcourse). Is there anyone who could tell me this? It's probably on the box or some specsheet you got with it. Quite a difference between 200-nits and 300-nits in readability while chilling with it in the sun

By the way; what's actually the difference between the 8930G and the 8920G? And what does the G in the modelname mean? Just a new revision?

 

Did you use the 32bit version of windows 7 or 64bit ?
i have the 64bit version (build 7100)to install when i get new hard drive ....will it be ok dual booting with vista 32bit ?
cheers

 

I got this backpack and i must say it isn't a reasonable solution for Aspire 8930. Simple as that - it's just too small for it, end of story. The snugly fit you talk about is in fact a forcing the laptop into it and doing a bit of petting here and there around top side of it to lock the zippers over the laptop. I wish i hadn't buy this backpack tbh.

 

I bought a used 8930 and it came with a case called BIG BAD BAG,ANYHOW IT FITS PERFECT,but dont know where he got it.also I have the T580 cpu can I upgrade this?

 

I wouldn't recommend upgrading yourself, unless you are comfortable with your skills of taking apart some of your laptop and reinstalling everything.
Otherwise you might find a company that does this for you (I would never send my laptop away, insert gollum voice: "MY PRECIOUS" )

If you do open it up to replace it (be sure to buy the right processor), then yes you could replace the CPU. You don't need to unscrew everything, just take away the large panel in the back (gives acces to the hard drive bays).

While you are in there, apply a premium cooling paste (one that actually cools better then the default paste).

You could even exchange the Graphics card this way, but that might be limited depending on the positioning of the heat sink (which is attached to a small metal pipe which goed to the fans).


So yes it's possible to replace a lot of parts in your laptop.
The problem with it, is that it will most likely be a warranty issue.
And you either have to replace it yourself (which requires patience and a bit of carefull hard work). Or send it off to get it back in a few weeks (hopefully) and intact (again hopefully).

To be honest, I just spend more to get what I want (with hard drives and memory as an exception) so that only small maintanance is required to upgrade the parts I don't like.

CPU and Graphics are never easy to get to (lots of screws), so to save myself the hassle of time vs money, I just use money everytime.

 

Hi
Just wondering about updating graphics driver , can you install the ones from nvidia's web site ? it says you should install acer specific drivers .
I already have the latest acer one ...anyone installed the nvidia driver (release 179.48 )

 

I get mine at: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/
You could also edit the nVidia drviers from the website for the laptop, the official drivers are usually months old.

Either way, if you don't trust the source, use a virus scanner ;-)

 

Hi, no force used with mine at all, the weight of the latop lets it slide into place...
Chris

 

thanks for that , will take a look on that site

 

Just downloaded 2 drivers from that site , the latest one and one that was WHQL certified , tried both ...run setup but comes up with a box saying " the Nvidia setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware .Setup will exit "
Any help most apreciated
i have the nvidia geforce 9600m gs card in mine

 

Karlos103 - did you get the modded INF file as well? Refer to the laptopvideo2go FAQ for details of the installation process. You need to replace the INF file with a modded one to allow the install to work, I believe the downloaded drivers have the default INF file not the modded one. Even then you assume that the details for your GPU are in the modded INF. Otherwise as Freezy points out you could mod the drivers yourself, though this is not the easiest thing to do without experience.

 

many thanks , will have a look at that

 

Interesting when I put the word FAQ into my last post it got manipulated into a link to the "What Should I buy..." topic. The article I was referring to is actually http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9243

 

ok will look there instead !! lol

 

Quick question for everyone............my 8930's power supply gets rather warm to the touch in normal operation. Have an external HDD that does the same thing. Just curious if this is everyone's experience. TIA.

 

Yup, mine get hot to the touch. It even says so on the supply itself

 

yes mine gets rather warm too !! ideal during the winter for keeping your feet warm lol

 

Can anyone tell me what is the total amount of RAM available to windows for this laptop. I have 4gb installed and running 32 bit vista sp1. I know that because its a 32 bit OS you dont have the full 4gb available, but dxdiag and task manager are only reporting 3068mb, and system information reports installed physical memory as 4.00gb but only total physical memory as 3.00gb. I know that some of the memory is taken up because of the graphics card but a friend has a desktop with vista sp1 installed and a graphics card with 768mb of VRAM and his windows reports ~3.5gb available. Anybody in the same boat?

 

Hi, desktops usually have a setting in the bios called something like 'enable memory remapping', which will allow the extra 500mb usually reserved for the graphics card to be released for use by the OS. Many laptops such as Acer do not have this setting incorporated into their bios unfortunately, see here http://www.techsupportforum.com/har...ort/276392-missing-ram-3-5gb-4gb-machine.html
Chris

 

whoops! nothing to see here

 

Thanks Chris for that info, definitely clears up a few things. I do have a followup question if you care to answer it. Will windows 64 bit resolve this problem? I have read that you need the memory remapping feature to enable the 4GB to be recongised ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605), which it seems i dont have. I take it you dont know of any way of enabling this, or using some 3rd party bios?

 

Hi ALL
Just installed Windows 7- 64bit on seperate hard drive , dual booting with vista -32bit ...well all is ok sept installed acer bio protection ( fingerprint reader ) vista 64bit onto windows 7 , installs fine sept it reads fingerprints back to front ....works fine on vista 32bit .
instead of sliding your finger towards yourself across the reader you have to push away from yourself to get it to work....works fine otherwise .
anyone else had this ?

 

Did you ever find a case? Right now, I am carrying it around in a big old bag with no padding. I put it in the two pieces of foam that it came in.

 

Did you ever find a solution to the Intel VT problem? The problem is that to run a 64-bit VM, you * must* have Intel VT enabled.

I played around with Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) 32-bit. It didn't seem sluggish to me, but I didn't really have a basis for judging.

I contacted Acer tech support about it, but the web-based people said they couldn't help me, and I could try to call their paid service.

 

Try Validity's driver/software here http://www.validityinc.com/post.aspx?id=186.

 

Well, contrary to the first quote, I found the Targus XL to be a great fit for my 8930. It's true that there isn't any padding on top of the laptop in this bag, but I put mine in with no problems, and the elastic strap which goes over the top of the laptop will stretch to fit the 8930 as well.

Failing that, you could get a sleeve for it ( Amazon Link) and a non-laptop specific backpack or bag.

Steve

 

Had a look , can you install the driver only so that you can use Acers fingerprint software or will it only work with the one provided by microsoft ?

Tried it out and works the right way round , but dont find it as good as the acer one as you can specify each finger to do something like shutdown laptop .

Be great if you can use the one from the site with acer software .

 

Hey guys, great thread you got over here. I figured this is the most relevant place for me to post, so here goes.

Ive been looking at one of the 8930s listed on newegg ( link). The only thing that Id like to improve upon is the resolution, as it has 1680 x 945 instead of 1920 x 1080 (1080p).
Looking at the acer website ( link), some 8930s are equipped with the 1920 x 1080 screen, and also seem to have the 9700 GT instead of the 9600 GT.

That being said, where can I find a 8930 with the 1080p screen, with similar specs/price as the model listed on newegg?
I'm located in the US, if that helps any.
Thanks!

 

Hi guys! There's no option of a blu-ray writer. Anyone tried installing a blu-ray writer?
I was thinking of getting this one but not very sure if it will work with the 8930G
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/LG-GBW-T10N-4x-Blu-ray-Writer-Internal-Notebook-Slimline-SATA-Bare-Drive

 

^bump^ for my previous question

 

Yes it could leave you with a 140, 140 and 320 gig partition. You may want to look at a 7200 rpm drive because Acer uses the 5400rpm drives in it's systems. I saw a review on newegg where a guy purchased the 8930-7665 and he replaced the 5400 500 gig drive with a 7200rpm and it screams.

 

It's probably harder to find them now because Acer has a announced the AS 8935 to be released this month. Comp USA get them off and on but when they put in their ads while supplies last it mean they are almost sold out. I'm waiting for Windows 7 or I would have purchased the Quad Core 8930 before the 8935 was announce.

 

Thanks for the response, guess I'll have to settle for the one on newegg.
The main difference between the 8930 and 8935 is that the latter has the ATI video card, correct?

BTW didn't know CompUSA was still around

 

anyone here tryed putting xp on?

If you did here is a tread with some questions

 

Hi got my Acer Aspire AS8930-6442 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T6400(2.00GHz).Its very cool , I had heard the cpu can be upgraded.if so what can it be upgraded to and are there instructions anywhere online how to do it? Thanks