Acer Aspire 8930G Owner's Lounge

Well, that is quite true, but I will buy the cheapest 8930G that is 734G32Bn Core2 Duo P7350 2.0GHz, 2x2GB, 320GB . This way the 2 hard drives will be about 75% of the laptop price.

But do you know if sata2 is available for all 8930g's ? Also the 32 from 734G32Bn means it's a 32 bit platform and not 64 ?

I'm asking you beacause I cannt seem to find the full technical specification for this laptop anyware, not even on the acer support site. Do you know a place where a I could read about it ?


Thank you very much

 

Hi, can I ask what is it you think you are hoping to gain from installing 2 x SSD's anyway, speed or ruggedness? At the end of the day it's your money but I can't help thinking if you want speed then one SSD would do with a second hard drive on which to store your data...
Chris

 

Speed. I want the OS to run on one , and all my other applications like Sql Server , Visual Studio , IIS , DB (that work with the disk intensively ) to run on another.

Also in 128GB I cannot have all the os'es (I have about 3) and all the the applications.

Of course , I could buy a bigger one , but I feel much safer with 2 , and also the difference in price between 2*128GB and 1*256 is not big.

 

Hi, are you sure there is much speed in it and are you sure that a non-raid laptop is the best platform for a server, it kinda goes against the grain. However, as I said, it's up to you but I'd though a properly setup server would have had little speed difference and if it's networked then your bottleneck might be the network itself.
Chris

 

I need a development machine but I also need to be mobile. There are times when I need all the help I can get. For example, one time, I was installing an application we developed in a location so remote that the phones did not work . And even more, my coleagues had problems with a cluster and installed in 3 days. At that time , I kept all the servers running on the laptop. It went ok , but it could have been better.
I mean, if it can be better , why not ?

 

Highly recomended fast and energy efficient
I just bought 2x128mb samsung ssd mmcre28g5mxp
you can read about on
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/256gb-samsung-ssd,2265-3.html
and the price is on
http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a413216.html

Would anyone have info on which raid (0) software to use with this two ssd-s on windows 7, in BIOS (1.0) there is no setup for raid??


Aspire 8930G
Quad Intel q9000 2.0GHZ
18.4" Full HD 1080p Acer CineCrystal
Dedicated 1024MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
4GB DDR3
2x128mb samsung ssd mmcre28g5mxp
Blu-ray Disk

 

Hi everybody,


I'm a new 8930G owner! My exact model is a 8930G 904G50Bn (core 2 quad Q9000 (2GHz), 4 Go DDR3, 9600m GT etc....)

I'm a little bit disapointed. I ran some benchmarks like 3dmark06 and the results seems to me very low => around 3200 points!!

So I've formatted it and reinstall it with XP. My score is quite the same.

So I need some help :


1. Is there anyone with the same model (or same kind of graphic crad) who had run benchmarks on it? what's your scores??

2. I also need someone who could indicate me the XP drivers for my hardwar€e. I've found some but there are other I could't find (modem, bluetooth, webcam.....).

Thanks

julesjay

 

bogdan.cucosel:
As you are looking at building a development machine you might be interested in support for virtualisation. If you are, I suggest you check that buying the cheapest notebook spec is a good idea. The lower end intel CPUs do not all support virtualisation technology.
Also, if I were concerned about disk access speed I would be thinking about a notebook that was equipped with hardware RAID support.

 

question; - is there such raid hardware to upgrade notebook with and put
two ssd-s in raid 0 and where to purchase?

 

AFAIK some notebooks are equipped with hardware RAID but it is not a build-in upgrade as it is based in the motherboard chipset. As such it is a choice to make when choosing the notebook, not later.

If portability were not a requirement you could look into the possibility of eSATA connected external RAID array to see if this would benefit you. If you do not have eSATA in the notebook then an eSATA expressCard could be the answer to allow the external connection. I have no idea how the performance would compare with built in RAID or if external RAID arrays benefit from SSD for the purpose of speed boosting.

 

I have the 8930g with P8400 and 9600 GT and I get 5300 on 3dmark 06 at default and overclocked to 9700 GT speeds get 6300.

 

Also virtualisation on the 8930g is disabled and no way yet of enabling it. I have a P8400 and it supports virtualisation but can't use it.

 

can anyone tell me how to stop the built in card reader switching it'self off
when i reboot my 8930 it works fine but if i don't use it for an hour or so and then i put an sd card in nothing happens at all ?
baffled i am ???

 

atmadden:
True VT support is not present as a result of the acers use of the Insyde H2O bios. I read somewhere that the BIOS can support VT so I guess acer have chosen themselves to not alow it. This affects a number of other manufacturers models including Sony.
I do not know how they can get away with this! I imagine a lot of people buy a laptop and only later realise that they cannot use it as they wished.
I believe it is still possible to virtualise 32bit OS (but not 64bit) as long as you choose a product that does not require VT. I wonder if this affects the built in virtualisation of XP compatibility in Windows 7?

 

which configuration do you have?? same as mine?

Q9000, 4Go DDR3 and 9600m GT??? runniçng on which OS?

According to this review( http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/acer-aspire-8930g-6448.aspx?mode=specs ) my score at 3Dmark isn't so bad!!


Maybe 3D mark doesn't manage well T9XXX and Q9XXX series?

 

Yes it does I have tried windows 7 with virtual xp and it won't work without VT enabled.

 

Mine is P8400, 4gb ddr3, 9600m GT DDR3. Are you running 3dmark 06 at default settings?

 

Bought an ACER AS8930-6386 from NewEgg last Thursday for $1100. By Saturday night, the screen started randomly going blank and then coming back on in a fairly rapid succession. Every time it went out and came back on, it made the same sound as when you connect/disconnect a USB drive. Sometimes I could tilt the screen or tap on the back gently and the screen would come back on, but never for more than a few seconds. Rebooting didn't seem to help. Half the time, it would reboot fully, but with a completely blank screen or "shadows" of what was actually on the screen. Other times, it would reboot fine, but the whole process would repeat all over again within 5 minutes to one hour later. I sent the thing back to Newegg for replacement.

 

Hi, sounds like a fautly connection to the screen, possibly not seated correctly. A pain but it does happen sometimes..
Chris

 

Heya guys im thinking about getting this laptop soon

heres the link to the one i want to get > http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/89962...sta-Home-Premium-Laptop-Notebook/Product.html

i am confused though.... whats the 64BN mean at the end ? because ive seen one with 32bn and apparently its got nothing to do with 32/64 bit vista

so what is it for ? lol and which is best

also do you guys like this laptop ?
is it good for gaming ?

cheerz

 

Heya guys im thinking about getting this laptop soon

heres the link to the one i want to get > http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/89962...sta-Home-Premium-Laptop-Notebook/Product.html

i am confused though.... whats the 64BN mean at the end ? because ive seen one with 32bn and apparently its got nothing to do with 32/64 bit vista

so what is it for ? lol and which is best

also do you guys like this laptop ?
is it good for gaming ?

cheerz
------------------- sry for repost went on to next page ;/---------------

also i have just seen the Acer 8935G laptop with the ATI Radeon 4650XT graphics card will this one be alot better than the 8930G with 9700m GT graphics card ?

 

Actually Paddon, get another laptop.

The 8930's specs are very adequate for gaming, but it has a HUGE problem with overheating (it has only one fan to cool both CPU and GPU at the same time!). As soon as it gets too hot the laptop throttles everything down to half the clock speed and your games will stutter. I've had this laptop for 5 months and I sold it just today to get a notebook with better ventilation to better suit my gaming needs. The laptop itself looks gorgeous - its FullHD 18.4" Dislpay and BluRay functions along with the CineDash are awesome. It's just that the laptop is not suited for high end gaming because of the throttling issues.

Take my advice, invest into a different notebook and be happy from the start

 

which one did you have ? if you had the T9400 processor that might be what made it over heat.

and which one have you just bought ? sounds good

 

Hi, my 8930G witha P8400 doesn't seem to have a overheating issue when I play Crysis, so maybe not all 8930's are affected in the same way...
Chris

 

The 32 or 64 bit at the end is the HDD size. Add a "0" to the end and that's the size of the HDD in GB.

The breakdown of the product code from Play is:

8930G - 864G64BN

86 = P8600 processor
4G = 4GB memory
64 = 640GB HDD
B = Blueray drive
N = Wireless N.

Steve

PS. I've got the same model here, and I've had no problems at all playing WoW at High or Ultra settings. No slowdown, although it does get rather hot!

 

Hi, I'm new in this forum and I have read the whole thread this night (yes, the 43 pages) I'm realizing that I want one 8930G as soon as possible XD

But, before purchasing one I need to know something and its possible you can help me, I just wanna know how fine does the CAD programmes run on this laptop, mainly AutoCad in any version.

On the other hand, do you know if this laptop can handle 2 external monitors? I mean one on the VGA output and the other one on the HDMI output at the same time.

Thank you very much and sorry for my english

 

hey guys its 8930guy again im so buzzed so close to getting me new baby so is it really worth it to buy ill be chucking media and games at it so u know. photoshop that sort of thing so.....

 

has anyone had problems powering on your machine? i came home today and opened it up and it would not power on. i got my husbands laptop out and researched it and i did all the trouble shooting and tips to no avail. it will not power on. I called customer service and they are closed, then i emailed tech support. if anyone out there has ANY tips or has had this problem in the past, please let me know. i am freaking out and pacing the floor till :cry: :cry: monday.

 

Hi, try unplugging it and also removing the battery for a few seconds at the same time. After that, put the battery again, plug it and try to power it on.

Good luck!!

 

If you get power through this trick, but the problem returns after a reboot, make sure that the nVidia drivers do not have audio installed.
This caused this problem for my laptop.

 

Hi there everyone. Ok , so I finally got the 8930g packing the quad core and 9600m gt.


I am disappointed with the level of gaming performance though.How would I improve it, I have installed the latest graphics drivers. One of the first games i tested was Crysis wars (not updated), I loaded up the Mesa map and would not have an FPS above 18 . Is that normal?

I ran the crysis GPU benchmark too that you get and it came up with an average of 6.97fps (all setting maxed,0xAA,1024x768)

I also tried Quake 4 in 1280x1024 at Widescreen mode set to maximum detail level, was in the area of 15-25 fps

World of Warcraft at maxed settings hovered around 24-25fps

Is this the kind of performance that is normal? Am I expecting too much out of the laptop? I tested these applications with the AC source in so everything was maxed out.

 

Hi, as far as I know Crysis can use multi-core CPU, however I'd not expect the performance to be much higher that a twin core. Have you changed any of the power settings at all within Vista?
Chris

 

Hi Folks,

Regarding patching virtualization-enabled switch and other InsydeH2O hidden Bios options, there are some breakthrough at on marcan's blog here :

http://marcansoft.com/blog/2009/06/enabling-intel-vt-on-the-aspire-8930g/

I've checked the patching is done OK. Still need to go through some more checking before I flash though. But you might be bolder.

Cheers

 

Hi, sounds good, would be great if you were able to produce a ready made bios flash with the patch incorporated...
Chris

 

That's not possible. The firmware update from Acer does not include the part with the settings. Whereas the method demoed by marcan uses the shadowed memory copy of these settings and flashes them again. In other words, you would get all my settings.
The best way is actually to find out how to enable the hidden menus. Password at the blinking prompt may be (between Keyboard init in POST and prompt for F2). Acer has a history of having passwords (ACERNWE for instance)

 

last minute update: I've flashed with the patched bios dumped from high-mem (4G minus 2M) and it works fine.
Now both SecureAble (GRC) and MSR Magic report Locked *ON*.

 

Excellent news Alain
Unfortunately I couldn't understand all the details.

When you will have time can you post a new topic with step by step guides?

Thank you

 

I too would also be interested in this please mate

 

Upon popular request... blah blah...

First of all I would like to stress that the original inventor of this method is Martin Cantero. The original relation of the method described below is available on his blog :
I tried it for my own usage and I’m only adding some info here in an “enable-vt-on-8930g-for-dummies” spirit. The added explanations below are mine and I’m the sole responsible for the 30% of inaccuracies they probably carry with them. Anyway, here we go.
It's relatively simple:
- You might first want to practice flashing and update your current bios version to the latest revision. This is harmless.
- See : ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_8930/bios/
The image that’s included in this kit is named KM2_110.fd.
The InsydeH2O Bios is a new type of bios named UEFI which is relatively modular.
Martin has developed a number of scripts available here ()
One of them, fvdump.py breaks down an fd image in pieces.
Just do

Code:

$ python fvdump.py KM2_110.fd

and plenty of fv-<start_address>.bin will be generated. One of them fv-00180000.bin is of interest for us : it contains all the settings specific to individual laptops
Now, the interesting thing is that, during the boot process, the Bios is shadowed in memory (from the eprom to the ram that is). Even more interesting : it’s a verbatim copy. This is good because the KM2_110.fd only contains the code update. It does not override your settings (that’s the part in fv-00180000.bin and its “full of void”). Because the vt enabled flag is part of your settings – even though you were not given a chance to set it, that is. So that if we want to alter the current settings, we need to create a new boot image, not the one from the support site.

So there are only a few problems left :

1. Get the new image
2. Explore it
3. Alter it
4. Check it is as little intrusive as possible.
5. Flash it, restart and stare at the screen.

Another warning: This post is from an ubuntu user. And so is the original article from Martin. I’ve made no attempt to transpose the method to Windows but Python being pretty portable, this should not be a pb.

1 - Getting the new image draws on the fact that the Bios is shadowed verbatim in the 2MB at the top of your 4Gigs physical space. To create the image, it is therefore sufficient to dump these 2 MB.

You can refer to the first lines of dmesg to check this

Code:

[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved) 
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000ffe00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved) 
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 0000000140000000 (usable)
[    0.000000] DMI 2.4 present. 

The bios part is BIOS-e820: 00000000ffe00000 - 0000000100000000
The corresponding unix command is :

Code:

$ sudo dd if=/dev/mem of=original_bios.fd bs=1024 count=2048 skip=4192256

where 4192256 is the decimal for 00000000ffe00000 divided by 1024 (the block size). Basically we ask dd to dump 2048 blocks of 1024 bytes (that’s 2MB, the size of KM2_110.fd precisely) starting after the first 4192256 blocks of memory.
This is our image.

2 Explore it.
This is where we use Martin’s python scripts.
To break up this image we can do :

Code:

$ python fvdump.py original_bios.fd

And we will have the same files as what we had from our previous split of KM2_110.fd
We can check them one by one :
Suppose I have the fv* in folder acer and the fv* from my dump in folder dump :

Code:

$ vbindiff acer/fv-0017f000.bin dump/fv-0017f000.bin 

will show no difference. Neither will the other files. To the notable exception of fv-00180000.bin
These BIOS settings are stored in so-called variables :

Code:

$ python vardump.py fv-00180000.bin > fv-00180000.txt

will show your own settings
including the vt

3 - patch it
To alter it, just apply

Code:

$ python vtenable.py original_bios.fd original_bios_vt.fd

4 - Check it
This is well explained in Martin’s blog entry.

5 – flash it :
Use your preferred tool.

 

Great summary Alain95 and excellent original work by Martin Cantero. For those interested in this - don't forget to make sure your CPU supports VT. 8930 models come with a variety of CPUs and not all support VT. If the CPU cannot do, a BIOS change is not going to help.

 

Can this be done in windows then?

 

Yea I am also interested.
But seeing this is a hack I am not sure such crude flagging will have undesired effects(OS Security?).
Anyway doesn't really matter to me because I am on AMD.

 

I'm going to wait for Windows 7 to hit the stores before I switch.
Then I'll check acer to see if they fix this issue.

If not then I'll try the flash.

Isn't it possible to just alter the flag, much like the bios would alter a single setting?
No need to flash the entire bios if all we need is a flag at a specified offset.
This could even lead to having a bios setting manager during OS (with even more options).
Then reboot and enjoy :-D

 

I did not have any backups (DVD or partition) but managed to find it online here

 

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/519553/ACER-AS8930G-904G50B


I found this in comet today for £855, but with 320gb instead of 500gb, is it a good deal, or am I better off with the laptop here:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/89962...sta-Home-Premium-Laptop-Notebook/Product.html

 

Hello all!Yesterday i bought 8930G and it is amazing!But i have a problem regarding the YouTube videos ande generally most of the videos online...When i am watching,sometimes i get something like a freeze for 2 seconds and the audio with the screen lags and then suddenly it continues..It is really annoying and i don't know why it is doing that...

 

Hello all,

I just saw that there is a new bios out, v1.13. Does anyone know what the changes are if any and has anyone tried it yet?

 

Just updated on vista 64 bit (windows froze for a minute or two)
then it went on to reboot (so close everything BEFORE you flash)

Update complete, but I didn't notice anything new or improved.
Let's hope it's a silent activation of the virtualisation

 

That is what I was hoping for ..

 

I am afraid not virtualisation still disabled