Acer Aspire 8940G -- Core i7 Quad -- Owner's Lounge

I assume you are referring to the Acer 8942G, right? If so, take a peek at this thread, HERE. Perhaps something will be helpful there.

 

Yes, it's really a better place for such discussions.
I already checked it out and have to thank you for the information I've got from there.

Is the display of the 8940G really that bad as all tests say? I've read just one test from a private tester who was content with this display. All the other and more professional tests were fully against the display of the 8940G.
I would also like to know what you all will use the notebook for.

 

for those wanting this model, its down to $1199 at J&R and you can get 5% bing as well

 

I don't see that price at J&R, I do see $1299 as the clearance price though. Perhaps they're getting ready for a new model? You think the 8940G will be sold out already?

Seems like 8940G was a way for Acer to get an core i7 in the door, definitely not a base though as there is one with only a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240M.

Definitely a good first try from Acer compared to HP and Dell.

 

Also... there's a discussion here about Clevo getting the new ATI 58xx series GPUs and Acer Europe of course.

The clevo will be expensive as hell of course, and if you're really adamant about power, a laptop isn't really the right place to look, at $1800+ might as well get yourself a good desktop.

Acer just need to add the ATI 58xx card and call it a day, I expect no more than $1500 for the 8942G but I know I'll be losing that bet.

 

I would have waited for the 8942g, but when you're left with nothing more than an iPhone for surfing the Internet with you can't wait for possibly 2 months for the hopeful arrival of a new laptop.
Personally I'm hoping (I'd be VERY suprised if it wasn't the case) that the 8940g and 8942g share the same motherboard and then I can simply drop in the new ATi GPU at my own leisure if the MXM slots are the same.

More expensive way to go, but as I need a new computer NOW it's really the only option open to me. I have 2 big projects needed for January and I'm buggered if I'm going to be sitting late every night at work in December when I could be curled up comfortably at home.

Anyway........even the 8940g is probably going to be overkill for playing World of Warcraft on! ;-)

 

It was $1199 when he first posted that!! The scumbags hit the "Christmas price enhance" button

I'm going to wait for the January sales, then I should either get a better (read as uninflated) price, or maybe even a new/better model .

 

jkontherun.com received an 8940G from Acer and is conducting long-term reviews

 

Mine arrived yesterday from the States :-D
Changed the cloverleaf plug over to a UK one and got straight into it. Absolutely loving it especially that fantastic screen! Cleaned out a lot of the crap using ccleaner (Thanks to Bangert for that little hint) and it's running sweet as a nut.
Left it downloading 1.6GB of updates for the brand new installation of World of Warcraft last night, and this morning managed to get into game for the first time in weeks!
Dalaran at 25fps on full graphics and 1920 x 1080 is unbelievable! God only knows what fps I'll get out in the world as Dalaran is THE most laggy place in the entirety of WoW.

Just need to work out how to change the Euro sign on the keyboard to a UK Pound sign and everything is good to go!

 

Congrats jonesy76,

I know you must be excited!

I am excited too. The model I am waiting on will be announced at CES, January 7th.

Have Fun! Enjoy that new notebook!

 

@jonesy76 - How did you go with the import tax, did you have to pay it and how much?

 

AlphaFlight - I seem to recall from one of your previous posts that you are/were running Ubuntu - what flavor?

I bought my 8940g from Newegg a few weeks ago and toyed between keeping Win7 + Ubuntu 9.10 before switching to Ubuntu full time.

Any issues that you've experienced?

For me:

-) My front two USB ports on the right hand side of the unit don't seem to be working, though I haven't reinstalled Win7 to check whether its a driver/software issue vs hw. The right rear port and left hand port is working fine.

-) The switch to PulseAudio in Ubuntu has given me some glitches in audio with VirtualBox, at least with an XP VM. Any audio issues for you? The jogwheel is recognized and works well enough.

-) I'm using the Nvidia beta drivers to get video working properly (instructions similar to these for the install: http://www.sizzledcore.com/2009/11/02/nvidia-graphics-drivers-19042-for-ubuntu-910/). However, when I playback HD video (*.mkv files ripped from blueray), I still get choppy performance.

-) Any luck or guidance in getting blueray movies to play?

-) Any hints on getting the microphone to work?

On the plus side, I've gotten LOTRO up and running 1920x1080 under Codeweavers Crossover Games That was both frustrating and fun at the same time.

Thanks,

T.

 

@rahmant

First thing to do is get rid of that bloody awful pile of cr@p pulseaudio!!!

We've had that rubbish for nearly a year in openSUSE and it caused so many problems that it has finally (YAY) been removed in the latest release (11.2).

Just search for "pulse" in your package manager and remove it.

 

Questions!

1- Is there a way to turn off the Acer logo light under the LCD?

2- My wifi button on the left of the keyboard keeps flashing, quite annoying. why is it doing this?

3- is everyone else's touchpad buttons annoyingly hard to press down, and do you have to press towards the outside edge because the inside one is unclickable?

 

-----

1) Not sure - I'm running Ubuntu, so I don't know if there's perhaps a native tool included in win7 to allow you to turn it off

2) I believe the wifi button flashes during network activity, kind of like how a "link light" flashes on a wired NIC

3) I'm guessing that the center portion of the touchpad is firm b/c of the fingerprint reader "mechanics" that are mounted right underneath. I use a mouse myself and only use the touchpad when I don't have it attached.

Tariq

 

Hm, well if anyone knows, please let me know!

 

@Growbag

UPS stiffed me for £140, which included their handling fee which was sizeable (FedEx have by far the most reasonable handling charges I've found over the years of buying things Worldwide), but it still works out at about £200 cheaper than buying the 8942g over here if the pre-release prices are to be believed.
Yes the graphics card isn't as hot as the 8942g, but it's more than good enough for me, and I'm happilly running Warcraft at 1920 X 1080 resolution and full graphics so that covers the base I want it to cover for me!

 

@jonesy76 Oh well, as long as you're happy, that's all that counts in the end. I bet you're enjoying that lovely backlit keyboard :jealous:

 

I've had this computer for almost a month I think, now, and I must say I'm in love. It's really hard to believe there was a computer like this on the market for the price, Acer's made a fan out of me!


I posted earlier in the thread citing a few problems, most of which I've worked out, except one. Since there's a few new owners in the thread now, I was wondering if one of you could test the sound on your subwoofer?(The tiny vents up by the sceen.)

One of mine seems to be working fine, but the left one is outputting low or no sound, and I'm not sure if it's intended.

The way to test would be to go to Control Panel > Sound > Right click speakers, and select configure speakers. There will be a list of your detected speakers, one called "Sub". Click that, and see if the sound is balanced on the right and left side of the computer. I'd be really grateful for this, just so I know if I should send it in for a quick repair before the holidays.

Thanks!

 

Not sure if this is relevent or not, but the 8942 is now available here in Germany, although rather expensive -



Shame it has an ATI card though .

 

that ATI card is 3 times faster than the GTS250M. Why should that be a shame?

The shop in your screenshot is quite expensive. In Germany you can get the 8942G with 8GB of Ram for the same price.

 

Anyone have a clue on at least how to disable the flashing WiFi light on the keyboard?

Also, how to disable that button's functionality as well so I stop hitting it with my pinky?

 

I found this machine for less at J&R free shipping no tax http://www.jr.com/acer-computer/pe/ACE_AS8940G6865/

newegg price is a bit higher and I must pay tax because newegg have shipping center in my state

 

if you do order via JR, use amazon paypass in conjunction with bing for a total of 15% off

 

how to do that?

 

set up an amazon speed pay account at amazon.com.

then go to bing cash back and search by store

during check out, elect to use the amazon speed pay option (their own version of paypal) sit back and enjoy 15% cash back !!!

 

im looking at amazon and can't find speed pay
i see only payphrase 5% off

 

Because ATI have recently taken a huge smelly dump all over ATI owners by switching a lot of cards into the "legacy" camp far too early, and no longer provide support or updated drivers for them. The only reason being that they want extra money!

Their Linux drivers are a disgrace, and they continually ignore requests to fix them. All this after they promised a few years ago that they would be "investing time" in them.

A good friend of mine wasted his money on an ATI 4870 a few months back, he eventually threw it in the bin in disgust because it had continuous problems.

Nvidia have been there from the early Linux years giving us good quality drivers and continuous development. In fact my first ever 3d card was the Nvidia Riva TNT 16meg PCI card, which was amazing in it's day.

Back then you only had the Voodoo, Voodoo2, Voodoo Banshee, and Nvidia Riva TNT to choose from. Both worked well under Linux, and Nvidia took the reigns and gave us driver support even back then.

An nvidia card is GUARANTEED to work.

I would happily buy an ATI card once they get their fingers out of their rear ends and honour their promises.

Until then I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole!

This may not matter to you or anyone else here being Windows users, but it matters to me, and I vote with my money.

 

how good is the sound system? im talking about bass.

 

Hi Guys

Has anybody managed to install a bluetooth module inside there 8940G. Can it be installed under the main removable lid, or will the whole rear cover need to be removed.

Any advise much appreciated.

Cheers

 

EdenBuster

Personally think this is a design fault of the unit.
the left speaker is on the left, the centre speaker appears to be off to the right, the subwoofer is on the edge of the right.

So when then the left fires up it appears it coming from the right, as the subwoofer on the right side also fires up. As a result I get the same result as you, it sounds like the left is lacking and something is broke. But I believe its a poor design flaw...that said when playing a blueray, and sitting back a little with all 6 speakers firing, the balance sounds alittle more even, but not enough.

Cheers

 

sorry should be more clear, the payphrase was what I meant. Sign up for one at amazon and then use it on the J&R site via bing

so to recap

sign of for payphrase

do bing for JR

use payphrase and voila.

10% may have ended and its back to 5 but it all adds up

 

i did but I don't see any discount when entering phrase

 

I found customer review

By Tim RichmondVerified Reviewer from Silver Spring MD on 11/10/2009
Pros:
Comfortable Keyboard, Fast, Powerful, Quality Display, Quiet
Best Uses:
Business Use, Graphics, Music, Video, Web Browsing, Word Processing
Describe Yourself:
Tech Savvy
Primary use:
Personal
Bottom Line:
Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

Comments about Acer Computer Aspire AS8940G-6865 18.4" Notebook:

This product replaced my 4 year old 17 inch Dell Media Center Laptop. I use it for iTunes, Command and Conquer Games, Picasa photos, DVD playing, web surfing and video encoding for portable devices. Things that are great about it are the 18.4 inch screen that makes my 17 inch look small now. The colors are very bright and sharp, and 1080p DVD movies look fantastic. The five speakers and subwoofer are great too, they get plenty loud and have some nice qualities to the sound and are tweakable in control panel with Dolby room and using gain. For some reason the left rear channel sometimes doesn't make sound in control panel tone test, I thought it was broken, but then it came back after I checked and unchecked some boxes in control panel. A few days later, again it doesn't work, must be some software thing. The backlit keyboard is easy to see and attractive. The mouse has gestures such as zoom on websites and photos but I use external and push a button to disable the track pad. The metal volume jog wheel and backlit controls are useful and work in iTunes. There is a bluetooth button but no bluetooth installed. Games play well at 1080p but with some of the eye candy turned off. For example on C&C 3 I turn a few things to low like water for example and get smooth game play.

Things aren't so great are the keyboard is off-center so it feels like you are typing to the left side quite a bit, but I am getting used to it. Also, the keys are pretty big and all feel the same so it is an adjustment to find where my right hand should go when typing, I have to look first.

Other things to note, there is a spare hard drive bay underneath you can use, I was thinking of waiting till SSD's come down in price and getting one as well as 2 4gb 1333mhz ram sticks when they come down instead of the 2 2gb 1066mhz ones in there now. Also was thinking of adding a Tv tuner to the express slot. 5 usb is nice. Once quirk, I couldn't play a Blue-Ray movie via HDMI on my TV, it said something about copy protection, you might want to check if your monitor allows that or you will be out of luck.

 

I'm planning on purchasing this early next year...hoping I can get work to pitch in a few hundred towards it

Anyone have any ideas of cases that would work well with the 8940G? I'm a photographer and video producer so I've got tons of accessories I need to keep with my computer. I'd love to get a nice roller case for it.

 

Hey guys I've had my 8940g for about a week now and I've noticed a few problems that i hope you could help me out with.

First I've noticed a few dark/black pixels on the screen in various locations and was wondering if there was a way to fix this and if not what acers policy on this is.

Second, I've had various problems with streaming video the laptop's graphics card (The defauld Nvidia gts 250). Right out of the box I tried to watch a video and the second i switched to fullscreen the laptop froze and the screen was locked. Upon shutdown and restart the fingerprint scanner didnt work and there were many graphical anomalies. A quick re-install of the os fixed this but it continues to have problems with fullscreen playback. The drivers sometimes crash leaving me with a windows report that they had successfully recovered from a crash and occasionally i recieve the BSOD from this. Could this be a problem with drivers for the card or is it a defect with the card itself. And if so should I take it back to fry's where i bought it or to acer itself (i dont know if the warranty coveres this issue).

Any help would be greatly appreciated because the return deadline is coming up and i dont want to be stuck with a defective product!

BTW other than these problems which don't seem common this is a great laptop!

 

1018667, if you look at acer's webpage for the product, it mentions that some dark or dead pixels are "a fact of life" and not covered under warranty. But if you had many, then I would probably call and fight it.

It sounds like you're having widespread issues, what's the driver that fails on the BSOD?

 

Anyone know where to find the spot for the Bluetooth module? How about compatibility, can I just get any internal one?

 

I found this model number: BCM92045NMD

 

"Fixed" the flashing WiFi light!

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=13122&postcount=9

The poster mentions restarting the WiFi card, but I had to restart the computer for it to kick in.

Yay! This is the single biggest gripe I had with this laptop! I officially love you, 8940!

 

Little disappointed about their dead pixel policy but oh well.

And im not sure which driver fails but i'll look next time it occurs.

Thanks!

 

how about ACER sign on display? it's possible to turn off?
or if I turn off backlid keybord so ACER sign will be off to?

 

I will certainly look into it, but it's not nearly as annoying as that flashing light. Life is good now.

 

I receive my laptop today.This is beautiful machine.
On my laptop the blue led line don't light up.It's normal?
I love keyborad,it's very quiet.Fan is a bid louder than on my other HP dv7.I must buy second caddy to install second hdd? I will put ssd from my dv7.

Where I can download fresh W7? I would like to use key from the sticker on the bottom of my laptop.
Where to buy second caddy for hdd?

 

I don't have HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class
all keys are HKEY

 

I got this for mine, it friggin' rocks...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

 

I saw that one and was between that and this one:

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/adet.to?poid=438065

I'm planning on picking up a Zalman cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834998686&cm_re=Zalman-_-34-998-686-_-Product

...since I do HD video editing, I want to use the Acer at maxed settings for extended times without worrying about it overheating.

Do you think the backpack would have room to fit the 8940G and Zalman while still having room for more accessories in the future?

...any chance you could post some pictures of the backpack? I hate how they only have one or two shots of a backpack so you never really know all it offers.

 

Do this instead: Hit F3, and in the box type "LedMode" and search. Everytime it comes up, change the setting to whatever you want it to be. (0=off, 1=blink, 2=on) It came up in three different registry keys for me, so it should be the same for yours, but could be different since I had done some driver reinstallations.

Then reboot!

 

Man,I just try play CRYSIS and I am in big shock.I am able to play at max resolution 1920x1080 and high settings.OMG OMG OMG !!!


Where to buy caddy? I want install SSD as main drive and HDD as storage.

 

20 seconds and done
Thanks