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

Guys

I updated to the latest bios, 311, two things I noticed (improvement) if the volume was at full and you turn it up, no icon appeared, now it does, and because these have a bluetooth button but no bluetooth, when you go to turn it on a cross now appears, indicating no bluetooth.

Guys a question about your fan, does it spin continuously, as before the bios upgrade I though it turned off occasionally, but now spins all the time.

Things I need to do is , buy a HDD caddy, any idea on where to get them?
And install bluetooth internal module, does the whole rear cover need to come off?

 

Today I open my laptop and install sdd.Second hdd stay in place without caddy.
it's not caddy,just small piece of metal which hold hdd

 

My fan isn't really on that much it seems. I can't hear it at least.

So did the maximum actual volume change? Or just the display?

 

So did you put the 500GB as the secondary without a bracket, and the SDD is the primary? or kept as is?

Did you have to purchase the metal to old the hdd, or was it already in there?

 

I feel the sound has improved since the bios update and I have a feeling they had overheating issues with the i7 has the fan is on alot more since the upgrade, I might install a fan control program myself.

 

yes,original 500GB as secondary without bracket
sdd as primary

no bracket in laptop

 

I will have some pics posted as soon as I can, things are busy right now being x-mas break.

 

hey guys
what programs did You remove from hdd? I don't have fresh copy of W7.

 

Ok guys, I have just finished talking with acer support and from what I was told they are NOT currently supplying extra parts for the 8940G. So, for every one looking for an extra hard drive retention bracket you will have to waight till Q1 2010. If you you wanted the Blue Tooth module or the TV-Tuner for this Notebook you will have to waight for those as well. From what I under stand new varients of the 8940G-???? will be available in Q1 2010 and part wont be available till then. they won't even tell you the part numbers are or what amanufacturer makes the parts so you can order them direct.

Here is some good news, the HDD retention Bracket from the Aspire 4720 series will fit in the 8940G... http://www.laptoprepairparts.com/html/details.asp?ref=376&category=caddys

FYI... Acer tech support blows!

 

out of stock but I found one on ebay
when I receive I will let You know if fit

 

Holy crapples, The 18,4" edition of this notebook costs 1700 euro's here.

Is there a 16" edition?

 

I want install fresh copy of Windows 7
What drivers I must install after? please list all so I will know which one to download from acer web page

 

Same, I think the standard acer install has bloatware and slows the laptop down. As far as the drivers are concerned, select win 7 home premium and it lists all the drivers that arn't included in win 7.

How will you do a fresh install of Win7? as the only way I know is with the original recover discs created when first purchased but I'm afraid it will most likely install the bloatware too.

 

I want install fresh Windows 7 and I want to use key number which came with laptop (sticker on bottom) I just need to find free download or free W7 disc.

Where to download Windows 7 for free?

 

I was planning on purchasing the 8940g in the next week. Do you think I should wait till next year for the new models?

 

I download these drivers

Chipset Intel
Camera Suyin
Cardreader
Fingerprint
LAn Broadcom
SATA Intel
Wireless LAN

also which one to download?

Others Nvidia or VGA Nvidia?
Which Touchpad driver? Acer or Synaptic?


What file in driver folder to click to install each driver?

 

Unfortunately, I believe that the Win7 edition that is given to us with the 8940G is an OEM locked version. That means that you'll likely need to find an Acer OEM version of Win7 to install, not the retail version.

The safest (though most time consuming) thing to do is to use the Acer backup/recovery tool to burn a set of recovery DVD's and just install using that set of DVD's. You can then uninstall the bloatware after that's done.

 

I did it http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428068

than I install drivers from burned disc when I receive laptop
I burn recovery 3 dvd and 1 dvd with drivers and applications

I loose only on screen volume control ( big circle when using keyborad volume wheel)

anyone know how to fix this little issue ?

 

Alright guys unfortunately it happened again. I was watching a video and as soon as i went to full screen it locked up and crashed. Here's the event windows recorded:

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA8004461410
BCP2: FFFFF88005A8B260
BCP3: FFFFFFFFC000009A
BCP4: 0000000000000004
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1
Bucket ID: X64_0x116_TdrBCR:4:C000009A_Tdr:2_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys
Server information: 934435e8-3171-4150-9c17-f27029782cf3

After it happened a notice appeared saying "Adress a problem with NVIDIA graphics driver" but when i click it it always says failed to download solution, with no instructions for further action.

Once again any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

what type of video?
dvd,avi,stream etc

 

right. was it a Flash video on the web?

 

Yeah it was a flash video on youtube. Last time it was a megavideo video.
Ive played a dvd on it as well and it worked but every now and then it would freeze for like half a second then continue.

 

can someone say to me, if the video card is an mxm 3.0 A or B, i have call acer support and they says to me that is an mxm 3.0 A. someone confirm this? any photo?

 

it happen to me only one time
black sreen and computer not respond
no error message

 

I fixed this on my 8940G by disabling hardware acceleration for Flash. I did this by right-clicking on windowed video and unchecking the hardware acceleration checkbox. The problem never never happened again.

I will probably update my video drivers when Flash 10.1 releases, then re-enable hardware acceleration at that point. I have become gunshy of living on driver update treadmill.

 

This worked for me as well. Good post.

 

I seem to have found a workaround for the weak speaker signal.

Right click on the speaker icon, choose playback devices, doubleclick on Speakers, then go to the Enhancements tab. Enable "Loudness Equalization". This must have increased my volume by 30%. Let me know if this works out for the rest of you.

(note: if you want to tweak more of these settings, having "Immediate Mode" enabled will let you feel the effects immediately without having to click on "apply".)

 

You can play with audio settings here


control panel > realtek HD audio menager

 

Thanks I'll try this!!! Thanks to everyone for helping!

 

I just find out that 8940G can NOT read SDHC carrds
I buy 16GB SDHC and my new 8940G can't read that

my father old cheap compaq read without problems

can someone explain this to me?

 

I know it says it works with SDHC cards...

I almost bought a high speed CF reader from Lexar, but I read in some reviews that it doesn't read 32GB CF cards. I've got a $5 reader off of ebay that reads 32GB cards...and Lexar's response is "get two 16GB cards".

Did you try 8GB SDHC cards on the Acer?

 

no,I return that card but I found cheap reader which I can plug into USB
maybe this will work?

 

Just ordered my 8940g from B&H! Got $40 back from Bing plus they had cheap overnight shipping so it should be here tomorrow!

 

You will love this computer.
I had some problems with drivers after fresh W7 install.
I reinstall factory system and delete few programs.Now running good.

 

Hi guys,

Nice thread you have here, wish I would have found this earlier when doing the research on the notebook Not that I'm having any major issues with the monster but ... anyway.

Anyone had problems with the reference nVidia drivers?
In a desperate attempt to squeeze just a little bit more power from the graphics card, I tried downloading and installing the latest and greatest v195.62 WHQL for Notebook Geforce 200M -series and Windows 7 64bit.
( http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us )

However, when trying to install I get the error which states roughly: No compatible hardware found.
Which to me sounds strange as the dropdown menus on the page specifically state "Geforce 200M Series (Notebooks)"


PS. I had no idea of this entire MxM upgrade -thingy before I reached this thread. Sounds awesome, I only hope it would really work...
Neither did I have any idea of the upcoming 8942 -model, I might have had the patience to wait for that one had I known....

 

I took a look at the release notes for 195.62 here: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/195.62/195.62_Win7_WinVista_Notebook_Release_Notes.pdf and on page 28 the only listed GTS model is the GTS 160M. On this basis, I decided not to install 195.62.

 

Hi all, I'm dying to get my hands on one of these beasts but have a few questions first..

Anyone installed Linux on it and how did it work ? I generally run Ubuntu, and Kubuntu has become my favourite now.

Where can it be got in the UK or Ireland ? I've been googling like mad but can't find any suppliers.

 

From NVIDIA's driver scan results page:

But there's a way around this limitation!

Guide for installing new NVIDIA drivers on "incompatible" hardware: http://www.theexperienceblog.com/20...cs-chipsets-in-windows-7-when-all-else-fails/

Works great with 195.62 on my 8940G.

#187: Everything I've tried works out of the box on Ubuntu 9.10 for me. I have not tested bluetooth and WLAN and cardreader in practise though. They show up as working though. But webcam definitely works. Tell me if you want to test anything, I have no reason to believe it doesn't work since the hardware shows up and it detects networks and stuff.

PS: My 8940G BSOD's (CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT) on Win7 when upgrading BIOS from 3109 to 3111. If I force Win7 to run in single-core mode, it just freezes. I had to do the upgrade in DOS.

 

Awesome, that's good enough for me. Many thanks for the info !

 

No problem HoppityBob. BTW, this place (for buying) was mentioned earlier in the thread: http://uk.insight.com/apps/nbs/inde...d&utm_campaign=webgains&src=wbg1&siteid=54264

It's the 8942G in two versions but it's only "ordered on request".

About drivers in Windows: I did a clean install. I looked in devmgmt.msc and AFAIR I only needed to get a driver for the fingerprint reader. They have drivers for every component though on the Acer website, so I don't really see why I should have kept the Win7 Home Premium with bloat (not that much actually, but it annoys me anyway, and I don't like those "rescue partitions". There were crap Acer "arcade" games too), when I can install a fresh english (I bought mine in a retail shop in Germany) Win7 Ultimate.

 

Thanks icedaddy and Ysangkok,

So it would seem, that´s a pity. Well, I might just go and try the workaround Ysangkok gave... if I have the time, energy and motivation to do it

 

Hello HoppityBob,

I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 desktop edition on my 8940g with no major issues. The install was pretty straightforward and I used the latest Nvidia drivers via the following procedures (though the drivers have been updated since the instructions were posted - I'm going to assume they'll still work for the latest version) - http://www.ubuntugeek.com/install-n...0-42-in-ubuntu-karmicjauntyintrepidhardy.html

My only issue is that the front right side USB ports are not working for me, but I don't know if that's a hardware issue (more likely) than OS/software related. The rear right and left hand side USB ports work fine.

Let me know if you have any specific questions or tests you'd like me to run.

Tariq

 

wifi led is red which is strange
should be blue

possible to change that?


also mute button don't light up

 

Hey fantomasz

How is your 60GB OCZ Vertex SSD going in the 8940G? Are you happy with its performance increase, battery life, startup, shut down times


Cheers

 

Guys

Not sure if most of you realise, is that there is a image of the win7 factory install already on your HDD, its in a hidden partion, that is why your only showing 450GB.

If you go to Acer eRecovery, it allows you to factory reset the HDD, without using your DVD image back-up. Unfortunately, it install's fresh windows with the extras.

As I have created an image to disc, I think I might reclaim some HDD space back to around 480GB once the hidden partition deleted.

Some of you who have been experiencing crashes, re: video card....if you go to the acer support page it has a new VGA driver for the GTS250M vesion 8.16.11.8766

http://us.acer.com/acer/service.do?...tx1g.c2att92=453&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=2054404012

I installed this with no crashes, however when you do another Windows Index the graphic and gaming graphic goes down from 6.6 to 6.5.

Cheers

 

For what its worth, I have a micro sd 4GB class 6 sandisk installed no issues, testing readyboost with it.

Cheers

 

Ysangkok

Would be much appreciated if you could cut and paste the two strings(lines) used to put in the nvam.inf as I can't find what device code to use. or better yet, email the nvam file if possible

Cheers

 

Can you tell me if Acer have sorted the heating problems and throttling out on this model, I have the 8930 and the one fan and back casing is a terrible design, I couldn't find any pictures of the inside or the bottom, any help would be great as for some strange reason even with all the problems I still always buy these gemstones haha

 

I don't know about changing the wifi light, but my mute button on the media control does light up (when the "hold" mode is off). My mute button is BLUE when volume is muted.

Hello everyone!

I am a new 8940g owner for about 1 week now. Overall I think I am satisfied with my purchase, but I do have some issues probably more than I expected even for such a new product.

I have read and caught up with the whole thread, but I want to document all my issues (and fixes used) even if I haven't tried the fixes listed in this forum.

Again there are a lot of good things about this laptop and I don't intend to come off negative, I am just focusing on getting to the bottom of all my issues ASAP.


Here it goes:

1. Display. Mine appeared somewhat washed out for my taste when I turned it on. I made changes to brightness, contrast and gamma from the nvidia control panel and I am now 100% happy and impressed with this display.

2. Audio. I am having the same issue others are having with the audio sounding more pronounced on the right side (especially bass) when 5.1 is on. I also noticed that youtube / cnet videos (especially just dialog, reviews etc) have quite a pronounced echo to them when 5.1 is on. I am inclined to think this is actually a design flaw at this point. I didn't buy this laptop for the 5.1 though so I just set it to plain old stereo from the Realtek control panel and this has fixed the echoing. I haven't tried the "equalization fix/improvement" someone else posted to fix the bass and overall audio imbalance.

3. Bloatware / OS install. Not too bad, I opted to just remove all that I could find and this took me 30-60 minutes. I also ran the anytime upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate and once I was fairly happy I created a bloatless image using a knoppix boot cd and partimage that I can restore to save me that headache next time.

4. Touchpad delay after typing. I noticed this and I actually believe this is a feature I have seen on other laptops as well that is intended to prevent unwanted "mousing" or accidental cursor movement when typing on the keyboard. You may be able to change this if you so desire by changing touch pad settings, but I haven't looked because it doesn't bother me.

5. Webcam off center. When using the built in camera at lower resolutions (640x480 and 320x240) you have to move your head to the right in order to be centered within the frame. At first I thought this was an Acer build quality issue the first time I tried to use Skype. Later when poking around in the "Crystal Eye" app, I noticed that when I have the camera set to 720p my head appears centered. When I switch or use apps with lower resolution I notice the problem and it is worst when the resolution is 320x240. Couple this with the fact that the keyboard is off center to the left and it becomes really hard to type or do much else when you video conference. I tried to fix this in the driver by adjusting pan, tilt & zoom, like you can with a logitech cam, but these features are grayed out in the device / driver properties. Anyone also experience this or have a fix for it?

6. eSATA port doesn't seem to work. I just noticed this problem tonight so I haven't had much time to mess with it. This is the first time using any eSATA enclosures for me so it may just be an unexpected learning curve, but I thought I saw a review that mentioned a similar problem on another site.

Any insight or moral support anyone has to offer is greatly appreciated. I will post updates if I find fixes to any of these or other issues I find.

talk to you all later!
DK..

 

I have had this laptop for a month now and the only thing that bothers me is the lag I get when using firefox and chrome or basically any browser. There are lags when I type in any form boxes online such as this on or when I am creating an email in my gmail. Also when I hover my mouse over links, tabs and things similar it will take a while for it to decide what to do and which cursor to display...it pisses me off. There is also lag when I am scrolling down a downloaded website...like the bar will just freeze.

I cannot stress how annoying this is and I have no idea why it does this. The other slow down experienced was when I played Mass Effect...stutter city!! It was soo choppy! Almost all the speaking parts were chopped up and I had to put up captions just to understand what the hell the characters were saying. I even adjusted the settings way down and still choppa chop!

I am so disappointing that I spent so much money on a computer and I am already having issues like this. I do not get it!

Anyone know of a solution?!