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

@ Rokkzz

I spent three days gently prying apart my notebook to find where the Bluetooth hookup was located. I was also installing other components as well which is why it took three days to completely strip down this notebook. But all in all if you're just going to install the Bluetooth all you have to do is remove screws from the bottom of the notebook and pry off the key board and top cover. Then install the Bluetooth module and reassemble the notebook in reverse order from how you took it apart. it's that simple... well for me anyway.

 

I downloaded all new drivers from Acer site, and also have done Acer Upgrade (from Start-Programs-Acer menu) and still the same issue... It makes laptop unusable (i.e. starting a Calculator takes 4 seconds!).

I've just started Acer eRecovery Management, which will erase everything and install Win all over again, however, I suspect that won't change a thing.

 

It did't help. Maybe I need new DirectX? I'll try that also, but I guess I'll have to return the laptop.

Update: Installing new version of DirectX didn't hel eather.

 

Try reinstalling the os might be a bad install. If you don't have a great deal to lose.

 

I have reinstalled it already, from hidden partition on a hard drive, and it's the same. For example: it takes about 5 seconds to open Paint, up to 10 seconds to open Acer manual for this laptop in Adobe Reader, etc.

 

I test my speakers and my subwoofer is very quiet.No matter how many dB is -10 or +10 the subwoofer play same level.When I turn ON or turn OFF subwoofer there is no difference in audio.

Anyone know how to fix it?

 

I don't see a difference either.

 

isaacjw1980......I took delivery of the bluetooth module, and took all the screws out of the bottom cover including hdd cover, hdd dvd/BD rom, and the 2.5 X 4, and 2.5 X 6 screws located in this area.

Once flipped back over the top plastic cover surround and the keyboard started coming off from the front but that as far as i got, the rest of the cover and keyboard wouldn't budge, I checked on the under side again to make sure there wasn't hidden screws holding it, but no luck. how much force did you use to remove the top cover/keyboard? Was there anything else you did to remove it?

Help appreciated


Cheers

 

I ended up using the 8935G service manual to learn how to disassemble to install bluetooth module.

But now the bluetooth light flashes fast all the time unless I turn it off. Is this normal....module used is BCM4026.

 

You should be using Acer original BCM92046NMD 2.1 + EDR for optimal compatibility with the 8940G main board. you can find this one on ebay here...
Acer Bluetooth Module 2.1 fr Aspire 8940 8940G +cable - eBay (item 290435822104 end time Jul-14-10 19:50:45 PDT)

The service manual for this note book can be found here...
http://www.intellcity.ru/content-2/service-manual-notebook-Acer/service-manual-Acer-Aspire-8935G.pdf

 

Hi Guy's!

I also hawe an Acer Aspire 8940g with 2x 320GB HDD and a free mini PCIe slot as I dont have a TV card in it.
My idea was taht I poot a mini SSD kard in that free slot. I got a SATA RunCore mini CPIe 64GB SSD and I poot itin, BUT the bios didn't recognise it :-/ I was afrade of that ...

My question is: the mini SSD is not recogniset by BIOS becuse it's 64GB (I dont think so), because it\ an SATA and noth an PATA ore just it's not enabled in BIOS that funtion ore something similar ....
What do are your tougths guys?

Thak youin adwance!

 

Hey Ichibanov!
Did you try it out? If not, please do so and schare your expireiance. I would be much greatfule!

I bought that Port Desing bag. It's great. The onely thing is that I got onely one raincower and it's the green one .... i would hawe like to hawe the gray one, but .... it's still a gread roomy bag.

 

Ah! I forgot all about trying that. Got all caught up in actually using the thing and forgot about the testing. I'll dig the SSD out tomorrow night and see how it goes.

I ended up getting the Targus XL as I had no luck getting anyone to actually send me the Toshiba bag. It's a bit of a tight fit when the 8940 is in the neoprene sleeve I purchased from Newegg, but it just makes it. A rain-cover would have been great, but at this point I'm happy to have a bag at all.

Anyone else have a squeaky space bar? Mine started squeaking slightly after only a few days. None of the other keys have given me trouble, but I do find this annoying. If anyone knows of an easy way to fix it, I'd be grateful for a solution.

 

Thanks Ichibanov! That would be geat! I think you hawe a PATA modul (at leas I hope). I'll courious what youll say....

My spacebar is alsosqueaking ... it's quite annozing. I read someware that you can get a new one when you still hawe the garanty, but ... you shold ask aboult it wher you bought it. I also don't know what realy to doo about it.

All the baest!

 

I thought I'd test the PCI-e SSD while I was imaging another machine, but removing the cover gave me some pause. I undid all the screws but, as others have pointed out, the cover seems to be held down by other means.

Last thing I want to do is snap some little plastic parts on my favorite toy. Anyone have advice on precisely where to pry the lid up once the screws are loosened? I tried the obvious spot, but that really looked like it was about to break so I stopped.

Sorry for the delay Westzer. Just don't want to rush and break this great notebook.

BTW, I never really submitted a review but after owning and using this for a few months, it really is an awesome unit. I'm very glad I decided to get this vs a much cheaper 17" i5 Dell.

 

The best way to open the back cover is in the midle at the batery/acu side there is a smale opening/lpace where you can lift it. It'll bend a bit, but you hawe to lift it and in the same time pool the cower in direction of the batery/acu whit smal sid-to-side mowement. Thene makes a pup and all looses off. At first time it realy comes hart oway, that sure. All the screws are secured to the back cover so don't worry using more forece at the first time. I hope you'll get it open without no problem.

Thank you for your effort!

 

Does anyone have sync problems with their iPhone? It tells me that it can't restore the iPhone because the backup operation failed. And now everytime I plug in my iPhone 4 it tries to set it up as a new iPhone.

 

Hi guys

Well it turns out the module and wire purchase from ebay was faulty, the seller sent the wrong wire that connects the module to the laptops motherboard. the seller told me the fix was to cut the 4th and sent a picture with a arrow to cut the 4th, when cut didn't work at all.

So purchased from another seller, cable sent was completely different, and works fine, but just want to confirm is the light meant flash on and off when there is activity like the wifi does?

Because when i don't use the bluetooth mouse for a while the light stops (no communication activity) then starts again when i use the mouse.....

I know some users have changed reg files to stop the wifi light to stop blinking when there is communication activity(downloading) but is not as annoying as the bluetooth light flash nearly all the time with use of a bluetooth mouse.

Cheer

 

Maybe there's a way to physically disconnect or attenuate that light using a special material?

You can try going through the registry, see if you can find a setting that refers to "light". The WiFi one was incredibly poorly designed. Hard to believe someone looked at that and think it's a good idea.

 

On the left side next to the HDMI port is a port called DISPLAY in the Quick Guide. Is anyone familiar with this and what type of cable can be used?

 

It is a "display port" port, designed to be cabled to a minitor with its own display port connector.

 

I want to replace my 18.4 lcd screen with a better one like the Toshiba Qosmio one for example. I hate the negative and gray color shifting and low contrast ratios on this lcd. An engineering guy at my work and I looked at the 8935g manual in this forum and he will help me do it. Does anyone know two things - the screen part used in this computer and where I could find out if the Toshiba 18.4 part can be bought and would replace this one or of another screen I could get that is better.

 

Why not sell the Acer and buy the Tosh?

 

When I boot-up with battery only, I start out with about 1:30 of battery time. What are you others start with?

 

Does anyone know if the 8940g can hold 12.5mm high hard drives? I really want to get one or two 1TB drives but they aren't a standard laptop size. I assume it would as the 8940g is a bit of a monster, but I thought I would ask anyway just in case.

I tried asking Acer Support but they were useless as usual. lol

 

No, they dont fit in the 8940G. I tried to fit one in mine and it did not fit.

 

DisplayPort - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I'm having this problem. I had this problem with my 3GS and now with my iPhone 4. From what I've heard it requires a bios update. I checked my bios and it's at 3114. Is there any other update available? Some people mention that if there is a setting in the bios called c-state then that can fix the problem.

 

Whenever I insert a sd card in the card slot, the laptop never "finds" that I have just inserted a new card. However, the laptop will find the card once I do a reboot. Does this happen to anyone else? Any solutions for this?

 

still have problrem with sd card.anyone have same problem?
I insert card but it takes few minutes to read card ,pictures won't open etc

also is there any way to slow down fan speed? even at idle fan is fast and loud.

 

I just got one of these laptops. I know, kinda late to the party.

What was the final verdict on mini PCI-E SSD drives in the TV card slot? Do they work or not? Will a half height Intel Wifi-link 6300 work?

 

cant say on ssd but mini wifi 6300 will work. you will need to route a third antenna up to your lcd for max throughput

 

Thanks for the reply aleic. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to secure the half height card with screws. I would probably just use the existing two antenna wires as I don't really want to try taking this screen apart unless absolutely necessary.

 

Hi IndyMCSE!

I had one mini PCI-E SSD from Supertalent with 64GB but it did not worked.
I read someweare that it has to bee recognised from the BIOS, so .... you cant do much about it an les the BOIS is edited (integrated the data form the SSD modul). As I didn't find a correckt BIOS Editing Tool, I sold the mini PCIe SSD modul and boutht an SSD HDD. That works withpout problem.

The Skreen to take a part is not a big trouble. I had some dust particals beatween the display an the Protektion glas and I centered my camera, because it didn't pointed strait.

The laptop is a gread bild, but it's realy sad thing that it has such poor BIOS :-/ I was also thinking to change the GPUcard, BUT ..... I'm afraid it woud also not be recognised from the BIOS, I don't know, ... maybee I'm wrong ...

I hope I'm not to late with my post.

All the best!

 

My ACER Aspire 8940G with Geforce GT240M , I7 720QM , is overheating in RISEN in 15 minutes with the lowest specs in medium resolution . It touches temps of 100C and shutting down after one hour and a half.
It also has problems with flash videos, in fullscreen. It halts, and can only be shut off via the power button.
It has indicated problems with HD videos. Low performance in 1080p.
All these happen randomly. I can play RISEN for 4 hours one day with no problem. Then another it heats immediately. The same thing with multimedia applications.
Other people with same problem
http://www.theacerguy.com/forum/topic/aspire-8940g-irregular-crash?replies=9#post-7381
The crash in video from another user
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPbY_9N-AhE
People with problems with same cpu and card
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/511005-m15x-gpu-gt-240m-problem.html
Solution ? None so far.
Ill try to read the whole Aspire 8940G Owners lounger and find some clues.
Though i see that most have the GT250 S card.

Id greatly appreciate any valid ideas.

I have the exact same problem occasionally

EXACTLY!!

My laptop has heating problems, read above please.

 

Hey Aspire8940G!

First of all, I would suggest that you send your Laptop in ACER service, because many people who had Aspire 8940g GT240M got it back with GT250M!!!

What the YOUTUBE and other Flash video playbak problems, you should look for the newest GPU driver by nVidia. I also had such of problems in the start with my 8940G.
To find the driver try this searching engine by nVidia
NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Automatically Detect NVIDIA Products

I hope I helped you some way.

I wish you all the best!

 

Is your version of Adobe Flash at 10.2.x? Try turning off hardware acceleration in Flash......

 

From my experience with the laptop so far, it is due to 2 factors: inadequate cooling and crap BIOS.

Fortunately, I've been able to remedy the 2nd situation by forcing the fan to be at full speed all the time. The cooling system in place is still not enough to cool the i7 720QM + a GPU sufficiently, but this should be enough for most games.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/536084-fan-control-utility.html

You need to know your way around the system a bit though. If you need anything, hit me up with a PM. I'll help you set up.

And the fan at max is surprisingly quiet, too. Nothing lost, a lot gained.

 

Thanks, ive tried the updates, in Bios as well and the acceleration n Flash is no big problem anyway.
But what about the replacement of GT240, with GT250M? How do u know, so? Are you sure? Doesnt GT250M have lower benchmarks?
Thank you anyway!

Thank you my friend, i pmed you about this. Although in my humble opinion the noise from the fan can be annoying.
The bios of this machine is very basic, huh.

I dont want to spoil the fun though, this machine is great in any other way. hope you enjoy it

 

Yes you can get an upgrade to the GTS 250m. It should be a significant improvement in performance. It uses more power though, so be wary of that.

 

Does the esata port sends out power?

 

Yes! It's a eSata port!

 

A lot of eSata ports dont have power and devices take power from USB connections actually.

However in this case it is.

 

BTW, the "e" in esata stands for external. I assume that you bolded the "e" to represent power.

 

still have this problem
laptop find sd cart but pictures don't load or load partialy and not able to view,frezing etc
I try different drivers and nothing.This is the only problem with this computer which I can't fix it.

 

I had a problem that was similar but with an Ipod touch 3 and a bluetooth dongle (iogear). Connection was a problem on my 8940g Acer Aspire. So here is what I did to fix it, and it worked. First: my system is Win 7 x64, with a Intel 5/3400 chipset under USB.

Notes during fix, as it happened:
"1st installed latest Java: java.com: Java + You
Checked under device manager universal serial bus controllers to see Intel 5 series/3400 chipset ID
Then went to Intel to check drivers: Intel® Driver Update Utility
It wouldn't install!!!!!!
went to manual download: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx?lang=eng
Went to Chipsets--> Laptop Chipsets --> Intel 5 series: Windows 7, 64-bit, drivers:
Showed: Inf update utility - primarily for Intel 6,5,4, etc. clicked on, download, accept, run.
Closed programs, updated drivers.
Clicked my blutooth icon for my plug-in iogear dongle:
It bleeped a lot for about 30 seconds, installed drivers, had iPod on discoverable:connected successfully!"

Hope this helps somebody. Out.

 

My Acer 8940g is sitting on a shelf in a neoprene case I found on Amazon. I added the bluetooth module and the second hard drive caddy but never added a second hard drive. I plan to upgrade the RAM to 8gb and get an SSD. I would sell it since I don't use it that often but I don't want to get like $400 for it on Ebay. I also used some Displex to mostly eliminate the swirling scratches on the shiny palmrest lip. I have also noticed a small dust particle behind the screen I supposes I should open and take out. It is a fun laptop to play with occasionally. When I added the bluetooth I partially popped off one of my keys and could never figure out how to snap it back in, so I had to spring for a brand new keyboard. Does anyone know the trick to fixing the keys? Also when I put in the new keyboard it has a bit more spring in the middle, I wasn't sure if I engaged the retention brackets fully at the top but I can't really do any better than what I did, any thoughts on that?

 

Has anyone upgraded the GPU from the 240M to another Nvidia model? Can I just do a chipset upgrade without having to replace the whole board?

 

Hi I've just upgraded from a a gt240 to gts 250m card

 

How difficult was it to swap them out?