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

I had installed 8GB (2x4GB) of memory on my rig, (Canadian unit) with no issues well over a year ago.
I was wondering if anyone has tried installing 16GB (2x8GB) on a North American unit.

The only attempt of installing and running 16GB (2x8GB) of memory that I've found was on a German site that I can't seem to find anymore and it was a very brief little blurb that I found on Google, so I hope someone can enlighten me on this topic.

It's unfortunate that Acer only included 4GB (2x2GB) of memory from the factory, which was far too small an amount for a machine of this size. It would have been nice if they had included four, or even six memory slots from the factory, don't you think?

Thanks, all!

 

Anyone aware of a mod to increase the volume from the speakers and I'm not talking about making adjustments in Realtek from the control panel?

 

Thanks for the pics - you helped me find the caddy I needed for my 8942G

 

did you ever get the card reader sorted out? I can't see mine in device manager at all - even with the drivers installed - thanks

 

As I understand, you should be able to upgrade your card maximum to M4000 (AMD) or K1100M (NVIDIA). Both of them are very powerful cards, designed for professional software usage. If you are a gamer, than you should search for M4000, it has better performance in games. For cheaper solution search for 6770M (With EEPROM chip soldered on it). All cards must be pulled from DELL or HP cards - those are working with acers laptops. For more information feel free to ask, or you can search about M4000, M5950 and 6770M in Aspire 5739G forum.

 

Propolkin, how are you so sure that you could swap the GT240M with an AMD Firepro M4000 just like you did with your laptop? Are the 240M and the M4000 the same size? Are the motherboards the same of our laptops? How about cooling the new video card? (you use this one: ACFanControl - Software Informer. ACFanControl finds both fans for CPU and GPU and control the speed., right? I am asking this because I would be highly interested in swapping my GT240M for an M4000 but I have no idea how to do it and how to not screw things up. I looked at my service manual and I basically have to strip my entire laptop. I am very scared of ruining something. Anyway, I looked through the Aspire 5739G Owners lounge (I started at the page I am send to when I click on your video card spec in your banner) and you guys seem to be doing a good job of modding your laptops, kudos! Could you maybe help me understand the process better of swapping the GT240M with an M4000?

 

First of all: sorry for delayed answer.

Both GT240M and M4000 are made in standardized size type - MXM III Type A. All cards made observing MXM standards, have the same screw layout, same GPU chip layout and so on. The main thing is that connectors (pinouts) of video cards are the same. Thus, you only have to think only about cooling.

Motherboards are completely different - only layout of GPU mounting positions has some common things - VGA connector and mounting holes.

In addition you should check if new card can be mounted on your heat sink without damaging or short-circuiting any of its components. For example, huge DC condenser on PCB of the M4000 or 6770M can be damaged because of the heatsink design in some laptops. And don`t forget, that M4000 is DELL or HP part - such cards always have slightly different mounting system. On such cards is installed so-called X-bracket, that is fitted with glue-tape on the PCB of the video card. This X-bracket has to be removed, but with great care and caution - there is high chance of damaging the components of the card. The best way to do it - heat up this X-bracket with heat-gun and carefully lifting each corner serially. Without X-bracket your card should fit into your laptop, if no components of the cards are touching the heatsink.

About cooling - GT240M has 23W TDP and M4000 33W TDP. 8940G, if it has quad-core processor installed as factory default, has good heatsing, that is capable to handle maximum heat from such card. That means, that you shouldn`t think about addition cooling solutions. Just apply good thermal paste, like Arctic Silver 5, and use good thermal pads. Don`t forget, that M4000 GPU chip is smaller by ~1mm than GT240M, thus probably you I`ll face the situation, when you have to apply a little bit more amount of thermal paste on M4000 GPU chip.

About ACFanControl - I don`t know, if this software supports chipset, BIOS fan tables and fan controller, like your laptop has. Your laptop, as I remember, has only one fan for whole cooling system. Thus, if that software works with your lappy, than it should control only this one fan. You should make some experiments about it.

And about dis-assembling your lappy - for the first time it is scary, yes. But after some practice you`ll see no difficulty in dis-assemble process. I regularly dis-assemble my lappy each 1-3 months. For cleaning purpose, for example. Of course you have to be very attentive in that process.

If you have additional questions, feel free to ask.

And before you start the dis-assemble process, you should study service manual of your laptop really good.

It seems I have to make a thread, in which GPU swapping process is described for our Acers. There are so many people asking me about it.

For the best modding experience of the laptops, you should check triturbo`s laptop - it is really cool modded. Really. Cool. Modded!

 

No need to be sorry, I am already more than grateful that you replied . And yes, you should probably make a thread about it as I saw a lot of people are asking you about it haha

After inspecting my service manual further, there is one thing which I do not understand at all. Where they explain in the service manual how I should remove my graphics card they show pictures of an AMD graphics card instead of an Nvidia graphics card (see picture). I have no idea why this is, do you have an idea?

I already understood that I would have to remove the X bracket from the your Owners Lounge, use Artic silver 5 and good thermal pads (I bookmarked many pages from your owners lounge ). However, what do you mean by this: "if no components of the cards are touching the heatsink.". Isnt the point of the heatsink to draw heat away from the videocard to the thermal module? At least that is what I understood by looking at my service manual (see picture). Referring to the picture once again, do you think the heatsink design will shortcircuit components of the M4000 were I to install it. I tried looking at you service manual as a point of reference but your heatsink differs considerable from mine. Also, do you know if the video cards are the same size? I have trouble finding the dimensions of each video card.

As for the actual swapping of video cards, you guys have a way easier time swapping the video cards for your laptops. I looked through your service manual and you only have to remove the back cover and some screws. Whereas I have to remove, in order: the lower cover, the keyboard, power board, lcd module, upper cover, mainboard, kensington lock bracket, TV tuner antenna, subwoofer, hinge supports, thermal module, graphics card heatsink, to be finally able to remove the video card. So you can probably understand why I am a bit nervous about swapping my video card.

triturbo sure has an awesome laptop!

Many thanks for your help so far!

 

On the service manual is shown AMD card because of the laptop by factory default came with GTS250M, GT240M, AMD HD4650 (if I remember correctly).

All MXM III Type A cards, that are compatible with our laptops, have the same sizes. But some components on some cards are physically higher - those can be damaged installing the card on the heatsink. Sometimes this problem can be solved just by cutting some metal from the heatsink. But I don`t think, that your situation is a case when new card will not fit. I only can tell you that the best option to find an answer - you should buy it and try to install.

For example, when I had GT240M installed in my laptop, there were no components, that were touching the heatsink, but when M4000 was installed, one condenser was almost touching the heatsink. If it would be larger by ~2mm, it would damage the thermal pads and touch the heatsink.

Yes, as I said, dis-assemble process for the first time is really hard. But than, when you are familiar with the structure of notebook, you`ll face no troubles in dis-assembling process. Just give it a try.

I hope that your upgrade with M4000 will be successful. After that I`ll create a thread-manual describing the installation of M5100, M4000, 7770M, M5950, HD6770M, HD4650M, HD4670M, GT240M, GTS250M, K1000M, K2100M on the basis of your and mine laptops.

 

Ah alright, that explains a lot.

I understand that buying a videocard and seeing if it fits is the best option but it is also a costly gamble, so I try to stack to odds in my favor by doing some research How do I know which components are supposed to 'touch' the heatsink and which components should not 'touch' the heatsink? And by touching I mean that the components touch the heatsink via thermal paste, for components to touch the heatsink directly would be bad I assume.

Browsing through your forum I came accross someone who ordered an M4000 from Aliexpress. I cant seem to find the post anywhere but would this one: For DELL Precision M4000 AMD 216 0834044 1GB MXM 3.0 DDR5 VGA /video card Chelsea XT 0PR80C PR80C Graphics Card-in Graphics Cards from Electronics on Aliexpress.com be the right M4000? And how do I know which video card has the right BIOS?

Sorry for all the questions

 

The link you provided has correct video card, that`ll fit in our laptops. All M4000 have proper BIOS - DELL or HP. Cards with that BIOS will work without any additional flashing. About other card`s BIOS - just browse the web and search for the compatibility of them with your laptop. For example on some 6770M BIOS chip is needed to be soldered on the PCB - they are ROMless. After that you have to flash them with HP or DELL BIOS. But, as I said, in situation with M4000 you don`t have to do such things - just remove X-bracket, install M4000 and after that just install drivers.

On the first picture you can see two gray elements on the card (upper right corner) - those can touch the heatsink directly. But, as I already said, I don`t think that this is your case - I doubt that those components will touch the HS directly. Even if they can touch directly - you always can chisel a little the place of physical contact.

 

Alright, I have exams now so I'll start modding afterwards. I don't have the time to potentially ruin my laptop right now . Thank you for your help so far, but I do have a couple more questions if that's okay with you.

On which elements of the M4000 should I put thermal paste? I figured I should put it on the place I circled red but I am not sure if I should put it on the places I circled yellow.

In the meantime, as a way of procrastination, I am trying to figure out how ACFancontrol works. So far I read the manual here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/536084-fan-control-utility.html and I tried to understand the manual I got with the download (but it's in German, and my German is not that good) but I still feel like this guy: http://www.quickmeme.com/img/4f/4f53b25b5732d1683aaf4c60555e7ad30ce1bf8c5e54f3814f79074f441f1ecd.jpg. I have no idea how to read/find the temperatures or how to pick the right 'offset' (or what an offset is for that matter). Do you know where I can find an answer to these questions? I tried googling but to no avail.

 

Ooo damn! That`s a picture with Patric! Damn, I`m now sitting in the office and laughing like an idiot!

Yep, you need to apply thermal paste only on the place circled RED, and only on the graphical processor itself, not on the base of it! On the places you`ve circled yellow you have to apply thermal pads.

About ACFanControl - you should download my .ini file, that I`ve posted somewhere here in that thread. With that it should work fine with you T9900.

 

I was laughing too when I found that picture! He looks just as dumbfounded as me haha

Alright, so if I understand you correctly, I should thermal paste on the graphical processor itself and thermal pads on everything else too 'touch' the heatsink?

Sounds good, problem is that I don't have a T9900, I have an i7 720QM (1.6GHz, 1333 MHz FSB), would it still work then?

 

I`m sorry, that`s my fault. I`ve forgotten, that I`m in 8940G thread currently. I`m sorry, but I think, that on your laptop ACFaNControl will not work.

 

I think it should probably work as the guy who wrote this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/536084-fan-control-utility.html uses an Acer 8940G-6865. I use an Acer 8940G-724G50MN but I assume ACFanControl would still work on my laptop, dont you think so? He even posted his .ini for ACfancontrol but he has a different BIOS. Does it matter that a lot if he also has a different BIOS than me? I would ask the guy who wrote the manual himself but he hasnt been online in the last 7 months.

EDIT 1: his .ini seems to work for my laptop so that's good but I still have no idea how to read and interpret acfancontrol.

EDIT 2: is there anyway to underclock the M4000?

And as for my previous post, I should thermal paste on the graphical processor itself and thermal pads on everything else too 'touch' the heatsink, right?

 

Yep, you should put thermal paste on the graphical processor, not on its base, and thermal pads on VRAM chips.

Underclock M4000? I have not tried to over/underclock it, but with such programs as RivaTuner, MSI Afterburner and so on. You should browse the internet about it - there are lot of guides about that.

In addition, you can ask Meaker about overclocking this GPU - he has overclocked it too, as he has overclocked 6770M and 7770M.

If ACFanControl with his .ini file is working (your fan is spinning on various speeds in dependence of CPU temp), than you don`t need to read/write new tables in ACFanControl.

 

Alright thanks for the confirmation and information! I figured that in case my laptop does get too hot because of the GPU, underclocking it might be a good idea to reduce the heat production.
EDIT: do you know what your temperature gain was from installing the M4000 vs the GT 240M?

I toyed around a bit further with ACFanControl this morning and I got good results!

Lastly, just to be sure, you reccomended these two right?: Fujipoly Extreme System Builder Thermal Pad - 1/4 Sheet - 150 x 100 x 1.0 - Thermal Conductivity 11.0 W/mK - FrozenCPU.com & Thermal Paste grease SILVER KING STAR INTEL I3 5 I7 PROCESSOR CPU ARCTIC ARTIC | eBay

 

Nope, if mine laptop became cooler after installation of M4000, than yours will not experience any problems with overheating on stock clocks.

About thermal pads - yes, About thermal paste - no. Use this.

 

That was all I needed to know (for now at least )

Thanks a lot for all you help man! I am going to hunt for the M4000 on eBay and if I don't find one in the next couple of weeks I will order one from aliexpress. I will keep you updated but I don't expect to start modding before September with exams and vacations and all. Cheers!

 

Hope that you`ll pass all your exams! And I hope that my help will be helpfull when M4000 will be ordered.