Acer Aspire 8942G Core i7 Owners Lounge

I used Arctic Silver, if I remember correctly.

I'm using the standard power adapter, but I have a 150W Dell adapter which I unfortunatly left at home long ago...

 

Ok, thank you!
Enough for the standard AC adapter with overclocking, etc.?
Will become scarce with the power supply, right?

Here is an interesting benchmark:




Cheers

 

Does anyone know how can I disassemble thermal module on this thing?

My fan seems to lost his bearing and it's making really loud and annoying noises, I have a disassembly manual for acer 8942g but I don't know how to disassemble Thermal module(fan+bronze pipes) so I can replace fan itself, its seems like bronze pipes are glued to the fan case.


Also does anyone know what dimensions is this fan, model is SUNON MAGLEV MG55100V1-Q020-599

 

Hello Erik0,

I'm considering buying your i7-920XM.
Please let us know how the temperatures are in stress tests.
With overclocking is very interesting?
That would be a great help!
Thank you.

CPU Benchmarks:




You need to overclock Hyper Threading off?
If so, bring only applications that use them also 4 hardware cores!
(In Skyrim I can ini. File change so that all cores are used)
Many applications benefit from Hyper Threading!

Cheers

 

I have found that overclocking is fine for the standard power adapter, but not for any prolonged use. i.e, when working at the office all day, my computer can clock up around 3.6+ GHz whenever it wants. But when gaming...after an hour I will get BSOD.

If I connect to the monitor, it doesn't happen. So I know the extra 15 estimated watts are just 'not there' in the standard psu. When I connect the 150W adapter I only BSOD at greater than 3.7ish GHz.

So clearly available power is an issue when overclocking a laptop.

 

Ok, 150 watts for the i7-920XM ................
____________________________________________
The temperatures in the stress test? ........
Overclocking works with hyperthreading? ...


I know you're busy,
But it would be incredibly nice if you could answer these two questions.
Thank you:

:smile:

Cheers

 

I finally have my 150W adapter with me in Singapore. I was able to game (MW3) @ 3.6GHz today, without issue. Perviously the connectors where different, and I found it impossible to obtain one with the correct internal and external widths on them, so it wasn't a perfect fit going into the machine. However I chopped off the cord to the old adapter, used crimps, tape, and heat-shrunk it all together. Now its perfect (but heavy).

Maybe it is better if you state what test(s) you would like me to do, and I'll see if I have time at the office tomorrow to perform them.

 

Ok, thank you!

Stress test with prime95?



Cheers

 

You know...I can't get Prime95 to finish without error, halting at around 35 - 40 mins. Tried twice @3.7GHz, and at 3.4GHz. Actually, it seems 3.7GHz is not much use for anything.

Regardless, I run with 3.6GHz as my max possilbe frequency all day without issue, I have to provoke it to crash the machine now.

So I didn't think it was my overclock, and sure enough I found others with the same problem, they were able to test their systems with all other manner of benchmark programs, yet Prime95 is the one that doesn't complete. Here is one of the links to this effect: Bulldozer and prime95 torture test

So do you know Prime95 is old hat? When multiple CPUs / threads became the norm for the enthusiast crowd, people moved over to wPrime.

I could try again at default speeds, but I think the result will be the same. What say you? Any special requests?

BTW, MW3 runs for HOURS without issue using the 150W adapter now...wish I had picked it up months ago..

Right, time for expenses...

 

Hello Eric0,

do not be so complicated.
Just 5 min. a stress test with prime95 and ready.
Time is money.
You must not cook the notebook.
I just want to know the maximum temperatures.

Overclocking works with hyperthreading?


Thank you very much

 

Hello everyone!

Glad to see that this laptop has an active thread. I just register here to ask your owners opinion about it and help me decide.

Well... I found a promo about this laptop:

8942G
i7-720QM
8GB
1TB
18''4
ATI 5850

I'm considering this option because it is the most cheap 18''4 laptop I can find except HP 1050 or 1040.

However I'm a litle afraid that I'm buying something old (2 years at last) and maybe I should go for a more recent processor Toshiba i5-2430M, 8GB, Nvidia 525, 17''3, same price tag around 900€.

NOTE: I will not run games but I will multi-tasking and heavy Internet user as content manager / internet marketing, this means a lot of browser windows opened and some software (photoshop, market samurai, webceo, devexpress, etc).

So, are you happy with the laptop? Is it fast enough? Should it be enough at least for 2 years?

Or should I just forget it?

Thanks in advance.

Antonio

 

The notebook is sufficient.
The quality is great!

Cheers

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

Hello fellow 8942g users,

I wonder, did anyone have any problems with hard drives in this model of laptop? I bought it 1,5 years ago, and six months ago I took it to the service for cleaning and diagnostics. They said that I had system slowed by bad sectors on disk drives and that I should consider replacing them. They also mentioned that this is a common problem with this model. I thought they just wanted me to spend more money for them, because I didn't have any issues before.

Until recently when one morning I couldn't start the system properly. It failed to load my profile and used the temporary one, and everything was working too slow. Full disc scan for errors revealed bad sectors exactly in user profile files area, it helped to load.

And now I'm getting strange data from various HDD utilities. WD utility says that my drives pass SMART test, but they fail quick and extended tests. HDDLife shows 92% health on both drives. Acronis Drive Monitor shows 70% on system drive and 99% on the second drive, while showing degradation in Current Pending Sector Count value on both of drives..

I'm confused...

 

Automatic SMART analyzers are rubbish. Most of them use thresholds- if the threshold is not met (yet)- it's not considered a problem.
If you have pending sectors the drive is finished.
Back up your data and replace it.

BTW- Western Digital HDDs have had such problems and are known to have caused a lot of issues so Acer Support were right about that.

 

Yes! I've sold my 8942G, but in its one year of service, I had had to replace both drives due to bad sectors that just appeared out of nowhere.
I even tried to persuade Acer authorized service centre to grant me some other HDD brand or model, but to no avail.
I used HD Tune application that never failed to provide accurate S.M.A.R.T. information with that WD drive (while WD's own tools are just plain rubbish).

 

Ok, thanks guys, I'm going to replace my drives then, at least the system one.

 

Buy yourself a SSD.
You never want something else ....

Meanwhile, Acer is building a different make a standard.
The Western hard drive is no longer used in the current production of the Acer Aspire 8942G!
The Western HDD was a disaster!
It had a standby function.
As a result, the games, and much more all at once froze several seconds.
At that time, helped "Quit HDD" and the Western drive this error no longer had.

For hard disks with bad sectors usually helps only one exchange.
If a few sectors may crash, helps "HDD generator" on boot CD.
So I've been able to help many users!
Sometimes you can clone the data only after the "HDD generator" on the new hard disk!

Quiet HDD is free!
HDD Regenerator will cost money.

Sorry for my terrible English.
I'm from Germany ....

Cheers

 

Ok, I you fellas could do me a favour. I see Erik O and Searcher and some others are working on overclocking their 8942's.

I'm keen to do the same, but have never overclocked an would like some hints. Normally I would sit down and read the thread from plage one. . . but I haven't been in here for ages, and now we're up to page 47 . . . so:

I someone could tell me/ direct me to, a quick tutorial on what I need to do in order to overclock the laptop. I assum I need a new bios and a new adapter. What else?

I had an x940 put in, no idea what paste was used (however acer had made a mess aparantly, way to much paste originally,) so there should be som room for improvement. The maxed memory helped a bit too, but the intel SSD has been the eye-opener for me. . . My SSD really rocks! . . . anyway.

A short guide anyone. Or link to one? With a list to what I need, and what I need to take care what to do?

Thanks in advance!! .. and yea. I have a spare I7 720 processor now if anyone wants to buy it. .

 

Please read page #34: Acer Aspire 8942G Core i7 Owners Lounge

 

Has anyone this problem here?

 

Thanks! Saved me heaps of time!

 

Here are some benchmarks for you:

First, with Hyper-threading disabled (4 cores / 4 threads total):

You'll see my score at the top (1976, 6075).

Link: Acer Aspire 8942G Performance Chart : Geekbench Result Browser

Please run your machine, I'm curious about your processor too!

I'll be right back with the Hyper-threading enabled (4 cores / 8 thread total) score.

One thing to note, we are tied to the 32 bit version as a free user, so it may be that they can preform better again!

 

With 8 threads, I got 7067, and bumping the multiplier for the 3 & 4 cores max by 2 points each, gives me 7193.

Look forward to some other GeekBench scores...

 

Hello Erik0,

thank you, thank you ...
I just wanted to know the maximum temperature!
You understand me not.
sorry ...



My Geekbench Result (Freeversion 32bit 2.2.6):

Right of the table is my benchmark.
Here you see the total points from me.
Here is the diagram (lowest result)


Cheers

 

Here, I ran ThrottleStop 1024 Benchmark - which runs this CPU @ 100% for over 10.5 mins.

Around the 9th minute the temp reached 99C, a min later its was 65, and 3 mins later down to 55C.

TS bench finished the 1024M test in 638.478 seconds, please see photo.

Normal use sees the temp around high 40s to low 50s.

Hope that helps.

 

Hello Erik0,

thank you!
Here is mine:


(Room temperature 23 ° C)



Here is your:


(Room temperature ? ° C)



Conclusion:
Your CPU is almost 42% faster in benchmarks here.
My CPU is much cooler and the fan is quieter.

I think I get with an overclocked i7 920XM and overclocked ATI 5650 problems.
My notebook is expected to be a toast!
The fan should be a lot of noise.
I do not like fan noise ....

The better choice would be an i7-840QM.
(Little fan noise, and very good performance)
Not worth it, because too expensive ...
"Skyrim" is going great for me
30-50 frames / s (FullHD - high graphics)

I change not my CPU.
Thanks again Erik0


Cheers, tree

 

Hi !

Here are my results with an i7 620M :



Not so bad...

 

Hello,

which CPU-intensive applications are you doing?
I am a music producer and I work with Samplitude, etc. ..

Cheers

 

I use our own in-house software at work, that is java-based, heavy on memory & cpu too. Not only that, but I can have two to four incidences of them at any one time.

 

Hey there - I used your 800 / 1080 / 1150mV, and got over 1100 3dMark06!

See attachment:

 

Wow!
But you have the ATI 5850.
I have the ATI 5650.
Do you think that makes a difference for the same overclocking?
You have 36% more performance in 3DMark06!

Cheers

 

I got an Acer Aspire 8942G with 4gb 1066mhz ram, 1tb hard disk, and hd5850 mobility from ati.
I read here that the videocard is MB mounted, crap.
But i still want to upgrade my ram.

I searched and saw 8gb with 1066mhz DDR 204pin SO DIMM 10600 is max you can fix.
Is it true on the MHZ zone?
Im not fully into the ram thing at all. I would like to fix an 1600 Mhz 4gb x2 in my laptop.


Thanks in advance.

Mitch

 

this laptop sucks....cant even get 30 fps on tribes ascend on medium? is this ??????

Acer Aspire AS8943G-6190 Core i7 720Q @ 1.6Ghz(2.8 turbo boost), 18.4-inch display at 1920×1080, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB hard drive, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 1GB

 

Can anyone recommend an Intel chip upgrade to replace the 720 so all I have to do is swap out the chips?

 

I don't think it's worth it. The only way to go would be Core i7 740QM and there's not much of a difference between 720QM an 740QM

 

Hi, i have upgraded mine to a 940xm, so from 1.6ghz to 2.13ghz base clock and some more on chip cache

 

Did you have go do anything else besides simply swapping the chip? Any bios changes, voltage changes, etc.?

 

Uhhhh, that's extreme and expensive
We need benchmarks and temperatures!



Cheers

 

Hi, no pull old one out put new one in, using the bios from Acer's website, which i assume correctly reads the chip.

 

Hi, i am currently running Windows 8 preview on the lap-top and have no monitoring software installed, but with the Win7 install running the Dnetc clients for cpu and gpu, and using the programme from this website for altering the fan speeds, temperatures are in the high 70'sC to low 80'sC, but the fan must be running at the "33" fan value, or throttling occurs.

 

Thanks, I appreciate the help.

 

AGREED! We NEED benchies!

 

Here you go gents, I found this. (EDIT: PM me if you want the service manual, it is 3.8MB, and won't upload for some reason).

My DC jack has called time, and need to pull it apart for replacement, I found the 8942G SERVICE manual. Which I could have done with before.

Sweet.

Can't sell it if you can't power it, right?

Was just about to pull the trigger on an M18x R2 purchase, but waiting for the Nvidia 680M... had enough of ATI for a while.

 

Gents,

For those who said the GPU was soldered to the M/B.

How's this for you?

(see attachments)

Can anybody identify this as an MXM 3.0 socket?

 

You've taken those photos out of a service manual? If I remrmber correctly we've confirmed these were wrong.
See here for an examination that confirms it.

 

Indeed, I did take them out of the service manual, and it was written for exactly this notebook.

I had seen that article previously, and had looked on that site for comparison, but didn't see it listed anymore.

Looking at it now, other pictures in the manual match, save for the heatsink pipes & setup. But when he 'concludes' there is no card, and points out in red circles, what he thinks is correct, he is actually looking at the wrong side of the computer (in my opinion), the graphics card (if indeed it does exist), is on the underneath, deeper into the chassis, next to the cpu (which was hard enough to reach as it was).

I'm so tempted to reduce this thing to pieces and settle this once and for all.

And I will. I need to order a new DC jack & solder that in, and then we can put this one to bed.

Cheers.

Oh, and if it does exist, it will be the following spec socket, MXM 3.0 Type A, 64/128bit, max power 55W, dimensions 82mm x 80mm. (Existing card is listed as 39W).

The Type B does 256bit, and max 100W, and can be 82mm x 105mm.

Internet is wonderful, eh?

 

Granted it is the wrong side of the mobo but whoever made those photos had a point about what looks like video memory being there.
There's another photo that might support no-MXM theory.
Still wrong side of the mobo but that clearly looks like VRAM.

Anyway- looking forward to your confirmation on that one.

 

Changing the GPU in HD5850?

Ladies & Gents,

Here is the FINAL word on the subject.

Acer, whom have now lost a repeat customer, did not follow others in have a discrete graphics solution on an industry-standard socket, for a 3rd party graphics card, thus confining us to a life-time of GDDR3, and no option to upgrade.

At the time of purchase, I came from an 8800M GTX, so this was an unexpected drop in graphics performance (which I might have lived with, knowing later I'll pull the card, as I did from the 8700GT to the 8800M GTX), and I would have avoided, (like the plague), what I consider to be an integrated graphics solution.

You will find in the pictures the GPU parts are indeed part of the motherboard.

Here is my tear-down from last night:

NOT a happy camper, and now determined never to 'cheat' on Clevo, or Alienware again, despite 5 speakers, slim design, and lighter weight.

End of story.

 

Ladies & Gents,

2 mins ago I got my confirmation of m18x r2, with 3920XM & dual 7970GTXs.

But I won't be leaving you forever, I'm considering keeping the 8942G as a 'hot spare', as I can't go without a working computer again. (its been 2 weeks, and I've still not received my motherboard power connector, and the 'original keyboard' was a copy).

Unless there is some offers on it that are interesting....

ErikO