Acer Aspire 8950G Owners Lounge

Webmachine what country are you purchasing this from? I've only seen the one with 1 750 GB drives sold in the USA.

Not sure what models these will work on:
Notebook Docks/Port Replicators

As far as your questions here is a site that sells docking stations for the 8950. You should give them a call and I'm sure they will be able to answer the question. Probably even better then Acer answering it themselves.

 

Thanks for that Orlbuckeye, I'm purchasing in Australia.

The online retailer indicates that it comes with 1 750GB drive and its upgradable with a second drive.

See: Umart Online

Will try and contact the cdw guys re:dock.

Did you ever run two external monitors off your 8950?

 

No. I don't know why Acer only offers certain models in certain countries. I know they are number 1 in Australia so they really want to keep that market. If you look at the USA models on the Acer USA page they only show the 8943.

 

ok i tried testing out 2 screens for u. i hooked my 50 inch tv up via hdmi and a 22 in monitor via vga. ok i was able to run the 2 monitors but the laptop screen would get disable or i could run the laptop screen and 1 monitor i could not get all 3 going at the same time no matter what settings i used.

there are a couple options though that u could use to get 3 displays

u could get one of these. http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/?productTabs=1#specs

or
a monitor like this that hooks up via usb http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/...g/LS22LFUGFY/EN/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail

 

I learned the hard way. My laptop got VGA, Display Port & HDMI. I bought all the cables, thinking I can connect to 2 external monitors. Alas, not to be. It can only connect 1 external.

For USB solutions, cheaper to buy from DisplayLink: Expanding Your View
Buy Laplink compatible products with the DL-195 chip.
DisplayLink - Supported Products

 

Ok, I want to confirm one more thing.

It *seems* the ATI Radeon 6850M card that comes with the 8950G supports Eyefinity technology which allows you to drive upto 6 displays. The HP Envy 17 has the same card and can definitely drive upto 3 external screens using Eyefinity.

Quoting from: AMD Radeon? HD 6800M Series Graphics

I'm not sure, but I'm looking into it further. Maybe you guys with the cables and extra screens can look this up too?

Stuff I'm trying to work out so far:

List of Eyefinity validated cables / dongles: AMD Eyefinity Validated Dongles

Eyefinity How To Setup page: Eyefinity How To Setup page

 

this laptop don't have display port so i'm guessing eyefinity don't work. eyefinity won't work with vga and hdmi. it has to be like hdmi and display port.

 

The Eyefinity setup page http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-eyefinity-technology/how-to/Pages/set-up.aspx says:

 

hmm well i know on a desktop computer it has to be 2 dvis and a display port or 1 hdmi 1 dvi and a display port. when i had both the hdmi and vga pluged in and i went into the eyefinity settings in the catlisy controll center on the laptop it would only display 2 screens not 3. in the windows display settings it would display all 3 but i could on turn 2 on at a time.

 

Hmmm.. interesting. Could it be that you need to use a cable or dongle from the AMD Eyefinity Validated Dongles to get the 3rd screen to show up on the catalyst control center?

 

those are all display port adaptors this laptop has no display port hook ups.

 

In all the specs sheets i've seen it specifically says NO docking connection also. I was able to connect a TV using a HDMI cable. Using presentation Mode which is using the WINDOWS key + the P. This gives you the options of 1. computer onlywhich is on screen only 2 . duplicate or clone (image on screen and other vidoe device) 3. Extend - Extends the image to both onscreen and other video device 4. Projection Only - Extend to Other device only.

I'm not sure if this helps see if extend works for all 3 screens.

 

Has anyone noticed if the mic is used there is an echo?

 

Hey All,

I have been using my Acer 8950G in Australia for about 2 months now and I have a problem with it.

I play World of Warcraft. I noticed that the game will jerk occasionally when the game is accessing the hard disk. Sometimes it freezes for about 1-2 seconds while the disk activity is in progress. Before you all jump in, think about the following points:

MOST IMPORTANT: The game plays perfectly from an external USB drive.
The problem occurs from BOTH internal hard disks.
I have a constant framerate in excess of 50 FPS.
It doesn't matter what video settings I choose.
It is NOT internet lag spikes.
The disks are error free and defragged.
The disks pass Argus Monitor checks at an average transfer rate of 70mb/s.
The computer benchmarks without jerking or freezing during tests.
Videos, movies etc are all fine.
ONCE MORE: the freezing only occurs during game access to the internal drives BUT it runs fine from an external USB drive.
Oh, and my computer is not part of the Sandy Bridge recall.

Any ideas would be awesome. Ta.

 

I've had mine about 2 months and I don't game. I can't even think of why it would do what it's doing. Here in the USA the system was never available with 2 drives. In fact I purchased a SSD drive at the same time with the intention of adding it as a boot drive and Acer 2nd level support said my motherboard wasn't able to add a second drive (although there was a bay and a funky connection that wasn't SATA. Well I just didn't believe them that it couldn't be done. I saw that in Australia they sold them with 2 drives so I didn't give up and I finally found a place in Canada that sold the cable and the 2nd bay cover. The cable and cover were Acer parts and specifically for the 8950G so i purchased them and they did work. Now the 8950 isn't available in the USA and they have released the 8951G but it's not available in USA either. I know the 8951 had an Nvidia GP instead of the ATI and has a SSD and the touchpad/media controller is removable and act somewhat like a remote controll.

 

PC world writeup on 8950G

Acer Aspire 8950G-9839 Laptop Computer Review | PCWorld

 

Well they seem to think it comes with GDDR5 so I don't think i'd hold what they say in much regard.

 

for same money You can get base model sager 8170 which will be better machine
17" screen on sager but much better machine

 

Acer aspire 8951G ,coming soon==> CompSource.com: Acer America # LX.RJ207.008 - Acer Aspire AS8951G-2638G75Bnkk 18.4" LED Notebook - Core i7 i7-2630QM 2 GHz - 1920 x 1080 HD 1080 D LXRJ207008 ----- http://www.digitalstore.sk/?Mode=Sti&StiId=182011 , what you think ? which one is better 50 or 51?

 

Well It has the same processor as the 8950. But it has the Nvidia Graphics card. It also has the removable keypad that is used like a remote control.

 

I think the 555m is a bit weaker than the 6850m even when the 6850m has GDDR3, but optimus will likely improve the 2d battery life.

 

I'm wondering if it will be available in the United States. Maybe it will since the 8950G isn't available aqnywhere. Newegg has gone back to carrying the 8943G.

 

I thougth too ,that 555m is a bit weaker than the 6850m ,But Notebookcheck site classify Nvida 555m higher then 6850m!!!! Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech

acer aspire 8951G will be available mid-Jun or later for 1600 USD>>> Acer's Aspire Ethos Laptops Feature Detachable Touchpads | PCWorld

 

Notebookcheck is a nice reference but it is the 675mhz version used. I still think on shader heavy titles in particular the 6850 is going to be faster.

 

hi people... i don't know if someone already post it, but i want to share it.
Acer Aspire Ethos 8950G Service Manual it has the parts codes, and how to assemble and disassemble entirely the notebook

and i want to ask for a little favor... can someone please make an image of Arcade InstantOn partition (with Acronis True Image for example) and upload it?

thanks a lot in advance

EDIT: Take a look at this...
AMD Radeon™ HD 6850M
AMD Radeon™ HD 6850M with 2048 MB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM, supporting Unified Video
Decoder 2 (UVD 2), OpenEXR High Dynamic-Range (HDR) technology, Shader Model 5.0,
Microsoft® DirectX® 11, OpenGL® 3.1, OpenCL™ 1.1

AMD Radeon™ HD 6650M
AMD Radeon™ HD 6650M with 1024 MB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM, supporting Unified Video
Decoder 3 (UVD 3), OpenEXR High Dynamic-Range (HDR) technology, Shader Model 5.0,
Microsoft® DirectX® 11, OpenGL® 3.1, OpenCL™ 1.1
MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX® and Xvid decoding

 

6850 = 5850 so thats not really news.

6650 is a turks gpu so is new (same chip as my 6770m.

 

if any one is interested in weather or not the aspire 8950g works with sata 3 6 gigbit per second ssd drives. i just installed and ocz vertex 3 drive in mine today and it is running at full sata 3 speeds over 400 mb/s.

 

Nice. Looking at the 8951 I do like the backlit keyboard and not sure about the removable touchpad. I do love the memory slots location on the 8950 over the 8951 (although it uses 4 - 2 gb modules). It also sounds like the 2nd bay drive issue is as bad for the 8951 as the 8950. I took my 8950 on vacation and watched a movie on the plane. I watched a 2 hour movie in 720 p and when it was done i had 50% battery left.

 

Product was discontinued so fast without any press about the 8951 replacing it. Comparing the 8950 and the 8951
8950 8951
1. ATI - Nvidia the problem is they both use DDR3.
2. Silver case Black case
3. Mem easy access memory under keyboard
4. No backlit keys backlit keys
5. no removable touch pad removable touch pad
6. multiple device covers one device cover on back
7. removable battery no-removal battery

Speakers layout is different. I think the 8950 is more like the 8943 with a better wireless card then the 8951.

Both are sold in other parts of the world with 2 drives and it's like pulling teeth trying to modify the configuration that was purchased (adding another drive or a SSD drive). Support doesn't help you with adding drives or memory so we get our information from the forums. It's funny as support told me my mobo couldn't support 2 hd's yet i found the part with an acer part number that let me add a SSD drive.

 

Hi people, can someone please make an image of Arcade InstantOn partition (with Acronis True Image for example) and upload it?

Thanks a lot in advance..

 

i found out something interesting today. even though the 8950g didn't come with a remote controll there is an ir recvier built into the laptop. so i treid to add an aspire 8950g to my logitech harmony remote but it required the oringal to be progarmed obuily i didn't have that. so it recommected i add an aspire 8930g so i tried that and it worked.

with the harmony remote u can controll things like volume mute. i was able to controll power dvd and a bunch of other stuff with it.

 

Hi people, how are you? Had no answer here before, so i've searched in the web a little deeper and i have found the installer of Acer Arcade InstantOn... I've tested it and i don't like it so much, so i wanted to use XBMC instead of Acer Arcade InstantOn, so i've searched again in the web and there's nothing but questions about how to do it, so i've tried for a couple of weeks to do it and i have it done.
It's not for beginners, but it can be done, it's not so hard.

Also, i've installed XBMC on windows 7, and of course, i've changed the action of Arcade button to open XBMC. Also i've changed the action of "Music" and "Movie" buttons in the alternative function of touchpad, to open Winamp and VLC Player

Now i'm gonna try to configure a remote control (not the Acer's), i already know how to do it, but i've tried like one hour to do it and it wasn't succesfull.

My english it's not so good but i can explain how to do it if somebody wants to

PD: XBMC intead of Acer Arcade InstantOn should work for any model of Acer notebook with this feature. The touchpad modding should work on any model of Acer with a touchpad like this one (Acer 8950G)

 

Anyone had any luck with either overclocking or manually controlling fan speed? I'm assuming it's locked in the bios, but you never know...

FWIW, I found that responsiveness on boot (and generally) improved substantially after uninstalling all the crapware, then again after a fresh install (though I did it to swap in a 7200RPM drive, so I don't know how much of a benefit it could be normally).

Mind you, it ran like balls for a new laptop when I first got it home.

Another thing; does anyone have a source of little stick-on rubber/neoprene dots? Frameless screens are cool enough, but having them touch the keyboard every time you close so they accumulate grease/grit is not good. I'm thinking of putting one on each corner of the frame, but can't think of where I might get some (since I don't want felt/plastic).

 

Hi!

I've tried to access the link with the service manual but I can't download it. Can u please upload it on another site or email?

Thanks,
Alex

 

can anyon help me with Acer Aspire Ethos 8950G Service Manual i need to dissasembl my latpop is full of dust and dosn't work properly and i don't know how to dissasemble it thank you..my mail is :[email protected]