Acer Aspire Timeline Owner's Lounge

My error no Bios other than 1.10. never mind.

 

Owners review:

Well I have been lurking here while deciding if this was the right fit, so a few days ago I took the plunge. 3810T (SU9400, 80GSSD from Newegg)

I have to say that I am pleased. I run Autocad, some draw to price programs from my manufacturers, etc. Open Office, E-mail, etc. No gaming. This is a great machine when I am on a client's site and need to get work done.

The processor is fair enough to move Autocad around, the drive is snappy (although I would have expected a little more from an SSD).

I put W7 on it before I even logged into Vista, so I don't know if I am missing any bells and whistles.

I never used Vista, so Win 7 seems ok for now.

P.S. I think Bios 1.13 is for the 4810, as I can't find it on the 3810 pages.

Thanks for everyones input over the last 90 pages.

 

I think that's for 1810T. It's the only Timeline laptop that has BIOS version listed in that 31xx format. Also, I can not find any mention of 1.13 under 3810T, 3810TG, or 3810TZ either.

 

Yeah you are right. Wrong notebook. my bad.

 

So, I sent an email to Acer asking when the 4810TG would be available in the US. That's the version with the ATI 4330. They responded with:

 

^Haha I e-mailed them about the US release of the 1810T and they told me simply "the Timeline series is already available in the USA" or something to that effect.

 

I'm beginning to think they scan the emails for key words rather than read them. Otherwise, they're complete morons. I like to think the best of people first.

I'll send them a few more emails to see if I get more no-so-appropriate responses.

 

Anyone ?

 

Ok, I know this has been discussed but does the leafy button do anything except change the brightness?

 

it does change the brightness.. probably CPU speed.. to minimize power usage.. to correspond what is been advertised "more than 8 hours of battery life"..

 

Well it doesn't change the Windows battery settings so I was wondering.

 

Hello! i have a 4810T and i want to install windows 7.

Has anyone found out if you can get the same power management software on windows 7? i heard that the dvd drive feature does NOT work on windows 7.

Thanks

 

Hi guys and girls! I have been following this thread for a while and I just decided to join this forum.

I'm very much interested in the Acer Aspire 3810T (it is the timeline right?). But I wonder if it would suit my needs. I have a quite active life where I often take my MTB and my Canon EOS 40D and cycle out in the wilderness and stay out an entire day taking photos and execising. Which leads to these needs:

- long lasting battery life
- transferring/handling big RAW-images in Photoshop CS3 or 4 and Lightroom 2.0 (does the 3810T have support for Flash-cards?)
- surfing the web using 3G

When I'm studying I have the following needs:

- long lasting battery life
- Working with the Office suite
- Doing some programming in Dreamweaver and Netbeans while using other programs like Flash, Illustrator or Photoshop
- handling PPTx-presentations which can hold and play HD rendered movies created in 3ds Max.
- some forms av multitasking

So... I hope I haven't bored you What I wonder is will the su3500 solo core be enough for me or should I wait until the su9400 dual core will be available in my country?

And would the Intel graphic card be enough for me or should I go for the ATI when that's available? I do not play any games on a laptop though sometimes I present and demonstrate 3D models by spinning and moving them around.

I would appreciate some feedback

 

^^ All that will have a smoother experience with the SU9400.

 

For all people trying to find core 2 duo models, it might be possible to get it even though you think its not offered in your country. I'm in canada and it was honestly impossible to find the core 2 duo models. Retailers like staples, future shop, the source didnt offer the 4810t with su9400 processor. I almost gave up but eventually I visited the acer website and visited the 'Resellers Near You' page and found a bunch of places where I could get the Timeline. I called every number and most of them said that the core 2 Duo isn't even available in Canada but eventually I found about 2 companies which said they could ship in the core 2 duo model and I could just pick it up from them. So it is possible to get it without going on ncix or buying the single core model.

 

yes... but sadly its not possible to get it for a reasonable price by comparison. my searching had the 4810t with a dual core chip costing around 3X more than the 4810t with a single core chip. clearly the dual core would be better, but is it worth shelling out that much more for one processor core? not in this posters opinion. Really i think its a bit ridiculous they didnt make dual core standard across the product line when basically every other laptop (excluding netbooks) has 2 processor cores.

 

Maybe because with the dual core standard their would be no getting a timeline for less than $800?

 

i suppose i just expect even more value for my dollar than is currently possible with these relatively new ULV chips. im sure by this time next year we may see dual core ULV computers for the same price as single core ones now... too bad i cant wait that long for a new computer On the other hand, the only thing this computer will not do 100% perfectly for ME will be youtube HD, but its only a matter of time until flash has proper hardware acceleration and choppy internet videos will be a thing of the past

 

Here is a 3810T with dual core and ati graphic card for around 799 euros

http://www.notebook.de/popup_details.php?id=23094&ln=de

http://www.notebook.de/acer-aspire-timeline-g-1052/

 

hey community,

i just wanted to ask if there are already known issues with windows 7?


I installed it some month ago and the switchable graphics features didn't work and because of that I had a bad battery life (around 4 hours).

Is this solved? Any other issues?

Thank you very much!

JNK

 

I found the ATI 4330 version of 3810 on a US website for around $1100 with current stock. I'll try to dig up the link later. I am betting it's being imported since no one else in the US seems to be carrying it. I wouldn't pay $1100 for it.

 

Well I mean that's only 200 dollars more than the top 3810T.

That's assuming that model has the SU9400

 

800 euros is almost 1200 USD. sadly, far out of my price range, and double the price of the single core version

I have not read anything about this issue with others, but if that is the case, it makes windows 7 look like a much less attractive option. if the power management ability of this laptop is not equal to what it was on vista while using windows 7, im going to have to regrettably keep it on vista. any other people running Windows 7 having this issue or know of a solution?

 

I think it was said earlier that Intel or someone put out updated drivers that made the laptop have better battery life. When I had it on (before it crashed) I was getting max about 5-6 hours.

 

With 7, wifi on and screen brightness at lowest level, Windows was saying a little over 7.5 hours, while RM Clock (for my undervolting) was saying around 6.5 hours.

 

I have the 4810 (SU3500) & when I try to configure RM Clock it just shows .9 volts & the drop down arrow doesn't give any other voltage options. How did you undervolt yours? Is the SU9400 supported & the SU 3500 isn't in RM Clock?

 

It just works? In Vista Mine would actually start at .8750V, the lowest, but in Win 7 it starts at .900V.

 

Ehh.. I'll be staying at Vista with numbers like that.

 

It was an informal test, I had it on battery for like 3 minutes.

 

I see no reason why Windows 7 would eat more battery than Vista. Any owners confirm? I would do a test but TigerDirect's got my 3810T on backorder

 

cause people use the Vista Drivers... use the OEM w7 drivers and issue goes away... using vista drivers can only be seen as a band - aid, where the OEM w7 Drivers are not available

 

does anyone know if the graphic switching intel <--> ati also works in winxp?

does the surround sound output via hdmi/spdif work good? can it make an AC3 encouding? (for example: it would be necessary to give out 5.1 sound of a game)
the acer support mailed me that the timelines can give out AC3, but they didn't say if the source has got to be AC3 already (like in blueray rips etc..)
(it's a common problem for many usb sound cards wich have spdif out but can't make an 5.1 sound themselves.)

 

Has anyone tried running older Source games (ie TF2 and CS:S, etc) on a 4500MHD based Timeline? I heard people saying that 4500MHD should be able to handle TF2 at low graphics settings but I'm not sure if that will hold when paired with ULV chips (especially the single core SU2700).

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I am able to play Hulu and YouTube HD full screen no problems as long as I'm in Mozzila Firefox. I'm not so sure about other browsers.

I have the SU3500 in a 4810t.

 

I'd like to be able to answer that question. Maybe someone already answered it. I downloaded CS 1.6 and it averaged about 25-35 FPS on 640x480 and about 15-25 FPS on 1280x720.

Funny thing is though.. I wouldn't be surprised if CS:S ran better on the X4500 than 1.6.

I'll try to download it sometime here soon and give it a try. Maybe someone already posted their results though... so stay tuned and see if someone posts...

 

I checked out the 15 inch at Sam's Club today, the buttons on the track pad were much easier to click than my 3810T

 

I posted a thread a while back on how to install Windows 7 in order to get max battery life. Please use the search function as this topic has been covered to death. Windows 7 has absolutely 0 issues when it comes to battery life and on my system I hit 9 hours with wifi on and screen at lowest brightness.

 

are you serious??? thats awesome news if true! (not to sound like im doubting you) every other person on this thread has said otherwise, but no one has specified which browser they were using... i have the 4810t with the same single core unopened for fear of being unable to play youtube in High Definition...

 

I have played 3 different Youtube HD videos and so far all of them has played perfectly smooth. Some of the higher quality Youtube HD videos potentionally might be choppy I don't know, but the ones I played were fine. I definitely recommend this laptop, though I do have to say that it is fairly easy to max out the processor. Overall though, it's hard to tell much of a difference from this computer and a more powerful C2D computer unless you have tons of windows open or are trying to do too many things at once.

I have to imagine performance might increase a little in Windows 7, though on vista it certainly isn't bad.

 

Okay, so I did further testing. All videos were ran both windowed and full-screen. The performance remained about the same in bother cases regardless of the video, which seemed a little odd to me, but whatever.

Two HD Videos of singers ran perfectly smoothly... don't have link...

Ghostbusters HD Trailer, ran pretty much perfectly smoothly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyVGSGynYpg&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Discovery HD Astroid Movie, Ran fairly choppy but fairly watchable still... I think this one had higher video rate than other videos... these are the only videos this computer might have trouble with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvCUmeoHpw

Figher Pilot HD Video -- Ran perfectly smooth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2UqrlWZnXM&feature=related

Dragon Ball Z Real movie trailer, ran perfectly smooth... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ_gVa6pAIY&feature=fvw

Overall you will notice an occasional dropped frame here and there, particularlly there is really heavy action or if you try to do anything besides watch the movie at the same time, but once the video gets going I'd say most of the videos ran 98% smoothly. Youtube HD video is definitely watchable on the 4810t with SU3500. I also tried several Hulu videos and they play without a hitch full-screen and windowed as well when in mozilla, but not in internet explorer or Chrome. I didn't try Youtube HD in chrome, but I doubt that they would play smoothly (but you never know!).

 

I just got my Timeline 4810T. So far I am happy with the laptop. I know that the core solo is really not that great of a proc, but I think it is going to fit my needs. I can't seem to find the epower acer app. Does anyone know where this is?

 

??? I'm not even trying to run Windows 7. I feel you directed that one at the wrong person.

 

You seem to have a ´magical Acer´ since I ´ve got the same one as you, and definately CAN´T play HD YouTube videos´perfectly´ smoothly. |Cheers!

 

first, for the poster who says youtubeHD is running well, can you confirm that you are clicking the HD button in the bottom right before you watch for all of thsoe videos? second, for the quoted: are you using firefox, and if so, the latest version?

 

just upgraded to bios 1.10 (on the 3810t) the win7 experience score for the intel g1 ssd went from 5.9 to 7.5

 

any way to control fan speed on timeline? i have a same problem. a little bit noise in AC/AC mode.

 

Has anyone used up their 60 minute trial for Acer Gamezone games? If so, can you go into C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer GameZone\ and run any of the games directly with the .exe?

Cause if this works to get the full version of the game for free, this has to be the worst copy protection I've ever seen.

 

Didnt work for me, also tried never running the "Launch" app from the start and the games still expire after 60 mins.

 

i've got a 3810 with the su9400 and i've noticed something odd happening recently and haven't been able to pinpoint the cause.

every 15 minutes or so the screen will dim and the colors will become all washed out, as if the color depth was reduced to 8 bit or something like that. it will remain this way for a varying amount of time too, sometimes ranging from 30 seconds to a few minutes, but it always comes back.

this happens both when it's on battery and pugged in as well as under all 3 power profiles.

anyone have any idea? has anyone else had this problem? is it some weird power-saving feature that i'm not aware of, or is there something wrong with my notebook?

 

Try disabling the automatic backlight dimming in the Intel graphics driver control panel.