Acer Aspire Timeline Owner's Lounge

I already uploaded the registry in my previous few post.
Never Mind I will be starting a thread on that.

 

Hi,

I am planning to buy 3810 and I would like to learn about the sound quality and sound level of its microphone. I want to use it for vo-ip. Can any of 3810 owners comment on this?

Thank you

 

Hello Faani,

I can't speak firsthand since mine is still in the mail but from all the reading I have done, the mic is pretty good. IIRC, people have reported using it for skype, MSN stuff, etc.

On another note and this may not be the right place to ask, but has anyone messed with hibernate/suspend on their Timeline with Ubuntu 9.04 installed? Some people are saying it's a problem, some people say it works fine.

Thoughts?

 

I would recommend the SU9400 because you are already used to dual core.

By the way, my TZ stayed dead cold. If I were you I would first try to work out why your TZ gets so hot. The display of the TZ is a much higher quality one than the Timeline series. Also it's much lighter while offering similar battery life.

 

I've got the 4810t with u2700 and gma 4500 3gb ram 320gb hd. It's amazing I'm running vista with only a 1.3ghz single core cpu and getting imho very respectable speed. Clever, these orientals. It runs cool, and that is the clever trade off isn't it? They didn't overkill the speed because if they had it would most likely generate a lot more heat, and use up battery time..

I see full size laptops (with dvd) for from $350 to $500 and wonder if I did OK with this for $600. For $350 you don't get type n and hdmi, and usually you don't get webcam. For $500 you get all but maybe not type N, but it's a couple pounds heavier. I've been finding the Atheros type n amazingly strong even though I'm not using the n part. I think this is because if it's type n it's the latest design with maybe better antennas. I started out thinking 12 inch was a perfect size and I would have paid around $600, but they usually wanted $900 or so I think because of the small size. All in all, the 4810t at 14 iches with 8 hr battery seems like a good choice.

 

That's exactly the idea behind Intel's CULV platform. Acer is the first to market. Many others will follow.

 

Thanks 2point0, please let me know about your experiences after you got yours.

 

Good mic, bad speakers. That about sums it up. And if VoIP isn't enough, the HD webcam is crystal clear as well.

The speaker are good enough so yo can hear the other person speaking, though. The problem is, they are firing an the mic. So I'm not sure how much feedback the other person gets. The people I tried it with weren't bothered by it, at least.

 

Speakers are not that important, I am going to use headphones anyway. It is also nice to know that webcam is good.

BTW Tocharius, thank you for opening this thread. This thread is the main reason that I am seriously considering to buy 3810t.

 

Yeah, I'm still convinced it's a great notebook. Although I have to say, I was lucky. Some people experienced the 100% CPU issue, and I think there was some other problem as well. But that's resolved now with BIOS and GPU driver updates, I think.

Anyway, a hint for all 3810T owners who need an optical drive now and then: The LiteOn esau108 or eSau208 (with lightscribe) is an external slim DVD burner that needs only 1 USB port to work.

EDIT: I edited some helpful links into the first post. If someone knows other helpful resources, please share them so I can add them.

 

All we need now is someone to find a tool that lets you control the fan speed of the timeline notebooks. a1ctl has been suggested ( http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/a1ctl/ ), but I don't really want to risk using a tool that is meant for a netbook. Any volunteers?

 

Erm I used it on my Acer Aspire 4530.
When it was having heat problems gaming
But I solved it using intense hard modding so I don't use it anymore.
It works I suspect Acer use the same form of fan speed control method for all laptops.

 

I also found this tool: http://www.computentsystems.de/aceraspireonefancontrol/

 

Yea i also tried this before but this needs installation and library installation hence I prefer A1Ctrl

 

Error, can't initialize IO access.

Error from a1ctl. In Windows 7, even with XP or Vista compatibilty mode. Any thoughts?

 

If running as Admin doesn't work then I can't really help you because it ran on Vista flawlessly so could be a Win7 issue.

 

No luck. I guess I have to wait for an update.

Can anyone running Vista on a Timeline confirm that this tool is working?

 

Greetings Tocharius,

Might be redundant since I asked earlier but I didn't see a response. I think you mentioned that you had run/installed Ubuntu 9.04 on your Timeline. Have you had any issues with the suspend feature?

 

I didn't try suspend in Ubuntu. But I have an issue with the WLAN connection. I have to disable it before shutting down or the notebook doesn't turn off.

 

Well I have had my 3810TZ for two days now and I am absolutely in love with this machine. I gave the battery it's first workout yesterday and I went from 9am to 9pm on a charge with a couple breaks in between totaling around 3 hours so this thing definitely delivers on the advertised battery life times. I am now going to start looking for a $200 64GB SSD and give it a bit more of a performance boost.

Also I was wondering if you guys leave the powersmart button (battery with leaf) turned on all the time whenever the system is on the battery? I didn't realize it was there until the end of the day and when I turned it on I didn't really notice a performance hit so I am wondering what it really does.

Can anyone recommend a good $200 SSD? I see newegg has the Patriot Torqx, OCZ Vertex, and GSKILL Falcon all in the price range in 64GB capacities.

Edit: Also found the Super Talent Masterdrive SX which is cheaper than all of the others and apparently uses the new Samsung controller.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609460

 

Any of those SSDs is fine. You can either go with Samsung (Masterdrive or PB22-J) or Indilinx controller (Vertex, Torqx, Falcon). Both have their pros and cons, and both are great.

 

Anyone know if Newegg has any plans on stocking up on the SU9400 models??

 

thanks for the info. I will take your advice and contact sony, see what happens. What model TZ do you have if you dont mind me asking. I just got mine Dec. 2008 after the recall was done.

 

I actually meant starting a thread in the Sony forum explaining your problem. People will guide you in what you can check. If you let me know the url of your thread I will help too.

But contacting Sony could be a good idea too. Especially if you still have warranty.

 

ty: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5055334#post5055334

 

Since my 4810t 14 inch Acer 1.3 Ghz 2700 cpu works pretty well with Vista, I'll bet it would really fly with xp. Can someone clue me in on how to install xp and how much it would cost?

 

You just need to get your hands on an xp install disc and make it into an ISO and use the following app to make a bootable thumb drive so you can install it http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

I use that app to put linux distros on a couple of usb thumb drives and it works like a charm. It can even download the files needed for most of the distros out there if you want to try out linux.

Honestly you should put Windows 7 RC on it before xp so you can take advantage of the 4gb of ram and 7 also runs very smooth compared to vista. I am in the process right now of making a 7 usb stick so I can install it.

 

hey guys check this out

http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/07/acers-11-6-inch-aspire-timeline-1810t-a-netbook-we-can-finally/

 

I just bought an Acer TImeline 4810T 2 days ago. This forum was a big reason why I decided to get this one. I immediately removed Vista and installed Ubuntu Jaunty and Windows 7 RC. So far I'm loving it. I have some questions:

- I heard that Acer laptops that was shipped with Vista will have a free Windows 7 come october 23. Where can I register for this?

- I love the keyboard but I can't help but notice that dirt and dust might accumulate beneath the buttons. Anyone noticed this? Would a silicon cover fix this problem?

As for Ubuntu Jaunty, I can assure you that almost all the features works fine expect for:

- The brightness control doesn't seem to change the screen brightness
- Suspend only results to a shutdown
- You have to set the BIOS to use IDE instead of AHCI mode to be able to boot to Ubuntu

With those shortcomings, it won't hinder much on user experience and would probably be fixed by kernel updates. I will try installing new builds from the Kernel PPA when I have time.

 

26th, and here: http://acer.com/windows7upgrade/

Btw, I can boot in AHCI mode. But i have a SSD, maybe that's the reason. What BIOS version do you have?

 

Thanks. My firmware version is 1.10. I don't have any plans to upgrade yet. Nothing seems to be broken so far.

 

Hi alvinator. There is a fairly good discussion on Acer Timelines and Ubuntu on their forums, should be the most relevant result if you search "Acer Timeline" on the Ubuntu forums. You might want to check out http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7484088&postcount=39 which talks about installing the 2.6.30 kernel to fix a lot of these issues. Mine is still in the mail so I hadn't had a chance to try it yet but if you get time, try it out and let us know how it goes! I would really like to have suspend working as well once it arrives.

 

Review Acer Timeline 14" ATI 4330
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/inspection/review-test-acer-aspire-4810tg-ati-4330-921

Futuremark 3DMark 2006 2.649,00

 

I noticed that you're the same guy to sent me a PM in the Ubuntu Forums. Anyway, I finally had time to fix the annoying Ubuntu issues on my Acer Timeline. Please follow the link:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7582206&postcount=86

This method fixes most if not all of the Acer Timeline issues in Ubuntu. Compiz performance is now perfect and I can now enable AHCI mode.

 

Thanks Phil for posting the link. Did anyone catch the part where the 4810TG has a different LCD than the 4810T?

The 4810TG uses a Samsung panel, while the regular 4810T uses an AUO panel. The Samsung panel has better viewing angles and brightness, but the AUO has better contrast. I wonder what the difference is like in real life.

 

You don't know if it is a pattern that TG = Samsung and T = AOU or it just depends on factory/batch etc.

 

I did notice it. But that doesn't mean that every 4810TG will use a Samsung panel. Acer will use any brand.

I would definetely prefer the AUO. Contrast of 150:1 is not pleasant, while 190:1 is good enough imo.

Exactly.

 

In case some were looking for the 3810T with the SU3500 newegg has it in stock again.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115585

 

Those of you near a Costco might also consider the 4810t for $600. It's got the 2700 cpu. Mine seems fast on vista. I love Costco's return policy.

 

That's true. Panel lottery. That's certainly not new to the industry.

 

Do you know what panel is in the 3810T?

Also, I copied the link to fixing Ubuntu to the first post. I hope you don't mind.

 

Not a very good one. LGD01F7
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/review-acer-aspire-3810t-354g32n-903/1

 

Does anyone know how easy the cpu on the timeline is to get to? Wonder if its soldered in....

Debating getting the 3810tz, and seeing how I like the processor, having the option to drop in something else later down the line is nice..

 

ULV CPUs tend to be soldered on the mainboard afaik.

 

Hi Dart22. Do I understand well that you´ve already tried XP running on your Vista pre-installed Timeline ? How did you go about it ? I´ve done some research on the web and learned it might complicated with the Acer hidden Recovery partition. And are there drivers available compatible with XP OS ? Could you elaborate a bit about how you did it ? Thanks loads for any reply.

 

Anyone has an idea when the Timeline 11.6" will be available? (In Canada)

 

I second that question to Dart22 about running xp. I have a 4810t with 320GB but know nothing about dual booting or any of the other techniques that may be involved. From what I gather, xp is small enough to boot off a flash drive or sd, and you simply set the boot sequence to see if that device is plugged in at boot time? I have an xp restore disk from an acer aspire one, but it seems that would definitely create problems installing on the timeline because of the differences between an atom processor and the timeline's ulv. Also if you bought a copy of xp, where do all the drivers specific to acer timeline come from? In other words I would love to test my timeline on xp, but don't want to spend countless hours trying to make it work.

I've already spent many hours getting a Dlink dwl-g120 usb wifi adapter working under vista. I finally got it working but tried so many different things I'm not sure I could describe the exact sequence.

 

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/downloads_gd.html

There you can get the drivers. But I don't think the recovery version from your aspire one would work. Not because of the different processor, but because usually these things are locked to the pc they come with. You can try, of course. Tell us how that went.

If you install from a standard retail cd, you have to remember to set the HDD to IDE mode. That might be needed for the recovery cd as well.

 

For those that were wondering if Windows 7 battery life is less than Vista I have been using 7 for 2 days and can safely say that I found that my battery life has improved a bit with the change. I installed the epower management software and when I select the most battery life profile in 7 with the leafy battery light turned the system seems to go into a somewhat super power saver mode. I think the system seems to turn off aero but aero peek still works which is all I care for. I also didn't really notice a bump in performance in frugal mode compared to vista. I was able to watch a 720p anime flawlessly in super power saver mode but 1080p had a bit of a stutter.

All in all I hit 9 hours on the battery yesterday while being on wifi and lowest brightness setting all day. Here is a screenshot of the system in regular mode (leafy battery turned off) and power saver (leafy battery turned on).

Power save



Regular



Notice the taskbar blue becomes lighter in power save mode but that is the only thing I notice.

 

So you think it's a good idea to install the ePower tool in Win7? Some people said it was responsible for the 100% cpu issue, but that was resolved to be the display driver. I think I'll give the tool a shot and see what it does...