Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T Thread

Thanks. My alps touchpad on my DM3 is quite bad too. I'm using the default MS driver now instead of the Alps driver. It works much smoother.

Have you tried the MS driver for the touchpad?

 

Yes and it is better with Alps drivers.

 

These USB powered optical drives have a big disadvantage:
They overload the USB ports by 200%.

By specifications, an USB port feeds 500 mA@5V when requested by the device. These external drives demand up to 1500 mA. So no one can tell you if such a device will work with your individual computer, and no one can tell if long term use will cause irreversible damage to your laptop.

These units are convenient, but there is a high risk of malfunction. Better have an external drive with own PSU.

Michael

 

Turned out that one of the DIMMs was at fault after all. It wasn't always broken, only sometimes. Really weird, but now that it's replaced, stability is back.

 

Michael, I've noticed that you've posted this point about overloading USB with USB powered optical drives in other forums as well. This is not meant to be critical, as you sound like you know what you're talking about. But, I have not read this anywhere else. Can you provide some kind of link to other professionals who express this concern? I just haven't seen anyone else really talk about it. Thanks.

 

I had some trouble with the HDMI connection; turns out it was cheap cables. I upgraded the cable to a better quality one and haven't had any trouble since.

 

Netbook size computers value small size and light weight, which are diametrically opposed to rugged beefy construction. Any netbook size computer is going to be less rigid and drop-prone than a beefy and heavy notebook computer. I don't think you can lay this on the Acer 1830T in particular. I am much more careful with the Acer than my Mac Mini which is more like a solid brick.

 

I'm still trying to figure out the right energy settings for my 1830t i5-520um and the whole thing seems more and more confusing to me.

first, there is the acer energy manager - someone mentioned that one before - a program that shows up in the programs list, but can't be started on purpose. on my computer, it has vanished in the meantime i.e. it just doesn't show up anymore?! what does it do? where has it gone?

second, the different energy settings you can configure/choose. Easiest accessed through left-click on the battery symbol in the taskbar, I am offered ´balanced´and ´energy saver´(translated roughly from german) to choose from with one click. both can then be individually adjusted for battery vs. psu use. that makes four modes- to much hassle, so first I thought I just choose one and and trim it to my needs in detail (meaning: battery mode with maximum power savings, psu with maximum performance - easy enough). still, there seems to be a basic difference between the two plans, but I can't seem to find info regarding this?
at least I noticed that if I switch to ´energy saver´, the intel turbo boost monitor does not indicate turbo states anymore?!

third, the intel graphics media accelerator. Easiest accessed through right-click on the desktop, under the name ´energy plans´ it offers (most probably) another way to access the same graphics settings already adjusted in the general energy settings. but there is another option called
´energy functions´ in the german version, where you can adjust a slider between ´max quality´ and ´max battery´. I don't know what it's for, but then it does not stick to my settings anyway, and whenever i open the window is re-set some two-thirds towards ´battery´.

can anyone clarify? is there some tool available to just switch between the two most sensible options: ´max battery life´ while on battery and ´max performance´ while running off psu?

thank you.

 

If you want to simplify your life(because after all energy managment is simple)my advise is Definitely forget the Acer energy plan.Ignore also the Intel power plan and work only with the win7 power plan.If you want max battery choose Power saver,if you want max performance for example GPU intensive activities choose the High Performance plan and if you are on regular use choose Balanced plan..You can even customise a plan if you want.Don't work with too many energy plan programs.You will end up confused and conflicted.Win7 is just enough....

 

Hey Thunder ... when did you get a 3820TG? I love mine.

Bronsky

Sry for off-topic all.

 

I just got my acer 1830t-3721 today.

I'm having a few problems:

I installed Kubuntu 10.04 using wubi, but I can't get networking to work. Running

lshw -C network

shows both the wired ethernet and the wireless card as unclaimed by any drivers. Does anyone know how to get networking working under Ubuntu?

Also, under Ubuntu the Alps Touchpad isn't recognized at all -- it works as a PS/2 mouse, and tap-to-left-click works, but nothing else.

Under MS-Windows, two-finger scrolling works but it works poorly, and two-finger-tap-to-right-click doesn't seem to work at all.

I'm grateful to anyone who can suggest fixes for any of the above.

 

A couple of weeks ago(in Europe).I was a long time lurker in the 3820TG thread and the "lit-keyboard mod" thread and I couldn't resist.You guys are a bad influence ...By the way your Unboxing Video should be nominated for the Academy Awards.First time I saw it couldn't stop laughing.Bless you.That 2001 Space Odyssey music was a stroke of genious.Move over Spielberg.....I love my 3820TG too.So much so that I don't use it too much as not to "tire it".

 

Can anyone with a SSD in their 1830 post a CrystalDiskMark 3.0 result?

I'm reading there may be performance problems with Intel HM55 chipset.

 

This thread might help.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/434638-linux-acer-1410-1810tz-1810t.html

Link please!

 

My Ubuntu install seemed to work fine with a few snags on the wireless networking (but it does work, i.e. drivers installed ok). I installed the "netbook" edition of Ubuntu.

First, the notebook will join the wifi network just fine after a fresh reboot however, I have to manually join the network. It doesn't seem to be joining it automatically even though that option is selected.

Second, wireless networking doesn't work after a sleep/suspend. This appears to be a known issue and a few of the work arounds I have found haven't helped yet.

Maybe I shouldn't have installed the "netbook" edition of Ubuntu but so far I'm not too thrilled with the default setup. Also some of the man pages for Ubuntu commands are extremely sparse.

My brief experience with these is that they are so unreliable I don't use these gestures. Some have reported that by disabling a subset of gestures, the remaining ones work better. But better is still relative.

For some reason my wireless is claimed but my wired one isn't.

Code:

user@mobile3:~$ sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for user: 
  *-network UNCLAIMED     
       description: Ethernet controller
       product: AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet
       vendor: Atheros Communications
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: c0
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:d3400000-d343ffff ioport:2000(size=128)
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 78:e4:xx:xx:xx:xx
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k ip=192.168.x.x latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:17 memory:d2400000-d240ffff

user@mobile3:~$ sudo ifconfig -a
lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:36 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:36 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:2584 (2.5 KB)  TX bytes:2584 (2.5 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 78:e4:xx:xx:xx:xx  
          inet addr:192.168.x.x  Bcast:192.168.x.x  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::bb1a/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1287 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1188 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:1039036 (1.0 MB)  TX bytes:259927 (259.9 KB)

user@mobile3:~$ sudo nm-tool

NetworkManager Tool

State: connected

- Device: wlan0  [SSID] ----------------------------------------------------
  Type:              802.11 WiFi
  Driver:            ath9k
  State:             connected
  Default:           yes
  HW Address:        78:E4:xx:xx:xx:xx

 

Hi,

Hehe, you caught me

You can download the USB specs on usb.org website. Somewhere in that document you will find the reference to the 500 mA an USB port must provide on request by the device. Next point is the specs of slim optical drives. Typically, they demand up to 1500 mA (simply look onto the sticker). The math is clear here.
Admitted, these drives often work since many manufacturers of computers allow more power (inofficially), perhaps they have only omitted some protection circuits, perhaps they have actively reinforced their USB ports (but why didn't they advertise that?). Nobody knows.

So using these devices can be hit and miss. I personally would not directly connect such a drive to my computer, I'd use a powered USB as "buffer zone".

Seems as if many users are lucky and their drive/computer combination works (for the moment).

Btw. the same applies to external 2.5" HDDs - their power demand during spin-up is very often approx. 1000 mA.


Michael

 

Had some fun making it with my daughters. YouTube - Bronsky's ACER 3820TG Unboxing They really tried to match Kubrick's timing on the opening scene.

Bronsky

 

Result for Kingston V+ NVP325S2 128GB:

 

Thanks, is that something else than SNV325-S2?

 

It's same.

 

That's great! I think the whole "unboxing" phenomenon is silly and find the use of Pink Floyd's "Sheep" rather fitting. Nice work.

 

Ok, I got wireless working in KUbuntu.

If, like me, you have a broadcom wireless card in your 1830T, the following little dance works:

Steps:

1. regular install of KUbuntu
2. Add the .iso you installed from to the sources list for apt-get/Kpackagekit
2a. I used pendrivelinux to install the iso to an sd card, so that meant doing the following:
1. remove the sources list entry for the cdrom
2. remove the /cdrom directory: sudo rm /cdrom
3. mount the sd card in the installed copy of Ubuntu (should mount automatically on (re) insertion.
4. symlink cdrom to the sd card: sudo ln -s /media/whatever /cdrom
5. add the "new" cdrom to the sources list
3. install the broadcom drivers from /cdrom/pool/restricted/b/bcmwl/ by navigating there in file manager/dolphin and double clicking the .deb to invoke dpkg

Note that it's not enough to download the .deb or just to navigate to it; the broadcom deb has 11 other dependencies that it needs internet access (which you don't have) or the .iso to fulfill.

After doing this and rebooting (which is why you have to either install to KUbuntu to your hard drive or make an sd that's modifiable), you have wireless access.

At this point I recommend not dealing with the pain that is network-manager, by using network-manager once to connect, then installing wicd (sudo apt-get install wicd) and never using network-manager again.



Note also that using wubi to install will download an .iso, but not expose it as an .iso. I don't know if it's a matter of renaming what wubi downloads; I just downloaded the .iso normally and forwent wubi, using the pendrivelinux instead.

Finally, for the 1830T, you probably want the 64-bit desktop version of the .iso, which is confusingly named *amd64*.

 

In windows, I can hardly do a two-finger scroll on the ALPS touchpad.

Is two-finger scrolling working decently for anyone? Is it something that gets better over time, or is it just hopelessly bad?


I'm coming from an Asus 901, where two finger scrolling is an effortless glide, and I almost never click a scollbar or press the pagedown or pageup keys. And on the Asus I can very easily reverse the scrolling direction by chnaging the direction of my fingers. It just works right.

But on the 1830T, sometimes two-finger scrolling scrolls, sometimes it selects text, sometimes it zooms in or out, most often it does nothing -- the mouse cursor doesn't move, so it knows I'm using two fingers, but the page doesn't scroll.

Changing direction from down to up almost always requires lifting my fingers, rather than just changing direction.

Turning off the "multitouch" gestures ("flick", "pan", "zoom", "pivot") in the "multitouch" tab of Control Panel | Mouse ironically makes two finger scrolling *worse*: it no longer incorrectly zooms, but more often the cursor sits unmoving and scrolling doesn't happen.

EDIT: Multitouch Gesture "Pan Scrolling" IS two-finger scroll.

The one-finger scroll zones (right and bottom edges of the touchpad) work only intermittently as well, and turning on the "hotspots" (upper left, upper right) for right-click doesn't work at all.

So my question is, is this a matter of acclimating to the ALPS pad, a matter of getting the right settings in the Mouse configuration (or are there hidden Registry settings too?), or is it just a matter the ALPS touchpad is terribly inferior to the elantech touchpad on the Asus?

Does anyone have a good experience with the Acer 1830T's two-finger scrolling? Again, on the Asus 901, it just works. Can anyone claim that for the 1830T?

 

I just got a Logitech cordless mouse, touchpad issues solved.

Also I have to say this thing is loud. Wish there was some fan control tool like the one for the 1810...

 

A mouse is not in my use case: I like to lie on my back with the laptop on my belly, kinda like an otter eating a fish.

Haven't noticed fan noise at all -- temperature is at about 120F/48C.

 

You are not plugged in? That is why.

 

help help i installed the newest graphics driver from intel and now the computer doesnt recognize the computer microphone even if i plug one in it doesnt recognize it!

 

Yeah it is quite loud. I was hoping there'd be a fan control thing by now.

 

Anyone know if the metal bezel around the keyboard and palm rest area can be replaced with a softer material (plastic/rubber)?

Love the 1830t, except for this bezel.

 

1830T much too expensively. Price too expensively…

 

Just received my second 1830T i5.
Wife got the first one and I thought I'd be happy enough with my old 1810TZ.
Guess I could not stand her having the faster machine.

Have a Kingston 64GB SSD on order.
Hope to boot from the Kingston supplied software via USB optical drive.
And copy the virgin 500GB (before registration).
Anybody done this?

 

I've had my 1830T less than a week, always plugged in except for a few minutes unplugged, and my battery wear level is already at 5%.

Bad battery or normal?

 

Page 145

This is true for myself and at least one other 1830T owner that posted in this thread, so I think it is the norm.

 

And now the price is rising - 720 $ instead 700 $ than was before a couple of days Buy Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-3721 11.6-Inch Notebook - Black (LXPTV02043) - Shopping.com

 

I just installed two g. skill 4GB mem modules (8GB total ) , windows seems to run fine (and uses all 8GB). $185. The windows memory performance score did not change after putting in the new modules. I got these because the reviews at newegg seemed good.

I have the 1830T i5 version

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ

 

Wow, this is quite a long thread. I traded in my 1410 for a 1830T-3721 about 3 weeks ago. The 1410 was selling for $350 open box while the 1830T-3721 was selling for $699 so it's about twice the money.

I do like the larger hard drive and the i5 performance. I can now watch downloaded bluerays which I couldn't before. The battery life is better which is nice. I would like to play games once and a while, but I hear they don't run very well. I'm not willing to go with a larger laptop, I really like this formfactor. So I guess I'll settle for playing games at the minimum settings - or find games from 5 years ago that still work (I did replay all the Silent Hill games on my 1410 with no problems, but I'm tired of living in the past).

My only great regret is this damn Alps Touchpad. I turned off all the motions and it does work, but it feels like sandpaper going up and down because of the textured plastic. The 1410 was very smooth which showed fingerprints, but worked flawlessly.

I am ready to buy some sandpaper at the hardware store, tape off the mouse pad and slowly sand it smooth. Before I do this, does anyone have any thoughts on this?

The only other solution I can think of is waxing it, but that would suck on a hot day.

 

It will become smoother with time. After month of using mine 1830T, touchpad is much easier to use. Using DELL touchpad drivers for ALPS from here also help for multitouch gestures.

 

Hi all,

I'm planning on buying this little machine and have noticed everyone complain about the ALPS touch pad. People mention everywhere that "I unfortunately got one that had ALPS and not Synoptics." Who has ACTUALLY gotten one with a synoptics touchpad? Do 1830t laptops actually exist out there with it and is there a place I can buy one specifically with a synoptics? Is that specified on the box? If not what can I do to up it's performance? I see you can improve it's drive and sand paper it down haha. Thanks.

 

Quite a bit nicer! Still no two-finger tap though.

Thanks!

 

One or two people have posted they got the Synaptics. You cannot tell which you've gotten until you turn on the computer and set up Windows.

 

FYI, as far as I know, all 1830t here in Taiwan shipped with Synaptics touch pad.
And no, it's not specified on the box.

 

Mine 1830t is equipped with synaptics touch pad, but just like you, I ditch the sand-paper texture. What I did was trim down a mist screen protector that came with my iPod Touch case to the exact size of the touch pad area. It works well for my taste, and it doesn't do any permanent damage to the machine

 

^ nifty

Michael

 

i bought 2, i also got a synaptics on the 2nd one, i think the newer shipments may be more common to be synaptics, the earlier purchases i bought was a alps, and it didn't work well, the trackpad needs Q/A redesign work, i notice all the 1830t mouse buttons on them look broken, and uneven. hope they can make the improvements on it on the next model update. Looks like a luck of the draw.

 

I bought my 1830T-3721 yesterday at Fry's Electronics. They got 20 of them in last week and I got the last one. They're flying off the shelves.... I got lucky to get one.

Having owned both an AS1410 (SU2300) and a Thinkpad X201 (i7-620M) I'm very impressed with this puppy so far. For $699 I'm getting performance that is comparable to the X201 for about half the price. I'm through with Thinkpads and the price-gouging for Lenovo-branded parts, what a scam!

Anyway, I'm back in the Acer area and very happy to be back. My 1830T came with the dreaded ALPS touchpad but since I almost always use a mouse it's no big deal. Despite what it says on Acer's website for this model, I got a Broadcom wi-fi card, not Intel. These Broadcoms can present a problem with Linux.

Can anyone comment on Linux compatibility with this model with the Broadcom wi-fi (and any other difficulties)?

 

Yes.

 

@Jayayess1190: Thanks for the info. +1 rep for you.

However, I think I'm just going to order the Intel Advanced-N 6200 card and install that to simplify things. I hope the 1830T will take it without any problems. Amazon has that card for around $27.00. I had that card in my X201 and it works really well with Linux (and Windows, too).

 

I and many others have upgraded to the 6200 and it fits fine. You need the half height mini card.

 

Yes, the half-height. I just ordered it from Amazon and should have it in a week or so. I'll uninstall the Broadcom driver just before I switch the cards. Windows will probably offer a driver. Do you recommend the Windows driver or should I install Intel's?

I ordered this one.

 

"I bought my 1830T-3721 yesterday at Fry's Electronics. They got 20 of them in last week and I got the last one. They're flying off the shelves.... I got lucky to get one."


AAARRRGGGGG Fry's only has "out of box" ones around here!