Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T Thread

Are the any stores in california (more specifically around LA) that sell these aside from Fry's? Trying to pick one up today.

 

Mine is an "out of box". It was the display model but had only been on display for a couple days. No damage of any kind... and I got 5% discount for "out of box" but it has the same warranty and return policy as one in a factory-sealed box. The display model was all they had left and they didn't know when they'd get any more in at the store in my area.

I see no damage or defects of any kind. Looks and runs great.

 

The "blue part" is the motherboard and those circuit traces are very delicate. Anyway, due to your experience I opened mine up to see if I would have the same problem when my 6200 card arrives.

The single screw holding my Broadcom card down turned easily with just a bit of downward pressure and simultaneous counterclockwise torque. I made sure I had the right size phillips screwdriver first. No problem on mine. What worries me is the antenna leads. They have to snap on straight down or the edges of the connectors can become knurled/bent. If that happens I guess it's time to get out the solder.

I can't figure out where the bluetooth module is. Must be under the keyboard... I couldn't see it from looking at the bottom with the panel off.

 

Legally, if you DO NOT accept the EULA at the initial startup of the computer and REMOVE Windows from the laptop you are entitled to a refund of the cost of the Windows license. However, in the U.S., actually getting that refund requires a lot of time and effort. You have to verify and document that you did not ever use that copy of Windows and that you removed it. You then may have to go through the retailer AND the OEM to finally get your money back.

I wish everyone would do this -- it would help to break Microsoft's monopoly on installed OSes. It really p*sses me off that I can't buy a computer without Windows already installed and paying for that license. Talk about monopoly! Seems to me it ought to be illegal -- we deserve to have an initial choice of operating systems... or, at least, be able to buy a computer with NO OS on it at all.

 

I had an X201 w/Core i7-620m. It came with the "ThinkPad b/g/n" wi-fi card which is actually a ReakTek card and that card absolutely sucks and is NOT Linux compatible at all. If you get an X201, be sure and get the Intel 6200 card. And be prepared to be REALLY disappointed with the screen.

And here's the real rub: You cannot just go buy a $25.00 Intel 6200 card and put it in there. You MUST buy the card from Lenovo (Lenovo Branded) or your computer won't even boot when you put it in. You'll pay 4 or 5 times as much for the exact same part buying it from Lenovo but you have no choice. The BIOS in your X201 will not accept or use any non-Lenovo-branded part. This whole scenario made me so mad I'll NEVER buy another Lenovo product.

 

I've noticed this on MANY laptops. The OEM's drivers are optimized for the model and you'll usually see a drop in performance with the latest Intel drivers. I know, it doesn't make sense, but then a lot of things they do don't make sense. Perhaps the newer drivers adjust power usage of the GPU or overclocking ability. Some have reported that they got better WEI scores by not allowing the Intel Graphics Control Panel software to load and the hotkey program. There are three programs and services that are loaded and apparently unnecessary... look in MSCONFIG.EXE.

 

Putting a huge battery in an 1830T kind of negates the whole idea of "thin and light ultraportable". Fortunately, I really don't care about battery life because 95% of the time I'm plugged in and since I use a mouse, always, they can put the crappiest touchpad in the world in it. What DID bother me was the mediocre wi-fi card (Broadcom) when it states on Acer's website that my model comes with:
"Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN, Acer® SignalUp technology for enhanced antenna efficiency, WI-FI CERTIFIED™"

Now that's false and misleading advertising. Grounds for litigation unless there's some fine print somewhere saying that other parts may be substituted (probably is).

*EDIT: Sorry for the multiple sequential posts here -- I just finished reading this entire thread and wanted to make a couple comments that might help others.

 

So I just checked Acer's site and they removed the reference to Broadcom cards. There is no false advertising as obviously the first batches had Broadcom cards. Maybe the latest do not, of which you did not get one.

Also gone are references to Alps and Synaptics, it only says the generic: "Multi-gesture touchpad supporting two-finger scroll, pinch, rotate, flip" now.

 

Okay, now I understand. So it said Broadcom when mine was manufactured then. The manufacture date on mine is July 24, 2010. They must have got a lot of complaints about the Broadcom cards and recently switched to the Intels.

Here's my stock configuration WEI, Core i5 1830T (no hardware or driver modifications or substitutions at all) after running Windows Update and removing most of the bloatware:



I have not re-run the assessment, it never asked me to update the scores since there have been no driver or hardware changes.

I was going to do a clean-install of Win7 Ultimate x64 but I really see no need for that since I won't be using the Bitlocker or any of the other features that come with Ultimate. Also, after removing most of the bloatware it's plenty fast with the included Home Premium edition.

I manually cleaned out the registry to remove all the crap that the uninstallers left behind - that helps a lot. The worst offender is the MyWinLocker software by Egistec. What a mess that left behind! I had to boot into safe mode to remove the folder and program and then clean out the registry manually. Most everything else seems to have un-installed okay.

I don't use any Microsoft software other than Windows itself so I took all MS crap off and unchecked the MS options in the Windows Update configuration. As soon as my Intel 6200 card arrives I'll be setting up dual-boot with Ubuntu 10.04.1 Linux (64-bit).

For those of you that would like a fast browser, try Iron. It's Chrome with all the Google crap stripped out of it -- no "phoning home" to Google with your browsing habits. Be sure to get the customized "adblock.ini" for it -- works much better than the addon because ads are not loaded and then blocked, they're never loaded at all.

 

RE: The post complaining about wanting a computer with no OS on it...

No one is going to buy a computer with no OS on it; it wouldn't even turn on. And how would you get an OS on it if it didn't have one to begin with? You wouldn't have a loader. Not a practical idea.

 

I WOULD!!!!

 

You would still have a bios. And there are already some computers sold without OS's by smaller companies.

 

Can anybody tell me, if there is a second full size mini pci-e slot connector present in 1830t?

 

You're wrong about that. Myself and many others would love to pay less for the computer (by NOT having to pay the Windows license fee included in the price) because we ALREADY HAVE our own operating systems (Windows, Linux, BSD, etc.). We will put OUR OWN OS on it and thus save money. I have had to pay for a dozen Windows licenses to get the hardware I want.... it's a rip-off.

And it will turn on and seek out an OS (from the optical drive or from a USB device -- whichever you tell it to) whether there is already an OS there or not. Anytime someone does a "clean install" they are booting from the installation media, not the installed OS. How do you think the manufacturers get an OS on there in the first place? You can install Windows or Linux from a USB flash drive on a computer with nothing on it. I've done it many times.

 

As of today I will be joining the 1830T owners. I ordered one with Core i3 -330um. Im looking forward to how I will like it.

 

Welcome to the thread, Phil. I think you'll love this model. I've had a couple dozen laptops and I'm happy with it. As you've no doubt read, if you get one with the Alps touchpad, you might not be happy with that aspect of it. Also, the first batch (some are still in retailers inventories) came with Broadcom wi-fi cards which are not so great. Many of us are swapping them for Intel 6200 cards which are pretty cheap and definitely worth the upgrade and nearly as easy to install as RAM.

 

Thanks for the heads up raydabruce. I'll be posting my experiences here.

 

I plan to order 1830t-3721 soon too. I wondered it it has a second mini pci-e slot connector on the board, to put EVDO pci-e card in it.
So some of 1830t-s come with Synaptics touchpad and Intel wifi card and some of them with Alps and BC?

 

Hope you like it, Phil. I remember you posted the very first unpacking of the AS1410,
or was it the European 1810 with the SU3500 cpu?
But just a small warning.. you will not be impressed by the i3's performance.
In one comparison somewhere, the i3 performed between the SU4100 and the SU7300.

So I had decided to keep my AS1810tz su4100.
But a couple months ago, I got one of the first 1830 i5 machines for my wife.
She loved it, & I liked it enough to just purchase a second 1830t i5 for me.
But even the 1830t i5 is NOT mind-blowing fast.
Sometimes I notice its faster than the su4100.
Most of the time I don't notice.

BTW.. I'm trying to figure out how to migrate the Win 7
and other stuff on the 500GB hard drive onto a new Kingston
64GB solid state drive. All the utilities like Acronis require
an equal size or larger hard drive. Any ideas?

 

yus9, the benchmarks I saw rate the i3 higher than the SU7300. I hope that holds true. ( http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php)

What benchmarks are you referring to?

for the SSD, a clean install is recommended. it's better on several levels (alignment, drivers and more).

 

I don't see a benchmark for the Core i5-430UM. They have one for the full-voltage 430M, but not the 430UM. They do, however, show benchmarks for the i3-330UM and the i5-520UM. I think the 430UM would be closer to the i5-520UM because it has the Turbo Boost which the i3-330UM doesn't have and a base clockspeed of 1.2GHz going up to 1.73GHz.

In everyday use, it's noticeably faster than the 1410 (SU2300) that I had. Not a lot faster, but I do notice it. Especially for certain operations like working with compression/decompression (WinRAR, etc.) and for graphics operations.... the Intel HD is a big improvement over the 4500MHD. You won't notice this speed increase until you get rid of the "junkware" (McAfee, etc.).

 

I just ran the PassMark benchmark on mine.
The CPU Mark came out to 1564.1
That's about equal to a Core2 Duo T6600 which runs at 2.20GHz and is a full-voltage CPU.

Not bad for an ultra-low-voltage CPU. I uploaded the results, so maybe they will post it in the listings for CPUs.

Here's the entire PassMark Benchmark test:



** The test identified the CPU as a "Core i5-430M @ 1.729GHz" rather than an i5-430UM.**
Odd. Maybe this chip really is a 430M that's just been "downclocked" or undervolted.
I had the power plan set to "High Performance" and no other programs were running or windows open.

 

So I've read through a large portion of this thread, as I'm very interested in this laptop. However recently, the Asus 1215N was released which seems to occupy a similar space in some senses. It has a dual core D525 1.8 ghz processor, and uses ion 2 graphics. It seems to have similar battery life as the 1830T, and slightly more video processing power, and slightly less cpu power would be my guess, and costs 100-200$ less. How would you compare the two?

 

No comparison, not even close. The Atom D525 has half the memory bandwidth, 1/3rd the cache and less than half as many transistors. Plus a lot of the features of the Core i3/i5 processors aren't available with the D525. What can I say, an Atom is an Atom...... see the link below.

Intel Comparison

The graphics might be better than the Intel HD, I really don't know. But I gave up on Atom processors some time ago. A dual-core Atom seems like a gimmick to me -- just a marketing ploy. Your best bet is to look at benchmarks for various uses. They're classifying that Asus as a "netbook". Not so with the Acer 1830T -- it's definitely NOT a netbook, at least not by most folks definition. Most consider it an "ultraportable laptop/notebook". Of course, as a recent buyer of the Acer, I'm a bit biased. Also, I was really disappointed by all the netbooks I tried out (and they all had one kind or another of Atom processor).

 

Can't remember.
I had it book marked for a while, but its gone.
Perhaps is was in this listing.....
Notebookcheck: Mobile Prozessoren - Benchmarkliste

But to be realistic, all of these numbers don't mean too much
unless you can notice and feel the difference between a slower and a faster computer.
I learned this lesson a long long time ago with automobiles.
I spent lots of money to increase the acceleration by 10 or 20 percent.
Didn't make any difference in my daily use of the vehicle.
I did win a few informal races though!

About the clean install on my SSD.
I should know... I've got years of experience, all the way back the the Apple II.
But I do need help.
I can get a new Win7 OS onto the SSD.
But how to get Microsoft to re-activate it?
Got a link?

 

I don't doubt this has been asked before, but I flipped through a couple of pages of this thread and couldn't find it and I thought asking would be faster than continuing to search.

The older Timeline 1810T Olympic Edition with the 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo SU9400 seems to be on sale nowadays and while the newer TimelineX 1830T is faster, I'm wondering what the battery life is life between the two?

Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T Review - Battery, Wi-Fi, Green Tests, Configs, Software & Verdict

LaptopMag found that the older 1810T had noticeably better battery life. Is this what others are seeing as well?

 

For gaming the 1215N will win most of the times. for all the rest the 1830t will win.

Ps. you forgot one word, I've added it in bold

Yeah there's an error in that list. The SU7300 has one score that makes it seem a lot faster than it really is. If you hover over the SuperPI results it's easy to see the error.

The Core i3 330um will be about 25% (maybe 30%) faster than the SU7300.

Windows will give you the phonenumber to call of the automated actication line.

 

Well, I'm going to assume you have less than 64GB of data on the partition on the 500GB hard drive. Elsewise it simply won't fit.

With that assumption, can you shrink the partition on the 500GB down to something less than 64GB? Shrinking it down to less than 64GB, in fact, closer to the size of the data that's on the partition, will make the migration easier. Once you have the partition on the SSD, you can expand the partition.

I just did this with my desktop computer, I had a 90GB C: partition with 32GB of data (I think ... it's been a short while) I shrank that 90GB C: partition on the HDD down to 35GB, then imaged the 35GB partition with the (free) Acronis Reflect software. Once I had a 35GB partition on the SSD, I expanded the partition to 64GB.

The Disk Management utility in Win7 will shrink and expand most partitions. Not sure about the utility on previous Windows versions.

 

OK... thanks for the responses.
I've used the "Computer Management" tool in the past for partitioning.
So it should be no problem.

BTW Phil... I've also read that Windows 7 recognizes when an SSD is being accessed and does the optimizing automatically.
Any truth to this? I'd rather not do a clean install and then need to deal with installing all the drivers.

 

i have one of the 1830t variants (i3-330UM)

2 questions:
1. the screen is freaking bright even on the lowest setting (in dark room), is there any way to make the backlight even less bright
2. i know you can do this (did it when i had aspire one), i have a keyboard, how do i change the key beside the shift key into a shift key (ie reassign the key)

 

all right, maybe I am lucky with the third attempt:

 

now i have one as well happy happy froi froi

anyway, im trying to optimize battery life. im using battery bar to get me some indications. i uninstalled already manys things (incl. acer epower, as there was no program to use) and deactivated services. intel grafics energy settings was in mine correctly set.

battery bar status shows now between 10'000mw and 15'000mw. can you get less power consumption?

i had now a runtime of 4:46 by installing and uninstalling thingies over wlan and surfing.

 

Post Deleted by poster. Problem solved by other means.

 

Using Function plus left arrow or right arrow gives all 3
of my 11.6" Acers a wide range of display brightness options.

For key reassignment, download the free "KeyTweak" application.
I think it works with all keys except for the Function key.

 

Sorry if this has been asked before - I don't want to wade through 164 pages of posts.

A friend has just purchased the 1830T and loves it - except for the multi-lingual keyboard that accompanies ALL Acers in Canada.

Will the 1810T keyboard fit the 1830T model? They're both 11.6" displays.

I ask because on Ebay there appear to be far wider choice of 1810-compatable k/b's than 1830's - and less coostly as well.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/search.php

 

Okay, I actually tried to search the thread and couldn't find the exact post, but I am 99% sure the 1810 keyboard has been used on the 1830. I'm sure someone will chime in. Please forgive me for being a smartass.

 

I HAVE tried the forum search features.

And I was still unable to find a definitive answer and so I ask specfically here.

I actually have a spare 1810T keyboard (the bilingual one I replaced with a US k/b that I purchased on Ebay a while back).

If I don't get an answer first, hopefully I will be able to use my spare k/b to see if it will fit in my friend's 1830. That should result in a definitive answer - results which I will report back on, if the occasion does present itself.

 

i think i get crazy. i have the feeling the brightness is changing automatically, but i did not found a setting for adaptive display brightness (i hate light sensors)...

i have a black background... when i open a white page (ie google startpage), i have the feeling i can see how it gets brighter after a while...

//EDIT, solved: i just figured it out. its called Power Display Saving Technology from intel and it should save battery and its another option in the Power feauters settings.

 

The 1830 does not have an automatic brightness setting via a light sensor like the Apple Macbook.

However, if you have set the brightness setting to a low level when on battery and full brightness when plugged in you may sometimes notice that the brightness does not drop when unplugged.

This is due to multiple power control schemes conflicting. If this is the case be certain you are not running multiple power control softwares.

 

just did a fresh install of win7pro, no drivers at all (even at acer site), gotta get hunting

is there any advantages to using acer's epower management software?

 

It is useless.

 

I'm trying to put an SSD in the 1830 but I'm having a hard time removing the bottom panel. It seems to be fixed at the middle screw nearest the battery. Any tips?

I don't want to put too much force as I am afraid of doing damage.

Edit: OK got it now. A little bit of force was necessary.

I have a SSD here that I used in a HP DM3 (SU4100, Intel 4500). I put it in a Acer 1830t (Core i3, Intel 55) without reinstalling.

I had a feeling this could work since they use similar parts. So I tried it. 2 reboots where done and it's working like a charm now. I might do a clean install later.

 

Hello, Its my fist post although I've been following the forum for some months. I was thinking about a keyboard swap too. I live in Spain and the 1830t has not appeared here yet... nor has Acer any date for launch, so my great plan was to buy one in Germany and swap a Spanish keyboard from a 1810T or even 1410. Has anyone tried that??

Thanks!

 

I think it would work. I had a 1410 and my 1830T looks identical except for the textured covering on the back of the screen. Same size chassis, keyboard, etc.

 

I live in Thailand and was interested in the 1830T, but it's not on offer here either, and nobody seems to know if it will ever be offered.

However, Acer Thailand *does* offer the Travelmate 8172, which is very similar to the 1830T. Some differences:

- no HDMI port
- matte screen vs glossy
- flat black case (not fancy texture like 1830T)

Basically, I think the TM 8172 is aimed at business users, whereas the 1830T is more for other users.

Perhaps Spain has the TM 8172, and it would satisfy your needs? I bought the TM 8172, but haven't had a chance to even boot it up yet.

(There's a TM 8172 thread here on the forum as well: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/480471-acer-travelmate-8172-11-6-thread.html)

 

I'm seriously considering buying the Intel X25-M 80GB SSD from:

(link deleted -- not working) Anyway it's the Intel X25-M 80GB with the latest firmware. Model number:
SSDSA2M080G2XX

Does anyone have this SSD in their 1830T? Can anyone comment on any problems with physical installation? I want to know if it will fit properly in the drive bay without any modifications.

Thanks!

 

Yes it will fit fine. I just build in a C300 64GB. No problem.

 

I bought my 128GB Crucial M225 for $199 on sale. I think if you keep your eyes peeled, you could get a 120GB-128GB SSD for nearly the same price Newegg is charging for the 80GB Intel X-25M.

Bronsky

 

new problem:

have the intel HD graphics
whenever i change the scaling (choices are: aspect ratio, fullscreen, centered), i doesnt change, it's stuck on fullscreen
this didnt happen in before i reinstall windows