Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T Thread

try installing the latest series 5 chipset driver from Intel.com

Edit: I see now there isn't. That's weird. Maybe try a driver from Acer.

 

I'm one of the few folks here that was happy to see the Synaptics touchpad replaced on the 1830t i5 series.
We were quite happy with the Alps on an 1830t my wife got from Amazon in early July.

Well... evil exists!
Just noticed the 1830t i5 I just got for me from Amazon has the Synaptics Touchpad.
The driver is Synaptics version 7.4.
So at the very least... I can verify 100% that the USA 1830t i5 has been
shipped with both the Alps and the Synaptics.

 

Yes, I looked at all the options. I gotta go with the newest Intel 80GB. SO MANY happy customers just raving about this drive. Issues like TRIM, wear-leveling, latest firmware, utilities available.... and 80GB is plenty big enough for my OS and programs. All data will go on an external 500GB (the one my 1830T came with). Thanks for the info, though. I should have it by Mon. or Tues. Will report back.

 

@ Raydabruce, you can get a 128GB Crucial C300 for $254. (google shopping)

The Intel is a good drive but it's overpriced for what it offers.

 

Oh well, it's already been shipped. I'm sure I'll be happy with it regardless. I did some research. I know a guy who works at Microsoft (I live near Redmond) and they replaced all the server drives for their intranet (worldwide intranet) with Intel SSDs. He described the effect as "phenomenal". All their inter-office training videos which used to take about 30 seconds to load, now appear instantly. They spent $11 million on Intel SSDs. It was the old platter drives in the servers that was causing the bottleneck.

He said their employees in Beijing, New Delhi, Paris, Sydney were all calling and asking "what did you do?" it's so FAST now! He also said they went with Intel drives because of their durability and reliability. Apparently some of the other brands won't last as long and that was a major consideration for me. I'm going to use that drive in my next laptop and probably the one after that (hopefully).

 

@Phil:
I just found your thread about SSDs used with laptops that have the Intel Series 5 chipset --
here

Also found the main SSD thread. Wish I'd known about these beforehand.

Anyway.. can you advise me as to what tweaks I should apply and settings I should change to get maximum performance from my SSD? It would save me a LOT of reading since both those threads are pretty long (one is 657 pages!).

I'll be doing a clean install of Windows 7 x64 as soon as I get the SSD. Here's the model number of the X25-M 80GB:
Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2XX 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC
Apparentlly it's the latest model of their 80GB.

Thanks in advance for any tips you can offer.

 

For now just install it and enjoy it. The tweaks are not that important.

I'll say more later.

 

Okay, thanks. I'd like to do before and after disk benchmarks. Is CrystalDiskMark good for that? I'm downloading it now.

 

I am getting the AS1830T-3721 in the mail today. Looking forward to getting it. I am still debating on rather or not to put a SSD in it.

Should be good stuff though. What kind of performance should I be expecting? I am hoping I can have some office stuff open, netflix streaming and a web page open. I dont think thats much to ask though. Specs seem to be pretty good.

 

You won't have any trouble doing what you described above, depending, of course, on the speed of your Internet connection (for the streaming). It helps to use the "high performace" power plan when plugged in to get smooth streaming because the i5 can OC the Intel HD when needed. If I'm not mistaken, the i3 can't do that... or, at least, it doesn't have Turbo Boost for the CPU itself.

The i5-430UM performs on a par with the Core2 Duo T6600. Pretty good for an ultra-low-voltage processor. As for the SSD, I'll let you know. I should get my Intel 80GB early next week. I'll be posting before and after benchmarks after a clean install of Win7 Ult. x64 on the SSD.

 

Yes Crystal is good.

The reason I said the tweaks are not that important is that the effect of the cap is hardly significant in normal usage. I'm still benchmarking this.

Here are the only tweaks I needed sofar. Type regedit and change:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Processor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm

Change on both the "Start" from 3 to 4. Only side effect is the increase of temperatures by a couple of degrees.

Make sure your laptop is in High Performance mode, so you can still use the other profiles for power saving.

For your usage a SSD is kind of overkill. Have you considered Seagate Momentus XT 250GB? In performance it comes close to SSD but it's a lot cheaper.

I'm recommending the 250GB because chances are it's a bit more quiet than the 500GB.

Does anyone have the 500GB XT in his 1830?

 

Yeah, I do most of my intensive work on my desktop... so maybe it really will not be as large of an issue for me. I just got the Notebook in the mail and booted it up, and I am really happy with it so far, it has plenty of zip for what I plan on doing with it. I am pretty impressed so far, of course a Notebook novice like myself is probably easily impressed.

 

I've been reading your thread concerning the HM55 chipset w/SSDs. Very informative. I'm finding a LOT of tweaks for SSD performance and longevity all over the net. I have only one question at this point... what would the ideal size (on SSD) be for pagefile.sys (assuming 4GB RAM)? Should I set it to be static (initial and max size the same) ? I don't use a lot of memory-hogging programs so I'm assuming I could get away with a much smaller paging file than Windows defaults. I need to conserve space since my drive is only 80GB. I'm also disabling hibernation to get rid of the big hiberfil.sys (powercfg.exe -h off).

Thanks for the registry tweaks. Do those tweaks solve the power-management problem with the HM55 and thereby boost performance of the SSD?

 

i tried installing from acer, it doesnt solve it, plus it's older

what's the series 5 chipset driver?

 

Disable it and see if you get into trouble. If not, you don't need it.

Sofar the effects on real world SSD performance turn out far smaller than I thought. At this point in time I don't really recommend applying the tweaks.

there isn't any on Intel.com

 

Yup. See first thoughts here. Also, some informal temperature data in this post. Bottom line, I'm very happy although minor trade-off for heat and noise.

 

Thanks for that. I'll probably stick to my 64GB SSD for now as I like the silence.

I'm just going to have to connect my external storage often.

 

I don't know how you do it with 64GB. I have a 128GB SSD, a 16GB SD Card and I am still constantly offloading stored files to the external HD. Modeling data sets and Satelite images/video are so big I normally DL them just to work on them, immediately upload to the External HD and DL them again when the edited file is ready to be used or presented. I could really use an ESata or USB 3.0 port.

Bronsky

 

This Alps touch pad driver seems to be a bit better. Except for the two finger scrolling.
Link

Please share your experience.

@ Bronsky, I basically use my notebook as a netbook. The only reason I need more space is for downloaded music and videos.

I also applied some tweaks, making my Windows installation about 12GB.

Update on SSD performance:
I've been doing more real world testing. Good news: the tweak does make a difference. Not for heavy multi tasking, not for file copying (in my setup) but it matters for installing programs. It matters a lot.

Installing CS4 without tweak 9:30 min. With tweak: 4:30 min.
Installing Office 2007 without tweak: 8:32 min. With tweak 5:18 min.

The tweak I used is this one:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Processor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm

Change on both the "Start" from 3 to 4

This tweak can raise temperatures and decrease battery life. Consider only using it for the high performance profile.

 

I would think the SSD would put out a lot less heat than a platter drive and therefore compensate for the increased thermal output from CPU/GPU. Not so? I've read elsewhere that the temp will only go up 2 to 3 degrees with this power management tweak... not anything to be concerned about I hope. Battery life I will gladly sacrifice for top SSD performance but heat issues can cause problems.

 

As far as I know no one has monitored the temperature or battery life effects of this tweak on a 1830T yet.

 

Yes, I think you're right ... I was thinking of the slightly higher temperatures reported when stressing the CPU while running Crystal and I was assuming the registry tweaks would have the same effect... at least to some degree.

 

For 4 years when I had my Inspiron 9100 I had a 40GB HDD. Tried to upgrade once to a 120GB, but the drive was DOA, so I sent it back and spent the money on something else.

As for the ssd tweaks, applied them. Maybe I should do a Battery Eater test again.

 

can someone go into the device manager and tell me what it says under monitors

for my fresh install of win7pro, it's listed as generic pnp monitor, i think that's why the scaling options doesnt work

 

Mine says "Generic PnP Monitor" and I'm using the stock install of Windows 7 HP x64. Apparently Acer doesn't provide an .inf file for the monitor like some OEMs do... I know Lenovo does for ThinkPads.

 

Maybe you could run CrystalDiskMark and see if your SSD has higher scores after applying the tweaks? That would confirm Phil's report. I'd do myself it but I won't have my SSD for a few more days.

 

Can anyone explain the discrepancy between free space reported by DOS and the amount reported by Windows Explorer ?
Dividing the DOS result by 1024 comes out to more than the explorer results -- is my math faulty?

Edit: Solved. It's /1024^3

 

I did a clean install now my Aero Desktop performance WEI rating is only 2.2. I think it should be higher. Does anyone know how to fix that?

I tried installing some drivers from Acer but that didn't help.

 

Install the latest Intel graphics drivers from their website.

 

It should be higher. Mine is 3.4 for Aero. Be sure you got the x64 driver (if that's what you installed) and select the right edition of Windows 7 from the drop-down list. Or just try the driver from Intel. Run the test while in high performance power plan. 2.2 is not right. Also, you might try putting the original drive back in and see if the test returns a better score (but I don't see how the drive could affect it). You could always clone the original drive to the SSD.

 

Divide by 1024^3.

Yes

Michael

 

RE Jayayess1190 advice: strange, I had the opposite experience after a clean install. I installed the latest Intel graphics drivers and my WEI rating dropped. Installed the acer drivers and life was good (or at least back to equivalent with the OEM installation).

 

Ahh, thanks. My bad.

 

Now I understand what went wrong. I forgot to say I had already installed the latest series 5 chipset driver from Intel.com. Turns out I had the wrong file. Searching for 'HD graphics' gave the right file.

 

Nevermind, not applicable to this thread.

 

What's this thread about anyway?

 

That's a good question. Hijackers are everywhere.

It would be nice if there was a section just for this model instead of only a single thread. Then there could be multiple threads to deal with topics like Linux, SSDs, Linux on SSDs, hardware upgrades, Acer BIOS hacks, beer, etc.

 

Not going to happen. Do you know the mess to navigate this website would become? Because if they did that for the 1830t, they'd have to do it for every single laptop model represented represented on this site, old and new.

 

Yeah, I know it's not gonna happen, but it would organize the info for this model a lot better. I don't think it would be a mess, I think it would make finding the info you want a lot easier. Acer section, subsection for 1830T, then threads in the subsection.

 

For those who have or are planning to install an SSD in their 1830T, here are a few helpful links with lots of good info:
Windows 7 info:
Microsoft SSD Q & A
For Intel SSDs:
Intel SSD FAQ
Intel SSD Support Community

 

This wireless card upgrade is not going to happen. That screw is on way too tight.

 

Mine turned easily with a bit of downward pressure and a quick torque counter-clockwise. Be sure to use the right size screwdriver. Another poster here had the same problem you're having. I think it was Jayayess1190. He ended up using drastic means and had to send his 1830T to Acer for repair and they kept his Intel 6200 card (I'd be furious if they did that to me).

 

Yeah, happened to me. I bought another 6200, Acer sent a new 1830T, and all is well (except the touchpad is still Alps ).

 

We have a few threads related to the 1410/1810. The main thread (which is actually the second one), the tweaks thread, the Linux thread etc. All it takes is someone to start it off and get people to take the conversation over there. It helps if the OP or moderators link them up in the main topic.

 

Hey people,

Just got this sweet laptop. However I use skype a LOT and my previous laptop had a built in mic that wasnt anything spectacular but it at least worked. This one however seems to be awful and cuts out. I tested this on the windows audio recorder program and on skype with both having the same results. Anybody elses have a bad mic or is it just me? I don't think I have the patience to send it back tho especially considering I can hook up my bluetooth to it but im just wondering.

Another question,

How do I see what my wireless card is?

 

I can't help you with the mic issue but device manager will tell you what your wireless card is. Or, just open up the access panel on the bottom and you'll see it -- it's right there next to the RAM and HDD.

 

Does anyone own a Acer 753 with U3400 CPU?

If so, what kind of battery life are you getting while surfing?

 

@ohiomoto: That's an excellent idea! I had a 1410 (SU2300) and used that thread extensively. It makes perfect sense to add the 1830T to that thread since all these models are very similar. It would prevent a lot of duplication of information. If a mod or admin could add the 1830 to the thread title we'd all have a lot more relevant info in one place.

The 1830T has the newer processors, DDR3 and slightly different case design but in all other aspects they are the same.... with the same problems and tweaks (for the most part).

1410 & 1810 Thread

 

Here's a separate thread to discuss sleeves, bags and cases:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/517968-acer-1410-1810-1830-11-6-sleeves-bags-cases-thread.html

 

That thread is already a monster and I and not going to continue to maintain it forever. I was suggesting that 1830 owners start a couple of new threads and then link them together as guys you see fit by posting links in the 1st or second post in each thread. (When you start the thread, reserve the first 2-3 posts so you have room to expand the OP if needed.)

I wouldn't recommend using the current batch of threads relating to the 1410/1810 as a place to discuss the 1830 because any new information will just get buried in the thread and you'll never find it. But if you were to start a "Timeline X Tweaks" thread (if there isn't one already) by all means provide a link to the "Timeline Tweaks" thread.

See where I'm going with this?