Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

have any of you use HWinFo64 to look for the hardware on this laptop?
from the memory module its said mine use DDR3 PC-10600
right now i am confused about the type of RAM to upgrade my laptop..
because 2 post above me said this laptop use DDR3 pc-8500

 

Any type of DDR3 memory will work. The point I was trying to make was that if you have a Core i3/i5 or two core i7 your memory will work at 1066MHz. Period.
It's possible that 1333MHz modules were used in your unit- price difference was basically nonexistent- but these are working at 1066MHz (unless you have a Core i7 720QM).

 

OK, thanks! I have been reading also that it is better to invest in an SSD than RAM. The out of the box 4 GB is sufficient for most tasks unless runnign VMs. So, how can I put an SSD drive and replace the DVD bay? Is it easy? Do I need to buy anything additional other than the SSD?

 

I have a Western Digital in my 4820TG. My laptop warranty expired almost one year ago, but does the HD have a separate warranty? I never registered it. I see the same model does have a 3 year warranty when purchased directly.

 

I'd say the warranty is 1 year parts and labor, so HDD probably counts as part.

 

if you need it, get 2x4GB, 16GB is pointless for your case and not 100% sure it will work.

there's zillion guides on replacing ODD with caddy. it's easy. obviously you need to buy the caddy, nothing else.

 

thanks. i followed exactly all steps and my radeon 6560 was finally recognized. but the catalyst control center doesnt start. when i try to open i get the following error:

Catalyst Control Center cannot be started. There are currently no settings that can be configured using Catalyst Control Center

how can i solve this? i really want to use CCC.... (maybe go to discrete mode and install this one? Catalyst 12.10 WHQL UnifL for AMD+Intel Graphics ← leshcatlabs.net)

 

Dear Friendns Please Please Help me,
I've not been here since a long time but I have a great problem and I try to deal with it for the last 4 days. I'm going crazy...
When i open My Computer, the window freezes up, the green bar keeps scrolling infinately and no icons (like hard drives, disk drives) appear. Same goes for Control Panel.
I read a lot and I tried all the repearing software like Advanced system care, Tune Up Utilities, FixWin, Full Defragmentation, Full scan with Avast, Malware anti-Malware, SFC / Scannow, etc...
Dont know what is the problem. Dont want to reinstall all. Last thing I didnt try is to create a new profile. Please give me some ideas and some help.
Thanks a lot?

there was no virusis and no other problems found. Supposse that might be in relation with the windows registry.... Please help

 

Have you checked your hard drive for defects? You can use CrystalDiskInfo.

 

Yes man done that too....
Other ideas except reinstall Win 7?

 

I've read the past several pages about installing leshcat drivers on my 4820TG following the instructions on the leshcat guidebut I had a little bit of trouble getting them to install. I tried to install Catalyst 12.10 and at the end of the installation it said everything was a success but when I rebooted my resolution had changed to 1024x768 and I couldnt change it back to 1366x768. Also when I tried to open up the control center it said that there was no driver installed but the device manager said there was. Can somebody give me some tips on what I need to do?

 

So there are specific windows 8 drivers for the 4820tg now? If this is true I am going to install it when I get home!



Also, can anyone point me towards a bigger newer battery for my laptop? My old one has almost 50% wear. I'd like to get something like a 9 cell but I guess I could survive with a 6 cell.

 

I'm going to try this when I get home! Thank you!

 

can i get any ones thought on thermal pads vs paste on 4820tg's cpu and gpu? i read some things about people trying to use paste and the gap being to to far from the heatsink to get good contact. Should I stick with replacing the thermal pads or go for paste? i already have some Prolimatech PK-3 TIM if i can use the paste, also what thickness pads should I be looking at getting?

 

pads are a joke, use copper shim + paste. Got this advice from senior members here and it worked a treat.

-10°C under full load compared to pads.

 

How thick is the shim you're using? 1 mm?

 

0.8mm it is.

 

Is anyone having problems with bluetooth after win8 upgrade? I've got atheros module that work on my linux multiboot system, but not on windows 8.
If your bluetooth is working, can you tell me wich version of launch manager & Bt driver you have installed?

Thank you

 

Atheros drivers for Windows 8 are crap. People all around the world are complaining about issues, disconnections and general lack of stability.

 

My problem is that I can't install ANY driver, from device manager, if I try to install the driver, it gives me "access denied"


EDIT:

Hurray! problem solved, by deleting a registry voice that was impossible to modify, even with the right permissions, the hive was: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT" and I had to delete it from linux because it was impossible from windows!

If anyone has my same problem, that should solve it!

 

Wow, so is it really that hard to get drivers installing on windows 8?
I just upgraded the battery on my laptop to the 9 cell and it actually looks great. Now I want to put windows 8 on it so I can start playing around with the new OS.

 

It's strange realizing I've had this laptop for two years. Time has flown by.

Hopefully I'll find a good deal to expand my storage. I wish it had USB 3.0, though.

 

I only encountered difficulties with bluetooth, and I can bet that it was because i made a upgrade from seven instead of a clean install.

4820tg is perfectly compatible with with 8 in my opinion, regarding switchable VGA, i followed these instructions: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...nex-4820tg-owners-lounge-509.html#post8941134

Good luck!

 

funny enough I haven't found a suitable replacement for it yet (unless I paid like $1600 and still make some compromises)

if it had better screen it could easily go on for another 2 years.

oh and to win 8, make sure you do a backup of your windows 7, as you're more than likely to revert back.

 

I am having a problem when outputting to an external display with HDMI. When the AC charger is plugged in I get these video artifact lines on the display whenever there is any sort of video processing going on, when I am running on battery I do not have this problem whatsoever. So here is where it gets a little weird...

I noticed the problem when I was running Windows 7, I thought it might have been a driver issue and was in need of a fresh system start, so I installed Windows 8. After setting up the laptop with Windows 8 and getting the switchable graphics working, the problem seemed to have gone away when the AC charger was plugged in, but this time I got the artifacts when the laptop was running on battery! I didn't really mind though since I would plugged in 100% of the time when connected to the TV. The next day or so I realized I didn't format my hard drive prior to installing windows 8, so I reformatted and re-installed 8. After setting up the drivers and everything I am having the same problem that I had with windows 7, AC charger plugged in and connected to external display is giving me artifacts. I'm thinking about scrapping this laptop and getting something new since it's most likely a hardware issue, but I figured I would ask here first if anyone is familiar with the issue or has any sort of fix.

EDIT: I figured out a solution to the problem. After disabling Powerplay in CCC I no longer get artifacts on my external display.

 

Anyone have these files? I can't find the windows 8 acer 4820tg page he is talking about.

 

they took away Windows 8 option from the OS choice dropdown menu on support page.

 

Those jerks... I guess we can use drivers from other compatible laptops right? 4820T?

 

just realized I got the 9.000 VGA driver downloaded. do you want it?

 

it's still available on acer website if you select 4820T (just T not TG)

 

Thank you but the below comment instructed me on how to get it

Yes! I just checked that out too because I was stealing other drivers from the 4820T...
Why would they have the AMD driver? I believe the 4820T only has an intel GPU. Very odd.

In any case, i seem to have windows 8 drivers for this laptop! And windows 8 is growing on me

Thank you.

 

I'm a bit concerned about my temps recently. While gaming the CPU temp may reach 80 deg C, while the GPU reaches 82 or 83 deg C.

I am almost always using a second desktop via VGA out. If I'm watching a video on one screen and browsing on another, my CPU is around 55-65 deg C and the GPU is around 60-66 deg C. But every now and then they reach a few degrees higher. I don't expect super low temperature especially if I'm watching a video, but my general observation is that my temps are a bit higher than 6-8 months before, and the fan works a bit harder now.

When I idle without a second desktop, I can perhaps get the CPU down to 40 deg C or slightly lower after a couple hours.

I figure one primary reason may be dust. After all, I've had the notebook for two years and haven't opened it to clean it yet. I took a couple pictures of the vent under the left hand side of the keyboard. You can definitely see some dust on the underside. I'd like to open the system and clean it out, but I'm apprehensive about doing so.

Does anyone have any instructions or tips for cleaning the vents and fan? I've done some research, and there are various suggestions of using compressed air (which I have). My concern is that I'm confused how to actually blow the air out. If I blow into the vent, dust gets everywhere. If I blow into the fan (while holding it so it doesn't spin and possibly break), dust might get stuck in the vent.

Do I need to remove the entire cooling apparatus? Can I just remove the fan itself without removing the heat sink?

Should I consider upgrading my cooling to a copper shim plus thermal paste?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm really nervous about doing something like this and want to be sure I have proper understanding and precautions before doing anything.

Thanks for reading!

 

Your temperatures seems quite normal to me, just a bit warm but definitely safe. You can try blowing some canned air trough the air vents without having to disassemble the notebook, btw i can't see lot of dust from the pictures you posted.

 

How can I blow canned air through the vents without disassembly? It'll blow dust into the fan or onto the other internal components. I don't understand. :/

 

Hmm, just today playing a 3D game which isn't too graphically intensive (came out in 2006) had my CPU and GPU temps as high as 95 deg C. That's with Firefox open in the background, along with a couple other applications.

Definitely has me worried. Even a few months ago playing a more recent game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution didn't see temps above 85 deg C.

Best I can summarize is that all my temperatures, be they idling, using a second display, watching a movie, gaming, etc. are about 10 deg higher than they used to be. And my GPU seems to usually be higher than the CPU when I'm doing casual work, which I don't think was ever the case.

I'm thinking either the GPU pad is wearing out, or due to fan clutter the heat that can't dissipate as well from the CPU is conducting to the GPU.

I think it's time to replace the paste on the CPU and possibly add it to the GPU as well. Again, if anyone has reliable tips for doing this please let me know. I read a comment somewhere in here that it wasn't recommended to put paste on the GPU since, without the pad, the heat sink apparatus may not be flush/level with the chassis.

Anybody have good cooling pad recommendations as well?

 

can we use ATI driver higher than 12.4 ?

 

It looks like the new series 7 chronos samsung models are a worthy successor to our belowed timelineX

 

Nice to see this model still going strong even after a few years
Mine is still going great. I am about to transplant my original i5-450m out to either a i5-580 or i7-640 plus other upgrades since the cpu prices have fallen.

p.s. I wonder how many of the original folks ever since aylafan / bronsky mod period are still around

 

Use a vacuumcleaner tot suck some dust out of the fan. But it is better to disassemble which is very easy if you take your time!

Verstuurd van mijn Nexus 7 met Tapatalk

 

Actually, last week I decided to take apart the laptop and clear out dust. I should have taken before and after pictures - the fan was disgusting!

I used compressed air to clean out the fan and ventilation area. I didn't want to remove the heat sink assembly, since I'm not ready to replace the paste. Disassembling the 4820TG wasn't too bad, but it would be nice to be able to access the fan a bit more easily.

My CPU and GPU were hitting 60 deg C when I was using a second VGA out display and doing web browsing + video streaming. Now the CPU is around 42-44 deg C, and the GPU is about 50 deg C.

The gaming temps for the same game went from 90-95 deg C for the CPU/GPU to about 70 deg C (CPU) and 72-74 deg C (GPU).

So yes, clearing out dust makes a HUGE difference. I still want to replace paste on the CPU and GPU in the near future, since I may want to OC the GPU. Plus, I'm concerned that the month or two of increased heat due to poor dissipation might have worn out some of the paste more quickly. Still, if my memory serves me well, my temperatures are now virtually the same as when I first got the laptop, or only negligibly higher.

tl;dr - lowered temperatures by 15-20 deg C by cleaning out dust from fan and vents.

 

We are still here. We just have other priorities in life now. Glad to see this thread is still alive after all this time. :thumbsup:

 

did you do it by yourself? i also thinking of cleaning the dust, but still dont know how to do it,
already download the service guide from this thread, but still i'm not sure how to do the cleaning.

 

Yes, did it myself. You'll have to disassemble most of the laptop. If you're unsure about this, I just found a nice guide with pictures to help you. I didn't remove the fan from the motherboard since I am not yet ready to replace thermal paste.

Acer 4820TG - Disassemble and replace CPU, RAM, HD, Display - The Disassembler

Once you reach the fan, just gently blow out the air with short bursts of compressed air. You might also use something like a thin swab or paint brush to remove as much dust from the fan as possible.

Spray out the vents and general area. Then, put it all back together in reverse!

 

I sold my Acer last fall. I didn't need the GPU anymore. Picked up a used X301 Thinkpad for the better keyboard and love it. I like to pass by now and then and glad to see these threads still going strong. Acer really had something special with the 4820TG and 3820TG models. Shame it screwed them up with the 3830TG series and the NVIDIA GPU which throttled like crazy.

 

okay, i just open the link and still learning to get full understanding of the step...
to reach the fan, i MUST follow step 1-7, until reach step 8( the cpu removal step) and blow the dust ?

1 more thing, if i am looking at the keyboard, where is the location of the GPU? a little bit confuse about the picture there..

 

I believe the GPU is in the top left of this image, adjacent to the RAM:

 

I think this is a very good successor to the 3820TG/4820TG

 

anyone tried AMD catalyst 13.1?
can we use it on this laptop?

 

Acer release new drivers for Windows 8 on the 15th. Has anybody tried it yet? I'm downloading it now. I will update you guys on how it goes.

 

Hello there.
I replicated all the steps described in this procedure, sadly with no success.
I do see the switchable graphics option, but when I click it (or either Graphics Options), I get only this error message:

Catalyst Control Center cannot be started.
There are currently no settings that can be codfigured using Catalyst Control Center.



I carrefully made all the steps, swithed to the discreet mode and back, I don't know why did it go wrong.
Have you guys any advices?

Thanks.