Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

Did you solved this? I´m getting the same error.

 

Hello
I'm new to this forum. I'd like to ask you a question about intel hd graphics mode on my acer 4820tg and the external monitor. When I work on radeon 5650 graphics card and I connect external lcd monitor via hdmi-dvi cable I have all working fine - I can switch between screens I can duplicate screens etc. But when I'm workin in intel mode (power saving) and I connect laptop ro external monitor via the same hdmi-dvi cabe nothing happens - in intel mode my computer doesn't detect external monitor at all. I try to force it to work manually but I realized that in this mode my laptop doesn't see the external monitor. Sometimes It automatically switches to 5650 graphics card mode when I connect the monitor in intel mode. So, what is the reason for this? Is the intel hd graphics card incapable to display picture on external monitor? It sounds strange for me - on older laptops with gma950 graphics card I remenber that it was working with external monitor without problems. I add that I have these drivers installed from acer www site: 8.840.7.4000.
Please wrote If you have experienced similiar problems and how you solve this.
Mike

 

Hi guys, can anyone please point me to a clean install guide of windows 7. I tried searching this thread but could not find a link. There was one reference to the 3820tg clean install, but the link is dead

 

You can only use the HDMI output with the Radeon HD 5650; not with the Intel. Don't know why it was designed like that, but that's just how it is.

 

I don't think the Intel GPU had enough juice to push an external 1080p display. When gaming on the 5650/HDMI/24" display, my unit would heat up a lot more than when just gaming on the 3820TG's 13" HD display. Maybe after the HD3000 graphics of the Sandy Bridge CPUs that has changed.

 

Hi guys. I've had my 4820TG-6847 for 8-9 months now and I really like it a lot. However, there are a few problems I have been having and wonder if anyone can help

1. Hooking my laptop to a 720P TV via HDMI doesn't seem to do the extended display and comes up very strange and basically unusable. My older HP laptop was able to work fine with the TV

2. Occasionally (like once every 3-4 weeks) when I try to wake my computer up from sleep, it will turn on and I can enter my password and do stuff but the screen doesn't turn on. It also sometimes bluescreens when this happens.

3. Sometimes with Youtube or VLC player, no sound will play on a video. I have to refresh 3-4 times or keep closing and reopening VLC for it to get sound working again.

If anyone can help, thanks

 

These instructions didn't exactly work.

However, by tinkering I somehow got switchable graphics to work. I followed the first three steps and then installed the 9.00's with switchable on. Then I restarted and followed the instructions about selecting the non Microsoft drivers with discrete on. Restarted with switchable and it worked.

 

Hi everybody. I am new user on this forum, but I have used it for great help in the past.

I couldn't find any help using the search thread function, but I guess this is the right place to write my question.


From yesterday nothing happens when i press the power button of my 4820tg. The screen remains blank, and only the power indicator and fan turns on. After about 20 seconds the fan goes to 100%, but the screen remains blank. When I press the power button again, the computer instantly turns off.

I have done a bit of googling, at the blank/black/dead screen seems to be a very common problem with other acer models, But I havent been able to find a solution, that works for this model.
This is what I have tried so far, following instructions for the same problem on other acer models:

1. Removing battery and AC. Holding the power button for one minute

2. Pressing power button for 10 seconds with ac connected

3. reseating the RAM

4. Flashing the bios using the original bios file found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...melinex-4820tg-5820tg-modded-bios-insyde.html . This involves:
a. copying the .fd-file to a clean, FAT formated 512mb usb drive
b. starting the laptop holding the fn+esc keys
When I do this, the flash drive LED's light up for a second when the computer turns on, then nothing. I wait for 10 minutes or so, with no activity.



Suddenly this morning, after leaving the computer unplugged and with no battery for the night, I got the computer to start up right until the windows safe boot screen, where it turn of again.

What am I doing wrong? Is my BIOS dead?


edit:
I have tried the boot flash sequence with both the hdd and the dvd drive disconnected, to try to force the computer to load the usb drive. It didn't change anything

A friend told me to reseat the CMOS-battery. Problem is, I can't find it

 

I must confirm, according to your suggestion, it really worked, now I'm on switchable graphics on Windows 8 too!

 

Man.. I didn't expect to hear from both of you guys directly haha, just proves that the community on this forum is just awesome. :thumbsup:
I think the 4820TG and 3820TG indeed struck a chord with consumers (minus the keyboard, which I guess was acer's attempt to try something new...)

Hows is the battery life on the X301, I assume its very good since you ditched the GPU and also opt for 6+3 cells

On a side note, thanks for the tear down link inm8#2, I was just looking for it too getting ready for the i580-m transplant

 

Hi wasabi323, I'm writing from South America. Today 10 Feb. 2012 there was a thunderstorm in the vecinity, suddenly my screen flashed for half a second and then Internet was out.
Same situation as yours: my ethernet cable is perfect, I have wireless connection, but there is a Microsoft Mini port in the Network adapters list and no internet through the cable. Green light is always on and that area of the laptop seems hotter than usual.

What I'd like to know is if you were able to solve this problem. Was the network adapter fried? Did you have a confirmation on this?
I need the computer with the Gigabit port ASAP so if that's the problem I'll start looking for a new adapter and figure out how to replace it.

One more question, was there any other damage besides the ethernet adapter? Was it safe to run the computer for a couple of days having the adapter fried?

Thank you very much for sharing your experience and I hope everything went OK with your computer and your work.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Gaston

 

Even if my 4820tg isn't dead, I am stil going to buy a new one.
I am still amazed it ran Battlefield 3 with no problems.


Can you guys recommend a notebook similar to 4820tg, but with up to date hardware? It seems slim 14" notebooks with dedicated graphics is a rare thing these days.

 

Gigabyte U2442

 

Thanks. unfortunately I cant find it anywhere with a scandinavian keyboard layout. I can find the Gigabyte U2442N, but that one is way to expensive. Aslo, the battery time is no where near the 9-cell of the 4820tg

 

My 4820tg came with a 6 cell, although I eventually bought an aftermarket 9 cell. Did yours come with a 9 cell?

 

Just looked up the model, man that thing is expensive.

On a side note, kefan777, I had wanted to ask on where you guys buy the copper shim.
I am about to pull a trigger on the 0.8mm copper shim too.
Since I am already going to tear it apart to replace the CPU, I am gathering the parts on doing the GPU shim upgrade all together.

I see some on Ebay on the 15mm x 15mm x 0.8mm sizes and it seems that alot of the sellers sell them in bulk of 10 pcs. 10pcs Copper Heatsinks Cooling Copper Pad Shim Laptop CPU Size 15mm 15mm 0 8mm | eBay

Do you guys just get these from Ebay or is there a specific seller that sells them online.

Thanks!

 

I got them from eBay.co.uk.

buying 10 is a complete waste, I bought 3 and ended up using 1 on GPU, as CPU is fine with just thermal compound.

what I realized is that these shims are cut from the ribs/fins of old heatsinks or something alike, so I had to use hammer to make one of them completely flat before use.

 

Mine came with the 9 cell. Out of the box configuration. Bought it from a Danish online store.

Can any of you recommend the acer m3 518tg?

 

Does the 9 cell have the bump that raises the laptop or is it the slimmer profile like the 6 cell? It might be a stupid question, but I am curious.

 

Thanks Kefan777!!

I ended up getting this one.
1x Thermal Copper Shim for Dell XPS M1210 GPU to Resolve Overheat Issues 0 8mm | eBay

Finally found one seller that is top rated, and that sells only 1 piece.
The size is not a perfect square (1.4cm x 1.5cm x 0.08cm) but I think it should be ok ?
Thanks for the help!

p.s. I added links in here just incase someone here might be looking to do the shim later too

 

Yes it does. And it raises the laptop quite a bit, ruining the thin profile, when it sits on the table. On the other hand, it gives a much better writing position if you ask me

 

Yea, I have both the 6 cell and the 9 cell. The 6 cell really makes the laptop look sexy and I have received compliments on it before. I do agree that the 9 cell may help with typing though. Both are good, I just wish I treated the 6 cell with more care. It is at 40% wear after about 2 years.

 

I've been running windows 8 on here for a little while now and I really like it. The google search app for windows 8 is excellent. I wasn't expecting to use any apps from the metro interface.

I kind of want to put a touchscreen overlay on this laptop... but I can't find any thing. It is not a need, I just think it would be a really rad project and possibly let me use windows 8 to the fullest extent.

If anyone knows of any touchscreen overlay kits let me know. I'm not having much luck looking.

 

I'm having a little problem with gpu overclocking lately. Every time I start to overclock or even underclock my gpu I will get a strange flicker, in the appearance of horizontal black lines across the screen, both on my laptop screen and external monitor.

The first flicker happens just for a split second after setting clocks on the AMD GPU clock tool. The flicker then continues if I open a web browser or while watching a high quality video on my desktop. I could remedy this by ticking and unticking powerplay in Catalyst which sets it back to default clocks. From then on, any attempt to overclock or underclock will result in this problem all over again.

But still I am curious to know how the problem was triggered if anyone can explain this to me. Is my gpu finally wearing off ?

 

It's not GPU. It's started happening a while ago because of some AMD driver changes.

 

Hmmm... I did update the drivers to catalyst 13.1. I'll try the older drivers to see if it works.

 

It's been happening for a good few sets of Cats so you may be forced to roll back to a relatively old driver or live with it (which is what I do)

 

Which cat version did you rolled back to ?

 

I don't remember anymore, sorry. I would guess that was at least three months ago if not more.

 

My 'Fn' key is not working for some reason. Can anybody help out ?

 

Hello everyone, I wanted to upgrade the RAM on my 4820TG and purchased 2x 8 GB samsung sticks 1333 MHz DDR3. The original RAM I have built in are 2x 2 GB samsung 1333 DDR3. So I thought this must work out, but uncertainly it does not. In the BIOS, the 16 Gigs are recognized by the machine, but windows will not start up. I can choose between "start windows normally" and "bootup repair", but whatever I choose, the screen turns black after two seconds and the machine reboots automatically.

can somebody help me with this issue? It is really annoying, I attempted an update about one and a half years ago, upgrading to 8gigs. back then, my computer just went nuts and made working impossible, but at least windows booted up. now nnothing. I dont want to send back the new RAM, is there a way to make this work?

thanks

 

try 1 stick at a time in each of the 2 slots.

 

what version of driver you use now?

 

Hi all,
I got sick of the webcam and swapped it for one from Dell 1750, they are really cheap dell 1750 webcam | eBay

here is a pic with the pinout on both:

it took me a bit to figure out which was what, but finally managed at the end. the dell cam has 2 mic array, but the one we already have is much better, so I just used the webcam.

you will have to cut tiny bits of plastic so the new webcam lies perfectly flat, the 2 plastic pins that hold the old webcam in place, one small barrier on the right and one have to be cut in half so the cam is pefrectly horizontal. see the red circles where exactly:



advantages of the new webcam:
better whitebalance
super smooth frame rate, there is absolutely no lag!

I also got a better 2MP camera from Dell 1555 but it's too thick and although it says it needs 3.3V, I think it needs more mA than Dell 1750 one and it's always showing "uknown device"
hope it helps someone

 

My temps are reaching 104C for my CPU and 107C for my GPU during gameplay. This results in my computer shutting down without warning. Is there anyway to lower my temps?

 

yes I got about 70C with max OC 750mhz core and 1040mhz memory , going to sleep now, but will try to post the mod I made tomorrow

oh in the meantime open the laptop and clean the fan from dust and get some quality thermal paste and change it on gpu and cpu, if u got thermal pad on the gpu remove it and put paste

 

While working on Intel based GPU, image is so bright, it sometimes hurts eyes, when changing to ATI - it's OK. I have tried different versions of ATI drivers, doesn't help. When installing Intel drivers - after reboot there is just black image and has to restore system. Computer has been sent in the past to ACER, they even changed the motherboard - didn't really help that much. It does not happen that often, but still - it is annoying. I have still around 8 months of warranty - should I better send it to them or maybe there is some software based solution to it. Computer is quite old now, I have it for over 2 years now. Problem basically exists since the beginning. Would be grateful for your help!


@hihowareu, have you tried cleaning your computer out of dust? Well, stupid advice, but you would be surprised how many people do not get it
btw, is using vacuum cleaner safe to put to air outlets and inlets especially these from CPU?

 

I have ati 5650 and these drivers (I think the ones from acer) and it works fine. the issue I think is that on some versions you can't adjust the brightness when u switch to ati gpu, the Fn key doesn't work.
try these and see if it gets resolved

 

I have tried all of the versions available on Acer webpage and these directly from ATI. I have never had any issues with changing the brightness, the issue is sometimes (not always) weird image while on Intel graphics. On ATI 5650 there is none.

 

oh yeah, sry I misread, yes I have the same issue and haven't found a fix. if it becomes bright after a while it fixes itself. doesn't bother me much to be honest

 

But at times when causes any text to be barely visible, then it's annoying - expecially when I have for example AutoCAD and other software launched which crushes while changing graphics... Me and by friend have the same same models, 4820TG, and we both have the same issue as I found out. Does it mean it may be more common than I expect?
And for me it used to fix itself - recently it can be this way until I reboot.

 

yes I think it's a common problem. I only have it when I'm on battery (I think) it must be an issue with the Intel drivers, because they are tweaked by acer to work with the switchable graphics feature. have u tried playing with the Intel gpu settings? will post a pic with my settings, hope it will help you
3D is in the the. middle and Power is maximum performance

 

Thank you Lorda. I just called Acer, consultant told me I'm the first person who's calling with such problem I will just send it to them and have them do it for me. And concerning Intel GPU - there may be sth, cause original drivers mess everything up and system won't start properly... However I'm no expert.

 

no worries, if it gets resolved please let us know what they've done to fix it thanks and good luck

 

I was told to install older BIOS, 1.13. If does not help - send entire computer.

 

If someone removes the thermal pad from the GPU don't they need to replace it with a copper shim? And if so, what dimensions did people find work best?

But the CPU doesn't need a shim, right?

 

Thermal pad on a GPU core- that seems impossible. ON a chipset- yes, but on an actual GPU core?
Not in this generation of graphic cards.

 

I don't remember if I had a thermal pad on the GPU before I put proper thermal paste on both the GPU amd CPU.
but you dont need copper shim as when you put paste on the GPU and screw back the heat sink it makes perf contact with the chip.
I think if only open it up and clean the dust from from the fan and the heat sink it will make a big difference for you.

 

Everyone who wants to overclock the crap out of their laptop without overheating this is what you need to do:

• clean the dust from the fan and heat sink, if you haven't done it in a while.

• get some proper thermal paste like this one Arctic Cooling MX-4 4g Thermal Compound: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories and change the one you have on the CPU and GPU

• make some holes on the HDD/RAM cover like this:
  
  I used soldering iron to make the rough holes and then used a blade knife to make them wider and smoother Olfa SK-4 self-retracting safety carton cutter / cutting knife: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools
  before you start making holes make sure you cut remove the dust mesh inside like this:
  

• buy this: Cooler Master Notepal U2 - Notebook stand with notebook fan - 17" - black: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

NOTE that if you are ocasional gamer you could remove the HDD/RAM cover, put the laptop on the cooler and you will get very low temps with max OC(I got 55C running Tomb Raider (2013) on High settings), you could put it back on without the screws for easy removal, but it could be annoying.

I was so happy to see 70C with max OC that I was running around like a lil kid just kidding
Oh and I use MSI Afterburner to Overclock

 

I'm confused, could you elaborate?

From reading this thread it sounds like the GPU has a thermal pad. If someone removes the heat sink they either have to replace the pad with another or add a copper shim with thermal paste. Does that sound right?