Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

How difficult was this? Would anyone like to post some photos of this process if/when they perform this change?

 

Its not super difficult if you know your way around computer hardware, but it definitely time consuming, because you have to remove the motherboard.

 

Then it is nothing for me.

 

what are your actual load temps before and after?

my 4820tg came back from acer service for it's overheating problems with no fix even attempted. They just flashed the bios (to the same version?) and claimed it tested "ok". Meanwhile I had it throttling within 10 minutes of taking it out of the box. They kept all of my original packaging that I shipped it to them in too - sent it back in a plastic bag cushioned recycled foam cut for a 2" thick laptop :/. Now they won't even respond on the ticket.

 

Man that's terrible, sorry to hear. Can you still return it for a refund?

 

If Microcenter would exchange it that would be great. If not, try one more time to have them take it back and then file a complaint with the consumer affairs division of your State's attorney general's office. You have developed great data on your problem and should have no trouble proving it. Ask for treble damages and name Acer USA as the defendant. That will get someone's attention at Acer. I am willing to bet it will be resolved with a single phone call from the AG's office to Acer USA.

Bronsky

 

Were there any thermal pads that you had to remove/replace?

 

Thanks for your advice - definitely something to think about.

Microcenter had informed me previously that I couldn't return it - they only accept laptop returns or exchanges within 7 days, after that you need to go through the manufacturer. Even if that was more generous, something tells me they'd balk at me not having the box anymore since acer kept it.

I wonder if the state ag appraoch is as black and white as it sounds. From every report I've read every i3 4820tg/5820tg throttles if put under synthetic load - ie prime95 + furmark. Would that be enough for every owner to win a judgement against acer? If the ideal outcome is to get a brand new replacement from acer, what if that one ends up producing identical temps to mine?

My thoughts had more more tending towards biting the bullet and voiding my warranty to replace the thermal compounds, or possibly shifting to a cpu with a bit more thermal headroom if that doesn't work.

I'm still undecided though - I'd just like a machine that works correctly with a minimal amount of time & effort spent. I really have no idea, but I fear a complaint with the state attorney general's office would take months. With the time I've spent dicking around with this laptop it'd probably make more economic sense to just bin it and buy something else.

 

CPU had paste all over it. GPU had somekind of pad.

With old thermal paste my CPU would max at 96C.

This is with the new paste after 10mins of prime.

http://i33.tinypic.com/2po38fp.jpg

A pretty nice drop there


Btw how can I install 10.7 drivers for my Radeon? I tried the trick on the first page but it didint work.

 

Your thermal paste solution is probably the most practical. It just might solve your problem. My concern would be if it did not and something else was wrong. To be sure, I would try to talk to Acer service again, explain your problem and see if you can get a return.

The AG's office will take a couple of months, a couple of conference calls and could involve an "in-person" mediation, but my experience is that the issue is resolved on a conference call or two. Acer does not want to send a rep to a mediation over an a minor issue. But, I understand your lack of desire to sped a lot of time on the problem though. I become obsessive about things like this.

The replacement of the I3 with an I5 sounds interesting. You could get an I5-540M for about $170 ATM. Hendrickson on the 3820TG thread just ordered one.

Bronsky

 

purchased a 4820tg a couple days ago from microcenter , the i5 version

just ran 3dmark06 stock and got 7507. my temps were 83 on core 0 and 86 on core 2 (max). on my 5650 it was 73 (max).

I also ran it without using just the battery not connected to the charger and i noticed that my fps were much lower in the 3dmark06 tests. anyone else getting this? i switched it to the 5650 gfx card manually.

EDIT: I ran 3dmark06 and only got a score of 3622

oh and is anyone's windows aero changing to the non see through basic one when they open 3dmark06?

 

As far as I know, Windows Aero turns off when 3D applications are running.

Hmm, looks like the fix isn't for me. I was expecting a bigger drop in temperatures

 

just played alien swarm for 45mins and here are the max temps

core 0: 91C
core 2: 93C
5650: 86C

a little hotter than i expected. anyone know when the i5 throttles? also can u make that graph with CPUID?

 

You have plenty of room. The Max temp on the I5 is 105C. We have seen the I7 hit temps of 97C and not throttle. How demanding a game is Alien Swarm?

Bronsky

 

1. On battery the HD 5650's clock speeds are reduced to avoid consuming too much power (300/300 instead of 550/800). You can override the power-saving options by pressing the Powersmart-button (don't know if I just made up that name, but it looked right) on your laptop next to the ODD-button. When there's no light in the LED the power-saving options are turned off. You'll get full clock speeds on battery.

Basically there's 2 power profiles:
1. Battery: Reduced performance (even when manually choosing the ATI GPU), but long battery life. Defaults to Intel GPU.
2. Plugged in: Full power, but will eat a lot of electricity. Defaults to ATI GPU.

The Powersmart-button just switches between these 2.

2. All 3DMark programs use the basic Windows to avoid spending resources on Aero.


And @ Bronsky: AS is not demanding by modern standards. But how demanding a game is, is NOT relative to the heat produced when playing it. If we assume that no other component bottlenecks the GPU, then any game with V-sync turned off and no FPS cap, can put your GPU load at 100%. While programs stress differently, a 100% GPU load always = high temps. Since the i5 rocks the CPU party (even by desktop standards, it's pretty good), I assume that the 5650 is always loaded 100% unless we're talking a really old game. You really shouldn't see much of a difference between a game like Crysis and a game like CSS although they are very different in their demands.

Don't know if you knew all this, but I wasn't online when writing so while waiting for my connection to be back up, I just wrote what I knew.

I'll do some testing to back up my claims later.

 

thx for the answers

and i dont think alien swarm is too demanding. i think its a half life 2 mod

this might seem weird but is anyone having trouble connecting the power cable to the laptop. it always seems to be stuck on something and i dont want to put too much pressure on it. is there a special way it goes in?

 

The design of the power cable and the plug is my least favorite thing about this laptop. It feels cheap and not sturdy. My old HP DV6500's plug was so much better. I hate the 90 degree angle - the chord always seems to get in the way. Also, like you mentioned, plugging it in sometimes requires a couple of tries.

EDIT: I had a 3 hour gaming session for Starcraft 2. With the laptop sitting on a desk and without my NotePal cooler (I didn't have it on me), I experienced no performance issues with the i5. The laptop also loaded the most popular custom map (Nexus Wars) as fast as my two year old quad core desktop (Core 2 Quad 9450, HD4870, 4GB memory). Unfortunately, I forgot to record the temperatures

EDIT 2: Does anyone know a good sleeve for this laptop? I can't find any 14" sleeves

 

mate try these 10.7a drivers.. i couldn't get 10.7/10.6 on my 5820TG at all but the 10.7a drivers worked

 

So is anyone else having throttling/heating issues other than Ngaw on their I3? I read the entire post and unless I missed it, only Ngaw seems to have throttling/heating issues with the I3 processor? I see Aylafan and Maverickar15 4820tg doesn't throttle when playing games or running the stress tests. I know I3 throttles at 86C but under gaming and everyday use, has anyone else been able to throttle their I3?

 

I think that aylafan has been able to make his throttle but NGAW's seems unique. None of the other I3's are throttling as far as anyone can see.

 

My Core i3-350M throttled twice while playing Alien Swarm from 9:40PM-10:06PM. The Core i3 would throttle to 931MHz (multiplier 7x out of 17x) when it reached 85C. However, I only noticed one of the throttles during gameplay. When it throttled, the game would slow down to a crawl (like the matrix) for around 30 seconds then jump back to normal. The throttling didn't happen consistently like ngaw's Core i3 4820TG, which is kind of strange.

Download the Everest logging csv. file here.



In short, the Core i3 can throttle, but it depends on the game. Starcraft 2 didn't throttle for me, but Alien Swarm did.

 

Just got a hold of my 4820tg and I absolutely LOVE it! I see no issues with the keyboard and the build feels really sturdy. Heck, my old asus has more screen flex than this.
From what I've tested out, the viewing angles seem fine horizontally and not so great vertically. All in all amazing laptop =)

 

Hey guys, ive been followng this thread for a while now and finally reveived my own 4820 with an i5 from microcenter. Just wanted to thank all of you for all the info this thread contains. Im also a noob when it comes to reformatting and was wondering if anyone has a good set of instructions on how to get a clean install of windows. From what i read my current understanding is the following:
1) make a restore disk using acer's recovery program
2) use a flash drive to save my windows validation keys
3) reformat
4) install all the drivers off acers official website, and install the ati mobile catalyst drivers via the way mentioned a few posts back.

I just wanted to know if im missng anything here. Thanks a lot.

 

I just bought a 4820tg on amazon! i'm pretty stoked.

 

Hello all, I'm posting this on behalf of a fren, hope to find answers & solutions.

My fren owns a 4820TG with the spec as follows:

Intel core i7 620M with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650. 4GB Memory.

I notice that when everytime I played my games (e.g. BFBC2, Just Cause 2 ..etc.) and played streaming Flash video on internet, my 4820TG will 'freeze' with a "buzzing" tone for a few seconds (usually between 1-3 sec). Any ideas what causes this (settings?)? And are there any solutions to this one? Maybe time for a service center visit?

Thanks and appreciate for any help.

 

I think that's from the computer changing from the IGP to the 5650
Apparently there's no way to change the BIOS? or sth like that

 

Is that a german unit?

 

the 4820 has been on my mind lately, and i was wondering

what are the users pros and cons of the machine
i am most worried about the flex :[
and warranty/customer service

 

Just don't pick up the laptop by the lid, don't abuse the lid, and it should be fine. Also, there isn't much noticeable flex on the keyboard. Just remember to buy a protective laptop sleeve if you carry the 4820TG around.

 

okay. i am curious about warranty, like accidental damage, only because it does happen.

i know its 1 year warranty, but how to do extend it?

 

when you buy the laptop you cna have the option of upgrading the warranty to a 3 year one. but i believe that acer does not cover or provide accidental damage warranty (people please correct me if im wrong).

also has anyone have problem regarding the hinge thats holding the screen up? ive started using it for afew days now. whenever i open the screen (this is done using both hands so nothing rough), it seems to make a click and i believe it is starting to be loose, is this normal?

 

Hello bronsky, looks like you loiter around here too

Nope it isn't, I'm from Singapore, remember?

 

What's a good sleeve for this laptop? I see a lot of 13.3" sleeves and a lot of 15.6" sleeves, but no 14" sleeves

 

I use the Belkin Neoprene 15.4" laptop sleeve for my 4820TG, but it's a little too big.

Here are some links to 14" laptop sleeves.
FRYS.com|Caselogic (VLS-114)
Search Results for 14 laptop sleeve at CompUSA.com

 

What is the best way to store my battery? I use A/C most of the time, so should I unplug the battery or just leave it on?

 

Absolute best is 40% charge and stick it in the fridge. Charge back to full then drain back down to 40% every once in awhile as well.

 

Where did you get that info from? The fridge won't damage the battery?

Also, where did you get your HDD caddy from?

 

Did the person with the cooling master ever got their I3 to throttle during game use? I want to see if a cooler can prevent the throttle if laptop is being heavily use.

 

Me (I have a Cooler Master NotePal Infinite)? I have an i5, and I haven't ever seen throttling even without the Cooler Master. The Cooler Master only cools by a couple of degrees at best, but I love that I can use it on my lap.

 

where would i get this laptop with the i5 processor in the united states? thanks

 

First page of this thread. There is a link to Micro Center.

 

Some SC2 temp comparisons. Medium settings, laptop is sitting on top of the Cooler Master Notepal Infinite notebook cooler, which is sitting on a desk in a room where the temperature is 77 Fahrenheit (25 Celsius).

On battery:



Plugged in:

 

Hi all
I have bought acer aspire 4820TG (i3,windows 7 home premium, 64bit)yesterday.I am not able to connect my samsung d900i mobile with it.I have cd containing drivers and samsung pc studio.I have installed them in windows xp compatibility mode. But still laptop does not recognize my phone .what should I do? Also I have one study software(compatible with windows xp and vista 32bit) which I tried to install in windows xp compatibility mode...it gets installed but doesn't run! What could be solution to this problem.I am ready to sacrifice windows 7 over windows xp.Please HELP!!

 

Hey, for some reason my internet stopped working, I am able to connect via wireless but not through a wire. The green light on the port is constantly on with or without wire plugged in. I have already tried uninstalling my network devices and reinstalling and tried to update all drivers but nothing seems to be working. please help


edit: also noticing that that area of laptop is hotter than usual

 

Kolosok, those are some very nice temps on the 4820tg from playing sc2. How long did you play sc2 for? I am still waiting for the I5 from amazon but it seems like I might have to go for the I3. I just want to make sure that a laptop cooler can prevent the I3 from throttling. Can anyone confirm?

 

I've been playing for about 1-1.5 hours on battery, then plugged in my power cable and played for another 40 minutes or so.

 

Are you sure those temperatures are correct? I've never seen the HD 5650 run as low as 65C playing any sort of 3D game. It almost seems improbable to me because I get higher temperatures playing Counter-Strike 1.6 and that game is no where near as graphic intense as Starcraft 2. I doubt that the notebook cooler has lowered the temperature of the HD 5650 by 17C (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from the 82C I got from playing Starcraft 2. Which is a major difference in temperature.

I think you need to use Everest and log the temperatures because this doesn't look accurate. I would never have expected a 17C (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature difference with a notebook cooler.

It would benefit everyone in this forum if you could duplicate these results with Everest.

 

That area of the computer has a heatsink for the CPU. I would assume that is the source of your heat. I doubt if it is related to the ethernet port.

I'm assuming that you are using a router and the ethernet is drawn from a port in the router. That could also be a source of your problem. Do you have access to another ethernet that you know works? I would rule out router issues before I started on the unit.

Once you confirm the signal in the ethernet cable, I would start here:

Pull up device manager and see if there are any Network adapters that have a red x displayed or any devices with yellow ? or ! displayed?

Do you keep the ethernet cable connected most times? Any chance of lightening hitting your cable?

Bronsky

 

+1 for Everest

Temperatures can dop quickly after exiting the game.
I use a Logitech G15 gaming keyboard ($40 AR Newegg) with it's LCD screen that shows Everest reported temperatures realtime, during actual gameplay. Highly recommend these types of keyboards for gaming. Borrow one if possible to see temps while in a game.

 

Can someone write up a guide on how to use Everest? I attempted to figure it out once, but failed miserably

Also, I left HWMonitor running while gaming (I didn't just open it right after exiting the game), so the Maximum temperatures listed should be the most correct ones.

You and aylafan are correct though, they do seem low.