Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

I think it's a smart move to wait till bing expires. I can't understand why no one else has these when they are obviously in the hands of the distributors. Anyway, when you get your unit, make sure to take pics of the swap. It takes time and patience to fit the KB unit correctly.

Bronsky

Take a look at the 3820TG thread, the German units may be "Kaput".

 

i saw the most recent 3820tg development. that sucks!

i guess your laptops value just shot up three fold

i will definitely take tons of pictures during the swap. i hope since the 4820tg chassis is slightly bigger, the keyboard swap will be a little easier and won't require any cutting like you guys did.

 

That would be nice, cause it took me hours. I'll post some pics of the work when I get a chance, but I had to hold a credit card between the keys and the slots to avoid damaging the keys while I used a hand file.

Bronsky

 

@Bronsky: If you sell your laptop, I wonder what will happen. Huge profit or german government demanding the laptop back?

 

I could start an international incident. They will have to pry my Acer from my cold, dead hands.

Seriously, the more I use this machine, the more I like it.

 

That's because you know you're special

 

Well, if you want to install a clean version of Windows 7. Use the ABR (Activation Backup & Restore) program to save your OEM Windows 7 Home Premium key and certificate from the laptop (Acer W7 Home Premium). Without these two requirements, you will have to register the clean install of Windows 7 with a brand new Windows 7 key.

 

Make sure that the ABR program saves the Cert and the key. It didn't do that for me and I had to manually install them.

Bronsky

 

Hey all. I'm a fed up envy user. I'm pretty close to getting the 4820tg from microcenter. I was really hoping for a higher resolution screen.
I know acer laptops have been modded extensively. Has anyone tried replacing the Lowish quality LCD on one of these timelineXs with a higher definition one? Does anyone think this is possible?

Thanks.

 

I've been lurking the forums for a while, mainly keeping tabs on the Asus UL30JT and the Acer 3820TG. Since both of those appear to be mostly U.S. vaporware, I've jumped up to 14" and taken the plunge today on the i5 4820tg from MC.

This is my first personal laptop, though i've picked out 2-3 for my wife in recent years. Pretty excited about it, though I'm worried how much trouble i'll have transitioning away from my desktop (especially my 23" 1920x1080 monitor!!)

Once i stop hyper-ventilating from the hit to my wallet, I hope to throw a Momentus XT in there.

 

pics vids impressions reviews?!?!

 

all in due time . should have my paws on it by Thursday or so.

Though my review/impressions will be coming from the very different vantage point of someone who has logged probably 25,000+ hours on desktops over the past 20 years compared to maybe 25 TOTAL hours on various laptops.

 

wb182 - I would like to see your review on the 4820TG. My review is not based on a first impression, but on the daily usage of the 4820TG over a time period of 1 month and a 1/2 (not 25 TOTAL hours). It's also based on other 4820TG owner experiences. This review will give you a general idea on the laptop. I simplified it so that it wouldn't be so tedious to read.

 

Been using this notebook for awhile and I notice an annoying bug/error/whatever. When on battery, the sound switch between the Speaker and the Realtek Digital Output.
So after watching a video on youtube for example, the next video would give no sound.
This is quite annoying.

 

I just tried this, but I did not experience your bug. I am using the laptop on battery. I watched 2 different videos on speaker. I plugged in headphones for the 3rd video and watched it. Then I watched a 4th video on headphones. I still have sound in the headphones. Can you specifically tell me what you did?

 

I install the driver from Acer website and now it doesn't happen for me anymore but the Dolby setting from the Sound options disappear.

 

Just when you thought you solved the audio problem, you have another one. I don't know what to say. I don't have any of your audio problems. You are positive you didn't install Microsoft HD sound drivers right? That happened to a few people who said they didn't have Dolby settings in the sound options.

 

Hey, it make no different to me though. Still love this little gem.

 

My 4820tg just arrived, I haven't opened it yet cos I'm nervous abour screen and build quality

 

Don't worry about the build quality. It's built better than most of the budget laptops out there. Especially, the plastic Dell and HP laptops you see all over college campus.

The screen shouldn't be something new. It's almost the same as the Asus UL series laptops and should be similar to most laptops under $1K. I expected this when I brought it.

or.... you can leave it unopened and just stare at the box...

 

Has anyone found out if they can replace that cd area for another Hard drive or somehow making it cooler without having to buy a cooler?

 

The box is very good too. No harm at just staring.

 

I just opened my 4820tg, I hesitated cos I wanted to make sure I won't return it . Build quality is actually nice, the top cover is beautiful (personal taste), but I'm kinda worried about the screen hinges. Keyboard does have a little flex but it doesn't bother me at all, I don't notice anything while typing, only when I actually tried to press around the keyboard as hard as I can. Touchpad is the best out of the laptops I've tried lately (toshiba r705, sony CW). The display could be better, the CW display put this one to shame, much nicer colors.

Is something wrong with my screen because it's grainy, I can kinda "see" the pixels, it's kinda annoying. 1366x768 prob isnt the best for 14" but I didn't notice anything like this on the CW.

 

ODD to HDD swap should be fairly easy

and just prop the back of the notebook up with a book or something. will make it a few degrees C cooler.

 

Back to my audio problem. Anyone know how to get the Dolby Surround Sound back for the Sound option.

 

How do you swap it though?

 

After lurking on these forums for a while I've worked out that the 3820TG isn't coming to Australia any time soon.

So I went out this morning and bought a 4820TG-434G50Mn with i5-430 and but no Bluetooth. Cheap (for Australia) at A$1100 after Acer cashback.

This is a big step up from my Eee S101 and I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces. Happy to confirm if the i5-430 doesn't suffer from the throttling like the i3 once I get everything installed.

One initial interesting thing is the WEI numbers. I got 5.5 for the HDD (WDC 500GB) which seems low. Is this within the normal range for a 5400RPM drive (coming from SSD on the Eee).

Cheers

Josh

 

using an HDD caddy such as this

9.5mm Serial ATA Optical Bay Hard Drive Adapter/caddy - eBay (item 250636145840 end time Jul-18-10 20:21:26 PDT)

note: not sure if we will need 9.5mm or 12.7mm caddys

 

that WEI score for ur hdd is absolutely normal and well within range

SSDs should easily see 7.x in the WEI

 

I also noticed the grainy display on the Acer Aspire 5740G and Sony NW series laptop. Maybe, the Sony CW series has a different manufactured display?

Manufacturers don't seem to care about LCD quality displays anymore. My 2004 Dell Inspiron 700m has a display that is 5x better, it doesn't have the grainy effect, it has the best viewing angles, and blacks are actually black.

 

Yea, and the vaio CW is in the same price range yet the display difference is night and day. Honestly, the acer's screen is of ~$500 laptop quality to me, so plan B: external monitor lol. Also, Idk why people have been talking about heat issues, mine stays pretty cool during gaming .

 

What make is your display? There seems to be a fair amount of variability in the same model of displays. I am quite pleased with mine (3820TG) and don't have any of the grainy-ness.

Bronsky

 

Mine is AUO303C. If I can replace the screen, it would be perfect.

 

I have the same screen. The quality of the screen depends on the manufacturer. Samsung & LG usually manufacture better quality LCD displays than AUO.

 

oh my 3280tg thats the first thing i notice how crappy the display is, i can see the pixels lil dots even on this site at any brightness level.

even on the ie tool bar i notice if, it has a grainy texture to it. its not smooth

 

Can you check in Everest to see which manufacturer made your display.

 

AUO322C i've been trying to take a pic of it but it's hard

I think bronsky has the same display... he said in the other thread

I might just be extremly picky, but my sister who is not in the technology mumbo jumbo though something was wrong with my wall paper.

on the hp envy on the other hand or my asus ul30 smooth as candy

 

Yea lastdon and I have the same manufacturer. My display is great ... i'm very pleased with it.

This picture was taken with a flash and the colors still hold up. The Acer's 13.3" 720p display is in front of my LG 24" 1080p display. Other than some subtle hues, the Acer does fine with the same picture. I guess my display was not made on Monday or Friday.

Bronsky

 

From a distance yes it looks good. But u notice it when ur closer to the display that there is a grainy pixel effect. U can see morr pixels squares on low brightness levels.

 

I don't really get a lot of grainyness, even close up. To be sure, there is a difference between the 720p and the 1080p, but my LG is a great display and I still get a nice clear picture from the Acer, even low light and even close up.



Bronsky

The Acer is shot fairly close to the display. Closer than the LG.

 

I don't really get a lot of grainyness, even close up. To be sure, there is a difference between the 720p and the 1080p, but I still get a nice clear picture from the Acer, even low light and even close up.


The acer shot is actually closer to the display than the shot of my 24" LG. Had to take it with my Blackberry. My camera bettery died.

Bronsky

 

well the 3820tg and 4820tg have the same resolution but the 4820tg is bigger so it's more noticable on the 4820tg

 

bronsky your photos are too small to see anything
you can't even click on them to get the full exposure.

 

here is a picture untouched.

I am not even that close to the monitor and yet the lens pics up the pixels very easily,

now thats on two 3820tg with the AUO screen

 

2nd set of pics..

Even at such a distance you can see the grainy effect of the display, again pictures untouched.



some more for your entertainment.









I feel acer went cheap with the display. on my asus UL i didn't pay much though the side views are crap the initial on screen view is better.

 

WTH? I would be pissed if I had lines like that in my display. I don't see any of that stuff in my screen at any light level. What is microcenter's return policy, cause I would be returning that unit.

Sorry for the double post, I have no idea what is going on there.

Bronsky

 

I have to second this. I have the AUO panel in my 4820tg and it doesn't look anything like the photos with all of those lines. Honestly I had been wondering what was wrong with my eyes as I think it looks pretty decent - nothing like that - and was trying to figure out why others seemed to be able to see it as all blocky. As we have the same size and brand of screen it does make me think you've gotten a bad one.

EDIT: Well, I noticed they were uploaded as jpegs - I wonder how much of what I'm seeing is compression artifacts.

 

not sure, but that is what the camera produced jpegs, ididn't touch them or anything what it took is what i upload..

some of the pics those wavey lines i think are the camera but the square dots are the actual screens and my camera doesn't even have macro that i used so it's still at a distance

its like the pixels are very visiable or someting unless my eye sight has gotten better, but its the first thing i noticed when looking at greys etc on this laptop.


its like when u visit a site with a grey background and it has dots or something

 

That does look quiet bad Lastdon, i owned the 5820TG for a month before selling it to the oldman and had nothing like that on my AUO panel.

I did notice the horrible viewing angles from everywhere (mostly vertical) and colours were a bit off almost washed depending on the wallpaper. Blacks were a problem. The screen looked very nice sitting dead on and having it lined up perfect which was a pain as i am used to having nice screens (awesome viewing angles) with my older toshiba's.

Having said that the guts of the machine i5 520m and HD5650 were very very good.

 

You are using macro zoom in this photo to see the pixels. It is zooming in 3x the normal size and this is not what you would actually see in person. You can use macro zoom on normal desktop LCD monitors or LCD TVs and you would still end up with the same result as this photo because all LCDs have pixels... If you use the laptop normally and don't stare at it from an inch away, you won't notice the pixels as much. We don't watch LCD TVs from an inch away either and the pixels on LCD TVs are huge.