Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

This was my experience as well. I also got my 4820TG through J&R. If possible, maybe consider getting your money back and going through J&R, they are great and have great customer service. It was a little more than new egg (20 bucks) but since they had it in stock and newegg didn't, I lived with it.

Also I'd like to attest to the quality of the screen. It's been great for me so far, very vibrant and pleasant to look at, renders everything wonderfully. Was playing some DoD:S earlier and it handled it beautifully with full settings.

 

I definitely agree. J&R has excellent customer service and competitive prices & price matching. And they also
have an excellent return/exchange policy.

I have the peace of mind, if I'm not completely satisfied or something
malfunctions, I can easily exchange or return with no restocking fee.

An added bonus for me, J&R (retail location / customer service dept.)
is a short drive or subway away if the need for an exchange/return is required.

As for me, another reason I had to avoid NewEgg because I would've been charged $50+ in tax,
I didn't have to pay any tax ordering from J&R.

 

Yeah, I'm just outside of Philly and it was great. Got it to me in two days, no issues. Customer service confirmed delivery time for me, and they package all of their stuff properly. Even big brown couldn't break it.

 

My Acer was packaged exactly as you described. I ordered another 4820TG from Amazon and it should be here Saturday. I hope this screen doesn't have the same issue with color balance and vertical lines. I can live with the terrible viewing angles...but not the vertical lines

 

If you read back in the 3820TG thread, some of the early Canadian 3820TG's had this same problem with the lines. It is a defect IMO. The color issues, on the other hand might just be balance. Has anyone generated a profile for the 4820TG yet?

Bronsky

 

Hey guys, I am looking to buy

AS4820TG-7805

However on some of the pic I saw on GOOGLE it showed there's a long extended battery that raise the laptop at the bottom to a 30 degrees angle. Could anyone that owns it confirm whether this is the case or only if you get the extended battery? thanks..
Howard

 

That is the extended cell battery. The standard battery on the 4820 does not raise it all, nor look out of form with the rest of the body.

 

Thank you so much, would you mind telling me how the fan noise is? i expect a reasonable fan noise with all these powerful hardware, but is it notoriously loud like HP laptops or its pretty quiet..

Also does battery on power saving last at least 5-6 hours? thanks again...

 

So far, I've had my battery do a little over 5 one day with regular use, and a little over 7 today with lighter use, both on powersave mode.

the fan is pretty quiet. I'm coming from a Dell inspiron 1520 that was close to the end, and had it's fan going a lot, but I really have not noticed this fan at all. It actually seems to stay relatively cool pretty easily, I guess it's designed to breath well.

My only beef so far is that I wish the touch pad had the click feature that the envy has, but it's been amazing so far. It's light weight is probably the biggest impression I've had. It has gone to class with me every day so far (the last 3 days) and I have not noticed it at all. Much lighter and more portable than my old inspiron, and I don't need to bring the power cable as long as I have a full battery (even though I do anyway... I get paranoid ).

 

Hi everyone, here some temps from my german 4820TG/460M/5650.
Should serve as a comparison for other owners. Comments will be of course appreciated although I already know that the temps are high.

Idle temps at stock clocks.


Prime95 (blend test + 4 threads) + FurMark at stock clocks for about 10 min.


Same as in the second pic except 5650@750/1000.

CPU throttled at 102 degrees 2-3 times for about 2 sec.

 

I'm not sure if someone answered this for you.

I encountered the same problem with the
PCI Simple Communications Controller in Device Manager
after I did a clean install of Windows 7 Pro x64.

After a while, I managed to determine it's the
Intel Management Engine Interface.

Go to Acer, Service & Support section for 4820TG, download Turbo Boost Driver (Manageability Engine Code).
Extract that, the folder name is
Turbo Boost_Intel_6.0.0.1179_W7x86_A.

Go to that folder, then folder
Turbo Boost_Intel(Manageability Engine Code)_6.0.0.1179_Win7x86,
then the folder Drivers, then the folder MEI_SOL_Installer_NO_IMSS.
Inside that folder, double click Setup.

That solved the problem for me. Now I don't have that
problem in Device Manager anymore.

My 4820TG is running nicely on a clean install of Windows 7 Pro x64,
with the latest Windows updates and drivers installed.

 

I would send it back for another unit ... these temps are too high. I would be concerned that there is a crappy thermal connection between the CPU and the heat sink.

Bronsky

 

Thanks, Bronsky. I'm considering this option, too. I'll see what I can do.

 

so besides the thin lid, no problems like hinges breaking?

 

Thanks Chap, ordered today for delivery tomorrow! Amazon prime next day ship = 3.99 bucks and no tax in CALI. beats NEwegg and Frys anyday!

Amazon.com: Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820TG-7805 14-Inch Laptop (Black Brushed Aluminum): Computer & Accessories

I have been having the worst luck with laptop ever
UL80JT (2 of them had bad wireless)
UL80VT 1 had bad body creek
U35JC had a gap that became larger and larger and suddenly died while taking note in class.
My current HP Envy is good but the touchpad is horrible, bounces all over and the trackpad has a terrible clicking.

THat's 5 bad laptops in a row.. I really really am crossing my finger the acer tomorrow will be flawless....

 

I just bought an acer timelinex 4820tg and i have upgraded to windows 7 professional..the problem is that I am not able to connect to the wireless internet and acer is not helping me out as I am not using the factory settings(i.e. windows 7 home)..I m getting a yellow mark in the device manager in front of "network controller" and "pc simple communications controller"..so i guess its an issue with the drivers..can somebody pls tell me which exact drivers i need to install in order to get my wireless working? My lan is workin but not the wireless

 

Thanks a lot..u have solved one of my problem

 

I guess you did not use eRecovery to back up your original drivers before you attempted a clean install? Did you overwrite your HD or put another in there?

Bronsky

 

I've always found it significantly easier to make a separate partition to install your new OS on so that you can just copy everything over from within the hard drive including your drivers and not have to worry about making back up CDs and backing up all your files. Then afterwards you just delete the old partition and add the space back to your new one.
I never understood why this technique isn't practiced more often? It saves so much times and headaches.. You never have any "oh snap i forgot to save this driver or file" moments"

 

Update: My replacement 4820TG arrived and the screen has no vertical lines & the whites do not have a blue cast. The manufacturer this time is CMO.

 

Did you get the replacement from the Retailer or Acer? It seems that there is a small percentage of these displays that have the line/resolution problems. These should be caught in a QA/QC inspection but I am quessing that inspections are random only. Nice to hear that your replacement does not have the same problem.

Bronsky

 

I got it directly from the retailer. I placed another order with Amazon and shipped the other one back for a refund.

These should definitely be caught in QA/QC, but the problem is not noticeable to some people which is probably why it passed. My eyes are very sensitive to abnormalities on LCDs.

 

You're welcome.


I don't want to be redundant, but just in case you missed the other thread.....

For the Network Controller,
relating to the Wireless LAN, it's a Broadcom Network Adapter.
Download the Broadcom Wireless LAN Driver.

Not sure about the Wireless LAN hardware for the other 4820TGs, but for the
4820TG-7805 that I have, it's a Broadcom Network Adapter.

 

That's great! Congrats!

Glad to know you managed to get a 4820TG now with no LCD
screen defects.

Nothing bothers me more than a bad LCD screen, since that's what
I'll be staring at most of the time. Hehe!

Especially something like the problems you mentioned.
Another defect I dread to experience are dead pixels.

I'm starting to be concerned that the problems you described
would develop on my 4820TG.

How did you check for the LCD manufacturer on your 4820TG?

 

I am not sure how to properly find the screen manufacturer, but I found that mine is the AUO panel.

To find it, go into the Device Manager. Expand the Monitors icon. Under Monitors, right-click on the Generic PnP Monitor and select Properties. Once you open the Properties window, select the Details tab at the top. Under that tab you should see a drop-down menu. Open the menu and select Hardware Ids from the list. My monitor shows up as MONITOR\AUO303C.

I was not sure if my laptop screen was a bad one. Now that I see the manufacturer has been changed, I think that mine is one of the affected models. I thought the screen looked awful crappy, but now I am convinced that it is a faulty screen. I will contact Acer to see about a warranty claim.



On a side note, can anyone recommend the best thermal paste available? I want the best paste that I can get if I am going to go through the trouble of changing it out. What brand or type should I get?
Thanks.

 

Oh sorry. Two more questions.

1) What is the ADT cable located under the bottom access panel? It has 2 red and 2 black wires, located directly to the left of the GPU. 12volt or 5volt?

2) Has anyone experienced constant Internet connection issues while connected to WiFi? Like I can browse for 5min and next page I click on wont load. I even open a new tab and try google. No go. It is completely random though. It happens while plugged in or on battery. If I open the WiFi menu and disconnect my router and then immediately reconnect, the internet connection works fine for the next few minutes.
I believe that it is a driver issue. When I try to update the driver, it says that it is the latest driver. Does anyone have any other clues? I am at a loss here.

 

Can consider IC7 for the thermal paste..

As for the wifi, try under the device manager -> network adapters -> your wifi card -> under power management tab -> uncheck to allow the computer to turn off....

 

I deleted the original partition but did not touch the other two partitions i.e. one is 13gb and the other is 100mb. These two partitions came by default only. Also there was nothng to backup..coz I just received the lappy and these is the first thing I did the PCI problem is solved now..and for the wireless I have installed "WLAN_Broadcom_5.60.18.8_Win7x64" driver but at the end of the installation it says "the installation program has successfully performed the selected operations, but the driver installation is not complete yet. Click finish to exit the installation;Then use the FOUND NEW HARDWARE WIZARD to complete the driver installation" Can you tell me how to perform the last act?

 

under network adapter I can only see my LAN card..thts the prob..
and there is a yellow mark in front of the network controller

 

Try check the hardware id from device manager under that yellow mark, then use the hardware id to google the driver/name...

For the last act, most likely means you need to go the device manager, and right click the broadcom, properties, driver, update driver, browse my computer, let me pick, then click Have Disk, browse the broadcom driver extracted folder and install...

 

The hardware IDs are
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002E&SUBSYS_E034105B&REV_01
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002E&SUBSYS_E034105B
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002E&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002E&CC_0280

Also in the device manager, I dont see BROADCOMM when I click on driver details of the netwerk controller..it tells me that no driver files are required or have been loaded for this device..whn I do update drivers..and select the correct driver files path..still it still says..windows could not find the driver software for your device

 

From your hardware ID, it lead to this, try the instruction on post #8 or #11..
Atheros AR5212 802.11a/b/g Wireless Adapter Driver - LaptopVideo2Go Forums
Though it might be older driver, but at least, it should make your wireless works, then later on find the updated version..

 

Thank you for that tip.

After doing that, I see my 4820TG has the same screen manufacturer.

It shows up also as MONITOR\AUO303C.

But so far, I haven't seen any of that graininess and white vertical lines
mentioned by other posters.

I'll definitely observe my screen much more closely now for any signs.
Thanks!

 

That's entirely different from the Hardware IDs on my 4820TG...

PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4357&SUBSYS_E021105B&REV_01
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4357&SUBSYS_E021105B
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4357&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4357&CC_0280

You should try then the Atheros Wireless LAN Driver [v8.0.0.259] from Acer's website.

 

I tried tht too..but while installation it says "the installation program installs the drivers automaticallly when the client adaPTER is inserted. Insert the adapter now if it is not yet inserted,cancel the FOUND NEW HARDWARE WIZARD if it appears, and proceed with the installation.
and I dont understand hw to insert the client adapter?

 

Try press Fn + F3 when it ask to insert the client?

 

:'(

 

Did you tried the link I posted before?

 

Hmmm, did you try also the Intel Wireless LAN Driver [v13.0.0.107] that's listed there?

 

I am trying the post#11 and like tht guy I used SIW and it also did not detect the wlan card..

yes..but it also did not work.. :'(

I dont understand which wlan card is in this lappy

 

But does the driver + modded inf works? or it didn't work as well?

 

Is it possible that Acer used a different card for the new batch of 4820TG's? Maybe the driver isn't available on the site yet...idk.

 

trying tht pls gimme a sec..

 

OK try this driver: http://files.laptopvideo2go.com/wlan/atheros_v9.1.0.100.exe

I just installed it on my 4820TG and it works. FINALLY

 

i downloaded this version of atheros
v9.1.0.X (Windows 7): v9.1.0.100
but i am not finding any setup.exe there
Latest Atheros WLAN drivers for Windows 7 and Vista (x86 & x64) - LaptopVideo2Go Forums
also Lee..those links are for Vista..so will it be compatible with 7 too?
and thanks a lot for gng tht extra mile and helpin me out..I ws really clueless abt this prob..n only coz of u guys..m back on track
but still the prob is not solved

 

Win 7 has no problem using Vista drivers, they are compatible..
and aznguy123 just posted the link for v9.1.0.100

 

there is not setup in tht..so hw did u do it

 

Windows+R>devmgmt.msc>Network Adapters>Right click and choose "Update driver software">"Browse my computer for driver software>select the folder where you extracted the Atheros 9.1.0.100 driver and it should start installing

 

Use the Have Disk from device manager to install it...

 

Holy ..tht worked like a charm...
thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you..thank you everybody and especially Lee and aznguy
without you guys I would have nvr solved this prob
thank you..