Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

Bronsky could you clarify how to load the drivers in step 9 of your tutorial on a clean installing windows 7?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6465732-post1613.html
I assume that means going through each of the DRV individual drivers' folders and looking for the setup file. (sorry if this is stupid q.)

example: drv - Lite-On modem external... - "agrdel64", "agrsmdel", "setup" all are application setup file for the same folder.

 

Use Windows explorer and it will show you the file that is meant to be the default executable set up file.

 

Eagle132 - you ever get this taken care of? Mine JUST did that. No reason I can see. Haven't installed anything new, no modified hardware, only installed a few things (Steam & some games). Was in the middle of installing Games for Windows Live client when it BSOD'd on me. The only thing unusual was it was trying to change video cards, and I was trying to change the brightness on it. Wondering if maybe that caused the problem.

Anyway, if anyone has any information on this error, would be appreciated.

 

Well, after doing some research on the error, it seemed to me that most people who experienced it (with other computers) ended up eventually shipping back their laptops and having a faulty motherboard replaced after weeks of trying to repair it software-wise. So, I decided not to bother with that crap and called up Acer and had them pay for Fedex shipping to send it back. My laptop is currently in Texas being repaired (I hope).

I am going abroad for several months in early January, so I decided not to bother wasting my time attempting to fix it and then it be too late. Is it fixable via software updates/modifications? I don't really know. But if you have some time to spare without your laptop, and lots of patience, I'd recommend just sending it back for repair. It's hard to part with, I know, just take deep breaths as you package it back up.

 

Hi guys. Been a while since I was on here.

Long story short.
Never got the OCZ Agility2 SSD to work right. It was just way too unstable. Took it back for a refund.
Have the stock 320gb back in there. No problems.


Now I got a question. I am interested in getting a cd bay drive battery. Does the battery have to be made specifically for the model 4820tg, or can I buy another brand battery that will work? I see several different bay batteries on Ebay. Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, IBM, Fujitsu, Acer. Are not the laptop cd/dvd serial connectors the same across many laptops.

Thanks.

 

Oh and one more question.

To anybody that sent in their laptop for repair, did it come back with any scratches? I am VERY picky about scratches. I am one of those people that dislike the little fine scratches on glossy TVs and cell phones. Yes yes I know... but I am the way I am. LOL

So anybody picky like me have a fuss with the handling of Acer's warranty service?

I would greatly appreciate any input, as I am on the fence as to sending it in or not.
Thanks.

 

Fixed my audio driver problem with Bronsky's clean install.
Now got a new very minor problem.

the power saver mode button next to the eject is not working after the clean install. I believe this is due to me not installing from the APP directory, one of the Acer Power Management drivers.

Is Acer Power Management necessary/ the Power Savings Mode Button nice to have? Also can I reassign this power savings button to do something else like switchable graphics?

 

The power savings button only works when you are on battery. It never worked when you are plugged in. Just letting you know.

 

The Power saver should still work. What driver are you using for your ATI driver?

 

Ugh, not really what I wanted to hear. I just got mine too. I might wait and see and if it happens again, then ship it back. Man, I've been loving it otherwise.

 

Yeah, sorry! I had mine for only a week before I shipped it back for repair (after 5 blue screens across the span of that week).

I said that to myself the first 3 times, "Well maybe it won't happen again", but it did. I very much so hope you'll be luckier than I am!

Hey at least I'm not the only one anymore eh?

 

happens, when you get it back I am sure you will love it.
Sorry dude and good luck

 

To the owners with an i3-370M:

How are your CPU temperatures while gaming?

 

Where/when did you pick yours up? Mines one of the most recent amazon shipments - wondering if maybe they got a bad batch of something for that shipment... And yeah, I probably should just send it back now, but I'm in denial. I'll be curious to hear how long it takes for them to get it back to you. How was Acer's customer support when you called? Was it hard to get them to give you a rma?

 

Whatever version of the driver that came originally installed in the DRV directory. I'm working on updating the ATI driver to the 10.11 Catalyst suite that Hendrickson posted up on his tutorial link.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...nge-info-benchmarks-tweaks-mods-upgrades.html
Under common issues and problems Hendrickson links to the latest ATI catalyst drivers as well as for the Intel HD Graphics and Acer ATI VGA drivers.

 

Battery wear level is at 4%... how about everyone else?

 

My battery wear level was at 4% when I first got the laptop. When I charged the battery to full capacity for the first time, it went down to 3%. It varies between 3-4% each day now.

 

The battery life is PERFECT for me. Anyway I can keep it from getting any worse?

 

Quick Question - How does the switchable graphics work on an Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820TG? Can you do it in Windows? BIOS? Is there a button on the laptop? Or only works when the charger is plugged in?

Just wondering. Thanks,

 

You can right click on the desktop to do the switching, the screen will be blank for couple seconds and done.
or you can set it on BIOS to either switch or discrete mode...

 

On No, Thats not a very nice thing to hear !!

Anybody else faced this kind of a problem here and also did they end up shipping it back to get the laptop repaired/replaced?

I have asked a colleague to carry it over to Singapore from USA , and I really dont want to go through the pain of sending the laptop for repairs in a foreign country !!!

Nice can you tell me what exactly did u do to get a 1 year free warranty ? I am ready to pay the whole price down with my cr card .

 

Just a quick question: does the 4820TG's wireless card support 5GHz wireless?

I recently picked up a dual-band router and the 4820TG can't seem to find the 5GHz network I set up. I know the network itself is fine - my 360 connects to it perfectly.

So do I have to do something in the wireless card settings so that it'll detect it (it's a Broadcom) or am I out of luck unless I get another adapter? Thanks.

 

Mine works perfectly. He was just unlucky
You probably will be fine, have your colleague check it out before he brings it over just in case though.

I think mine is a 5ghz network... I'm not sure anymore. It connects fine.

 

How do you check the battery wear? I didn't even know there was such a tool.

 

...tried running a classic game....fifa 99 on this machine...it went well till the menus....but screen went completely grainy during the gameplay...any idea why this happens....the menus get displayed normally though....

 

Try HWMonitor and it should display the battery wear level on the bottom. You can look at the screenshots from the first page.

 

Got my notification last night that it is back in stock at newegg and put my order through. Hopefully it will be here next week. Unfortunately, it the same model that's been available.so no 500 gb HD

 

Switchable graphics is done automatically on the 4820TG. The HD 5650 is used when you are plugged in and the Intel GMA HD is used when you are on battery. The screen will turn black for a few seconds during graphics switching. Futhermore, you can manually switch between graphic cards when you are plugged in or on battery in Windows 7.

The power savings button only works when you are on battery, not while you are plugged in. Pressing the power savings button will switch your graphics from the Intel GMA HD to the HD 5650. Vice versa.

 

I am having a similar problem. I installed a seagate momentus xt with a clean install of win7 x64. Recently i took a flight so i was trying to setup better battery life. I installed the drivers off of the website for the optical drive to power down on battery and the acer epower management. If i shut the lid and open it, the machine recovers fine. If i leave it for an extended period of time i have black screen that nothing seems to recover from, keyboard, mouse, power button tap, etc. Each time i have to hold the power button down for 4 seconds to power down and reboot. I believe it is the hard drive turning off and not recovering properly but that is just a guess.
Update: after going back to the acer amd driver, that didn't solve the problem. I used driver sweeper and eliminated the ati stuff completely and then installed the official stock driver. What did solve the problem was slimdrivers http://www.driverupdate.net/ - which though it seems to be a little bit of a intrusive program solved the problem as far as i can tell.

 

I have confirmed with mastercard that almost all mastercard credit cards have extended warranty benefit for up to double the manufacturer's warranty, but no more than two years total (hint: if manufacturer's warranty is two years already, mastercard credit card does not provide any additional benefit). Visa credit card, on the other hand, does not seem to have this limitation - it will provide an extended warranty for up to additional year after manufacturer's warranty expires. As I have mentioned earlier, to be sure that your credit card carriers this benefit, you MUST call your issuing bank and just simply ask if your card has this benefit. American express cards, I think, automatically provide this benefit to all credit card holders. One more thing, if your mastercard credit card has "world card" written anywhere on the front of the card, then it has an additional benefit "price protection". If, within 60 days of your original purchase, you have found a lower advertised price for exactly the same item, you then may file a claim with mastercard to be reimbursed for the price difference. Some Visa cards have that too, but you MUST ask issuing bank if your particular card has this benefit. I am not sure about American Express cards though - think I saw somewhere that all cards have "price protection". Hope this helps.

Forgot to mention that for mastercard you do not need to do anything (besides paying 100% of the purchase price with your card). You must keep original receipt, credit card statement and copy of the manufacturer's warranty in case you need to file a warranty claim with them. Same goes for Visa, and you may send them copies of everything, so they will keep everything on file for you. You may register your Visa credit card purchase online at the following:
https://portal.newcorp.com/visaclaims/servlet/VisaClaimsProcessRunner?USER_ACTION=ShowWelcome

Again, I am not sure about the process for American Express cards, though it should be something similar.

 

It's automatic for American Express as well. You get an automatic extension of the Mfgr's warranty for a year.

 

... really?

I think I paid with an american express card on amazon, but I am not sure. Anyway I can check?

 

You can login to your Amazon account and check orders and print invoices. It should be listed on the invoice the form of payment you have used for your purchase.

 

Thx, I did use the american express card.

How can I make sure I have that extra 1 year warranty? Or is it something that is just automatic and if 1.5 years down the line I have a problem I need to prove I bought it with American express?

 

You can call American Express credit card customer service and ask them about extended warranty benefit for purchases made with your American Express card. Most likely you will have to save an original receipt (which in this case is the invoice printout from Amazon), American Express credit card statement showing the charge from Amazon for full purchase price and an original/copy of Acer limited warranty brochure. From there it is pretty much straight froward, they will ask to obtain quotes for fixing your laptop and fax/mail it to them and they will send you a check for the repair or will pay directly to the repair shop or (if the repair is major) will send you check for the full purchase price you have paid for your laptop. American Express customer service will be able to give more details about it.

 

Thanks, I will do that!

 

I just ordered mine from JR with free shipping for $770. It's in stock. And the best thing is if you live outside of NY, no tax . And if you live in CA, no recycling fee either

 

Excellent , Thanks for your post ! Rep UP !!

 

Thx , but again did you buy it from Amazon as well ?

 

After reading OP and few posts on this thread, I decided buy this laptop and I recieved my laptop from Amazon few days ago. This by far seems to be one of the best laptop that I have ever used and owned. Before buying this, I had an envy 14 and I should say this thing blows envy out of water for every aspect. I had the envy without radiance screen and I should say if people thinks screen for 4820tg is bad should try envy 14 for few days. This community also seems to be a very nice community, happy to post my first post and thanks for informative posts that I have been reading.
I am new to acers and therefore I have couple questions, Is there any way to undervolt the cpu with a modded bios? also I would like to know what is the load temps for I5 460M with prime 95 large with max heat option? When I first got my laptop, I noticed that it was reaching about 86 and as soon as it hits 86C then the clock speed would drop to 2600, so I decided to change Thermel Compound and therefore I took the laptop apart and applied Shin-Etsu on processor. While at it, I also removed the thermal pad on the ATI chip and applied some IC7 instead. So far the cpu temps seems to be slightly better and I am seeing that the clock speed stayin at 2794 under stress testing all the time with temps at 84-85C. But I noticed very good improvement on VGA tempss. Furmark stress testing never goes above 70 ish while it used to about 78-80 before. Any input would be greatly appriciated. Thanks Again.

 

Lol those adjectives ("Raaaadiance" screens) don't mean anything. The only real way (albeit difficult to achieve) to know is to have 2 comparisons side by side.

 

Hi,

I was curious if anyone had purchased a keyboard cover or screen protector for the 4820TG? I checked the 3820TG Owner's Lounge thread and saw some mentioned for that model, but they appeared to be designed for 13.3 in. machines.

I found the following ones for sale:
Amazon.com: Protective Dura-Gel Silicone Laptop Keyboard Skin for Acer Aspire , TimelineX , AS5251 , AS5741Z , AS7741G , AS4820TG , and More. ** Includes Bonus Mouspad and USB to Micro-USB cable**: Electronics

Anti-Glare 14.1" Screen Protector Acer AS4820TG 4820TG - eBay (item 320564712752 end time Dec-18-10 02:42:50 PST)

Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Yes I bought from amazon.


By the way, if anyone is looking for a good cheap case for a 4820tg I got this for $8.25

DealExtreme: $8.25 Slow-Bounce Laptop Inner Case (14.1-inch Wide-Screen)

It's some nice material and it's really cheap. It took about 10 days to get to my house.

 

I've been trying to disable the automatic switch to ATI graphics which is triggered when the power cord is plugged in, but have had no luck. In the Catalyst Control Center help file it says this is possible to do, but it also says

"Note: This feature is not available on all systems".

I worry that this applies to Acer. Anyone got an idea?

 

You cannot disable automatic graphics switching in Windows 7. However, you can go into BIOS and change the settings from "switchable" to "discrete" graphics. However, you cannot do this with the integrated Intel GMA HD.

 

I'm seriously considering canceling my Dell XPS 15 L501X that just shipped, and ordering Aspire Timeline X AS4820TG-7566. Any thoughts on the difference between the two? I paid $686 for the Dell, with the i5, 500GB 7200RPM, GF GT420M 1GB, 4GB Ram.

After reading, it looks like this laptop is more of my "style". Looks like the videocard is better, and probably a "better built" system.

I'm looking for a good deal on it, but can't seem to find anyone who carries it other than MicroCenter.com. Any thoughts? Suggestions? I'll be mainly playing NBA 2k11, and doing some HD Video Editing.

 

The audio out of the audio jack when I have my headphones plugged in does not deliver output to my right side.

Is this a build issue that I need to send back for fix or some sort of driver issue? I have the latest Realtech HD Audio driver installed right now that was on previous posts.

Suggestions guys?

 

newegg has it in stock currently for $750:
Newegg.com - Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820TG-7805 NoteBook Intel Core i5 460M(2.53GHz) 14" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 + Intel HD

 

Just an update on shipping back my laptop for repair for anyone that cares- the Fedex shipping Acer paid for is quite slow unfortunately, it's been a week and it hasn't gotten to the repair facility yet. Should arrive Monday it looks like. I'll probably call and ask them to use a faster shipping service for the return, or I may be looking at 3 weeks without my 4820tg .

 

I bought the 4820TG-7805 from Frys a few months ago and I'm loving it so far. I do have one problem and was wondering if anyone else has had a similiar experience. During my gaming sessions I get a 1-2 second freeze and then everything goes right back to normal(60+fps). Lowering all graphics to minimum on World of Warcraft and L4D2 do nothing. I make sure the 5650 is turned on and I have proper airflow under the laptop. I can cold boot and then immediately start playing a game before the laptop heats up and still get the same results so I don't think its a heat issue although the laptop does run very warm during games.

I installed the latest video drivers found on the first page of this thread. I also updated the bios to the v1.19. I'm not sure what else to do and would like to avoid wiping the HD and starting with a fresh install of Win7.
- One gripe I have about this laptop is the Acer Update software hasn't shown any available updates since I bought it even though there was a new bios and video drivers available.

I did some searching and was unable to find anyone else experiencing this problem. This is a huge thread so many I just missed it. Any help would be appreciated.