Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

Hi everybody!

1: I have noticed that my core temps differ up to 10°C. Does anyone also have such huge differences? These temps were measured in idle-state. (i have attached a picture of HWMonitor)

2: I'm als not sure if it's normal that the fan begins to work so often @office-work. the fan always works on a very very silent level, but every five minutes it begins to get louder for 5-10 minutes (i mean the next speed step). i have no running processes which may be causing this issue.

3: My webcam is filiming to high i think. I have to put forward the lid till it is in 90° to the keyboard. Then i can see my head and my shoulders. But therefore i can't see anything on the screen, because its getting to bright because i have to look at the screen from above.

I hope you can understand what i mean

Looking forward to your answers!!

 

I wiped out everything on my drive again and created a new partition that takes up my entire drive with gpartition.

When I turn on the laptop with everything wiped out excluding the bios I get the message:

Wow, even the bios is nagging me about the Atheros driver and to insert some cable. How is this possible? Everything on the laptop is wiped out. Anyone else get this?

The damn WLAN driver from the acer site isn't working!

 

dude that just means that your laptop did not find any bootable partitions so it went ahead and attempted a network boot (assuming network boot is enabled in the settings and if you go to bios, its usually the last item that the system attempts to boot if all else fails)

 

hi guys i want to install xp im my laptop but icant
do any bod have acer xp 32bit recover

 

Install win xp inside a VM and you have no problem with drivers. All the Office usage will work very well.

 

how in vm
can u expalin to me more about this way
i dont know what u means

 

You can use Windows 7 as main system and install an application, which simulate a pc. On this simulated PC you can install Windows XP.

I love it because you can use Windows 7, Windows XP and Linux at the same time on the same PC.

Im using VMware Player. An opensource alternative is VirtualBox.

 

you'll have to do some troubleshooting if you want XP on this laptop, you can technically do it but you need an XP x64 version of launch manager and you can get the wifi drivers for XP (etc) from laptopvideo2go.com.

 

Sorry for self-bump, but can anyone help? I'm running stock drivers for everything (haven't clean installed yet). I saw another user earlier in the thread had a similar issue but I didn't see a solution posted.

 

is anyone also experiencing problems playing 1080p files when using the ATI graphics card using the stock drivers?

here is a sample file that has problems with the video when playing under WMP using the default windows 7 h264 codecs

Download test_hd_9refs_high_l5.1.mp4 for free on Filesonic.com

 

Haven't had any problems personally and i tried to download your file, but it never started. Put in the bot checker and all that and it just sat there. Sorry.

 

anyone else tried?

that file sample isnt even mine, i got it from the dxva help guide Watching H.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) >> My collection of short anime reviews

this file is the 4th file in their list of samples so you can try using said link on their site.

 

Wow, i downloaded it and it was all blocky and had a bunch of artifacts. Is that what you are seeing?

 

I hate this laptop now. I should never of reinstalled Windows 7, now the thing takes ages to boot up, I get erratic processor temperatures (10C increases in a second for 1 or 2 cores while the others remain 10C lower) doing menial things like working with paint or MS Word, and the WLAN driver from the acer site does not install.

What did I do wrong? I installed all the drivers from the site:

Chipset Intel Chipset Driver 9.1.1.1024
AHCI Intel SATA AHCI Driver 9.5.6.1001
Audio Realtek Audio Driver 6.0.1.6096
CardReader Alcor Card Reader Driver 1.0.12.50
TouchPad Synaptics Touchpad Driver 14.0.6.0
Turbo Boost Intel Turbo Boost Driver (Manageability Engine Code)
Turbo Boost Intel Turbo Boost Driver 1.0.1.1002
VGA AMD VGA Driver (Radeon HD 5650 & Radeon HD 6550M & Radeon HD 5470 & Radeon HD 6370M) 8.741.1.6
VGA Intel VGA Driver 8.15.10.2025
Wireless LAN Atheros Wireless LAN Driver 8.0.0.259 (garbage does not install)
Camera liteon WebCam Application 1.0.2.0
ePower Acer ePower Management Application 5.00.3002
LaunchManager Dritek LaunchManager Application 6.1.7600.16385
OpticalDrive PM Acer OpticalDrive PM Application 1.01.3006

Does acer put up the proper drivers?
http://screensnapr.com/e/ghKgeF.png

 

Did you backup your stock drivers and try to re-install those? That is what I did and I had no problems at all.

 

Did you not backup the drivers and applications from the hidden folder at C:\OEM\Preload\Autorun\DRV before doing a clean install of Windows 7?

What about the Acer recovery discs or driver disc? Did you create them?

Downloading drivers from the Acer website should be a last resort because sometimes the website can be unreliable.

 

No, I didn't know the acer website was unreliable.

Is there a place where I can download these for my Aspire 4820TG-7805 Model: ZQ1C (I don't know if I should give out the S/N or P/N - which one is safe to give out - does it matter, I already registered my product?)?

 

Just jumped through the hoops to download it, and it plays perfectly. In linux with mplayer which uses only the ATI 5650 right now. It uses about 1/2 of one of the 4 threads/cpus listed in htop. I'll try it in windows later.

So rebooted into Windows, and it was definitely more artifacty in nature. Not terrible, but definitely not as clean as mplayer in linux was. I'm guessing mplayer has better filters to clean up the original meh video quality? I'll try VLC next.

 

If you want to do a full factory restore, Acer can walk you through it. It is something as simple as pressing F2 or F12 while it boots. It will restore through the partition created by acer if you haven't wiped it out already with your reinstall of 7.

 

OK Tried it in VLC and it's about the same as in windows media player. Other than lots of artifacts in mostly dark scenes it's pretty crisp in both. Mplayer seems to have a slight lead to me.

 

I did, I used Gpartition to remove the 12 gb partition by acer.

 

Than use your backup DVDs.

 

I don't have backup DVDs.

 

Hope, that anyone upload the files or try a new installation.

I have only the files for the 3820TG.

 

You can order new recovery media from Acer: Recovery media for Acer (Note that I had to enter an exception for their self-signed certificate.)

 

the issue here is actually in the drivers that acer has provided for the switchable graphics. ati has already updated the stock drivers to allow the acceleration of these files so it wouldnt output the garbage we now see since release 10.4. for some reason however, even though acer is using 10.6 as basis for their drivers, acceleration of some 1080p files are still failing. this especially shows when using dxva acceleration such as that on wmp12+h.264 combination on windows.

anyway, this is definitely a driver issue since i had the same issue with my desktop running 4650 ati prior to the release of the 10.4 catalyst drivers and after that, these issues all disappeared.

btw, this problem if you are dealing with media encoding can cause so much hassle as stuff you might want to use hardware acceleration for like transcoding files will look like that blocky thing of a video if the file matches the characteristics of the test files we've used.

 

Dude don't blame the laptop. You should have really made a backup of the your installation. Windows 7 has a built program to make an image of your installation but that's beside the point. Damage is done right.

Someone has asked if you are 100% sure that it is a Atheros WLAN card. Pop the cover off and take a look. The drivers have to be out there. I suggested something a couple pages back, did you try that?

 

10.12 not working for you? I'm using it with the only issue being that I can not dim the screen with the keyboard.

Try it out. Remember you have to switch to discrete in the bios first.

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

Hmm, well I just tend to not use WMP at all. I've had the catalyst drivers for 10.6, 10.7 and 10.12 installed and that video you linked played perfectly fine with VLC. (I tend to use that guide for MPC-HC as well.) I'm currently running 10.7 as I noticed the non-official ATI drivers from their site actually say in the patch notes that it doesn't support "switchable-graphics sets".

 

Will the eRecovery disks from acer recreate the partitions on the hd?

 

@aylafan
Hi, can you suggest the latest stable ATI Graphics drivers with link?(I am currently downloading the video said in the earlier threads to check out if it works with mine)
Mine info says the following:
Driver Packaging Version 8.713.3.3-something
Catalyst™ Version 10.10

 

I swear you guys are so lazy!!

 

any version that's not supplied by acer tends to crash the video driver or say video card error when playing the file.

the purpose of having this work with the drivers is not only for 1080p files to play properly, but for encoding tasks as well given that some transcoding apps utilize hardware acceleration provided by gpu. ergo, if hardware acceleration in decoding files like this craps out, then the output also tanks.

plus, to use wmp has an advantage that it does not use the cpu as much compared to complete software rendering done by other players such as vlc.

the odd thing is that those files work with the intel gpu rather well, but not the ati card. anyway, this only becomes an issue of playback if you indeed use 1080p files to output to the hdmi output of the laptop. however, it becomes a larger issue when you do media transcoding on it as you cannot take advantage of the hardware acceleration provided by the system.

besides the 4820tg, can anyone test if this is the same scenario as with others in the same family of laptops with the switchable ati graphics from acer? (like 3820tg, 5820tg, etc?)

 

I was just concerned about the versions as previous ones didn't quite work well,(see my earlier posts in this thread), and if the one posted above by me, is actually 10.10? I just wanted someone to cross check that.


Also I tried the HD video, works well on linux ON BOTH OF THE CARDS (ATI better than intel after watching a lot of times or maybe its just my mind) and same for Windows in which I used VLC.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...nex-4820tg-owners-lounge-298.html#post7057770

When you get to the link it will read 10.11 but it will what you are downloading is just a download manager. It will download 10.12.

 

I used WMP and played fine but I used MPC-HC using DXVA and I got artifacts everywhere. Rebooted because I forgot I had it on discrete video and have no artifacts now but it won't play on WMP anymore.

 

i'm not sure on linux but can you determine if in linux when you play the video you're using the dxva equivalent and not just software rendering. also vlc plays the file on software rendering (cpu does the work, not gpu) and this issue will not show up. the problem shows when using a codec/player that uses dxva.

maybe we should ask acer support regarding this issue? if they actually have an idea regarding this issue or care enough to address this issue.

 

VLC can do hardware rendering, but only with an nvidia card. As far as DXVA goes, I did everything according to a couple guides I've seen online and I'm not even sure it's working properly. Using GPU-Z and playing several different h264 files it doesn't actually show a load on the gpu card. For my own use I just need the laptop to be able to play 1080p files without artifacts and stutter. VLC does that for me so I'm interested in what you guys find out, but I guess I don't really have an issue.

 

as for my case, dxva works on the h264 files i have on wmp using the default codec from windows 7 but there are some 1080p files that exhibit the issue of severe artifacts on both playback and encoding when using hardware acceleration.

 

No [ 10 letters ]

 

I've seen the recommendations in this thread about the Zeroshock III sleeve and was going to get one.

I've noticed that there is now also a Zeroshock IV case and I've been looking into maybe getting one of those instead; however, it seems to not come in a 14" version. Does anyone know if they actually make them in this size, or know if the other sizes fit OK? Should I just plump for a Zeroshock III?

 

oh another request if anyone is willing to do so.

does anyone still have the default acer login background? or does it use the default windows 7 one on the oem default?

if anyone has the default acer login background for windows 7, can they post that here?

thanks

 

If you guys are interested in watching videos using GPU acceleration you can take a look at this guide http://imouto.my/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/; works fine for me in both ATI and Intel graphic modes. To check for whether it is being accelerated in ATI mode, you can use "AMD GPU Clock Tool" (the one that people use to overclock the 5650). Dunno about encoding, haven't try it.

 

did you try the quantum of solace video and see if it works without the artifacts?

 

Guys i dont know what could be the problem now... The THRM temparature is showing 0 degrees.. Strange! What could be the problem?

 

i have a single non-confirming pixel at middle of the screen. Is this covered by the warranty.

 

Does anyone know where I can purchase the 9 Cell battery?

 

I'm guessing you're in US, so I think the only place would be ebay :S
these are the only 2 I could find.
wonder why in UK they have 9 cell battery by default, like mine...

Genuine Battery Acer 3820T 4820TG 5820T 5820TG AS10B6E on eBay (end time 10-Feb-11 12:03:25 GMT)

Acer Aspire 4820 4820T 4820TG 5820 5820T 5820TG Battery on eBay (end time 19-Jan-11 00:55:23 GMT)

 

for $800, this seems like an excellent buy. Im thinking of considering this over an Asus u43JC (14" Bamboo edition). I bought the 4820T version (no dedicated GFX card and i3 CPU) of this laptop and holy crap was I blown away. The build quality is excellent and it looks and feel so amazing.

However, I haven't been able to find this on Amazon, Newegg, JR, BH photo or anywhere else. Has Acer discontinued this?

 

Omni, it seems that Acer isn't producing any more 4820TG models, though I could be wrong.

There are new 13" and 14" units coming in Q2 this year, though they will have nVidia 520m or 540m graphics and Sandy Bridge CPUs. These aren't called TimelineX models but functionally should be very similar to the 4820TG.