Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

I ordered a new 7200rpm hard drive from Newegg and to clean-install Windows, I just used my ASUS Windows 7 Home Premium disc (inb4 blasphemy) and used the ABR method to activate it (I backed up the activation from the hard drive that came with the Acer laptop). If you don't have a Windows 7 disc lying around, you can try this.

 

Have they said anything in response? I have the new 4820TG and I've noticed the slightly weak contrast too. If they don't have a better contrast replacement, I might go after the 900p screen, but do you know if there are any tutorials for replacing the screen? I've read about other people doing it in this thread, so I assume it's not impossible.

 

Thanks, will look into it. What about the drivers and preinstalled software/utilities, are all of them available from Acer website? Otherwise, how do I make a backup so that I can restore it with the clean installed Windows?

 

Please, read the FAQ section on the first post of this thread. This is all answered there.

 

Thanks! I must have overlooked it when reading the first few pages.

 

No answer back yet. I'd use the service manual. I searched the web for support.acer.com and repair manual and my laptop model and it came right up. it's on their site on an open link so I consider it consistent with the forum rules for links to manuals.

 

Lol, I just ordered the 4820TG yesterday to replace my ~4 year old laptop. I'm thinking anything that this TimeLineX has will be a big step up compared to my current laptop.

 

I recently purchased this laptop here in Philippines and so far so good. I did a clean install of Win7 to get rid of the bloatware and install my own preferences. I have been experiencing one issue however....when connecting the laptop to an external display via HDMI > Samsung SyncMaster PX2370 the samsung only displays a centered version of the desktop. I used the wizard in the ATI Catalyst to set the external display as main display and none for the second monitor (turning off the laptop display) and set the resolution to 1920x1080 yet the desktop area only stretches as far as about 1/2" from the edge of the monitor. The text is also the hideous Clear Type which gives me a headache, even tho clear type is turned off.

Any thoughts or ideas?

 

Change the scaling in CCC to 0% ?

 

Yes, as lee said, go to the Catalyst Control Center, find "Scaling Options" in one of the expandable trees and set that to 0.
Also, make sure that the ratio is set to 16:9

 

Thanks I found where the scaling options were 'hidden' somewhat. I set the scaling a little above the 0% as 0% made the desktop larger than the display. However, the scaling still has that slightly distorted look to me. I'm a web designer so pixel images (gradients,and whatnot) are very important to get accurate. Once again although clear type is turned off it seems the text is anti-aliased yet. Where do you check the ratio for 16:9 in CCC ?

 

Samsung monitors' HDMI have weird scaling. It seems the display acts more like a TV instead of a monitor when you use HDMI. I feel like my display is using its built in scaler when I connect via HDMI. If possible, use DVI and VGA.

 

Issue Solved

Fix Samsung monitors ship with the default setting of AV in Setup. If for example you are connecting via HDMI a PS3 or Xbox, etc. The monitors in this setup use built enhancements for color, etc. unsuitable for computer use. However it is a simple matter of using the onscreen Menu and switching in SetUp from AV to PC instead. Then using 0% in AMD Catalyst scaling and it worked like a charm. On screen text is now crystal clear as well as colors and resolution which fills the entire display area now.

 

hi!
so, i intent to buy this model;
but i would add 8gb of mem (which should i buy?);
does some one know if i can change the screen by that 900pg lg screen?
and, has anyone tried to put the momentus xt the hybrid hd?

thanks!

 

Just got this laptop today and the speakers are crackling can someone walk me through exactly what to do to fix this. I have touched nothing, its an hour out of box. Actually even better is what are good audio setting for gaming?

 

Crackling on every sound or just MP3s? Try disabling "Surround Sound" in the Realtek program to see if that helps.

 

How did you make it clean???I am annoyed by those junks!

 

one of my usb 2.0 ports has failed on the 4820tg. I am assuming i will need to rma this now. Has anybody had similar problem or found solution?

 

Regarding the RAM, this will work for you:
Newegg.com - PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model MN8192KD3-1066

For $65 after rebate, its a nice deal.

 

Been playing around with my new one for a few hours now, my only complain so far is it runs fairly hot on the left side and I wish the keyboard was backlit.

 

If it's one of the two USB ports that are grouped, it is either a problem on the card or the connecting ribbon. My suggestion is to just RMA it.

Bronsky

 

Just got mine yesterday and today ran 3dmark06 and got a score of 7871, is that a good score? If not what can I do to safely improve my performance? I am a computer novice so be gentle.

 

Thanks Bronsky,

It is the one of three on the right closest to the screen. I can't imagine the ribbon disconnecting but if it is just that it would be pretty easy to fix. I probably will just rma though if i can find a time period to go without it.

Has anyone had experience with Acer's RMA Program? Good or Bad?

 

Taking into account

Taking into account the price range and everything that is an excellent score. You can run crysis 1 on high settings and mist recent games medium to high. If you are okay with that, then I'd recommend just leaving it.

 

wow nice, didn't know this ran crysis on high settings.

 

hey guys im checking out laptops to replace this hp envy 14. i love the envy 14 and i want a laptop just like it but i cant deal with hp's nonsense anymore.

im looking for a laptop that is both portable and powerful. i will be carrying it from class to class so i need something that is thin and light. i also need the laptop to be able to play games like starcraft 2 on decent settings without any problems. also, i love to watch movies and listen to music on my laptop. i also hope to get one of those cords that lets me watch stuff on my tv from my laptop.

is the acer aspire timelinex 4820 for me?

 

In short, yes.
You're going to miss the backlit keyboard and the speakers. The 4820TG has pretty mediocre ones. That's about it the only drawbacks from the envy.
Regarding SC2, you can run it on medium to high settings.

 

I think the most major difference aren't those, it's the screen...the (at least older) HP Envys carry some superb screens which even gave Apple MBPs a run for the money.

 

My 4820TG JUST arrived. I'm going to finish up a paper that I was working on and start playing around with it
Will test out some games for their FPS and run game-specific benchmarks and post them here

 

the envy doesnt offer the radiance screen anymore...just the brightview

 

Yep, I did mention there that I only meant the older Envys.

 

Sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but I want to be 100% sure I'm doing this the right way. I think I will do a clean install on this laptop (4820TG-6847).
I've made a copy of the AppDrv disc and I have my own copy of windows professional x64.
In order to do a clean install, I just pop in the Win 7 disc, format everything and do a complete reinstall with my own CD key and once everything is done, I just pop the AppDrv disc in and install all of the drivers in the "driver" folder, right?
Will I need to go and find any additional drivers anywhere?
Thank you.

Edit:
Can someone just list the drivers that need to be downloaded and specify any order for installing them if there is any.
It will be verily appreciated!
The main confusion I'm having is the GPU driver. Do I install the AMD one or the Intel one or first the AMD and then the Intel?

 

First install the Intel one. Windows Update will do that for you if you don't want to search. Next, restart and load back into your desktop.. install this video driver.
Restart and go into bios by pressing F2. In bios, change graphics mode from switchable to discrete or dedicated.. whatever it was called. Save out and load back into Windows. Now install this driver, restart and go into bios and switch graphics back to switchable. You're done. To switch between the two, right click on the desktop and choose "Configure Switchable Graphics."

 

Hi guys, just a quick question. Was any of you able to play Bluray 3D contents from 4820TG to a 3D HDTV (meaning full 3D Blurays, not Side-by-Side files)? Hope so, as i couldn't manage to do it in any way.

 

hey just curious but how much is it over there back in motherland?

 

As is usually the case here anything imported is outrageously more expensive. This one (Aspire 4820TG) was 49,500p but that includes adding an extra 2gb of RAM. That's about $1130 USD - and short of country hopping to buy one elsewhere this was my only choice available where I am located which is nowhere near a major city.

 

Hey guys. My 4820TG just blue screened on me. I couldn't see what the error code was but it started with usb_bah_code or something.

Also, whenever I shutdown my PC while the power-saving GPU option is turned on and turn it back on, the computer stutters for a bit and then switches it back to the dedicated GPU. This is when I have my PC plugged in. Is this normal?

 

Dear all,

A user prior to me asked a question similar to mine. He did not get an answer, so I will go ahead:
Per default, wireless is turned on by Launch Manager, when the PC boots. I would like it to remember the on/off state that Wireless was in, when I turned the PC off, and boot with that same setting, instead of just turning it on per default.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi, I own a 4820TG, overall its a great laptop, but I have few problems with it.
1. In some games, like Dirt2 and CoD, I experience small slowdowns, game starts to lag for a while, sometimes it gets better, sometimes it doesnt at all. I am quite sure that its not because of overheating (but anyway, to be sure, what should be the max. temperatures and how hot is too much?). I havnt looked through all of the pages in this forum, but most of them, I am using QuietHDD, disabled Windows Event Log and using the latest drivers from acers homepage. Any other suggestions?
2. While listening to music from lets say Winamp and if I then want to watch a video from Youtube, i get no sound. Sometimes stoping the music from winamp and then reloading youtube works, but sometimes i have to stop the music and have to completely close Firefox and restart it in order to hear music from the browser.
3. This one is not a problem, but its a bit wierd, sometimes my screen just gets really bright for a few seconds and then turns back normal....
Has anyone had any of these problems?

 

After hours of gaming, and I mean after about 4 hours, my PC's CPU temps were 90 C max. If you have the core i5-480, those things can go upto 105 C before the computer starts taking actions. Also, my GPU's max is at 76 C.

 

OK, a couple weeks ago I cleaned my screen with window cleaner. normally I put just a bit near the top, and use a clean tshirt etc to wipe it off. This time, some ran down under the bezel at the bottom of the screen, and my screen went super bright. By the next morning it had dried out and worked again. So, something in there making contact between two runs? If it was my laptop I'd grab the maintenance manual (google support.acer.com 4820TG repair manual) and pop off teh bezel and use alcohol and a horse hair brush to clean the screen electronics (do we use ballast with LED backlight now? Not sure)

 

The stuttering is just a result of the computer switching from the Intel Integrated graphics card to the ATI, oops AMD (lol) graphics card; there's nothing wrong with it. Acer designed it though so that the default while plugged in is the dedicated card, and the default when unplugged is the integrated card. I'm assuming that when you shut off your laptop it forgets that you manually changed it to the integrated card, so then the laptop reverts back to the dedicated card.

 

Is anyone else having trouble switching GPUs after hibernate? For some reason mine will only switch with a restart... any fix for this?

I used to have a ul30vt, and it would tell me what things I would need to close in order to switch GPUs, on my timelinex (i have one of the new ones) it doesnt switch even with all possible programs closed...

 

I tried to find the repair or service manual for the 4820TG but I only found a battery life performance rating on the net. At the Acer site they only have the normal user's manual. Can you give a link to download the real maintenance manual. Thanks

 

copy and paste this into google to search for it:

site:support.acer.com 4820tg repair manual

 

Tx a lot one more time Sxooter. Without "site" in the beginning it doesn't work.

 

If the manual is hosted on an official Acer website you can link to it.
Linking to manuals hosted on 3rd party sites is forbidden since Acer is the copyright holder but by the same token if the manual is on their website and is not in any way protected it's OK to paste a link here.
Just don't mask the link so it will be plainly visible where it's hosted at.

 

Oh, cool. Then here we go:

4820TG repair manual

 

Sorry to ask again, anyone maybe?

 

Hey all, been a while since I was here.

Still have my 4820TG, and still loving it - it was a great purchase! So glad I found this thread way back when. (Sorta wish I had managed to get one of the newer ones with the larger HDD, but that's pretty incidental.)

My question is - I have a friend who's looking for a new laptop. I'm trying to sell her on this one, but honestly, is there anything newer out there that she might be better off looking at?

I've told her this one is great as far as size, battery life and graphics go, but I know she games a lot (as do I), and she wants to make sure she's not going to get stranded down the road in a year or two by the graphics on this machine. I dont' think she will - maybe things wont' run on high settings, but I think most things will still be playable on medium to low as time goes on. At least for a few years.

Anyway, anyone found any other machines that are comparable in price/quality/size/performance? I really felt like this was a steal last fall, I just don't know what's come out since then.