Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

Thanks. I ended up buying it from fti computer and they said the ETA is 5/19 so hopefully it will get to me then

 

Hey Guys,

I finally purchased the 4820tg-6874 from amazon and they got it home the very next day to San Francisco.

I am having this strain in the eyes even working for like 15 minutes on the laptop. I have transitioned from a 23" Inch Acer LCD (Desktop) which was absolutely cool on the eyes.

Can my LCD be possibly defective??? Or what can i do to correct the problem?? I tried reducing the brightness though it didn't help much

 

i guess no, the display is worthless by default...I'm just about to buy some 19 inch LCD myself too.

btw, with little bit of sunlight and the LCD on the laptop changes into a mirror

 

Indeed Kefaan, The LCD with this model is by far the worst i have come across in recent times.

I also tried increasing the refresh rate of the screen but it doesn't let me push it beyond 60 Hz which is crazy to say the least.

It's almost unworkable after 15 minutes,guess would have to replace this screen with a nice matte 14" ...Any sujjestions if that's possible with relative ease?

 

apart from using an external LCD, I'm thinking about this:

Anti-Glare Screen Protector Acer AS4820TG 4820TG 4820 | eBay

anyone has any experience with that ?

 

I tried something similar. Matte Greenonion if i remember. It's really good, looks like factory one but it was impossible for me to put it on my screen without dust underneath, so i took it out. Every piece of dust i making bubble, so it's annoying. If you have access to cleanroom in your university or work then you can try, but for me even one piece of dust is dealbreaker.

 

You could also try to sell your laptop locally in person. That's how I sold some of my laptops.

Just be careful with websites like Craigslist. There are too many fraud transactions from that site.

 

edit: I'm using Windows 7 Professional.

edit:And my laptop was not one that came with bluetooth initially.

Edit: i did a fresh install of the OS and nothing, it just seems that the bluetooth chip is not being detected or something, could it be that it has been damaged or is it simply not possible to have bluetooth on a 4820tg model that did not come with bluetooth, like could there be a modded BIOS that I could install to enable bluetooth.. idk its pissing me off.. I paid $34 for this tiny thing lol, and it seems the Wifi is slower than the factory one

Edit: I'm thinking I could have damage an antenna or something when I opened it up, but I switched the connectors to the card and it worked the same way, so maybe not then one of them would have to work.





I just installed the Intel Advanced N 6230 half mini card(w/ bluetooth). I installed the drivers for wifi/bluetooth but I can't get bluetooth to work.

I don't believe it as simple as hitting two keys on the keyboard which I've tried, obviously Wifi wouldn't work if it was toggled off(Fn+f3) which I'm using.

I navigated to the intel bluetooth folder in Program Files and ran one of the service applications and tried to configure the bluetooth settings but it's deciding that the device is unplugged or not installed correctly. I can't even repair/remove the bluetooth driver because it says the proset/wireless device might not be installed correctly.


Could this be that I did not physically install it correctly or maybe a problem with a windows Services? The BIOS has no options for bluetooth device so what could be the problem? There are no options anywhere for bluetooth besides the Intel/Bluetooth folder in program files.

 

can someone with a 4820tg upload me a screenshot of the bios( not the modded one) where you can switch between graphic?

 

here you go:

Imageshack - imag0023o.jpg

 

Alright so fticomputer was not able to get any 4820tg's from the manufacturer so I guess I will keep looking

 

check few posts earlier, there's one for sale here, i think it's worth it.

 

thank you sir. Repped. I have 4820tg but no option to switch at all no matter what i do( reset bios, flash to mod bios, take apart). I think my ati chip is dead.

 

Finally found a way to reduce the strain on the eyes of the crazy glare from this cheap display...

I set the display brightness to one less than the very minimum to get a workable soothing experience of viewing and working on the laptop

 

If there is already answer for this question. I apologize in advance, I didnt want to read 400 pages

Is RAM and HDD user-replecable? Or I have to contact the manufacturer?

Thank you for answer!
I just bought new 4820TG with i5-460, because the new edition of timelinex is terrbible.

 

Yes, they are user-replaceable. Download the Service Manual from the first post if you need instructions on how to replace them.

 

Yes of course they are replaceable without warranty void. Just turn over the laptop and remove the 5 screws from the L-shaped panel, doing so will expose the RAM and HDD, the HDD requires that you unscrew the aluminumish bracket which is fixated by the screws from the panel on to the tabs of the bracket when you put the panel back on. The Wireless card is also replaceable there.

 

What wireless card does everyone recommend an upgrade to? Intel 6250 or 6300? thanks

 

Well sure if you have 4G(6250) in your area or a laptop with 3 antenna connectors(6300)..
I bought the 6230 and was not able to the bluetooth to work(will not detect a bluetooth card/chip at all I'm assuming), may have a problem with other cards or it might just be mine.

 

first question is, why would you want to replace the current one.

are you not happy with speed or signal or something?

 

For those that have SSD in their 4820tg, how is the drive? Any problems with it? I recently returned my Crucial C300 128gb ssd because the drive kept freezing at least once a day just from doing simple task such as web surfing or word. I just ordered myself the intel 320 series and hope that this one won't give me a problem. I just want to see if anyone else had problems with their ssd

 

I have the 120GB Intel X25M G2 and I have had no problems with it.

 

vertex 2 with no problems. used in other laptop for 1/2 year prior to that and also no problems.

 

Hi. I bought this laptop for about year now I want to know about cpu upgrade can I replace the new cpu from i3 350m to something better ? and what socket of this notebook is. sry for ask too much but i don't have much knowledge about notebook.

 

well if you don't even know which socket this laptop has and can't google that, you better not do the upgrade anyway.

 

I googled it already long time ago but not sure about socket of this 4820tg does it PGA988 or BGA1288

 

PGA988.

Bronsky

 

thanks a lot buddy i just see it in cpu-z and it said rPGA 988 can it replace with other cpu like i5 540m that has PGA 988 in here it don't have any laptop cpu for sale so if it can raplace i will order it from e-bay soon

 

Sockets Supported: BGA1288, PGA988

The main difference between BGA1288 and PGA 988 is that BGA1288 is not a socket, it's soldered onto the motherboard. The socketed ones all use the same PGA988.

In short: PGA988

 

can cpu socket PGA988 and rPGA988 can be replace each other :/ ??

 

Socket G1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Actually I really haven't had very many issues.

Just seems that others have said how much better their reception is with Intel vs the Broadcom.

I just bought another router to give wireless N a try.

 

I think I got the broadcom one in my lap, got 50/5 broadband and it achieves full speeds on wifi, so I'm happy.

I was thinking of replacing it with 6230 as it got BT, but then realized that I don't really need BT anyway. and if i do, there are this mini BT USB modules for like 1 USD a piece.

My personal opinion is that unless you got superfast broadband or travel a lot into areas where the signal is really poor, there's no real need to upgrade the n-wifi module.

 

Yes or No is more simple for me as i said im don't know well about Laptop even you put more wiki to me i won't understand it much

 

You can replace your I3 cpu with an I5. With your lack of experience, I would let a shop do it for you. While they're doing that, have them put in IC Diamond thermal paste.

My 3820TG was originally an I3 unit. I recommend the I5-580M. I prefer OEM to QS.

Bronsky

 

maybe i will find the computer shop in hongkong and make them change cpu for me I have a flight there next week (poor thing thailand had only laptop for sale never had option part like cpu. only ram and hhd sold in here )

still confuse between rPGA and PGA it's mean the same right? if it's 988 socket then i can replace it like desktop cpu socket right ?

+Rep for Bronsky

 

Just installed the new add on router for the N and I am getting 25/5 compared to 7/4.5 for the existing B/G. My plan is for 25/5 so that is pretty good.

Now I have to figure out why I am only getting 10/4.5 for my desktop hardwired to the router....

 

what speed would you get if you connect the PC and modem with cable directly?

 

So has anyone ever got a bluetooth+wifi combo PCI half mini card to work on the 4820TG-6847, with bluetooth working?

 

I too have tried a wifi-bluetooth card, Sparklan WPER-101GN(BT). I also couldn't get the bluetooth part to work as well.

It seems that the Mini-PCIe slot pin-out of the 4820tg does not support USB bus. (The bluetooth for the Sparklan needs the usb bus) It is very probable that the USB pins are not connected, so perhaps if someone could solder those pins to an unused usb port, it may work.

 

Oh thanks, I'm kinda glad that it's not just me, now I don't have to worry as much. I figured that was the problem though someone stated that it was compulsory but perhaps it's a bios issue and not a design issue.. idk I'll just call acer technical later. point is I wasted $34 . On another note, is there a way to force uninstall the bluetooth driver/software, windows won't allow me too as it's giving me bs about the adapter not being installed properly. Also, what was the model of the broadcom card that came with the 4820TG-6847?

 

For those that own an ssd, have you run crystaldiskmark to check the speed of the drive? I currently have the intel 320 series 120gb ssd and am only getting 220mb/s sequential read which is about 50mb/s short of their advertised. I also got around 220mb/s seq read on the crucial c300. I want to know if our laptop can only support ssd up to 220mb/s seq read?

 

Series 5 Intel chipsets have issues with SSD, but still manage to surpass HDD by far.

 

Anyone here replace the DVD drive with a SSD or HDD? Anyone have a tutorial to do so?

I never use the DVD drive so i was thinking of replacing it with a SSD, I heard someone mention it a few months back.

Either that or ill buy a XT drive.

 

I've just bought a 4820T(-323G25) which comes with an i3 350m.

I've no problem actually doing the CPU swap (building PC's for years), but I've never seriously upgraded a laptop before - do any PGA988 CPU's fit, or only certain ones?

Is there a power limitation the board can support?

EDIT - Looking on eBay I can get an i3 370 (2.4 GHz) for £35, an i5 430 (2.26 GHz) for £30 or an i7 820 Quad (3.06 GHz) for £155... very tempting if any of those fit!

EDIT - I'm geussing a Quad is out of the question unless the BIOS supports it (which would be unlikely as none of the Timelines shipped with Quads?), but what about Sandy Bridge? The cheap i5 seems like a nice upgrade.

Also, has anyone had any luck removing the "acer" logo from the front or back?

I've already removed the badges, but the "Acer" logo is proving hard to get off.

On my old NC10 you could just get your nails behind it and pull it off... but it doesn't seem to work on this (and I killed my nails trying...)

 

Sandy bridge will not fit. Arrandales only. The heat sinks wont fit the quads and they don't support switchable grapgics. The I5-430 will fit and work fine. I saw some decent deals on an I5-450m as well. If you can, look for an OEM vs ES/QM.

Bronsky

 

Mines not got a dedicated GPU (T, not TG) so thats not such an issue, but the heatsink may be. Is the cooling the only concern, or are there other compatibility issues as well?

After having a think about it, the 430 offers no real performance boost, besides turbo boost, so not really worth the hassle... but i'll keep it in mind in case a higher end CPU comes up for sale.

Had a look in the service manual, job doesn't look that bad, certainly something to bear in mind.

Thanks for the input

 

AFAIK i5 is free of throttling issue. i3 will get slower under heat.

 

It seems that you try to tackle two needs at the same time:

• Should I swap my HDD to an SSD ?
• Can I use teh DVD bay for a secondary HDD or SSD ?

I say YES to both questions. For most usage patterns, there is no better upgrade on this unit than to switch to SSD.

With access to the DVD bay, you can also use an SSD with less capacity to save money, and store less frequently used stuff on the HDD.

To do this, you need a standard "9.5 mm SATA to SATA caddy. You can find these en masse on eBay.

To use the caddy:

• Remove the L-shaped service lid from the bottom of the notebook
• Remove the screw that secures the DVD caddy
• Remove the DVD caddy
• (Optionally)Remove the caddy fixing console from the DVD caddy
• (Optionally)Mount the caddy fixing console on the HDD caddy
• Mount the HDD/SSD in the HDD caddy
• Insert the HDD caddy
• Fix the screw that secures the caddy into the case
• Secure back the L-shaped service lid

Look in the service manual if you are uncertain where to look for the details.
Depending on the HDD caddy, you may need to file on it a bit to let it slide into place.

The result is very useful. You get much more HDD space and you can opt to use a much less expensive SSD.

Good Luck !

//

 

where do you find a decent deal for the I5-540m? On ebay? I have 4820tg, is the I5-450m best processor for this? I am thinking the 480m