Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

That means they are incompetent. Even their own service manual states:

The quote is from a service manual for 4820T not TG but the only difference is GPU so it doesn't matter.
You can use 4GB + 2GB combo too.

 

Whenever I have to deal with Acer service, I like to call directly to the Repair Depot and speak to someone who has some idea of what they're talking about. At least they have access to the tech reps so they can ask questions. Acer's general phone support has been moved out of the country and is basically worthless.

 

Interesting. My battery sometimes shows an average estimated life of 7+ hours, and others times around 5 hours. Today it seemed the power draw was larger than usual but I couldn't put my finger on it. I don't know if there's an error in calibration, or if some background process is hogging juice, or if the battery simply has lost some charge. BatteryBar shows 0.5% wear, and that hasn't changed since I got the laptop in the beginning of the year.

Overall I think the life is still pretty good, but since I'm nearing the end of my warranty I may try to get a second battery just in case.

 

Re-calibrate your battery before you do.

 

So Bronksy, should I call the Repair Depot then? I don't want to talk to Indians for an hour to get a battery if I can avoid it.

 

Hi,

for those still interested in Skyrim:

I loaded Fraps and had a look at the fps in a quiet area next to a lake. I just checked a few seconds walking around but anything below 24fps isn't worth the discussion anyways.
This is always with standard presets under options (-AA and -AF means Antialiasing off Anisotropic Filtering off):

High@1920*1200 ->15fps
High-AA-AF@1920*1200 ->22fps
Medium@1920*1200 ->18fps
Medium-AA-AF@1920*1200 ->24-28fps

High@1366*768 -> 21fps
High-AA-AF@1366*768 -> 40fps

As you see I cannot use my big screen... I am grateful for any hints if graphics drivers could help with this!

 

Hi All!

I have a strange problem with my wifi on my 4820TG... When i upload something or just measuring my internet speed (upload speed) the wifi disconnects... i updated the driver but it didn't help

Can somebody help me please?? I don't know what could be the problem...
Thanks in advance!

 

Can't you use your big screen at a lower resolution? Or does that lower the quality of the image?

 

Same situation here (but my screen is 1920*1080)...

At the moment I'm playing it with "medium" texture quality, most other options (shadows, decal, etc) at low level, but maxed out object/actor/etc draw distance and 4x Anisotropic Filtering (improves IQ a lot with only few FPS payload) Frame rate is pretty decent, but I hope in a good boost from new drivers (and maybe I will go back to "high" textures)

 

Which driver are you using?
AMD or Acer? I remember installing the AMD drivers back in May or June (back then it was 11.0 I think) Significantly improved my performance. Ditch the acer drivers, and try the current AMD.

 

I use acer latest drivers because I need switchable graphics feature, and acer drivers works "out of the box" without further messing with registry, driver signature UAC, etc etc...

If future AMD drivers will give a good FPS advantage with newers games like Skyrim, I will eventually try them (if acer do not update their ones)

PS: sorry for my english

 

Can anyone tell me if any of the new sandy bridge processors will work on the 4820tg? I'm not sure how to check that, I think it has something to do with the pins, but I'm not really tech savvy. Thanks

 

Sandy Bridge won't work- if you're planning on upgrading your notebook you have to stick yo Arrandale.

 

Thank you!

Second question:
I saw some i7-640M's on ebay for $285...but they are "engineering samples". I did some searching any people say it's pretty much the final product except it has ability to change the clock speed...which is good...but I just want to make sure it has all of the features the OEM version has. Does anyone have experience with this stuff?

I was looking at these links:
Intel Core i7-640M Mobile processor (CP80617004152AE)

ES model: Q4C9 (Intel Core i7 Mobile i7-640M)
OEM model: SLBTN (Intel Core i7 Mobile i7-640M)

you notice under the notes for the engineering sample it doesn't say anything compared to the OEM version...and under features it has less things. Is that accurate?

 

I'd always go for retail. It's not like they disable features on retail units to annoy users- buying ES is like buying beta software, in spite of what others might tell you.

While we're at it i7 640M is very close to i5 560M/580M performance-wise, the latter being- possibly- cheaper.
Also you might want to snipe for a cheaper unit- $286 for a Core i7 640M is quite a lot of money.

 

Came across this on Amazon. Amazon.com: Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820TG-6847 14-Inch HD Display Laptop (Black Brushed Aluminum): Computers & Accessories Refurb for $599.

 

Hi!

Is there any final word on the 4820TG best graphic driver?

I'm still using the mixed version which allowed the driver not to crash when switching with incompatible app opened.

1. What is now the best to use?

2. Is this best version able to switch even with MSN open? And is it able to properly play web videos?

Thanks!

 

We are many who did this upgrade. It changes life, honestly. It's a good 7200rpm, which already boosts up the PC, but also, after some days of use, you'll notice some great loading speed improvement due to the 4GB NAND.

One note though: if you are like me, using a ton of software everyday (development, games, office, and usual internet stuff), you may not really see any benefit from the NAND. Still the 7200RPM help a lot.

 

Cool, thanks for the response. I should have bought an XT a couple months ago when the 500 GB version was ~$95, but now prices have skyrocketed due to the flooding in Thailand.

With Black Friday coming up I'm trying to figure out where my money can best be spent for an upgrade, and I'll maybe opt for some cheap memory right now. I also use various software like you, so having 6 or 8 GB of RAM could make a nice difference, but my feeling is that the 5400 RPM HDD is the bottleneck.

 

Honestly, check your RAM usage often and tell me: is it ever full? I don't think so. Few software are using 1GB+. Unless you use one of them, i'm afraid you won't see any benefit from this upgrade.

Indeed, HDDs are unaffordable now. Too bad.

Buy a simple, cheap 7200RPM, in your case that may be the best choice. Indeed, your HDD is the bottleneck.

 

I'm using 2.4 GB right now with Firefox and Excel.

 

My freaking f10 key broke off...

Anyone know how to get this thing back on?

 

Probably you have a bunch of process running in the background too. Sort the process list by memory usage, and list here the 5 biggest ones after FF and Excel.

Anyway, 1.6GB free means you are not in hurry to upgrade RAM

I finally tried to install latest AMD drivers from Acer's website. It not better than the mixed ones i used. It won't switch when some programs like MSN are open (programs that use hardware graphic). The difference is that these new ones won't tell when it failed changing. Also they don't put a tray icon so i can quickly switch manually.

Too bad. Don't know if there are any other drivers to try.

 

Anyone else waiting for Arkham City to release???
Sitting here counting the minutes!

Edit: Just realized....17gb of data will take me the whole night to download
Will have to wait for tomorrow, lol.

 

Update on Batman Arkham City

If anyone is wondering, yes, the 4820TG will be able to handle it.
I ran the in game benchmarks at Medium, High, and Very High and got the following average FPS:

Medium: 60FPS
High: 50FPS
Very High: 42FPS

I'm not exactly sure how representative these benchmarks are of the rest of the game as I haven't tried it out yet, but I believe you can get something better than 30FPS average on high and at least 40FPS on medium. Will play the game tonight after finishing school work and update you guys again.

Plus, since this game has a dark atmosphere, it makes the GPU's work a bit easier.

-And oh, I have the 4820tg with the i5, (2.67-2.93) and the 6550m (600/800), not overclocked.
Driver version: 8.840.7.4000
Date: 6/13/2011
This was Acer's Driver.

If you guys have specific questions or requests, let me know. Will update again late tonight or tomorrow.

 

Is it possible to upgrade the graphics of TimelineX 4820TG?

 

No. They are soldered.

 

Playing skyrim (on external 1080p screen) it's clear that a little boost from overclocking the gpu could be welcome.

I've never investigated the limits of my 6550, so today I've done some test with OCCT:

Code:

Frequency:        GPU    MEM
Default:          600 /  800
Maximum:          770 / 1118 (without artifacts)
MaxGain:          170 /  318
MaxRatio:       28.3% / 39.7%

Assuming that overclocking 2/3 of maximum clean overclock is a safe value:

Code:

SafeFreq:     715  / 1012
SafeRatio:   19.1% / 26.5%

Do you think that these values are REALLY safe? knowing that the gpu is SOLDERED on the main board, I don't want any problem...

With 19.1% & 26.5% Frequency gain I have about 21%/23% gain in terms of FPS increment, that's good!
PS: sorry for my english, I'm not native speaker

 

Two-thirds of what you've confirmed to be artifact-free is perfectly safe (going even higher is too).
That said Skyrim is CPU dependent more than GPU dependent. To make it veen more complicated this engine (in a usual Bethesda fashion) uses only 2 cores- to annoy those with Core i7 720QM and other 4 core CPUs.

 

Yes I think that Skyrim is rather CPU-dependent but in my case:
Notebook graphics card, far slower than desktop cards, but i7 640m (fast dual core) is still the VGA the greater bottleneck IMHO

 

Yes that's probably true in your case- with that CPU you can't really blame it on anything but GPU, other users with slower Core i3s and i5s may have different experiences.
You can try higher clocks though-750MHz on the core should be fine with some room to spare if you've confirmed that 770MHz is still safe.

Upcoming drivers will most likely bring some improvements in terms of Skyrim performance too.

 

does anyone know why there are so many wires coming out of the mic socket board (4 wires)??
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
thanks

 

Do you think we will ever get driver updates for our cards? Or are people using the official AMD ones now?

 

Official drivers from Acer or AMD for switchable graphics- no these are not coming.
People are using modded drivers that sort of work. It's not ideal but better than nothing.

 

I am using latest drivers from amd, installed over the acer latest, they seems to work correctly (switching is OK)

To install latest AMD driver you have to deactivate vga switching by setting the card to amd only (can't remember the exact name of that menu voice) into the bios.

 

Anyone tried Assassin's Creed Revelations?

 

Wow, just got my SSD (intel 320 120gb, was 120$) today. These things are crazy fast. It only gets halfway through the "starting windows" boot animation and then goes BAM, DESKTOP!

 

Yea, I'll never use a laptop without an SSD again.

 

Yep I've tried the game. It can be a bit jerky sometimes. But overall performance was pretty good though.

Resolution - 1366x768
Environment detail - 5
Anti-aliasing - 4x
The rest - Maxed

OC'ed 670/970

 

Which driver are you you using? Acer or amd?

 

Dear all, my 4820G: i3 380, 4GB RAM (2 sticks), HDD 500GB Western Blue windows 7 64 bit. Since using 2 months, I have one issue => it hang randomly, only freezy, mouse can move but when click any app it hang, HDD LED is solid light. Only one way is hard power off

I using Office, Chrome( 5-10 tabs), back ground is Internet Download manager, NIS.

I read this thread, using QuietHDD, install newest driver, but can not solve this issue: 2-3 days using it freeze 1-2 times randomly.

Please help!

 

No Idea. I might try a fresh install of windows or try sending it in for repairs. I would hope it is some driver that didn't install correctly and not a HDD/RAM problem.

Also could be a program your not familiar with that has a memory leak in the background. I once used an acquired copy of PowerISO from a site and apparently it had a terrible memory leak and would freeze my comp. Once I found out and uninstalled it everything was fine.
Good luck.



Anyone try installing a higher resolution screen on this laptop yet? I would actually like to do that modification to mine and perhaps have 1600x900 or even something slightly less. The current resolution is just a tad bit too small for my taste after almost a year of using it (not a deal breaker though).

 

I just bought 4820T notebook and I want to know is this the best way to install latest ATI CM drivers? And what kind are these known bugs with the latest versions of Catalyst driver?

 

I had this problem and had to RMA the laptop. It was a chipset/SATA controller issue. Problem occurred with the stock HDD and an Intel 320 Series SSD, so I know it wasn't the HDD. Explained the entire situation to Acer and they replaced my motherboard. Haven't had the issue since.

Wish I had better news for you. Good luck!

EDIT: FYI, I have the 4820TG-7566.

 

Thanks all, now I've been testing with one stick RAM, it seem to be OK since 4 days. Continue test! If my lap is not stable with 2 sticks of RAM, I think it is a defect in IMC of CPU.

Any way I see 2 sticks of RAM is not the same, they are all Kingston but one have Elipda chip, another only have number symbol- doesn't have Elipda letter on chip.

 

I currently own the Timeline 4820TG -7085. Its in great condition and love it! However I am now in need of a Tablet for school (have my eye on a hp 2740p) and was wondering How much I should try and sell my timeline for on ebay? I tried finding others for sale, however apparently not too many people are interested in selling there beloved timelines.

Note: I am NOT trying to sell this tablet on this forum, I am merely asking for advice on trying to sell it elsewhere

 

Try an auction, expect $500 at the most. But you're really not too smart to be selling an awesome laptop for a tablet...

 

AMD 7000M series has been announced. If only this laptop can be upgraded to that caliber.

 

Thanks for the estimation!

And I agree.. I love this laptop! However Given my current financial standing (broke college student) and the type of work I am required to do It appears I have no choice..

 

Tablets are not as capable as laptops. Even tablets with keyboards.

There is no possible application for a tablet that I can imagine that would justify getting rid of a laptop for one.
Don't make that mistake.

Speaking of upgrades we can actually control, does everyone think drivers for windows 8 will be available?