Acer Aspire TimelineX 5820TG Review + discussion.

Np I reckon your screen brightness keys still work too? Looks like 11.1 fixed all these. Too bad it doesn't carry any significant card performance boosts.

 

Brightness key adjustment works just fine. Everything is nice and shiny now

I havent tested the performance yet, but at the moment I'm just happy to solve this problem. It really drove me crazy

Gonna run some test tonight with Starcraft II that I'm currently playing.

 

In case someone else will be looking for these drivers here is the link to the forum post. You need to download the ATI Mobility drivers.
AMD Catalyst 11.1 (Official WHQL) Download & Discussion - Guru3D.com Forums

Got my brightness keys to work on ATI 5470, however it seems to have broken Switchable Graphics. I can't say for sure, as I've been doing lots of experimentation with graphics drivers and I may have broken it way before that.

Cheers!

 

Good post mate! Well in!!

I forgot to share a link with the working drivers for me which I found on that Acer forum in all my exitement. Tnx for sharing that with the whole forum mate!

 

Here's the 5820T/G service guide manual:

here

Useful if you want to swap out for a different brand of LCD but don't know which ones are compatible, among many other things.

 

Thanks jerg! I wish I had this 5 months ago when I first opened up my notebook.

 

Appreciate that one mate! Might be very useful

 

By the way... what Idle temps do you guys get with Hwmonitor? And under load with gaming?

I get idle core0: 30c, core 2: 22c (Core i5 430m) Load: core0: 77c core2: 73c (playing starcraft 2)

Gpu idle: 35c Load: 75c

Ok readings? Or to high?

 

very low! geez what are your ambient temps??

on idle @ i get (i5-520)
core0: 45c
core2: 45c
gpu: 45c
wd hd: 35c

when i play l4d2 (stock clocks) my temps skyrocket to (max temps here)
core0: 93c
core2: 92c
gpu: 87c
wd hd: 39c

overlocked to 700/1050 after 1 hr of playing l4d2
core0: 97c
core2: 94c
gpu: 91c
wd hd: 38c

this is with an ambient of 25c (summer right now in australia) and on a single 15cm fan cooler

 

Idle: usually 28~34 C for CPU (i5 460M) cores, almost always 40 C for GPU.

Gaming with GPU OC to 715/1040: CPU usually rises to 80~85 C, GPU around 75 C I guess?

 

My surrounding temprature is 25c (in the living room). It's winter time still in Norway (like -5c outside), but I dont like it cold inside

I did also measure the temp during last summer (+28c outside) with same surrounding temp and got similar readings.

Might have to do something with the lower clocked i5-430m perhaps...

 

Does anyone know where I can find this laptop's keyboard in Portuguese layout (Acer's Part No.: KB.I170A.163) in the European Union?

On ebay they only have UK's or US's layout.

 

Hi everyone,

So I recently purchased an Acer TimelineX 5820TG-6406

you can see more detailed specs over here:
Acer AS5820TG-6406, Notebook - Intel Core i5-480M 2.66GHz, 15.6" LCD, 6GB RAM, 640GB HDD, AMD Radeon HD 6550 1GB, DVD-RW, Wireless BGN, Bluetooth, HDMI, Webcam, Windows 7 Home Premium | Canada Computers

So yeah... everything is running great, except one strange thing....
Every time I hit a function key (F1 to F12) the computer lags for about 1 whole second where everything stops including the mouse cursor. It even happens when I'm just viewing the desktop...

During games, the problem seems to only happen to some keys (for example F5 in Heroes of Newerth). I tried to bind in-game shortcuts to the F5 key, and the game just lags, ignores the input, and continues asking me to bind a key to the specified action. All the other F keys work just fine in this case....

So I'm wondering if there's some sort of strange macro that a particular pre-loaded software is applying, constantly... Anyone ever run into this issue?

Let me know what I should provide so you guys can better analyze the issue.

Thanks in advance!

***EDIT***

Okay so it seems like when I press and hold the F keys, the lag will persist UNTIL I lift my finger.... in game, I held it for about 5 seconds and it completely froze my computer..... like seriously, what the hell can do this to me?!

 

Nope have never experienced that F key lagg error.

About games, try upgrading your graphics driver (read about this futher up in the thread) And upgrade you bios from Acers hompepage.

 

I recon it's a lot more action in the 3820tg thread. What's with all and small crappy screens? Never figured out that one. PPL gotta love Crap-screens? :-O

 

I'm working on building a HTPC based on laptop parts, and I've picked up a motherboard for the 5820TG on ebay, and I've also bought a CPU and charger for it, but now it turns out that the motherboar I've bought does not seem to have a connector for the external powersupply on the board, does anyone have a picture of how it's supposed to look, and know where I can buy the nessecary parts?

edit:
Just to clarify the part I'm looking for is this:

http://www.westminsterlaptoprepair....g-laptop-dc-power-jack-repair-replacement.htm

edit 2:

Came across a website that sells some parts. Is this what I need?

http://www.zandparts.com/acer/index.php?cPath=139443_561_562_171735_188185_188204

 

New BIOS, 1.23:

 

@ kei0520

I'm about to get the exact same model also from CanadaComputers.

What score do you get with the 6GB ram included and do you know what ram brand is used by Acer?

I'm planning on upgrading to a 500GB Seagate XT once I get the laptop and maybe better ram like Kingston/Corsair/Mushkin if the included ram is some off brand generic stuff like Nanya, etc (Samsung/Hynix is fine).

Thanks,

 

All timelineX models I've opened has had either hynix or samsung RAM.

 

Why is the 5820TG thread not getting much love, compared to the 3/4820s?

(Maybe it's because we encounter the least problems with our machines, and are the most satisfied, and thus negate the incessant need to post? Ha ha)

Bump.

Anyway my RAM is Samsung.

 

It's because the 3820TG is unique, there is no other 13" with better/same GPU. Also the dual cooling systems makes it VERY cool under load, which is nice if you game a lot - and yes it's an pretty capable gamer machine, that also offers portability and battery life.

 

anyone updated the drivers to 11.3??

also , should i install windows 7 service pack 1?

 

Until Acer releases newer switchable/Intel drivers, you better not. The latest version of the switchable drivers as of today on the acer site containts the blacklisted Intel driver.

 

Switching works fine for me with sp1. Albeit, it has never "fully" worked. Sometimes it just fails to switch, and gets permanently stuck.

 

It is not a problem about switching itself, but rather about the Intel driver that comes with the switchable drivers -- it can cause graphical corruption and a bunch of other issues under SP1. See You do not have the option of downloading Windows 7 SP1 when you use Windows Update to check for updates ("Method 4") and compare to the version you're using.

 

I managed to pick up a 5820TG-6406 with the 6550M. Unfortunately, only a 6-cell battery. Does anyone know the OEM Acer Part Number for the 9-cell battery that is compatible with the 5820TG?

 

BT.00907.013 BATTERY 9-CELL LI-ION 9000MAH - SIMPLO AS10E 3S3P MAIN COMMON ID:AS10E7E
BT.00903.014 BATTERY 9-CELL LI-ION 8400MAH - SANYO AS10E 3S3P MAIN COMMON ID:AS10E36
BT.00907.015 BATTERY 9-CELL LI-ION 8400MAH - SIMPLO AS10E 3S3P PANASONIC MAIN COMMON ID:AS10E76

=D mine came with the 9 cell battery, and I looked up the part number on the acer website for you! good luck getting one or just ebay it off.

 

This might stupid question, but how to use card reader? I have inserted mine SD card, but nothing happened.

 

It should have worked. Make sure that drivers for card reader are installed and that the card itself is OK.
Although I've seen cases of cards that stopped working in card readers but still worked fine inside the camera- no idea why.

If you have another card- check if it works.

 

The CPU clock speed is locked at 2.6 whenever I'm plugged. Even with high temperatures it doesn't go down. (around 90ºC)

Idle temperatures (with dedicated gpu on) are around 50ºC
And when playing minecraft for example the temperatures go up to 90ºC
It doesn't happen all the time however.

I'm pretty sure this isn't normal. The fan is working.
Should I try to format and install os + drivers?

 

Make sure you're using a balanced power-profile and that in details of this profile both min and max CPU speed are not set to 100%.
It should be min 0% and max 100%.

 

Hi folks, sorry if this has already been covered.
I recently tried to run a video converter package which told me my display driver needed updating.
So I went to the Acer site and downloaded the most recent driver from there - AMD 8.741.1.6.
When I ran the Catalyst setup I got a message something along the lines of "the program was already on my computer". No real problem that far.
Then I went to driver details and saw it still had the old driver so I tried to update the driver. In the middle of that the screen went blank and didn't come back.
I did a safe reboot and restored my computer to an earlier time and I seem to be OK for now but HOW DO I correctly update my driver without the same happening?
I must say there were several .inf files available - perhaps I just picked the wrong one - how do I know which is the right one?
Thanks

 

Follow-on form my last post. I went to 3dguru and downloaded that new catalyst programme, installed it but STILL only had my OLD driver.
I read somewhere about changing the installation using Control panel; well 1/2 way through that the screen went blank and I was UNABLE TO REPAIR my laptop. I attempted to repair from disks and that too was unsuccessful because the erestore seemed to freeze at about 15%. After many hours of attempting anything and everything I came across a program called Paragon Repair Kit and I am currently several hours into copying my important files/docs onto a separate harddrive before I try to see if that program can also maybe restore my computer to working state.
If anyone has some useful input please share it - not least how on earth one gets these bloody drivers to successfully install!!!
Thanks

 

I have dithering issue as well. But the interesting part is that it starting to occur after several OS re-installation. I never had it before. One of side effects of is that there isn't pure black in any game, only darker shade of gray. This is most noticeable in games based on UE, such as BioShock or most recently Bulletstorm. Will Acer repair it?

 

Hallo,

i would like to change keyboard in my Acer 5820tg.
Will work backlit keyboard from 5810T ?

 

Hi all,
I got an Acer 5820TG in Germany as it was on sale. It came with win7 HP but I installed the English Ultimate version at home and now no matter what driver I try off the Acer website it will not recognize my wifi card. The device manager lists an unrecognized network controller but how can I find out what wifi card I have and get the right driver for it? With the German win7 wi/fi worked but I didn't think of checking the driver. Any help will be appreciated. TX!

 

Does anybode know what kind of RAM the 5820TG has? Going to upgrade to 8 gig, but dunno if I should get 1333 MHz (CL9) or go for 1066 MHz (CL7).. I have the i5 450M processor...

Tried searching but couldnt find any info :/

 

Either way it's going to be the same thing. 5820TG is limited to 1066MHz so if you buy 1333MHz CL9 modules these will work @ 1066MHz with reduced latency of 7.
So buy the cheaper one- you're going to end up with modules working at 1066MHz CL7 anyway.

 

Ah, I see.. Guess I'll go for the 1066 MHz modules then. But is there a big difference between 1333 and 1066? And isnt it possible to use the extra MHz by going into BIOS or something?

 

Is there an easy way to get to the fan? I'd like to do some cleaning, since I suspect dust have build up due to higher core temps on cpu.

I flipped the comp to the back side, and removed a lot of the screws there. But seems I only get access to the HD, lan card, ram etc that way. The Fan and Heatsink are still hidden under the main plastic cover..which will not come loose.

Lame that it's not an easy way to get to the fan. Cause after some time it's normal to do some cleaning of dust.

What to do? How to I get to the fan? Hope I wont be forced to disassemble the whole comp to get to it??

Any suggestions?

 

The original Western Digital I had on this laptop broke down (no doubt because of the excessive default agressive parking policy), so I decided to replace it with an SSD.

A warning for those who might be thinking to do the same: there's some kind of rubber under the SATA connector that allows 2.5 HDDs but _prevents_ most 2.5 SSDs from fitting in. I am not sure why exactly that piece of rubber is there for. But it is glued to the chassis. So to remove it you will need to _cut it_.

I also had to fully disassemble the laptop because it was too hard to cut otherwise.

 

Well I did some cleaning with a dust off can. Sprayed it into places near the heatsink and fan. Also every plastic sprinkle. Removed the battery while playing.

When playing SC2 the cpu temp dropped from a peak of 95c to 88. Gues thats not to bad when playing SC2. Idle cpu temp is 30-35c.

 

sorry for bringing back this thread from the deadpool. anyone have any thoughts on whether the screen can be upgraded? wondering if i can put in something better than 1366*768 and non-glossy.

thanks!

 

You can put a non-glossy display but not one that is of higher resollution since this notebook uses a single LVDS line.