Acer Timeline Ultra m5?

Same with the U2442N, apparently.

 

Would it be possible to overclock the GT 640M LE DDR5 gpu on this card to that of GTX 660 specs?
It appears that the core and architecture are pretty much the same with the exception of clock speeds.
If so, is there a way to flash the gpu to 650/660m or use an overclocking BIOS?

 

vacaloca, I'm just wondering what your battery life is like under Ubuntu 12.04 with the updated kernel and powertop? I'm currently debating between this and an x230/x220 for a portable workhorse but I'm mainly looking for 6+ hours of battery life.

Thanks

 

You're in luck... I actually had Ubuntu booted up today because I was updating the NVIDIA driver to the latest non-beta, and since my battery's charged I figured I'd give it a run, as I was not aware of powertop.

I just installed the ubuntu version of powertop -- sudo apt-get install powertop

I fixed a few tunables and it basically told me discharge was somewhere along the lines of 10.5-11.2W. This is with WiFi enabled and connected, and display backlight all the way up with no display dimming. Powertop estimates anywhere from 320-349 minutes of runtime, which is a bit shy of your 6 hours, but at least 5, if it's to be believed. I have not really tried any battery time testing under Linux yet, so that will have to do for now.

Edit: With display backlight set at 65.6% of total brightness, I get anywhere between 8.5W-9.5W of usage and 376-421 min of runtime. That's definitely above your 6 hour mark. However, bear in mind, if actively browsing using Firefox, these numbers change quite a bit. Firefox can do about 200+ wakeups/second, which translates up to 16-17W of usage.

 

Thanks again Currently debating between this Acer or an X220/X230 Thinkpad. Now to decide whether to go for the IPS panel or for the Kepler GPU...

 

Very good news!

Those numbers are great. 5-6 hours is better than the System76 Lemur Ultra (which does not have a ULV CPU like ours), but we do have dedicated video. It is also much better than what my 3810T gave me with Ubuntu 11.04. That version of Ubuntu had my first gen Timeline (3810T) idling at about 15-17w.

 

I've tried and returned a number of windows laptops, and I have a few questions about this one:

1) What's the heat like? The samsung I'm currently going through has a ton of keyboard heat when gaming especially.

2) Speakers? Are they super tinny like the Sony Vaio S's or more capable?

3) Overall graphics performance+fan. Does the fan run too loudly? The graphics should be comparable to vaio s right?

 

The Acer --- should --- run cooler, since the Vaio S uses regular laptop processors with 35w TDP, while the M5 uses a ultra low voltage CPU, with a 17W TDP. Lower TDP does not automatically means that the CPU will run cooler, but with similar heat dissipation, it should run cooler.

My computer has never felt really hot, but I have not used it intensely for gaming (YET).

The speakers are acceptable / good. Better than my old Timeline, for sure. However, they are nothing to write home about.

The graphics should be comparable to the Vaio S. The M5 might be even faster since the Vaio S with dedicated GPU has a higher screen resolution.

 

I just bought an M5-481TG-53316G52 over a month ago and am now looking for a fix on the brightness auto adjusting while on battery with power saving mode. I know this can be resolved by turning power saving mode off but is there any other way to fix this? Like is there an updated Intel video driver available which does not have this problem?

Thanks.

 

Just wanted to say, I opened up my m5 today to check for the cable and found nothing =(

 

I did a quick search and couldnt find any info, but does anyone know if you can mod the bios like the sony laptop with the 640le? If so I feel like this could be quite the gaming rig.

 

Mod the BIOS to do... ???

If you just want to overclock the card in Windows you can do that without modding the BIOS. Just use NVIDIA Inspector.

 

I noticed on the sony vaio s they used a bios mod for the gpu and were able to achieve clocks of 900mhz to 1ghz. Which is much higher than stock clocks. Are people able to get those numbers with this laptop and what scores (3dmark or games) are you guys getting? I'm really torn between this and the u2442n. This is a much cheaper option and I would most likely buy this if i can get pretty good fps in games.

 

1) I've played RE5, Dragon Age Origins, and Arkham Asylum (I started with older games that I haven't played) on this thing and yes it does get hot. However the spot that does get really hot is on the upper right side of the keyboard. The palm rests themselves doesn't get hot.

2) I love the speakers on this thing! While I can't say that it's comparable to a home theater system, it's still pretty decent. It's definitely not tinny. I rarely place the volume at max in my room. Usually I have my VLC at 100% while my laptop's volume will be at 50%.

3) What videocard doe the Vaio S have? The fan isn't that loud. Yes you can hear it when you're playing but the sound of the game is still louder than the fans.

Btw in my opinion Sony is overpriced. You can find other laptops with the same specs for a cheaper price

 

I jut order one M5, was the best option out there, now i have to sit and wait...

 

I had a sony vaio s 13.3 for a week. I loved it but the speakers were so bad they hurt my ears. Sounds like this one is better

 

I'm new here. i just saw this thread. lot's of solid info, much appreciated. any way, i just wanted to post some interesting information. I live in the US and just received my M5-581TG-6666 assuming it would come with the gt640m LE and i was fine with that but when i opened it, the sticker had no LE on it so i investigated a bit and it turns out it came with a full gt 640m i'll post pics. does anyone know why this is?

 

Sometimes manufacturers do refreshes of the same model with slightly better hardware -- the 4830TG saw 2 or 3 processor bumps, but they came with a different model number. My guess? They simply could get the 640M chips at a lower cost, and started replacing them for the 640M LE's on the newer production batches.

Consider yourself lucky. The VBIOS version in mine is older than the one on the screenshot you posted, so it makes sense that they indeed replaced the 640M LE chip with the 640M one. Where did you purchase it? How long ago? Does the outside box say it comes with a 640M rather than a 640M LE?

Do you have a different BIOS version? Mine is 1.02. If you do it'd be cool if you could dump a copy. I can advise on instructions on how to do this later on if this is the case.

Edit: Seems like others on the NewEgg review page are reporting receiving 640M's vs 640M LE's as well... boo for being an early adopter.

 

I just my computer, but thefanis really loud, but only when is in a flas surface, if I move it a bit then the noise stops, mmm any ideas what to do?

 

I think the 15 inch comes with full 640m and 13 inch has le, right?

 

Hey everyone,
I've tried to search for this everywhere (including this thread) and haven't found anything. I've got this laptop, and it's great, but I'm having connectivity issues with the Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 wireless card. It's just not connecting to certain routers and Acer has no idea what to do about it. It connects to other routers just fine, so it's not a lemon.

What little info I've gathered on this tells me other people have had trouble with this, does anyone here know if there's anything to do about this other than buy a USB wifi adapter? Maybe I can replace the wifi card with something more reliable? I've already mucked around with the drivers, adapter settings, and router settings, but I'm open to other suggestions. This is probably the best laptop I've ever owned, but this wireless card's a big disappointment, so if anyone knows something I can do, I'd really appreciate it.

 

I actually just got it last week from newegg. they displayed it with a 640m for a while then like 2 weeks ago it changed to the 640m le. the box says its a 640m. btw, nvidia just release a new driver for it and it drastically improved diablo 3. i think it's causing BF3 to crash but i wouldn't play BF3 on my laptop haha i installed it to see how it ran. the bios is 1.07, i just got it straight from acers website. I just noticed that cpu-z says the cpu is PGA... if so that would be sick to swap in an i7! i'll have to tear it apart to verify but i doubt it.

 

Woops, I misread, you have the 15 inch model, so I don't have to feel bad about being an early adopter yet, haha. They might not have done the same thing (at least yet) with the 14 inch one.

I replaced mine with an Intel 6230 because I noticed the signal reception was a bit poor in some cases -- Amazon.com: 6230 IEEE 802.11n (draft) Bluetooth 3.0 - Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Combo Adapter (Bulk): Electronics

I've used this card in 3-4 laptops and I don't think I've found any issues connecting to any routers with it.

 

I will send mine back for RMA, the fan is making weird loud and anoying sounds, but I played some DOTA 2, max settings and not even warm, i love it, i will have to wait another 10 days to have it back , damm you UPS, i know is your fault....

 

Fantastic! Now, would this void the manufacturer's warranty? Also, how does the performance of this card compare? I don't really care about going from Bluetooth 4.0 to 3.0, but I'd be willing to buy a more expensive card if the difference of performance is drastic (other than, you know, not working at all sometimes like the current one).

Thanks!

 

Doubtful. They won't know as long as you swap it back for the original if you need to send it in for warranty. At any rate, replacing any component on this laptop involves taking off all bottom screws and carefully lifting/prying top cover/keyboard. The WiFi card is relatively easy to replace as it's near the top of the cover where you lift it up from, so as long as you have someone else to hold the top cover at an angle, you don't even have to bother removing any ribbon cables.

Do exercise caution and take a look over at the service manual posted in the sticky regardless.

As far as performance goes, I can easily get speedtests at home up to 25 Mbps while on WPA2 wireless, same speed as connected directly to the router, so no issues there. The signal quality is definitely improved over the stock Atheros one. If you find another card worthwhile buying, by all means post back what is is. I liked this one because Intel updates their drivers very frequently and makes them available on their website.

There are certainly other WiFi cards that would work fine, but since we only get 2 antenna leads, it's pointless to buy a 3 antenna card unless you want to install/route an additional antenna cable -- and I don't think this is a viable choice given how little space is left in the case.

 

Sorry for bringing up a battery life question again.

How long can the m5 run on battery while doing web browsing, email, spreadsheets?

I am considering the m5 for my work plus it has discrete gpu for gaming during offtime.

 

I love that I haven't seen an Acer laptop with any kind of sticker / sensor / device that will inform the Acer technician that you opened the laptop. So upgrade it, and if you need warranty service, swap the original components back.

 

Just received my 14" today and it came with a 640M LE.

It was ordered from newegg on the 6th of August.


Seems like the 581 comes with the 640M and the 481 comes with the 640M LE.


Either way its a good machine so far.

-Mike

 

Hey guys,

My M5-581TG has started making some weird "bleep" "pliiiin" metallic sounds at random times. I've only had it for a week. Updated to latest drivers and everything. Should I be worried/thinking about RMA?

 

I did send my back beacuse a weird noise, better wait and having a better unit that being nhappy with an anoying noise

 

it can kinda play it. it really depends on how picky you are. i play on a gtx680 with a 4.0Ghz 8-core and a 120hz monitor so i'm extremely picky. i don't so much like to play it on my laptop because playable frame rates are at like low/medium settings. but it's really a personal decision for you. it can get laggy on bigger maps

 

alright i just tore into mine a little bit. didn't really get good pictures but i'll post some in a few weeks when i upgrade the SSD. mines the 15 inch and i looks very different. all the upgradable parts are facing the bottom.

 

I think its the disc drive. mine does it too. probably just a driver issue i wouldn't really worry about it

 

Hi guys,

I had the Acer for a day and instantly returned it due to this lovely noise.

 

As jayrab said, it's most likely the disc drive. It sounds like that sometimes when starting windows media player. Also, sometimes when returning from sleep.

No big deal for me.

 

Mine was different sound it was like the fan was loose, or somethign, but just in even surface if I tilted it the sound stops,

 

I've just bought the German version of M5-581TG. I have some problems with it.
1. It makes much more noise than I've expected, even at idle state. Is it common?
2. Right button on the touchpad is behaving like a camera shutter (2 "clicks") and protrudes over the rest. Is it possible to repair it at home, or must I send it back to Amazon?
3. Where can I get Diskeeper ExpressCache software? I've installed a clean, English OS, but there's no installer for this feature. I'm just waiting for Crucial M4 128GB mSATA, but I want to make a full review of "standard" M5 for one of the Polish IT websites.

 

Mmm if you tilt the computer do you still have that noise?

 

Still does the "pling" "bleep" sounds randomly. It can run PRIME for like 8 hours and not do any sounds, but at other random times, like when browsing, it does it. What the.. should I just send it back guys?

 

Don't think I have the other issues, but as for this one, you can get it from the drivers CD -- either create an image with the Acer tool, or locate the installer on the hard-drive, I forget what directory it is located offhand, but it is definitely on the factory hard drive, along with the rest of the drivers, including the Intel Rapid Start one.

 

Sweet i got a 100 dicount card from new egg, and the y shipped today,

maybe i will add a bigger SSD in the msata, fot OS and some aplications

 

That's a decent deal on NewEgg! Site says it expires 9/30.

 

I'm now more serious about getting another hd on my laptop so I'm resurrecting this question again. Please correct if I'm wrong but if I want to attach another hard drive to my m5 via an ODD bay and use it just as a data drive (I don't plan to boot from it) I won't have to remove the power management utility right?

 

Not sure if this is the place to post this or I should start a new thread.

I just bought the Acer Timeline M5 481TG w/640 LE . It worked fine for the first week but now all of a sudden when I try to skype or use the built in webcame software the camera turns on and off and a popup window will popup asking me if I want to install the software for the camera (almost like im physically unplugging it then plugging it back in). Sometimes it will stay on and be fine and then other time its consistently going on and off. The only thing I have done to the computer is remove some bloatware (nothing pertinent to the webcame software) and I added and 8gig stick of ram (which appears to be working fine). Does anyone have any suggestions?

On a side note: Those two ribbon cables that I removed in order to access the ram module....what did they do? I'm wondering if maybe I put them in semi-loose or something.

Thanks for any help
-Mike

 

My M5 keeps blue screening after a memory upgrade (8gig 12800) i have reformatted the msata to one partition 11gb. Any thoughts here? memtest is not giving me any errors... its a random blue screen at this point. Drivers seem to be up to date.

On Wed 10/10/2012 7:15:16 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\101012-12932-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x41790, 0xFFFFFA80005817F0, 0xFFFF, 0x0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

 

Make sure that you have set the correct type for the MSATA hibernation partition -- I posted a video earlier that mentions how to do it. Does it bluescreen only when attempting to sleep, or randomly? Did it happen before the upgrade? Try disabling deep sleep (intel rapid start) and see if you still bluescreen -- look for RapidStartConfig.exe to do it. (program may already be running and on your taskbar icons if you have installed the rapid start drivers) If problem goes away, try re-enabling it.

I did my RAM upgrade before I installed the rapid start software. If you already had it installed from stock, that might be the issue, and just might need to disable/enable to fix the issue.

 

Assuming you're talking about the two that are attached to the palmrest, those are the keyboard and keyboard backlight respectively, so it should be irrelevant to the webcam. I have not opened mine in a while, and I didn't notice where/how the webcam cable is routed, but you should check that you didn't pinch it when you screwed it back together. Service manual is on the sticky if you need pictures.. should give you a good idea.

Edit: looking at the service manual, it seems that webcam cable passes through the lvds connector on the display back to the motherboard. You might just want to send it to acer if the cable got pinched badly enough that you still keep getting issues. Replacing it doesn't seem terribly easy, not to mention you'd have to source the part as well.

If it is the same app version as the 4830TG series (you can compare installers on Acer's website), it might be that you do have to remove the app in order to not have the hard drive connected to the ODD slot turn off. Maybe try it out with a spare hard drive if you have one that you can borrow/source and see how it behaves.

 

Anybody figured out a good way to control fan noise on this unit? Obviously it's an ultrabook it will be using a lot of fan when gaming to not catch on fire, but other than setting passive cooling any way?

Also anyone feel a bit of small kick or vibration when moving the screen? Hard to describe.

 

Anyone install the newest Ubuntu (12.10)? If someone has done it? How is battery life (tweaked vs untweaked)?