Acer TimelineX 3820TG Owners Lounge. Info, benchmarks, tweaks, mods and upgrades

Fn + F3 for bluetooth...

 

thats for wireless isint it....?


edit: i dont think i have bluetooth.. not that it really matters to me..

 

how about u test some games and see if they freeze, crash and let us know xD

 

wait so artifact test/3Dmark06 arent enough....

 

well yes i guess its enough but he did say he gets ariftacts so i was wondering if games crash even though he gets arfitacts in atitool.

 

The Doc's one of my favourite players, sad to see him leave Toronto, but good to see him potentially have a chance at a Championship!

 

Nice dog

 

I tried installing my Corsair Force 160GB today, but windows will not find the drive when i try install windows. I even tried loading the 32/64bit AHCI drivers but windows install didnt like them.

Any ideas why windows wont see this drive? If i boot off a usb key with some dos utilities i can see the drive and even partition it. BIOS finds the drive too...

I tried another old 32GB ssd i had and it worked! So is it the corsair firmware?????

AHCI is turned on in the bios too.

Any help please.

Regards
Wes

 

Phillies are really deep in pitching this year. The rotation was incredible last week.

But I do digress.

Bronsky

 

I have a slight issue with my bluetooth device.

I was tethering with my iPhone the other day, so the bluetooth modules ended up in my network adapters. I decided to disable my WiFi while connected (Fn + F3), but that ended up disabling both my WiFi and my bluetooth connection.

When I re-enabled the WiFi connection, my bluetooth devices were no longer found in the device manager. I've rebooted, and they're still not back in their regular place. I've installed drivers too, but they can't find the device.

 

How did you "end up" disabling both? Did you actually set them both to off? And when you restart your unit, and hit FN + F3 do you get the wifi and BT grayed out? I would uninstall and reinstall launch manager and see if they reappear on boot up.

Bronsky

 

I think Launch Manager just turns off power to USB4, since it completly disappear when you disable it in LM, unlike if you disable it in inself, or disable WLAN (which is on Mini PCI Express Port 1). So there is more too unhide in the BIOS than the HM55-options?

 

i5 580m has been posted. Hopefully I will have it in a week. Also my atheros card is connecting nicely at 300 Mbps. Something my 6200 intel wifi card couldn't.

Will let you all know what this i5 580m QS can reach, I hope I can at least get 160BLCK. I doubt it will clock as high as my 450m, but that stock turbo of 3.33Ghz is a big step up from 2.66Ghz.

 

Have you noticed that the 460M CPU does not have the same bus as the 450M. That CPU may be unique in its ability to OC. I have seen nothing that can get the kind of % increases in speed. My 540M was OC'ing quite well before I took it swimming but it was still not getting the 30-40% OC that I was getting with my 450M. It will be interesting to see what you get. I just want my mother board back so I can get my unit together again. I miss the 13.3" display.

Bronsky

 

No idea. They both just disabled themselves.

I don't even have Launch Manager installed..

 

Than you have to press the button two or three times to switch through the options.

For Example:

Wlan off/ Wlan on / Wlan on and BT on and so on.

 

I installed the Launch Manager, and I had bluetooth disabled.

Weird. I didn't know Fn + F3 also controlled BT. A bit of a design fail IMO.

 

Anyone running a Corsair Force series, how did you get it to run on the 3820TG? Because unless i stick it on a desktop PC and turn SATA mode to RAID, the Corsair Force CANNOT be seen by windows install regardless of the machine its installed into Desktop/Laptop etc...

 

Ok guys im running out of options/ patience here. Well I ran O/C tests with ati tool and basically i thought i found clocks that dont show errors 670/1020 or 710/1020 but after 12 minutes without errors one stupid one pops up for a split sec. Now i tested clocks when gaming and game eventually freezes :/

Could it be the drivers ? how could I check driver version i have ? Gpu-z says 8.713.3.3000 but doesnt say if its 10.6, 10.7 or 10.8. I installed stock ones then as i remember i think i got 10.8 of amd website but when I tried to install them (switched to dedicated in bios) it would say driver doesnt need to be updated so it didnt update in the end. Does anyone have a stock, very first driver from acer when it was released. I swear my gpu could run much better than this and it didnt freeze

Plz help me out in here. Is there any tests I could run ? also my gpu doesnt switch automaticaly to integrated gpu when unpluged from mains(have to do it manually) i dont know if that has anything to do with the problem i have.

Edit: forgot to mention, when freezes occur the sound freezes too, i just had a split second freeze (soundfreeze) while being on firefox with clocks set. Makes me wonder possible that audio drivers have somethin to to with my gpu issues?

Thanks a lot.

 

Your issue sure sounds like a driver issue. Here are the original drivers from my 3820TG. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6481111-post1821.html I would not rule out sound drivers. If you're going to swap drivers I would take the trouble of uninstalling first.

Bronsky

BTW, the switching issues is normal if you're not using ePower.

 

Hi everyone, my 3820TG CPU fan is quite rattly and annoying and im sure it wasnt like this when i purchased it. I found some spare fans on ebay and i have purchased the workshop manual.

I've worked on laptops before, but is it quite easy to remove the motherboard to get to the CPU fan?

Any plastic bids break off when prying the top off etc??? Anything to look out for?

Thanks, its just that its easier for me to fix it that to send it back to Germany...

 

I'm running a Corsair Force F120 in a 4820TG without problems. Just replaced it with the stock HDD and that was it.
Is your Force at least recognized in BIOS? That could be a starting point for troubleshooting.

 

You've probably figured it out yourself by now. If not, see this thread that deals with underperforming SSDs in laptops with Intel Series 5 chipsets.

 

Thanks for the reply, i am returning the drive as the ONLY way to get it working was to put it into my desktop and turn SATA mode to RAID(no raid option on the 3820TG), otherwise it didnt work either.

I am returning the SSD for a refund as many people on the corsair site are complaining about the same problem. Corsair blames the mobo/sandforce-1200 as issues. However, i have 2 OCZ Vertex 2e 120GB and they are flawless.

They just pass the buck, so im send it back as fast as i can, its a can of worms!

Besides performance issues - i cant even install wondows on it :S.

OCZ Vertex 2e are far better because they just work.

 

Hey bronsky thanks a lot for this. Well i uninstalled the drivers (safe mode with driver sweeper) and installed the original. However had the PCI x1 issue so upgraded to 10.8 from the link hendrikson provided on the first page. Sadly the GPU issue is still there. 3 questions:

- is original driver 10.6? If yes where could i download version 10.7, maybe that would help.

- is it possible that its windows ultimate x64 fault for my gpu issues? '

- it makes me think that gpu might be damaged however i can play just fine with default clocks and get no arfitacts, so how is it that I get them now? Im running bios 1.13.

again thanks a lot for all the help

 

Hi guys,
Have any of you tried the intel 6250 wireless card in this? Or would it kill battery? Would I be better with the intel 6200/6300? Also has anyone in Europe bought one and where did you get one? I keep finding engineering samples....I did find one on the dell site would I be safe with that?

 

10.6 is the original driver. Google ati catalyst 10.7 i'm pretty sure lots of sites have it on their archives (i'm personally using 10.7a one with hotfix for SC2), try guru3d.com per se. With the x1 issue, it's just a matter of unticking the ati powerplay option in ccc. Do you have the acer power management software installed? If yes, then this is what's defaulting your ati to run on x1 instead of x16 and you get the hassle of always having to untick the powerplay for better game performance. Without acer power management installed, you'll have your ati working at default clocks 550/800 even after reboot or shut down.

 

Ah cool, I have just realized the huge possibilities of using 580m in our laptops. Since it's the memory / BCLK which is the problem, using this processor with just BCLK 160 (which is stable for almost everyone) would mean 3200 stock with 4000!!!! turbo. But I don't think it would be stable, but at least, there would be no BCLK or memory problem. I am so much looking forward to your results.

 

It's like that in all laptops I have ever seen. Cycling behaviour without installed apps, GUI options with installed app.

 

Write to Corsair! It's clearly not a problem with your 3820TG, it's a problem on their side. There should be a firmware fix or something.

 

Thats what I'm hoping for But even if I get over 3Ghz in dual core mode and say +3.7 turbo I will be happy.

 

PCI x1 is an issue of the old old driver, which only Bronsky and Hendrickson seen. Don't use that driver.

Clean everything then uninstall the driver from control panel then driver sweep in safe mode then install 10.6. You can upgrade from that point, but I would suggest using 10.6 for some time, as it's known to be stable.

And hack don't forget that you are OVERCLOCKING. That's the way it is. You end up with overheating, artifacting, restarting BSOD-ing systems, till you learn a bit about it. That GPU and memory in your machine was sold as a HD5650 because it's only garanteed not to have artifacts at stock frequencies! I still have a ram in one desktop, which was a DDR 800, but it couldn't run not even at 803 or 804 Mhz! But at 800 it has been running since 3 years!

 

Please don't say things which are not true.
With the x1 issue, it's just a matter of unticking the ati powerplay option in ccc. - not true, it's a driver issue

Do you have the acer power management software installed? If yes, then this is what's defaulting your ati to run on x1 instead of x16 and you get the hassle of always having to untick the powerplay for better game performance. - not true, again it's a driver issue. Powerplay does nothing on AC.

Without acer power management installed, you'll have your ati working at default clocks 550/800 even after reboot or shut down. - not true Default clocks are 100/150 both on AC and DC.

 

thanks alot for replies guys. I forgot about guru3d, downloading 10.7 catalyst now. I wanna see how it performs. Btw they have 10.9 release but it says mobility isnt yet supported in the release and will be in few months.. Managed to find working clocks on 10.8 which are 680/1000 this gives me a 3dmark06 of around 9k, so not that bad.

I cant get acer power managment software to wrok so it switches gpus automatically. Do you guys install it before or after driver installation? Any way to go into options and make it switch automatically ?

Cheers

 

I was using the Acer ATI Driver w/10.7 when my unit decided to go swimming. I may still have it on the hard drive of my home computer. I'll check tonight.

Bronsky

 

My OEM I5-540M was able to get to a base clock of 3.0 and turbo to 3.6-3.7 so I would guess even an Engineering Sample should be able to make it close to 4. I'll cross my fingers.

Bronsky

 

I would stay away from ePower management ... I disabled mine. It was shutting down my wifi card almost randomly.

Bronsky

 

Not true.
Who the heck would want to have an ati 5650 clocked to 100/150 by default? I guess you do That won't even play a decent 3d game. I bet you also have installed acer power management on your notebook that's why your default ati clocks are at the lowest. Oh well, whichever way you want, it's your notebook!

 

Even without Acer's ePower management, my GPU clocks idle at 100/150 and x1. As soon as there is demand, they immediately go to the max clock that they are set at, even the OC'd one and up to x16.

Bronsky

 

I'll stand on my point.
But i'll respect yours, so peace.

 

bronsky so do u use anything instead of acer power manager? Or whenever you go into battery mode u switch your gpu manually?

Btw dont look for 10.7 drivers, got them of guru3d.

Ok everyone im officialy giving up on that will to have stable clocks at around 670/1080 area but i think i came to some sort of conclusion.

I tried all the driver option there are but none of it worked, the issue is still there. I only was trying so hard as i remember playing and using higher clocks and everything worked fine, however i never ran AtiTool tests so maybe the arfitacts were there but as it was a brand new unit the fans were clean, and apparently thermal paste acer puts on is crap so I've decided to use the clocks i have now. And when i will be upgrading to i7-640m, keyboard mod and swap to momentus xt will clean the fans and apply diamond paste and im quice certain that i'll be able to play just fine.

I think it might be accually the temps on either GPU, CPU or AHCI, that cause the freeze cause some guy in hendricsons bad comapny2 video says " i forgot one thing... When i play bfbc2 for a few hours my pc freezes completely and gets hot. Is there any solution for that..." . this made me sorta relax and give up on it and as i've noticed my laptop temps are higher than they used to be. I guess i'll wait until i get i7 and paste to do that, untill then using 680/1000 clocks.

btw is it hard to take the bottom part of the laptop to get into fans ?
bronsky when is your 3820tg mobo coming back ?

Thanks a lot for everyones help in this one. Let me know what u think

 

I switch the GPU manually. You can't really get acces to the fans from the bottom. You have to separate the unit and pull the motherboard. It really is not that hard to get the motherboard turned over so you can change paste and blow out fans. The paste will make a difference in temps. I noticed a significant difference and if you look at my pics, the factory paste only had about 25% surface contact. IC Diamond covered 100%.

My motherboard has taken 3 weeks so far ... . I'm still waiting to hear when it will be done. I think they have to replace the HM55 chip which was shorted, probably by the water conducting power between circuits. I'm still wondering how a chip in the middle of the motherboard shorted out first when the water would have hit in the area of the power switch and the battery initially and passed through the clockgen, GPU and CPU before it got to the level of the HM55?

Bronsky

 

Please as I asked, don't say bulls*. Just read about it before!

 

Hi there,

I'm a student and looking for a notebook.
I can't decide between Asus U35 (~850$) and Acer 3820TG.

My main issues are:
1. Battery life. how is the battery life at acer's models? (i3/i5)
2. Weight. They both 1.8kg, but how's acer weight with the 9-cell?
3. GPU. Asus has optimus, how's the ATI doing that switching? is that a manual?
Anyway, i would like to have an option to game a little on the machine so for 150$ i'll get much better GPU.
4. Acer have BT which the Asus U35A1 doesn't.
5. Warranty - how much does it cost to get from acer 2 year warranty, and is it global-wide?

I would like to hear what do you think.. thanks in advance!

 

Some clarification about GPU switching:
It's done by the driver, not by Acer power managment.
If you install the stock 10.6 Acer driver on a clean or driver sweeped + driver uninstalled windows, it will work out of the box.
For any other way, go figure out how to make it work.

 

If you plan on gaming, get the Acer with HD5650. If not, get the Asus.

 

1. Around 5-6 hrs with wifi on minimum brightness areo disabled etc. With wifi off you could get 7-8hrs if u lucky. With 9call im sure you would get around 10-11 hrs. However 9cell lifts up the laptop.
2. Around 2.1 or 2.2 kg (maybe less not sure)
3. You can do it manually or it does automatically when unplugged/plugged into mains. You cant go wrong with gpu in 3820tg as long as its 5650, gives you very good performance ingame.
4. Some models of 3820tg have BT some dont. Mine dont, but i think there should be a connector so i can manually upgrade.
5. Not sure i think its 2yrs and i think it is world wide.

Personally i wouldnt change my 3820tg for anything, has superb performance plus ill be upgrading to i7 later on and some ssd. You wont find better laptop in this size, performance, and battery lasting. Well thats ofcourse if they release a new model like 3290tg or smtng but it doesnt look like it anytime soon.

Hope that clears some of the things up. Make a wise decision so you dont regret it later xD

 

Yes ... the driver changes the GPU from dedicated to integrated but there seems to be a bug (even in 10.6) that prevents the dedicated GPU from switching to the Integrated GPU when ePower is disabled. Hendrickson and I both noted it when we had 10.6 installed and no ePower management. There is a discussion of this somewhere in this thread.

Bronsky

 

If you compare I3 to I3 models, the Acer 3820TG and the Asus U35JV are the same price. The higher price on the Acer is probably for an I5 (which I would recommend) but for that price you are not only getting a better GPU but you are getting a better CPU as well.

Bronsky

 

Thank you all for your answers!

About the CPU - if i choose the i5 model, does it eat more battery than the i3? Will it still work for 5-6 hours with WIFI on?
I also checked Acer website and it says they give 1 year warranty, the 3820TG model is not listed yet if you want to expend it.. guess i'll have to check with my local retail store..

Can you please recommend on a specific 3820TG sub-model that has BT and recommended i5 CPU?

Thanks again!