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

It's alright - I won't be swapping the CPU out or applying new paste for a few months just to guarantee I have no issues that require the warranty. Hell, if Sandybridge is somehow groundbreaking, I'd likely just sell it and upgrade - I can wait a few months with the current cpu at 2.8Ghz. At least I assume that opening it up would tamper with things that void a warranty (even through it shouldn't imo). 90C is pushing it for the i3's. At the very least, I'd like to replace any paste and pads with the better stuff I've got but again - potential warranty issues if any problems arise.

I also have not yet seen any screen flickering at any brightness setting, Intel or ATI graphics, on battery. Screen is an LG. Better than the screen I had in a UL30VT but there is still noticeable brightness differences top to bottom when looking at it dead on. Screen's got a blue hue that I haven't touched yet, noticeable when sitting next to my other screens.

Edit:
Oh, I never saw any throttling at 89C but I didn't do a performance test - I was only watching cpu-z, the cpu temperature (solid), and running IntelBurnTest. Normal tasks, I would assume that I wouldn't go over 85C since IBT always runs things much warmer than other tasks, including encoding and whatnot.

Also, I think the ambient temperature was around 21C.

 

For anyone interested, Staples Canada has the i5-430/5470 3820TG on sale for $680CDN until the 26th.

 

Is there anything I can do to keep the processor cooler? Pretty warm just by FM 11 Demo.

 

Hey Bronsky!

As I remember You too were "rumbling" about the possible SXPS refresh, they became available in the US with 14" - 560M - GT 420M/425M.

Sorry for the OT.

Edit: BTW, does anyone know how the HD5650 performs compared to the GT425M?

 

They should be at the same level... more or less of course

Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

HD5650 is a bit better in most of the games. See here for HD5650 and here for GT425M.
While looking at the benchmarks of HD5650 keep in mind that the average scores are lowered by Sony, Toshiba and HP underclocked HD5650 (450MHz core) so look at the individual scores rather than at the average ones.


EDIT: Ponjornoh²³ types faster

 

Hello. I get an error message while installing the "Intel HD Graphics driver". It says:

"The driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropiate driver from the computer manufacturer. Setup will exit."

I used the download link from the first post.

What can I do?

Thanks.

 

The new XPS units are just the Studio line rebranded. As far as I can see, you can't configure the 14 with the GT425M unless you select a quadcore CPU. So, if you want a dual core arrandale, you're stuck with a GT420M. Not quite the SXPS 13 replacement I was hoping for. But, then again, I've lost any confidence I ever had in Dell products.

Bronsky

 

Same dissapointment here...

 

Can anyone point me in the direction of the latest GPU-driver? Neither Intel Media Graphics Accelerator or AMD Catalyst work.

 

Ive got a really anoying issue with touchpad lag after typing on keyboard. It seems like there is a 1sec delay from pressing keyboard key while i can accually use touch pad. Any1 knows how to fix that ? thx

 

I remember reading in one of the earlier pages that it had to do with the sensitivity of the touchpad (as in a feature to prevent accidentally touching the touchpad). So it might be fixed in the mouse settings somewhere.

EDIT:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/501992-acer-3820tg-north-america-purchase-options-60.html

second post

 

Anybody?

Bronsky

 

@ Bronsky sorry no Idea.

Intelburn test temps on my i5 580m after a few runs as requested a few pages back.



Did reach 90 degrees before the fan boots in at full speed then it sits around 86. No real difference form my prime95 test.

 

@Hendrickson:

You're the God with this laptop. Can you please help me so I get optimal graphics? I can't find the proper drivers and I have HDMI lag.

 

Hope this helps.....The AMD ATI FirePro M5800 is a upper middle class mobile workstation graphics card with DirectX 11 support. It is based on the Madison chip (Mobility Radeon HD 5600/5700 series). Using certified drivers, the OpenGL performance of the M5800 should be significantly better than compareable consumer 5700 cards.
ATI FirePro M5800 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

Looks like the Firepro M5800 is the closest to it - It's based on the Mobility Radeon HD 5730

Comparison of AMD graphics processing units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - scroll down about 4/5 of the way...


LOL - dbaby beat me by 3 minutes.

 

Thanks to the both of you. As soon as I can get a new unit delivered, I want to give this a try. I've seen gaming performance improved on professional GPUs my using gaming drivers. I'm going to try the reverse.

CenDirect is supposto get 36 units tomorrow and has 26 sold already. 65 units are scheduled for arrival on the 25th. Still waiting for my bank to tell my why my debit card does not work with paypal on the PCHome site. Hopefully, I'll get an order placed sometime this week.

Bronsky

 

Short of buying a Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-540M Arrandale 2.53GHz 3MB L3 Cache PGA988 35W Dual-Core Mobile Processor Model BX80617I5540M for the 3820tg, we're stuck with the i3 option? I've been following all your rants on these laptops for a few months now and I think I'm going to have to buy the 4820tg and save the $200+ on the cpu upgrade. I could toss that money into an SSD or a Seagate Momentus deal. Should I bother waiting around for a 3820tg i5 option? Is it available out of eu/asia with that configuration?

 

I have been really reading into it at guru3d and here, and one of the few cards which could work @FirePro is a HD5650. Obviously, it would mean switching into Discreet, and you would loose things like DXVA and powerplay and something else, but if you are into it, I think it's possible. I just don't have a tri-boot windows for playing with it. If you need, I could dig up the threads. One is from guru3d / rivatuner, other is from here somewhere. And I think the acceleration still doesn't work in all applications, I think it has problems in maya, but it's better than nothing.

 

PCHome in Taiwan sells I5/5650 versions of the 3820TG and ships to the US. PChome¥þ²yÁʪ« - 3C À]º¶ I am considering an order from there. BTW, the currency is NTD (New Taiwan Dollars) and use google chrome to visit the site because it can translate automatically. I already have an I5-540M so I will be ordering an I3 model. I haven't decided if I am ordering from PCHome or a Canadian Retailer.

Bronsky

 

Yes, HD5650@stock is about the same as 425M@stock, but we know for sure that HD5650 cards do 9500-10000 points in 3dmark when overclocked, but no one knows how will the 425M OC.

BTW, have you realised that the 15" model will have the 1920 screen as an option but not the 17? And that the 15" model will have an option of a 3 GB videocard??? I don't get it, seriously, not even desktop 480M has 3 GB ram... And no 580M or 640M models at all...

Specs:
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/3983/specs.png

A little bit off, but if you bookmark this in Firefox or maybe internet explorer, it works as the Chrome translate.

Code:

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Thanks - that's great stuff. If you can get the link easily, that would be nice.

I think the Dell reorganization into 3 consumer product lines was smart. There has been no real plan for Dell's consumer notebooks since the Alienware acquisition. The XPS line is a decent start. The specs are somewhat odd though. Dell will not let you configure the GPU's with the 2-3gb VRAM unless you also select an I7QM CPU. I'm not sure why this is necessary. IMO the 14 and 17 models are not properly configured. The 15" looks interesing if I was looking for something in that size with a decent display. I like the 1080p display option.

Bronsky

 

Updated numbers - all idle, I get the following idle power draws/runtimes. I let the numbers settle but of course the hard drive would turn on and screw up the readings every now and then.

Hardware was enabled/disabled in the device manager - not uninstalled. Some notebook/UMPC computers gain battery life doing this, especially for Bluetooth. My system does not have BT so I did not test it. All drivers are still stock as they came from the factory. Power settings are setup with max/min brightness and no other different configuration settings from the Windows 7 "balanced mode" setting.

3650mW 17:29 runtime
Cam disabled, wifi disabled, RJ45 disabled, display off

5389mW 11:50 runtime
Cam disabled, wifi disabled, RJ45 disabled, brightness min

5432mW 11:43 runtime
Cam enabled, wifi enabled/not connected, RJ45 enabled, brightness min

5551mW 11:24 runtime
Cam enabled, wifi enabled/connected to router, RJ45 enabled, brightness min

6728mW 9:30 runtime
Cam enabled, wifi enabled/connected to router, RJ45 enabled, brightness max

Losing next to nothing with the Atheros wifi connected but idle, there is little reason to ever turn wifi off unless you have applications running that will continuously check for updates. With a 1.2W draw from min to max brightness, the brightness setting on these displays impacts battery life very little when you're actually using the system and keeping power draw up a little from these idle figures. We can only hope for bigger benefits in display brightness in the near future as LED efficiency continues to increase at its current rapid pace.

 

I'll try again. No answers?

 

nevermind.

 

I am currently on the beta 10.10 Catalyst drivers. Works perfectly fine.

 

!! Bernard, did you first uninstall the previous catalyst and then install 10.10 or did you install 10.10 directly over the previous version?

 

i got a VERY BAD SCORE HERE PLS HELP :'(


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

The problem is that the catalyst drivers do not always work correctly on everyone's unit. The Acers seem to and support the switchable graphics drivers for the IGPU as well. When I had straight catalyst drivers on my unit, it would not pass GPU certification for one of our modeling programs.

Bronsky

@len888 looks like your 3DM06 scores are not that bad.

 

okay =/
but i saw Hendrickson on the first page/author of this thread, he got like 9k+ of 3dmark06..
i tried to download and install ati catalyst 10.10 driver with no succes..
as i believe someone told me you can only download/install the ati driver from acer.com isnt that true?
pls help and give me the url download link for 10.10 thanks so much

 

What resolution you are using for 3dmark06 ?

 

the settings on 3dmark06 is 1280x1024
but currently im using external monitor which has the resolution of 1400x900
should i redo the test without using my external monitor?

 

Yeah, since most likely the 1st post is running at 1280x768...

 

I just received my 3820TG and installed an SSD in it and did a clean install of windows 7 ultimate 64bits.

I am currently trying to install the graphic drivers and having a lot of issues. I tried following the step by step Hendrickson wrote but to no avail.

I installed the ATI VGA drivers first then tried the intel drivers (the ones on the site only try to install a turbo boost?) and then the ATI cataclyst drivers. When i try installing them i get the "your product is not supported" message and thats following the link directly.

Would any one be able to help me out? How am i supposed to find out which network card etc i have in my laptop after doing a fresh install? I shouldve verified them first before i re-installed windows.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hmm, I remember having difficulties updating from the 10.6 stock to 10.8. But I can't remember if it was because I was trying to install the desktop drivers.

But in any case, after I updated from the Acer 10.6 to standard 10.8 Catalyst, I was able to update to the beta 10.10 without a problem.

 

Looks fine to me.

Make sure you're in discrete graphics mode. You have to enable it in your BIOS. Then make sure the drivers you're installing are indeed the MOBILE Catalyst, and not the regular ones.

Secondly, on the bottom of your laptop should be two stickers that detail which bluetooth module and which WiFi card you have.

 

Thank you. I am going to uninstall all the drivers and start from scratch.

So to recap:

- change the bios settings to enable discrete graphics mode.
- install the ATI VGA drivers
- install the Intel VGA drivers
- install the Cataclyst beta 10.10 drivers.

Is that correct? and should i install the Cataclyst control center?

 

No. First, make sure you have an up-to-date bios. Then install the ATI VGA drivers. If you use the latest version, you should have an updated ATI and Intel GPU driver on your system. If that is the latest one from the Acer site ... leave well enough alone. If you insist on installing the 10.10 drivers you can let the AMD Calalyst auto-install. Make sure they're mobile drivers. If they don't work for you, just roll back to the Acer drivers.

Bronsky

 

Sorry i just need a bit of clarification regarding your post. I will first flash the bios to the latest version and then install the ATI Vga drivers. (after enabling the discrete vga option in the bios?)

"If you use the latest version, you should have an updated ATI and Intel GPU driver on your system." Latest version of the Cataclyst drivers on the Acer site? Those drivers will install the intel vga drivers as well? And how does the AMD cataclyst auto-install?

And i forgot to ask, how does one find out the model of touchpad they have?

Sorry if i seem a bit ignorant regarding this subject.

 

Hi guys.

Suddenly I have noticed a squeaking sound from the left side on the laptop. It sounds like it is loading or something. Never noticed anything like this before. Anyone noticed this

EDIT: Typo.

Please help me!

 

Hello guys, you are doing a great job here!
I have just purchased the Acer 3820tg (i5 460 + HD 5650) but i have a major problem.
When i switch to the Intel HD Graphics the screen flashes for a time and then turn black for good. When I try Alt+Ctrl+Del it shows the windows screen but when i hit for example the Task manager, i see windows but after a while the same happens...

I cannot understand what is going on. Maybe i have a faulty Intel Card?

 

/10 char/

Bronsky

 

When i go directly to http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/downloads_gd.html in the list of drivers there's a "ATI VGA driver" and "Intel VGA driver". Once i verify the bios i should install both of these and that is it?

 

Just install the ATI VGA driver, it included the Intel driver as well, no need to install Intel VGA driver...

 

The 3820T uses only the Intel VGA driver.

Bronsky

 

I just realized that I never got around to changing Hardware Monitor's TJMax value to 90, from the stock of 100. The i3 CPU's should have the hwmonitorw.ini file set to 90 and you i5 guys should set it to 105. With a default setting of 100, the i3 will read 10 degrees warmer than actual and the i5 will read 5 degrees cooler than actual. You have to set the value in the ini file while Hardware Monitor is not running - if you don't do this, the application will set it to 100 again when you exit the app.

I only noticed this as the CPU was throttling down at "96C" when I manually restricted the laptop's airflow. This is in line with others at 86C once TJMax was corrected. Of course, Realtemp 3.60 had the correct value on first launch.

SO - does the laptop have a higher fan speed than what the i3 can push up to? Is there an i3 versus i5 BIOS difference for controlling fan speed? If the i3 can never get up to 90C, and people are claiming that their CPU fan speed increases at around 90C with an i5, I would think that the i3 CPU's don't get to take advantage of the blower's full output.

I think most of the CPU temp numbers being claimed in this thread are wrong

 

ATi 10.10 is out...
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...obile/10-10_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

 

Was just about to ask where I could get 10.07 since nobody seems to like 10.08 but 10.10 will do nicely! Sound man!

 

Finally figured out the problem with Paypal (*cough* Wachovia Morons *cough*) and ordered an I3-330M/HD5650 from PCHome. Hoping for the best. Unit will be silver and will have a US/Chineese KB. All I will need to do initially is swap in the 128GB SSD, do a clean install and I can start using the unit. I ordered an I3-330M but expect that I'll get an I3-370M. Hopefully, everything will be good and there will be no need to send it back. I'm getting fairly good at shipping to China. Now all I need is for Shark to tell me that Acer found the problem on the Mobo.

BTW, a couple of owners noted that there is no need to run eRestore to back up the applications and drivers. I forget the directory that they are stored in. I can just put the original HD in a case and copy that directory onto a USB. Anybody remember where that information is? The cool thing is that I get to use my own clean install guide.

Bronsky

Edit: Less than an hour after i ordered, Cendirect notified me that they had 5 new units in stock. I remember that the same day I ordered my 3820TG from Germany, the 4820TG was released in the US. This stuff always happens to me.

Edit: PCHome order is confirmed. Since it's the weekend, I expect that my unit will ship on Monday.