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

stock bios I never touched it it is 1.13

 

I'm thinking about applying a carbon foil on the lid of the machine. A 30 x 61 cm piece would cover the lid, and the glossy surface besides the keyboard. It costs ~20 U$D , and its available in 6 colours, so i think it would end up in a cool look, if i pull a grafit, or a black colour folie from here: Karbon (carbon) fólia | Fóliavágás.hu

Its realative cheap IMO, and its protecting the original surface too besides it looks cool. The sit says it can apply easily on any 3d surfaces looking flawless.
I will order a piece next week, and it 'm ready i will post up some pix

Anybody can tell me that the ACER logo is only a foil on the lid? is it easily removeable?

 

bronsky: how stable is your I3-370M @ 3.0ghz? anyone over clocked their I3-350M? i guess my questions is should i spend the extra $100 to get the 370M over 350M... i'm close to biting the bullet and just get the 350M...

 

I would not pay $100 for the 370 over the 350. My I3 is extremely stable at 3.0. It is still stable at 3.1 but the CPU starts to really heat up. As soon as I get it in the 3.15 range it begins to become unstable and is completely unstable at 3.18.

 

I replaced the stock HDD with a Seagate Momentus XT yesterday, and what a difference!!! Maybe any 7200 drive would be a big improvement over the 5400 stock drive, but I don't care, the speed difference is huuugggeee..

Everything seems to open two to five times faster. I never realized how much of a bottleneck the HDD was for this laptop. I now think it's silly to put a very fast cpu and gpu but a slow HDD in a computer because without a fast HDD, everyhing else is always waiting for the HDD to finish its job.

Segate Momentus XT's vibration and noise is considerably higher than the stock HDD, so be careful if that's important to you, but I personally think it's worth it.

 

Thanks... this answers my question then if I should replace WD blue scorpio 5400 rpm with WD black scorpio 7200 rpm... I won't get a SSD because to expensive for me now... But if 7200rpm makes that much difference it seems to worth... And I can use the blue scorpio external. But what about power consumption from battery ? Does 7200 rpm consume more ?

 

Did you experienced vision problems after a session with your laptop ? (I mean more than with another computer)

I still get my VAIO SZ2XP sleeping here, so this week-end I'll only use this one, to see if there is some difference.

Yesterday, I've passed all the day without computer, I've bought an hydratant ocular spray.
My vision is a bit better today (knowing exactly how much is very difficult)

There is a problem with cheap blue and white LEDs, a security agency here (France) have made a warning concerning them :

Anses, alimentation, environnement, travail

(It's more oriented for the car's optics, or information panels on the road, much more powerfull than our screen ...)

I've taken a bit informations about UV delivered by the screens LEDs.
In theory, UV should not pass throught the electrostatic barier of our screens.
The plastic over the screen should help difuse it too,
and since the colors are filtered, there should be no risk ...

In theory

The best would be to contact all the users of this panel, and make a poll... I'll try to list some of them on this thread and private message them.
(perhaps that's a bit paranoïac I know, but that's too important for me too, risking anything with it)

 

Thursday, I've disabled the "font smoothing" option of Windows seven, and thought that all the texts were more readable (even in Firefox).

I've tried to play with cleartype too, but with no really good result.

-_-_-

People with AUO or Samsung panel :

-Is your panel full retrolighted by LEDs (all over the sreen)
-Or is your panel retrolighted at the bottom and top of the screen ?

 

If you think the computer is hurting your eyes I suggest you go see a doctor. Take the computer with you.

The studies you cite do not support the concept that you are being hurt by your computer. Most of the information in the article and the studies it cites seem to be cautionary supposition advanced by beaurocrats who have a lot of time on their hands to speculate and a lot of government grant money to allow them to do just that. Moreover they are more directed at glare isues associated with large scale use of LED lighting as a replacement for incandescent lighting in the home and elsewhere.

You are the first person in 731 pages of posting in this thread alone who has raised the issue. I, for one, spend 6 hours a day in front of one of these displays. No problem here.

If you intend to post a poll and PM people, can I suggest that you start another thread and can I ask to be excluded from both.

Bronsky

 

I heard that a lot of people have had issues with their momentus xt. That kept me from getting one. Anyone knows about this? I think i read that on newegg reviews or something.

 

No complaints with my XT here

 

I've got yet an appointment with eyes specialist.I don't exclude that my problems come from another source (and that's very probable), and exploring all the solutions.
That's about 11 years that I'm behind computer screens, and I would not lost my time like I do now searching for informations, if I thought there was absolutly no reason.

I've contacted 6 LG panel owners members here, if they want to post a comment about their own experience, they will do (for my part this is the last post I'll do on this "out of subject", if I got no answer from them).

Concerning the studies, I'm as suspicious and douptfull than you, don't worry, perhaps I've presented that a little too "officially" (but I'm not scientist, and I try to see all the corners of the problem).

For the technical part :
Bronsky, I know that you have an AUO,
May I ask you if your panel is full backlighted (all over the screen), or is the backlight coming from top & bottom of screen ? (perhaps there's a name for this two sorts of screen that I don't know)

 

Thanks cykotoxik, this just comes to confirm what I was saying, that the quality of the screens you get are the luck of the draw. At work we have a couple 3810Ts, and their LG panels are flawless, whereas here many complain about them.

I was just pointing out that there is no sure way to know what quality panel you will get regardless of the manufacturer, and that the input of each person is subjective.

 

Trevize, if you're able to tell if the screen is retrolight or lighted from the top & bottom, then there might be an issue with your panel.

A well designed panel should diffuse the light in a uniform matter. In my case, I can't tell if it is retrolighted or top & bottom. The light is diffused all over the screen, even at the highest brightness settings.

 

my 3820's LG display seems uniform as you say.
I got another led notebook (from 2005), and I can see with a full black page, it uses a "led edge" (top & bottom) backlight. Maybe it's a too old unit to be representative of actual technology.

 

Hello, So my Display from the Acer 3820TG is a LG133. The LED Converter is on the Logic Board from LCD, I studie the Datasheet's..... My Hdd was Clicking all time when in idle mode. I Have fix this Problem with "WdIdle3" on my WD6400BEVT also the Original HDD. No Problems now. And can i use the Backlit Keyboard from the Acer Aspire 5942 in the 3820TG. On the Pictures is the same Key-Layout with my. Because i need a German Keyboard-Layout.

 

I have no idea if it will fit but let us know if it does. http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/491169-acer-timelinex-3820tg-backlit-keyboard-mod-28.html

Bronksy

 

If I get some time this weekend, I think I'll get this new unit up-to-speed.

To do list:

Install I5-540M
IC Diamond Paste
Backlit Keyboard
Bluetooth Module

Bronsky

 

i have an acer 3820tg from hong kong with the i5 460m and a US keyboard if i was to update my drivers should i download from acer hong kong, europe, usa..?

 

hey guys. Im thinking about upgrading my CPU to either i7-640m or i-5-580m, now im not sure which one to go for, ill be doing a bit of video editing/photoshop /corel etc. Does extra 1mb cache help a lot in i7 ? Would there be any difference in battery life between them 2? Also which one handles overclocking better ? thanks

 

you can use the USA ones.

 

I think I would go with the 580M. The I7's that we have seen do not oc as well as the I5's.

 

Hello everyone!

Im thinking about buying the 3820TG and i wanted to ask -
How well does it handles games like - SC2, WoW Crysis ?
And basicly how good is the computer for gaming?

 

I get a lot more fps with this thing than my old desktop PC (core 2d 6600 - nvidia 8800 gtx). Crysis can be played at 1680 x 1050 with high settings and a few settings at very high at around 20 fps. Older games like Haf Life Ep 2, FEAR 2 and such are really flying with it. This is a very fast notebook for its price range.

 

I have the 3820T-7459 (Core i3-370M), Intel HD only. I also have the "MONITOR\LGD023F" and I'm quite happy with it. This is probably my 20th laptop (lost count some time back) and I've seen some pretty bad screens. I'd give this one an 8.5 out of 10. Pretty good for the price and other specs of the laptop.

I concur with StrAC: I play Half-Life 2 on high settings and it plays just fine.... keep in mind I don't have discrete graphics... it's Intel HD only. Having an SSD (Corsair Nova 128GB) helps a lot with map-loading times and makes for a better gaming experience. But since I'm not much of a gamer, I opted for the "T" instead of the "TG" and saved a few bucks (which went for the SSD).

@Bronsky: Your signature lists your i3-370M at 3.0GHz. Did you OC it? Mine is the stock 2.4 GHz. If so, what did you use to OC it?

 

It vibrates a lot more than the stock drive and it's a bit noisier. Other than that, there are no problems. Most people who had problems with it were using Mac OS or were on older Firmware.

 

20 FPS is not so good m8 but for Crysis i guess it is ok.
does someone knows how the games i mentioned before works?

 

20 FPS at 1680 x 1050...it would do better on the notebooks native (1366 x 768) resolution.

There are several videos on Youtube of the 3820TG gameplays, You might also chechk 5740 gameplay vids as it has quite the same CPU+GPU combo.

 

Set FSB. The CPU will run stable all the way to 3.1ghz but the temps really climb above 3.0. Kind of makes up for the lack of turbo mode. Above 3.1, my CPU gets unstable and by 3.18 it is completely unstable. Mine seems to be a good OC'r. Some have been encountered instability at 2.8ghz.

Bronsky

 

Just ordered a 3820TG from LU Computers! Can't wait for it to show up.

 

OK Thanks, at end of this month i will testing the acer 5942 backlit keyboard in the 3820TG. I hope it work. tu use a german Backlit keyboard ;-) Then i have the result i post it here with pictures of the modification.

Best, Daniel

 

The cyclic GPU fan speed issue with the newest BIOS starts to really annoy me. It doesn't depend on anything, the GPU can be hot or cold, sometimes it just gets in the cycle then there is no way out. A restart always helps.

Does anyone tried running a BIOS with non-matching embedded controller software (KBC.bat)? I mean, like using BIOS 1.19 with EC from 1.13? Is it dangerous to do this?

Is there an email address where we can write to support?

UPDATE: I opened a support request at Acer UK with this:

 

Can someone post the nice URL which goes directly to the 3820TG download page? It was here somewhere in the last 2 weeks.

 

Ordered one today from LU as well. Gonna take a bit before I see it....hopefully next Saturday.

Thanks for everyones help....I am sure I will need a lot more

 

I really really think that the new card is exactly the same as the old one, as this is the only possible way that they are supported with the old 10.6 drivers. All they might have is a different hardware ID, and maybe a different VBIOS to run them at higher/lower frequencies (but I doubt that). Just like with 4570 vs. 545v in the Dell Studio line. No new motherboards, no change in the factory line, no stocking of many other boards, just using the parts what they already produced and selling them with a simple marketing trick.

 

I have a 450M, which overclocks to 160 BCLK (*20) in Windows 7 and 166 BCLK (*20) in XP, and a GPU with bad memories, as I can only do 740/960 in Ati Tool.

 

AUO screens had graininess in the 3820TG since the very beginning. Almost everyone has got one. I returned my first, the second which I have no has the exact same grainy screen.

There are lucky ones in this forum, but usually the screen is grainy.

 

Dell did the same thing with the Vostro 1500. With a single update, the lowely 8400M became the 8400M GT. I think you're right. Some tweaks to the Vbios and Voila! the HD 5650 becomes an HD 6550.

Has anybody tried to use the driver with bios 1.13? Is there any difference if it is used with 1.17?

Bronsky

 

I would never ever use any TN based LCD screen or any glossy coated one for longer periods of time. The only reason why I don't mind using my Acer (or any other laptop with a glossy screen for that matter), is that I always use it connected to my desktop LCD with S-IPS panel and HDMI-DVI cable and obviously with a matter screen.

TN screens do make me tired when using them for a longer time.

 

Since my office has no fluorescent light, it is easy for me to eliminate any glare. The gloss panel is actually less strain to my eyes because of the better contrast. I have a 23" IPS display at work, but find that I only hook it up when I'm editing aerial and satelite images or other graphics work. For most of the work I do, such as writing, I prefer the typing position using the notebook's built-in display.

In the end, even the IPS panel makes my eyes tired after 6 hours of writing. I think the original OP was describing something very different ...

Bronsky

 

Hi.

I have a problem with my 3820TG. I'm using just the vga_ati driver from Acer.

When I'm using switchable graphics in BIOS and have it set to High performance GPU (ATI) in Windows, I get a solid green color instead of the video on SOME (not all, but quite a lot) flash videos on the web. Clarification: where the video should be, all I can see is a solid green color. This happens only using Chrome or Firefox, not using IE8. But I don't wanna use IE! Is there a solution to this problem?

Thanks

 

Right click on the flash video and go to the settings. Uncheck "Enable hardware acceleration". Does the problem still exist?

 

Haven't tried it, but already considered that option. It probably fixes it, but I obviously want hw acceleration if possible.

 

My new HD6550 result is with using the original v1.13 Bios.

Also in regard to other posts about graininess, like most 3820TG users, my AUO screen has no graininess. I use it around 10 to 16 hours everyday. Looks great (once you get the viewing angle just right).

 

wait what? the hd6550 is out?

 

Updating to the latest Acer drivers changed my 3820TG's HD 5650 video card into now being displayed as a HD 6550M in windows and every app that checks video. See post a couple pages back.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6880606-post7287.html

 

hmm interesting.

 

Whats the latest drivers that appear to work excellent?
10.xx?

 

Doesn't anyone know whether it's possible to get 5.1 audio over the HDMI connection? I can play a video file encoded with 5.1 DTS audio, but the only speaker configuration available to stereo, this is hooked up to a 5.1 receiver. Thanks.

 

IMO, I think catalyst 10.10 is awesome. I'm not experiencing any sort of bug with it's general use especially with gaming. Crysis, Ac2, Me2, Sc2, Mafia II, NBA 2K10, Sniper GW, among else play smoothly! The only down side is you lose the Fn+arrow key shortcuts. But it ain't a huge issue for that's why i think it's still excellent.