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

hey guys,
i wonder if anyone had problems with fan starting to sound like it's hitting something?

i ran a search on this thread and the forum and found nothing on that.
i did the vacuum thing and the compressed air and no change still sounds like the CPU fan is hitting something only started this week and i had the laptop since the summer.

do i have to change the fan? that means i have to send it to repair
wonder if any of you had the same thing.
thanks

 

A couple of people have reported similar problems and they had to RMA their units.

Bronsky

 

Hey adelos. It can be hard to find "tweaks and mods" in a thread that is MASSIVE. Just the other day I spotted something that might help.

It's " post #3001" by kindan.

He has written an amazing guide to replace the CPU witch isn't your concern but the guide does have detailed instructions (with pics) to take the laptop apart which could bring you to the fans. You could have a look and see if its something you can fix. It might only be a wire has moved a little which you can fix or it could be a broken fan blade. But at least you'd know

I lucked upon this post, maybe someone should redo the first page of this thread and find these major posts and add them.

 

thank you Damarious25 and Bronsky

 

Try running ABR as administrator. If that does not work, then try the manufacturer's recovery disk. In the disk (for my Dell Windows Vista recovery disk anyway), under sources\$OEM$\$$\system32\OEM, you can find the xrm-ms file. For most recovery disks, search in the $OEM$ folder and you should find the xrm-ms certificate because that's where the unattended installation files are kept.

[Out of topic] I was looking through the Acer recovery disks and noticed that it requires 3 disks because of a very messy autoinstallation utility. Sure, it gets the job done, but I don't see why Acer could not just dump everything into the $OEM$ folder, instead opting to use .wim files to install drivers and applications. Waste of space imo. And quite a lot of duplicated files across the three disks as well :/

 

Acer's own in-built Recovery fails to fix the problem... it still boots and stalls in the middle of 1st boot

Acer's own DVD USB drive refuses to be seen on Boot with the Recovery disks

so i 'found' (z_z) a win7 disc to build a USB install drive...

how to slowly install the drivers and figure out if any of them is the issue... it'll be so annoying if theres no root cause to this...

-------------------------------------------
since i only have XP available as backup, its a tad more tedious. i used the instructions here to set up the thumb drive:
Install Windows 7 from USB Icrontic Tech

poooh... installed Win7 Ultimate as trial... solved some issue of installing software that stalls in menus.
Looks like I really need to get Win7 Pro for the engineering programs. (cant they just pop up a message that Home Premium is not supported? =.=)

shopping time!

anyone can help to share the Acer TimelineX screensaver and desktop theme files?

i kinda miss em... >_<

 

Hey guys. Can somebody look at my thread and help me out with my CPU overclocking issues?

Overclocking my CPU, but getting slower performance? - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

I know there's a lot of you guys that overclocked the CPU. Does anybody else have this problem or is it just me?


Also, why the hell is my 5650 only able to overclock from the default memory clock of 800 to a maximum of 820 without errors in my gpu stability tests.

 

Link here

In the theme folder:
The Acer.scr goes to C:\Windows\System32
The 3 wallpapers go to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\local\Microsoft\windows\themes\
And you open the oem.theme and select the Acer.scr and the 3 wallpapers and that's your theme.

In the logon screen folder:
Extract them to C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\Backgrounds and use this software and select the one corresponding to your screen resolution. Done!

Don't forget to save the theme after you're done

 

Hi Too456,

Thanks for the effort... eh.. but mediafire says it no longer exist.

" Invalid or Deleted File.

The key you provided for file download was invalid. This is usually caused because the file is no longer stored on Mediafire. This occurs when the file is removed by the originating user or Mediafire."

not some copyright issues is it?

---------------------------

oh yea, a question for all.... the Acer support websites lists 3 type of camera applications for: Chicony, Liteon, Suyin

any idea how to identify which one do i have?
device manager doesn't really give much clues...

 

The rule is that new stuff will always emerge.
What is important is that you know you are getting a good deal now compared to the market.

 

Unlucky.
Just make sure you do not have errors at stock.

 

Good point.

 

Like the 3820TG for 650$ plus tax sale going on this week, lol. My intuition tells me they're clearing stock in order to bring in 480M/6550 3820TG's.

 

480m is not sandy bridge, 6550 is essential a re-branded 5650.

I'd rather a 370m/5650 @ $650 than a 480m/6550 @ $750-800.

 

Even though my order was placed on the 27th and it said they have some 3820tgs available, I called today and they said they were out and theres nothing I can do.

 

If Canadian retailers get a replacement unit, it will be the 380M, not the 480M.

 

should have buy it sooner!!

I bought my 3820TG for 699 instead of the lowest 649

I love it every min i use it.
especially after i changed the cpu (CORE i7 620m),SSD, 8gb DDR3

I can play any games using it( even without overclocking cpu or GPU)
I will start overclocking the GPU when i play games with higher requirement.

It is 4lb
it is small
it is fast
7.5 hours battery life.
and it is still under 1100 after all the upgrade i done to it.!!!

to me it is a dream come true.

I could buy a gaming notebook with gtx460m but i will never be able to use that without the AC adapter

 

This thread did some discussion already about that ,
yes overclocking the CPU in 3820TG will degrade the FPS performance in games

and this is the reason , instead of overclocking my old core i3 370 2.4ghz(no turbo)
i change cpu to a core i7 620m 2.67ghz (which turbo to 3.3ghz)

 

Is it normal for my GPU to idle around 53-54 Celcius? By idle, I mean fan running and no tasks running it will hover at his temp. Gets up to around 80 when gaming but never below 50 unless I put the notebook in sleep mode. With out me doing anything, i.e. turning the notebook on, the Temp of the GPU climbs to 65 Celcius and then the fan starts. This is with no load on anything, just staring at a blank desktop.

 

I thought about doing the same thing you did.

Purchase a 3820, replace the cpu with a 620m, replace hdd with ssd, and 4gb with 8gb.

The only thing is, I don't need a notebook right now, and my philosophy is if you don't need, don't buy.

I may need one, and if I do, and if the Sandy Bridge notebooks are not up to par, then I'll go the 3820 route.

By the way where did you buy your 620m from? I found a few sellers on ebay.

 

just ebay
Intel Core I7-620M on eBay.ca (item 260706042877 end time 11-Dec-10 17:46:43 EST)

 

Have you gotten around to run any of the 3Dmark benchmark tests? I'm thinking about upgrading the processor and just want to know what I'll be dealing with.

 

Hello everyone, I'd like to purchase a 3820tg, but i'm not sure if they're still available here:
LU Computers
front page second post(notebook review) says they're available, the website says they're not but when i go through the process of ordering it lets me get to the final page of paypal. Please advise.

 

Hi everyone,

Well, after looking for a while for a new laptop to take with me to study abroad this Spring I stumbled on this thread.. sufficed to say I was convinced after much research and I ordered a 3820tg last Sunday from NCIX (I'm in the US).

I'm still not sure if I'll get it though for a variety of reasons, namely that it has been 5 days and I still can't get a straight answer if they will actually have one for me to ship! Seems it has been discontinued pretty much everywhere I have looked except Asia or Germany, which I do not feel comfortable ordering from and the German prices are too high IMO.

Anyway, if I do get the unit I was wondering if anyone could give me advice as to the best way to upgrade it for my uses. Aside from school-type stuff which I wouldn't need to upgrade anything for, I download and watch a lot of 720/1080p movies, mostly through HDMI to a HDTV. That and some moderate gaming.

SSD crossed my mind but I like having more than 120gb in my machine (can't afford more) so I was thinking maybe a 500gb 7200 rpm hard drive and bumping the ram up to 8gb. Would I even need 8gb? What about processor (mine is an i3). I'd really prefer to keep it under $300 total for upgrades and I'm not overly tech savvy so they would have to be something I could handle myself.

Thanks and I appreciate all the info here that led me to my decision!

 

I am not able to overclock my as4820tg just yet so I can't explain from experience. However, for now, try running SuperPi (or some benchmark tool of your choice) and compare CPU performances between oced/not oced. Make sure the test is long to test for throttling. You can also use ThrottleStop to determine whether the CPU is really throttling.

As for testing GPU overclockablility, I don't recommend using FurMark because of a rumor that it kills. A friend of mine got his laptop killed running overnight . AMD and nVidia have also recently block Furmark manually in their driver (and in hardware!). Just overclock while playing game. Usually a too high core clock will lock up your screen while a too-high mem clock will create artifacts.

 

Not sure. I reuploaded it again. Link here

 

Thank you!


btw.... HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!!

 

Bought mine from LU computers about 2 weeks ago, I think they are out of stock now though... Fantastic to deal with if you can get it through them though. Especially if you live outside of the United States and Canada. Send Eric an email, I'm sure he will be happy to help.

 

Anyone looking for a 3820TG case here's my review of the BOOQ Vyper XS3
http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/543672-booq-vyper-xs3-13-3-notebook-case-review-3820tg-56k-no-way.html

 

I still get low gaming performance with my overclock, even with throttlestop's clock modulation and clock mod at 100% and eist disabled

I check my monitoring software, and my core clock stayed at the overclocked 3ghz the entire time during my game benchmarks.

i do get faster scores when overclocked when im doing superpi tests or 3dmark11 though

 

how low is low??

 

I get about 4-5 fps lower going from 2.4ghz to 2.7, and I get about 8-10 fps lower going from 2.4ghz to 3.0ghz

 

Got my 3820TG-5454g32 yesterday. The laptop is so far great but with one issue. The scroll in my touchpad works whenever it wants to. The image appears when i touch the scrollpad but the page dont scroll. And sometimes it does =) Tried reinstall drivers from acercomputer.com but no luck. There are 2 different types of drivers there. Wich one is correct for my pad?

Thanks in advance

 

you can go to your Device Manager to check
it should be under "Mice and other pointing devices"

if the driver is not installed, it should be called a very generic "PS/2 Mouse" or similar. if that is the case you can check the "Hardware ID" under details. Synaptics start with 'syn' such as below

 

Well it says Alps pointing device.. downloaded the drivers from acer but still dont work, all i see is the image that appears when u scroll "a square with finger and arrows up and down.."

EDIT:
Well its working in Internet Explorer and windows catalogues but not in Firefox 4 =) haha strange..

 

Hey all, I have had my 3820TG for a couple weeks now and I am curious. Is there a way to leave the touchpad and wifi OFF, even after restarting the computer? Seems like every time I turn my computer on, I have to turn off the wifi and the touchpad again.

 

Alright, thanks for the info, I assume the procedure goes:
1. Email "Eric"
2. He'll email me back when they have more in stock
?

 

Did anybody figure out how to make the switchable graphics 'P' button work both ways when plugged in?

 

Thoughts on Core i7-840QM if acquired for the 3820tg? Quadcore vs. dual. 45W TDP (but that's only 10 more then an average i5). Also, 8MB L3 cache where the i5 has 3MB. Or would a quadcore be crappy for gaming and a i7 or i5 dualcore be better?

I'm just hauling numbers from wiki and looking for people who know about this stuff to help Looking for suggestions which would increase gaming performance on the 3820tg better then the included i3.

Also, I did already pm for advice and have gotten help but I don't want to personally bug someone too much so I'm also throwing it out here as well.

 

I'm not sure but I think it's been mentioned in this thread that the 3820TG BIOS is not compatible with quad core CPUs.

 

The thing with caches is that, the larger the cache, the slower the cache (of course it can't be too smaller either, it's a balance).

L3 is already slow enough, and 8MB for an i7 quad-core is still necessary because it needs a very large pool of cache where all 4 cores communicate. i5 dual-core, on the other hand, doesn't need that and thus 3MB of L3 is built in.

Also, don't think TDP is the only thing needed to describe how well a CPU manages power-saving. I mean, AMD CPUs have 35w TDP too, yet they drain the battery faster than an i3. What matters is how a CPU actually does in a real laptop, and non-sandbridge i7's (nehalem / arrandale) are all power-hungry, and HOT (not a good thing), relative to i5's in REAL LIFE laptops that are comparable (similar or identical specs other than CPU).

Gaming now and likely for the next 5~8 years will still be better on a faster (per core) dual-core than a quad-core. This is because unlike rendering softwares, no game developer puts in much money into quad-core optimization, and even if they do, they can't do it perfectly...imagine trying to balance two 2L bottles of coke upside-down on your hands while standing on one foot.

 

Thanks apex and jerg. Thanks for the lesson as well jerg because I'm very new to the details of Intel CPUs and mobile CPUs in general.

So, if I've learned anything a Core i7-640M is probably the best for gaming but in reality a Core i5-580M is probably the best bang for the buck as it's not that far behind?!

 

They won't make any noticeable difference in games because the 5650 will be the bottleneck.

 

lol... your not making this any easier jerg. I'm trying to come up with an answer by doing some homework and your not making it easy.

What would be the best cpu to compliment the 5650? A lower i5?

EDIT: I like where this is going though cause it's saving me a little bit more each time.

 

Yeah, definitely go with a lower i5 (460M / 520M / 480M / 540M) if you aren't trying to overdrive the laptop with CPU-eating monster software/games (not many). Anything more expensive and in 99% of games you won't see a difference anymore.

 

Ok. Here's to hoping the distributor has some 3820TGs left when I order Tuesday evening. I'll be ordering a CPU then as well.

 

The I5-580 is the best balanced of the Arrandales. You can OC it for non-gaming uses and it has been OC'd to 3.8ghz, far faster than the I7 can be OC'd. For gaming, it is as fast as the I7-620M.

I use an OEM 540M in mine and it is powerful enough for me. I do not game on my 3820TG but the GIF and Modeling software are very GPU dependent. The 540M almost never operates over 80-90%. I can OC my CPU at 3.7ghz and it is optimized at 3.66ghz for operations that are not GPU dependent.

Bronsky

 

I'd like to order a 3820tg. Before doing so, i was wondering how well the i3 370-M fairs with games and overall performance in comparison to the i5 models?

 

Thanks for the input. Ordering day is coming up so I'll take all the help I can get. I'll OC for production but now i'm looking for the best possible stock configuration for gaming. SSD and RAM will come later.

The i5-580 is tempting but as jerg said, it might not improve gaming any more then an i5-460/540.

My old desktop before I had to sell it had a (non gaming) AMD 6400+ and two EVGA 9800gtx+ in SLI. I'm trying to find a configuration that will beat that and I'm a little embarrassed to ask. I never did benchmark it or anything.

EDIT: Also asking whats the better paste from these? (my builds were usually budget but I'd like to do this mod right)

 

hello! happy new year!
does anyone of you know where i can get a US keyboard in europe? the ones from US costs $30 + $30 shipping which is expensive for me. the spilled beer made the backspace and enter keys a little hard to press and it is bothering me. thanks.