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

i know for sure there is a lot less problems with the 3820tg compaired to when the m11x first came out lol, the m11x threads were flooded with issues.

It seams to me the worst issue with the 3820tg is the crappy thermal paste they use which is causing some peoples systems to overheat. After I applied mx-3 thermal paste the temps are unreal. 29C idle and 69C max load on my 580m but you lose the warranty lol

 

Lost the warranty already when I upgraded to 8GB meself (video editing, Photoshop and 3D CAD, you need that RAM)

Gotta apply the MX-3 to replace the default TIM in me 3820TG then.

 

Ram Update doesn't remove the warranty in the most countries.

 

In mine it does though.

I upgraded the RAM meself, but by doing so, the warranty stickers covering them screws been torn to bits =<

 

Well that's pretty comforting to hear. I guess I'll wait around for the phantom 13" SA announcement/pricing, then I'll make my decision on that or the masterpiece called the 3820tg

 

My guess would be that Acer would still perform warranty work on your unit if you had a problem that was not RAM related.

Bronsky

 

i lost my warrenty too when i upgraded the cpu.
but these days i more worry about the accident when i bring it outdoor instead of it going faulty.

my last two notebook, i bought extended warrenty.
But i never used it
and the first one last for 7 years..

and the second one 2 .

unless you damaged it by heat or static, it should last for good time.

 

it... has... arrived...

 

@Damarious25,

Gratz... enjoy!

 

congratulation!!!!!!:smile:

 

I confirm that the 1.19 BIOS version is no longer available on Acer Support page.
Does this mean that v1.19 has errors?
I received my 3820TG directly with v1.19.

 

I feel as though if it did have errors, with the removal of 1.19, they will put up a newer version soon to "fix" any errors there might be, rather than asking everyone to downgrade.

 

I Have just written them an email. Let us wait a few days.

 

I've almost completely dismantled my tg but i dont remember any warranty stickers? it is the Canadian model from LU computers..

 

ty... ty...

Took a long time to get it tweeked. Uninstalling the bloatware, adjusting msconfig, adjusting appearance settings and so on and so on.

I also quickly grabbed rivatuner but it didnt detect the 5650 and then tried one called ati tray tuner (or something). That didnt install properly, kept freezing the machine and even screwed up steam. I had to do a repair on steam just to start it.

jerg sent a great pm with OC programs so will try later. Maybe. I installed crysis and the thing runs smoother then my old desktop rig. It was bitter sweet. very impressed with the machine. I wouldn't have it if it wasnt for everybody here... think i'm gonna cry...
-or some 5|-|17

(note, this is my first laptop so excuse any noob questions I may ask in the next few weeks. I should be ok though)

 

Please read the first post of this Thread. There are a lot of basic information for the 3820TG.

Have fun.

 

I got the answer from Acer.

They have removed the bios to check it a second time. The service personal had no information about a known error.

The german original:

 

It might be possible that I caused it I complained to them a few days ago and sent them a rather angry rebuttal about their refusal to enable PCI Express v2.0. They said it was by design that the HD5650 runs at v1.1, but I rebutted the HM55 supports PCI Express v2.1 and HD5650 supports v2.0. Also, I pointed out that AMD enabled x16 in a newer driver which Acer either couldn't or wouldn't do, thus it was very likely a software/bios limitation. Either way, it may benefit us all

 

Very impressive stuff. I read older bios runs pcie lane at 1 but my (new) 3820 says its 16. That with pcie v2 vs v1.1 what kind of performance gains we looking at?

 

PCI Express V2.0 runs at roughly double the data rate compared to v1.1. 50% more performance if I'm not wrong.

 

You are wrong. The most games are not limited through the data which must be transfered through the pci express bus. The limited on the ATI is the databus width of graphic card memory.


On the other hand, V2.0 will eat a lot of more energy and burn down the battery faster.

 

I second that. You'd need a lot more powerful GPU than HD5650 to utilize PCI-E v2 x16. This GPU is limited by 128bit DDR3 not the interface itself.

 

Hi!

Just got my 3820TG, i5 480M and 6550. Seems to have BT3 too. Did a clean install, installed Acers ATI and NVidia drivers, and then the most recent Catalyst drivers. I get a bit over 7700 in 3DMark06. Does this sound about right?

I would like to try overclocking, but AMD GPU Clock Tool doesn't seem to work. It won't even show the correct clocks, apparently it doesn't identify the GPU right. MSI afterburner shows the clocks, but won't let me raise them. And CPU, is there any other way to overclock than to buy SetFSB?

 

Ookay. My bad

 

If you are using MSI afterburner to overclock you will need to change the MSIAfterburner.cfg file

In order to do this you need to open the .cfg file in a simple text editor like notepad and where it says enable unofficial overclocking change the 0 to a 1.
save it as the same file name and place it back in the folder where you found it.

When you open afterburner all will be merry and you can overclock to your hearts desire.

As for the AMD GPU clock tool I am unsure as I have not had any success with this tool. Also note that each individual's HD 5650 will overclock to a vastly different extent. I have trouble raising the sliders more than about 10MHz higher than stock speeds, it seems to be a luck of the draw sort of thing.

I hope you enjoy your 3820TG

 

Wait. you installed nVidia drivers? Whatever for? The TimelineX series, AFAIK, don't have any nVidia cards at all. I hope you meant Intel

Your 3DMark06 score is in the ballpark for an non-overclocked card. Push it some ways further and 9000 isn't much of a problem.

Does the AMD GPU Clock tool show that you are running at 100/150? That's normal because of PowerPlay which lowers the clock speed when you are not using your GPU. As Bronsky states, 650/900 is considered safe, although to be doubly safe 650/800 will never cause a problem, because the HD5650 can run at 650/800 at stock settings depending on the manufacturer. Mine gets a max of 680/1080 before the driver crashes, but artifact-free oc is about 670/1040. Try not to run oc on a day-to-day basis though, it will burn out your graphics card faster. Enjoy your 3820TG

 

Hi Phoenix,

I've had my 6550 480M 3820TG for a week now, happy to share my toughts.

First of all, why install anything from NVIDIA? You haven't got an NVIDIA card, I'm not an expert but won't that cause unnecessary conflicts?

I'm still running the original Win7 from Acer, with AMD/ATI driver from Acer support website and default clocks (600/800) I get 7800 3dmarks in 1280x768.

As regards OCing the card, it's a monster for that sort of thing. AMD GPU Clock tool actually works, the clocks around 100/150 are completely normal when not running anything in 3D. You can still change to, say, 650/950 and Set Clocks - it will override PowerPlay settings as far as I'm aware.

I only went as high as 840/1050, not tried anything further. It was stable too. What you need to get for stability testing when OCing is ATI Tools. It's an older app, will give you a driver error and won't allow overclocking, but still works great for Artifact Testing. Basically you run the test and look for any artifacts over 5 or 10 minutes, more if you want. No artifacts = OC is stable.

Also download and run HWmonitor to monitor temps. The only problem with this amazing card on my lappy is heat. It's nothing drastic, but something to look out for when going higher on the clocks.
On stock I was hitting 76-77 in 3dmark06, around 800/1000 it went up to about 84-85 and 840/1050 was over 90.
A laptop cooler (zalman in my case) reduces temps by about 5-7 degrees from what I quoted above, to a maximum of 87 when running my highest OC so far. Not too shabby!

If you're planning to OC, I don't recommend using anything else than the Acer GPU driver. It's tailored to the machine, and it should give you lower temps.
I tried the 10.12 from ATI, my average temps jumped up by 5 degrees right off the bat. No thanks!

Oh and my highest 3dmark06 score so far was 9850, but I never pushed the card as far as it can go. 10000 is very easy to achieve with our machines.

Any questions hit me up . BTW SetFSB is the only way to increase CPU clock. NOt sure why you'd want to do it though, not for playing games surely? Even overclocked, the GPU will become a bottleneck on anything faster than a 480M would. There is no benefit to gaming from overclocking an almost 3Ghz i5 CPU. Actually I've read on this thread that OCing the CPU actually lowers gaming performance. Cheers.

 

Hey guys, so regarding the bsod "iastor.sys" driver_irq not less or equal error message I got that keeps preventing me to go to windows regardless is worse than I expected.

I then decided to restore everything to factory default on the hd recovery partition and that also is not feasible. It gives an unexpected error message when it gets to the "starting windows screen" after the format and system update.

I then experienced a lethal bad customer service with Acer and I will never ever again shop at visions (can't return to them within 15 days if something wrong with the laptop).

 

Aargh.. Of course I installed ATI and Intel drivers, no idea where that Nvidia came from.. Shouldn't write too tired.

Thanks everybody, GPU Clock Tool shows those 100/150, I just assumed it's not working. Glad to know its due to PowerPlay. Going to try pushing higher clocks, will post results.

 

Visions Electronics Canada?

 

The eeePC SSD will not work Ther is no sata signal on the slot.

Mod the bios and take a look if the second slot is active.

 

No [ 10 letters ]

 

I have an unit with UMTS Modem and both slots have a pci-e wired.

The two slots a standard pci-e slots.

 

My model name is the same 5454g64nks.

 

Unlock some hidden options in BIOS via a guide here. It might have what you are looking for. Cheers!

 

I'm using 1.19 with the trick.


You have to reactive your lan card after the mod

Edit: Removed modded file

 

Yeah, they wanted me to fix it first before i can get 100% of my money back.

 

Funny, I have never had anything but great customer service from Acer US. You dealing with Canadian Reps or the people in Texas? I was having an issue that I thought was a driver at first but turned out to be a hardware problem. I sent my unit to the Acer Temple Texas repair depot and they had it back to me in less than 2 weeks in perfect shape. I would give that a try. Make sure you register your unit and then go on "fix my Acer" and get an authorization to send your unit in.

BTW, I don't know what they did to my display but it looks incredible.

As far as that retailer, hopefully no one else will use them.

Bronsky

 

Thanks for the reply...

Definitely it sounded like an outsourced Acer technical support from Phillippines or India.

My unit is still under warranty through them including software so all I wanted was for them to get a courier to pick up the unit so they can fix it and have them mail it back to me so I can bring the unit back to vision to get my money back.

 

You'll have to pay to send it to them. It's not that much. They will send it back Fedex ground. I would forget the phone service and just get it to them with the online fix my acer site. Your retailer sounds really lame.

Bronsky

 

Thought you had a hardware issue unrelated to the monitor. What could they have done? I have the aou (something) monitor and i'm not overly impressed with colors. Games are far from vibrant and for an led it looks more like an old lcd. After adjusting contrast/gamma in crysis it looks a bit better but I think i'm gonna need some deeper tweaking in the ati driver itself.

And as for visions electronics, i'd recomend them. The stock was up to date, they ran the 650 price longer then any other retailer, when I called service was great and the packaging was even a little overkill.

 

One of the button of the keyboard on my 3820TG got loose. The lower end (closer to the palmrest) of the button is still attached to the keyboard, the upper end got loose, now the button is tilted and touches the screen when the lid is closed.

Funny thing is I don't know how it happened, I've just noticed it a couple minutes ago.

Does anyone have experience fitting buttons back to their places, or does anyone know how these buttons are attached to the keyboard?

If not I'm afriad I'll have to send it to warranty repair.

Thanks in advance.

 

The keys are mounted on a scissor-like support over the switch that sits under the keypad. I have bent a few. I closed the lid once before I had put the kb back inplace. I was able to bend the scissor-support a bit but it remained bent and I wound up replacing the KB eventually. I think you will probably end up RMA'ing the unit. I think you will be able to snap it back in place but it will likely still be bent.

I had to RMA mine a few weeks ago. It was a fairly painless experience. My webcam had gotten hot and then would not load a driver. I think it shorted out. They fixed everything. I had a single bent keypad on my KB and they put a new one on it.

Expect a couple of scratches you haven't seen before. A small price to pay.

Good luck with it.

Bronsky

@Damarious25 - The problem seems to have been a short in the webcam. Acer basically replaced everything they had to remove to get to it. The only thing that went back was the display. But it is clearer and crisper (and I liked it before). It is every bit as good as my original AOU. I think the difference I am seeing may have had to do with electrical interference from the defective webcam.

 

Update: By setting the PCIe controller to be hot pluggable, I've managed to get windows to detect the root port.


(Device Mgr/View/View devices by connection)

But the wifi card I plugged in still isn't detected.

If anyone has a 3G/UMTS model, could you be so kind as to let me know which PCIe root port the 2nd slot actually corresponds to?

 

Ahh, I see. That could be the cause lol. My monitor type is AUO 322C. Not sure if that's good or bad? Some color adjustments in display properties seems to have helped a little.

Also, I have a noob question. Right now I have page file on max. As far as I know it just uses a little HDD space right? I'm asking because I have 8GB Ram and an SSD on the way. I'll turn page file off completely when I install them but I'm wondering what the "Hyper Memory" uses? Virtual memory from page file or actual Ram? Or both? Also, what is "Hyper Memory"? Is it better to turn it off somehow?!

 

Hypermemory is ATi/AMD marketing speech for "the amount of system memory that can be occupied by the GPU if the dedicated memory is not enough".
--> http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/ati-hyper-memory/Pages/ati-hyper-memory.aspx

Michael

 

I'm getting random freezing during gameplay, just noticed it as I started playing games recently. Every 30 seconds or so every game will just freeze for a second.

I can feel slowness in the OS too, when opening folders sometimes it sounds as if the hard drive is spinning up. Would an SSD solve all these problems?

 

Very wild guess but your HDD might be either going bad or entering power saving mode and then spinning back up (that is why there are freezes).

Look at this: check HDD health, HDD power management OR google QuietHDD.

Cheers!

 

Help!

I've installed the Intel Graphics Driver and then the ATI driver from ACER'S website and I lost the switchable graphics feature!

I had a problem with the screen flickering at low light instensity and I was hoping this would fix it.

Thanks!

EDIT: Fixed after intsalling Intel - reboot -switch to ATI discrete - install ATI driver - reboot with switchable.

The annoying flickering/dimming is fixed by removing the "Intel screen current limiting technology on battery power" checkbox. I have a french version which says

"Technologie Intel de réduction du courant consommé". Uncheck the box under battery power.

 

There is a driver on Acer's website that has both the Intel and ATI driver in it. Its the ATI VGA driver on their website. The flickering is common on these laptops. Mine has it and I just learn to live with it or turn the brightness up to about 30%