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

nah I left it default, 550 / 800 . i guess its normal, was just seeing if it was messed up because 3dmark didnt detect most of the gpu stuff.

anyways, thanks

 

With default stock clocks, it should be getting ~7300 to 7500 in score, so your score is within the ballpark.

If you overclock, on the other hand, it can go up to at least 8500, maybe even over 9000 (no pun intended) despite the relatively benchmark-unfavored i3 370M.

 

yeah was just messing around right now, at 650 / 950 got 8500, but gpu topped out at 86.5. In a serious game it'll probably go over 93, 94 degrees, which is too close to my danger zone.
Right now at default 550 / 800, I reach 88 in a serious game, which is alright but I still feel is kinda high.

Does putting thermal paste on remove warranty? I have like 2 mL of thermal paste left, probably enough to cover GPU.

 

So after about a month of use the hard drive has started making this buzzing noise when under more than average usage.

Anyone know anything about it? How to stop, or what it means?

 

I'm not sure, but earlier in this thread people were saying if you installed this
quietHDD
it would fix it

 

You do not want to install the Intel graphics drivers from the Acer or Intel websites. The AMD/ATI graphics drivers from Acer include the Intel drivers in them already (because of the switchable graphics function).

There is a way to get newer Intel drivers to install to get hardware acceleration to work flawlessly in Flash/IE9/Firefox 4 beta while on integrated graphics, but I'm not sure if I can recommend doing what I did (manually installing the Intel portion of the HP ENVY 14 graphics drivers through Device Manager).

 

I just got my brand new 3820T.

The bottom 1 cm (approximately) of my trackpad above the left and right click button does not detect my finger. Is this by design? I'm trying to find out if I have a defective laptop.

(I have version 15 of Synaptics and I used that to check if it senses my finger.)

Thanks.

 

pretty sure the strip at the bottome is for scrolling sideways

 

Your contradicting yourself. It sounds like your saying dont get the drivers from acer, then saying the drivers from acer are the easiest to get working.

 

nah, he's saying there's no purpose to installing the Intel Video drivers in general. Just install the AMD drivers from acer, and that will automatically install the Intel drivers as well.

 

Hi,
So i reinstalled w7HP on my cca 3 month old 3820TG, because i noticed high temps. The problem still exists, now i use HWmon to check the max temps while running some games. So i installed my all time fav, burnout paradise. after a couple secs, temps almost hit 100C, if the lappy is on a wooden table, room temp is 22C. after a couple mins, the CPU throttles (or whatever, the game begins lagging, and temps about 100-103 C
This is with a piece 'o cake game, burnout. CoD Black Ops cooks the GPU in 1 minute now, if the lappy is on a flat surface.
If the back is lifted up 2-3 cm, temps stay below 95, but not 72-75 like when the unit was new. I will send it to the service this week

 

Hi guys,

I've been away, my HD was faulty only after 1 month of use and had to sent my laptop back to get it replaced...
I bought a battery "11.1V 6000mAh" but I received a AS10B5E 10.8V 6200mAh. I have a 3820TG i450 etc using a 9-cell battery which is 11.1V. Do you guys know if the battery I received (10.8V) is OK or if I should return it?
Thank you!

 

Hey,

my 6-cell battery has also 10.8V and 6200mAh and was original with my Acer 3820TG. The battery should be okay.

 

Yes, the last time after installing intel over the ati drivers, made the switchable function unusable.

I've reinstalled the OS just after i bought this lappy and as i remember it went very easily. But now, after i boot with discrete graphics, if i try to run windows WEI, after a couple mins i got BSOD (it says system error, not the driver reset stuff i think).

thanks for the info, unfortunately my lappy is going to service...

 

Hi!
Mine's switchable fuction is broken too :S If i start switchable, i get no signal but i get startup sound. On discrete, it's working but CCC is not working anymore :S
I've tried 11.1 and acer Ati drivers too. What should i do? (i don't want reinstall)

 

Thats what I thought but just wanted to be sure.

 

This happened to me once, but my fix was kind of simple. What I did was just boot up in discrete mode and let Windows load the 5650 drivers and then restart the system into switchable. When in switchable I installed the ATIVGA drivers from Acer's support site and all was well. Don't know if its the same issue though, as when mine happened, I had accidentally removed all ATI drivers.

 

thank you very much for the information... but why?? why OC'ing the cpu the game-framerate falls??
however i'll oc the cpu for pure fan, for gaming maybe i'll oc the 6550...
so, where may i find some walkthrough for OCing the 3820tg's cpu?? only with SETFSB?? is there in this forum a section were i can learn all the necessary?
ah, the first thing i'll do with mi timeline is reinstalling the SO in italian language (if it had been in ENGLISH all right, but german no!!), so where i have to download the drivers??? all from acer??? the video driver from acer and the others from the original site of the device producer???
thanxx!!

 

Here's a good guide by Bronsky.

 

thank you very much...
and about the OC'ing?? i must use SETFSB or there's another way???
if i have to use that program, where may i find simple instructions to start??
thank you one more!!!

 

SetFSB is the easiest tool at the moment.

Just start, try the clockgen and move the slider.

 

i'll do it thanks...
is it possible to know how is my pll ( without open the notebook) or i've to try every clockgen in the list??
is that a free software or i have to pay (800 yen)??
there's no way to increase the voltages from bios??
thanks a lot!!

 

got my Intel SSD today. Showing up as 5.9 in WEI though :-(

Followed the tweaks here and ran test a few times but not breaking 5.9

 

Please Post the model of your SSD.
Is the alignment right?

 

Intel X25-M 120GB

Alignment?

I just set AHCI, installed win7 ultimate 64, then ran the tweaks mentioned on the link. I upped the RAM too so I'm 6.7 across the board except for this SSD at 5.9

EDIT: nevermind


Funny CPU and Memory were 6.7 when my SSD was only 5.9. Oh well. Also, switchable graphics aren't automatic anymore. Not complaining though, it's better this way. Now to get an i5 and a new keyboard and she's perfect. Not even gonna worry about overclocking the GPU yet.

 

From another website ( link) it says that enabling write-cache buffer flushing is "reported to...decrease the performance of Intel drives"

This might or might not be true for your drive Damarious25, but it is something that you could try and if it works out then your SSD is an even better addition to this laptop.

 

How is 6.7-6.9 RAM score WEI possible? I taught stock memos are OK, but my WEI is 5.9 only

 

Hello everybody. I'm sending my computer back to Acer, not because I hate it (I absolutely love this beauty), but because I overclocked a wee bit too much and probably caused a small circuit in the GPU somewhere to short out, causing random crashes. It happens anytime, from heavy gaming (Crysis on high at 1333x768 at 4xAA while overclocked, anyone?), or when switching the graphics card from dedicated to integrated, or when watching Youtube, or even when idling around, the screen will freeze and after a while, one of two things will happen. Either the screen will refresh and state that the AMD Display Driver has recovered successfully, or a bluescreen occurs with the message that atikmdag.sys has crashed. I tried everything to eliminate software problems, which included reinstalling the stock drivers multiple times, restoring my system twice and doing all sorts of tweaking, but to no avail, so I concluded that it was a hardware related issue, and Acer seems to agree as they asked me to pass my laptop to them, which I will do tomorrow (and subsequently die in school because I have no spare laptop). Just a few quick questions though:

1. How is Acer's support, especially of those who live in sunny Singapore? Hopefully it's not as crappy as Asus's, which I had the "pleasure" of experiencing firsthand. My friend had screwed his computer and the techie was not helpful at all, quoting price after price that were stunning. My friend bought his laptop for SGD2000 a few months ago, and these are the cost of replacement parts:
Mainboard - SGD850
Screen (excluding lid) - SGD700
Lid - SGD110
Keyboard - SGD150
The exchange rate for US$ to SGD is about USD1=SGD0.75, so you can probably tell that Asus's service plain sucks. And they were stating condition after condition for service. In the end, my friend gave up and is now planning to sell it and get something actually worth buying. But back to the point.

2. How long will it typically take for Acer to service a laptop? While I understand replacing the GPU means replacing the mainboard, I cannot wait too long as I need it for school (it's a requirement to have a laptop in school actually).

 

Something is not right. WEI score should be over 7.0. Which did you get?

@too456 - It took Acer about 2.5 weeks to fix and return my 3820tg. That included mainboard replacement.

Bronsky

 

when you have 8gigs of it your score goes up

post fixed, ssd now highest at 7.

@too456- goodluck with the return.

 

Yikes, I've experienced some of same symptoms as you but it was usually because I was overclocking too high or when I forget to close GPU accelerated applications when restoring my clock values. I've set my overclocking values in MSI Afterburner to more reasonable values and have been rock solid so far. *crosses fingers*

Good luck with the service, I hope it all works out well for you.

 

this is so amazing, this thread is still going strong.!!!!

BY the way, i love my 3820tg, I bring it to work everyday.!!
It is Light!
It is Fast!
It is Quiet!

I can join my friend's lan party after work without bring anything else!!!
just my 3820TG and i can play any games using it!!!

 

Did the audio stammering problem go away?

I returned mine (i5, 5470) last Sunday and it's now on sale on Staples for $599, that's another $100 off the price I bought it for!

 

Wow, thanks for the tip! I checked my local flyer (east coast) and it is AS3820TG-7945 i5 480m 5470 4gb 500gb Jan 26 - Feb 1 for $600+tax. You can find a bunch of coupons online too to bring the price down further!

I paid $600+tax for my 3820tg-3022 right before Christmas (clearance), but it has 430M.

 

The CPUs are upgradeable, but the GPU is soldered to the mobo. I advise getting a 5650/6550 version.

 

I was running at stock and I got those symptoms. I suppose if I was overclocking the symptoms would be worse.

Anyway, I just sent it over to them, they did a little bit of checking, with me showing the proof that it was totally random and could not be replicated (event viewer will do you well here). They said it will take a max of 7 working days, although the guy said that it would be about 3-4 days as I needed my laptop for school. Should be repaired in a few days time. On another note, I can't believe the number of Acer laptops of all sizes there, almost 20 strewn across the counter tables being repaired. Says something about its reliability I suppose. Or maybe they were setting up the computers, since all of those I saw were running system recovery.

 

Looks like the Sony SA is not only real, but it will be coming sooner rather than later. Sony VAIO SA and SB show up at European e-tailers with 13-inch screens, Core i5 / i7 CPUs, SSD options -- Engadget

Bronsky

 

I don't think it's the same :S CCC is not starting just in taskmanager and switchable function is not working. I've uninstalled the ati drivers and the installed the acer one.

 

I haven't followed this thread in a while and I never ended up buying a Acer 3820. However, it's on sale again at Staples Canada and I'll probably buy it for school use and light gaming when I'm not at home. Is LG still the one to avoid? Anything else I need to know about the 3820 before I make a final decision on whether to purchase it or not?

 

hi guys!!
yesterday i've ordered my 3820tg from CU Germany...
tomorrow should be there... i hope...
so, of course, firstly i'll change the language... is there an option inside win 7 menu or i'll have to use a third party program???
if i want to format the OS and reinstalling a clear (italian) version, i must have the dvd or there's another way??
thank you so much!!!

 

Nice to see HD6630M in a 13" pack. Price is still so Vaio.

 

Yeah, but so much for that $1250 price point we were dreaming over. I think they mixed up the numbers from the true $2510 price

Deltido

 

Hehe, lol. I see that Sony SA has a Radeon HD 6630M. That's cool, because it's almost the same as the HD 5650. I won't feel bad about getting a 3820tg instead.

 

those were the SSD priced versions, it was equipped with a 128gb in raid 0

you have benchmarks for the 6630? if so could you post some links?

 

You'll have to install a language pack to change the stock OS to english, italian or whatever you like: Vistalizator - change display language in Windows Vista and Windows 7

Clean install guide is located here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6465732-post1612.html

 

If Sony follows through with its aborted anouncement at CES, they will offer a non-SSD version in the states for $1,250. A 13" 3.5 lb notebook with a 1600 x 900 display, ODD (or second HD mod), backlit kb, I5/I7 and 7200 rpm HD would be ideal at that price. Not enough to make me sell my Acer to upgrade but a significant step in the right direction for Sony. So far, that unit and the Lenovo E420 look like units to watch.

BTW, the HD 6630 will have 80 more shaders than the HD 5650 and is factory/base clocked at 480 mhz. I think the card will have great OC'ing potential.

Bronsky

 

I don't see that adding an additional $1250. Also, does Sony even offer a HDD version of the current vaio z13's? If not, I can't imagine them changing that just for the SA series (AKA the temporary Z), though I wont make any assumptions.

Deltido

 

i dont know about that. I had a AU023 or something screen, that one gave me bad heacaches. The one I'm using now has LG screen and I like a LOT more then the other one.

 

I love the 3820TG but I would upgrade for a 1440*900 screen. IPS would be nice too (high contrast and better view angles).

 

I have the LG and it could be better IMO.