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

Try reinstalling the audio drivers are get the latest release Realtek HD audio drives from their site. realtek.com i think it was. I'm using the latest drivers now and the speaker are slightly louder now Vs the stock acer driver.

Nice, that got me thinking. I could maybe use the kensington lock gap and place a small switch there when I mod my next 3820TG?

P.S My UTMS 3820TG is out for delivery now. But I'm not home Looks like I will miss the chocolate colored van today See if I can get them to try again tomorrow but after work. or if I can collect it.

 

The Kensington Lock is exactly where I've been looking to put a small switch. I don't use it and it's a perfect location for the KB power switch. No case mod needed.

I'm looking for a small microswitch whose connectors would fit through the port and facea/switch would stay on the outside. You could just crazy glue the switch in-place and soldier the leads into the circuit I left in the notebook.

Bronsky

 

Yea ... the ethernet port is too valuable to me and I normally avoid taking up a USB port for devices like a mouse, wireless card or ethernet connection. I use Ethernet connection both at the office and home, when I can. I use my USB ports a lot: backup HD, external OD, USB drive, BB tether/charging. I've been looking at the Kensington Lock. When I powered the KB, I left enough wire to reach back to the Kensington Lock area in case I wanted to put a switch in there. Since I have to repair the speaker eventually (replacements seem not to be on the market yet), I'll do the switch (and probably the CPU at the same time). For now, I'm getting tired of seeing my laptop in parts on my desk.

Bronsky

 

Should work

 

Is it normal for the display to turn black for 1-2 seconds when switching between Intel and ATI GPU? I also experience this after Win 7 boots.

 

Yes 10 letters

 

Thanks!


One more thing: When you did a clean install of Windows 7, did you just download the drivers from Acer's webpage? Did that work well?

 

@Bronsky

Take a very good thermal paste for your i7.

I'm just overclocked my i5 450M to 2,8GHz and get the 100°C. And the problem ist, that the i5 slow down than to 1,4GHz. (throttling)

Not that you have got the fastest cpu but it is most of the time throttled at 50% of his clock.

 

Someone ship me a 3820TG with i5-450 and ati 5650 and I'll be happy to pay a bit extra for the help

 

Is that an 3820TG?

I ran i5-450m @ 2.88GHz and HD5650 @ 740/1100MHz for one hour in prime max heat and furmark max GPU burn at same time, no throttling and this are max temps:



Room temp was 27-28 C.

 

Ok my other 3820TG is here. Picked it up. My risky bet has paid off. Its overclockable Some differences between this and my other unit.

The plastic surround is a darker grey, the says only Aspire and not Asprie TimeLineX. Odd? On the left of the scree surround there is a 3G sticker.

The build date is in May 15 and the wifi card is not atheros but a Broadcom. (Intergrated bt 3?) I will try overclocking the CPU now to find a nice stable bus speed. And monitor the temps.

I was really worried about no getting an overclockable unit. That was my main reason for this swap vs upgrading to a i7. That and the mobile internet

 

I'm happy that you got what you wanted Hendrickson

 

@Hendrickson

Have fun

 

Same screen and same screenquality as your other 3820TG?

 

Told Ya. Congratulations - again.

Bronsky

 

@OC-Freak
The problem seems to be the cooling unit with the fan. @default clock I get also 91°C with prime. It's to hot.

 

Exactly the same, Auo332C. The internal 3G card is much better than my vodafone stick. More signal = more speed. 3 bars on the usb stick and 4-5 now with the laptops internal one. I guess it comes down to the internal antenna.


So far so good Just need that new US backlit keyboard and its the perfect laptop for me.

 

Congrats Hendrickson!

 

Hendrickson has two 3820TGs.

I have zero.

Woe is me.

 

This emailing with Acer is getting funny. Anyway their latest instruction is to

"In your Acer laptop there is an option to find out the serial number without looking to the label.

- Press Fn+F2, then the Acer eSetting window will appear.

- There will be an option for system information. Please click on that.

- We can find out a mother board icon there.

- Select that mother board icon. There you can find the system serial number"

When I push Fn-F2 nothing happens. I suspect that an Acer app is missing due to the clean install. Anybody know which app will do this. Maybe I'll put it back.

Bronsky

 

Fn + F2 doesn't work for me either. I use OS, drivers & apps as I got from factory. But I have unchecked some of the stuff in the autostart, so perhaps that's why. Do you want me to check it for you?

 

Doesn't do anything for me either, with a factory install. I know this is going to sound wrong, but maybe that's outsourced tech-supportese for trying to get you into the BIOS. You do hit F2 to get into it, and the BIOS does show your serial number. Otherwise there is an acer app in windows that shows you your serial number - it's "Identity Card".

No end of confusion with acer email support over the last few days has made unafraid of choosing liberal interpretations of their instructions.

 

@ Hendrickson Do you mind showing us some high resolution pictures of the difference between the 3G model and the regular model? I personally would like to request pictures of where/how you put the sim in. Also, is it possible to install the 3G module later on?

Also, I just purchased my SSD, flash drives, and external OD from Newegg. Can't wait until my laptop arrives. But, I would be stuck with the German keyboard until I get my US keyboard. Which is, I don't know when because I would be calling up Acer tomorrow to request for a US keyboard. God knows how long that would take for it to arrive at my place. I'm going to try to sweet talk the rep to give it to me for free.

 

That Fn + F2 is just a shortcut for the windows System Properties panel, at least for me. It works wonders on my 4810TG.

I found something that may be useful to you, if you can install it:

empowering utility

Didn't find any version meant to be for these newer Aspires, but give it a shot, might work.

If you're just looking for the MB info though, probably Everest or PCWizard will give you the info you need.

PC-Wizard

Everest - trial

 

Acer 3820TG @ SGD$1198

the promo.

 

Do you think the 3820TG is really a better/more reliable machine these days then the E14? Here I can just speculate about the E14 but can easily get 3820TG-s.

Is there no way of getting 9k in 3dm06 in E14? Did you actually sell yours? Really has issues?

 

No 9k yet, hopefully future driver updates change that. Right now there's a small OC you can do to get a 7500 3dmark06 which is still pretty great. The minority of E14 owners had some issues, most people got great machines.

I'd say go with what is easiest to get a hold of. I know it's against the grain in this thread, but you'll be happy when you don't have to spend $80 shipping your laptop back to the seller because of a bad screen or cpu whine. Or get stuck with a brick, because of a lack of warranty.

 

@zero

There were some things I did not like about the E14.

1) CPU whine - Annoying
2) Fan noise - it was constantly on even @ idle
3) Trackpad - ? Worst trackpad experience ever.
4) Brightness level skewed - One notch down from 100% is a drastic change from full brightness.

 

Wrote up my backlit KB mod. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6504731-post26.html

My saga trying to order the left speaker gets funnier ... the tech now wants me to send in my whole unit for warranty work to replace the speaker.

"I understand from your mail that you require left speaker for the unit.

The system is covered under International Travelers Warranty and we will pull the system for depot repair. Before that you need to provide the following details:

- Present shipping address.
- E-mail address
- Phone Number"

All I want is a $20 part. Nice to know they seem quite willing to authorize international warranty work. But, not a chance I'm shipping this unit anywhere.

Bronsky

 

Even if you mail it to them, would they even honor the warranty since you opened it?

 

I think the soldered wires on the USB would be a dead give-away. Actually, just opening it does not destroy any of the warranty stickers. I did not have to touch any of them. So, if I hadn't soldered the USB port, they probably would still fix it. My point was that they were more than willing to put this under the warranty program. There were a lot of questions about this earlier.

Bronsky

 

Oh, CPU whine, I cannot bear it. I am actually running out of the world because my X61 got a replacement motherboard which is whining and Lenovo is laughing at me. I have been on level 2 support (in the UK), then after more and more issues, I got a phone call from their research headquarters, where a lady explained to me that the whining is a feature, and it's happening on specific processors more than on others. I got so angry, I will not buy Lenovo in the next few years for sure.

So with 3820TGs, no one is experiencing CPU whine?

 

None at all.

Bronsky

 

I'd love to know, what's the mod? MSI at 550/800?

 

I second that.

3820TG is as far as my experience goes one of the most issue-free laptops I've ever used. No heat issues, no strange sound issues and so on.

 

Hey guys, are you experiencing stuttering of sound, especially music while multiple programs are open? (e.g. web browsing, plants vs zombies , and music player open) It's kinda annoying both on speakers and headphones as it literally kills the quality of sound. I experience this with some of the games I play as well (i.e BF2, COD6, Sniper Ghost Warrior) Thanks for your input!

 

@AspireAnt: negative for me..

 

what brand hard drive do u have

 

My 3820TG has arrived in NZ in a turnover time of exactly 2 days. Too bad it's the weekend so most likely have to wait till Monday before it's delivered.

 

@Bronsky

If you are searching for a speaker for the 3820TG.

Simple call or write an email to [email protected].

Tel: +49-7161-6066-160
Fax: +49-7161-6066-170

It's the german resailer shop for replacement parts for Acer Laptops and linked on the german Acer page.

If I buy it for you, you have to pay the german vat and 2 times the cost for the shipment.

 

Ok, I got my 3820TG now. Its setting up right beside. Mine is also the silver version (very glad I got that one. It does attract fingerprints but not as much as the black). So far all seems fine.

I ran into a little problem tho. I was gonna by an external casing at my local store for the already installed 320gb drive cause I bought a separate Momentus XT. However in the manual for the external casing it says the drive needs 2 usb ports to be working (otherwise it doesnt get enough power). Im quite sure my girlfriend owns a drive that only need 1 usb port to be driven... However hers aint a casing with a drive put into it. She bought it directly as an external drive. Does anyone know if EVERY external casing needs 2 usb ports to be driven?

 

Yes i posted about this a few days ago and now its lost in the depths of this thread. Its the sound drivers i think. I've updated the realtek HD driver and i think it has gone away for now at least.

An update on my i5 overclocking experiences. The first bios this unit came with seemed for stable for overclocking. I ran a crazy 176 bus for a while but 3 threads crashed in prime95. However I updated to the 5/24 1.13 bios silly me. Does anyone have a copy of the older March 1.13 bios or any older bios?

Anyway I've managed to find my maximum stable fsb at 168 Mhz, ran prime95 non stop while doing other stuff etc for over an hour and no thread errors or lock ups and she maxed out at 92 degrees. Not bad at all if you think about the overclock (Remember my ambient temps are in the low 30's, very hot)

So far I've reached 9912 3dmark06 points not sure if we can break the 10,000 mark here.

I'm really impressed with the how well and stable this unit overclocks. Just over 3Ghz at x 19 multiplier and at turbo boost 3.36ghz



ah and so far no glue effect Mac

Love this Acer

 

Nope, on most laptops 1 USB is sufficent. However on desktops you may find the front USB-s to be underpowered to an external HDD, and either you need both of them, or you can connect it to the backside of the PC.

BTW can you post pics of the silver 3820tg?

 

Ah really? So maybe in the manual they were talking about desktops and not laptops usbs ports? Maybe I should buy one and find out. But I really really dont want to end up using 2 of the 3 ports on this Acer for an external drive.

Edit: Yeah I might be able to upload some pics later but right now I dont know how to and installing my Acer also comes first .

 

To: Hendrickson or anyone else who has switched hdds. How did you get the screws to release from the holes? Im having problems with one screw. I simply cant get it outta the goddamn hole. ;/

EDIT: NM DELETE OR DISREGARD ABOVE QUESTION .

 

The power consumption is not related of the case, it's related to the drive you put inside. The more power-hungry the drive, the less likely it is to work on a single USB port. I don't know about the specific drive you intend to put in the case, but, for instance, 5400 RPM drives normally require less power than 7200 RPM ones.

 

A normal "2,5 laptop drive won't pull more power than a single USB port can deliver, that is, if the USB port deliver it's specified amp rating (~500 mAh). USB hubs and so forth tends to lower the power output in USB ports (shouldn't be the case on a laptop). The low power in USB ports is the reason mobile phones and similar takes longer to charge from such ports, than from a normal charger and a wall outlet. Larger "3,5 drives, especially older ones, may easily need more power than a single USB port can deliver, thats the reason they often have their own power supply.

Mac

 

Ok, that means that I can safely buy that external casing anyway . Thanks alot guys you are the best!

Edit: I also made recovery cds by using Virtual CD. Then I shared them on the 3820TG so I could grab them on to my desktop and burn em from there. Very nice .

 

By the way guys, real nice thread!

Am just about to buy my own 3820TG. The only model sold here in the Czech Republic is the 434G64MN (core i5 430M, HD 5650), I wish I could get the 450M but I guess it'll do... I can always swap it for an i7 620M in a year or so when prices go down!

Anyway I'll keep you guys posted when I get it regarding overclockability and all.