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

Double post

 

I tried but it won't react when I try to install it...

 

Well when you just get your new lithium battery, you should recharge it to full and then run it down to around 10% and do this three time. That should setup your battery to it's best status.

And 4-5h is a bit too fast for just internet, but you are on highest brightness. You never really reach the hours the laptop claimed. Most of the time you will get 75-90% max out of the time they claimed they can do.

The 8 hours thing, or Asus 10 hours thing is to set the brightness really low and make most of the hardware on power saving in order to get to those number.

 

Warning: Might sound newbie

I have installed a new hdd in my 3820tg, however, I can't get the WLAN to work. Is it possible to format my new hdd and do a "ctrl c" on my old drive, which I can connect via USB and "ctrl v" it into the new harddrive???

Sorry, but I'm kind of new to these things..

 

Ok, thanks for the answer

 

You can't copy the OS to a new drive, you have to install it.

 

Ok, thanks.. Anyone got any ideas on how to get my Wlan to work then?

 

If you've got an external case you can clone the drive with a partitioning tool, e.g. Acronis True Image.

 

i7-620m owners did u get a FPS gain buy upgrading to i7 from i5? Bad company 2 is on my mind.. if you could share gaming performance with us it would be awesome. cheers

 

Installed WLAN driver?
Installed Launch Manager?
Press FN + F3?

 

@Bauer perhaps you have a different WLAN card? Where is your unit from. Some folks purchasing from China have the intel card. Easy to identify, it is accesible by removing the back panel. In device manager you should also be seeing a ? or unknown network interface device. Right click it and see if it gives any info in its properties. I had no trouble installing my WLAN driver after a fresh WIN7 Ult 64 install because I saw I had the Broadcom device when I was replacing my hard drive. I installed the Broadcom driver and then Launch Manager. All seems to be working. Good luck to you.

 

I've tried to install the broadcom drivers but nothing happens, they don't even load, the atheros ones didn't work. I Will try to download the broadcom drivers from acers website. I don't have access to à screwdriver atm so i can't check which card i have.

Thank you though

 

Just want to confirm something with OC'ing the CPU. All I have to do is get the shareware version of SetFSB, select the g73 clockgen and hit "Get FSB"? Then if I get no error, that means my unit is overclockable?

 

Bronsky, I confirm there is a refresh of the 3820tg i5 with 5650 model. I was asking prices at my local stores here in Singapore, and thinking it was the normal i5-450m model I asked if they could lower the price. They said not much for this model but more for an older model. Puzzled, and the salesman said I was looking at a i5-520m model.

I went ok, here's a newer model! But still the prices I got was out of budget(for both models), except for one shop. I probably would go back to get it early next week.

Confirmation: http://www.acer.com.sg/acer/product...8e.c2att101=-1&CRC=2759084358#wrAjaxHistory=1

Now..what is the performance difference between a i5-450m & a i5-520m?

 

Either Freeware = ICS9LPRS365BGLF
or Shareware = G73...

 

Thanks.

Then it looks like my unit is overclockable. Now, I'm assuming that the freeware version can be use for overclocking to a certain extent right? If yes, then I need some one to teach me how to use setfsb, lol. I'm too use to bios overclocking, not sure what to do with this here.

 

Do it like this for freeware....

You can try lower down the one 0F(97) to 96 or 95 to increase the FSB...

 

There is a performance difference between the two but from a gaming perspective, it is slight. The I5-520M has a significant advantage for business users like me. Nice to see that they are comin gup for sale. Thanks.

Bronsky

 

The Atheros does not control the wireless lan. In my unit, it is the broadcomm unit. Did you back up your drivers with eRecovery before you started? You should be able to just reload those drivers and your machine should be factory. Otherwise, you have to find out what kind of wireless card you have before you can confirm which driver you need.

You don't need a screwdriver. Go to Control Panel > Device Manager > Network adapters. If there is a generic one listed you can click on it and go to Details then in the dropdown menu, click on Hardware ID and your card will be identified in the space below.





Bronsky

 

Hey Bronsky, why will 520m give business users a significant advantage???

 

Yes, it will boost your productivity by 30% over the course of six months, raise your profit margins by 44%, worker morale by 50%, double your share prices, and help you expand your market base.

No, really, i5-450M and i5-520M are like the same thing.

 

Ah! Weedhopper. Not so fast.

Here is a comparison of the features in the I5-450M and the I5-520M. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6408670-post55.html There are actually some of the elements of the Comm Suite missing from this analysis, re: certain abilities to handle email, etc., faster. But, I deal with AES encrypted materials and could use the 520M's extra speed. AES is finding its way into many Mil Spec programs, banking programs, etc.

There is a good writeup that I can't lay my hands on right now. I think I posted it in the Arrandale thread.

Bronsky

BTW, Min2209 you forgot that it also reduces your taxes by 35%.

 

I tried using 2 different ISOs from that list with and without the all-versions cracked and when i entered my cdkey, it wasn't valid at all. It didin't even go into the install segment of the installation process, therefore i couldn't do the phone activation.

When i downloaded a OEM version W7, the cdkey worked. From the OP of that thread, he states the the eg.cfg editor only allows certain cdkeys to work. I think that's an indication that it will unlock all retail version of windows such as Ultimate, Professional, Home. I dont think OEM is included

It would make sense that Acer would use OEM W7 since they install masses of copies of windows onto these HDD from a very few disks. They would just use the cdkey sticker and slap them on the underside. Why would acer use retail versions of W7 on these HDD? And have you actually bought the the 3820tg and used the cdkey with a version of W7 from that list of ISOs?

 

Lol ok. Well, I don't know how much heavy work typically gets done on an ultra portable, I thought businesses generally use desktop workstations for that sort of thing.

 

You're right, Acer uses OEM W7. However I'm pretty sure that Bronsky and Hendrickson both used ISOs from that list, maybe they can comment.

 

I used the win 7 home premium OEM CD I bought for my desktop, just used the Acer key and installed the acer license file afterward. No problems.

Might very well be that an retail win 7 iso won't accept OEM keys, dunno.

 

I bought my unit to be my mobile workstation.

 

I will say that I don't own a 3820tg and have no experience with how Acer deals with Windows licenses, but I imagine they take the same route as Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others, and use OEM SLP activation for their machines. I personally have dealt with reinstalls on many computers made by those 3 manufacturers, and have never had a problem using the COA key (on the sticker) with generic 7 (or Vista, if it was an older computer) DVDs.

That said, some googling seems to indicate this: "For the DVD ISO images, the only difference between a Windows 7 RTM retail ISO and Windows 7 RTM OEM ISO is at source/ei.cfg file [Channel] heading, which specifies either Retail or OEM channel."

I also imagine (but am not entirely sure, since I haven't tested this on any computer except my own) that this restriction is only an issue when you're entering your key during installation. If you choose to skip inputting a key and wait until installation is completely finished before entering it, I don't think Windows cares at all about OEM vs Retail, as long as your key matches whatever edition (Pro, Home Premium, Ultimate, whatever) you have. But of course, I could be wrong.

 

I made a clean install of windows and now i need to activate by phone?

 

Did you use the key on the sticker on the laptop? If you did then usually you have to call (didn't used to be this way, but Microsoft changed the way it all worked a few years ago). It shouldn't be a big deal, just tell them you were doing a reinstall or something to that effect.

 

Yea i used the key on the sticker. It says "0 day until automatic activation. Activate Windows now". So in 0 day it activates automaticly so i don't have to call them or what? :O

 

Hey Bronsky,

I found a discussion on a Dell site using the Broadcom Wifi, Apparently there is also a power management option you have to disable under the advanced tab (Minimal power usage) which was thought to also be affecting performance particularly when on battery.

 

Yea but Acer's epower program is really wacky. If you use the factory power options (i.e. balanced ... ), it resets the changes to the default settings as soon as the program starts up again on boot. It drives me nuts. I made a custom configuration that worked for awhile, but it keeps getting reset. Hendrickson can't seem to uninstall it. I'm considering doing another clean install and just using the power settings in Win 7.

Bronsky

The only real problems I have with my computer are the lack of an EStat/USB combo port and the ePower program.

 

I guess you didn't see this on the sticker page? http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...rks-tweaks-mods-upgrades-162.html#post6465732

Bronsky

 

Nope, i missed that. I think i'll try activate by phone tomorrow and see if it works. But if my 3 days are over i might have to reinstall windows? :O

Thanks

 

Ugh, I did not know Epower was resetting everything. What a PITA. BTW did my first set of benchmarks with my machine, just under 7900 in 3dmark 06, so far the machine has been rock solid. Will have to test the wifi this weekend.

 

is the SPDIF output of the 3820tg optical or coaxial? - it doesn't really specify. would a mini toslink work, or do I need the 3.5mm to rca cable?

 

it's optical.. i use a 3.5mm toslink cable to connect my 5820TG's spdif out into my logitech z680's to get 5.1

 

anyone got pics of the silver lid as opposed to the black one?

 

^ http://forum.notebookreview.com/6484843-post1896.html

 

Am I the only one that likes the black a whole lot more than the Silver?

Bronsky

I like my computer so much that each new feature that comes out on it, like the availability of the I5-520M in Taiwan, makes me want to get another one.

 

Me too, Since i cannot seem to uninstall this ePower rubbish. A clean install once again would fix it for good....

No I prefer the black look, more business like. Also the i5 520m would be a nice one for me to overclock? Since I don't think the i7 620m is clocking over 140Mhz and temps too high. All the i7 620 owners that overclocked have never come back to us with speeds or temps. They just go quite. So it much be bad in both departments.

 

You might be right. The OC'd midrange I5 has outperformed the I7 so far.

Bronsky

 

Why don't you just disable the ePower service?

 

You won't have to reinstall windows. If phone activation does not work I think you can overwrite the key you put in with the SLMGR commands. I've never done it that way, but I don't see whey it would not overwrite whatever was previously entered.

Bronsky

 

Ok thanks.
And btw... now it says 27 days to activate. I guess after that i'll get the black desktop background.

 

Although the silver lid looks cleaner, the blacks look better IMO. The E6410 I posted pics of also has a silver lid, but the previous E6400 unit with it's black lid looked way better.

Wonder when and with what pricing the 5xx series hit the EU, looking forward to it.

A lot of brands offertheir notebooks with 520M/540M, pity Acer can not ATM.

 

Thanks, I finally got it to work. I did the eRecovery on the drivers but something must have gone wrong. I downloaded the Broadcom drivers from the Acer website and installed them. everything works flawless now

 

Is there a way to permanently disable it? Or would you have to do it every time you booted up with task manager? I'm way too OCD for that.

Has anyone had their unit operating on an external monitor through the HDMI with the lid shut without any ePower issues? Also, is there such a thing as a wireless HDMI dongle? I'm using a smartboard that has HDMI "in" capability but it will be 25' or 30' from the computer. Would like not to use a cable if possible. Presentation in 2 weeks and I'm trying to work the bugs out.

Bronsky

 

Yep, just disable it via msconfig or services.msc

It works with ePower disabled and "do nothing" in power options regarding closing the lid. The external screen just turns black for a second, but that should be ok.