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

I have a small problem I hope someone can help me with. I am going to return my 3820TG, but the seller charges a 700 NOK fee ($105) for resetting and testing the computer if it's been started. Needless to say, I want to avoid this. I have only tried the computer for a couple of hours, so I think that's fair. I need to reset the computer, so that when started, it appears never to have been started. I know I can reset to factory settings, but can I do so without having the computer restart, going into the setup process for "first startup"? I want to reset to factory settings and shut down, so that the computer is ready for first startup.

Also, I upgraded the BIOS to version 1.13. I should probably revert the BIOS to the version the computer was shipped with. Anyone know which version this was (I don't remember), and where I can get it?

 

Hi guys.How would u rate the display quality ? I've been hearing different stories,mostly on the negative side,though. A friend owns a Timeline 4810 ,and though the colours are a bit washed-out, I wouldn't say it's horrible. So what do you owners think ? Thanks

 

Ah well, guess it's not such a big deal, it's possible to get a USB UMTS card instead, isn't it?

 

Depends on usage and how picky you are. If you think the display on the 4820TG is good enough, then you will have no problems with the 3820TG's display, which should be the same, only smaller. The display really shows it's weakness in dark scenes in games and video. The contrast is clearly very poor (grayish blacks), and the poor viewing angles cause some color inversion in the corners of the screen, even when you are sitting right in front of it.

 

Can someone tell me the turbo frequency of the 450M? Is it the same processor as 520M, except for VT-d and AES support?

This Intel 450M case is crazy, more and more laptops are shipped with this processor, while this processor is officially still non-existing. On Intel Processor Finder website there is 0 result for 450M, and I could not find any official information about its turbo.

Is 450M the same as 520M, which means 2.40 Ghz -> 2.933 Ghz, or something else?

 

Someone please do something cool with this PLL.

 

Is it not possible to calibrate?

I hear most people dont get the best out of their HDTVs, until they calibrate it?

Wouldnt it make sense that there is some programs that can improve the color gamma? but I guess that does not have anything to do with black and white, as they are not colors. hmmm.
I thought that black levels was the easiest thing to achieve on a display? why would it be hard to make black, black?
wouldnt it be harder to make them lighter - like when a monitor dies, its always going darker and darker over time. I always thought the brighter the colors, the better.
Or of course, you want natural colors...


Which reminds me... how low refresh rate does a laptop display have?

Why is it that LED displays have such poor viewing angles? they use less energy and are brighter, and cheaper to make, right... but why?

 

Where did you get your manual? Cost? Thanks.

Bronsky

 

I buy it at https://www.manualsparadise.com/ShowProductsForModel.do?model=M82887234 for 19.50$.

The manual seems not to be the lastet version, because the last models are not listed und the displays in the replace lists came not from AUO.


For a week or two I saw in these forum a thread with a lot of the service manuals, can anyone give my the to these thread. I didn't find it last night.

 

These guys disassemble a 3820 with an i7-620M to replace thermal paste. Could be worth a look.

http://www.mobile01.com/topiclist.php?f=232&p=1

 

Ok, thanks. I meant in fact I knew last year´s model the4810T- could it be the screens of the current series are different ?? Has anyone seen the 10 series side by side with 20 series ?

 

For some reason, I can never see the pictures on the Chineese websites. Did you read the part that discussed adding a USB 3.0? My translation was hysterical. A lot about inorganic material (old paste ) and little brothers. I'll have to DL the pics when I get home. I have the feeling that these little units are going to be modded quite a bit.

Very informative article. Thanks ... it was a great find. It looks like somebody else thought that the I7 would benefit from new thermal paste. I did not see the results anywhere ... did you? It will be interesting to see if there is any improvement (at least they can save me the trouble if it doesn't do anything).

Bronsky

 

I second this notion;D

 

I haven't seen them side by side, but I have seen them both, and I don't think there is any difference to the screen. They are both equally mediocre.

 

Haha, yeah the translation was indeed about inorganic material and little brothers. They did show the temperature differences before and after, and I think it was 2-3 C (idle) only. Good to see that the CPU indeed was replaceable. And interesting to see the dual fan/heatsink design. Some guy there had a plan for USB 3.0, but the translation is so bad so it's hard to understand.

The 3DMark06 score was over 7,600, so I think with this CPU one could maybe get close to a "dream limit" of 10,000 if overclocking the 5650 as well. Someone mentioned increasing the voltage to the 5650 to reach higher clocks, not sure if that will help.

I think they disassembled a Singapore model.

 

holy s**t, aint that like over 1000 points more than the i5 420 version?O_O

I didnt even think 3D mark 06, cared about CPU that much!

 

We think that is the difference between the speeds of the HD5650 and the HD5730. I missed the part about the voltage increase. I guess I was too focused on inorganic matter.

A change of 3 deg. C at idle would make it worth it. Even if the margin did not change at the high end (did they test the temps under load?) that would bring the top temp of 87C to a less frightening 84C. Increases the throttling margin by 17% (87C-104C vs 84C-104C) and probably leaves room to OC a bit.

I'm not sure why they used the cross method. Is that the one recommended for the I7? I thought it was the spread.

Bronsky

@luffytubby - yes there is a component of 3DMark06 that reacts to increases of CPU power.

 

I guess they used 3dmark06 "default" resolution of 1280 x 768.

i5-430m + HD5650 gets around 7300-7400 at this resolution, so bit over 7600 seems like an reasonable increase for an i7-620m.

 

i5-430M gives almost 7,400 according to Hendrickson (first page). The model on the chinese site was basically 7,700 with the i7-620M. I think that with some optimized drivers and heroic overclock on the 5650, one should get very close to 10,000. And if managing to overclock the CPU itself, the easier. However, someone needs to report that PLL to the SetFSB guy, or something.

 

I've broken 10k mark with core i5-430m and overclocked HD5730, so with a bit luck on an overclockhappy HD5650 it's fully possible. Asus X77JA, i5-430M, HD5730 @ 800/1100MHz

 

I just got 7451 points in 3DMark06 on an i5-430m + HD5650, no OC.

 

I assume you overclocked your CPU as well, right?

 

The race is on. I sure wish I had something to overclock.

Bronsky

 

So I think I solved the first issue. Just quickly shut off the computer just as it's restarting before first time setup. However the setup skips the language selection dialog that I got the first time I started the computer. Is it not possible to set the language after a factory reset?

Second issue still valid. Anyone know whether it's possible to download an older BIOS version? (They probably won't check that, so that's probably not so important.)

 

Not quite sure, thought I had already upgraded to latest bios which doesn't support CPU overclocking when I tested it, but I might be wrong, especially when looking at CPU score.

I can do an quick retest now Bored anyway.

 

No I don't think it's possible to select language more than once.

Also I don't think BIOS version should matter.

Forresten - send PC'en til meg i stedet

 

Then it might be difficult to avoid the 700 NOK fee, huh?

Regner med det siste var ment som en spøk, men hvis du vil kjøpe den, er det bare å sende meg en PM.

 

What store charges 700 NOK anyway, elkjøp/lefdal? Not had such fees with komplett at least.

 

Hi, nice to see some i7 in 3820tg ive got few questions about it though:

a) is there a bigger cpu fan with i7 3820tg to handle the heat?
b) bronsky you say theres 3 degrees increase with i7 thats still safe right ? How much do you guys think i7 will decrease the battery by ?
c)is it worth getting i7 or better to upgrade i5-540m which almost has same clocks ?

Im concerned most about battery decrease as i'd like to do that backlid keyboard mod which probrably drecreases about half an hour, but dont really want i7 to take another half or an hour. Thanks a lot!

 

The cooling system is the same no matter what CPU is used. No I was saying that the chineese article says that new paste decreases idle temps by 3deg C. Even if that does not translate to anything more than 3C in turbo mode (I couldn't make heads or tails from that portion of the article) that 3 degrees would take the recorded temps of 87C (I forget whose it was but it was in a 30C room) and take it down to 84C. That might leave room for OC'ing the I7.

In the back of my mind, I am thinking that the I5-540M might actually prove to be a better OC'er than the I7. But, that would only be the case if the I7 hit its max temp of 104C when oc'd. I see no evidence of that. Acer insider says that there was an I5-540M model in Singapore (of course) so there should be no problem putting either an I5-540M or an I7-620M. As far as battery, the I7 is far less efficient than the I5. The extra cache seems to take its toll.

Bronsky

 

NetOnNet. It's totally outrageous. It's almost 10% of the price of the computer. The worst part is, I don't see how they are allowed to do this. "Angrefristloven § 15" clearly states that the seller has to pay back what the customer originally paid (within 14 days of receiving the item). I don't see that leaving any room for them to demand any kind of fee.

 

Yeah looks like I had overclocked CPU in that test. Still can almost best 10k mark though. core i5-430m HD5730 @ 820/1150MHz

 

Yes, the 1MB more of cache take the energy.

 

You can't even view the picture after you click those little links that says "click here to display pictures" in Chinese? The poor guy has HDD DOA, even though he planned to replace it with Intel SSD anyway. Funny he complained about Sony Z117 being over-priced, coming from two IBM X's.

The USB 3.0 mod theory is interesting, but you lose the mini PCI-E for the 3.5G and the Express Card. May not be a good trade for everyone, even if it works.

 

How far did you oc your CPU? Did you measure any heat rise when you OC'd the CPU?

 

Only bios 0204 allowed overclocking and only up to 5% for the Asus X77JA, at 5% overclock (5% FSB increase) the temp got 1C or so higher during prime, so hardly noticeable.

 

Are there any pictures of the 9 cell version 3820 TG because I didn't found any It's the only model in my country with Ati 5650 GPU and I really want to know where are the last 3 cells going : underneath the laptop or in the back as most of the laptops

 

Here is a video of the 9 cell. It sticks down under the notebook and lifts it up.
It's amazing the amount of information in these threads.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6264930-post2753.html

Bronsky

 

so the way i see it is when u replace thermal paste on i7 it accually doesnt heat up so much compared to i5s yea? I've read that new mac with i7 goes over 100c which is real bad. Any word on 3820tg with i7 equipped on any german or other EU laptop websites ?

 

No. Outside of Singapore the I7 has been seen in the 4820TG only (Il Diavalo in Germany). We have seen model numbers of an I7 version of the 5820TG coming to North America. No 3820TG's spotted outside of Singapore. I would bet there are still a couple of models at Firdouse if you want to try to import one from there. If I could get a 5650 model, I would try to upgrade the CPU myself (still not sure if I would go with the I5-540M or the I7-620M).

Bronsky

 

how did u manage to do that ? did u use setFsb? thought the processors would be locked like my p8400 (i found the ICP on the motherboard but once i changed clocks and hit apply they would go back to normal), can you push it higher?

 

would you be able to know how to solve this problem? seems that options under "Switchable Graphics Settings" are missing. I have this problem since day one from its preinstalled OS 32 bit, now I have it running under 64 bit. drivers installed considering hendrick's directions on page 1 for gpu. i can't run my ati gpu when in battery mode. yes i can choose high performance setting but it does not really max out its capacity. under this case, ati goes to a default clock speed of 300/300. and pci-e link width is at x1 not x16. but when plugged in to ac/charging, everything works perfectly in terms of gpu. ati boosts to x16 and can be comfortably oc'ed.

so im thinking, the bug seems to be on the ati catalyst driver itself as it is not showing the options where you can choose the preferred gpu when in battery mode or when charging. you can see this info by clicking help on that window, says there you can check or uncheck the options.

on other note, here's my latest 3dmark gpu oc'ed @ 650/1050. thanks hendrick for all the info and for putting up this thread for the fans and the not so fans of 3820tg. nice lappy we got here!

 

Good job guys! So much info being posted its great!

 

My graphics settings look the same, but I can switch between the ATI and Intel cards just fine. Don't really understand your issue here.

And I had something similar to your PCI speed issue, and I solved it by reinstalling the ATI card, but keeping the old Control Center that came with the Acer driver pack and only updating the driver itself to 10.5.
You might also wanna check Windows energy saving settings for when it's on battery power, there's some options for PCI-E and the graphics in there. Oh, and check the ATI Powerplay settings in the CCC.

 

What about reading a few posts up?
This post

 

hendrickson again thanks for all the info about 3820tg ive got one question for you (;

Now that you have acer are you still going to use your netbook ? if yes what for ? thx

 

Wow this is the fastest updating thread of all the thread's I've subscribed to. Every day I get back from work, theres like 7 pages to read here, compared to the 1-3 pages added to other threads, lol. The pictures make this lappy look sh*tty. However, the videos we've seen make it look really high quality. Thanks guys.

 

Yes, but USB UMTS cards tends to be annoying to use. There's big USB UMTS card coming out of your machine and you need to watch it or you can break the card and USB port. And you need to stick it in and out everytime you put your laptop somewhere.. It just isn't practical

 

So I went to see the 4820 and it has fairly substantial screen flex and moderate keyboard flex. Unfortunately the models in HKG only carry 2 gB of RAM as well and it is probably 2 DIMM x 1 gB so I would need to buy 2x2gB to get 4gB =(.

Anyone have any ideas for comparable laptops in the $800-$1200 range? I may ask around some more.

 

m11x

envy 14

sony vaio z

Asus has a 14'' with good graphics.


that's the only thing I can think of. its not common with good graphics in subnotebooks.