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

This thread gets more attention than the 3820T thread, so will ask here.

I recently put Skype on my 3820T and 5920G (circa 2007) computer, both using Acer Crystal Eye Webcam.

The video from the 5920G shows up on my 3820T way better than vice versa. Even when running the Cystal Eye Webcam utility movements are much clearer on the 5920G, whereas on my 3820T if I move even a bit the video stutters incredibly.

Is it possible that my 5920G has a much better webcam built in? Seems odd ...

I did do a clean install of Windows on both computers, maybe I've installed an incorrect driver for the webcam on the 3820T?

 

I've tried finding an answer to this question but there are just too many posts. Is the Intel GMA supposed to be visible in "Device Manager" when I select High-performance GPU (5650)? Because when I select Power-saving GPU, only Intel GMA is visible and 5650 is hidden/inactivated.

 

when in high performance both ATI and Intel HD should show up. In power saving mode, ONLY Intel HD will show up.

 

Ok, thanks

 

Since I installed the new ATI drivers from Acer I get lower fps on these tests with hardware acceleration enabled in Firefox 4 b4. With the older drivers from Acer and Catalyst 10.7 installed over them, I got constant 60 fps on the FishIE Tank test with 20 fishes.

EDIT: It has nothing to do with drivers. Selecting "Discrete" in BIOS increased the fps back to 60.

 

i still dont understand how the laptop should be able to achieve 6.7 rating for Graphics desktop usage with Aero package for the Windows System Rating. I'm still getting 5.0 and have used all the methods for installing graphic drivers.

I guess maybe it was overclocked???

 

What is so odd about it? I've know houses built in the 1960s that would put many of the McMansions built today to shame.

Nothing like a little cost cutting nowadays to result in cheaper-built products. Just ask Toyota.

 

Have you tried setting ATI PowerPlay to "Maximize Performance"? I get 6.7 with stock speeds.

 

zsero thanks for the help!

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Feiyue
How is the 5470 for gaming?

What graphics card do you have?
Your first reply of "Gaming is superb" was in response to a poster asking about the 5470, while the vast majority here have the HD5650 equipped 3820tg. You need the HD5650 version to get 6.7 in both WEI video scores at stock speeds.

 

Yup under PowerPlay it is on maximize Performance when its plugged in.

 

Strange.. I said in an earlier post that I got lower fps (~30% lower) with the latest ATI drivers from Acer but a couple of hours ago I reinstalled them and I'm back to normal fps. Maybe you have similar problem although you said you've tried reinstalling drivers. I can't think of anything else at the moment.

 

Finally installed 3810 USA keyboard into my 3820TG, . I bought this keyboard long ago when I tried to import my 3820TG from Germany with the QWERTZ keyboard.

I no longer have to look at the additional Taiwanese characters

Hopefully in the future I can do the Bronsky / Hendrickson inspired backlit 3810 keyboard mod.

 

You sent it for repair? i hope they fix it for you.

On the three laptops i have imported ( one for me ) and two for my friends.. and the other two i had from staples canada.

all have experienced these shifting brightnes issues, one of my friends can't even tell its happenign, though i can and the other guy.

though at max it's fine, a bit below max it's fine, - right in the middle it starts to happen.

 

I just noticed here the version I got is the 5470. Damn North American version have the crappy graphic card.

Oh well I still have my Dell Studio 1555 with ATI Radeon HD 4870

 

The characters are Mandarin. It's the official language of Taiwan too. Is it too much to expect people to get their languages right?

 

Actually No, the characters are not Mandarin, they are Chinese and or Chinese simplified.

Mandarin is what some of the people of Taiwan speak but some people in Taiwan speak Taiwanese.

The written language is similiar but in Taiwan they still use the Old Chinese Characters, and the simplified chinese is used on the mainlands.

 

The second port is there in device manager, but does it work?

 

Thanks for pouncing on my post. Do you reply to grammar and punctuation mistakes too? Have a nice day.


P.S. - Thanks, lastdon, I actually learned something useful from your reply.

 

Hello!

Just got my Acer3820TG after posting in the 'What Notebook should I buy' thread.
It's actually my first Acer

Got it from Hong Kong.
I asked the shop to replace the HDD inside by a 120GB OCZ SSD.
They installed it and told me that the recovery wouldn't work because it's not the original HDD.
After asking him what to do in case of recovery the salesman recommended I get Acronis True Image to backup the starting settings.
He refused to give the ISO he used to install Windows apparently because he's not allowed to do so...

Haven't had the chance to use the PC yet. I'm going to leave it on charge tonight for 10h for the battery and start using it tomorrow.

Sorry for the long intro, my questions:
- Should I just reinstall Windows cleanly? If so can I use the serial that comes with the notebook?
- I have the original HDD which I have put in an external box to use for data while traveling. Should I keep the hidden partition in it?
- Any other advice?

Thansk for reading to the end

 

Hi, I just bought this 3820TG with i5-460M yesterday and I already backup the system image and drivers (also apps) using eRecovery and VirtualCD.
Also I already backup the activation license using this (got tokens.dat, and 2 pkeyconfig.xrm-ms). Am I forgetting something?

I'm planning to clean install this laptop because it's in Chinese language and sometimes it has clicking sound, probably from WDC HDD (more info: here). And of course I don't like the bloatware...

I have LGD023F display, and BIOS V1.13, as Praetorb has mentioned it before. Sorry for my ignorance, does OS language affect these drivers / system image that I created? Because I want to download these drivers from Acer website right now... just to be sure and updated...

Does anyone have used the Alt+F10 to recover your factory settings? Could I use this feature after I clean install the Windows? (I will keep the hidden partitions if I can use this, or maybe not cause it's in Chinese)

Thanks for reading this
Next: OC this beast... (still learning...)

 

Yea ... that's what he's saying. He already proved that the 09h/06 test I found was completely wrong. He has a unit that, accoring to that test, should need a pinmod to OC (09h/06 "1") but he has an OC that is almost identical to mine. He'll have to explain it better, but I think he's changing the registry through trial-and-error.

Bronsky

 

I don't know how your system runs with those settings but it obviously does.

Bronsky

 

hey you mind taking a few pictures of your display? some close up and some from a normal operating distance?

so you already made a system image with the chinese language? or are you giong to make one after a clean install?

 

How does it fit?
Was it easy to snap into place?
Is the quality any better than the original?

Nice photoshop on the Avatar. How are you liking your 3820TG these days? Still can't believe how lame Computeruniverse was on the Li-battery issue.

Bronsky

 

The drivers work with every OS. I would not use the drivers from the Acer site. I would use the one's that you backed up from your system. Yours may be newer than the ones on the site.

You will need a recovery disk if you haven't made one yet. Then you can loose the recovery partition.

Interesting to hear that you have the same bios that our units come with.

Bronsky

 

Acer seems to have uploaded BIOS 1.18 for 5820TG yesterday.

BIOS v1.18
1. Fixes CPU cycling notify issue.
2. Add solution for Android Smart phone issue.
3. Adds support Atheros BlueTooth BU12. (Vid=0x0489, Pid=0xE02C)
4. Adds VGA temperature protection function.

So how do you recommend I flash the BIOS in DOS? I remember flashing my desktop PC motherboard with some HP bootable USB thing a couple of years back. Would that work or do you have a better suggestion?

PS. Does anyone have an idea what #1 could mean?

 

Simple, don't use a 5820TG Bios on a 3820TG!!

 

No I have 5820TG. I'm posting here because the 5820TG and 3820TG are very similar and the 5820TG thread is dead.

 

Uploaded..... not sure how to attach image... doesn't seem to be shown in preview...
closeup1
closeup2
normal

I already made a system image with Chinese language. After I clean install, I won't make one, as I only need the original (factory) system image to claim the guarantee (right?).

If I lose the recovery partition, then I couldn't use the Alt+F10 feature (eRecovery) right? Is these partition needed if you want to claim the guarantee? Are they same as the recovery images?
Btw, I already made them using VirtualCD, 3 system image and 1 drivers and apps....
Maybe I wouldn't delete the partition as they are easier/more convenient to restore the factory than using DVDs... but the extra space would be nice... Hmmm... Dunno

 

The fastest way is to use the windows file and it should works.

Or use the linked files to create an boot stick. Yes, it is the old HP tool.

Link

The file will be 1 month online.

 

Ok thanks.

 

The recovery will be in chinese language on the hidden part.

 

On my first one, it happened every 20 seconds. I returned it right into the shop.
On my second one, it happened every 1 to 5 minutes. I sent it in for repair.

I hope they will _see_ the problem, and change the parts what are needed to be changed.

 

The eRecovery created 4 ISOs. You will need the 4th one, what has the drivers. You actually have newer drivers than the ones on Acer's website. Could you please check your driver verions, mostly what is the ATI drivers version? When I got mine, I uploaded the newest drivers, because they were newer than the web ones. Can you start autorun on the 4th ISO and post a screenshot? I think it contains info about all driver version!

For activation backup, I would recommend ABR backup and restore, it will create only 2 files, I don't know how you got 2 certs.

OS language does not affect drivers nor activation. Do you like your LG display? No flickering, brightness shifting, or visible grid?

The hidden partition and the 3 ISO files are the same thing, I cleaned all partition from my hard drive the moment I saved the ISO files and the ABR backup.

 

No need for Acronis, just the 4 ISO files with VirtualCD and backup the activation with ABR backup and clean install.

 

On my 3820TG the bios update tool was actually totally broken, I had to flash under DOS.

OK, here I just uploaded everything needed for a Flash from DOS using a USB Stick:
http://ifile.it/cthv4ei/HP USB Formatter.rar

Once it took me some time to figure out what kind of DOS files are needed for it, but this one is the most minimalistic thing I could do, what is a very good thing for BIOS flashing, as it only contains two files, COMMAND.COM and IO.SYS.

 

Now, you can delete everything, and just use the DVDs. At least, they are multilanguage.

 

You were faster.

 

As far as I remember, it's using this version, 8.713.3.3000, it's the same as at Acer website I believe.
I'll take the screenshot later... (see below)...

Hmm... I'm following this guide How to Backup and Restore Windows 7 OEM Activation License(Activate Offline On Reinstall) | Most i Want-News of useful computer tips and tricks. They mentioned 1 tokens.dat and 2 certificate, one for 32-bit and one for 64-bit version... So I just back them up...

So far so good... nothing you mentioned above...

*%&$ ^#(%!!! Look what I've done... I just want to try this recovery partition using Alt+F10 and this is what I get after restored the factory image... Will this happen too if I'm using the DVDs?

Code:

BOOTMGR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

Also, after I restore the factory image, my laptop become scorching hot in both exhaust... is this normal?

Update: I already tried to fresh install but no luck... Stuck at this blue screen... It was ok before I do this recovery... OMG...

 

0x00 from 23 to 29 seems to enable the overclocking
0x0f is the multiplier
0x10 is the base rate

Now the fun begins you need to find the right combination of these to values until you find your maximum oc.
Lowering 0x0f results in an higher clock speed, increasing 0x10 also. But you need to change it slowly. My notebook has nice days after some usage with a ton of programs open when it reboots after changing 0x00.So better be safe and close all programs.

These 2,93 Mhz, isn't 4 Core stable under max load. But thats maybe the memory. Using 2,9 MHz runs fine all day under max load.

This are my experiences from trial and error.
Btw. I think this information from tgoode is very useful with the 6th bit.

 

I haven't backed up the recovery partition yet..
I need to buy a usb-drive first.

Actually, instead of burning the 4 DVDs , can you make a recovery usbflash-drive out of an usb-stick? Saves me buying a dvd drive and the DVDs.

A 32GB stick should be enough. Is this feasible?

 

No, you can't.

You can save the iso files but you will not be able to recover ist form the stick.

 

Do you use a cable like this?

12ft Toslink to Optical 3.5mm Male Digital Audio Cable - eBay (item 170483523670 end time Oct-05-10 11:22:34 PDT)

 

Yes it should work.

 

Someone told me that it may have optical and coaxial output on SPDIF. Is this correct or does it only have optical?
I tried to contact Acer, but they didn't know, lol.

Will a cable like this work? http://www.dustinhome.no/DisplayImage.aspx?ImageID=78503 I only have one free coaxial on my receiver

 

So you have a zero in that space (second from the left?). If that is so and tgoode is correct, the original post was correct and the 6th space is the second from the left. I want get this right.

BTW, thanks for the info on the OC'ing. I think I'll be able to push this CPU a bit more now. I am currently 4 core stable up to 3.0ghz and turbo up to 3.3ghz.

Do you have any idea which byte increases the ram clockspeed?

Bronsky

 

Only optical is known.

Coaxial could be, but is technical not very simple and Acer is saving every cent.

 

Try it again.

Have you changed the partitions?

 

Found someone to repair my speaker socket on the mainboard. Thanks again to Just_a_Nick for making it possible to get a replacement speaker. After I upgrade the CPU to the 540M, put a switch on the KB, put new thermal paste and reassemble my unit, I can have that socket easily repaired. I know it's a minor thing but I like my work computer to be perfect. With my ability to OC and the ability to have the speaker repaired, I guess I didn't need a refurbished main board afterall. Saved me $170.00.

Bronsky