Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

Nice find. How nice to finally see a 38X0TG for sale in the US. The first 2 generations skipped us.

@Agrav - liquid nitrogen works well too.

Bronsky

 

What exactly sets off the throttling, and under what kind of conditions does it turn on? I've heard that gaming will do it for sure, but what about other CPU intensive operations such as video conversion and video editing?

I'm extremely excited that the AS3830TG is coming out in the U.S. and will definitely try to pick it up this summer (provided I can find it in stock somewhere of course.)

The only thing that's making me hesitate a little is the throttling issue. Any thoughts as to when an "official" solution will be created, and whether there's anything about it I should take caution of?

 

Purchased a 3830TG from Fry's. Anyone open it up yet?

 

In Taiwan Forums, they have made a 3830TG/4830TG modified BIOs with all menus unlocked. You can change more settings.

[??Bios][??] ??????? - Acer 3830TG-2312G64 [?SSD] - Mobile01

See it using Google Translate.

And someone posted the download link of the modified BIOs:
Acer Aspire TimelineX 3830TG 1.04 UEFI Boot ALL MENUS rr3.rar
Acer_Aspire_TimelineX_3830TG_1.04_UEFI-Boot_ALL_MENUS_rr3.rar

Anyone dares to try the above? I am afraid of bricking my PC. Use the above at your own risk

 

What options available? Can we control the fan speed and throttling? OC?

 

this modded BIOS originally comes from here
and already tested OK on 3830/4830/5830TG.

 

partially, yes.

 

I'm not brave enough to try out a modified BIOS If the reports are positive I may try it, but not for now...

 

I promised a few days ago to post my thoughts on the 3830TG. This is not a review nor some thorough benchmarks and analysis. There aren't a whole lot of reviews on the internet, so maybe this will help some of you out.
I won't post cpu/gpu benchmarks. For that you can always look at this review: Review Acer Aspire 3830TG Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

The specs are in my sig.

Reason for buying
I bought this machine because I was tired of the small 11.6" screen of the 1810TZ (first generation timeline), it also didn't have enough cpu power for photoshopping and lightroom. (A hobby I discovered after buying the machine).
But batterylife was also important to me, and also the screen size. So the 13.3" seemed perfect.

The screen
Ok the screen is not perfect, it's 1366x768, I guess that's pretty normal and acceptable for this screen size, although it would be nice with more options. The viewing angles are also not the best. But this is not a dealbreaker for me. And yes it's glare type.

Build quality and design
I'd say the build quality is definitely better than both the first generation timelines and second generation. Remember though that I've only had the machine for 1 week, so I don't know if it will start to fall apart in 2-3 weeks

Design is always a matter of taste. I can see why some people don't like the blue finish... I do. It's nice to have a machine with a different color, instead of the typical colors we see so often: black, grey (silver).

I do like the display lid hinges, they hold the screen in place, securely.
The chiclet keyboard flexes a little, so if you're OCD about these things, then you won't be satisfied. The left palm rest area also makes a little "clicking" when applying pressure.

If you want to look at the hardware, change it or upgrade it, you only have to remove one screw. I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Ports
I like the USB 3.0 port. I think it's ridicilous how some manufacturers still put out machines without usb 3.0 ports in 2011.
HDMI? check! Card reader? Check! 2 usb 2.0 ports? check!
That's all I need... Ofc you have the other normal ports (mic, S/PDIF etc.)

Bloatware
Omg, I could write an essay about the bloatware on this machine. Luckily it's easy to remove, although it requires patience
I kept the eRecovery, Launch manager (for the FN keys), Video conference manager (I'm not sure if it actually optimizes the webcam, or if it's some marketing thing, but for now I'm keeping it.) Intel turbo boost monitor (If you're a geek like me and want to see when the turboboost kicks in.)

Heat and throttling
Well, yes, this machine get's hot under full load. It becomes a little uncomfortable on the lap under full load. The cpu hovers around 80c-85c degress when using too much juice. While writing this post 35c (nice and cool on the lap .
Yes it does throttle in some games, but I think everyone knows that by now.
The HDD temp. is around 35c right now. My 1810tz was around 40c.

Speakers
I love the speakers, definitely an improvement over standard notebook speakers. You also get some Dolby software to tweak the sound settings. I think it's just some EQ software actually, but the "Dolby" brand makes it look like something big

Battery life
If you've read my posts in this thread, I have a little problem with wear level. Right now it's at 10,22%. Now that's unacceptable for a machine I've had for 1 week!! I'm calling acer support on monday to ask them is going on.
Wifi-on and max brightness, surfing the internet I don't get 9 hours. Maybe 5 hours or something like that. When gaming this number decreases to 1.5-2 hours max.

Conclusion
Without going into detail with benchmarks and stuff like that, I can tell you that I'm pretty happy with this machine. I do hate the wear level problem though, and I'll post my results here, after talking to Acer support. On this forum, there are also reports of increasing wear level. My 1810tz is at 20% now, after 1.5 years of use.
Maybe I just need to use the machine some more, and then the wear level will show some different number? I don't know, we'll see..

 

Thanks for informing the modded BIOs comes from mydigitallife.

Anyone has tried the modded BIOs kind enough to share how to install the modified BIOs?

I am really afraid of frying my 1 day old notebook Thanks!

 

I just flashed the modified bios to my 3830TG and you get a lot of extra options.

I set the throttle temp. to 90c instead of the default 80c and the cpu fan to 60c and 100%.. but when i play a game it still throttles on 80c .. so i think the whole advanced menu is not working properly?

 

Why the BatteryBar shows "282PANASONIC_Li_Ion_ 4000mA" ?
Is it should be 6000?
Showing 11% of Battery Wear..makes me really disappointed with this 3830TG.

It's pretty tempting to try the modded BIOS.. will it break my 3-years Acer SuperCare warranty?

The clear.fi is very useful & exciting, I played some video and music from my music-centric Samsung GALAXY S Captivate to this 3830TG screen so my family can watch & listen to the video & music.

Happily the Dolby Home Theater makes really big difference, is there any way to get it on my 4740G since my 4740G has no OS included, therefore, no Dolby software included.

 

Mine show's that too, it's normal. You have to look at the mWh

My wear is now at 12,25%, this is crazy!!

 

The mWh should be 64.800 mWh ..but it is 57.542 mWh now because of that battery wear..

Is there any high-capacity battery (70.000 mWh?) made by other company? Ow yeah, with installation too, I think it's very difficult to replace the battery..

 

the modder is just "unlocking" the hidden options of Insyde BIOS platform. He doesn't own a x830TG, so he can't guarantee all options work correctly on the specified device.

Also remember, DO NOT touch any option you don't understand.

 

I am wondering if I should wait for the 4830TG or just buy the 3830TG form Fryes. Decisions. Decisions.

I like the size of my sister-in-law's 4820 (which I recommended for her) and I figure the 13.3 might be a little small. I do plan on connecting it to an external monitor when it is home. But 13.3 usually are more expensive than 14...

Might give the 4830 til the end of the month.

 

In Indonesia the price are exactly the same: US$999
(the spec are the same: i5-2410M, GT540M 2GB, 4 GB DDR3, 640 GB HDD)

 

My wear has now increased to 14% in 8 days, something is not right! And yes I did calibrate...
Could the 3830TG owners please post their wear level?

 

my wear is between 2.4% then 0% and now 1.5% (i only used it around 5 times on the battery, and only in epowermode with some webbrowsing/office work, i play games with the AC connected)

(same as my previous notebook - asus ul30, it get better for a while and after that gets stable around 1% and goes downhill with 2% a year from there)

I get around 8:30h on battery, with a discharge ~7.500mW
battery has 63.800 mWh left - i use batterybar pro for my statistics.

 

Did you do a first-time-8-hours charge when you just bought the laptop? Did it interupt (for example, when you move the laptop from one room to another) ?

7500? Wow, I always get more than 8000... what PowerSaving?

 

The uploader said that (my translations) the modified bios is for the 3830 and 4830. It allows for raid configuration, c-state and p-state modification, as well as a ec turbo setting, even though he uses an i3 and has no idea if it works, or if it even means turbo boost in the first place (according to another post, ec turbo is NOT turbo boost, and no one knows what it does). He also said that the raid option should be best left alone as he says that if the 3830 truly supported this option, it should be made available without the need for modifications to enable it. It can also change the fan speeds, throttling temperature as well as the memory space.

EDIT: raid 0 is not supported by the motherboard itself. He also said that modifying some options are very risky and can brick your laptop. The modified bios runs fine on the uploader's laptop with no options changed.

 

Don't know i connected it to the wallsocket when i bought it and started to install everything, and the battery was fullycharged in a while (guess one or two hours) after that i started working on battery.

And you got this little 'P' button in the top right corner, it enables some acer software (epower manager or something) with this on the 'mW' drops a bit.

 

Yap, I activated that 'P' all the time (when on battery power). still over 8000, showing 8932 now. did you remove some bloatware?

 

Did a calibration and now the wear is at 16% #¤%¤&%/((I()/ <-- swearing

When the battery hit 0% it just kept on going for 30 minutes or more. right now I'm charging to 100%, and will se if the wear level will change

They better replace my battery!

 

19% on mine, hey I win 3% over you! *hooray* (sorry I'm a bit crazy because of that crazy battery)

Just sharing, I have just successfully installed Alienware AlienGUIse™ theme on my 3830TG.

Should I replace the equipped HDD with SSD/hybrid (Momentus XT) ? Will it make big difference in general use (other than booting)? Which one is better (in value-for-money), SSD or hybrid?

 

There's a strange problem with NFS11 (NFS: Hot Pursuit 2010) in my 3830TG.

When I start with Intel HD (PowerSmart activated), the game starts successfully.
But when I start with nVIDIA GT540M (PowerSmart deactivated), the game begs for activation.

Anybody know whats the problem with the game & nVIDIA?

 

discharging a li-ion battery till 0% is not a good idea.
always keep them as full as possible and charge them right away back to ~80% or more. And with 8hours+ you will probably never hit 0% in real life anyway.

 

I know that, but you should do it every 2-3 months to calibrate the battery, because the battery loses track of how much charge it holds, over time...

 

what program do you guys to use measure battery wear level on 64bit? batterybar?

 

Yap, I do..

I found another problem again, in System Properties, Task Manager, and Resource Monitor, they all show I only have 2,3-2,4 GB of RAM usable of full 4 GB RAM. In the Resource Monitor, it shows 1683 MB (1,7 GB) of Hardware Reserved on the RAM. What is that? Intel HD Graphics? How do I reduce it? I never play demanding games on Intel HD, hey I have nVIDIA GT540M!

 

Batterycare

link

Batterybar is just as good I think

 

I looked on on Acer's US and German site and it doesn't mention a backlit keyboard anywhere in the specs for the 4830. Can someone who owns the 4830 confirm whether or not it has backlit keyboard? Do the 3830/4830/5830 all have backlit keyboards? My current laptop does not and it is a constant hassle when I'm holding the computer up with one hand and finger typing with the other. I can of course type, but in the case of using one hand a backlit keyboard really helps.


THANKS!

 

My 3830TG has no backlit keyboard. I think Acer never made a notebook with backlit keyboard.
If you want the similar notebook (portable, long battery life, discrete GPU 1GB/more) with backlit keyboard you can go to Sony VAIO SA/SB/SC or Alienware M11x-R3. Or, you can buy a cheap USB reading light

 

I was also searching for a backlit keyboard laptop, but the only one that has one (and got sandy bridge and a gpu below 2kg) is the sony vaio sb/sa and they are twice the price of a timelinex

But i own a 3830tg now and i must say that the keys are more light up in dark places because of the reflecting silver around the keys and the 'raster' below the screen. The light of the screen just reflects on the silver so the keys are better readable. (if i compare it with my previous notetbooks were i always had to turn on some extra light at night or evening)

 

Okay, so here's my experience with the 3830tg: great design and build (except the touch pad, which is a bit strange for me after the Asus), excellent sound and speakers, the screen is not top quality but OK for me, and I have no issues with the little beast at all.

Games tested so far: NFS Shift, Burnout Paradise, Fallout 3, Overlord 2, Sanctum, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Magicka. They all ran on high settings like an angel, played with them hours and no throttling issues at all. The CPU went up around 72C and the GPU to 71C, and after I quit playing it cools down to normal in 6-8 mins. The BIOS version is 1.02 and I bought the machine in Hungary.

I guess I'm lucky.

 

the games you have tested are not heavy for cpu/gpu, try to run games like Bad Company 2

 

I think Acer (or Panasonic) will recall the battery due to the battery wear problem. The battery wear problem is very high now, 23%, Makes me think to burn the battery!

 

I installed a OCZ Vertex 3 SSD in my 3830TG but it is not recognized by the BIOS. Can someone confirm that the vertex 3 is not compatible with the 3830TG? The SSD works in my external usb case so its not dead... Notebook firmware is 1.04.

Thanks
Stephan

 

OK I just updated the nVidia driver as explained in this thread... and the fps in NFS Carbon improves, still lags though.

I installed a 512 GB Crucial M4 in my 3830TG and I have no problem. Maybe the firmware of your Vertex 3 needs to be updated?

 

Is it just me or the 4830's speakers have very low volume? I used to watch movies on half volume with 4820, but now I've to put to to max

Two weeks, my battery wear level only changed from 2.08 to 2.17%, so I don't know what's up with others Acer.

 

The speaker of the 4830 is at the bottom, make sure the bottom speaker grille get enough space for the sound to come out

Did you do a first-time-8-hours-charge?

 

ThrottleStop was very useful for helping to fix the Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue throttling issues but I've hardly seen any testing of this app on the newer Acer models. I went back 50+ pages in this thread and there was some useful information like how to use the ThrottleStop alarm feature to turn off Turbo Boost at 90C but that useful info never made it to the first post in this thread and basically got lost.

ThrottleStop is also one of the most accurate tools for detecting throttling issues but not a single user has posted a ThrottleStop Log File that I could see. If someone has throttling issues then why not run a log file while gaming or stress testing and upload it to MediaFire or send it my way so I can see what's going on.

Throttling has been frequently mentioned in this thread but finding any useful info or useful testing is impossible. Maybe it's time for a new thread dedicated to ThrottleStop and this new generation of throttling Acer laptop problems.

For the heat related part of this problem, has anyone pulled their laptop apart yet and re-did the thermal paste and maybe found a way to improve the snugness of the heatsink to improve cooling?

I've read some users trying to blame the throttling Sandy Bridge issues on Intel but it's not their fault. They are making some great mobile CPUs. It's up to laptop manufacturers like Acer, Asus, HP, etc. to put in some more engineering into their CPU heatsinks and fans and putting proper laptop air flow at the start of the things to do list, not the end. Similar Sandy Bridge Alienware laptops don't seem to have these throttling issues so it is possible.

Sandy Bridge is great technology but from what I've read, it's going to take more than a bios update to fix this so like Gemstone owners, don't hold your breath waiting for Acer. You might be able to set up and use ThrottleStop so this throttling problem is a lot easier to live with.

 

I hope they do recall the batteries, mine is also high, at 17% now. Calling Acer in 2 minutes, stay tuned

EDIT: Talked with a complete d*uchebag on the phone, who knew nothing about batteries. I explained the problem, and he said he will send me an email once he gets an answer from the technical support

 

Please let me know if you have received the e-mail

 

I just buy a 3830TG, the one with 4 Go ram (no choise the other one wasn't available)

I would like to upgrade memory generally i use kingston website to found the right memory, but i'm unable to found the 3830tg

Could somebody tell me if this ram is compatible :

KVR1333D3S9 ( Kingston Technology Company - Kingston Memory Search - Search Results for: KVR1333D3S9/4G)

Thank you

 

Ya, basically I've only drained the battery twice so far. I'm always plugged in. Sometimes when I turn on the laptop, I forget to plug in, so by the time windows load, the battery % goes down to 95% from 100% and then I plug in AC, the wear level changed from 2.17 to 3.15. loading Windows quickly sucks up 5% battery.

 

Hello, I uploaded log snippet during my GTA4 play session on TG3830. You can get it here: TG3830-GTA4-ThrottleStopLog.zip

Some notes:
-The log begins when I paused the game and switched to desktop to run your ThrottleStop tool just in Monitoring mode writing the values to logfile.
-As you can see the CPU is already heated to over 70 degrees because The game was running before the test. Normally(no gaming or other intensive load) the CPU is around 40°C.
-Once the logging started I switched back to the game.
-What might be interesting is that after roughly 2-3 minutes of playing the temperature went up to the 90°C (at 18:29:06 timestamp in the log). From that time I feel the graphics is starting to lag a bit and framerate of the game is going down noticeably(although the game is still playable IMO but not fluent).
-From that time the temperature is going down back to roughly ~70°C while I'm still playing
-around 18:38:18 timestamp in the log I stopped the game and went back to the desktop, from that time you can see the tem is going down back to the 'normal workload'
-If I switch back to the game again(this part is not in the log) after the CPU is cooler the situation is repeating..the game is running fluently for short period of time and when the CPU reaches ~90°C the 'throttling' is turned on again

Let me know if you find this information somehow useful to track the problem or if I should do different test. Thanks!

 

fractalus: Thanks for posting that log file. When the game is running smoothly, the CPU is using the 27 multiplier so is running at about 2700 MHz. That's the maximum turbo speed when both cores are active. The maximum speed when only 1 core is active is 2900 MHz. Your CPU starts out running just as it should.

At 18:29:08 your laptop disables turbo boost and drops down to 2300 MHz (23 multiplier) which is the default speed and then at 18:29:30 it drops down to 1200 MHz (12 multiplier).

12 over 27 means it is running at only 44% of the speed it should be running at if Acer had included a proper cooling solution. They didn't, so they are depending on CPU throttling to keep the CPU from getting too hot. This laptop obviously needs a complete redesign so the Intel CPU can run at its rated speed. The Better Business Bureau should be notified about this common and fraudulent practice of selling laptops that can't run at their rated speed.

If I owned one of these laptops and couldn't return it, I would use ThrottleStop to try and manage the throttling better than what the Acer bios is doing. Running with Intel Turbo Boost on creates too much heat so you might as well turn that off.

With ThrottleStop I'd set up 2 profiles. On your main profile 1, put a check mark in the Set Multiplier box and adjust that so it shows Turbo.

On the second profile, do the same thing but also check off the Disable Turbo feature. What you want to happen now is for ThrottleStop to automatically switch between these two profiles based on your CPU core temperature. The way to do this is to go into the Options window, check the Alarm box and set an alarm DTS temperature of 15. In the Use Profile box enter 2 so it can switch to profile 2 which will slow your CPU down a little by turning off turbo boost. A DTS setting of 15 means the CPU will be 15 degrees away from its built in throttling point or about 85C (100 - 15). When your CPU cools down and gets back under 85C, ThrottleStop will automatically switch back to your main high speed profile without you needing to do anything.

If this works, this will bring you down to the 23 multiplier so your CPU will slow down a little when it gets hot but it won't slow down to a 1200 MHz crawl all at once. 2300 MHz might still be a little too much so you can try lowering the Set Multiplier value down to 20 on the second profile and see if that is a good compromise between performance and heat.

Once you got ThrottleStop set up, click on the Turn On button and run another log file and see if the multiplier is dropping down as much as before.

The built in Intel thermal throttling point for an i5-2410M is 100C. No setting in ThrottleStop can prevent an Intel CPU from throttling if it reaches this temperature so you don't have to worry that you will nuke your CPU by running it at over 90C. That's a big number but it is still within the Intel specification. Intel CPUs have excellent thermal management built into them that can't be over ridden with any software.

Laptop manufacturers should be shot for prematurely throttling a CPU because they are too cheap to design and use an adequate CPU heatsink and fan. They are depending on consumers being too dumb and won't notice when their laptop is throttled down to less than half of its rated performance. Maybe they should refund you half of what you paid for your laptop.

 

unclewebb: thanks for your quick and detailed response! All that makes sense. It's really bad that Acer most probably screwed up that cooling part on otherwise not so bad laptop. Fortunately I'm using the machine mainly for programming and I'm not hardcore gamer anymore (as I used to be in late 80's ;-)) so I can live with that. I'll try to setup the ThrottleStop according to your advice and post results during tommorow.

 

While I'm waiting for Acer to respond on the battery problem, my wear level continues to rise, right now at 21% .... unbelievable