Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

Did you shut down or sleep the notebook? Sleep consumes energy because the RAM is still active. But, even if you sleep the notebook, it won't consumes energy that much.

 

I shut it down... anyway I'm returning it today. I may buy it again I'm pretty sure, because I REALLY like it, it's just the battery that's faulty

 

Finally, Timeline X 4830T arrived here in Uk but I'm glad that I opted for Aspire 5750 for £362.
ACER ACER AS4830T BLUE at cheap prices | PC World

 

I send it back to the store, now let's see if they'll accept it (I think they will). Now I'm using my old 1810TZ, god it feels slow

I really want to have the 3830TG again, so the next few days/weeks I'll be thinking and researching 24/7 on the internet. Buy another, hopefully non-faulty 3830TG or look for alternatives?

OR better yet, forget about it and spend the money on a new DSLR

 

May be you can try on Alienware M11x-R3 or Sony VAIO SA/SB

 

The Alienware is so ugly, it looks like a toy And the Sony is just too expensive, you're paying for the brand.

Guess I'll wait a little more and check out forums to see if the battery situation changes. I could always try a new machine and see if it works

 

If your a student you can get the free xbox with these at amazon right now......hoping I get a good one

 

hey noellla. i decided to buy the 3830TG despite its problems. I will be buying in a week or two.

Regarding throttling: Throttle stop seems to be good enough, and they may even come up with a permanent fix so that doesnt bother me.

Regarding battery: Acer promises 4 years of good battery.. So if i need to send it in to have the battery replaced... even if its 200$ or more its a good deal. Simply because other laptops from other brands cost over 1000 with these specs (And are few to find).

I will be buying from newegg so that return would be easy if a problem exists.

I took off my dell from the marketplace. No point to sell it if i can use it as a desktop with a separate monitor. will keep battery life high on my acer

 

I hope you'll be satisfied with the machine, I'm sure you will I may buy it again, I just have to get my money back, which I'll probably get next week.
I really liked the laptop, so I can't see what else to buy, it has perfect price/performance ratio. It's just the battery that was a problem. And I'm also sure not all the batteries are faulty, so go on and buy it I'll join the 3830 group again in probably 1 week

 

Keep in mind that if you find you do have battery & throttling problems and decide to return it, Newegg has a 15% restocking fee. Fifteen percent of $750 is $112.50 and since there's an abnormally large chance you would be returning it compared to a laptop with no known problems,..that's a crappy deal if you ask me.

Are there other US sellers?

 

i've been following this thread for some time now...its been an experience! im not a techie so a lot of the terms you all use has been an education

above where you said "acer promises 4years of good battery", is this under guarantee? if so why would it cost 200 USD? if something is faulty within the guarantee period, shouldn't it be fixed/replaced free of charge?

 

I think that battery has a warranty for only 1 year. Having said that, here is what acer site states:

"This is assuming an average use of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and 50 weeks in a year, resulting in 250 charge cycles per year. Thus, the usage time of the 1,000 charge cycle battery pack equals 4 years. "

So basically they state that the battery should be good for 4 years, although they dont guarantee it. The way I see it... even if its only good for 3 years its fine. I do not know how much a battery replacement costs but I dont think it would be above 200-300 dollars. (i think it would be much less but this is just worst case scenario). This is purely my speculation but i think its a very reasonable one as most acer batteries cost 60$... So a replacement for a built in battery must be somewhat reasonable.

This laptop is $750. Looking at other brands i cant find anything as good even for 1000. So if my battery is ruined 3 years down, and i pay 200-300 for replacement i still come out on top... because other manufacturer batteries wear down too.

So yeah i think its a good deal and an awesome laptop. Plus throttlestop works to make gaming smooth check these videos out:

YouTube - ‪3830TG Brink (720p) [HD]‬‏
YouTube - ‪3830TG Mass Effect 2 (720p) [HD]‬‏

EDIT: I have just chatted with ACER support and asked them these questions. Here are the relevant parts:

D.: now lets say the warranty is expired
D.: in the case can i pay acer to replace it ?
D.: and if so then how much would that cost
D.: or must i buy it and do it myself?
J: You can send it to our repair center for a in case of replacement.
D.: great. any idea how much that may be ?
J: If your computer is covered under warranty, the replacement will be free.
D.: assume it is not
J: Our paid repair will charge $199 + one way shipping + tax.
D.: Okay great. and you mentioned that the battery may be purchased from Mundo corp? can the end user (me) replace the battery ?
J: If the system is covered under warranty, I suggest you please do not replace it your self. It will void the warranty.
D.: yes, assume the warranty is expired
J: Otherwise you can replace it yourself, with the help of a local technician.


So if this support agent is right (and she may be wrong), the replacement cost is $200 just like i first guessed. Also it may be possible to buy the battery from a third party and do the replacement yourself if you have the right skill set.

Interesting.

EDIT #2: I have looked through Mundo corp's list of batteries and do not see 3830TG listed there. But the 3820 isnt either. Will have to do more research later.... But the 200$ battery replacement satisfies me as worst case. If it actually fails id prolly try replacing it myself if i can actually buy it like she said. But if not i can just send it in. Doesnt seem to be a big deal.

 

True other brand's batteries wear down but most other manus aren't showing reliability issues with their batteries leading to drastically shorter lifespans as we're seeing here. This seems to be affecting roughly half of the users here who report they've bought a 3830. So that's what, 3 or 4 people? We need more input from other buyers obviously. Hopefully it's just a few Monday batteries.

But for $750+$200-$300 more ($300 a very high estimate though), that opens yourself up to a few more laptop options and places you just shy of Macbook Pro price territory. The ultra thin & portable w/power laptop market sucks right now. The only other real comparisons to the 3830 are the Asus U36sd and U31sd. They're not 100% equivocal, but yeah..

Over $200 for a battery replacement, plus probably about 1.5 weeks of downtime for your comp. Sorry, but that's ludicrous to me. Acer's CEO wasn't kidding about modeling the company more after Apple. Why on earth would they also charge tax unless you're in the same state as the warranty center (Texas?). Even then, doesn't state sales tax not apply to such a service?

If you're willing to set up Throttlestop and know how to operate a screwdriver (I'm assuming YES ), you should be fine undoing the screws to replace your own 3838TG battery. Wasn't there even teardown pics earlier in this thread? I just can't fathom paying upwards of $200 for a laptop battery replacement process. Yeah it's naive to say but I'll say it; I hope no one would ever let themselves get taken advantage of like that!!! They can warranty the battery for a year, that's fairly normal. But a laptop battery only lasting a year is not so how long is the system warranty since the Acer rep made it clear that if you mess with the battery, you void the entire computer's warranty?

Good luck with it all though. I hope everything works out for you guys and be sure to keep us updated. I'm certainly feeling disappointed and would love to see Acer get on the ball with some fixes. I can't help but think at this point that if I knew 7 months ago how things would turn up now, I'd have bought a 3820TG from Staples Canada for $650.
(yes they really did dip that low!)

 

Look im not happy about everything they are doing either but they seem to be the best choice at the moment. I will number your paragraphs and try to address them the best i can.

1. Yes its true that some people are showing laptops with very high wear percentages after only weeks of use. While this is bad, its not terrible because if you have a defective battery, this lets you know that your battery is faulty right away. That means you can return it within the 30 day return period most retailers give.

Also it is unclear if the battery is actually getting worn down that much or if thats just how its being reported. This is a possibility since NoElia used his laptop for an HOUR on 0% power. Something is fishy (for the better).

2. Comparison with the macbook isnt really fair here. Yeah so you would pay 200 extra but that would mean i get the battery for SIX years not three (assuming acers claims dont hold up and batteries fail after 3 yrs rather than 4). Macbook batteries arent magical and im sure apple would charge at least a 100 for their replacement if not more. So its not fair to compare prices of the acer laptop with battery paid for 6 yrs vs macbook for whatever its battery longevity is.

And even if it was you still would have to pay $1100 for a mbp + taxes (with student discount).... with Intel HD 3000 graphics. The acer has the 540M which is a really nice card.


The asus laptops are okay but i really hate what they did there. My gf has one right now... and i dont really understand why they put in nvidia GPUS that are barely stronger than intel graphics. Just to get the nvidia name? Dont get me wrong i love asus, my first laptop was asus... but it is obvious that at this point you are paying for brand name just like you would if you bought a mac.

My point is the acer is a much better buy hardware wise (maybe not build quality or other things, but it def has the better hardware).

3. Im not happy about it either but it is still a better deal than other computers, even if you had to pay the 200$ upfront.

4. Im with you here completely and id never consider it if the price was higher. Because the laptop is priced that way the battery replacement is definitely an option. Having said that if they do sell these separate im 100% sure id do it myself. I have good skills here: i built my first barebone notebook when i was 15, and i have since done a lot with hardware in laptops. (replaced my own dell laptops screen, etc..). So if thats an option i wont even have to pay that much.

5. Im disappointed in the battery aspect a little bit, but i always look at the bottom line. The bottom line for me is that it makes sense to get this computer. I dont see any competitors even remotely close to this laptop. It has everything, and the throttling + battery are the only things that are holding it back. I have strong suspicions that the throttling is due to high temps... if so it may be possible to bring them down (thermal paste, game on laptop only if its elevated from the desk, + maybe even a custom metal heatink?).


I was considering the 3820 like you said. But the thing is, this laptop is just too sweet to pass up.

-Intel Core i5-2410M 2.30GHz
-13.3" /w 1366 x 768
-4GB DDR3
- 500GB HDD
-NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
- Up to 9 hours batter life (advertised... so prolly real number 6-7. which is great...)
- 12.64" x 8.98" x 0.87" - 1.15" this isnt a thick laptop. Thickest at 1.15 is good for me.
- 4.12 lbs almost half pound lighter than mbp.
- Bluetooth 3.0 + HS
-1 x USB 3.0 , 2 usb 2.0
- HDMI
-1.3 Megapixel HD Webcam (1280 x 1024)


all for 750. This is a dream machine. It has no weaknesses.

Another way to look at it is this way. Total price of laptop is 950$ + taxes. Battery is guaranteed for 6-8 years. That seems awesome to me i dont know about you guys. The only thing is that Acer get to hold on to your battery until you need it. Also, if you dont need the battery or end up selling the machine within the next 3-4 years, you may not have to replace the battery and then the final cost was 750.

Its a steal.

EDIT: if you look at pictures of the 3830TG you can see that the ENTIRE bottom part comes off exposing the whole notebook insides. that is super... Because it looks like it is possible to improve cooling yourself. I already have a few mods in mind for when i get this baby

 

it's your money

i just brought 3 more 3820TG for my staff. really like the dual fan system. second to none.

Anyone with 540M GPU (OC) can beat these score yet? It's from my 5650 (OC):

SF4 score: 12391 (1366x768)
3dmark Vantage: P5035
3dmark 11: P1455

Pretty sure 6550m (OC) can beat that...

 

Hi,

I just found the battery for your 3830TG. The type number is AS11A5E (if you have a panasonic battery) and currently you'll only find it here: Acer original battery - AC44056 - $113.95US : Notebook Solutions, Parts, Service & Support
Not cheap, but I think there will be more shops out there in future with a more moderate price.

 

Well I got mine about an hour ago.....so far evetything seems really fast but dont have any games on it yet. I installed battery care and it says my wear is at 3.7% and its been plugged in the whole time? Is it possible that battery care is just wrong? Any other way to test it?

 

also can anyone suggest which ram would be a good upgrade? Can i get faster ram? Would this speed things up? Seagate - Momentus XT 500GB Internal Serial ATA Solid State Hybrid Drive for Laptops - Silver/Black - STAN500100

 

Where are you still buying 3820TGs from ? I cant find any online.. Just curious is all. Plus what does your GPU get in 3dmark06 can you tell me?

@hirny: how do you know this battery is for 3830TG? i cant see the model number anywhere on that page. If you go to products and aspire it lets you choose that model.. what a confusing way to set up that site.

if its only 110 this is great news.

 

Where are you finding the 3820 with 6550 still for sale. I have been looking everywhere but every site seemed to have taken them down a few weeks ago.

The 3820TG at staples only had the 5470 graphics and its now down to $499 (449 if you can find a coupon). Im still tempted to grab this even though I wont be able to really play any g'ames on it

 

Got those from a local shop in Malaysia. Probably the last few units.

My best 3dmark06 score (with GPU + CPU OC):

3DMark Score 10388
SM2.0 Score 3850
HDR/SM3.0 4829
CPU Score 3349
Catalyst 11.4

 

After being plugged in for a couple hours the wear is down to 1.67

 

@cowwithgun

thats a nice 3dmark score. thanks for sharing. the 3820TG has older (but still super quick) hardware but better cooling. Its inverse with the 3830TG. I think i can get the temps under control... I think ill add good thermal paste, buy a notebook cooler pad for 20$, and make a custom aluminum heatsink myself.

Even if the 3820TG was for sale here i dont think i would buy it. The reason has nothing to do with what we have been discussing here so far. I just dont like 1 button click pads. My gfs new asus notebook has it. Its annoying. 2 buttons is what i need.

The truth is that i dont plan to do a lot of gaming on this machine if any at all. I will mostly just be using this for school. Ill do the custom stuff anyway because better temps mean better battery life. Guess we will see how it turns out.

But i will probably be inclined to play Deus Ex 3 when it comes out in a few months. The 540m is worth it for that 1 franchise for me.

@Jadbox: All the more reason to think that the battery % is getting reported strange rather than the battery itself going bad. You cant physically gain battery life if the cells are dead... which means its just a matter of calibration and how software sees it.

 

Cool cos i love this little laptop so far going to try some games later

 

My 3820TG has performed flawlessly since I got it and is incredibly reliable. I have no plans to replace it ATM.

As you know, I really like the DV6T. It's a lot of power for the price and a FHD display would be nice. HP has hit a home run with this model.

Bronsky

 

lots of people on here are talking about the 3830tg, im more interested in the 4830tg myself. so come on all you 4830tg owners, tell us your opinions on how well your 4830tg's are doing

also, is it possible to get, and then put in, a nine cell battery instead of the six cell, thus making the battery last longer both in terms of daily usage and its lifestime? or is that just me being naive? - i really have no clue!

 

Acer original battery - AC44056 - $113.95 US : Notebook Solutions, Parts, Service & Support

Here you can see the model number in the description field. Below you'll find another field ("Guaranteed to be compatible with the following products:") where you can choose Aspire followed by 3830TG.

 

Any progress in the battery situation? Does your wear level increase or decrease? Please post results, as I may buy this machine again

 

n0elia, if your battery kept on going for 45mins to an hour despite reading zero, it would seem like the program is just misreporting the charge left. Would explain why the wear would be extremely high, but not why it was constantly increasing.

I can't help but think logs of uptime on battery would have been more telling. But you cannot go wrong returning it. I really want the 4830TG but I would take the 3830TG. My current acer stays up 4mins on battery! 6yrs though.

 

I Have a question, how are you guys even buying the Acer Aspire 5830TG ? i am trying to buy it online but i don't see it anywhere is it not out in the U.S yet?

 

I read your complaints about overheating issue which I had in my LG laptop with gt 425m and i3 processor... I think it is caused by NVIDIA gt 4xx gt 5xx series adapters.. because before this I had 3820tg and it never went over 73 C.. even in summer time... it has of course hd 5650 graphics card.. from now on I will always prefer ATI cards in my laptops.. seriously NVIDIA gets too hot and it affects the CPU too...

This laptop 4830tg or 3830tg looks great when you check the specs.. I was thinking to buy it but now I read this.. I am not buying... thanks for sharing the results.. I never understand why they put these machines in the market without some serious testing.. for sure with those powerful GPU s people will want to play some good games with nice graphics.. dont they think of it ?

 

The problem the 3830TG has is many fold. The Nvidia GT540M does tend to make more heat than the ATI 5650/6550 did. The 3820TG had dual cooling fans / heat pipes. The 3830TG has only one. Finally, the BIOS starts to thermally throttle when the laptop gets up to 70C which is WAY too low given the components in it are rated at 85 to 90C for normal operation (i5 CPUs up to 95 or 100C nowadays). Use of throttlestop seems to allow for at least somewhat normal operation with only mild throttling, not the insane drop the current BIOS does, but still, it seems the original 3820TG dual fan design is far superior to the single fan design in the current gen 3830TG.

My single fan 4820TG can get quite warm when gaming, with the GPU at 80C and the CPU in the 90 to 95C range, but it never stutters, the CPU nor GPU never glitch out and it just works. Sadly it seems Acer did no real world testing to see how the new systems would behave. Don't any of the executives at Acer have a teenage kid they can hand off a new model to and see how it works? Or are their kids busy gaming on Sager NP8150s?

 

teenagers nowadays... farmville does not use the gpu so much.

 

cityville killed my i3 370m with gt425m nvidia gpu game collapsing all the time and throttling... my 3820tg with hd 5650 had no heat at all I could feel... oh boy I miss it... needed to change it due to its LG panel which was destroying my eyes in minutes..

damn the day I gave my 3820tg away.. it was doing the job and staying cool, it could even be nicely overclocked again without any overheating now I regret it

 

i also wish they used an ati card but whats done is done. I know other companies will be hesistant to put powerful gpus into small laptops for exactly this reason. even looking at llano (which the 540m beats), HP has opted to put it in larger notebooks, with the smaller one being 14 inches... Still buying this.

 

Ok plugged in used for another hour had wear is at 1.05 now....

I can keep this for 600 or a samsung qx411 for 700. You can get the 3830 from amazon for 750 with an xbox if a student

 

wow thanks a lot jadbox. ill def try for the xbox. Thanks for looking out for us.

What are you going to decide regarding your laptop?

 

there are some good HP notebooks around dv6-dv7 series using hd 6770 GPU I would buy them if I could now, their prices are not extremely high... they are no brainer choices... ATI GPU forever...

 

I was really set on buying this computer but i came across this:

http://forum.techinferno.com/acer/591-acer-aspire-timelinex-5830tg-4830tg-3830tg.html

Not really sure anymore. Build quality looks like it really sucks. I can forgive a few things wrong, but i am starting to think its not worth a buy anymore. I am going to look through asus options before making my final decision.

 

Thats another thing that PISSES ME OFF. A lot of notebook manufacturers including ASUS and ACER are riding NVidia's Di*k. Im so sick of that.

Nvidia makes $hitty gpus. They are power hungry, HOT, and affect the performance of the whole system adversly. Its a great option for Nvidia's fanboys who live in the 1960s when Nvidia was the only one with good drivers and hardware, but there is no place for these things in small cramped laptops in this generation of gpus.

At this point id rather take an intel IGP over Nvidias "solutions". And they dont even let us pick. Thanks for making the choice for us you s...

 

Ok after 7 hours of use last night on and off the battery then charged full when I went to bed this morning the wear is at .70 so seems ok so far. Going to try some gaming and throttlestop today.

 

I'm really a noob when when it comes to this stuff, anyone know what is some better ram I could throw in here.

 

About time they have a link what do u think compared to this laptop?

Samsung - QX Series Laptop / Intel® Core™ i5 Processor / 14" Display / 6GB Memory / 750GB Hard Drive - QX411-W01

 

jadbox forget upgrading ram it wont make your system any faster. you wouldnt even notice it.

As for that laptop... seems alright i guess but its too heavy for me. 5 pounds...

What do you think about this laptop? i think i may buy this instead... not amazing for gaming but looks to be for everything else... i game on consoles so it doesnt matter to me that much.

check the photos and specs pages.
GenTech PC - Asus U31SD-A1 13.3 inch Sandy Bridge Notebook

 

The sad thing is that the cooling system on the 3820TG would have looked at the extra heat of the GT540M and just laughed as you overclocked it into GT550M/GT555M range. Acer had a proven solution in the dual fan 3820TG, and abandoning it was the single most stupid corporate move ever. The 3820TG was a step above any other 14" or smaller laptop in its cooling solution and Acer abandoned the proven solution they had for a design that now allows the latest gen timelinex to be easily beaten by it's 1 year older sibling.

 

I'm torn between the U31SD/U36SD and the 3830tg. The 3830 has a better GPU, but it has throttling issues and battery issues. On the other hand, the Asus doesn't have these issues (at least not as bad), but gaming capabilities are less. I'll most likely be getting the U36SD, I don't have time to be messing around with CPU throttling programs, BIOS tweaks, or battery problems.

It's too bad Acer didn't sort out all these problems before they shipped, otherwise I'd be set on getting one.

 

What battery do you have, Sanyo or Panasonic?

You can see that using BatteryCare or BatteryBar

 

The sad thing is there was no reason to rush out the 3830TG since the 3820TG was such a solid performer, they could have kept selling those. Even with 1st gen core i5 it was the best 13" gaming notebook made. sigh.

 

Using battery care and its the panasonic

 

Well im going with the samsung qx411 over the acer now. I have have the qx411 since morning and its amazing so far lol. I think the battery was going to be fine but it did get very very hot gaming and dont want to deal with the throttle issue. The build on the samsung is great!! Wish there was a bit better card than gt 520m but it can play almost any game just not at high res. The screen is a really nice 300 nit also so can be bright if u like it like that. 2gb extra ram also and i think its faster than the acer ram. Its a bit bigger but 1lb isnt much. It is as quiet as a mouse also can never hear the fan at all. Glad i got it with the free xbox only paid $645 for it great deal