Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

How did you get a refund? Did your store just take it back ("without" an error)?

 

if your sound is crackling, just remove the acer sound driver and let windows7 install it's default driver - that will solve the issue

i (and probably many other acer owners) have no wear whatsoever it's still 0% (66949mWh) and i get around 6:15h while doing some (heavy) web-surfing and programming. (and i'm using mine for over a month now)

And the throttling? never ever occurs, only while doing some heavy gaming, but since i need to 'prepare' myself for this anyway (plugin mouse and headset etc..), starting throttlestop isn't that problematic..

btw, the asus is going to be heavier/bigger and more expensive (but probably due to it's size no throttling/heat issues).. this acer is still the best deal for what you will get.

And i'm very happy with it

 

Sent to ACSC (again) yesterday, the wired LAN & bluetooth doesn't work. Don't know why, have factory resetted around 3-4x with Hidden Partition (eRecovery) and the recovery DVD. Strange.

 

hi guys, first post


i have pretty much solved the cooling issues on my 3830TG,

i did 2 things to drop my temps 18c under load and 12c idle,

1st , take off the bottom panel and remove the net like grills under it.

2nd , re apply all the thermal paste, the thermal compound was globbed on there and is very excessive, i replaced my compound with as5.

this is for anyone who would like to keep it, best of all it stops throttling completely.

i ordered a quad core 2730 for mine and plan on making it work.

imgur: the simple image sharer

i put some pictures on imgr to show how the thermal paste looked when i disassembled and showing the bottom with the net blocking removed.

ps. the net does stop dust and will require laptop to be cleaned more often.


tested with crysis warhead and fallout new vegas

before : avg 91c
after : avg 72c

idle avg after : 42c


hope this helps someone as much as it has helped me.

 

Nice report! I wonder why Acer didn't try / do that.

In idle mode 42c? Seems pretty normal to me. But under heavy load there's really improvement. If I'm stuck with my 3830TG I might try it as well, but for now I don't want to void my warranty.

 

Wow that's a crap load of thermal compound they had in their originally. I think if you just replace the thermal compound they probably wouldn't be able to tell you changed anything.

 

I just took it back on the 14th day of the 14 day return policy at CC. they didnt believe the overheating or the battery wear, but for some reason the speakers were good enough of a reason for 100% refund.

the procedure listed by heatless looks really good! Unfortunately, I dont like the idea of opening up my brandnew computer and having to redo all of the thermal paste and screens. That doesn't seem right. If I'm spending near 1000$, it better work straight out of the box.

RRhaire.

 

You can preorder the asus U46SV at genetech for 870$ (yes more expensive than the 3830tg) but you get a 14" screen in a 13" body + the same specs as the 3830tg. Thickness is pretty much the same at around 1". If it doesn't overheat and cause me headaches like the 3830tg did then it is definitely worth the premium. I plan on waiting for reviews and eventually buying in september.

 

i completely agree, you should never have to open a laptop soon as you buy it to fix it.

but you should consider the 629$ 3830TG at staples.ca , plus you can sign up for easy rewards and get a 50$ coupon for laptops over 499$ in 48 hours emailed to you.

brings it down to 579$

you can grab a quad core chip , 8gb ram and keep it under 1000$

the extra 10 watts a quad will put out will not raise the temp's much, i have done this particular thing to a NV59 gateway going from i3 to i7 and it raised gaming temps by 4C

it will be one mean machine!

 

Holy Hades, that looks like it was applied with a caulking gun!

 

I'd like to remind you that according to forum rules "you are not allowed in posts to link to or advertise in any way (including but not limited to) personal blogs/websites/pages/affiliated websites/affiliated resources in posts, no exceptions. Links of that type are restricted to the signature area only".

So please either keep the link in sig or just post the guide here on the forum.

 

Oh, sorry! Didn't read the rules in detail.

 

No problem. Just post it here in a separate post and bookmark it because it's very likely that you'll have to post this link quite a few times as an answer to someone's question.
This thread is quite useful so it would be best to keep it here- it's bumped up by frequent posts which is even more is important since forum search doesn't work.

 

Some of us that bought the 3820TG soldered in backlit KBS less than 48 hours after getting the unit.

Acer is dropping its prices like crazy and if the 3830TG can be made to operate in a decent temp range so it does not throttle, it will probably be a decent deal for the money. There will be some great deals out there on the 3830TG.

I ususally change my thermal paste in new units anyway.

Bronsky

 

Fellow Canadian

How do u no the bios will support the i7 though?

 

We have a core i7 model of the 3830TG in Germany. I don't know if I'm allowed to give you a link to the Acer Homepage, but you might lookup the model number "AS3830TG - 2628G12nbb" on Google.

I don't know about the i7 2730 though, in Germany we have the 2620m, which is already quite expensive (400 euros, I think).

 

a buddy has his already done up with a 2630qm in his, we did the paste mod on his but not net removal mod, i have yet to talk to him about results on heat.

but he has not called me which means chances are its ok.

the bios on "all" HM65 chipsets i have seen have stepping and microcode support for the larger i7 chips so in "most" cases will support the chips without issue, if not i will just add the microcode into the bios to support it.

the hm65 chipset has no issue in supporting quad i7's with integrated graphics only of course.


when you take apart the 3830tg the fan is actually quite large and should not be an issue for cooling, it is just the way the build was executed that caused issues.

josh

 

If the fan should be large enough it makes me even more angry that Acer refused to solve my throttling problem. They didn't even unpackage it!

I just compiled the most important infos from this thread into one little page, which can be found in my signature.

 

Might just get the 3830 now but can u tell me if battery wear is a real issue?

Seems many people in this thread have gotten conflicting results of battery wear, some from 0% to as high as 25%

 

i have not seen anything out of the ordinary yet, but i have only had it for 1 week and a few days.

 

Ok then hopefully u can update in a few days while i wait for my staples coupons

 

Hey guys,

I just recently purchased 3830TG-6494 at Canada Computers. Im going away for school so I just need something portable with powerful specs to do work, I dont think I would be using it for gaming so didnt mind the throttling. But was shocked with the battery wear with these laptops. So you guys know this is my SECOND 3830TG hoping to score a better battery with this one but its not looking too good.

Well I started writing logs about the battery wear for just for personal reference. Before I did anything, I installed HWmonitor and started logging and this what I have so far.

JUL-16-11:
@6% wear 61085/64800 mWh Full charge capacity (First time boot. Charged it all the way before use)

JuL-17-11:
@8% wear 59767/64800 mWh (First full discharge/recharge cycle)

 

hi everyone,
I currently have my eye on the 14 inch acer timelinex sa4830t on Amazon for 699. I'm looking for a laptop that can run starcraft 2 on lowest with minimal lag and Diablo 3 when it comes out. i have read 20+ pages on this thread but could not find any information that pertains to my question, and all the talk about throttling makes me paranoid about purchasing this model.
my questions are, if you can help me out: can this model successfully run starcraft 2 on lowest settings for around 3 hours at a stretch without overheating? would the graphics card be able to handle the upcoming Diablo 3? and is there any way to turn off the battery charging feature? (i ask this because i like to leave my laptop plugged in for extended amounts of time while gaming without overcharging the battery)
thank you in advance for your answers!

 

Woah that's awesome! Was it hard to take apart the notebook? Do you only have to remove the bottom panel or do you have to take out the keyboard and all that stuff?

 

You need to take the keyboard and get the mainboard out to apply the thermal paste.

 

If you install ThrottleStop and set the cpu to max. 1800mhz, Starcraft 2 runs fine for hours. As Diablo3 is not out yet, nobody will be able to tell you if it runs on the 3830TG. Reapplying cooling paste might work to stop the throttling, but for now it's just a "homemade" solution and might void the warranty. So far, Acer itself claims the throttling to be a "feature" in their design and refuses to repair it.

See my signature for all info.

 

Yep we did, get the unit and new backlit keyboard + i5 580m . If they pasted the 3830TG anything like my 3820TG was you would want to redo it. THose thermal pads they use are not really upto the job if you plan on stressing that CPU for long periods. I'm with Bronsky on this. I always repaste all my new notebooks with AS5 or IC diamond. This G53sw is next on the list for a repaste. Its a little harder to repaste than a 3820TG however...

Glad to see someone taking to the 3830tg like I did to the 3820TG, I'm interested to see your results of adding a 2630qm to the 3830TG. I'm using this cpu now and its really quick and very capably of all I throw at it. In a 13.3 unit it will be an absolute beast.

Also I recommend using throttlestop even just in monitor mode to help remove any i7 thottle issues when gaming etc

What's your next mod? Would a 3810T backlit keyboard fit in this model too??

 

hi,

i will certainly keep an eye on it with that quad in it, right now im trying to fix some problems the notebook seems to have in the bios such as discharging the battery randomly and not sleeping properly.

the laptop seems to have been really thrown together, i have found like 2 major bugs in it so far, one im pretty sure is causing this battery issue people are having.

the laptop will not sleep properly when the lid is closed, this will happen 1 out of 5 times it is put to sleep and may just be my unit having a faulty lid sensor, it will not sleep properly on the battery.

my battery is holding up after 6 discharge cycles and 1 full discharge cycle.


as to address anyone who would like to simulate the removal or disconnection of the battery, it is quite simple and will not void your warranty, removing the bottom panel automatically disconnects the battery, you will see a switch that says on / off with a wire that comes out of it, once this wire is unplugged the battery will not longer be connected.


back to the laptop not sleeping issue, im just going to throw this out there, what is possibly happening is the laptop is being put to sleep and not properly sleeping which is discharging the battery to 0% , if you do this constantly it will ruin a battery quite quickly, Li-ion / poly needs to be discharged fully only about 1 every 40 cycles , after that it should only be brought to 20% or so to keep the cells cycled.

maybe some can report some info and we can solve the last few issues this has, i like this notebook alot and want to keep it dearly.

 

Hmm, when I got this laptop, I charged to full and had 6% battery wear. After a half discharge and recharge, I am at 7.5% wear. I discharged it fully and am waiting for it to charge back up, but is this something to worry about? I'm already considering returning it to Amazon over a stuck pixel in the top right. Unless I can unstick it, that is.

 

I have 2.8% battery wear after 4 weeks being mostly on AC Power. The next days I'll try to dis- and recharge it. So far, I have only 5.5 hours in idle mode.

 

so it is confirmed that the 14 inch version of 4830t with integrated 3000hd graphics will have the same throttling problems as 13.3 version of 3830tg? i mainly want the 14 inch because its nice to have the extra monitor space.
would you recommend the 13.3 in version over the 14?

 

It is NOT confirmed so far, that the 14" T-version does have the same problems, as configurations do vary from country to country. In Germany, all T-Models do have a core i3, which starts throttling with lower temps already. On the other hand, a TG-model with disabled Nvidia GPU should not throttle.

 

If it is the lid senor there is one way to find out, with the unit powered off you would have issues turning on as the hall senor (Magnetic sensor) would think the lid was closed.

I know as I just fixed a faulty hall sensor on my G53 with didn't let me power on the unit. In my 3820TG its on the right hand bottom. Pass a magnet over it and the screen will turn off. There is one in the lid this is how it works.

 

Well i had my 4830tg for a week and I'm pretty happy with it, battery wear 0% no throttling issues altho i only played left 4 dead 2 a couple of times with max graphics

 

I thought the same of my 3830TG in the first two weeks. How did you test it? You should consider Left 4 Dead 2 is rather old. The system requirements say you need a Pentium IV 3000Mhz for it, the corei5 is 3-4 times faster than that. So even if it throttled, you wouldn't notice it ingame.

I just added a section about the detection of throttling on the page in my sig. Might be helpful.

 

I kept temperatures on check they were all the time around 66° C, I'll try crysis 2 soon i guess

 

You're sure your Nvidia GPU was enabled?

 

Can anyone explain to me what acer meant by " 0-6 Months, 0-200 Cycle, 90%+ Acceptable Charge" under their battery warranty policy? So if I get more than 10% battery wear on HMmonitor within 6 months am I eligible for the warranty? How does this whole proceess work? I just need to know this because Im planning to make a claim before I go back to school.

Thanks.

 

Well, it's easy to understand. In the first six months and within 200 charging cycles, you shouldn't have more than 9.9% wear off.

 

@heatless

Hi, this information is huge for me as I would love to completely stop throttling on my 3830tg. Just wondering/hoping that you could perhaps provide a more in depth guide for someone like me who has never popped open my laptop to add or remove thermal paste such as where and how I should take it off and apply it. Thanks a lot!

 

Howdy,

anyone else noticed with their 3830tg that home, pg up, pg dn and end buttons work bit different to the other buttons. Others do their function when button is pressed down and if you keep the button down it repeats (if keyboard repeat is on) the function until you release the button.

Home, pg up, pg dn and end buttons seem to do their function when you release the button from down position and because of that atleast I don't have keyboard repeat working for those four buttons.

For some applications I really would appreciate keyboard repeat for pg up and pg dn buttons. Any ideas how to enable this?

Thanks in advance.

 

My up/down/home/end-keys work as all others. Maybe it's just a software problem. Try to boot a ubuntu from CD / USB and test the keys again.

 

Hi!

I'm planning to buy a 3830TG for university in September and I am wondering if this is a wise choice.

The specs for this laptop is outstanding but I am curious how bad the throttling issue is. I am assuming this is no problem in normal use, but how bad would it be for games such as TF2 or LoL?

Also, what are some tips/tricks you've used to improve your laptop? I would love to read some guides so it would not be a problem.

 

By following the instructions on your site, does it improve the laptop overall, or is it just the gaming?

 

I believe it's just gaming as the laptop doesn't get hot enough to throttle during other procedures.

 

It is fixed in BIOS v1.04 and newer. I have already seen that a long time ago in this thread, I think around a hundred page before this..

 

I just ordered some Arctic Silver 5 on ebay - i will try the same thing as @heatless did on my 3830TG (i3) because 72degrees will also stop an i3 from throttling Hope to receive it next week.
There are some great instructions on the Arctic Silver website about how to apply. The only thing left is opening the laptop, but this will probably be easy.

 

I also will try the repasting with MX-2 on my 4830TG this weekend but without the removal of the grills. I will post my results next week.

 

Could you guys also post how you took apart your notebooks? Thanks.

 

Thanks ptrkhh!

I actually did try quite a lot of googling and searching from this forum, but upping the bios did the magic, thanks!