Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

Sure, either for that or for the "How to destroy your notebook with improper disassembly" guide.

 

Kindan has written a very good guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...nge-info-benchmarks-tweaks-mods-upgrades.html
Look under Upgrading components.

 

i have a 4830tg, but both units suffer from throttling. provided that you purchase a 3830tg with i5, unclewebb's throttlestop should help. i disabled the turboboost altogether and i no longer experience lag, except on gta iv. given this, tf2 and lol should run well. elevating the laptop could also help. sometimes i use a small fan to improve the circulation of air. just an extra, here are the games i have played in high to ultra smoothly.

witcher 2 (throttlestop) used to lag, but patch fixed everything
warcraft 3 frozen throne (no throttlestop)
nba 2k11 (throttlestop)
virtua tennis 4 (no throttlestop)
portal 2 (no throttlestop)
crysis 2 (no throttlestop)
homefront (throttlestop)
fable 3 (throttlestop)
magicka (throttlestop)
sf iv aa (throttlestop)
fifa 11 (no throttlestop)
cod mw2 (throttlestop)

like i said, i played gta iv, but it lags almost immediately. i did not try low settings though.

 

You were able to run Witcher 2 on high? How did you do that?
No matter how I tweaked even on low settings the game was so laggy I returned my copy to the shop after two days! Patch did help a bit but not enough to make it playable.

 

Is it good if I let the guy on the ACSC put the thermal paste since my 3830TG is in ACSC now?
What thermal paste is the best one for the 3830TG?

 

I am really tempted to buy a 3830TG, but the throttling issue is making me hold back even with the Throttlestop fix, and I don't feel comfortable redoing the thermal paste.

I had an 6920G before with throttling problems, but used RMClock to "fix" it, gaming worked better. Acer refused to fix the entire issue even though many users complained, it just seems like a waste of money spending so much money on something that doesn't work "right out of the box". Acer makes good products with great prices, but refusing to permanently fix manufacture defects is not acceptable.

Recently I been having problems finding a good deal on a 3820TG in Canada for a reasonable price.

 

crysis 2 runs pretty decently on my 4830tg with the latest patch and dx11. No throttling (played about 1 hour).
Kept fps on check with fraps and
at basic high settings i get 30-40 fps
at very high 25
at extreme 17
at ultra 15

 

Well, maybe it's just a problem with the cooling paste then. Acer just answered me to try the latest bios and to send it in again if it doesn't help (Of course I tested it before my first send-in). They seem to be really interested in helping me now

 

Has anyone Upgraded their Ram? i am thinking about this how does this Look to you guys,

Amazon.com: Corsair 8 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9: Electronics

 

They must have looked at their sales figures for the 3830TG. No one is recommending these units and the 13"/14" Timeline was a strong seller for Acer last generation. They should be selling these as fast as they can put them on the shelf and it looks like that is not true. Lenovo just knocked them out of 3rd place in notebook sales and Acer is shuffling its management for the second time in 3 months. A company in that kind of trouble can't sit on a badly designed flagship unit and ignore their customer's complaints for long. Hopefully, they'll take a look at this issue and possibly accept units for a repasting or a fan modification to get better airflow.

Bronsky

 

Newegg.com - CORSAIR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9

Create a new account and use promo code NEWCUSTOMER10 at checkout, you can pay $45 for exactly the same modules from another great retailer. And they accept PayPal.

About the modules, they work fine and they assume default as 1066/7-7-7-20/1T.

 

ah cool thanks.

 

Well, apart from the throttling problem, the 3830TG is really nice and I like it. It's just the acer service with their arrogance, which made me want to give it back. Hopefully, they do something about it.

Btw, in Germany Lenovo is on last place when it comes to the service.

 

Thanks, but that's for the previous timelinex and I wanted to see if I still got what is takes anyways so just jumped in blindfolded.

I dont have the thermal paste yet, i'm expecting it to arrive on friday so this was just a test-run of mine to see how this babe looks in the inside.
Well, for starters the case is the worst quality of plastic i ever saw - not that im such a great expert of plastics, but its crappy nontheless. Caution is advised when taking off the top panel with the keyboard, the silvery material is extremely soft and will crack or break from even moderate bending. Once you get through the case the inside is quite straightforward, nothing groundbreaking there. I got to the cooling system in aproximately 15 minutes with one phillips screwdriver and two fingernails and that was my "ohh-whats-that?" mode.
Some lovely things:
- the bluetooth is separate module under the touchpad, an extremely cute one i must say
- the dvd drive is a snap in module, only one of the bottom panel's screws keeps it in place
- there are two slots for ram (i have 4 gigs of ram and in my case they used a one dimm sollution to achieve that amount so expanding it will be a piece of cake at least for this build)
- the hdd shock protection is pretty weak especially compared to my hp mini 311 what had a foam covered cartridge for the drive. this one is like a piece of rubber at one end of the hdd and two little rubber joint under the screws at the other.
- the plastic cover for the missing sim slot is screwed to the back panel from the inside, so doodling with it in the hope that there might be an opening mechanism was indeed a futile attempt of mine
- notebooks nowadays are built much more like cellphones. nothing good ol' '90 computer hardware with the attitude of "i cut your finger off, dude!" around here anymore. those were the times...

ps.: it was 2 and a half hours. it just felt like 40 minutes

 

The only notebook I've opened so far was my good old Thinkpad T41, which was really user-friendly. IBM even provided a step-by-step maintenance manual

 

Heck Lenovo provides videos on how to disassemble their laptops.

 

Hey Sup guys i am also thinking of installing a Amazon.com: Western Digital 1 TB Scorpio Blue SATA 3 Gb/s 5200 RPM 8 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Notebook Hard Drive - WD10TPVT: Electronics in the 5830TG you think it will fit? it say it might not fit all Laptops but the Dimensions are 3.9 x 2.8 x 0.5 inches

 

That is impressive! Did you do anything to it to get it like that? (ie redoing the thermal paste?)

Oh man. I was going to head out tomorrow to buy a samsung QX411. but you are really making me reconsider.

 

just throttlestop, nothing else. i do have a lapcool5 cooling pad, but i get lower temps with my small desk fan. note that even with these 'cooling devices,' the temperatures are still relatively high. before, when i still had turboboost enabled, i reach temps of 93 degrees celsius. i disabled it altogether and so far my highest was 85. also, remember that i'm using an i5 4830tg. i think i saw some 3830tgs with i3. these would throttle faster, slowing down in lower temps, i think.

most of the games i posted are in high settings (though i disabled some features which i think were unnecessary. ie ubersampling in witcher 2). i always put the settings at high or ultra at first, then lower some if necessary.

for its price range, i think it was a good buy even with the throttling. note that some people had problems in the battery, though i have none so far. you ought to consider these other issues, as well. also, if you have extra cash, you could buy a better notebook, alienware perhaps.

 

I have not been able to run NFS Hot Pursuit with my graphics processor. Everytime I play the game, it does not show up in the Nvidia GPU activity in the notification area.

I have set for the game to run with the nvidia chip in the nvidia control panel. I have also tried right clicking and running with graphics processor through the menu but nothing seems to force the graphics chip to run the game.

My power settings are also on High performance.

Anyone know how to run certain programs with the nvidia chip if none of the above works?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

Might be just a problem with your graphics driver. You've tried it on AC Power, I guess?

 

Yup I have. Still doesnt work.

Will those drivers on your site work mavo?

 

For me 275.50 worked just fine.

 

its really important to use the drivers on acer's website, no other ones.

i have ran into alot of issue's using others.


i would remove all your old drivers and use the acer ones to see if it works then.


NFS hot pursuit may not activate the nvidia gpu, not all games will.

is NFS hot pursuit old ? i dont rememeber :|

 

Sounds like you might have windows update set to automatically update. Go into device manager and check where your drivers came from, most likely it says microsoft. If it does, just reinstall the acer drivers and you will be good to go.

He set it to be forced to use the nvidia GPU from the nvidia control panel. Even if it won't kick in automatically it will kick in when forced, assuming you have the correct drivers, which is most probably the problem.

 

The 275.50 from laptopdrivers2go work flawlessly. The Acer-drivers are quite outdated.

 

I was kind of hoping to keep the price rather low for the extra inconvenience. I am still looking for a better replacement, but it's hard looking for a laptop with comparable prices and specs in Canada. and it is just sad that the 4830TG is not available here. Would you happen to know a laptop similar to these specs?

 

Hi, I'm new here. Thanks everyone for this informative discussion. I have two questions, I expect that at least one of them has been answered before:

First, does the search function on this forum work or am I having a major brain fart? My searches came up with nothing so I did a test and searched for "Acer" and got no results - I hope I'm just doing something wrong.

Second: The issue I've been trying to research is due to the recall of the HM65. I just got a new 5830T and I love it, but the recall never crossed my mind until now (I had thought the problem only affected only desktops). I have rev. B2 and now I'm borderline worried. My bios version is 1.04 dated May 6, 2011. Intel RST says my hard drive is on "Port 0", but how do I know that it's SATA 6Gb/s and how do I know that it's not affected? The dvd drive is reportedly ATAPI, believe it or not, and it's on "Port 2".

What should I think about this - that I have B2?

 

i'm from the Philippines so I'm unaware of the notebooks available in your country. we usually get all the Acer and Asus notebooks because they're from Taiwan, i think. anyway, if you check the 4830tg's review in notebookcheck, you'd see similar notebooks listed in the side.

Review Acer Aspire 4830TG Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

of those listed, i liked the Asus N73SV Notebook the most. though it sports 1 gb less of video memory, i wouldn't think this would limit gaming performance. 1gb and 2gb of 540m are virtually the same because most games don't need more than 1gb of video memory. also, the Asus is priced $200 less in our country.

 

New MSI. http://www.fudzilla.com/notebooks/item/23384-msi-introduces-new-x460-ultrathin

New Gateway. http://forum.notebookreview.com/7683721-post1573.html

Looks like the Gateway is for sale here. http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/prod...pcname=&sku=10173437&ActiveTab=Tab_custReview

Also look at the Asus U46SV. Gentec has it for preorder. http://www.gentechpc.com/config.asp?config_id=U46SV-A1

Bronsky

 

The acer service told me to try Bios 1.05, which I already have installed for weeks now without any change. No answer so far from them, guess they just wanted to forget me.

Phone might be an option, but they charge around 1€/minute ($1,44) in Germany for technical assistance.

 

I will be receiving my 3830tg today when I get home from work. I've been reading everything about throttlestop. I have BF:BC2 waiting for me to download. Do i just open throttlestop for when I play games or do I keep it open when im just browsing and stuff? Does turboboost work when i do stuff like photoshop? or is my cpu clocked at 1.8mhz all the time? sorry if this is confusing. or stupid.

 

You may set up two profiles.
1: Fullpower
2: Cooling without turbo and x17
ThrottleStop's alarm feature may then be used to switch automatically. Overall, you get approx. 2100mhz.

The easier way is to use a fixed multiplier of x18.

ThrottleStop can be started together with windows and stay in the systemtray. You may start it manually as well, that's up to you.

EDIT: Maybe, you won't need even throttlestop. Some users here reported of no throttling at all.

 

Yeah hopefully I don't. BC2 is the only somewhat cpu intensive game i will be playing for now. Ill just be playing tf2 and other cheap games. maybe just cause 2.

btw, will the cpu be more stressed if i play on a monitor? I'm guessing yes.

 

I finished redoing the paste job on the gpu and the cpu and just run some stress tests. Although there was more paste around the cores then on top of them redoing it did not helped the temps in overall, so imho it does not worth the trouble.

 

The GPU is stressed the most when you use the HDMI port and an external monitor since it is supporting a higher resolution. It does add some stress to the CPU as well but not nearly as much.

Bronsky

 

Does anyone know how to activate the speakers on top of the keyboard? The ones that say: Dolby Home Theater Professionally Tuned.
For some reason the engineers at Acer decided to put speakers on the bottom of the laptop....they sound alright with Dolby but could be better

 

There is no speaker under the silver grill on the top, it's just an optical tunning.

 

i have the 5830t. on this model the speakers are under that silver grill.
and they sound great (for a laptop!)

 

Did you take the notebook apart or how did you found out?

 

etiggy, sound comes out of them and nowhere else.

 

that's a real shame. i have the 4830t, chose it over the 5830 because i loathe keypads (why must all 15 inch laptops these days include it? it detracts so much from the typing experience that comes from a centered keyboard and touch pad.) but i digress

has anyone opened up a 4830 to check if there are speakers under the grill? it seems strange they would give the 5830 speakers there but only cosmetics for the 4830 because afaik they have different sized chassis so they do not come from the same assembly line.

by the way, to fully take advantage of the Dolby system hook it up to a home theatre system with surround sound....audio heaven~

 

Even my 3830tg does have speakers beneath this grill. I know that for sure because i did a thermal paste thing myself.

 

I have taken apart my 4830tg twice and never saw any kind of speaker beneath the grill apart from the two at the bottom of the machine. I can imagine the 5830 to have one because of the extra space but cannot get my head straight over the 3830. If the smaller model has it how comes they could not fit one into the 14" range as well?

 

Dunno, here is the photo showing whats inside of 3830TG.

 

looks nothing like my 4830tg. here are some photos of a partially dismantled 4830: ºê»ùacer 4830TGÏêϸ²ð½â ¸ßÇåÃÀͼ·ÖÏí¡¢¹Ø×¢µÄÎÊÌâͼ½â - acer 3830TG 4830TG 5830TGÂÛ̳¡¾acer±Ê¼Ç±¾ÂÛ̳¡¿ºê³ž±Ê¼Ç±¾ÂÛ̳_ºê»ù¹Ù·½ÂÛ̳

it's a shame they put the speaker to the bottom in mine, i would totally prefer to have them at the top. the sound always comes out muffled but when i place the notebook on a flat surface.

 

Maybe they didn't have the space, as the optical drive should be above the mainboard.

 

No wonder these notebooks have cooling/throttlng issues. That one exhaust fan is no larger than the one of the exhaust fans from the 3820TG. You would think the reduction from 2 to 1 would prompt Acer to significantly increase the capacity of the unit.

Bronsky

 

Just got myself a Thinkpad T61 in near-mint condition with a lot accessories for only 150 Euros. What a damn cool.. err.. working machine

One question to all 3830TG owners though: Does your fan ever stop? Or does it ever get louder? Because mine always runs at the same speed, no matter how much load there is.

 

Hi guys, I'm considering getting the 3830TG, but not sure about the throttling issue.

This may be a stupid question, but what is the "System cooling policy" set to in Power Management -> Processor power management?