Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

When browsing, I speak of CPU temp of course, as no GPU is involved.

When playing Quake II i mean CPU and GPU. The throttling starts at 85°C GPU with the latest bios update.

 

Yes, I did a warranty claim and they replaced the battery (Old: Panasonic. Replacement: Sanyo) for free.
Just send to ACSC (Acer Customer Service Center) and show them the Battery Wear in BatteryBar and Battery Care (I recommend both of them).

Almost two weeks when I did it, but it takes that long because they didn't have the replacement battery, since the 3830TG just launched one month before I send in to ACSC..
Don't forget to say them not to replace the battery with Panasonics..

 

I don't think so. The first time they didn't even unpack it! I wrote around 10 mails to the support demonstrating them I'm not considering to work with a faulty device and want to get my money back. In big enterprises, it takes some time to get a qualified contact person. The first 4 mails are always a waste of time. They told me over and over that my "problem" was no problem at all, but perfectly normal, so getting my money back won't be possible. I phoned to my store and they told me I had to send the laptop in for 2 or 3 times, then they might give me my money back if the problem is not resolved. So I decided to go the hard way now, as Acer support cannot really help me.

 

40% wear bravo u win
i hope they send me a sanyo and don't re-send me a panasonic battery
panasonic battery sucks !

ok thankx for the info,2weeks for that + 1 weeks to they give my money back for the operating system (licence windows) damn almost 1 month !

 

So I was just playing BC2 for about 15 minutes, about 3-4 minutes in cpu temps reached 80 and it throttled down to a 13 multiplyer and stayed there while temps stayed steady at 69/65. No idea what gpu temps were at, throttlestop doesn't seem to show them automatically. This was with an external display hooked up and thottlestop on that showing temps.

I have no idea what aintz uses to check throttling, but this is the same model as his, so he might be missing something.

quite disapointed

edit: I also have the rear propped up about 2 inches to allow air flow

 

I have to prop up the rear as well. I also removed the mesh covers over the vents today to see if it helped, I didn't notice any difference in BC2. I have to set the multiplier at around 14 to stay at stable temps in BC2, even then sometimes the video starts to cut out and flicker because of GPU temps, it's quite frustrating. I'm guessing the paste job on mine is pretty bad, because this thing cannot handle BC2 worth a damn. Oh well.

 

I had my multiplier at 18 or 19 (cant remember) and temps didn't go above 82, then I upped it to 20 multiplier, temps hit 85 and she shut down. GPU temps didn't go above 78.

Game was set to mostly medium, think it had high textures.

Kinda disappointed. Don't know if I should return it or rip it apart and try to reapply thermal paste or return it.

 

I'm in the same boat, I'm contemplating tearing down further, or maybe just return it. I ordered a Cooler Master X2 cooler, but I doubt it's going to help much. I'll give it a try, then decide what to do. When I ran at 18 the first night I had the laptop, I hit 100 with the cpu and shut down. Now if I don't keep the multiplier at around 14 it heats up my GPU too much and I get weird graphical glitches. I'm able to keep CPU temps at ~80 and GPU ~73 with that setup.

 

I just played about 20 minutes (single player) with 18 multiplier and max cpu temp was 79 and max gpu temp 73.

Would the i5 have higher temperatures then the i3 at the same multiplier?
If the i3 didn't have a stupid 85C thermal throttle from intel, I could probably run at 21 multiplier and stay below 100.

But for $599 I don't think I can get a better deal when it comes to size, battery life, portability, and power

 

With the core i5, x19/20 runs stable at 90-95°C. However, I use a dual profile setup with x29-turbo / x17-noturbo, which runs pretty fine. But it's not the machine I spent 699 for. If it was a crappy 300euro-2nd-laptop I wouldn't say a thing. From a brandnew machine I expect it to work as intended. If Acer cannot fix it, I'm gonna return it, basta!

Several new laptops with Nvidia gt540m are already announced, maybe I'll get one of these.

 

So you have the i3, that makes more sense now. It sounds like we are probably able to get around the same performance out of our machines, I just have to cut back the i5 even more to keep temps stable. I didn't realize the i3 shuts down at 85, I can hit that easy while playing BC2. It sounds like your limiting factor is the CPU however, where as I think mine is the GPU (overheating because of the CPU).

And to answer your question, at least with my i5, I hit 100 and shut down twice while using 18 multiplier. The GPU got up to 93 during that time, and it seems 100-105 for the GPU is hitting its upper limit. Both the CPU and GPU temps were unacceptable for me, I don't want this computer to die on me in a year or two.

I played a bit more BC2 as well, and I must say it actually performs quite well at a 14 multiplier, I still run with medium settings at native resolution. I may turn down a few options to try and get my temps down, it's gonna take a week or so of tinkering to make me happy

 

In fact you follow this steps?
i did it yesterday if it's that you tell me to do How to Calibrate Your Laptop Battery
i have to do it again so,i will give a try again

 

the i3 2310 does no shutdown at 85. it just applies throttle at 85. it shuts down at 100.

when i blocked the vent with a box and kept it running throttled kicked in after 85. it lowered my sc2 fps from 80 to 50. 2.1ghz --> 1.2ghz is the throttle after 85C

 

Thats what I thought but mine just shut off at 85. Maybe it was just a rare case? Would a bios update or driver updates change this? I haven't ran any updates, or updated any of my drivers yet, I just wanted to test this throttling right away.

 

Capt., I would think that your I3 is exhibiting more typical behavior. Max temp for the I3-2310 is 85C in a PGA mount. Intel Core i3 2310M Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech Once the thermal bridge exceeds temp, the core could either shut down or throttle. It can only continue to operate if it can quickly cool the thermal sensor. What you're seeing is likely manufacturing varibility between the two units. Could be better fan performance, heat transfer fluid or thermal paste or all 3.

 

Strange. My notebook is set to "high performance". When I set throttlestop to "off" and let it monitor, my notebook immediately goes down to x 8 and stays there. CPU at 50C, GPU at 45. Any ideas why?

 

because it's idle and doesn't need any power. 8x seems default min.

 

Running 3dmark06 it still stayed at x8. When I unplug it and turn off powersmart, the multiplier floats as it should.

 

wow, then no idea.

 

I wonder if it's related to my fan always being on. Seems like that happened ever since I installed nvidia system tools, but I'm too lazy to uninstall it and see what happens. Plus I like my overclock.

 

As promised, i checked Crysis 2 yesterday with my 3830TG (with SSD) and no surprises, it throttled!!
But with a x20 noTurbo throttlestop, it stayed at 90-93°C (with a logitech N200 notebook cooler and 35° ambiant)

But the game was still quite fluid (25-30 FPS in advanced graphic mode)
I have to try with a little gt540 overclock ;-)

 

What's the problem with ur license?

 

i already have one
so acer give y'r money back if u Tell them u don't want the OS on y'r laptop

 

He doesn't want Windows!
In europe, selling a computer with an included OS which is not free is "illegal". So you can send your PC back to have Windows removed and get some money back (in this case it's like 60€

EDIT : too late ;-)

 

OK a note to overclockers: It seems like it's better to use EVGA precision to OC and not nvidia system tools. Why? EVGA doesn't stop your computer from using adaptive frequencies, so while your OC will be active for games, it still steps down for 2d/low power. With Nvidia system tools, I have reason to believe that it clocks your card at that frequency continuously.

 

Has anyone tried underclocking gpu to solve throttling issues? More than likely the gpu is overheating the rest of the system. Having your CPU at 2.9 would be worth the underclocking . Also is it possible to undervolt gpu?

 

I do not agree with you
For gaming purpose, GPU is far more important than CPU! Of course, if your CPU is working at 1/10 it will cause a problem but you'd better underclock slightly your CPU et overclock slightly your GPU than the opposite...

 

Haha sorry I really don't know but for SC2 and bfbc2 i'm sure having your CPU throttled ~800-1000 mhz is alot worse than a slight underclock on gpu. Anyway that wasn't why I brought this up, I'm simply wondering if it could solve the throttling problem.

 

unclocking the gpu would be pointless as it will not stop the throttle.

 

slight undervolting may be another way to try, small improvements added upon each other might solve the issue, at least I think it will for me

 

The reason the CPU is throttled is because of excessive temps, the CPU never throttles on 3830tg unless the graphics is active.. Meaning that the heat from the graphics is causing the CPU to exceed hardcoded TDP and throttle.

Undervolting isn't possible for CPU unfortunately (atm), may be possible for gpu but I kind of doubt it.

 

ok i did it,it's worse
my wear reach 23% now (21% Saturday)
my wear rise up every 2 days
now it's sure i will send it back to acer to put to the laptop a Sanyo battery !

 

nop, there are 2 reasons for the cpu to throttle, gpu temp rises above 75° or cpu temp rises above 9x° (don't know exactly)

 

GPU never gets that hot though, playing TF2 for a while will get my GPU peaking at 78C while the CPU peaks at 98.

Another note: playing with vsync will keep your temperatures down. Without vsync I get 98-99C in TF2 probably because of high fps spikes, with vsync it maxes at 94.

 

GPU temp throttle was already changed to 85°C by a bios update.

 

Do you know what are the limit temps for GT540M?
With throttleStop at x20 and 775/965 for the GPU the CPU hit 92° and the GPU 86° after a few minutes.

Beyong which point is there a risk for the material?

The overclocking was worth the try, i nearly got 10 more FPS in Crysis 2

 

Neither the CPU nor the GPU are at risk at 100°C, but I guess the plastic around it may be harmed.

 

i feel that anything about 85C is pretty damn high.

when i oced mine 540m to 780/1000 the max cpu temp was 78 and gpu was 75.

 

I seem to have latest bios (1.05) and mine at 75+ makes cpu throttle, see my post a few pages back.
Did you observe this by yourself ? What version do you have ?

78 is already above 75 =)
and I'm getting higher temps than that, several causes can do it..
games you're playing, temp. you get in your country, are you using the 13", 14" or 15" version, and I even guess each laptop in its series is different

 

I will try to find the source, but I read 105 is the limit for the 540m.

 

I observed it with ThrottleStop personally. 75°C would be a little low, as the GPU can handle 95°C without any problems. You can see the version in my signature. What version do you have? The core i3?

 

I meant the bios version, mine is 1.05, and you mentioned a bios change ?
I have 4830tg with core i5

 

Miracle,after a full discharge yesterday (when Windows/linux shut off on 3% = hibernation mode) i did a full charge and my wear down from 23 to 21%
well it's a little good sign ^^

 

For those who have send in their laptop to acer to get the battery replaced, did you clear your hard drive and restore at another time or did you just leave everything on your computer?

 

Yes it's a good sign. That's how mine did... After calibration it started going down. Now I charge more often, instead of running it all the way down to 10-20%. And wear is now at 5%, gone down from 14%!

Keep us updated...

 

yes i read the best to do is to charge since u'r battery reach 40%
that's what i'll do next days & re-calibrate the battery this week end

 

I have the 3830TG with 1.05 bios. However, the 4830TG is different in many ways, mostly due to the DVD drive.

 

I just left everything on the computer, but if you computer contains sensitive data, I recommend u to backup & clear the HDD

 

I hardly believe that 4830 would have a 10° lower limit (especially for gpu), even with an extra sata peripheral.. there must be something else.

Could other 3830tg owners confirm the 85° gpu limit before throttling ?

 

It definitely doesn't throttle at 75, I can tell you that. I set up Throttlestop to switch to my underclocked profile at 85C on the GPU. It never reaches this before the CPU trigger (also 85C), though.