Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

Probably not much to add, but I found this Malaysian site that seems to have a lot of users with tips etc. ~Acer Aspire TimelineX 4830TG Club V2~

 

Just got around to opening my 3830TG up and replacing the CPU. Dropped an i7 2720QM in there and it's looking good! With the multi set to x22 I was getting about 45C idle and 87C on load running prime95. I also picked up a zalman NC2500 plus, idle temps didn't change much maybe 1-2C but my load temps dropped to 76-77C.

 

Why upgrade if you run that at x22 anyway? Seems like temps are higher than the 2410.

 

buzzsaw13, How many hours do you get on battery and what is the idle consumption with powersmart on?

 

I purchased a 3830T-6417 from Best Buy a few months ago and it had a Synaptics touchpad. I gave it to my daughter for school and re-ordered the same model from Amazon. This time it came with the Elan touchpad which is OK but not as good as the Synaptics.
Is there any way to identify which touchpad is from the box markings. I would like to find another with the Synaptics thanks

 

I will be testing out temps on a higher multiplier later in the day.

 

I finally got around to doing some Throttlestop logging just now.

i7-2620M ES, GPU overclocked to 550M levels using Nvidia system tools. Repaste and ramsinks on GPU and near the fan on underside of heatpipes, using Coolermaster U2 notebook cooler.

Turbo disabled in Throttlestop, that's the only thing I did there. The log file shows that after 15 minutes in Starcraft II, temperatures stabilized in high 75-80 C and stayed there before I ended the game 15 minutes after that. Multiplier shows almost always above 26.9, so the CPU is running pretty much full speed all the time. Am I reading this right?

 

Bought one too.
This 2nd hdd kept turning off & on when on battery, and it was really long to turn on (as if it was not in standby, but really turned off), so I ended uninstalling acer power management app (one of the 2, can't remember right now).
This app makes the optical drive turn off (I believe so), and so does it with the hdd if replaced..

Now it has less autonomy, but ext. hdd behaves better..
Not sure if I'll keep it that way :-/

No problem with yours on battery ?

 

4830TG from amazon.de is shipped ( 4830TG-2434G50Mibb), and city-link should post it tomorrow. Got it as part of their Cyber Monday deals for just shy of £500 incl. shipping.

Ordered a UK 3830T keyboard, and that may arrive in time for Saturday .

Will open it up, swap out the keyboard, and apply some proper thermal paste while I'm at it

EDIT: I'll also be saying bye bye to my Gateway M-6862 incl. tax when I visited the states, which I picked up for a bargain $460, and has served me well for 3 years.

 

Got my 4830tg today... installed my ssd drive, loaded windows from scratch. Everything seems to be working well from the app/driver cd I made before swapping hard drives except for the fn f3 app that would come up for wifi/bt switching. Anyone have this app or a link? I hate cycling through with little notice of what its doing.

EDIT: Dritek launch manager fixes this.

 

Install Launch Manager.

 

in my case, my HDD is on sleep whenever there's nothing accessed from it. it's stop spinning when not in use.Does uninstalling Acer power management software fixes this?

The drivers most likely out of date, might as well just download the latest one from acer .

 

The default multiplier for a Core i7-2620M is 27 and the maximum Turbo Boost multiplier is 34 so it sounds like ThrottleStop is working correctly for you.

Intel® Core i7-2620M Processor (4M Cache, 2.70 GHz)

If you want your CPU to run cooler you can try reducing the multiplier further but there is nothing wrong with 75C or 80C. That's a normal operating temperature for an Intel mobile CPU.

If you're not sure about setting ThrottleStop up then post some pics.

 

So I reloaded this powersmart manager and noticed that when in the balanced power profile, it ignores whatever I set for brightness when the "p" button is pressed. I can change it, and as soon as I unplug and replug power it goes back to a default setting. Can anyone give more info on how this application works?

EDIT: Also, it looks like I dont even have a way to run the application to customize settings. I saw this happening to others on a fresh win 7 install.. Has anyone over come this?

 

Hi
I've read alot about 3830tg before i bougth it so im in this eyes wide open and pictures on the internet suck because color is darker and more beautyfull than on most pictures of it on the internet

Is it possible to turn down brightness even below minimum on hotkeys in eee 901 I've used eeectl to accomplish that.

 

Tested my 3830TG with an i7 2720QM on x26 multi with a Zalman NC2500 plus, I've been hitting about 87-89C load on Prime95. About the same temps as it on the x22 multi with no cooler.

 

Thanks for your program, unclewebb. I'm happy with everything, being able to run SCII at full CPU speed with a GPU overclock. Now I can tweak the SCII graphic settings to push it just a little bit further...

 

I had the same problem, this app resets every power settings, including wifi power, cpu speeds, etc.
Since I needed my wifi power to be maximized on battery at that time (intel 6230 wifi/bt card is a complete failure), I uninstalled it.
Also had problems with 2nd hdd power handling, so...

But I lost some autonomy for sure.

 

For the record, I just switched from intel 6230 WiFi/BT combo minipci card to the Sparklan WPER-101GN(BT), from ebay.
Behaves much better, seems perfect till now (1st day).

 

This is good to know. I hate having a button that won't work on a new laptop, so I'd like to keep it. I might try to hit acer up to find out specifics, though I am not expecting much.

The button is doing 'something' I just don't know what and I don't like that.

 

I guess it just launches a low-power profile.

 

I thought the same thing, but it is using some sort of internal settings because it is not using any of the windows profile settings. I've seen in other threads an app called epower or something and some configuration screens but I dont see this anywhere on my 4830tg.

 

Guten Tag,

I received my laptop today, but the OS is in German, and I can't change it ._.

I've got a copy of Win 7 Professional from uni, and want to back up a few things before I nix Home Premium and install Professional.

Can anyone recommend a program for me to use to backup the drivers, and the few decent apps?

Thanks

 

To speed things up, I grabbed an app called virtual cd (I think its called that) that acts as a virtual cd burner, but it makes ISOs. I told it that to use a dvd+r, and then used Acer's built in system disc utility to create 5 iso images. Later, when I had media available to me, I burned these to disc from iso. Worked great!

 

Urgh. Seems like they sent me one with 1GB Vram instead of 2GB. I'm going to shoot off an email to amazon.de, and see what they say.

EDIT: Anyone have experience with amazon sending them the wrong product? What are my options or what will they offer me?

 

No. I hate to talk to tech support as most of the time they're useless. But I think I'll give it shot this time because I've wasted too much time trying to find a cover online.

Thanks

 

Just purchased my 4830TG last weekend, and it seems like I can't seem to get over 4 hours of battery. During my first few days of ownership the battery meter showed 10+ hours of battery, but since then, I can't get over 4. I attempted reconditioning the battery today, but to no avail. I contacted ACER via chat, and they offered to send out a new battery. This is what I wrote to them:

"Just purchased my laptop last weekend, and I believe I'm having a problem with the battery. The battery doesn't get anywhere close to the estimated 8+ hours of battery life. I can't seem to get over 3.5. That's running in power save mode, screen brightness turned all the way down, no programs running in the background, bluetooth off, wifi on, NVIDIA GPU off/not running. At idle the battery meter has never shown over 4 hours, and this is while at idle or only surfing the internet (no flash programs running, etc.)."

I hope someone has some suggestions out there. This is my first ACER (coming off an ASUS), and I'm pretty bummed.

Thanks!

P.S. Forgot to add that I increased memory from 4gb to 8gb.

 

i get around 4 hours too... i guess thats normal?

 

Doesn't seem normal to me. According to a notebookcheck review it should be able to last over 8hours with Wi-Fi and over 6 hours playing DVD, so 4 hours is unacceptable.

 

4 hours seems standard. I got around 4 hours first with Panasonic battery, sent it in, they replaced it with a new Sanyo battery. New Sanyo battery gets maybe 4:30.

 

getting over 7 here, projected at 8-11 depending on use...

 

Recently I noticed annoying behaviour with my 3830TG.
When I want to transfer larger(arpund 1GB and bigger) files over my home wireless network(802.11bgn mixed mode, WPA-PSK encryption) using the Windows file sharing the file transfer fails at some point. I'm running 64-bit Win7 home premium SP1.
I tried to google it but I haven't found any useful solution anywhere.
My guess is it could be either bug in Win7 or in the Wireless driver of the 383TG card (Atheros AR5B97, driver version 9.0.0.202)?
If I split the big file into smaller chunks I'm able to transfer them easily one after another in batch so I think this is not related to the network/router setup.
Anyone have experience with this?

 

These replies to my original post are concerning given that there seems to be such a difference in battery life experienced. I always take the manufacturer's claims for maximum battery life with a grain of salt, but for those of us getting around 4 hours of battery something must be wrong. I've conditioned my battery twice now, and I'm not getting over 4-4.5 hours of battery for light web surfing with screen brightness dialed down to the lowest setting. I really don't think I should accept a replacement battery for my brand new laptop, as I'm worried the issue may be something else entirely. Besides, a battery replacement for Eason showed no better results.

A few things to note:

-My fan is constantly running. Is this normal? The air coming out of the laptop is slightly warm, not hot. I use the laptop on a lap desk (no active cooling fans in the desk)

-I upgraded my memory to 8GB shortly after purchasing the laptop

 

@fractalus

Update your wireless driver to 9.2.1.459 and make sure that power management for wireless is disabled (at least for testing)

 

In the past with other laptops, I have traced this to either bad wireless hardware or a bad driver.

I would not say that this is normal. I upgraded mine to 8 gigs this weekend and my fan is off as I type this. Laptop has been on for nearly an hour. I have a 4830tg though.

 

Thanks for the link Downloads, I updated but unfortunately see no difference.

I have the 4830TG as well. I wonder if this could be my problem? Something is keeping my fan running continuously, and it's not due to the level of use I'm putting the laptop through.

I have the laptop on a flat laptop desk with nothing blocking the vent ports. The NVIDIA card is not active, and I'm doing nothing more than surfing with the screen set as low as it will go.

 

Did you update to the latest 1.07 bios? I did that as soon as I made my backup discs. Also, I use that "P" button when on battery. I typically turn the screen brightness way down too, as it is usually darker inside my office.

 

I updated my bios last night after reading early posts. I also use the power save "P" button while on battery.

 

Yeah something is really killing the cpu then... I also run the balanced power profile (though I suspect the P button has its own settings in mind).

The only other thing, is that I have an ssd drive, and have told it to power off after 1 minute. I hardly think your hdd is going to generate enough heat though to run the fan all the time...

 

@fractalus

It may be related to the router itself. Make sure that you have the latest firmware.

 

Mny thanks for your quick reply! Just installed your suggested driver and it seems much more stable. So far I was able to transfer ~6GB file without any problems. With previous driver such big file transfer always failed to finish succesfully. Anyway, I'll keep testing but it seems the newer driver is definitelly an improvement!

 

Ok, In the process of uninstalling programs (not that I had much installed) to return my 4830TG due to battery life problems. After uninstalling Google Music and VLC Player, and coming back to my computer, my battery time is up to 6hrs 50mins. WTH? In troubleshooting my battery issue, I had shutdown Google Music so that shouldn't make a difference (not to mention that it had no noticeable battery impact on my ASUS after the initial sync had completed). I also noticed that the fan isn't running continuously anymore. Could one of these apps have caused the fan to run continuously even with the apps not running?

 

I believe it could have. Apps can install services which run in the background. I dont have either of those apps installed. Glad you found the source of your problem!

 

I think I'll re-install those apps one at a time until I'm able to duplicate the problem, this way I'm 100% sure of the issue.

Ugh, stuff like this is so frustrating!

 

Guys, does anyone know what is currently the most actual+stable Nvidia gfx driver for 3830TG? Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

Swap out VLC for CCCP. You'll never look back

 

I have neither of those installed- I have VLC but it's just a folder. :s My fan is also always going even at 43 degrees, though it didn't used to.

 

I'll give it a look, thanks for the info!

How long have you had your ACER? BTW, what app or gadget do you use to get CPU temp?

I'm still going on battery since my uninstalls. I haven't reinstalled yet to see if I can duplicate the problem. I really hope I can duplicate the problem, as it's worrisome if the issue is just random.

 

I just got the 4830TG... It is a very good laptop! I noticed the throttling problems too, after ~5minutes of BC2, but it is tolerable! I cannot expect desktop grade graphics from a small form factor 14" laptop...
It came with 1.05 Bios, has anyone found out what 1.07 improves?
Also, there is a problem with the scorpio blue, it unloads the hdd heads all the time every 5 seconds. After 31 hours uptime, I have 2431 load /unload cucles in SMART, which is bad. I use quiethdd to deal with this problem, but I am looking for a more permenant solution...
Anyone else with the same problem? My HDD is WDC WD5000BPVT-22HXZT3 (WD-WX21A81W4673)
and statistics:

ID Attribute Description Threshold Value Worst Data Status
01 Raw Read Error Rate 51 200 200 0 OK: Value is normal
03 Spinup Time 21 176 174 2200 OK: Value is normal
04 Start/Stop Count 0 100 100 127 OK: Always passes
05 Reallocated Sector Count 140 200 200 0 OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 0 200 200 0 OK: Always passes
09 Power-On Time Count 0 100 100 31 OK: Always passes
0A Spinup Retry Count 0 100 100 0 OK: Always passes
0B Calibration Retry Count 0 100 253 0 OK: Always passes
0C Power Cycle Count 0 100 100 34 OK: Always passes
BF Mechanical Shock 0 88 88 12 OK: Always passes
C0 Power-Off Retract Count 0 200 200 6 OK: Always passes
C1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 0 200 200 2431 OK: Always passes
C2 Temperature 0 107 105 40 OK: Always passes
C4 Reallocation Event Count 0 200 200 0 OK: Always passes
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 0 200 200 0 OK: Always passes
C6 Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 100 253 0 OK: Always passes
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 200 200 0 OK: Always passes
C8 Write Error Rate 0 100 253 0 OK: Always passes

 

Is this your primary hdd ?

To those with autonomy problems, check your power consumption (I use BatteryCare), which shouldn't be over 8W.
If it is like 15W on idling, then something's wrong on the software part.
Base install from Acer is buggy, I highly recommend a reinstall on those laptops.