Acer v3 771g owners club?

Anyone plan on doing any aftermarket upgrades once your warranty expires?

 

At no point Core i7 Mobile was said to be 4 core CPU- all generations of Core i7 have had 2 core units in them including startting from Arrandale all the way to Ivy Bridge where there are actually six two-core i7s.

What sort of upgrade are you thinking about?

 

How long is the warranty again? I may purchase a Macbook Pro w/ Retina by the time the warranty for the 771G runs out. My younger brother entering high school has possession of both my gaming/workstation desktops but has only a dying Asus A8JS (revived by baking the GPU.) I'm thinking of giving him this laptop.

Currently I have upgraded to 4x4GB (16GB) of RAM. I've added a 2.5" 120GB SSD as the boot drive, and a 60GB mSATA SSD. The 1TB drive is now the data drive. I can't think of any more upgrades. This laptop could use the backlit keyboard of older aspire series but lack a dedicated port for powering the LEDs.

I wish the optical drive could be replaced with another fan like the y500/y400 series.

 

I recently sent my Acer V3 771G in for a repair (the hard drive failed) and was curious about a few things. First off, I'm pretty sure that my hard drive suffered a head crash because one, I couldn't boot into the OS, two, the BIOS wouldn't recognize the hard drive, and third, it was making strange noises. With that being said, the most likely course of action that Acer will take is to replace the hard drive, right?

If so, does anyone know what they will reinstall exactly? When I first bought the laptop in October last year it came with the Dolby Home Theater v4 software, and it helped to improve the quality of the speakers dramatically. My main concern is will they reinstall that program? I like this software and there's no way that I know of to download it from anywhere, so does anyone know what they will install?

One more question. I live about 90 kilometres from the Acer repair centre in Ontario, Canada, and I had my computer shipped yesterday. What are peoples' experiences with the repair time? Did it take more than a week, more than two weeks, etc. It's not like I shipped it across the continent or anything like that. So what are my fellow Canadians' experiences with Acer regarding wait times for repair? I just find it kind of amusing when I see a post about how someone had to wait an entire month for their computer to be fixed. It just seems kind of absurd that I might have to wait longer than a week just for a hard drive replacement.

 

After purchasing my SSD's I tried so hard to install the OS through the backup of the original HDD but was unable to. Because of that I tried installing Windows 8 Pro for a trial, but what happened was the OS Installer detected the Serial Number on my PC and installed Windows 8 instead. I was successfully able to activate it also.

Now to your question they will probably restore the HDD with all programs that were on it to it's factory default form. So yes the Dolby Digital program will be on there. With experience though you can download the Dolby Digital program through the support page for your laptop. It won't be specifically named Dolby Digital. I think installing the audio driver provided will also install the program. Either that or the wifi/bluetooth driver. This is from personal experience. I researched the exact question which is how I found out.

I can't really answer your last question. I've never had to send in a product to fix except my power supply which is not from Acer.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll take a look when my computer comes back. It looks like they're done with the repair since my case status says, "closed", so it should be on its way home within the next day or so.

 

It's actually possible to force installation of Windows 8 Pro from any setup media, but it involves a - tiny - trick with the addition of a simple text file (hint: google for ei.cfg) to the setup files. That way you can start afresh with a clean system, without having a Bios-embedded Acer license limiting you to Windows 8 Core Edition. Did that from the very beginning (well, even wiped the HDD before even turning the notebook on) because I bought a nice Windows 8 Pro license months ago, why couldn't I use it as I want on my new machine heh?

Exactly - the Dolby Advance Audio and Dolby Home Theater v4 setup files are included in the Realtek Audio Driver at Acer's website. Actually, any more recent version of that driver (as downloaded from realtek.com.tw) will feature the very same Dolby enhancements, yet without the tray utilities allowing quick selection & customization of audio profiles. Also, running the Dolby HTv4 setup "outside" of Acer's driver setup allows to deselect unneeded feats (...demo video etc.) while choosing a decent installation path (rather than a stupid C:\Dolby). Most OCD-stricken geeks care about that =)

 

I found that after a certain Realtek driver (forget which one, think it was after a driver in mid 2012?) the Dolby software ran into some issues, namely it wouldn't work. Something to do with compatibility. Have you run into that problem at all? Maybe they've updated the Home Theater software since I last checked.

 

No problem with the R2.71 (.6873) W8x64 driver from Realtek's web site + Dolby HTv4, the audio chip on my 771 is the HDA ALC271X.

However I know for sure that with some Realtek HDA chipsets (can't remember which model exactly, it was on some Acer 7738G) the last pack of drivers to allow Dolby enhancement was the R2.65. Any subsequent version lacked a linkage with Dolby dlls and thus gave the usual, terribad notebook rattle. (One of the few instances whereby upgrading drivers actually proves detrimental...)

 

Yo dawgs!
This is the best computer I've ever had, not a day goes by without me bragging about my 32gb laptop ram!

But dawgs, is your screens super blue/cold? I'm trying to borrow monitor calibration from someone but no luck yet, I don't understand why Acer can't make a ready-made profile for us that can roughly make it alright.

 

Sorry I never answered your question, I never got a notification email that there was a response to the thread, yet I just got an email for the last person who posted in the thread today...weird!

Anyway, to answer your question:

I plan on replacing the C: drive with an SSD, and replacing the D: drive with hopefully a 1TB HDD, upgrading Windows 7 Home Premium x64 to Ultimate x64, as well as upgrading from 8GB of RAM to 32GB, replacing the DVD burner with a Blu-ray burner.

EDIT: By the way, does anyone know where to get replacement screws for the access panel on the bottom of the laptop?

 

Quite the contrary, coming from a 7738G I find the 771G horribly warm, with a very average colorimetric rendition. Maybe they use different panels across that series (mine is a Chi-Mei N173FGE-L23). Definitely deserves some probe calibration.

 

Interesting, maybe that's why Acer doesn't supply calibration profiles because there's like a dozen different panels to keep track of. Shame really.

 

I got a question about the bios. I want to slave a 2nd hard disk but there is no option in my bios menu.
bios version Insyde Corp v1.10
smbios version 2.7

 

Updated my V3-771G to Insyde Bios (UEFI/W8) version 2.23 - everything went flawlessly, nothing changed. Probably minor bugfixes.

 

Just to clarify, can you put an SSD in the second hard drive bay of any 771G model? I looked at the BIOS and there is a bay #0 that is empty, and of course there is a second hard drive bay in my laptop that seems to have a proper connector. Mine is the 6675 (Canadian model, Intel core i5 3210M, 8 GB RAM, 650M).

The reason I'm asking is because I contacted Acer and the support rep said that my second hard drive was a dummy drive. That's gotten me worried. I don't believe her because I can see the connectors for myself and the fact that there's an empty tray in BIOS, I mean these ARE the people who gave me a link for a Windows 8 BIOS version when I have Windows 7...

With that out of the way, can you add an SSD to ANY 771G model, just as long as you have a second hard drive bay?

 

why dont you just take your main drive and place it into second hdd slot. if bios recognises it works.

Sent from my HUAWEI Y300-0100 using Tapatalk 2

 

hello everyone...a friend took this notebook to me. He use it for gameing but now he got an issue: the gt 730m doesn't work anymore and the only vga that work is the intel hd4000. I already saw this issues with vga switching and solve those problems with bios\driver updates.

But not in this case: the bios is the last, 2.23 (question: is acer uefi similar to older bios? because i do not have much options like asus uefi for example), drivers are the last from acer site, reinstalled after clean and update with win 8.1 but nothing. Nvidia card doesn't appear anywhere, if i try to install nvidia drivers i got "no compatible hw in this system"... i even reinstalled pci root drivers and intel chipset, nothing. What can i do?

 

Hey man, I'm new to the site but read your post and may have an idea. I know this post is a bit old so I hope you see this...
Sounds like your friend's GPU may have become overheated and separated or been knocked loose. This idea seems logical to me because it sounds like the system just isn't recognizing the GPU. Case in point, if you plug in a USB device and have done everything possible for the system to recognize it and still have connection problems... well, you could just have a connection problem.
There's a pretty decent video on youtube about the Acer 77x model breakdown and swapping of graphics cards. Do a search and see if you can check the connections/paste.

 

Who want unlocked bios with uefi v2.23 can pick up this one and if you want unlocked bios with unlocked vbios(gt 740m only) where turbo boost 2.0 is activated + set lower minimum frecvency 50 mhz and higer maximum frecvency for gpu 1200Mhz and vram from is set now from 202,5 to 1050Mhz, the overclocking capability for this vidocard is enabled too so you can try different clocks with NVIDIA inspector + added slic 2.1, bios is here, only remember that thoose clocks was stable for me, max gpu temp while gaming was ~70 C.

Flash procedure:
1) pick one of bios
2) format your flash in fat32 format
3) paste bios in flash whit name VAG70X64.fd because if it will be named different bios will not recognise it
4) turn off pc and inser flash in right side 1. usb port
5) press Fn + Esc key and dont relase them, then press power buttton,
6) when hdd led is blinked 2 times (and if flash had activity led that is blinking) you can relase Fn + Esc keys
7) wait untill pc will turn off
8) have fun

if something isn't right whit unlocked bios just flash this original bios

there is my 3dmark results with unlocked vbios:
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Acer VA70_HC
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Acer VA70_HC
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Acer VA70_HC

 

Works as expected on my V3-771G, using the unlocked first one (no interest in GT7xx tweaking)

What I did:
- unplug the power cord
- remove the battery
- hold Power button for >10 sec (clears relict charge)
- plug the notebook
- plug the fat32-formatted USB stick (containing modified VAG70X64.fd)
- hold Fn+Esc
- hit Power button while still holding Fn+Esc
- after a few sec and a few blinks from the HDD led, release Fn+Esc
- screen stays blank, fan running, for a few minutes (<5 min in my case), time for a coffee
- notebook turns off automatically once it's done
- unplug power cord, replug battery, replug power cord, start notebook
Everything works as intended, with a sheetload of new uefi settings to play with.

 

I'm looking for a laptop exclusively for Linux, no Windows.
One of the models I've come across is an Acer V3-771G. It's reasonably priced (799 euro), probably because it's Ivy Bridge rather than the new Haswell which cost about 100 euro more.
Specs are :
Core i7 3632QM
nVidia Geforce GT 740M
500Gb HDD
Full HD screen, non-glare
8gb of RAM (16Gb max)

First thing I would like to know if everything works under Linux. From what I've read on the forum, booting into legacy bios shouldn't be a problem.
Next, I would be adding a 128 SSD to it to boot from, so I can use the HDD for my /home folder for documents, pictures etc.
What's the best way to go about this (assuming this laptop even works with linux) ?
Apparently there's a second bay to put in an SSD. Is this bay available on EVERY V3-771G ?
I'm not too bothered about the optical drive because (I have an external USB one from Amazon, works like a charm), so would it be better to take it out and replace it with a SSD in a caddy ? Will I have full mSATA speed using this method ?
Or should I operate on the machine and use the empty bay ?

Thx !

 

As for the Nux part, I guess it depends on what precise OS you want to install. Can't complain about running a vanilla Ubuntu 12.04 Server on that notebook, but that's probably not the OS you have in mind. let me know what distrib you'd like and I can run some basic check.

Regarding additional storage devices: afaik all models based on the V3-771 platform come with two HDD bays (one of them can even accommodate 12.5mm-thick drives, if you crave for terabytes!).
Therefore the easiest and safest way would be to buy a cheap hdd caddy for Aspire V3 models (costs about $25 at various stores), plug the provided hdd in the 2nd bay with the help of that caddy, then put a new shiny ssd in the first bay.
(FYI there's even a possibility for a third drive, thanks to a mSata slot).

 

Well ther is newest posible bios for acer v3-771g V2.28, I now that in acer support page this bios doesn't exist but acer had used same board on many notebooks so this work and its fully unlocked so use with care and dont change setting that you doesn't understood Whit this bios you can activate intel me firmware upgrade option too, for example my pc now runs newest intel me firmware. Upgrade process is same as before.
VAG70X64

 

hey guys does anyone have a unlocked bios for acer v3 772G with 760M??i have windows 7 64bit???I just want to overpass the 135mhz limit for overclock..not interested in other features.Thanks

 

Please give bios link and I can try to mod it, but I didn''t uderstood what exactly you need cpu or gpu overclock?

 

Dear all,

May I required in emergency you rhelp please:

I've flashed the InsydeH2O release 2.23 for my ACER V3-771G Laptop.
Then I entered a supervisor password that I remember well !. I was in UEFI mode. Entering F2 asked me password and all was fine.
I have to precise that this password includes ! and # caracters.

Then I changed boot menu, to choose ==> Legacy boot mode.

But now when I type F2, it asks password and I can not enter it ; e;g. the keyboard mapping seems to be changed!: I have NOT the upcase first line
in my AZERTY keyboard, pushing SHIFT key , does not display any * in the password box if I type any first line letter!!!
I've reflashed the InsydeH2O .fd file using the recovery FN+ESC process , no change. First upcase line provides no typing letter!
I can always enter windows8.

How now enter the password (I remember it), and has the mapping keyboard changed ?

Thx for help.
Hervé

 

So your problem is that on bios level first line of keyboard not work but in windows works? and recovery method bios reflash doesn't fix it?

 

I have the V3-771g with i5-3210m and Nvidia 630m. Some pretty exciting news for those of you not wanting to buy a totally new laptop... I Read on notebookcheck... here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-V3-772G-747A321-Notebook.93916.0.html

"Just the same old case? Not quite, Acer does use the samebarebone ( Aspire V3-771G) but changes some visuals and improves the quality."

So in theory if I want to upgrade my notebook I just need to buy a new motherboard (if cpu works). the case, screen etc will fit like a glove?! All I'd like to know is if the 3210m processor I have will work on the mb?

 

Do these overclocking options works only on UEFI mode? Legacy bios isn't capable?

 

Old thread I know,
but how would I go about unlocking vbios for 640m?
Also I am using your latest 2.28 unlocked bios, but CPU overclocking menus seem very restricted and so does intel XTU.
Do I need to update Intel ME?
What is the procedure for this?

On another note,
I have finally figured out how to recover BIOS password on this laptop if anyone is interested.

 

hi, i am interesting on this- my v3-771g is bios locked and i know not , how can it wipe or so..

have it with Cmos De-Animateur and other Software tested , nothing go..

 

Read my "about me" under information.
I can't DM yet and don't want to risk breaking a rule

 

Hello, I just signed up to thank you, I was able to recover my BIOS password as per your method.

Where you able to do some overclocking on the V3-771G?