New Acer Aspire V Nitro series

As far as i know, there's no improvement with software updates. The real problem is the bad antenna placement, so i don't think any software would change that.
It does get better getting rid of the Atheros crappy one. I did that myself and got This one .. You can search for the "Killer" brand too.

 

@ Mattthev
BIOS has nothing to do with a wireless card so you are going in a totally wrong direction. Replacing antennas won't help because the antennas are placed wrong. They themselves are fine - it's just a problem with a placement and you won't be able to get them on top of the screen anyway.

All you can do is to replace a Wi-Fi card which is something that does seem to help to an extent.

 

I want this one, I heard 7260 is not that good as 7265. The antenna problem, I will try buy new one, but is it one antenna with 2 conectors or 2 antennas?
So your 7260 is working good? Because on ebay they said that 7265 might only work with Lenovo, or it's just somehow branded version of 7265 card?

Well I just do qiuck research and 7265 is branded or what for Lenovo, but 7260 is also for Acer and not branded...
It's weird 7260 on Intel pages said AC support, but on ebay exactly said not AC.
I would by it in my country (Czech Republic), but they don't offer NGFF version :/

And what about place new antennas under keyboard?

 

Mine is really good, you can look a few pages back on my post as how much of an improvement it was for me.

 

It won't help. It would be even worse location that the default one.

As for 7260 - there is a card that supports 802.11ac and there are cards that don't. The ones that don't are even worse so don't buy those.

 

That's good. I think it will help me too because my Acer have almost two times better upload speed but it should be opposite...

@downloads Thank you, so I will look for AC one or you know better WiFi card?

 

I don't know, maybe it's just a coincidence, but ever since i've updated my SATA AHCI controller drivers today, it looks like my SSD runs cooler. You guys can give it a shot as well if your m.2 SSD are toasty like mine was. You can't find these drivers in acer website, should look for them in google by your device name (mine is intel (r) 8 series sata ahci controller - 8c03) or device id's etc. and update through device manager.

 

You should use Intel Rapid Storage it will install newest driver and I didn't find any newer than from January

 

Your choice is extremely limited - either Intel 7260 or Killer 1525. Check back a few pages in the thread - we've discussed this with @0meg4 when he was deciding on a card.

 

That's good advice, but it only updated my driver to 2014 07 from 2014 05 i've just installed before, did you mean january of 2015? How's that then?
Anyway, my SSD temperatures are now MUCH better. Before i just had default windows driver from 2006. I wonder if SSD technology even existed in 2006 so that's not surprise that something didn't work correctly. It's a shame that acer didn't even provide you with intel rapid storage driver and you gotta find and install it yourself. I mean, if you don't have much knowledge about computers and stuff and just use what manufacture provides, then you will sit with outdated drivers forever...

 

RST is January 2015 but drivers are older release (mine is also 25th July, that's good, it's my birthday ). But with RST you can set power saving or perfomance, it should works with your SSD. I have SSHD so I can't change this, but still it seems is faster than without it. If you want lower temperature search for newer SSD firmware. I have no experience with upgrading SSD firm, but with HDD it is usually big improvement.

@downloads Thanks, it seems Intel 7260 is better so I'll buy it.

 

I wonder if my notebook, the 15" version with 5200u has a better placement for the antenna: so far I have had stable and fast wifi connection with the aetheros card. However I don't know how i could compare my wifi connection with yours...

Regarding the battery: I have read in multiple guides that leaving the laptop plugged in doesn't affect the battery life (in terms of life cycles and durability) as long as the temperatures remain within 40°C. Do you guys confirm that?

 

My firmware is updated, that didn't change nothing temperature-wise. For power saving options, i use CrystalDiscInfo and i've set SSD on full performance (FEh) and HDD on 80h. Now, maybe full performance isn't best way to get best temps, but hey, i want max performance! Anyway, with all that, my SDD used to run about 60c and more allways, aroud 55c on idle. Now it sits happy with 41c at a moment, AFTER updating SATA AHCI controller drivers, that was all i needed.

 

I think my Acer may be in need of repasting but I want to know how normal my idle tempertures are. The information I have found so far seems a bit vague and does not specify whether people are talking about max tempertures or averages if the computer is plugged in, whether or not the fan is active (and if so how often). Much of this can easily be shown on a graph with open hardware monitor.

I have a 15.6" Acer Nitro i7-4710HQ Black Edition with Ultra HD screen.

The attached graph shows my temperatures at idle over a 30 minute period, plugged in, ambient temperature 23C, screen at 50% brightness on high performance power plan. The laptop is sitting on a cooling pad (cooling pad fans turned off).



As you will see from the graph, the laptop runs initially silent and the temperature keeps rising until the hottest core max reaches about 57C. The fans then kick in for a short period and the temperture goes down so the hottest core is about about 49C (coolest core 44C). The fans then turn themselves off again. On avereage the fans start up every 4 mins 25 seconds. From the low it takes about 3 minutes until the CPU heats up enough for the fans to kick in again. Over a thirty minute period you can see the fan kicked in briefly 6 times.

(If you are interested, changing the power plan to balanced means the temperatures stay the same but it takes 4 minutes for the CPU to heat from the lowest value back up to be hot enough for the fans to start (rather than the 3 minutes it takes on high performance)).

Would it be possible for other people to please post the results of similar tests? Please. And could you state what model you have and whether or not you have repasted.

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to do this.

 

So i ordered Intel 7260 AC from ebay because in Czech Republic they offer only PCIE AC or NGFF AN :/ After month I'll post feedback

 

Does anyone have experience replacing the ODD on the 17" version with a HDD Caddy + SSD?

I'm considering this since there are great deals on regular SSD's right now, but I can't seem to find the right HDD Caddy that fits..

 

It would be better to place the ssd on the motherboard. The caddy speeds are not optimal to the ssd. And use the mechanical hard drive on the ssd.

 

Oh you mean use the HDD in the Caddy, right? Yeah I guess that would be better.
I found the caddy for the 17" version on HDDCaddy.com, from Europe for $30. Ugh.. I may as well just get it on eBay and wait for the China shipping..

 

Yes. The speeds on the optical drive port are too slow for the ssd. Even for the HDD.

 

Why is that? Shouldn't it be capable of SATA III, 6Gbps?

 

Well, for my 7200rpm it was too slow. Haven't tried on a slower one.

 

I'm assuming you were using your HDD as a storage device. Did it take too long to open up movies or load applications?

 

Not too long. But after you get used to the ssd loading everything in milliseconds, everything else is slow motion, haha. So, I'm kinda biased.

 

I believe that you are supposed to get normal speed from SSD / HDD in a caddy. Shouldn't be any difference.

 

That is true - speeds in the caddy should be the same as the ones of an internal SATA drive. Maybe these were somehow affected by low quality caddy or maybe there is something else in play. But in theory there should be no difference indeed.

 

You guys are totally right.
It was a 10$ caddy, that only supported SATA. It was for my former compaq laptop, and i felt my ssd was capped on there.

 

So how hard is it to install a caddy instead of an existing ODD? And where to get one from? Wouldn't a caddy have to be customized to each individual laptop chassis, or am I wrong here? To be honest I rather get an ODD replacement instead of an SSD for m.2, since the former is much cheaper and available as better drives (I.e. Evo 850 etc)

 

Si

Since when buying a caddy (decent one customized special for this laptop cost ~25€ ) + ssd (especially Samsung EVO) is cheaper then just get yourself a m.2 ssd? I Mean.. If you really want Samsung EVO, that's ok, but i can't see how on earth that could be cheaper. I've paid 90€ for pretty decent 128gb m.2 ssd and that's it. I think Samsung EVO 120gb cost about as much, but then you still need a caddy, and i don't advice you to buy cheaper one.

 

Seems I have some battery issues on v17:

1. After approximately 1 months of usage, laptop started to make some tiny sounds when working on battery. Sounds appears only when it processing something, but without exception (maybe it's processor config when run on battery instead of battery issue). I tried to change power settings (even hidden ones in registry) for both processor and battery but problem remains. When the laptop is plugged in there is no any sounds.

2. After 2.5 months, laptop started to shuts down randomly (when working on battery), but always when battery is about 30% or less. I tried with calibration and it seems that the problem is gone (1 week nothing).

3. 2 days ago, battery started to last for only 1.5h. Earlier it lasted 2 - 2.5h with the same usage.

Does anyone have similar issues?

Thanks

 

Hi guys I am reposting my question regarding the proper management of power: I have read in multiple guides that leaving the laptop plugged in doesn't affect the battery life (in terms of life cycles and durability) as long as the temperatures remain within 40°C. Do you guys confirm that?

I have been using the laptop always plugged in and cpu temperatures so far in web + office use remain within 45°C, am I doing things right or should I use the laptop unplugged?

 

Don't worry about it. Batteries don't like high temperatures but what you are looking at is CPU temperature. Battery is nowhere near that.

Apart from that there is not much you could do anyway - using the laptop on battery means more load/unload cycles so it doesn't exactly help - more the opposite. Using it constantly plugged is not ideal though - you should discharge it once in a while and charge it again -if not for anything else - just because it-re-calibrates the battery so it's showing you the actual capacity it now has (and estimated battery time that is based on that)

 

Thank you very much for your fast reponse, excuse me for having re-posted my question but I was worried that I could harm my laptop.
Yes I was planning to complete discharge the battery after 30 cycles to re-calibrate it.
Thanks again!

 

No problem, I missed your question when you asked it the first time
Just remember not to leave the battery fully discharged. Also batteries tend to like it better when they are charged slowly - often this happens when the notebook is off while more rapid charging is used when it's on (that might depend on a particular chip in the battery). Point being -it might be a good idea to charge the battery when the notebook is off, for example overnight.

Again - it probably won't matter too much but if anything that helps a bit with prolonging the battery life.

 

From my previous experience with acer 5742zg, i can only say this. My laptop was plugged in 95% of a time, no matter of nothing, for about 5 years daily usage. Since i don't care for tha battery or battery life at all. But it's still capable to work for about an hour web browsing. That's after almost 5 years of daily usage. So i would say... Don't worry about that. And forget about calibration with modern batteries as well..

 

@siluetaz - calibration has nothing to do with battery being modern or not- I assume you are referring to formatting the battery which is indeed unnecessary these days. Calibration is still needed once in a while since battery loses capacity (aka battery wear) but the chip in the battery can't know that unless the battery is being used and the capacity is simply not there. That's when the chip in the battery considers that capacity lost (you can see that by increasing battery wear number). That means the % shown are real (as of the moment not as of manufacturing date) and consequently remaining battery time is also realistic - as it's based on current max capacity.

 

Well yeah, it should help to display more accurate information about battery charge level to user. I just ignore things like that myself, since, for whatever reason, i've never had a battery that would act strange because of lack of calibration or don't hold capacity at all (i mean, run for only 5-10min) even though i use my devices for years and never really care. Really strange. Anyway, only thing i would avoid personally is to discharge battery to a low level, like below 30% or even 40%. That's the only rule i have, seems like it works for me.

 

Hi Guys,

I have some problems with my Nitro and can't solve them alone anymore.
So I hope for Help in this great Forum .

I have the Nitro 17" Black-Edition V791G with Core i5 4210H, GTX 860m, 8GB RAM and replaced the 1000GB HDD with a Crucial M550 2,5" SSD.

So my Problems are the CPU/GPU Temperatures.
Before I replaced the HDD with a SSD I got Temperatures around 96-97° with everything on Stock and after couple of Minutes Prime95.
So I decided to repaste since I must open the Notebook to install my SSD.

Now after 2 times of repasting and trying every single hint from you guys here, my situation isn't better at all.
No Matter what I did and tried, the Temperatures are always getting to 90° on the CPU. The GPU isn't the Problem (max 85° maybe on stress test)
Here is what I did so far:
- Replaced the stock paste with arctic cooling MX2 --> Temps got a little bit better but now I see now big difference to stock.
- Undervolted with Intel XTU -70/80mv Offset. No different in stress test.
- Repasted again with arctic silver 5 --> Temps are the same. Maybe even a bit higher than with MX2?!
- Tried the tool for Fan Control: RW --> every fan on max speed (very loud!) and the temps in stress test on cpu are getting to 97°
- Set Energy CPU Limit to 99% so turbo won't activate. Improved the short benchmarks (3dmark/cinebench) but in stress test or longer gaming sessions temps are reaching around 90° on cpu.
- Lifted up the Notebook from behind, so the fans can take better air --> Again only a bit of improve.

I'm really getting tired! The Notebook is almost 2 weeks old now.
How Could it be, the i5 4210H is getting so hot and no matter what I do I can't keep him down the 90° in stress test??
People are getting much lower temps even with a i7 Quadcore.

My GPU Temperatur is always good. I get maximum 70° in 3dmark tests. And while gaming crysis3 or stress test the temp is around 80-85° never higher.

Maybe you have some more ideas for me or can tell me what to do next.
It can't be the CPU is getting so hot even after repaste and undervolting.

Here are some test-temps:
Notebook liftet up from behind, paste is arctic silver 5, no undervolt, no energy limit, fans on auto mode:
Cinebench: Core1 - 88 / Core2 - 84
3DMark11: Core1 - 89 / Core2 - 82
Prime95 5min: Core1 - 95 / Core2 - 88
Stress Test Prime with Unigine Heaven: Core1 - 97/ Core2 - 92 / GPU: 82°

Note that if I put my Notebook on my desk without lifting up, the Temps increase by around 7°!!
And my Ambient Temperature is around 17°-18°.

Please help me, Thanks!

 

Hi Kalle,

So after repasting the max CPU temperatures when running Pime95 came down about 6-7c from stock? Is that right?

 

Not at all.
The Stock Temperature was 96/93° after 2 min of prime95.
So no big change. But I think of opening the notebook the third time to put on again MX2.
I think the arctic silver 5 is worse than MX2. Maybe because I bought MX2 more recent and arctic silver is a couple of years old? I don't know...

I think the best solution for me now is to limit the power of cpu to 99%.
So the temperatures remain under 80°. But to be honest, I bought the acer nitro with 2x 3,4Ghz not 2x 2,9Ghz

 

So you got Core1 - 95 / Core2 - 88 after pasting and 96/93° before?

 

What are your idle temperatures like? I did a detailed post (#1416) detailing mine. What are yours like? Could you do a comparable test?

 

So I just got my Transcend 256gb M.2 SSD and managed to put it in the 17" version without blowing it up. Now I'm downloading EaseUS Partition Manager, but I have some questions.

After I make the partition, how do I copy over just the OS files? Do I have to do anything else after that?

 

Yes that's right.
Nothing changed much.

My Idle Temps are Core1=43-44 Core2=41-42 while typing this text.
I think these Temps are ok. But if there is a little load the temp goes above 70° in a couple of seconds.

 

So it stays steady and over 10 minutes it would never exceed 42-44?

 

It depends on what I'm doing.
If I let my nitro just in idle without browsing or typing, yes the temperatur remains the same after 10 min.
-But when I'm browsing some light websites or typing a text, temps are going up to 47°-48°.

Wha I have noticed, my 2 Cores have a huge difference in temp.
I just run a cinebench test. After that I got on Core1: 89° and on Core2: 81°.
So there is a difference from 8°. If Core1 would be the same than Core2, I wouldn't have any temperature problems...

 

Call me ignorant, but i would say forget about Prime95 testing a laptop. Even with two fans ant everything, it's just a laptop, you just can't get stable cool temperatures on full stress. Hardly possible. Unless you want to make custom heatsink and stuff. Thing is, in a real life, gaming or doing whatever, you can hardly (almost never) get your CPU on 99.9% for a long constant time, like in Prime95. So you don't really need to worry about that. Only simple and good "mod" is to place your laptop on a book or thicker magazine, just to lift it up a bit from the table, but make sure don't block fans vents. Repasting completely new laptop isn't really gonna help, i think. At least not enough to get nice temps under full possible stress. That's what you can get with desktop only and most of the times only if it has custom cooling as well. And on top of that, i would say if under full stress you don't get anything above 90c, that's damn fine, i mean, realistically. Well that's only my opinion and my experience anyway, YMMV.
Now, talking bout thermal paste. Arctic Silver 5 theoretically should take about 100 hours (or something) various heat-cool cycles to settle down and THEN provide it's best temperatures. I'm not so sure how it really goes in a real life, i use Ceramique 2. Anyway i believe that AS is old as hell and there suppose to be much better pastes now, i believe i saw some table with temperatures using different thermal pastes not so long ago, Arctic Silver was almost at the back of the list. There's supposed to be much better products these days, if you want maximum performance, even though, none of them make's miracles i think.

 

You're maybe right, but I repasted many "Gaming" Notebooks before and everyone succeded with reduced temps by around 8°-10°.
So I'm really disappointed by my nitro but maybe I have got a bad CPU and on other Nitro with 4210H there is no problem at all.

As for prime95 you're right. But as I mentioned before, the game Crysis for example stresses the CPU and GPU like a stress test.
So I got around 82° on GPU and 92°-94° on CPU. That's really bad.
Than CPU will start throttling maybe, which results in decreased FPS...

 

I think that just tell us, that acer already use pretty decent paste if you don't get noticeable improvement after repasting. In your case, maybe cooling pad would be an option? Problem with laptops is that, they are more capable hardware-wise, then maintaining temperatures, that's true. As i'm not a heavy gamer myself, i try not to max out settings in games (even though theoretically i could) that usually works for me.

 

Does anybody has not working sd card reader? I also has non working webcam I tried reconnect webcam but it's still not working I will try reconnect sd card reader I hope it will work. This laptop worth every penny

I'm just bought MX-4 so I will let you know if it helped.

 

Do you have the 15 or 17 inch version? Are you able to record your idle temps before and after?