New Acer Aspire V Nitro series

See this

 

What's the name of that fine widget with temperatures, calendar and so on?

 

Thanks for the link.

I looked at that before, but it bugs me you need to manually have to run a bat file to change this.

I might write a script polling every 30 sec to read the fan values in the bios, compare them with the 860M status (either temp, clock speed > idle or utilization) and then write the values if they need to be adjusted.

That will be Rainmeter......
It uses customisable skins (in this case gnometer) which I re-wrote to suite my needs

Nearly zero resources, and plugins for everything. Bit fiddly to learn but worth it!

 

It makes me wonder if somewhere in that embedded controller code code is a profile map for automatic and it may be possible to edit the temp to speed table?

What do you think liviu009?

 

How is the build quality on the Nitros compared with Clevo laptops?

 

I opened it up, disconnected the 3 connectors for a minute, plug them back in. The keyboard still doing double keys. It is now on its way to Acer Repair Center. Anyone knows usually how long it took for Acer to repair a laptop?

 

Nvidia has released a Hot Fix driver 359.12 for the 860m. I will try it soon
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3812
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...geforce-860m-notebook-gpus-released-12-2-15-/

 

After changing my hdd and closing the casing of my acer nitro, the touchpad is not working anymore. Even worse: the touchpad is becoming very hot, and I mean really, really hot, I had to shut it down and unplug the flatcable in order to prevent other damage. I'm 100% sure I plugged all cables right, I even watched youtube videos to play it safe. I have connected the touchpad-cable with the "MB" ending to the mainboard and the "TP" ending to the touchpad-module, with the purple surface to the top. Not sure what's the problem, the cable looks not damaged, I was very careful when disassembling. Can somebody help?

 

just wanted to give feedback: no, the codec pack did'nt solve the problem. a friend borrowed me a blueray he bought (Django, to be specific) and it still would only work with a dedicated BR-software (Leawo -free, but requires internet-connection, which is slight con against it).

 

HS
Did you try with the player included in K-Lite codec pack (from standard and above, not included in basic package). It is called MPC-HC, and should play blu-rays without any issues.

 

Read a few pages back that since the GTX960m the screen is updated. Anyone who got some input about it?

 

Yes, that's definitely what I was talking about!

 

Got mine today, VN7-591G with i5 4210H and GTX960. Changed the HDD for an 2,5" SSD and tried a few rounds of World of tnaks and it hit 96 degrees and throttled all trough the games.

Not so funny actually.

 

Exactly why I decided to get rid of that laptop myself. I got a great deal on it and I liked it other than the throttling. $999 for the i7 6700hq, 4gb 960m, 16gb ddr4, 128gb ssd and 1tb hd, thunderbolt 3, 1080p ips display. Seemed like an unbelievable deal until I saw how badly it throttled itself under load. Sad to see that i5 version also throttles itself.

 

I bought the VN7-592g base model last week since it was on sale for $800 and another $25 off with Visa Checkout and just finished all my upgrades today.
I originally wanted to get the 4K Model, but the retail price for that is about $1800 which not really worth it since it cost $300 more than the old model.

My upgrades:
Another stick of the SK Hynix 8gb DDR4 2133 Ram off ebay.
Samsung 950 PRO 256gb
Samsung 850 EVO 250gb
IC Diamond

Just adding SSDs were easy, but trying to take out the Motherboard to add another stick of rams and re-paste the cpu and gpu was such a hassle.
Almost felt like I was going to snap the mb in half given how hard it was to take out.

But after the upgrades and a fresh install, everything seems to work pretty well.
Adding another stick, the memory is currently running on dual-channel.
After re-pasting the laptop and on a laptop fan the laptop currently idles around 33-40c and tops off around 80-85c after about 1 hour of Starcraft 2 at extreme settings.
The middle part on top of the keyboard does get pretty hot and sometimes too hot to touch though.

Also there were people people reported they weren't able to get full speeds out of the Samsung 950 PRO.
My speeds from Samsung Magician:
Sequential Read: 2289 MB/s
Sequential Write: 974 MB/s
Random Read: 147389 IOPS
Random Write: 78658 IOPS

Only problem so far is that the 950 pro doesn't show up bios, so programs like crystaldiskinfo only shows the 850 EVO and for it to show on Samsung magician you have to download the 950 pro drivers from Samsung's website.

Overall not bad for a laptop under $1100.

 

Yes this is nothing but a joke. I havent even started anything like burn och stress tests, just a very low quality game that runs one one core on the cpu and it throttles within a minute.
Gonna give it a chance with new paste on the cpu and gpu but i doubt that it will change anything to acceptable levels.
I had the V50-70 same config except 4200/GTX860 and it was rock stable. I work in a laptop reseller store and have done so for quite some years so I change laptop really often. This is with no doubt the worst experience I had ever.
Good job Acer, you even raised the bar from the old Envy 17 with i7 first gen and HD5850, and those old stoves were hot

 

I've spoken too fast. a week after I still had the "nvidia driver has stop responding" error with this driver

Just installed it and every games runs fine.

 

Did a repaste and now I can play Wot with a maximum of 92 degrees and CPU steady at 3,5Ghz. Much more silent both in idle and load now.
The thermal pads that were applied stock were really all over the place, took some effort to get rid of them. Applied an even layer of some random thermal paste I had lying around and now it works like a charm.
Funny thing is that Wot gives me a higher CPU temp than Intel Burn Test.

 

Thanks for the great pics
ilstallione.

I am really debating on getting this laptop but the thermals is the only thing giving me doubts. Even 92 is pretty high... The new XPS 15 doesn't go over 88

 

If I had that choice at that time of my purchase, I would have chosen the XPS 15.

 

The Dell XPS looks really nice but here in Sweden it cost 50% more than the Nitro so for me it was a no go.

Must say that since I did the repaste and dropped in an SSD I really like the computer. Still a little bit on the warm side and will only give me a turbo speed of 3Ghz if I do stress tests on both CPU and GPU but that´s not a real world problem or me. The good side of that problem is that the computer is dead silent when I do light work on it.
The screen, the keyboard and the overall design of the computer is spot on in the price range. Only complaint I have now is the mousepad but since I dont use it very much I can live with it. What I miss is the three finger swipe to go back and forward but maybe it will come back in future drivers.

 

Anyone do any video editing on the V17, 860m? I can't pinpoint the time it started happening, but I think after upgrade to Windows 10. I only do amateur stuff believe me, but I typically had used Windows Movie maker to edit sound out of my videos taken with Sony HD Cam. During playback, the video is really glitchy and stuttery in spots. So I remembered that Movie Maker wasn't Win 10 compatible and I had to side load it, and thought that may have been the problem so I got another program called Filmora, but I have the same issue. Is it possible the CPU/GPU is causing this during edit or playback? Original video still plays clear as day, so I don't think latter is the issue. Any thoughts? I have made sure that all other programs are closed, especially games, so CPU not sharing the load. I'm at a loss, thanks for any ideas.

 

Picked up a black edition VN7-592G on Tuesday

Skylake i5-6300HQ, 16GB DDR3, 960m, 128GB SSD + 1tb HDD, FHD-IPS

Compared to all the other gaming laptops in the store, its about half as thick, and a lot quieter. Gaming performance, for what I play, is fantastic. Temps get to about 80c cpu/75c gpu after over an hour of gaming. Fans are quiet, mostly, unless the GPU is going flat out, but even then, its a pleasant kinda fan noise, rather than an annoying high pitch whining. The casing stays pretty cool under any circumstances. After a fresh Win10 install without all the weird junk acer preloaded it, everyday performance is stellar.

The 1tb HDD is a Samsung model, not the WD blue. It still spins down every 8 seconds, but a quick install of crystaldisk info, setting it to resident/startup, and setting the drives APM has completely fixed that.

Battery life seems good, I'm getting around 5-6 hours general use, and about 1 hour on battery if gaming.

Build quality on mine is great - all panel gaps are even, no creaks/squeaks, the lcd lid sits absolutely fush to the chassis all around, and I'm surprised at the apparent durability of the "soft touch" finish.

The LG IPS panel is brilliant, after a bit of calibration, deep blacks, no backlight bleeding, great colours and viewing angles, easily the highlight of the machine. The speakers are also INSANE. I can achieve ridiculous distortion-free volume and with a bit of dolby EQ fiddling it has a lot of definition.

The ONLY thing I wish was different, would be the keyboard backlight being a *little* brighter, but in the dark its perfectly useable.


Overall, I am very happy with it

 

Totally agree with you

 

Hi,

I have (almost) the same configuration, but with 8gb ram and no ssd.

Totally agree about the screen, build quality, finish etc but mine acts a bit differently in several respects:

- battery only lasts 3-4 hours for general use - any idea why? how did you calibrate yours?

- temps - mine gets 80 degrees max on the cpu but about 90 on the gpu, did you do anything to bring temps lower? also the case gets pretty hot

- sound is a bit quiet on mine, and also i feel like it's a tiny bit stronger on the left side, wonder what's up with that. also if i plug it in while it's starting up i hear a much louder beep than it usually makes, so maybe it's a drivers thing?

What drivers did you install (for everything, not just audio)?

thx a lot, i feel this really has the potential to be a great laptop but for me it's not really living up to that yet

 

Nothing special with the audio drivers, just installed the ones from the acer support site. Audio is WAY too loud on anything above 70ish for general use for me. All other drivers are direct from intel / NVidia / QUALCOMM / realtek. Didn't tinker too much with the power options, put wifi and intel graphics to maximum battery life (when on battery), that's about it

I didn't do anything to lower my temps, running stock heatsink compound etc etc, maybe just luck of the draw in regards to application / heatsink contact surface finish. OEM applications vary widly even on the same models.

For my battery, out of the box (after the 30 minute charge as advertised) HWInfo reported my battery had a wear level of 17%. Thinking that wasn't right, I did a full discharge and then recharged it overnight with the laptop powered off. After that HWInfo report no battery wear % and it lasts for me, as I stated.

 

Just wanted to add my details as well. I upgraded my Nitro 591G with a i5-5200U/950m combo for a new 592G with i7-6700HQ/960m combo. I was just missing some 'oomph' on the CPU side

I've stress-tested the laptop and at first also got high temperatures, in the 90+ Celcius range. I've taken the laptop apart to replace the M2 SSD with a larger one, replaced the HDD with a 1TB SSD, and added 8GB RAM so I would be totalling 16GB. When taking the laptop apart, I also replaced the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU with some 'better' paste. I also replaced the thermal pads that were on the heatsinks that contact some other components with, again, some 'better' pads. I've noticed a dramatic increase in temperature, the max after a full hour of stress testing was now 88 degrees. This was with CPU + IGP + GPU all active. Idle and with light tasks the CPU does about 41 degrees and the fans aren't audible at all. It's simply silent. When gaming I get around 85 degrees maximum, wheren only the CPU and GPU are used, and the IGP isn't. Mind you, this is all without the Acer Coolboost feature. If I enable this the temperature drops by another 3-5 degrees but the fans start spinning quite fast and that's just not worth it to me.

So all in all, after some tweaking with the thermals I'm really happy. I do have to admit that the guy at Acer that drops the thermal paste on these machines is an idiot. It's way too much, on all the wrong places. Especially in small enclosures like a laptop, proper thermal paste application can make a big difference and it should be fixed at the factory.

As for people comparing the new XPS: Dell actually has thermal issues as well. That's why they've added the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework to their drivers. This allows the laptop to set the TDP for the CPU from the 45W to the cTDP-down of 35W. That actually cripples the CPU as well.

I do hate the position of the DEL button and where the POWER button are on the new models. That's taking some time to get used to. Oh and one more thing: At only 2250grams with HDD replaced by SSD this is some light-weight power-house!

 

thx for the reply!

do you guys have a dolby app or something that controls audio eq and such? i installed the drivers from the acer site but i don't have it, maybe i did something wrong.

redah, how's your battery life and audio volume?

so repasting seems to help with the thermals, i'll try that later on when I add an ssd. btw, what ssd did you and? pcie x4? does an m2 form factor sata 3 ssd work too?

 

Hi!

First message in this forum but I read this thread carefully since a looooong time.

I got this laptop one year ago with the 860m and I have been very happy of my purchase for the price.

At the time was not bothered by a few dead pixels on the screen. As the warranty is soon going to be expired, I am puzzled between sending it to ACER and replacing the screen myself.

As anyone tried doing so? What would be the best method to open the hinge around the screen?

Althought, would it be the way to get a better screen? (Brighter...)

I am using the laptop hook to an external display most of the times, so it is not a deal breaker but it started to really bothering me as I am using the laptop more and more on battery .

 

@ElBobo Hi there, welcome to NBR. What screen exactly do you have? Model and maker I mean.

 

Thank you for your answer. According to HWinfo my screen model is:

Monitor Name: LG Philips [Unknown Model: LGD0443]
Monitor Name (Manuf): LG Display LP156WF4-SPK1
Serial Number: Unknown
Date Of Manufacture: Week: 0, Year: 2013
Monitor Hardware ID: Monitor\LGD0443

 

Well the screen you have is actually very bright - using notebookcheck data - on average 319.2 cd/m². The screens currently used by Acer in the refreshed Nitro are also by LG but slightly different panel - LP156WF6-SPB1. These have slightly lower brightness - on average 310.4 cd/m² but deal better with black color and have better contrast (994:1 vs 689:1).

So if you are looking for a brighter screen - you will be disappointed. You could possibly upgrade to a slightly better one but I'm not really sure if it would be worth it - but that's your call.

Check the warranty for dead pixels - there are usually additional conditions concerning how many dead pixels must be located in which part of the screen for it to be a reason for Acer to replace the screen.

If you don't meet those conditions and still want to replace the screen on your own.

EDIT: Details on LP156WF6-SPB1 screen can be found here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-V-15-Nitro-VN7-572G-72L0-Notebook-Review.153424.0.html

and on the one you have here:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-V15-Nitro-VN7-591G-77A9-Notebook-Review.128435.0.html

 

Thank you for all the details,

Unfortunately I am using this computer for photography as a paid hobby and in my current job search. I already spoke to Acer and while they agreed to take it, I am finding the delay too long as I really need it daily (Sending resume....).

I have not found any guide on Internet do dismantle the screen, hence the question if any user here tried to replace it.

I am going to read your links and search for both screen specifications.

 

Hi guys.
I bought this laptop a year ago, the model VN7-791G-71P5 17.3inches.
This thread helped me a lot (special thanks to @downloads) , with the following known issues:

- Awful wi-fi signal --> Bought an Intel Wireless card.
- Throttling --> Re-pasted and put CPU to 99%. Temps got to 90°C under full settings BF4.

I remember that 15inches version, had little more issues with overheat and some faulty screens, that's why i decided to go with 17"

I'm extremely happy after a year, the only complain is the know issue with WIN10 and Nvidia drivers.. but that's software.
The laptop is awesome, for my gaming / photography needs.

Now, i see there's a new model, newer CPU and newer GPU.
I can sell mine and upgrade.
This time, i would get the 15". Specifically VN7-592G-71ZL (Adding SSD and HyperX 8GB)
I've read some reviews on amazon, of the same wi-fi problems with this new one, and some issues with overheat.

What are your toughts?
Is this 2015 15" version, cooler? Is the 960M and new i7 worth the upgrade over 860M? Wi-fi issues?

Thanks in advance.

 

my new 592G has zero, zilch, nada problems with WiFi on the stock AC Atheros card. On at least the 8 different networks I have tried it on. I can tell you they moved the antennas from under the keyboard to the top edge of the screen frame. I seem to get full signal strength pretty much everywhere I go, on both 2.4 and 5ghz bands

Temps wise, no problems - max I have seen is 90 CPU and 89 GPU which, considering how thin it is, is pretty respectable considering the hardware inside.

 

Almost managed to dismantle the entire front lid of the screen. I will post pictures if people are interested.

I will order a replacement lid "in case of" because it seems very easy to break some anchors.

I am planning to order the screen model LP156WF6-SPB1 because of the increase contrast at the end of the month.

 

I wouldn't bother. 960M and 860M are almost identical, new CPU is always nice but there is no dramatic increase - especially not in gaming since the card is a limiting factor anyway.
Around the middle of next year nVidia will introduce new graphics cards that will stay with us for another two years (like 860M that got renamed to 960Mwith some factory OC).
If you are looking to upgrade, better wait till the June '16 or so and see what hits the market then.

It would be great if you could post some high-res pictures. They will come in handy sooner or later for one of the users.

 

I used this video made for the lenovo model:

I haven't done the bottom part which looked more tougher than the rest (The aluminium side parts are not attached. There is a plastic clip like for the rest of the lid fixing them located on the lid.)

I will for sure take pictures when I will do the whole operation. I was just getting warmed up to the idea and couldn't resist to try it .

 

I picked up a VN7-792G-79LX last week when it was on sale at Newegg. Overall the experience has been great but I did have one question for anyone else who owns one. My keyboard has chinese labels printed on it in addition to the US labels. I am curious if anyone else has these too. I didn't see them in the Notebookcheck review for the European model, so I was wondering if it was an oversight or if I somehow ended up with a preproduction keyboard or something.

 

After reading this, i started to google some benchmarks and comparisons, and you are right, the real life difference it's actually 10%. That's not enough to upgrade (to me).
So, i tought in upgrading some of the things in my current laptop.
I have 256GB SSD and 1TBHDD (5400rpm).
Should i upgrade to 1TB SSD (so i will have 256SSD for OS and 1TBSSD for media)
Or should i get an 1TB HDD (7200rpm)? I don't remember if the sata port was fully compatible with 7200 speeds.
I do a lot of photography editing, that's why i have this idea that accessing (read/write) data constantly from SSD is bad for those drives (read somewhere that they are not for media storage)

The other thing is memory speeds. I currently have DDR3. Wouldn't DDR4 ram + i7 skylake + 960M be worth upgrading?
I already have 16GB ram, so i don't see any other "upgrade" while i wait for next nvidia/nitro models.

Thank you.. again, @downloads

 

@0meg4 If you can afford a 1TB SSD that's surely the best way to go as far as the performance goes. But the price is a bit discouraging. 7200rpm will work fine in SATA port as well (and will be a lot cheaper obviously).

While it's true that SSDs degrade over time with write operations, so do HDDs. And this endurance experiment seems to show that normal consumer SSDs are perfectly capable of replacing your HDD and lasting more that your notebook will.


As for DDR4+ Skylarke +960M I still don't think it's worth your time and money - it would be obviously better but not by that much. If I were you I wouldn't bother, but maybe you would benefit from something I wouldn't, so...

EDIT: BTW, I bought a Samsung SSD830 256GB drive three years ago. I haven't used that notebook that much this year, so let's say that SSD has two years of my average usage on the clock. In my case that means 18.5TB written in that time. That is far cry from the numbers in the endurance test I linked to, so I don't worry about my SSD, more about HDDs in my NASes

 

@downloads I guess i'll go with some 7200rpm HDD. That's the only upgrade i can see for now.
Thanks again.

 

My audio volume is good. It's not as loud as the VN7-591G I had before. But it is very loud IF you install the Dolby Audio app (which comes with the Acer drivers). Also, disable volume normalization in the Dolby Audio app, that setting keeps the volume down.

As for the SSD, I am using regular mSATA SSD's, not PCI-e. The M.2 and mSATA I have are both plain old Samsung Evo 850's.

Battery life is a little over 4 hours with casual stuff (watching Netflix, browsing, etc.) Doing absolutely nothing I get about 5 hours, but that's unrealistic. All in all it's pretty good, I expected less for the 3-cell battery, but the Skylake CPU's are pretty damn energy efficient when idling.

I can't look at your wallet ofcourse, but for me the upgrade offered more, I went from a dualcore 5200U to a quadore 6700, from 950m to 960m (a bit higher clocked but with much larger memory bandwidth), and I really wanted the option to get over 16GB RAM as I work with Photoshop, Illustrator and Sony Vegas alot. WIth Skylake and DDR4 that option is available.

As for 7200rpm vs SSD: Yes, the price is different (SSD is alot more expensive) but the speed is extremely different as well. Again, for me with using many RAW pictures or uncompressed video files it is a real noticeable difference between 7200rpm and SSD.

-

What I find pretty nice (and is not featured anywhere afaik) is that the new 592 series also have a TPM2.0 chip inside them, which is pretty nice for things like Bitlocker. The older Nitro models don't have TPM at all, from what I know. I also don't get why Acer mentions the GTX 960m only has 2GB RAM on the FullHD models, but mine still has 4GB...

 

I emailed laptopscreen.com .

They are a tad more expensive than some other retailers on Ebay but assured me that "required pretested screen is available in their UK warehouse" which is perfect as I am in Europe.

Will probably order this week and report back with pictures!

I don't think DDR4 will improve performance neither the 960m (You can almost close the GAP of performance by doing a slight OC of the 860m. It really helps in my case with The Witcher 3.)

I think Skylake will help for battery life, some users have been reporting better numbers than my I5-4210h.

In all honestly, I would say wait for next year GPU to upgrade. If you really want to do it, check the latest Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK. I think this reference alongside the V nitro are the best one for your money (I am crying right now when I see the current price in US $ compared to our reference in €.)

 

DDR4 vs DDR3 is not worh it yet, as was DDR3 vs DDR2 at time of launch. Wait for higher frequency to be available/affordable,then upgrade.

 

Just a heads up....

After a good experience with my (untouched) 592G I bought a bunch of them for colleagues to use (5 in total). 3 of them I opened up and repasted, 3 of them, including mine, are running stock thermal compound.

This has given me a good comparison of the stock heatsink module assembly vs re-done with MX-4.

I am not new to repasting, I have done it on every other laptop I have owned, and ALWAYS gotten better results with MX-4. EXCEPT THE NITROS.

There is some voodoo going on with the heatsink assemblies - either they are very fragile and prone to slight warping when removed, or there is a gap issue that the (thickly applied) stock paste *gunge* takes care of that anything runnier simply cannot overcome.

The stock paste seems to settle down after a couple of heat cycles to very acceptable temps even under maximum loads.

Prime95 / Furmark wre not run simultaneously in the following tests

STOCK LAPTOPS (Prime95 / Furmark) CPU - GPU
72 - 81
71 - 83
72 - 80

MX-4 REPASTED LAPTOPS (Prime95 / Furmark) CPU - GPU
82 - 90
81 - 88
83 - 89

Moral of the story - don't repaste unless you absolutely have to!

 

Thanks for that @glewarne . That runs counter to what one would expect but it's useful info nonetheless.

 

No problem. It certainly does run counter to expectations, but I cannot explain it other than either warping or gap issues. The heatsinks are both copper, but have very large (unused) surface areas and the GPU side has plates which cover the bottom gpu ram chips - probably also helps cool the upper side gpu ram chips as well as they are mounted on the same PCB section.

The GPU side is secured with 2 diagonally opposite tabs, the CPU side 3. Both share the twin heatpipes. It is effectively one large, thin copper sheet. I suspect that they warp slightly when unscrewing or screwing them back on. And yes, I did follow the numbered order on each laptop. I tried both thick and thin spread and dot methods of pasting with MX-4, all with comparable results.

 

@glewarne Do you think copper shims could possibly be used with success? Any chance you might try this?

 

If its warping something like a thin flexible foil may help, but I'm afraid since is such a job to get to the heatsinks I don't really want to do it again