Acer 1410, 1810, 3810, 4810, 5810 Timeline Drivers, Software, Tweaks and Settings FAQ

[cmaines]

@zrbarnes

I followed your instructions to the letter, but no joy. The vtenable script resulted just as you said it would for a successful change of the one bit. I did notice that the BIOS upgrade from v.3018 to v.3113 took quite a while, but the upgrade from the original v.3113 to the altered v.3113 took only a few seconds. My computer is behaving just fine, except the Securable program results in a "Locked OFF" for hardware virtualization. I've got an Acer 1410. Any ideas?

[zrbarnes]

Just replicated this on my computer, and it was caused by me omitting a line that I changed in my platform.ini. The original post has been updated (I also changed some files names to be more logical).

cmaines, on your current files, just change the platform.ini to this:

[FDFile]
FileName=ZH7_3113.fd

Run InsydeFlash again, and reboot.

[Jayayess1190]

I installed the Acer PowerSmart Manager and it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Is something supposed to happen with this app when I install it on the 1410. FYI, I am running 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate.

It works in the background. You know its working when you use the computer on battery power and the leaf button is lit up. Also, epower should be running in the task manager.

[cmaines]

That worked! Excellent! Thanks, zrbarnes.

[dbasham]

It works in the background. You know its working when you use the computer on battery power and the leaf button is lit up. Also, epower should be running in the task manager.

There is no leaf button that I am aware of on the 1410. I also don't see it running in the tray nor is there any way to change settings,etc. I did notice that once I uninstalled it things ran better. Perhaps it just won't work on the 1410/1810 yet nor is it designed to.

[leedr]

There is no leaf button that I am aware of on the 1410. I also don't see it running in the tray nor is there any way to change settings,etc. I did notice that once I uninstalled it things ran better. Perhaps it just won't work on the 1410/1810 yet nor is it designed to.

Correct, no leaf on 1410. Probably best to compare battery life under similar usage conditions with/without it installed to see if it's doing anything. Some of the other tweaks in this thread (installing latest video drivers), enabling power save features on video and wifi, as well as playing with some of the advanced power options for Windows 7 seem to help as much as anything for me. Also install Battery Bar to get a better idea of discharge rate/actual battery life.

[Jayayess1190]

There is no leaf button that I am aware of on the 1410. I also don't see it running in the tray nor is there any way to change settings,etc. I did notice that once I uninstalled it things ran better. Perhaps it just won't work on the 1410/1810 yet nor is it designed to.

There are epower services running in my task manager, reinstall it and see if they are there.

[dbasham]

There are epower services running in my task manager, reinstall it and see if they are there.

Just to confirm versions are we talking about ePower for Vista 64/32 version 4.2.3002? When you look in the tray (or whatever it is called in Win7 now) what sort of options do you get? Also, are you running Win7 and if so are we talking 32 bit or 64 bit (I am 64 bit as mentioned earlier)? I will try this again tomorrow if there are some interesting settings but Win7 seems to have quite a few options now that I have updated all of the drivers.

[Jayayess1190]

Just to confirm versions are we talking about ePower for Vista 64/32 version 4.2.3002? When you look in the tray (or whatever it is called in Win7 now) what sort of options do you get? Also, are you running Win7 and if so are we talking 32 bit or 64 bit (I am 64 bit as mentioned earlier)? I will try this again tomorrow if there are some interesting settings but Win7 seems to have quite a few options now that I have updated all of the drivers.

I am running 64-bit Windows 7 Professional. There are no options for the epower software. If I click the leaf button while plugged in, nothing happens. If I unplug the and run it on battery, the leaf will show up on screen showing it has started, and the screen will dim. I am using 4.02.3002 for the 3810T.

Also, just noticed Acer is getting ready for Windows 7. Under choosing an OS for drivers, Windows 7 options are there! They already have this driver: Wireless LAN Driver for INT1000H for Intel wifi cards.

[leedr]

Regarding battery life on Windows 7, this is a useful command to run:

Click Start, Search Programs and Files (or else do Win + R to get the Run prompt) then type "cmd" (make sure to run as administrator/with elevated privileges).

Then run "powercfg -energy" which will monitor your usage for 60 seconds then compile a report and put it in c:\users\yourname\energy-report.html. This will highlight processes that use significant CPU as well as other tips for settings to adjust to improve battery life.

For myself, I found the CPU utilization was around 50% for the 60 seconds powercfg monitored processes, and Firefox was a big contributor, almost 25%. I also need to disable search indexing, which you can do per instructions here: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69...e-disable.html

I can't recall where I got the powercfg tip - I think I googled "windows 7 reduced battery life."