Acer TimelineX 3820TG Owners Lounge. Info, benchmarks, tweaks, mods and upgrades

[HOTWAX]

I didn't feel like messing with the registrys to unhide the parition and I was looking for a good cloning program, thanks for the link, I'll use that.

Thanks bolt.pt

[Twe Foju]

Hi everyone =)

I'm pretty new to this forum, but has been following this thread forever...

I'm from Singapore and was one of the lucky few that got a 3820TG with a 520M and a 5650. Got it for around 1090 USD (1499 SGD) and it came with a bunch of free stuff including an external DVD writer and another 500 GB external harddisk.

Pretty awesome living in Singapore I guess =P

However, has anyone noticed that their screens have very abnormal colors? The blacks on the screen looks purple, and the color saturation levels are pretty weird, as if you pushed up the lightness bar on photoshop a few notches too high.

I don't have any pictures atm, as I sent the laptop back to acer to let them take a look at the panel to check for any hardware defects. I calibrated it a few times but the blacks were still no where close to a 4 year old acer LCD panel I am using for my desktop, and this is supposed to be LED backlit! Even my old compaq (which burned out) did better.

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a natural characteristic of LED backlits, but all the advertising tell me that I'm supposed to get deeper and more realistic blacks. I really need accurate colors as I work a lot with photoshop and stuff. Checked with a friend's model and his colors were similar, and so I don't think acer is gonna give me any good news or replacements. It's an AUO panel btw.

A reference image that I used to test this out:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_7V85eCJY_fg/S9...11_132734_.jpg

I love the notebook in all other aspects. Accidentally scratched the aluminium back lightly while coming home from school, pains me to look at the thing. Want to try out some mods or OCs, but I don't think I'll ever do a backlit mod, the screen blinds me at night already. >.<

Oh and congrats to Bronsky for getting your laptop (finally), I doubt I would ever have the patience to wait 2-3 weeks for a new gizmo =)

Hongee, where did you buy your 3820 from in Singapore? Funan? can you PM me the exact store? as i will be in Singapore around next week

[Just_a_Nick]

Do I smell a display mod?

Yes, but I would like to have the service manual with the non glare display numbers first and test for display model.

[bestis]

Still figuring it out, but I may have found a solution to making an image of the factory install

I used G4L, it's free. Made an USB bootable stick with it and it uploaded 28G image (lzop compressed) to my ftp-server

[bestis]

About ATI driver upgrades? I've read people have done it but I downloaded the package 10.6 from ATI's page and it said that everything is up-to-date. Is that 10.6 just marketing number and the real number is 8 and something?

Also about the ABR oem license backup thing. Noticed that it didn't got the cert file because the directory is a little bit different. Last directory is different where it looks it. I made the directory and copied the token file there and then it worked.

Yesterday I installed Win7 Pro and was really suprised of how easy it was to install the drivers with the driver DVD.

I have had couple of hangs which I cannot explain. It just hangs, display stays the same and nothing does anything (except the power switch). Anyone seen that?

Also I'm really supprised that the German keyboard has right amount of keys, especialy öä, those are needed to say ääliö (idiot in finnish:) I think if I would have gotten the laptop before I ordered Finnish keyboard to it, I would have not ordered it.

[dookie11]

Congratulations! How great. It was looking bleak there yesterday. DHL Post tracking really sucks. Your box looks a lot better than mine did. The crew of the S.S. Rotterdam was kind to you.

I'd be interested in your impressions. The East Coast now dominates the Acer 3820TG "scene" in the US.

Bronsky

And we'll dominate E14 "scene" in Cali :P I'm even sportin the NBR HP Team logo nowadays

[bydus]

im curious what your 3820tg desktops look like wanna upload screenshot ? Ill go first, there its is, win7 ultimate with some nice umbrella corp background xD

[IMG] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

[Bronsky]

Hi Bronsky, thanks but seems like it's a link to mediafire's homepage..

I obviously don't have this this figured out yet ... when I click the link it takes me to my files. So, now I have to figure out how to share them. Never used this site before.

[Bronsky]

Also about the ABR oem license backup thing. Noticed that it didn't got the cert file because the directory is a little bit different. Last directory is different where it looks it. I made the directory and copied the token file there and then it worked.

Yesterday I installed Win7 Pro and was really suprised of how easy it was to install the drivers with the driver DVD.

If you would write up the changes you made to make the ABR work, I'll put it in the "German Option" post.

Yea ... the driver directory is really easy and well worth the effort before starting a fresh install.

Anybody use any of the apps on the original Acer after the fresh install, like the Video conf app?

Bronsky

[hongee]

Hongee, where did you buy your 3820 from in Singapore? Funan? can you PM me the exact store? as i will be in Singapore around next week

I bought it at an IT fair in june, but I believe similar models can easily be found at Funan or Simlim(though not recommended). They have been even popping up in small hardware shops in my neighborhood. So dont worry =)

But anyone with this laptop willing to comment on the screen? Hell even some weird netbook has a better screen than this.