3820TG Owner's Lounge - Part Two

[Bronsky]

Just got my laptop back from Acer's repair people. It was confirmed it was a mainboard failure (thought not why it failed) so they replaced it and also the DC cable on the power supply.

All in all it was a great service; UPS door-to-door and repaired in 5 business days. I think I'll be taking out the extended 3 year warranty from the Acer shop before this warranty expires!

It sounded like component failure. I've been happy with Acer depot service in the US. I took the extended warranty for my 3820TG.

[too456]

Thanks!

Here is a strange thing:

Since i disassembled my 3820 to repaste the cpu and the gpu, i noticed that the restart of the machine takes more time. Windows shuts down, the screen goes full black, and then it remains black for almost 5 seconds. After that the reboot happens. What could be the problem?
2 things i can think:

-there is something wrong with the freshly installed win7 (??????)

-I messed up the power-cable (the one that connects the MB to the case power leds, and power button)

Anyone has this problem?

You could try to disassemble the laptop again and ensure that all the cables are inserted properly, although I'm not sure which cable would cause this problem.

[lakondas]

...

I noticed another thing, when i applied pressure on the upper left corner of the palmrest(the intel sticker) the usb connection terminated.

So i took it apart again, but every connection looked okay, i disconnected and reconnected both sides of the usb-mobo ribbon cable, and then connected back everything. Now it looks okay, reboot back to normal again, and no USB disconnect when pressing that exact point of the chassis

MOD: when i reboot the machine, after the screen goes to dark, it stops for 17s, then the reboot process starts..

It's very annoying, because my boot time is less than 17s...

When i shutdown, after the screen goes to dark, less than 1s and the machine is powered off.

[Bronsky]

I noticed another thing, when i applied pressure on the upper left corner of the palmrest(the intel sticker) the usb connection terminated.

So i took it apart again, but every connection looked okay, i disconnected and reconnected both sides of the usb-mobo ribbon cable, and then connected back everything. Now it looks okay, reboot back to normal again, and no USB disconnect when pressing that exact point of the chassis

MOD: when i reboot the machine, after the screen goes to dark, it stops for 17s, then the reboot process starts..

It's very annoying, because my boot time is less than 17s...

I have found that the USB board is prone to grounding improperly if the case does not sit perfectly on top of the board at the edges. It will cause the USB board to malfunction like that ... a few screws and an adjustment makes it go away.

I wonder if the computer is having problems POSTing? What video driver are you using? My unit posts in 4 seconds, loads network drivers in 10 seconds and fully boots in 32 seconds (while slow in comparison to current 15 second boot times, it's plenty fast for me). Is there a firmware update for your SSD?

[lakondas]

I have found that the USB board is prone to grounding improperly if the case does not sit perfectly on top of the board at the edges. It will cause the USB board to malfunction like that ... a few screws and an adjustment makes it go away.

I wonder if the computer is having problems POSTing? What video driver are you using? My unit posts in 4 seconds, loads network drivers in 10 seconds and fully boots in 32 seconds (while slow in comparison to current 15 second boot times, it's plenty fast for me). Is there a firmware update for your SSD?

I'm using the hybrid VGA drivers, and have a corsair F60. as i can remember, this new "ultra slow reboot" is active since i cleaned out the lappy, and installed a fresh w7. But it is the same w7 HP 64bit, what was installed previously...
BTW i checked and my drive has the original driver (1.0, 2006!!!) so i'm about to update to the latest 2.4 in the minute, i ill post results



EDIT

with the latest FW on my SSD, the reboot still takes an eternity.

The power off, and the power on is working properly. Only problems when i try to reboot. It looks like the windows terminates, and then the machine is waiting for 17-18s , then that little clicking noise, and after that the system starts to boot (now it takes exactly 18s too )

When i disconnected the powerboard-MB ribbon cable, maybe one of the cables inside teared apart. I can only think about this is being the problem

[PePe93]

Hello
I have problem with my screen. It has some crashes sometimes while moving it both sides (but not always, just rarely). Could it be a driver problem or probably technical damage?

[AcerAce]

Can someone link me to that small (white) AC-adapter for the 3820TG?

Also, is there an original Acer-case/-sleeve available for the 3820TG?

[Bolezhinkov]

In my boundless enthusiasm for doing stupid things, I broke the bulb behind the display.

Does anyone know the bulb model or have some information about getting it repaired - is the bulb going available on ebay or will I have to send it to Acer, essentially.

thanks!

[too456]

You broke the bulb? How did you do that? There isn't any conventional light bulb in a LCD display, those only exist in CRT screens.

[Bolezhinkov]

I don't know what you mean by "conventional" light bulb . . . I know my computer isnt crt based or using incandescent lights but it definitely does use some form of lighting - there has to be an LED or cold cathode somewhere because LCD doesn't just make light on its own.

the screen displays fine, there is just no brightness - external displays work fine and shining a light directly on it reveals the image.

I'm not very computer savvy in the scheme of things and of the two electrical components within the display that I know about (lamp and inverter) I figured it was most likely the lamp that burnt out as the display now has no brightness after I slammed the lid closed.

any ideas?