3820TG Owner's Lounge - Part Two

[Bronsky]

3820TG OWNER'S LOUNGE, Part II ...

Hendrickson's original thread has crossed the 1,000 page mark, contains more than 10,000 posts and has had more than 967,000 views. It seems that the volume of the thread has overwhelmed the search mode and there is a lot of information from the thread that is lost in its sheer size. I have been asked by Downloads to begin a new thread and provide links to the useful information in the first thread. To do that, I have started reviewing the original thread, a page-at-a-time and noting the items that I think would be useful to new owners. I'm about 25% through the process so far. This is a work in progress but, once it's done, if there is anything I've missed, you can PM your suggestion to me.

With that in mind, here goes ...

Bronsky


My Unboxing Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bslQBk0q5A

The obvious place to start is with a link to the first page of Hendrickson's Original Owner's Lounge Thread. You'll find Hendrickson's mini-review and his benchmarks here.


OWNER'S LOUNGE - PART I

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


RELATED THREADS:

Bios Modification and Other Tweaks: Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG mods/tweaks ONLY!

3820TGTray: [3820tray] Hardware Control PowerProfiles CPUMonitor

Backlit Keyboard Mod: Acer TimelineX 3820TG Backlit keyboard mod

TimelineX Sandybridge Refresh: Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

North American Purchase Options: Acer 3820TG North America Purchase Options

My Clean Install Guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6465732-post1612.html (and Converting Foreign Units)

Bankergolfer's Guide for Registering an Imported 3820TG: Acer TimelineX 3820TG Owners Lounge. Info, benchmarks, tweaks, mods and upgrades

BooQ Viper XS3 Case Review: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7003691-post1.html

Too456's driver update post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7480048-post800.html

Lennong's 3G conversion compilation: http://forum.notebookreview.com/8132214-post2348.html

USEFUL LINKS:

Acer's Official Global Driver Page: http://bit.ly/3820tg

Acer Service Manual 3820t/tg/tgz: http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/Ma...G_04282010.pdf

AMD Catalyst Drivers (HD 5xxx): http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...b_win7-64.aspx

Modded Hybrid Drivers (German Instructions - run file install.cmd as admin): http://www.acer-userforum.de/acer-tr...anleitung.html

Latest Realtek HD Audio Drivers: Realtek

Alps Touchpad Drivers: http://www.mediafire.com/?9xk8n36tp33evsz

Synaptics Scrybe Driver: http://www.uscrybe.com/

AMD Clock Tool (GPU Overclocking):
Download AMD GPU Clock Tool v0.9.26.0 For HD 5870 | techPowerUp

MSI Afterburner (GPU Overclocking): MSI AfterBurner download from Guru3D.com

Enabling GPU Overclocking in MSI Afterburner: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906

Zsero's OC GPU on startup .bat file http://forum.notebookreview.com/7478443-post799.html

Set FSB (CPU Overclocking): SetFSB_HomePage

Fixing SetFSB Overclocking Game Problems: Must-Read: SetFSB O/C Game Problems FIXED

OC'ing with more RAM and modding timings: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7404436-post628.html

W7 SP1 issue and Intel Driver: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7461201-post757.html

Registry fix for Alps touchpad/Firefox issue. http://forum.notebookreview.com/7297059-post267.html

USEFUL LINKS FROM FIRST THREAD:

Installing Stock (non-acer) AMD Catalyst Drivers: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6314728-post101.html

Running AMD Clocktool on Startup: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6432896-post1156.html

Video of 3820TG with 9 Cell: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6264930-post2753.html

ClockGen Location on 3820TG MB: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6332729-post311.html

Available Display Model #s: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6416721-post901.html

Bluetooth Cable Part #: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6435151-post1172.html

Motherboard Photo: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6455026-post1485.html

3820TG Compared to 5820TG: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6484843-post1895.html

Setting FSB on Start-up: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6506624-post2210.html

Incase 13" MBP sleeve: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6510080-post2269.html

Buying a 9 Cell Battery in the US: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7313568-post373.html

A Replacement KB for Bilingual KB:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=110666263242

Kindan's Guide to Replacing the 3820TG's CPU w/pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kindan_online/

(More to come ... up to p. 300.)


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[inteks]

nize work

here an other usefull link:

Model Content Page

latest alps driver from toshiba

[charlesjean]

Hello gentlemen,

It's the only decent forum were I can look for help for my dear loved Acer.

I'm looking to track what consume my battery so fast, I can marely get 3 hours form the 6 cell. I put everything in power saving, dimmed the LCD to 30%, disabled the ATI 5470... anyway the switching has never worked properly and I don't need it.

See below configuration:

System specs.
i5-450M not overclocked
13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels,
Switchable ATi Radeon HD 5470 graphics (disabled, drivers uninstalled)
4GB of DDR3 RAM
500GB of hard drive (Changed with an Hitachi, less noisy and more power efficient)
Atheros Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Atheros Bluetooth 2.1
3 x USB 2.0 ports
Atheros 100/100/1000 Lan
Multi card reader
6 cell battery Panasonic reported at 6% wear
Windows 7 Home Premium 64

Software installed
Windows 7 SP1
Kaspersky Security suite 2011

Those almost 3 hours are withg power saving mode, browsing the internet only with WIFI on. I ran powercfg - energy and no errors and warnings, I ran also MS power optimizer wizard and again it seems that I have taken every single drop of my battery.

Is there drivers that may be updated?? The laptop is about 4 months old.

I noticed that there is 2 fans inside, the left one for the CPU and the other one a little bit smaller, at the top right I don't know. I noticed that the one on the right is always running. It is very quiet and the air coming out is warm. I'm womdering if it may drop my battery running hours.

When I first got the laptop, I was able to get 5 hours but it has degraded rapidly.

Thanks for any help.

Charles

[Ponjornoh²³]

The right fan is for the GPU. If you uninstall the drivers and disable it in device manager, the gpu will drain your battery since it's not shutdown properly.

If graphics switching didn't work in stock configuration, send it in for service. If switching didn't work after you did a clean install... you did something wrong. Be sure to use the VGA AMD/ATI driver from Acer's support page.

If you want to shut it down completely, read a couple of pages back in the first thread... and follow the BIOS mod instructions: Acer TimelineX 3820TG Owners Lounge. Info, benchmarks, tweaks, mods and upgrades

[dcsales2007]

I installed the 3810 NON backlit keyboard I got off ebay for $10. The Bilingual one was impossible to get used to. thanks alot Quebec!

So anyway, I see all the Fn keys are the same except the F2 and F3 keys. But thats not a problem, the 3820 keyboard never had anything on the F2 key, so thats solved, and the F3 key on the old was for Wireless, the F3 key on the new keyboard has a pic of Bluetooth on it, so kinda means the same thing.

Anway, the glossy keys are a bit gros to the touch, but still better than what I had. I wish though I got the backlit for $5 more. Oh well.

[Icyzer]

As I mentioned in the last topic I have a small harddrive problem so it seems. At seemingly random moments the harddrive led lights up, you can hear the drive spinning and it keeps lit for 30 seconds or more during which my laptop freezes. It is really annoying the hell out of me. I tryed using resource monitor in windows but it isn't really always giving usefull information..

At the moment I think it might have something to do with:
-Firefox 4.0 (session restore)
-VLC
-Windows

Can anyone help me with this?

[geokilla]

Tried installing the Toshiba ALPS driver, but it doesn't work for me. I can't use two fingers to scroll down and have to use the right side of the trackpad to scroll. Maybe I installed it wrong?

[Bronsky]

Originally Posted by dcsales2007

I installed the 3810 NON backlit keyboard I got off ebay for $10. The Bilingual one was impossible to get used to. thanks alot Quebec!

So anyway, I see all the Fn keys are the same except the F2 and F3 keys. But thats not a problem, the 3820 keyboard never had anything on the F2 key, so thats solved, and the F3 key on the old was for Wireless, the F3 key on the new keyboard has a pic of Bluetooth on it, so kinda means the same thing.

Anway, the glossy keys are a bit gros to the touch, but still better than what I had. I wish though I got the backlit for $5 more. Oh well.

Now that there is a 3820TG keyboard, I recommend that one. I have this one in mine ATM. New Acer Aspire 3820T 3820TG 4820T 4820TG Keyboard - eBay (item 110660057437 end time Apr-09-11 15:55:01 PDT) It's not shinny at all. The keys have a matt finish.

@charlesjean - three hours sounds just about right for a discharging a battery when the unit is on the dedicated GPU. Although I haven't used it for switching yet, 3820TGTray looks like it will give you some control over the GPU. You sould be able to get back your 5 hours on the Intel IGPU.

Bronsky

[charlesjean]

Originally Posted by Bronsky

@charlesjean - three hours sounds just about right for a discharging a battery when the unit is on the dedicated GPU. Although I haven't used it for switching yet, 3820TGTray looks like it will give you some control over the GPU. You sould be able to get back your 5 hours on the Intel IGPU.

Bronsky

Hi Porjornoh & Bronsky.

I did the BIOS trick and whooooo what a difference! Jumped from 3 hours fully charged to 8 hours... (estimated) ... but never saw this number before. So I should get a good 5-6 hours intensive web surf. Now the right fan is barely working and no more hot air coming out from the vent.

As far the graphic switch, it was working but very cumbersome. I'm working a lot on multi open session and does not want to switch when there are open apps on the session I'm not working on. Anyway the laptop use is for common task and no gaming at all.

If you have any other tricks to help me to even get more of my battery, please let me know.

Do you know if using the latest intel graphic driver, Atheros WIFI and Realtek, will help? All my drivers are from Acer web site and not necessarely the latest.



Thanks a lot guys!

Charles

[charlesjean]

Originally Posted by Icyzer

As I mentioned in the last topic I have a small harddrive problem so it seems. At seemingly random moments the harddrive led lights up, you can hear the drive spinning and it keeps lit for 30 seconds or more during which my laptop freezes. It is really annoying the hell out of me. I tryed using resource monitor in windows but it isn't really always giving usefull information..

At the moment I think it might have something to do with:
-Firefox 4.0 (session restore)
-VLC
-Windows

Can anyone help me with this?

I had something similar with my new laptop but it never froze. I could see the HDD spinning like hell and was also clicking a lot. It was noisy and was draining my battery. I cloned the HDD to an Hitachi one. Much more power efficent and silent. There is still too much disk activity to my taste but at least it's not noisy.

I suspect Windows 7 is the cause of that heavy HDD disk activity. I had a look to the ressource monitor and page file, log file, bla bla bla, along with the antivirus are causing quite a bit of disk trashing...

Regards,

Charles