Acer 8371/3810 Owners Thread

Jakg · 24 Apr 2011 at 21:46

As some of you may remember, my first 8371's backlight died after 29 days...

Well the replacement (some 3 months old) seems to get dim "areas" if pressure is applied to the lid when in use. Not an issue now, but would rather not have it die properly out of warranty...

HarryPainful · 25 Apr 2011 at 01:21

So I bought a Vertex 2 for mine and get the following on a benchmark, seems a lot slower than other benchies I have seen

haz_pro · 25 Apr 2011 at 02:53

Jakg said:
As some of you may remember, my first 8371's backlight died after 29 days...

Well the replacement (some 3 months old) seems to get dim "areas" if pressure is applied to the lid when in use. Not an issue now, but would rather not have it die properly out of warranty...

Mines a bit flickery sometimes, i decided not to send it off as it doesnt always happen and dont want to risk being charged. I will just cut my losses if it dies haha.

Decent laptop besides my issue with the screen.

Jakg · 27 Apr 2011 at 16:53

Anyone got an ideas what to replace mine with? IT247 have gone under, they dont think they can source another one so will probably get a refund.

Need something with 8+ hours battery & dual core, ideally ~13.3". Don't care about RAM / HDD / GPU (although HDMI would be nice) - got 8GB DDR3 & a 500GB HDD to use from my 8371.

Was considering the i3 4820T - you can get a refurb for £349.99 online...

dragonuk · 27 Apr 2011 at 17:10

MODIFIED BIOS FOR VISTA

MODIFIED BIOS 1.28 FOR VISTA IS HERE !

NOTE THIS IS FOR ACER TRAVELMATE 8371 AND ACER TRAVELMATE 8371G MODELS ONLY

Sorry its so late , i've been away and been busy.

This Modified bios is the same as before except it doesnt have SLIC2.1 in it (which means it will work with VISTA and you will still be activated.)

It has all the advanced options in the bios (have to set user access level to FULL in bios) to access them all.
Also has Intel Only and ATI only option as well as BOTH from bios.

And modified FAN table to stop the noise on battery and AC power.

DOWNLOAD LINK - http://www.mediafire.com/?d97frvjkyr3hoev

BTW You can flash this bios directly from Windows on top of any other bios version you have. Just follow the readme

(NOTE: If you are using Windows 7 download my previous bios I posted a while ago on here. You don't need this one! )

Let me know if it works ok ?

kevpuk · 28 Apr 2011 at 14:02

Yes !! You are a star, dragonuk - many thanks - looking forward to getting home to play

lewism · 28 Apr 2011 at 15:57

Mines is on its way back from repair. Big question now is whether to keep it and take out the acer 3 year warranty or sell it on and get something else.

chris10230 · 28 Apr 2011 at 16:21

lewism said:
Mines is on its way back from repair. Big question now is whether to keep it and take out the acer 3 year warranty or sell it on and get something else.

I wouldn't say sell, yet but the warranty does seem like a good idea. and to let you know if it comes with a warranty sticker over a screw they do not mind you removing it. From their support people....

jacksonliam · 30 Apr 2011 at 12:10

For people interested in gaming/video converting on their HD4330's

You need to select dedicated GPU only from the BIOS (I have this enabled all the time and get 5-6 hrs battery life [SSD, screen sometimes closed])

I have found a modified driver that installs the latest CCC and display driver from 5/4/2011 (8.841)
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/11-4_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

Install at your own risk but I'm using it fine now, improves graphics performance, compatibility with games and includes the Avivo GPU accelerated video converter.

cokecan · 30 Apr 2011 at 12:27

jacksonliam said:
For people interested in gaming/video converting on their HD4330's

You need to select dedicated GPU only from the BIOS (I have this enabled all the time and get 5-6 hrs battery life [SSD, screen sometimes closed])

I have found a modified driver that installs the latest CCC and display driver from 5/4/2011 (8.841)
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/11-4_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

Install at your own risk but I'm using it fine now, improves graphics performance, compatibility with games and includes the Avivo GPU accelerated video converter.

Do you have any 3d mark screenies to post? I'm curious to see if it really has much of a performance increase. I know the switchable drivers are a bit dated but I can't believe there is THAT much difference in it, especially when you consider the cost in battery life by running with dedicated on all the time.

jacksonliam · 30 Apr 2011 at 15:57

Dirt2 on switch-able graphics driver 2-5fps (I couldn't even get through the menus), this driver 30fps.
ATI drivers seem to need fixes for every game that comes out.

I don't believe in synthetic benchmarks so sorry dont have any!

The cost in battery life is about 2 hours, I run on dedicated all the time as soon as I got the laptop, IMO switch-able graphics were a nice idea but too buggy for every day use.

HarryPainful said:
So I bought a Vertex 2 for mine and get the following on a benchmark, seems a lot slower than other benchies I have seen

Test with HD-tune. My kingston 30GB (cheapest proper SSD) gets this bench after 4 months of use:

chris10230 · 30 Apr 2011 at 16:26

That is true, its not just for AMD Nvidia have the same thing where each release the drivers are tweaked to help running that game. That is one reason it is always best to run on the up to date drivers.
I really need to get round to putting the 7 version on. Anyone know if its ok to flash from 1.11 -> dragon's modded one straight or is it better to install 1.27 first then dragrons?

Cheers!

dragonuk · 30 Apr 2011 at 18:25

You can install my modded bios from 1.11 or any bios version . It won't matter and will be fine.

dakai · 2 May 2011 at 14:37

3810TZ

dragonuk said:
Now if people have installed the latest bios 1.28 (which you should as it has a lot of good changes) you will see that the fan speed is quite loud and the fan is always on when connected to AC power.

I have modified this latest bios to change the Fan Settings on AC and Battery and also added additional settings in the bios menu as well as SLIC2.1 . In the bios menu, you just need to set the User access level to FULL to show all options. You can now choose ATI Only and Intel ONLY as well as switchable graphics. This means you can install the latest drivers for each graphics adapter and change in the bios when needed.

If anyone is using my old modified bios please upgrade to this new bios as my old bios has a few issues.

MODDED BIOS DOWNLOAD - http://www.mediafire.com/?qsn4aoovoba2kuo
ALTERNATIVE DOWNLOAD LINK - http://www.2shared.com/file/arRt9weV/BIOS_Acer_8371_128_Modified_Qu.html

Only use this bios on 8371 laptop.

These are the temperatures set for the bios:

(CPU TEMP)
Min Max FanSpeed
45C 50C 20% (You can't hear 20% fan speed)
55C 60C 40%
62C 70C 50%
72C 80C 70%

(Thanks to advan20092 from notebookreview and IXBT Forum for help with modifying fan table)

Let me know how people get on with the bios. You will notice a big difference in the fan noise on battery and it also doesnt turn on all the time when you insert AC adapter.

Can I install this BIOS on my Aspire 3810TZ? You say only to install on 8371 but the thread says 8371/3810 does this mean it's the same laptop or what? My fan is always running it's very annoying. Help would be much appreciated.

dragonuk · 2 May 2011 at 16:24

No this works on 8371 only . Sorry

dakai · 3 May 2011 at 08:16

Bummer, do you know where I can find a modded BIOS for the 3810 which fixes the fan problem? I've been trying to fix this problem for a while now. Even though I have SSD and the temperature is around 40 degrees all the time the fan is really loud. I already have a modded 1.28 BIOS which unlocks the advanced settings but whatever start-temperature I set for the fan in BIOS it acts the same.

olivier renault · 3 May 2011 at 14:25

HarryPainful said:
So I bought a Vertex 2 for mine and get the following on a benchmark, seems a lot slower than other benchies I have seen

I wouldn't worry too much about benches, only access time and small file reads for OS and programs performance. The small file reads is pretty low though, dunno how it compares to a regular hard drive, but the access time is good.

It's possible there are some tweaks you can use to improve performance. Running in AHCI, disabling right cache, disabling indexing, udpating motherboard drivers...

Matt` · 4 May 2011 at 12:01

I've managed to screw up my switchable graphics somehow!

Any suggestions guys.. I have the switchable graphics option on right click of desktop but clicking Power save or High Performance does nothing.

I've reinstalled the driver:

VGA Driver ATI 8.652.1 173.5 MB 10/22/2009

I have a TravelMate 8371 and had previously installed the bios upgrade suggested.

This started as I was no longer able to adjust the screen brightness after messing about with some TTS stuff yesterday.

Going to uninstall all the graphics drivers and reinstall see if that helps.

Any further suggestions?

Cheers

Edit: reinstalled again and fixed the issue - ignore this post but cannot delete. Thanks

e36Adz · 4 May 2011 at 14:55

Well I am back posting in this thread again and for the first time it is not to praise this machine! The screen has just gone dead out of the blue it seems. I can hear windows still starts up but the backlight is completely gone. Browsing the last few pages I have seen others have had similar problems so it seems to be a common fault.

I have spoken to Acer and done as instructed by them, emailed them the invoice over and I have been told to contact them after 1 business day, so I will call them again now on Friday.

How have others found their RMA service?

Will they be bothered that I upgraded the HDD to a SSD? BTW I didn't even mention that to them, didn't see any need too.

chris10230 · 4 May 2011 at 15:04

e36Adz said:
Well I am back posting in this thread again and for the first time it is not to praise this machine! The screen has just gone dead out of the blue it seems. I can hear windows still starts up but the backlight is completely gone. Browsing the last few pages I have seen others have had similar problems so it seems to be a common fault.

I have spoken to Acer and done as instructed by them, emailed them the invoice over and I have been told to contact them after 1 business day, so I will call them again now on Friday.

How have others found their RMA service?

Will they be bothered that I upgraded the HDD to a SSD? BTW I didn't even mention that to them, didn't see any need too.

customer service were very good if you get the details Friday I would say by mid next week it will be back with you. Given you send it off quickly. I would not say they will care. With me and their warranty sticker they said as long as nothing is broken they do not mind them being removed. So I doubt that they will say anything about it as a HD mod does not equal a broken screen. But service is good, better than what a remember from horror days before