Acer 8371/3810 Owners Thread

I can't justify the SSD as I would need at least a 128GB one (preferably 256GB) for work related storage. If the prices of SSD's begin to come down so that 256GB can be had for less than £100 I'm all in...... :D

EDIT: Don't want to carry around an external HDD either :)
 
e36Adz said:
I paid just under £110 for a 64GB Crucial C300 SSD only 2-3 weeks ago - and I think it can be had for around £90 now, I was browsing the HDD section of the forum earlier and a few ppl have mentioned it in there.

HDD > SSD
CPU oc'ed
GPU oc'ed

= WIN
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd only need 64Gb as everything at home is stored on my NAS, could even get away with 40Gb, but price per Gb starts getting rediculously high for a 40Gb.

Probably wait till after Xmas, might even upgrade my 60Gb SSD in my main desktop and put that into the laptop
 
Just used the over clock and am getting temps of around 60-63 using prime 95, its been on about 15 minutes now.

Will try that graphics card over clock soon, where do i get it from? just search MSI afterburner and it will be obvious?
 
A 8371 review
My first impressions:
Brought online on Saturday for £340 total, arrived Tuesday. Mine came with Vista, booted into system only to check switchable graphics and FN buttons functionality before installed win7 ult 64 but not before running
3dmark06 - 2590.

After sticking my win7 CD onto USB all that was needed driver wise was the Ati and Intel vga drivers from the acer site. Installed AHCI intel drivers from the site also but don't think it was nessacessary. Took a while for me to see the tabs on the site for the ePower management software! (disabled finger printer reader).

Did get one BSOD so far, but think it was due to me mutitasking whilst installing ATI driver. - user error.

Ran 3dmark06 in win7 and got 2677

Recorded system boot time to be 53 seconds into fully loaded OS.
Hibernation resume time = 29 seconds.

Windows Experience index
processor 4.2
memory 4.9
graphics 4.4
gaming 5.9
hard disk 5.4
Base score 4.2

There is a orange light on the base of the laptop facing the user, took me a while to figure out what it was, when battery reached 100% charge and the light turned blue i figured it out.

The laptop itself looks sleek and modern. Whilst not as small as a netbook (of course) it does fit the categroy of ultraportable, whilst using the 13" screen i am glad that it isn't any smaller. The viewing angles of the screen are BAD, but as long as you use it head on its not a issue. The keyboard has a nice feel but i find the QWERTY pad to much over to the left of the laptop. The touchpad is surprisingly useable, havn't had to plug in a USB mouse for windows/browsing needs.

The major downsides are definatly lack of a HDMI output, no 2nd HDD bay and that is really all i can put against this laptop. If your looking to buy a SSD with this laptop you need to have some cash to splash imo, as the 320gb drive supplied is large compared to most SSDs and is fast for a notebook hdd (7200RPM).

My questions to the other owners:
After a 100% charge, win7 informs me that the battery will only last 7hours.
This is with acer power saving light on. power options are
dim display 3min,
screen 5min,
sleep 2hours.
It was my understanding that other were getting more life?
What i have done so far is charge the battery 100% and use it up 100%, any ideas?
Whilst it was on last night it seemed to only last 5 hours before shutting down. (was downloading over wifi)

what Software are you running to show the temp in graphs? I have gpuz and can only get temp data for the radeon which is 52c under idel load in windows.
Would like those graphs that showed CPU + hdd temps. thanks
 
battery life will vary depending on what your doing and the current config of the power settings. I've had anywhere from 4-5 hours right up to a reported 9 (i'm not sure how accurate that one is lol).

with wifi on, the backlight on low-mid brightness and a full charge with me just using notepad++ for code and a bit of web browsing I get on average about 5 and a half hours. If I turn wifi off then that increases to more like 6-7.

I believe Acer quote around 7 hours or so with many people reporting 8+ when doing battery life tests (obviously in perfect conditions).

I agree with you that HDMI would have been a nice touch but it's not a deal breaker by any measure. Not sure on a 2nd HDD bay as that would potentially add additional weight (assuming I used it)
 
Can someone help with the msi afterburner please?

I see two files:-

MSI_Kombustor_Setup_1.1.3
and
MSIAfterburnerSetup200

What one should i install? I am guessing the MSIAfterburnerSetup200, but then what is the other file?

Also how do i test that the GPU is stable, i think i will use the settings posted above as i am a bit of a noob, but i am guessing i should still test stability!
 
Thank you fella, will give it a go now. Expect me back in half an hour asking how to fix my broken laptop ahah.

Hmm, im assuming the two settings people have been changing are already max on mine?

5204597403_5c8ce79830_b.jpg
 
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girlfriend seems to be having difficulty with the builtin mouse pad. it will right click but it wont left click and also the mouse pad doesnt click either by pressing it. any ideas?
i have un-installed the device and re-installed and it works, until i restart the laptop (after the drivers are re-installed)
 
it does work, its not hardware problems. as i said it worked once removed and i restart vista, its once it asks about rebooting as the mousepad is re-installed and we reboot that once back into windows it stops working. i get a feeling its the synaptecs software perhaps. will have to see anyway.
 
user100monkey said:
Recorded system boot time to be 53 seconds into fully loaded OS.
Click to expand...

I think with a SSD hdd its about half of this.

user100monkey said:
The major downsides are definatly lack of a HDMI output, no 2nd HDD bay and that is really all i can put against this laptop. If your looking to buy a SSD with this laptop you need to have some cash to splash imo, as the 320gb drive supplied is large compared to most SSDs and is fast for a notebook hdd (7200RPM).
Click to expand...

HDMI and an extra HDD slot would have made this laptop bargain of the decade, we'll just call it bargain of the year as it is... :p

As far as the western digital HDD goes, its the scorpio blue which are rated at 5400rpm although I still found it very decent.

user100monkey said:
My questions to the other owners:
After a 100% charge, win7 informs me that the battery will only last 7hours.
This is with acer power saving light on. power options are
dim display 3min,
screen 5min,
sleep 2hours.
It was my understanding that other were getting more life?
What i have done so far is charge the battery 100% and use it up 100%, any ideas?
Whilst it was on last night it seemed to only last 5 hours before shutting down. (was downloading over wifi)
Click to expand...

I get from between 4hrs - 8hrs usage on here depending on what I am doing, although I have never done an accurate measurement. It normally lasts all day which is good enough for me, although today it didn't as I was running off the battery while running the gpu and cpu oc'ed and I was gaming for ages.

haz_pro said:
Thank you fella, will give it a go now. Expect me back in half an hour asking how to fix my broken laptop ahah.

Hmm, im assuming the two settings people have been changing are already max on mine?
Click to expand...

That's correct, they are the only 2 settings you need to adjust. Close down afterburner and go into C drive, program files, and into the folder where you installed afterburner and open the config file with notepad. In there, there is one line which is something like... 'unlockclockspeeds = 0' and you need to change the 0 to 1.

Then start up afterburner again and you should be able to adjust those 2 bars.
 
Which Afterburner software did you use Adz??? I have tried the latest but can't see a way to move the sliders beyond the maximum on the 3810TZG of 450/600.

I've downloaded and installed the latest ATI graphics linked to earlier in this thread too.....

CK
 
Thanks for that, i didnt see that in the user guide, should have read the readme, DOH.

Just trying to get the OC for the cpu to start with windows but i dont think its working. Tried adding a shortcut to the startup folder but hasnt seemed to work.
 
tbz_ck said:
Which Afterburner software did you use Adz??? I have tried the latest but can't see a way to move the sliders beyond the maximum on the 3810TZG of 450/600.

I've downloaded and installed the latest ATI graphics linked to earlier in this thread too.....

CK
Click to expand...

Have a look a few posts up, i asked this question too and hes answered. :)

Seems im not the only one who didnt realise what to do:P

EDIT: Arrrghh, it wont let me edit the "MSIAfterBurner.CFG" says its open but afterburner isnt open. Will restart windows and hopefully this problem will go.
 
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Ahh found it.

The setting in that file needs to be:

EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 1

You also can't edit it directly in Program files if you run a a standard user. Copy it to desktop, alter it and copy it back (and then put admin credentials in on copy process UAC)
 
tbz_ck said:
Which Afterburner software did you use Adz??? I have tried the latest but can't see a way to move the sliders beyond the maximum on the 3810TZG of 450/600.

I've downloaded and installed the latest ATI graphics linked to earlier in this thread too.....

CK
Click to expand...

Hi mate, read afew posts up.

Any other queries just post in here and I'll try reply asap.

haz_pro said:
Thanks for that, i didnt see that in the user guide, should have read the readme, DOH.

Just trying to get the OC for the cpu to start with windows but i dont think its working. Tried adding a shortcut to the startup folder but hasnt seemed to work.
Click to expand...

I couldn't get the CPU overclock to start with windows either but I decided its best if it doesnt now. When the mrs uses the laptop to do her work it starts up @ 1.4ghz with the onboard gfx. Whenever I use it - I use my settings. :D
 
Thanks guys, i feel like such a fool when it comes to all this OC stuff(even though its not as complicated as most), ironic considering the name of the forum haha.
 
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