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How's Acer Travelmate 8100 Series Doing For You? - Page 2

Poll Results: How's Your Acer Travelmate Is Doing For you?

 
  • 56% (43)
    Awesome, It is rock solid and no problem whatsoever!
  • 22% (17)
    It mmmkay, I get some instability here and there, but still GREAT!
  • 9% (7)
    Neutral response, I still haven't use it long enough to determine good or bad
  • 11% (9)
    Piece of junk, way too many problem!! ARGH!
76 Total Votes  
post #21 of 65
3/31/05 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EnF70
I wonder what will happen at an ambient temperature of 35C...
Short circuit from dripping sweat? I think it's pretty much a wait and see. Gaming in WoW for 4-5 hours at nearly all max video settings I average around 72C with SpeedSwitch Dynamic 80\80 policy, and average nearly 80C with Dynamic 100\100. I pulled the DVD for better air flow (not many games will let you play without it, unless you "fake" CD drives) and it made NO difference. I may try a fan through there or a fan blowing on the touchpad, but I really have no performance problems or shutdowns, heat or otherwise.
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post #22 of 65
3/31/05 at 1:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMsyvc
Short circuit from dripping sweat? I think it's pretty much a wait and see. Gaming in WoW for 4-5 hours at nearly all max video settings I average around 72C with SpeedSwitch Dynamic 80\80 policy, and average nearly 80C with Dynamic 100\100. I pulled the DVD for better air flow (not many games will let you play without it, unless you "fake" CD drives) and it made NO difference. I may try a fan through there or a fan blowing on the touchpad, but I really have no performance problems or shutdowns, heat or otherwise.
See the post about undervolting CPU in Notebook General forum. I did away with SpeedswitchXP, no throttling for me anymore. Using RMClock with dynamic switching in the range FID=x6 (800MHz), VID=0.7 volt - FID=x15 (2GHz), VID=1.1 volt This is down from original VID=0.988 volt - VID=1.308 volt

Highest temp I've seen since I started using RMClock is 67*C

Running WoW in widescreen format is sweetness (don't know when exactly they added it but it must be realtively recently)

So far so good with this laptop. Although with weather getting warmer I noticed that RAM is getting hotter a bit.
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post #23 of 65
3/31/05 at 2:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthAcer
See the post about undervolting CPU in Notebook General forum. I did away with SpeedswitchXP, no throttling for me anymore. Using RMClock with dynamic switching in the range FID=x6 (800MHz), VID=0.7 volt - FID=x15 (2GHz), VID=1.1 volt This is down from original VID=0.988 volt - VID=1.308 volt

Highest temp I've seen since I started using RMClock is 67*C

Running WoW in widescreen format is sweetness (don't know when exactly they added it but it must be realtively recently)

So far so good with this laptop. Although with weather getting warmer I noticed that RAM is getting hotter a bit.
Why you smarty-pants, show-off, sonofagun. If we removed all your posts in the forums we would be hugely poorer in real, factual, knowledge. Thanks one more time for a good tip (for which I'm sure we will all own individual responsibility for whether it works or not for us).
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post #24 of 65
3/31/05 at 3:10pm
got mine for 5 days now.first of all - the 3 usb ports in the front are really annoying... guess acer just made themselfs a new easydock buyer, altough there wouldn't be any use for it.
i really hope for a bios update wich handles the fan better. undervolted my notebook and while browsering or doing office work my temperature doesn't exceed 50° - so no need for the fan - it's on more often then not anyway.
performance is great! had a hp pavilion zd7000 before (pentium IV 3,2 GHz, 1256 mb ram), but above all the ram/fsb related tasks run so much better. strange considering that i used to work with 800 MHz frontsidebus - must be the ram then.
my harddrive seems to have a problem tough.. i cannot run pcmark - always stops during hd tests. initializing those tests takes ages (at least 2 min each) and after the 4 hd tests pcmark tells me it couldn't complete the hd tests and i don't get results for it... strange.
overall i guess it's a good laptop - not the build quality of the massive pavilion zd7000 - but i guess one cannot expect that from a notebook of that size. and if i was totally contend something would be wrong i guess .
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post #25 of 65
3/31/05 at 4:43pm
The fan runs a lot because of the GPU, not the processor. In the ATI display settings, open up Powerplay options and set it to "Balanced Peformance" and "Maximum Battery Life" for unplugged scenarios. Since I've done that, the fan comes on FAR less and I've improved my battery life a bit, too. Try that, and along with your undervolting the fan should run more rarely now. Of course, if you want to play a game like HL2, you'll have to speed the GPU back up, which has resulted in some video card crashing on my system. No biggie really, I just restart and it runs just fine.

One question though...to those that have undervolted, do you see any significant loss in performance, in terms of speed and GPU power? I don't have much experience with the process and am interested in experimenting, but if I can't run games as well because of it I think I'll pass.
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post #26 of 65
3/31/05 at 5:05pm
Quote:
Running WoW in widescreen format is sweetness
Yep, wow shines on the 8104. I upgraded to the latest UnIAN Catalyst 5.3 drivers and garnered a 15% framerate improvement. My 8104 never drops below 40fps in WoW even in complex zones. I have all settings maxed, but I do have clipplane/terrain distance set at 50%.

I'll have to play with rmclock to see what I can get out of it.
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post #27 of 65
3/31/05 at 5:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by airscottie
One question though...to those that have undervolted, do you see any significant loss in performance, in terms of speed and GPU power? I don't have much experience with the process and am interested in experimenting, but if I can't run games as well because of it I think I'll pass.
Have not noticed any drop in games performance with CPU undervolted.
What I still have not tested is some long video/3d rendering. Gonna test it over the upcoming weekend to see the difference in performance (if any) and to verify stability.
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post #28 of 65
3/31/05 at 6:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthAcer
See the post about undervolting CPU in Notebook General forum. I did away with SpeedswitchXP, no throttling for me anymore. Using RMClock with dynamic switching in the range FID=x6 (800MHz), VID=0.7 volt - FID=x15 (2GHz), VID=1.1 volt This is down from original VID=0.988 volt - VID=1.308 volt
Do you still have ePM installed?
I've tried RMClock and it seems a little unstable to me. It crashes randomly when I'm trying to switch between tabs.
It may be related to the fact that I still have ePM loaded.
Also, it shows the CPU at 100% so I was forced to switch to the alternate CPU load method.
Can you detail a little your configuration and experience with RMClock?

Thanks,
_EnF_
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post #29 of 65
3/31/05 at 6:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EnF70
Do you still have ePM installed?
I've tried RMClock and it seems a little unstable to me. It crashes randomly when I'm trying to switch between tabs.
It may be related to the fact that I still have ePM loaded.
Also, it shows the CPU at 100% so I was forced to switch to the alternate CPU load method.
Can you detail a little your configuration and experience with RMClock?
I have no ePM installed, Launch Manager is a TM8003 version modded for TM8104. RMClock as described in the post earlier (coud not go below 1.1 volt for max profile - getting SUMOUT errors in Prime95). Using Mobile Meter to monitor temperatures, turned off CPU freq monitoring in it since it does not do it right with RMClock. System is pretty stable. Been playing various games with this setup for a couple of days.
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post #30 of 65
3/31/05 at 7:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthAcer
I have no ePM installed, Launch Manager is a TM8003 version modded for TM8104. RMClock as described in the post earlier (coud not go below 1.1 volt for max profile - getting SUMOUT errors in Prime95). Using Mobile Meter to monitor temperatures, turned off CPU freq monitoring in it since it does not do it right with RMClock. System is pretty stable. Been playing various games with this setup for a couple of days.
I see. I remember your post regarding the modding of 8003 LM. I've looked into it, still it doesn't have all ePM features. (i.e. turning off Firewire, LAN or card bus).
I'll try unloading ePM and MobileMeter's freq.monitoring and try RMClock again.

Thanks for the tips.

Cheers,
_EnF_
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post #31 of 65
3/31/05 at 8:51pm
I tired RMclock this afternoon. No joy for me. I bluescreen at 1.1v. I can get down to around 1.2ish v, but the heat reduction is not that great.
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post #32 of 65
3/31/05 at 11:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by katorga
I tired RMclock this afternoon. No joy for me. I bluescreen at 1.1v. I can get down to around 1.2ish v, but the heat reduction is not that great.
I had heat reduction of about 1*C per every two steps (1 step = 0.016 volt)
1.2ish does not sound good. I don't even consider my 1.1 good enough. Should be around 1.060 or so. I guess, it depends on a particular CPU sample. That might also explain why some of us experience lower or higher temp under similar conditions. It's your particular CPU.

I also wonder how big is variance in the GPU chips produced and could that result into significant difference in 3DMark scores...
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post #33 of 65
3/31/05 at 11:56pm
Wow, sounds like a list of problems that can be found on Acer 8104. I'm receiving my 8104 tomorrow. Can someone post a list of things that i should go over to make sure i did not get a defected laptop? Also, any softwares i should use to check the stability of the laptop? The reason i am asking is because this laptop been backordered for a month. The last time i spoke to one of the reps, they told me the next shipment of laptops will be April 6. So i called back again to cancel the order a few days ago, and they told me that they have one in stock. That's kind of strange if their shipment is on April 6 and they suddenly have one on stock. THe only reason i can think of an acer 8104 is on stock is a return from someone else who did not want it because it had some type of problem. By the way, are they allowed to sell a laptop out if someone returns it because it is defected?
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post #34 of 65
4/1/05 at 2:32am
has anyone got any better amplification out of the audio port? Ive tried 1.15, 1.17, and baseline windows drivers will no improvement.

any ideas?
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post #35 of 65
4/2/05 at 7:26pm
here are my pcmark04 results with the undervolted cpu:
PCMark3889 PCMarks
CPU3744,0
Memory3101,0
Graphics3231,0
HDD3140,0

there doesn't seem to be any drop in performance.
also solved the problem with my harddrive (couldn't do any benchmarks). partitionde the 3 partitions to one big one and reformated to ntfs - now everythings works fine... strange...
also got the fan under control - thanx for the hint with the gpu!
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post #36 of 65
4/2/05 at 8:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EnF70
I see. I remember your post regarding the modding of 8003 LM. I've looked into it, still it doesn't have all ePM features. (i.e. turning off Firewire, LAN or card bus).
Click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the traybar - there's your removal options for all the above (Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire, PCCard, etc.)

Turning them back on is a different thing though. But I have not found myself in need of that yet.
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post #37 of 65
4/5/05 at 3:42pm
Thread Starter 
Pretty solid on satify people using Acer 8100 series...nice!
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post #38 of 65
4/5/05 at 4:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by smilepak
Pretty solid on satify people using Acer 8100 series...nice!
I've read your post 10 times but I still dont understand it smilepak .

Anyway the card reader sucks on the 8104. Oh well I still love it.
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post #39 of 65
4/5/05 at 5:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JFvergara
Anyway the card reader sucks on the 8104.
I'd put it differently: MemoryStick media sucks (huge compatibility issues, too many various types...)
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post #40 of 65
4/5/05 at 6:24pm
Quote:
1.2ish does not sound good. I don't even consider my 1.1 good enough
At the end of the day, I can run just below 1.2v reliably while gaming. This results in a roughly 10C difference in temps during heavy gaming session 69C v. 79C. Not too shabby.

I wish I could get it to 1.0v or 1.1v but although 1.148 is stable under Prime95, I crash playing WoW. I use 1.2v just to be safe and stable although I can go a little lower.
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