The Acer Guy

We have our first review for the Acer Aspire 8920.

I’m really excited about receiving these directly from you, and want to thank John Daniels for writing this up so soon after receiving his.

But that’s enough of me. Let me get out the way and let John tell you what his first few days have been like.

Acer Aspire 8920G-934G64Bn

Windows Vista® Ultimate”, Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz, 800MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache), 18.4″” WUXGA Acer CineBrite™ LCD TFT, 2*2GB RAM, 2*320GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive, 2X Blu-ray Disc™/DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive, Mobile Intel® PM965 Express Chipset with NVIDIA® GeForce™ 9650M GS 512MB VRAM, Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (dual-band quad-mode 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N), 8 cell Li-ion Battery, 6-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MMCplus™, MS, MS PRO, xD), 0.3 MP Crystal Eye Webcam, Bluetooth 2.0, Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution, Dolby® Home Theatre Digital Surround Sound Technology, McAfee® Internet Security Suite 60 Day Trial”

The box contains the 8920, power supply, manual, guarantee & a Sony Blu-ray demo disk with various Blu-ray movie trailers on. I haven’t included any photos of the machine as there are plenty on the Internet & Acer can take better picture than I can, but here is the box.

After 6 years using 15” screens, it looked huge, with a very attractive outer styling; only problem with the gloss finish is it shows every fingerprint.

Set up was painless, Vista took about 10 minutes to complete its install, creating a system restore & a driver restore disk, was about 45 minutes, reinstallation of drivers can be completed via the Acer Mobility Center, directly from your hard drive, as can a restore to factory defaults through the Acer eRecovery management.

It came with Vista Ultimate 32 bit SP1, there were a few windows updates to get, which downloaded & installed in about 10 minutes, there was also an updated version of Acer Arcade Deluxe which was updated from within the program.

Build quality is excellent, a different league from my old Aspire 5110, it feels very solid, & with normal use, no noticeable give on the keyboard, which is positioned nearly central, with the numerical keypad on the right & CineDash Media console on the left. Touchpad is about central with the keyboard, positioned directly under & the same width as the space bar.

The screen is a beauty, my old Aspire’s screen looks positively dull in comparison; it can be viewed from a wide angle both horizontally & vertically. The huge width takes a bit of getting used to but I find myself using Acer GridVista a lot more now as it is ideal for this screen size. The included Blu-ray demo, has a couple of comparison clips showing you the benefit of HD, watching normal definition content will never be the same again.

CineDash Media console is a bit of a gimmick, & takes a bit of getting used to but it does what it says & looks pretty cool.

The 5.1 sound works, but this is a notebook, I’d have to be 2” tall & stand on the keyboard to get the benefit, & then I’d have to have eyes at the back of my head, as the front & rear speakers seem to be swapped. The Tuba Cinebass, adds a little bit of bass, nothing out of the ordinary, but all in, not a bad sound for a notebook & probably the best I’ve heard.

Performance.

Windows experience index is 5.1, with memory operations per second being the bottleneck

Windows shows 4gb of Ram, but Everest shows only 3gb is available. I was running Vista 64 bit on my previous aspire & the WEI for memory was 5.9, so it presumably it would be the same on this machine.

It would be nice if Acer supplied a 64 bit version, all the drivers available for download from support are 64 bit compatible except the Nvidia, which I’m not sure about.

Graphics – NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GS

I ran the following tests
3DMark 05 – 8009
3DMark 06 – 4814

It should be able to handle all current games, though not on fullest effects on games like Crysis.

Battery life on the power saver plan is about 2 hours 30 minutes as per the specifications.

Very good hard disk performance from the 2 Western Digital Scorpio wd3200’s, considering they are 5400rpm disks, I had a Hitachi 200gb 7200 in my old aspire & it got the same score, 5.3

The 2 physical disks appear as 3 partitions, there are also 2 hidden partitions, presumably for acer system restore. See below

There is an Intel Robson & Matrix Storage manager driver included, but no onboard Robson (TurboMemory) & the current BIOS doesn’t allow RAID (to my knowledge anyway, I’ll be contacting Acer support regarding that) so seems redundant to me.

Improvements I’d like to see would be Vista 64 bit operating system, internal TV card (included in the next model down) RAID & TurboMemory.

In conclusion, I’m happy with my purchase & consider the price very reasonable considering the specification.

Acer seems to have stepped up a notch in terms of quality & I think they will be onto a winner with this model. Now let’s see if they can do something about their technical support.

You want comments? We got comments:

1. Morris Lee wrote, on April 25th, 2008:

   

   John, are you able to get me your version of Acer Arcade for 8920? the 5920 one is abit choppy, not very good looking either thanks!!

2. ali wrote, on April 28th, 2008:

   

   hi.
   Tell me how can you get 5.1 of vista performance test and i get 4.4
   This 8920g is crab, i cannot even watch blu-ray movies, i just see green screen and display driver crashes and i get bluescreen. i have tested several nvidia graphic drivers and same problems.
   What is your display driver? if you are using original drivers and you get 5.1 performance points and you can watch blu-ray movies my machine is crab and i should change it to another one. It would be nice to know what do you think about this.

   -ali

3. Morris Lee wrote, on April 28th, 2008:

   

   I would suggest either used factory driver or the driver from laptopvideo2go.com. also look into video codec downloads, you might need to update some. I never used blu-ray before, but try watching it from Acer Arcade program. you might have another model of 8920 with lower end CPU, but 4.4 IS too low for any 8920 models even 5920′s t5250 1.5GHz scored 4.6.

   Morris Lee

4. Jacko wrote, on April 29th, 2008:

   

   I’m using all the original drivers, I have tried a factory default restore & still get the same WEI score.

5. Mike wrote, on April 29th, 2008:

   

   Hi,

   I wonder which HD Audio Formats that the laptop is supporting? Can it deliver DTS HD-MA and/or Dolby Digital TrueHD from a Blu-ray disc or from the HDD over HDMI to an external reciever? No info seem to be available at Acer website and Acer Support can not supply me that info for some reason…

   /Mike

6. Jeff wrote, on May 2nd, 2008:

   

   Yello

   My name is Jeff and i’ve been looking at this laptop for a while now. I was wondering how much it cost you?

7. Danny wrote, on May 2nd, 2008:

   

   In case Drive C: brakes how would the hidden partions be created and/or populated if you want to continue using eRecovery support. How to swap the OS disk and restore it as to factory settings?

   Thanks

8. Eric wrote, on May 3rd, 2008:

   

   Hi Michael,

   Congratulations with your new Acer. I’m waiting for the 6920 so I can compare both sizes. But can you tell us about the outdoor visibility of the screen. My new notebook must be workable on a sunny day. Like, can you see yourself in the screen. Has it lot of reflections, etc.

   Thanks.

9. Webmen wrote, on May 3rd, 2008:

   

   I have a big question:

   I live in paris and they only sold the gemstone blue with a 9500m gs graphics card.
   Is there a big difference between 9650 and 9500?
   Can crysis run no pb on 9500?

   Thank you very much

   I love this report and the vids

   Ps:please respond fast =D

10. Morris Lee wrote, on May 4th, 2008:

    

    9500 would run, maybe low-mid settings, I recall the 9500m gs is the same as 8600m gt, since mine is overclocked to run crysis to mid-high settings.

11. Webmen wrote, on May 4th, 2008:

    

    Thnx morris.I know a good oc software named ntune.
    It calculates the max oc capabilities for you’re card without ruining it.
    Do you know other oc softwares for free?

12. Morris Lee wrote, on May 4th, 2008:

    

    yes, ntune is quite nice, ATI tools and rivatuner does the job too, also features max clock etc. rivatuner comes with many more features though. I tested my clock speed using ntunes, then flashed into my 8600′s rom, so I don’t need to worry about installing the software to run OC

13. Webmen wrote, on May 4th, 2008:

    

    i really apushed that

    I’ll maybe buy the gemstone
    With 9650 on matériel.net

    Thnx vry much for you’re help morris

14. Morris Lee wrote, on May 4th, 2008:

    

    lol, ok, I hope you can write a review for your purchase!

15. Webmen wrote, on May 5th, 2008:

    

    np

    

16. Eric wrote, on May 7th, 2008:

    

    About the outdoor visibility of the Acer, don’t bother. I just saw a video of one with terrible reflections (indoors). I just returned a tablet pc, which had the same reflections. Couldn’t see a thing on it, yes the surroundings. But a mirror is cheaper. Give me matte, just as my neighbors notebook (an old Acer) or my 20,1″ TFT screen.

    By the way, this is the link of the video http://video.google.nl/videosearch?hl=nl&q=acer%206920&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv

17. Morris Lee wrote, on May 8th, 2008:

    

    no matter what “LCD” screen, when it is under the SUN, you can barely see anything, somehow the sun just makes fluorescent really weak in brightness, but if the screen is under a normal light bulb, it will look just fine. And of course, under the fluorescent light in the house is also fine. if you were to judge the “terrible reflections” it happens to ALL the new laptops these days, since they do not have a layer of “Anti-Glare” layer on top of the LCD screen, this results a “Clearer” resolutions but accompanied with glare. if one is anti-glared, results a more “blurry” image. somehow we have move to a age that vedors like “mirror” screens AHAHAHAH. I do prefer Anti-glare on the go….

18. Logan wrote, on May 13th, 2008:

    

    Hey. I just purchased a Aspire 6920 from circuit city.
    I love it! Its a huge step up from my old computer.
    However, my CineDash is not working via touch.
    I asked acer for help and i want to try to get as many sources in on this as possible.
    this is not a big issue for me, but i would like to use what i payed for.
    any ideas?

19. Morris Lee wrote, on May 13th, 2008:

    

    did you check the driver? updated the driver from the Acer repacked one? or is it not working out of the box, if so, get it exchanged for a new one.

20. Michael Walsh wrote, on May 13th, 2008:

    

    Logan (and all the others with this problem),

    There is a trick to resetting the CineDash. Remove all power (turn it off and remove the battery) for more than 10 seconds.

    That gives it a sort of manual reboot.

    *Should* get you back gliding in no time…

21. Nikki Hughes wrote, on May 30th, 2008:

    

    Anyone having problems with the mouse pad on the 8920? I used to have Acer TM520it and a Fijitsu amilo 1718 and both mouse pads are more responsive than on the 8920. It seems to take a lot more stokes to get it to travel the width of the screen, although have my windows reduced to approx 15.4″. Any help would be appreciated. Other than that, I am really happy with my purchase.

22. Morris Lee wrote, on May 30th, 2008:

    

    even though I don’t have a 8920, but I would like to suggest you try and change the mouse speed in windows, usually it can go pretty fast. As for my 5920, I have it on max

23. Nikki Hughes wrote, on June 3rd, 2008:

    

    Thanks Morris, that did the trick… seems such a small thing that I should have been aware of, but not once have I ever had to touch any mouse settings with any of my previous computers….. Thanks again for the help.

24. Ritchie wrote, on June 17th, 2008:

    

    Am loking at the highest spec with 9650 gfx, but am dissapointed the model doesn’t include the TV tuner that lower spec moels do (is it possible to get a tuner to add internally?)

    It comes with Vista Ultimate 32 bit preloaded, but does the Vista Ultimate licence you get with it cover putting 64 bit Ultimate on instead?

25. Morris Lee wrote, on June 17th, 2008:

    

    I want to tell you that you may get an USB one, but a internal one is almost impossible(unless you can find a PCI-E mini 1X one) the one with build in tv tuner also have a antenna out on the side of the laptop case, which for the non tv tuner ones seems to lack. for vista, I think 64 and 32 use the same key, only that you have to get the same type of package(Home premium, Ultimate etc..) I have 64 bit on my 5920 machine, but a cracked version, i did this so that I can reinstall my windows as many times as i want. Note that windows vista’s licence will require renewal every 180 days, and eachs single licence can ONLY be activated again 180 days. the cracked version is “Activated” just like other OEM Activation method. just some thought.

26. DirtyWookie wrote, on July 9th, 2008:

    

    Hi There

    I recently purchased the 8920 and did a rather silly thing. I uninstalled acer arcade by accident. I did a system restore and saw the files again, but now it just will not work.
    I put in a blu-ray disc and nothing.

    Please help!

    I maybe need to try and set it back to the factory settings, but have no clue in how to do this!

    Yes..I’m a nub!!

    Thanks

27. Morris Lee wrote, on July 10th, 2008:

    

    Use eRecovery Manager, click on Install drivers and Softwares

28. Michael Walsh wrote, on July 10th, 2008:

    

    DirtyWookie

    Yeah, like Morris says, you need to start up “Acer eRecovery Management” and choose “restore” from the choices at the foot of the window. From the window that opens, choose – “reinstall applications/drivers and a new window should open.

    From this window choose the “install” option and then, from the left side-panel click on “Windows Vista” then “Application” then “Arcade” and, finally, in the main panel, click on “Install Arcade Now” – it may take a little time to install and you may think that it’s stopped working but it hasn’t, it still going…

29. DirtyWookie wrote, on July 10th, 2008:

    

    Oh right yeah…Like I said, I’m a nub!

    Cheers guys…all fixed!!

30. DirtyWookie wrote, on July 12th, 2008:

    

    Yeah Hi,me again.

    Does anybody else have problems watching blu-ray discs?
    In particular Batman Begins. Watching the main feature seems to be ok, but as soon as I try and watch any of the special features, it just goes blank. I then have to restart the whole system.
    I’ve d/l all the latest arcade updates, but still have the same problem.

    Just to let you know I don’t have the highest spec model. It has a T5750 processor. But surely that should be ok?!

31. Tamara wrote, on August 2nd, 2008:

    

    My Grandad just bought on of these exquisite machines and now we cannot get the CD drive working with regular audio disks ?
    What can we do or are these not compatible with blue ray lasers
    Please help us

32. Ferry wrote, on August 13th, 2008:

    

    Hi, anyone got a problem with second HDD?
    I just bought my 8920 2 days ago, as always I tested it without installing other softwares before use it as my primary notebook.
    Btw I found that second HDD (whis is Western Digital) is randomly detected. Sometimes after booting (turned on or just restarted) I can’t see the second HDD in explorer as well as device manager.
    I sent it back to acer center yesterday for futher check and possibly getting replacement, but looks like they don’t want to replace it even though it only 1 day purchase…

33. Morris Lee wrote, on August 13th, 2008:

    

    hum.. I am assuming that the harddrive is not fully plugged in, or not enough power is going to the harddrive anyway, I had that problem on my desktop before, I simply disconnected the harddrive and plug it back in. As for your case, technically, you can open the harddrive bay without sacrificing your warranty, take the harddrive out and maybe check the connections(check both drives, never know which is which) take a light blow on it and plug it back in.

    But since you sent it to acer already, they usually don’t have much time to check your problem seriously, if it does come back with the same problem, you have 2 options,

    1.you can argue with them for then to send you a packaging box so you can mail it back for free(that should be pretty reasonable in my perspective)

    2. try my method if they refuse the do the above

    Above all, I do not think it’s the harddrive problem, but the motherboard

34. Ferry wrote, on August 14th, 2008:

    

    Thanks Morris.
    I’ll let you know how it goes.

35. Olay wrote, on August 20th, 2008:

    

    Hi there,
    I purchased the Acer 8920G 934G64BN about two weeks ago.
    Since I had been saving for it, for about 3-4 months I was verry sattisfied when I got it.
    From the first boot I noticed that rundll32 kept not responding, and that the cine dash’s volum buttons reacted in the reverse (the volume level went down when I tried to make it go up etc…) I have this thing, I don’t like to keep my computers the way I bought them in the store, I usually format them and install Windows myself… So, when rundll32 kept bugging me, I reinstalled vista with another dvd. But like an idiot I didn’t make the back-up like a lot of people told me to.
    After trying a couple of times on acer.com I finally managed to dl all the drivers. But now runddl32 is still doing the same thing, and so is that volume button, and the worst part about it is that I have the same little problems, but that now I can’t find stuff like Acer Arcade, and Acer Crystal eye cam on the internet.
    Does anyone know where I can download these things, and how I can solve these little problems?
    I know that they’re just tiny problems, but they really annoy me, so I would really appreciate it if anyone could help me.
    Thx

    PS I’m planning to install the 64bit version of vista. Has anyone tried this on the acer 8920G, and does it cause any problems?

36. Morris Lee wrote, on August 20th, 2008:

    

    Olay, try pressing alt+F10 on startup to use erecovery, there you can restore everything back to the first day when you got it.

    or,

    you can install eframe, and erecovery, there you can install all the original drivers and softwares

    64 bit should be fine.

37. Olay wrote, on August 21st, 2008:

    

    Hi Morris,
    I tried alt+F10 but it didn’t work, probably because while reinstalling vista I emptied out the whole drive.
    Anyway, I reinstalled Launchmanager, and the volume button problem on Cinedash is fixed now.
    As for Arcade and the webcam utilities, a buddy of mine just bought the 6920G, so I’ll try making a back up of his laptop and try installing them on mine.

    Thanx

38. Morris Lee wrote, on August 21st, 2008:

    

    Olay, you should probably check if your PQSERVICE partition still exist, if it does, then you can still just recover the MBR for it, but yeah, if you are copying your friend’s drive over, copy the entire thing, including all other 2 hidden partition, i recommend something like acronis or norton ghost to copy everything right, there for,your instant-on and erecovery funtion will be available again.

39. Olay wrote, on August 22nd, 2008:

    

    Ok thanks a lot, I’ll try that.
    One more question, since I’m new to this High definition stuff.. My version does not have the tv-tuner. Is it possible to record HDTV through the HDMI port that I have, or is this just an output port?
    Sorry if this is a dumb question :p

40. Ferry wrote, on August 22nd, 2008:

    

    Hi Morris,

    At last, I got a replacement for my 8920 (HDD problem) I told in the previous comment

    It will arrive tomorrow.

    I hope the new one is okay.

41. Morris Lee wrote, on August 23rd, 2008:

    

    I am glad that the problem is solved now !

42. Troy G wrote, on August 26th, 2008:

    

    Olay,

    I purchased an 8920G a month ago and was really happy with it. Then I thought I’d try and “improve” things by installing Vista Ultimate 64bit edition and now some things just aren’t working right. I had to re-install the webcam device using the same driver and it worked OK, the CineDash no longer controls the system volume and the fingerprint reader does not respond anymore. I’ve tried looking for software and updates for the latter two issues and can’t find a fix, though others report problems with the Bio Protection software with 64 bit OS. Acer do not provide much help with conflicts and drivers IMO. Just recently I noticed the RHF speaker is making intermittent RF noise. Maybe a hardware failure somewhere and not 64 bit related but thought I’d let people know. I bought this unit for the BIG screen and adequate speed and graphics for my needs – I’m a DTR mobile worker type.

    Great little review and handy follow up advice forum!

    Cheers,
    TG

43. Morris Lee wrote, on August 27th, 2008:

    

    Troy G, one way to be sure if it is ardware problem, back up all your files and use eRecovery, press Alt+ F10 on system startup, this puts your computer back to the first day when you got it

44. Troy G wrote, on August 29th, 2008:

    

    I followed the advice Micheal Walsh provided earlier in the thread and hey presto – CineDash is working again and the speaker noise has vanished. The Dolby 5.1 was doing some very weird things in the end like swapping all the speakers around when I would go into setup and run the test. Anyway, that one is fixed, thanks Micheal.

    Now for the Bio-Protection; Moris I am going to give the eRecovery for sure to set the clock back to day 0 and then do all my software installs in a more logical order than what I did the first time. I was in a rush to get my new 8920 on the road. I can’t do it right now as I am working and can’t afford teh downtime. I will let you know how it goes…

    Cheers,
    TG

45. Morris Lee wrote, on August 30th, 2008:

    

    Troy G,

    Sure thing mate, I will be here for your results/questions.

46. kakker wrote, on September 1st, 2008:

    

    Great site guys.
    Seriously contemplating buying the 8920G. For general use, Photoshop, Autocad, Studiomax, Soundforge… Not much gaming, only Counterstrike occasionally. i know a better graphic card would be better, but that is the budget…
    Those of you who have one, do you think I should go ahead or shop around more?

47. Morris Lee wrote, on September 2nd, 2008:

    

    kakker,
    8920 that comes with 9500m can run counter strike source on maximum settings, little OC gets you 16AA, I am sure if you get the 9600 card will be a lot better. for what you want it is a fine laptop, as for it is very powerful itself. to warn you, it is a big laptop.

48. Ferry wrote, on September 21st, 2008:

    

    I got new problem now.
    Mine is true 1080p (1920×1080).
    When I first time received it (the replacement I mean – see my previous posts ), I’m very happy, the screen is so bright and it gives me a lot of spaces to work because of the high resolution.
    btw, after use it for 1 week I found that the text is too small for me on that resolution. Yes I can increase the DPI for larger text but that’s not what I want because some web pages is not rendered corectly on adjusted DPI.
    So there is no options other than changing resolution.
    I tried smaller resolution (which is still 16:9 ratio) 1365×768 or 1280×720 but they cause my screen looks so small and since I use my laptop for web development it makes me very uncomfort.
    I want 1680×945 but unfortunately there is no option for that resolution in the Nvidia control panel as well as Vista display configuration panel.
    Do you have a clue how to use unsupported resolution for my notebook?
    I heard that some releases of this 8920G has 1680×945 max resolution, so there should be a way to make my 1080p screen to work in 1680×945 resolution.
    Please any suggestions…

49. Morris Lee wrote, on September 21st, 2008:

    

    yes, you can use custom resolutions, but, I am not sure if it is possible with your current stock drivers. I am using the 177.98 and in the nvidia control panel(right click on desktop, “NVIDIA Control Panel”, click advanced for the first time when you are opening up the panel), when you are in the panel, find “Manage custom resolutions” then add the resolution you want. you run into problems with the aspect stretchin ght image, you can use the “Change flat panel scaling” options just 3 above the “Manage custom resolutions”, and check the option “Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio”

    enjoy~~

50. Ferry wrote, on September 21st, 2008:

    

    Where can I find the driver to download?
    This is the first time I use NVIDIA

51. Ferry wrote, on September 21st, 2008:

    

    Additional to above question.
    I just tried with current stock driver and it works, but the result a bit blury. Any suggestion to fix the quality?

    Thanks for your help.

52. Morris Lee wrote, on September 21st, 2008:

    

    Blurry is a result of non-native resolution, however, you can use the other aspect ratio option, called “do not scale” that will be the option to place pixel by pixel, you won’t get “blurry” effects, but quite pointless to have a big screen.

    non-native resolution will always look “blurry” on LCD screens.

53. Morris Lee wrote, on September 21st, 2008:

    

    for drivers, for desktop models are easy, go to http://www.nvidia.com, BUT for laptop chipsets, you have to use modded drivers(the modded inf which to include 3rd party manufactures’ cards) and there is a site that dedicated on making those modded drivers, which is http://www.laptopvideo2go.com read the instructions on how to apply the inf inorder to install the driver.

    however, I make my own modded info for my specific graphics card now, as the inf on the site some how disables my HD-DVD playback. mine does not

54. Ferry wrote, on September 27th, 2008:

    

    Hi Morris,
    Another thing I want to ask. This 8920G replacement has battery problem. 1 hour ago before I post this question, I plugged that notebook power (AC) adapter then the I started it. When vista shown, it can’t recognize my battery. It said “battery not detected” and the battery icon was crossed. Then I shutted it down. I thought it was vista. But the battery indicator lamp still blinking. I solved the problem by unplug the power adaptor and plug it again.
    This is the second time it happens. They happened when I plug it to AC (with battery inside it slot). If I uses battery it never happens and I never fail to boot using battery.
    I believe this is not normal since my 6292 never like this.
    The question is, can I solve it by updating BIOS? or should I replace the battery (but the battery never fails – only the problem above)?

55. Ferry wrote, on September 28th, 2008:

    

    I have updated mine with BIOS v1.13
    I hope it will solve the battery problem.

    Btw with that update, now the core temp in idle is 35C and full load is 60C. Before update (v1.0.2 I think) it was 5C and full load is 30C. I guess it is because a better voltage supply to the processor (now the frequency can stay in its optimum which is 2500MHz and everything become fast and no more delay)

56. Morris Lee wrote, on September 28th, 2008:

    

    well, i give you luck on having it fixed, anyways, it can’t possibiliy be 5C, it is like impossible, at least 30 ish the, imagine room temperture is “normally” about 20~22C, so yeah.

57. Ferry wrote, on September 28th, 2008:

    

    yep, you’re right. A wrong heat report by the old BIOS.
    It is now run on 40C at average on normal use and the GPU temp is 56C.

58. Morris Lee wrote, on September 28th, 2008:

    

    sweet, I am glad that you got more problems solved!

    

59. Ferry wrote, on September 28th, 2008:

    

    Thanks
    I hope that’s the last problem I face so I can move all my files to this notebook and use this as my primary computer for daily use without any worry.

60. Lars wrote, on October 9th, 2008:

    

    Hello Michael and Acerguys
    I have a question about this 8920.
    I’m really interested in buying it – i use my laptop pretty much for movies and television and i’m keen on the screen and the full hd feature, but I have no idea how much it really means for the quality. (I watch it on the computerscreen, I don’t have a tv.)
    You mentioned in your review that the included bluray was impressive but I would very much like to hear some practical experiences about this.
    Is the full hd worth it, or is it not visible to the naked eye?
    Greetings from
    Lars, Denmark

61. Morris Lee wrote, on October 9th, 2008:

    

    depending on the price you can get for, $1000 – $1500 USD should pretty good deal on this machine, as for the full hd, yeah baby, you can’t ask for more ~~ so clear, i missed it so much when I was watching the sample bluray on the demo machine… good times

    I recall that only SOME versions comes with tv tuner, so watch for that.(this goes the same as bluetooth)

    Morris Lee

62. keith wrote, on October 10th, 2008:

    

    hi im having problems with my acer aspire 8920g it keeps randomly freezing on me and sometimes it will come back to life on its own after about 10 mins, sometimes i have to place the lid down and try and lock the computer and that may work but most the time nothing it just freezes and i cant resolve it except to power off and reboot any ideas please

63. Morris Lee wrote, on October 10th, 2008:

    

    freezing? as in the cursor can’t move either? if the cursor still respond, try checking your harddrive shut off time in the power settings, but this sounds like a hardware problem.

    One case I have see on an acer laptop, the battery makes the cursor andd keyboard useless on startup, pulling out the battery and letting the laptop run off the AC power, mouse anf keyboard works. replacing the battery works flawlessly.

64. keith wrote, on October 11th, 2008:

    

    ill try that cheers morris

    once or twice the whole thing has froze but majority of the time its been hanging mouse moves all programs come up with not responding. and i get the mouse with the little spiraly doughnut on its really annoying ive restored to factory settings and that hasnt worked

65. Morris Lee wrote, on October 11th, 2008:

    

    well, I am sorry to tell you that there is a high percentage of the possibility that the problem is your hardware, since you use the factory default and problem still exists.

    call acer up, see what they think of it, 8920′s should still be in warranty no?

66. keith wrote, on October 11th, 2008:

    

    yea im tempted to give em a call on monday and get them to take it in,

    other than this re-ocuring problem its been a brill laptop

67. Morris Lee wrote, on October 11th, 2008:

    

    yeah, even my 5920 is great machine, an infact a lower resolution screen and lower specs. I just missed that beautiful 8920 when I saw it on the display…. so shiny~~ and lights everywhere, love that fact

68. keith wrote, on October 11th, 2008:

    

    yea its definatly shiny and definatly loads of lights and the massive screen is beautiful

    by the way any one figured out how to record the webcam yet as i cant in acer arcade or in windows movie maker

69. Morris Lee wrote, on October 11th, 2008:

    

    you can use the livecam.exe should be under C:\Windows\SUYIN NB cam\ or it could be C:\Windows\Bison NB cam\ depending on which driver you have installed.

    I should have saved my money for 8920 with bluray.. HD DVD so useless here too. 5.1 sound… HD… big big shiny screen…. lit up acer logo on the lid…. lights on the hinge… AND IT IS BLUE!! hehe

70. keith wrote, on October 11th, 2008:

    

    i have niether of them on my hard drive strange

71. Morris Lee wrote, on October 11th, 2008:

    

    that is weird,

    go here

    http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5920.html

    and download the CCD_Suyin one in the list, and extract usinf winrar, use the installer in the “AP” folder, that should install the software, then check your windows directory again for that directory

72. josh wrote, on October 14th, 2008:

    

    hi i really like my acer 8920g entry level machine with t5750 the problem i seem to have so far is that the battery doesnt recharge its stuck on 5% the acer power management indicates the battery is GOOD the amber battery recharge light is on at the front of the machine and in the taskbar the indication is that it is charging pulling out the ac cord turns the machine off even with the battery in pulling out the battery the putting it back in makes the battery icon in the taskbar fill up from empty to full three or so time before finally settling on 5% probably that means its recallibrating whats up with it thanks

73. Morris Lee wrote, on October 14th, 2008:

    

    do you mean that your battery is NOT working physically? how you put all in a paragraph is confusing.

    from what I can understand that when you pull the AC power, laptop turns off even with battery in it, am I correct?

    battery is stuck at 5%?

    from my understanding if those above fits your case, the battery is dead, or defective, get the battery replaced from where you got it from, you should still have warranty from acer if not.

74. josh wrote, on October 14th, 2008:

    

    hi Morris thanks for your really fast reply wow talk about speed i didnt expect it so soon yeah sorry about being a bit confusing with unpunctuated sentences well it says that the battery is good when i check acer epower management bit i mean the orange amber battery charge light is on at the front when i put the pointer over the battery icon in the taskbar it says its charging and plugged in so im a bit confused but yeah it could be a dead battery better that than a fault with the recharge circuit because a battery can be replaced but a faulty machine is much harder work to bare so icould check that out thanks for that

    also i forgot to mention last time theres seems to be a bulge in the centre of my keybord the kighest point being aound the F8 key by about 3 or 4 millimetres and the gradient swoops down either side i mean is that normal for other 8920g models ive just bought this model a few days ago its been used a few months ive stll got the warranty card and book that was packed with it i could download everest to tell me the specifics of the machine how many hours the screen has been used etc does anybody else have this bulge with their 8920g s any help appreciated thank you

75. Ferry wrote, on October 14th, 2008:

    

    Hi Josh,
    I had almost the same battery problem as yours – it won’t charge completely sometimes. The solution is to update BIOS.
    You can get it from ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_8920G/vista/Bios/

    I uses v1.14

    Win Splash program (to perform BIOS update from windows) is inside the downloadable zip file.
    But note that only v1.14 supports 64bit win splash – other versions only supports 32bit win splash.

    Hope it helps

76. josh wrote, on October 14th, 2008:

    

    hey thanks for that Ferry my vista version is home premium on 32 bit so i should get 1.13 or under its just that my battery or 8920g rather says its charging but it wont budge from %5 the battery looks brand new also on your model near the top of the keyboard around the F keys do you have a bulge that slopes either side as if theres some kind of swelling or is it just me and when the screen is on theres a faint hummin sound when screen turns of it disappears thanks for the link much appreciated

77. Morris Lee wrote, on October 14th, 2008:

    

    rare case, I think you should try the BIOS if you want to, but if it still does not work, get it replaced.

78. josh wrote, on October 15th, 2008:

    

    Ferry which version bios did you have and which version did you update it to ive managed to sort the bulge problem out by the way wun of the plastic tiny clips at the top and slightly under the keyboard wasnt latched on properly so it appeared covered over the inlay so i pushed down a bit the plastic clip thingy clipped and clicked onto the inlay and voila it was gone very slight depression less than a millimetre but its gone the screen still hums a bit at high quiet frequency and thanks Lee for the suggestion i might try that when im more confident

79. Ferry wrote, on October 15th, 2008:

    

    The stock BIOS was v1.02 and I updated it to v1.14
    I got better temperature report (more accurate), Better HD performance (mine 5.4 in vista Windows Experience Index now – before was 5.3) also processor works better.

    Btw the performance or fixes gained from BIOS update depends so much on your spec.

    My Spec:
    - Proc: T9300
    - Video: 9500M GS
    - HDD: 640GB
    - Memory: 4GB
    - Display: 1920×1080

80. Nikos wrote, on October 15th, 2008:

    

    Hi
    I recently changed the display drivers of my 8920G-934G50Bn with some modded ones from laptopvideo2go and then i realised that the Blu-ray was not working anymore.
    I tried to roll back to the original driver, but the roll back didn’t work and when i tried to reinstall manually the original drivers from Acer’s web site, i had a black screen after reboot.
    Any idea of how to go back to the original?

    And a second question. I called Acer Greece and asked them if i can upgrade the BIOS to 1.14. The answer was NO, cause i’ll lose the guarantee. Should I upgrade BIOS or it’ not wearthy?
    Thanks.

81. josh wrote, on October 15th, 2008:

    

    hi ferry my specs are t5750
    9500gs
    320gb
    4gb
    1920 1080 vista home premium 32bit

    i think Niko v1.14 is only meant for 64bit vista ultimate not 32 bit but im not too sure i think Ferry can shed some light on this also is it just me or does the screen give a slight hum sound when its on
    thanks for the bios advice ferry friend oh and by the way my initial bios and still is v1.05

82. Morris Lee wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    Nikos, you need to use driver cleaner to make sure the drivers you installed from laptopvideo2go.com is emptied, and no, those modded inf made by them does not include the bluray or HD dvd playback. email me the original inf file of the specific driver you want to use + the factory driver’s inf including your video card name, I will mod the inf for you, and should work with bluray.

    morrismurphy@gmail.com

83. Morris Lee wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    oops Nikos, I meant driver sweeper.

84. Ferry wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    Hi Nikos,
    I’m not sure about losing guarantee because of BIOS update. They fool you.
    I have updated mine (the old one with problems – see above posts) to v1.13 and send back to them for replacement because of HDD problem that I couldn’t solve and they couldn’t solve too.

    Hi Josh,
    My OS is Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit.

    Updating BIOS today is not like the old age. Now you can update it from windows so as long as there is no power problem everyting will okay.
    Also manufacturer will always keep a backup of stock BIOS in one of the chips in your motherboard so when your update fail that stock BIOS will take over.

    The question is why they put BIOS in the public FTP if updating BIOS can make you LOOSE your GUARANTEE? If they say you will loose your guarantee by updating BIOS they absolutely fool you. Don’t trust ACER customer service so much. If possible – try to communicate with Acer technician instead – they will answer more wisely.

85. Morris Lee wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    on the acer site, it says it is not recomended or something and only do it if instructed by acer representative.

86. Nikos wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    Hi guys and thanks for all the answers.
    Finally, it was so simple to roll back to the original display drivers. I just unistalled them from the add-remove programs and the system installed the original ones from the hiden partition, after reboot.
    So many years PC user, but first time laptop & vista user…

    Morris Lee i’ll e-mail you later.

    Concerning the BIOS update, i also think they fooled me. Local Acer support it’s not really good.
    Early September i send them my laptop to replace the Blu-ray drive and they returned it to me 3 weeks later!!! They kept telling me for the delay that they ordered the BD drive from England!!!

87. Morris Lee wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    wow, from england, to where? takes 3 weeks? sending in to acer oem would probably faster HAAHA

88. Ferry wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    You are lucky Nikos. Mine was 1 month for unit replacement due to HDD problem.

    When I told to Morris that mine will arrive tomorrow I was wrong – it arrived 3 weeks later…

89. Morris Lee wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    wow, I am luckier, when I sent my 5920 in for repair, they said 7-10 days for me, and took 12 days… “waiting for motherboard to ship there” was their “hold up”

90. Nikos wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    From England to Athens Greece. The problem is that local ACER has granted service to a third party company

91. Michael Walsh wrote, on October 16th, 2008:

    

    It’d be interesting to chart repair times and delay times for Acer support. I wonder if we could do that on the new site.
    There again, I think I’d be fired in a week if I did. Hope you all (Morris, Ferry and Nikos) got a great service to compensate for the wait at least…

92. Morris Lee wrote, on October 17th, 2008:

    

    I don’t think they would be a legal reason to fire you from acer if you were to do a chart, you are not really saying anything bad about acer, you are simply receiving feedbacks on the services acer provides. in my point of view, acer would probably even find it useful, but, ask acer if you are allowed on such actions first.

    another way to look at it, it is simuliar to the comments that you are getting on here(that is addressed to acer) being posted here, a chart only displays it in a summerized form.

    then again, I think asking acer in advance is much wiser choice.

    don’t loose your job just for a site!!

93. Michael Walsh wrote, on October 17th, 2008:

    

    LOL Morris,

    It was a figure of speech. My job’s not at risk but if you read “Naked Conversations” by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble and see what Robert went through when he started blogging at Microsoft you’ll see why I wrote it.

    No this is a technical issue more than anything else. I have polling functionality built into the site but that’s just a poll and gives preferences between set possibilities (like “Is Acer cool yet? Yes/No”). Here what we’re doing is collecting relevant yet highly varied data on a small percentage of Acer users. That’s a whole different ballgame.

    One of the real-world uses of something like this could for example be to collect data on the wireless issues for the Aspire One over on another post. From what I hear, recreating the problem (and finding the solution) is proving difficult as there are numerous causes (just read the threads). If there was a way of collecting and organizing this data then that might actually provide a real service.

    I’ll look into it. I’m away on business for the next few days. Hope the world doesn’t collapse in my absence.

94. Morris Lee wrote, on October 17th, 2008:

    

    I will hold the world if it collapse XD, funny example you have there “Is Acer cool yet?” ahaha

    you are right, collecting data about the wifi problem is very useful right now, I would still assume it is hardware defects though, since mine works flawlessly ever since I had it, and trying all different OS does not reveal any problems… I am very lucky I have to say

95. josh wrote, on October 17th, 2008:

    

    you know alot of people are selling their 8920gs i cant really understand why ive had miine about a week pretty much love really nice cool to the touch keyboard prolly coz they bought it and they found it just too gigantic i mean lets face it youre not really gonna be carrying it around with you to work that s why i got mine cheap lol about 500 odd 505 to be precise acers ultimate concept machine isnt going precisely to plan lol its like the biggest notebook in existence nearly ive seen alot of them on sale especially by past owners because it came ouyt round march may they havent had it for more than a few months

96. Ferry wrote, on October 17th, 2008:

    

    Well if I’m the one who is selling it, it will be because this series is problematic. A lot of problem occurs – seems the QA team not doing a good work.

    If you search on google you will see what I mean. Many of units sent back to Acer for replacement or fix.

    I have Acer TM 6292 and no issue since I bought it (I don’t use it now since I’m not very often to go to uni now – but I will not sell it).

    I hope the new AS 8930 will be better than 8920.
    That doesn’t mean that I will buy 8930… LOL

97. josh wrote, on October 17th, 2008:

    

    its strange though the 8920 got some brill reviews i hope its not too many units sent back thatll make acer feel a bit gutted especially this meant to be their flagship ace model acers ace lol i woinder what happens to those models they get do they repair them then sell them on or is that the end of the problem and theyll work proper from now on InshaAllaah

98. Ferry wrote, on October 18th, 2008:

    

    oops I wrongly wrote on post #75.
    “win splash” should be “winphlash”
    hehe…

99. Morris Lee wrote, on October 19th, 2008:

    

    should be ok, they should realize it is just a typo when they downloaded the file. but thanks for addressing it.

100. David V wrote, on October 27th, 2008:

     

     My Acer 8920 goes directly to the Acer Arcade when I start it up, cannot figure out how to exit. I shut it down, and restart, and it goes to my desktop. What setting have I toggled to make it do this?

101. Morris Lee wrote, on October 27th, 2008:

     

     are you using your power button to start your computer? or your arcade touch key? make sure you use the power button not the touch key. check your BIOS settings too.

102. Ferry wrote, on October 28th, 2008:

     

     To David V:
     Check your autorun list. The easiest way to manage them is from Windows Defender. Since this laptop come with vista I’m sure the Windows Defender is there.

     Hope this helps

103. Ferry wrote, on October 28th, 2008:

     

     A correction: not autorun list but startup list.
     You can find it in the “Tools –> Software Explorer” of Windows Defender.

     Alternate way to manage them is from System Configuration (Windows Logo –> Run –> msconfig — ENTER)

104. alan Dumas wrote, on October 30th, 2008:

     

     Where are we with regards to RAID array for aspire 8920 I just bought one can’t seem to find anything or info or bios support? thanks alan

105. Morris Lee wrote, on October 30th, 2008:

     

     according to http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/acer-aspire-8920-6048/4864-3121_7-33024473-2.html

     no raid, sorry

106. Roy C. wrote, on October 31st, 2008:

     

     Hi,

     My 8920G frequently hangs (about 3-5times per hour of use)even under the most trivial of system demand. If I wait from 5-15 minutes, the session will sort itself out and window control returns, however, I spend most of the time frozen, watching the little blue donut going round ‘n round.
     (and the disk activity light remains solid)

     I have been gradually uninstalling software, stopping services, & disconnecting peripherals. Though I have managed to decrease the frequency of occurances, I still cannot isolate/cure the problem which renders this machine quite annoying & virtually useless.

     I wish to install the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager (iaStor.sys) update but there are several disk controller options, and I am not quite sure what are the correct answers to provide the install wizard with to properly upgrade the system. Could you please help me by providing instructions as how to correctly configure this update for the 8920G system. Thank you

     Here is the URL:

     http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?strState=LIVE&ProductID=2261&DwnldID=16750&agr=Y&lang=eng&PrdMap=2261

107. Morris Lee wrote, on October 31st, 2008:

     

     you probably have a viruse, check in the msconfig for “MSServer” or some really weird names. check your internet plugins too.

108. Alfonso wrote, on October 31st, 2008:

     

     Hello Guys.

     I want to do a system recovery back to factory settings, but I am not clear if by doing so, I will loose all data that I have in drive D:\.
     Could any one that has done a recoviery to factory settings confirm this point?

     Thanka a lot.

109. Morris Lee wrote, on November 1st, 2008:

     

     the D:\ stays AS-IS when you do the recovery, it is untouched.

     so backup your files to D:\ then do the factory default

110. Roy C wrote, on November 15th, 2008:

     

     Morris, Thanks for your reply.

     I guess I should have mentioned that the problem has been around since day one before first ever connection to the internet.

     It is corrupt chipset or disk controller software straight out of the box from Acer. Or perhaps a weak system design period.

     There are several forums reporting this exact problem with the 8920G from new. (eg. see Keith #62 of this forum).

     Also published is bad experiences with Acer’s support in rectifying the problem (which I can corroborate).

     Someone out there must have been unfortunate enough to own one of these systems, yet smart enough to figure-out the issue (this would exclude Acer).

     Just a matter of making the connection…

111. Roy C wrote, on November 15th, 2008:

     

     The system I purchased from Acer Australia has exactly the same model# (Acer Aspire 8920G-934G64Bn) and list of components as mentioned in the initial review at the top of this page.

     On day one, straight out of the box, under the factory default environment, and on AC power, it could only manage a Windows experience index of 4.5 with all performance settings set to optimum.

     This base score indicates Graphics (desktop performance of Windows Aero) as the bottleneck. Whereas at the top of the page we see a score of 5.9 reported(?).

     Anyone know what is going on here? Does Acer supply cooked systems to evaluaters if they suspect a review will be published (ie. overclocked GPUs)? Is the author of the article at the top of the page an Acer employee?

112. Ferry wrote, on November 15th, 2008:

     

     Hi Roy C,

     I probably can answer the Windows Experience Index issue.

     Aspire 8920G-934G64Bn comes with 2 hardware configurations (at least two). One with NVidia 9650M GS, and the other one with NVidia 9500M GS. In this review, the lappie has 9650M GS installed, but yours has 9500M GS installed (same as mine). Therefore the Windows Experience Index for “Desktop Performance for Windows Aero” will score around 4.4 and 4.5.

     Windows Vista will take the smallest subscore as general Windows Experience Index. Therefore yours rated with 4.5 (mine only 4.4)

     I believe the price also slightly different.

     HTH

113. Daniel wrote, on November 26th, 2008:

     

     Gday Guys ,

     First of all , Great write up on the 8920 .

     I Recentley Purchase a Acer Apsire 6920 Gemstone Blue for use as a Personal Laptop / and also as a Wireless Scanner .

     The Cine-Dash Keyboard looks Great but there are a few things that annoy me .

     1. the Keyboard is Shifted to the Right of the Unit , thus it occurs you may be listening to Music with Media Player and typing and accidently set off the STOP button , PITA , Because of the Heat Sensitivity .

     2. If the Cine-Dash Gets hot , it Doesnt work .

     3. After the Course of a Few Days , the Cine-Dash Wont work and Stays on Hold ..

     The Acer Empower Button on the top right is Great aswell .. Just showing that this is One Really neatly Designed Laptop , for Movies , Gaming or Office.

     The Feel of it is the feeling of something special .. its Silk , its like touching finely polished glass , its the feeling that a Lot of thought not only went into performance , but into looks , style and the whole condesity of the Units Acer has Produced .

     Anyway , Great Write up again , Great Product Acer , and yeah , thanks for reading Guys

     Daniel

     Add me to MSN if you would like to Chat about the Unit or Anything Techy
     Yakooza_03@hotmail.com

114. Master wrote, on November 27th, 2008:

     

     I have the 8920G with the 64 bit edition of Vista, 9500MGS video, runs nice, bright screen, and responsive. But I am considering upgrading the CPU with a X9000 2.8GHz and the video with a 8800GTX. Do you think its possible? Looks possible, but my only concern might be the cooling, only has one (1) fan. Will let you know my final results.

115. Morris Lee wrote, on November 27th, 2008:

     

     CPU is a maybe, should be the same socket, but I can guarrenty how the motherboard can handle or use the CPU. as for the 8800″m” GTX, is impossible, it usese MXM III(MXM type 3) and 8920, 9500m gs is a MXM II, the space will not fit.

116. John wrote, on December 9th, 2008:

     

     I’ve just put an order in for the Acer Aspire 8920G-834G32Bn, just wondered if anyone has managed to find a laptop bag big enough for one yet? I was hoping to get a Crumpler but think I’m out of luck – would like something of a similar style tho (messenger bag with space for the rest of my gear)??

117. Johan Swart wrote, on December 13th, 2008:

     

     I live in South Africa and bought myself the 17″ Targus laptop rucksack. The 8920G fits nicely into it.

     For more safety, you can also try the 19″ bag, although, I decided against it as it really looks like you are hauling your week’s washing with you.

118. Jin wrote, on December 14th, 2008:

     

     Hi guys,

     bought an 8920G-604G32BN (LX.AS60X.077), I wanted exactly this one because it has a lower resolution of 1366×768 (that’s my personal preference, I do not like high res screens, I want big pixels), first shocker – they silently replaced the panel with one that has a higher resolution. The model delivered had the correct model number – but the panel did not match the specs.

     Anyway, on first bootup I entered BIOS and setup the preference to boot from CD and fired up Fedora 10 live to check what is working, I wanted to do the full install at some later point.

     Things went well, until I forgot to put in the CD once and ended up in Vista, in some “Acer Arcade” utility. I did not perform the initial setup, but simply rebooted the notebook, afterwards I wiped the hard drive in preparation of the Linux install.

     And here is the big problem – the “Press F2 to enter setup” message disappeared from the booting screen, I tried all possible key combinations – I CAN NOT ENTER BIOS ANYMORE!

     So either this one time Vista/Arcade bootup did something with the BIOS, or it did not like an empty hard disk. I tried upgrading the BIOS to a newer version but it did not help, still no “enter setup” message and still no way to get in.

     Did anyone encounter this problem? Any hints would be greatly appreciated!

     Kind regards,
     Jin

119. Morris Lee wrote, on December 14th, 2008:

     

     @Jin,

     Try unplugging it and take out the battery, wait for it for a couple of minutes, then put it all back in. then give that a shot.

120. Jin wrote, on December 14th, 2008:

     

     Did that without any luck. Found a Post of a workaround, which said to take out the hdd, then booting from CD becomes possible. I did that and downgraded and upgraded the BIOS a couple of times, but it did not solve the problem – there is still noe “Press F2…” message and still no way to get in.

     And since I can’t boot with a connected hdd I can’t install Linux… well, I could probably connect the hdd via USB later on and put it back in after installation, but that would only be a workaround – I need to be able to access the BIOS.

     I guess the question is – is BIOS access denied because it wants some stuff from the hard disk, that I erased? Or because the first time Vista bootup (I did not accept the EULA and powered off even before the first-time Acer Arcade setup) sent the system into some Windows pre-activation lockdown?

121. Jin wrote, on December 16th, 2008:

     

     Problem solved!

     I was writing about this one post that I found, where the guy started with a XP live CD and used the winphlash utility to reflash. Since I used phlash16 under DOS I figured that this may be the difference.

     So I started with a PE CD and wanted to load winphlash from a usb stick, however USB and network were not recognized (the PE CD was from 2004) and I powered off again. I then powered on to take the CD out of the drive and… what did I see? “Press F2 to enter setup utility”.

     It seems, that simply starting XP live CD, without any reflashing and without any changes to the system did the trick.

     I went into BIOS, very interesting – the serial number was set to 0123456789012345 and the uuid was reported as 01010101010101010101…

     Scary stuff, huh? And believe me, I am very, very angry about all that. I bought the notebook, I payed money for it and I did not accept the M$ EULA – still they messed with the BIOS and almost rendered my system unusable. End of story. Maybe I’ll post something more positive later on, when I calm down ;>

     Kind regards,
     Jin

122. Travelmate wrote, on December 16th, 2008:

     

     Sent my 8930g back for a replacment today as the console on the left hasn’t been glued down correctly looks dog eared. apart from that heck yeah it rocks my world. Ok so all my acers have caused some drama in my life ie Travelmate hinge starded cracking after one week Aspire keys launching themselves into orbit at will and hard drives getting louder and louder, but i wouldn’t have any other kind of laptop. Besides Acer has always been good to me when ever i have had a problem not like dodgey dell who’s laptops can fry eggs on, there is somthing reasuring about the touch and feel of an Acer, it’s like putting on your favourite trainers,they may not be as flash or expensive as Dick and Harrys but they do the job and a darn comfy. So i wait to be reunited with my gemstone i know i may have more drama but it’s all good. besides all that for £997 not bad.

123. Morris Lee wrote, on December 16th, 2008:

     

     Yes, phoenix bios is tricky, I was trying to load USB DVD to bootable for my aspire one, guess what, it makes my BIOS freeze at the Acer logo.

     What I manage to load is to load into windows, THEN plug in the USB DVD, reboot to the F12 boot menu, and it finally went though to the boot menu!

     Simply have the Drive plugged in and reboot during BIOS does not work either

     Question still remains as to what is causing the BIOS refusing to recognize the device.

     On the other note, the BIOS is updated

124. DirtyWookie wrote, on December 16th, 2008:

     

     Hi there

     I have the 8920

     Not sure if this has been addressed or not, but I recently changed from IE to firefox 3(mainly for the security leak with IE) but now it seems my Bio protection fingerprint reader will not pop up to give me the option to save passwords etc.

     Is this a Firfox issue or is it simply a setting I have to change somewhere.

     I’m pretty much a dead end here so any help would be gratefully accepted.

     Thanks

125. DirtyWookie wrote, on December 16th, 2008:

     

     HA..There is also one more thing that I seem to be having trouble with.

     Sometimes when I boot up, it automatically goes to Acer arcade. The only way I can resolve this is to keep my finger on the off button. But then sometimes when it starts back up it loads up into Xp?!?!? Seeing as I have Vista I don’t get it?

     To resolve it I have to restart the whole thing.

     But it seems to be a regular occurrence.

     Again, any help would be great

126. Morris Lee wrote, on December 17th, 2008:

     

     @DirtyWookie

     I think for the finger print you need an extension or like plug-in for firefox.

     for the arcade, you can check if you are not touching the arcade touch key(the little guy looking icon close to the media controls)

127. Jin wrote, on December 17th, 2008:

     

     On a more positive note this time (well sort of). Regarding a backpack…

     I saw the hint about Targus, unfortunately they are not on sale here so I ended up walking from store to store, trying various brands and models.

     Now, the *only* backpack from the dozens I tried where the 8920G did fit is from JanSport, model name “BOOST”, model number TNG3E:
     http://www.jansport.com/js_product_detail.php?cid=&pid=TNG3E

     It’s actually for 17″ and the inner strap that’s supposed to hold the notebook in place is too short, but it still fits into the designated pocket and I think I could extend the strap easily.

     Can’t say that I like the orange stuff, I’d prefer black only but I guess I can overpaint it.

     If anyone is interested to see how it fits – shout and I will make some photos with the notebook in the backpack later on.

     Kind regards,
     Jin

128. chris wrote, on December 26th, 2008:

     

     hi

     i too am having crash problems with 8920. i love the laptop but the constant crash problem i have 3 times an hour when browsing is really pointing me to returning the laptop.

     ive reformatted several times to factory default and i still get the same issue. ive tried several browsers and still the same.

     at first i thought it was a vista update as after my first reformat i didn’t install any of vistas updates and it worked fine till automatic update switched itself on and installed them.

     ive reformatted since and the same problems occured. ive tried uninstalling some of acers software i dont need that hasn’t helped.

     iv contacted acer but they don’t know what the problem is so im batting my head against a brick wall. I know theres many people out there with the same issue so acer should be trying to do something about this.

     if any of you can help me i would really appreciate it.

129. Michael Walsh wrote, on December 26th, 2008:

     

     Hi Chris,

     Sorry to hear you’re having crash problems Personally I would have already smashed it to bits if it had happened to me.

     I’ll forward your post to my man in Acer but probably wont get anything back until after the holidays (that means the 6th Jan). Hope your 8920 is still in one piece when I get back to you…

130. chris wrote, on January 8th, 2009:

     

     hi any luck in helping me at all?

     cheers

131. Michael Walsh wrote, on January 8th, 2009:

     

     Simone has received about 100 mails from me from over the Christmas period – so far he’s replied to about a dozen.

     Don’t know where yours is on the “to-do” list but he’ll get to it. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

132. I wrote, on January 17th, 2009:

     

     Hello, Anybody know if the acer 8920g has a tpm 1.2 chip. I have the same spec as one @ top of the page with vista ultimate. I have looked at the specs for this chipset set on intel website it says its optional. I Have Asked acer but wont give me an answer. I Think this is fab machine….I Have had this since april 2008….

133. lorenzo wrote, on January 21st, 2009:

     

     I Have The 8920 With Ultimate Anyone Got That Bitlocker Working on this system. I Use Drive Prep Tool everything works But When It Reboots The Bootmgr is missing. I replaced bootmgr(as i have a vista dvd Phew!!!) but needs to boot from a different disk to encrypt windows disk. I have also tried manually Preparing The drive but no luck anyone got any ideas…(i dont want to install windows). I have looked all over the net.
     If youve got any ideas it would be much appreciated Thanks For reading.

134. Morris Lee wrote, on January 21st, 2009:

     

     @lorenzo,

     you probably need to install the bootmgr from the PQSERVICE partition since you are using the original one, the one supplied by acer has Alt+F10 (eRecovery system).

     I would not rely on stuff like bitlocker, I thought it has not been long since release, and most of the add on features like the Instant on or the eRecovery for the laptops now days are still not recognized universally to windows(meaning that windows does not understand it properly) in this case, windows might mess up the bootloader disk to boot(what you have just experienced)

     However, you can remove all the partitions to make sure this works as easy as it should have been for a barebone computer/laptop(you do have to remove everything) and you mentioned boot from different disk, you can probably initiate this by using the Windows Vista installation disk(it is a mini windows basically)

     As for the removing the entire partition, there are work arounds that you don’t have to “remove” everything, simply copy the partition using Ghost or Acronis (anything with Vista support) to another harddrive, then repartition your actual drive in the way you like, recover the windows parition you saved to the only or first partition of the disk, re-apply the bootrec tool in Vista disk again.

     IF you don’t have the budget to get another external drive to copy your current windows to, you may be able to try partition magic, BUT, I never trust this program, it messed up my partition table entirely on my 5920.

135. lorenzo wrote, on January 22nd, 2009:

     

     Thanks For Your time to reply to my message I Will Try This When I Have Some Free Time & Post Back With My Results.

136. steve wrote, on January 28th, 2009:

     

     hi guys.

     i was wondering if you can help as you will probably know that acer are a bunch of well idiots i bought a 9620 laptop and it runs brill but my mrs has a acer 8inch thing and her graphics are capable of 760mb but only 64mb dedicated i went into bios and looked for where i could boost the memory of graphics to better than 64 mb nothing there so i checked mine mines capable of like 1700mb and has 512mb dedy anywayz nothing there either so i rang acer tech guy 50p a min i should say total rip off and he said that we have locked the bios down so u cant change it in which i find this ridiculas cosidering it clearly states upto 1700mb on laptop but i cant get more than 512mb because of lockdown is there any way of getting past the lockdown so i can sort this memory problem out and have a laptop i actually paid for.

     many thanx in advance

137. whatsisface wrote, on February 4th, 2009:

     

     A MOAN AT ACER BUT A TIP FROM A CUSTOMER

     Acer are useless at updating there drivers i have found loads on the internet card reader, sound and chipset.
     But the most annoying thing is acer arcade deluxe- after updating it wont play any disks.
     But i found a solution, restore the software via the eRecovery management acer arcade reverts back to original. Now Download but before you install turn your antivirus off, perfect its installed to the latest, but you may need to configure your anti virus so it doesnt scan the folder by default- c:program filesacer arcade deluxeplaymovievideofilter

     TAKENOTE ACER THIS IS A PROBLEM.

138. chris wrote, on March 10th, 2009:

     

     hi guys regards the constant crash problem i have had with this laptop (as well as many others out there who have the same problem).

     The laptop was crashing three or four times an hour and just locking dead. Acer were no use at all they said it was a vista issue. I decided to download a hacked version of vista ultimate lite which had all the extras and themes taken out. i never installed sp1 or any updates i turned it off and for three months its ran perfectly.

     Ive just bought adobe photoshop cs4 and wanted to install it on my laptop but it needs sp1 to run. I decided to reformat and do a fresh install with genuine vista plus service pack 1 and with in an hour the whole damm thing was crashing again.

     I have all the updated drivers. I just cant figure out what the problem is. If it was a hardware issue then why did i not have a problem with vista lite.

     Can anyone help or knows a solution cos this is driving me crazy not being able to get the best out of my system and update it. I really am ready to return the thing.

     many thanx

139. Morris Lee wrote, on March 10th, 2009:

     

     @Chris,

     if that is the case, did you try Windows 7 beta? if it works, then you should wait for it

140. chris wrote, on March 11th, 2009:

     

     yeah i thought of that soon as i left that comment lol. Downloading it now but the torrents slow as. Hope that solves the problem plus with it being 64 bit.

141. Morris Lee wrote, on March 11th, 2009:

     

     @chris,

     good luck with that!

142. Lorenzo wrote, on March 17th, 2009:

     

     @chris. Look @ windows logs if not already. I have no issues with crashing of system but you could try updating the chipset and drivers from intel (I have they work fine) download inf update NOW you will need to install manually as it only seems to update some drivers (strange really). Open your run box after download (windows key +r) and drop the file on it add -a “path to chipset utility w/o the quotes” -a. The files shoul extract to program files\intel. Open your control panel, open device manager right click on intel products(quite alot-under system devices+usb controlers etc) and update driver, browse the computer and point to program files\intel.If anyone wants links to drivers for 8920g just ask will reply here download driver detective will scan your computer for out of date drivers worth a try.

143. Lorenzo wrote, on March 17th, 2009:

     

     Reply from jan 21st- bitlocker, after buying intel turbo memory for my machine i decided to reinstall windows vista ultimate as ready drive was not working on the system, i think PQSERVICE just gets in the way so i deleted it after a fresh copy of windows bitlocker now works, antivirus (bitdefender) now works in aggresive mode (didnt before), turbo memory works (fantastic for games really seen a big improvement only 512MB or 1GB work for this machine 512mb doesnt support readydrive) and windows seems to REMEMBER previous folders view on reboot. I even rolled back to factory settings and all these issues still pesisted.

144. Lorenzo wrote, on March 25th, 2009:

     

     Hello,
     Can anyone point me in the direction of a fan control app for 8920g.

145. Morris Lee wrote, on March 25th, 2009:

     

     @Lorenzo,

     I don’t think there is a such a thing, not even for my dear 5920

146. Dan M wrote, on April 15th, 2009:

     

     Has anyone had the problem where Acer Bio Protection doesnt pop up when logging into a site once you install Internet Explorer 8.0?? I miss being able to easily log into my sites!!! I emailed ACER and was told they only warranty that it worked when I got it but upgrading the browser is my problem??! And thats it. No help. No updated program, nothing. I have an Acer 6920G and would appreciate any help! Thanks, D

147. Michael Walsh wrote, on April 15th, 2009:

     

     @Dan M

     A while back someone wrote to me asking the same question.

     I asked Simone (Acer tech support) who came back with this answer. I know it’s not a solution but at least you know…

     “no updates are available yet for IE8… Bioprotection and its website account features work only on IE7 (no IE8 / no Mozilla)”

     As far as I know (and expect) Acer don’t have a feature to “ping” users when software upgrades are released so your only solution is to keep checking back… sorry.

148. Dan M wrote, on April 16th, 2009:

     

     Thanks! I hope they do update it. I love it and that feature even got my girlfriend to buy an Acer!

149. Boris wrote, on April 26th, 2009:

     

     Hi everyone!
     I have a acer 8920g with vista home premium installed. I want to install Windows XP Pro on it. I wonder if there is some easy way to do this? Does anyone now where i can get Windows XP drivers for my laptop? Looked at acers home page and i can only find Vista drivers!

     Thanks in advance!

150. Michael Walsh wrote, on April 27th, 2009:

     

     @Boris,

     You can follow Simone’s instructions here is you want BUT remember the 8920 has hardware that only works with Vista (Cinedash…) which is why you can’t find XP drivers on the Acer support site. 99% chance you’ll lose it if you install XP.

     1. http://www.theacerguy.com/2007/12/how-to-install-windows-xp-sp2-on-aspire-5920-aspire-5920g/

     2. http://www.theacerguy.com/2007/12/how-to-install-windows-xp-sp2-on-aspire-5920-aspire-5920g-%E2%80%93-part-2/

151. Boris wrote, on April 27th, 2009:

     

     Thanx alot Michael. I will try these guides during next week.

     With regards
     Boris

152. Tanzeel wrote, on April 29th, 2009:

     

     hi guys…
     This is one major question that every Acer 6920 user has been asking ‘HOW TO ENABLE BASS(TUBA)in xp’.The sound quality is really bad in xp compare to vista,some time you can hardly hear anything.I ev tried every thing but so far no success.Any help will be truly appreciated.

153. NJ wrote, on April 29th, 2009:

     

     hello all…

     i just upgraded frm IE7 to IE8 on my 6935G and i’m facing the same problem with the bio-protection… guess what… i downgraded it back to IE7…

     so Microsoft… until i can use the bio-protection in IE8 without any problem, i’m sticking to IE7… or until Acer provides the update for the software… whichever comes first… lol…

     cheers to all…

154. Michael Walsh wrote, on April 29th, 2009:

     

     @Tanzeel,

     Simone says: basically all you have to do is install the Realtek audio driver for HD CODEC and all the HD audio patches for Windows XP…

155. Michael Walsh wrote, on April 29th, 2009:

     

     @NJ Wise move. I’ve been trying to get Acer to set up an RSS software update alert system for this kind of thing… for more than two years…

156. steve wrote, on May 2nd, 2009:

     

     hello to all , looking to install an internal bluetooth on my 8920 , anyone have the fix ?
     pls. advise , thanks. steve

157. Morris Lee wrote, on May 2nd, 2009:

     

     @steve,

     check this out

     http://www.theacerguy.com/2009/01/add-bluetooth-to-aspire-5920g/

158. Steve wrote, on May 9th, 2009:

     

     Hello Morris , thank you for the quick response . I was actually looking to see if it was as simple as finding a 4,6 or 8 pin dongle wire and Broadcom bluetooth card ???
     I am not technically astute enough to perform surgery like the person did on the “the acereguy website.

159. Simon wrote, on June 15th, 2009:

     

     Hi, can anyone help? my 8920 is saying that no battery is being detected? is there any way to resolve this issue? battery has been fine for last 3 months??

     thanks in advance

160. Morris Lee wrote, on June 15th, 2009:

     

     @Simon,

     does the laptop work when you unplug it with battery inserted? if so, then the battery is bad. Is it that you only have the laptop for 3 month? if so, call acer for battery replacement.

161. Simon wrote, on June 15th, 2009:

     

     No it doesnt work if i unplug it, i just did a few windows updaes today if that helps??

162. Morris Lee wrote, on June 15th, 2009:

     

     @Simon,

     I would suggest going into BIOS, should be able to access it by pressing F2 on the startup where the big Acer logo shows up. while in BIOS, see if it can work on battery, if it does, it is probabably software issues(AKA windows) then proceed with Windows System Recovery.

163. Kryptonite wrote, on June 29th, 2009:

     

     i recently just lost my subwoofer..

     anyone else here have this problem with their 8920G?

164. Morris Lee wrote, on June 30th, 2009:

     

     @Kryptonite,

     How do you know you have lost the subwoofer sound?

165. Kryptonite wrote, on July 3rd, 2009:

     

     5.1 sound testing / configuration dialogue.

     the sub used to produce a deep beep when testing unde this toolbox.

166. Lorenzo wrote, on July 7th, 2009:

     

     Yeah I lost sub sent back to acer 8 months ago they replaced the sub and worked fine after that. Recently (last 2week actually) the sub volume went to 0 on its own, you can adjust/check this via the speaker properties the sub should be there with centre,side,front. Really weird cause im using windows 7/ vista and had same issue in both at the same time.

167. mike wrote, on August 27th, 2009:

     

     hi. i have aspire 8920 and i installed windows 7 in there. But my webcam doesnt work. What do i do. i dont find any drivers that work whit win 7.
     Sorry my english i hope you understand and help me.

168. Morris Lee wrote, on August 27th, 2009:

     

     @mike,

     the crystal eye webcam should be able to work with the vista drivers.

169. Michael Walsh wrote, on August 28th, 2009:

     

     @mike

     You won’t find any final drivers for Win7 until (at least) October 22 2009 which is when it will longer be a “near-final release candidate” (non-final version) and becomes “final”. That’s when PC vendors like Acer will ask its software vendors to supply updated drivers.

170. Morris Lee wrote, on August 29th, 2009:

     

     @Michael,

     Actually, drivers for bigger company’s devices such as realtek, ati, nvidia, intel, they all have some Windows 7 Ready drivers.

     Windows 7 development has completed btw

171. Michael Walsh wrote, on August 29th, 2009:

     

     Proof – if any were needed – that this community is bigger than me. Thanks Morris – you guys rock!

172. john chary wrote, on August 29th, 2009:

     

     Hi i have 2 aspire 8920 notebooks.
     I never had any problems with either of them.
     Personally the aspire 8920 is a great product.
     I did also buy an aspire 5738zg and had to sent it to acer 1 and half months after the purchase date. It was sent in because it kept hanging all the time. acer replaced the mother board as it had a problem with the north bridge on the board. The oldest aspire i have is a 5580 and this unit has been to hell and back and is still working beautifully.

173. Ameera Shah wrote, on August 30th, 2009:

     

     Heey i have a acer aspire 8920G and i dont know why but on my battery icon theres a cross and when i go over it , it says battery not detected . this wasnt there yesterday. what does it mean and how can i fix it . Please help ?

174. Ferry wrote, on August 31st, 2009:

     

     @Shah:
     Shutdown your computer, unplug it from power adaptor, then re-plug it and start it.

175. Brian H wrote, on September 1st, 2009:

     

     Hey guys .. i just recently installed windows 7 on my 8920 .. and for the life of me i cant get my bluetooth to work.. and the customer service wont help me they dance around the question saying we cant help cause you installed a different operating system -_-;;;
     i would really appreciate some help.

     thanks,

     brian

176. Michael Walsh wrote, on September 1st, 2009:

     

     @Brian H
     Acer isn’t going to give you any help on Windows 7 until October 22 (at the earliest) which is when it goes on sale.
     Until then there’ll be no drivers published on the support site and no help from the support staff so you’re really on your own.
     Unless of course Morris knows where to look

177. Brian H wrote, on September 1st, 2009:

     

     well it seems that some drivers work from what ive been hearing trolling some forums.. its the original driver for he internal component not the software to find the blue tooth unit. ive been looking around and trying stuff for hours now. -_-;;
     my friend was a beta tester gave me a copy. i needed a format bad and didnt have my recovery disks so i figured hey .. now all my stuff dont work.. makes me want to cry.

178. Morris Lee wrote, on September 3rd, 2009:

     

     @Brian H,

     As most of the current bluetooth module from acer seems to be belkin(broadcom chips), you can try here http://www.broadcom.com/support/bluetooth/update.php

179. Roosevelt Wright wrote, on September 3rd, 2009:

     

     My Acer 8920 has begun to lose its charge and shuts down even when its plugged in. Bought a new battery but it won’t charge. Using old battery it will sometime charge fully and operate at full capacity as long as I don’t touch anything.

     If I unplug the unit it may or may not charge. It mostly discharges and then it completely shuts down.

     It appears to be a problem with the plug in socket. I see others are having the same problem.

     Advice.

180. Ferry wrote, on September 3rd, 2009:

     

     @Roosevelt: Make sure you use original Acer power adapter.
     It’s strange that the new battery won’t charge…
     By the way, try to fully discharge the old battery then fully charge it before you boot it. Do it at least 3 times.

181. The Bill Gates wrote, on September 4th, 2009:

     

     Only two things I cant get to work in windows 7 x64, Acer Arcade Deluxe to play blu ray movies, and Acers Finger Swiper Software (using a validity sensor software from there site. 7 Is so much faster than V i s t a and acers is 32bit.GITS.

182. NJ wrote, on September 5th, 2009:

     

     errrr… hi all again…

     i might be left out somewhere along space and time continuum (lol) for the past few months but is there any news or solution on bio-protection and IE8 to work together without any problem so far?

     thanks and cheers…

183. Bruce wrote, on September 19th, 2009:

     

     Hi, I would like to install a 2nd HDD in the empty bay on my 8920. The original HDD is inside a silver sleeve. Is it necessary to install the 2nd new HDD in a similar sleeve? and if so where can I get one, I live in USA. Any comments wou be appreciated

184. NJ wrote, on October 1st, 2009:

     

     yippieee… finally i can use bio-protection and IE8…

     but first of all, i wish to thank Ludovic-Stefan Kocsis (http://www.theacerguy.com/2009/05/ie8-and-bioprotection/) for the first step…

     as for others, who wish to try… here are the steps that i’ve done…

     1. Download the latest driver frm Acer’s website… dated – 2009/08/11 (ver. 6.2.39 – 106.2MB)

     1a. I skipped this part but you all might try to do the backup for all the accounts and try to restore later… it was too late for me so i had to start frm scratch…

     2. Uninstall the old driver… as for me, i uninstalled Acer Bio-Protection and Validity Sensor Software in Control Panel/Programs and Features

     3. Install the new downloaded driver…

     4. Either restore the backup OR re-scan the fingerprints…

     5. Try with any password protected site to make sure it works… You might need to re-register each sites incase the backup didn’t work…

     6. Download OR install IE8…

     7. Try again with all the password protected sites…

     8. IF everything should be fine… yippieee…

     thanks Michael Walsh for this page and others for the inputs… there’s still hope…

185. desperate wrote, on November 10th, 2009:

     

     Hi guys just want to say you guys are doing so great on helping and wondering can you help me with my

     acer aspire one notebook

     PROBLEM

     i had a corrupted windows file so i used erecovery console (alt+f10) to recover files

     now the whole pc has restored to th ebeggining but my files are deleted but i used th restore but kep my files

     now i understand that my files should be in a backup folder………..HOWEVER my damn folder in the C:\backup folder just says access dnied

     so i can access the c:\backup but not my main users folder with all my documnts and fils in which is roughly 110gb worth of memories

     Please help

     p.s sorry if this question is such a noob qustion or repeated

186. Artorus wrote, on November 25th, 2009:

     

     Hi all I have a problem with my card reader when i have installed windows 7. Where can I find proper drivers? Thanks

187. Liam wrote, on April 1st, 2010:

     

     Hi, hope you guys are still here. I’m having a problem with my 8920. The display recently has been turning off and not waking up again.

     When booting up the display will be fine, then it will go off. When there seems to be a resolution switch for the windows loading screen it will come back on. Sometimes it will stay on, others it will turn off. Closing the lid and reopening will sometimes fix this, others it turns on for 2 seconds, and is then off again.

     The time it seems to happen the most is when the monitor turns off automatically for power saving, and then won’t wake up after that.

     So far it hasn’t turned off after booting into windows without going into power save, and works without any problem while i am using it.

     Hardware, driver, or backlight?

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