Acer Aspire Timeline 4810T review
- posted by Michael Walsh on August 17th, 2009


- (33)
Just found this very nice review of the Aspire Timeline 4810T by Geekanoids. It should answer a lot of your questions.
This is great, but I’m still wondering when one of The Acer Guy readers will send me their own review though…
Enjoy!
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Nick Stefani wrote, on September 5th, 2009:
I bought this laptop yesterday and like many of the reviews I read, it suddenly freeze at times. There is no rhyme or reason as to what causes this. It has happened to me 4 times in the first 24 hours. I updated the BIOS like some forums suggested. Did not fix problem. Is there a fix for this. I am considering returning.
Roy Suryo KDRT wrote, on September 5th, 2009:
buy only SU9400 not SU2700 or SU3500 processor
due to sluggish yet laggards processor on core solo (SU2700 and SU3500)
core solo only suitable with windows XP
Windows Vista/Windows 7 should stick to SU9400 only
Roy Suryo KDRT
Pakar Gambar Saru
Michael Walsh wrote, on September 9th, 2009:
@Nik Stefani Go with your gut feeling – return it or at the very least have it checked by an Acer repairing center.
ptitz wrote, on October 1st, 2009:
I just got me one of aspire 4810TG’s with a bit of 3d modeling in mind. But it turned out that ATI hd4330 card it has is not compatible with the software i need. Does anyone know whether its possible to install a different video card in it?
Morris Lee wrote, on October 2nd, 2009:
@ptitz,
I am sorry, but I am pretty sure it is not capable of upgrading the graphics. only few laptops out there has MXM slot for it.
Aldrin Enrile wrote, on October 23rd, 2009:
For Nick Stefani. I am having the same problem. I dont know what to do with my laptop. It’s just a month old and the whole time I had It i was more busy with trying to fix the problem than enjoying it! I went to Acer and the salesman keeps telling me is the OS and that the warranty does not cover OS!!! Im so sure its not the OS. GOD! What did you do with yours?
you may email me regarding this matter @ aldrin_enrile@yahoo.com
Oracl3r wrote, on November 5th, 2009:
I have a problem with Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus with this Acer 4810T.
Does anyone knows how to solve it?
Bill Brander wrote, on November 6th, 2009:
I am experiencing similar problems to Nick. One day it hung 5 times and the only way out of it was to press the power switch.
I contacted Acer to ask if I was the only person experiencing this problem. (They did not reply to that question.) But they suggested that I reload Vista and see if the problem goes away. It does not!
I still do not know if it is a hardware or software problem. Anyone any idea which it is? What else can I try?
Thanks
Bill
ldsteev wrote, on November 13th, 2009:
Hi! someone got any problems with 4810T only running on SATA1?? I just got a SSD Intel X25-M G2 and would like it to run it’s full potential. Even the original HDD was running only with SATA1.
Morris Lee wrote, on November 15th, 2009:
@ldsteev,
regardless, it is not a big performance issue, SATA 1 already has the bandwidth of 1.5Gbit/s, fastest SSD I have seen is at around 200MB/s, the hardware itself can’t go that high, so don’t worry about it too much.
ArGill wrote, on December 21st, 2009:
Hi to all. I do experience the same freezing problems as Nick Stefani and others.
I really cant think of any solution.
Does anyone have the same prob, and a solution ?
Thanks a lot to all that will help !
Arnaud
Rick wrote, on December 25th, 2009:
I have had same freezing problem since I bought my ACER 4810t … I have yet to find anyone can explain or fix problem. Believe it or not, the biggest improvement occurred when I removed the teaser Microsoft Office package that was preloaded on computer ! I finally got freezing problem to a manageable number of incidences in a day ( now only a couple X a day vs over a dozen ). Oddly, there is a brief scratchy noise from speaker every time system freezes !! ?? I have noticed now that it ALWAYS OCCURS when system goes into sleep mode … that should help some Geek troubleshoot problem. Personally, I think ACER should recall all of these defective units
Morris Lee wrote, on December 26th, 2009:
@Rick,
if it makes a sound when it freezes, maybe try removing the audio driver, or maybe update it? give that a shot eh?
Morris Lee
Dawn wrote, on January 1st, 2010:
I too have the same freezing problem, or did have??? My 4810T used to freeze all the time, to the point that I had to shut it off. It would mainly freeze when playing Zynga games on facebook in the full screen mode…I could not do anything but shut it off with the shut off button. Then low and behold, it would not boot back up. I called tech support, they took me through it several times, and it keep giving me an error message about damaged discs or something. I bought the computer in July 2009, and it crashed in November. I had to send it back, and Acer ended up replacing the HDD, which of course was covered unde warranty. Now it is Jan 1, 2010, and last night it crashed again!!!!! I have had the same problem, but to a much smaller degree, and it was working fine, except sometimes it would like sort of blink…or like it had a small power surge….then it froze again, and I was not playing any games, so I shut it down, and it would not boot up…Acer did trouble shoot it, and of course the HDD is again defective. I am so upset with this computer!!!! I am going back to where I bought it to see if I can get my money back!!! I am beginning to regret buying an Acer…I did a LOT of research on this, and I love the size and ease of use, but I think Acer should recall and replace all 4810T’s with new modles, these are definitely defective!!!!
Dawn
Morris Lee wrote, on January 1st, 2010:
@Timeline general users,
for those of you experiencing freezing/crashing, you can try a CLEAN install of Vista/7, someone reported this on another forum.
Happy New Years,
Morris Lee
Dawn wrote, on January 2nd, 2010:
Ok, Morris…tell me this, how, when I have to send my computer back to the factory because the hard drive crashed AGAIN…do I do a clean install of vista/7???? I asked the repair center if they could just install windows 7, and they told me they could not. I had to go online and order the disc or download or something like that! How is this a solution to my problem? It seems to me, that its just another way to not take responsibility for a lemon of a product!!! Plus whos to say the next hard drive isnt going to be defective. And if I did do this wont it cancle the warranty, because I have altered it in some way??? How come when looking up Acer on the BBB, they have an “F” rating??? There are a LOT of people out there who are very unhappy with Acer’s product. I don’t know how you can be beating Dell…and to me Dell isnt so great either! I think I smell a rat! I will be sending my laptop back, because I have NO other choice except taking it out back and smashing it with a sledge hammer. If it crashes again…and something tells me it will, I will be SURE to contact the BBB, and attorney general, because there are only a couple of people that have been reimbursed for these faulty products! I will be listing my complaints esle where, until I get the results I want!!!
Dawn
Morris Lee wrote, on January 2nd, 2010:
@Dawn,
Yes, I know that the technicians sometimes can miss quite a few things here and there, it still question me of their level of certification for such job.
Only solution I can advise you, borrow the Vista/7 install disk from a friend(depending on which version of the key you have been supplied with under the laptop sticker), home, premium , ultimate and all that BS does not matter, only matter if it is a Vista or 7 installation disk, install the Windows with that key on the bottom of your laptop, this is totally legal from my perspective.
If, however, you have no access to a Vista disk at all, you can always “torrent” it, burn it to a DVD, it will work just like any other disk.
Reason for not supplying the install disk is probably licensing problem, the copy of windows is only licensed to the machine you have purchased, you should not in anyway, transfer the key on the sticker to another computer, hence acer not supplying an original installation disk.
I never really like stock OS or the stock configurations. They are very problematic.
Before you do this though, try Alt+F10 on startup, where you see a big acer logo, it should get you to the recovery system, which can recover to the factory default, might work somewhat, cause it sort of installs the windows, rather than an imaged harddrive.
Reinstalling OS or recovering to factory will not affect the warranty, as acer do not cover the software in anyway as far as I know.
if it is really a harddrive problem, the harddrive should be replaced.
acer isn’t exactly superior in custom service as always, if you are looking for the perfect custom service, I can only think of Apple, but they are expansive!
walter wrote, on January 2nd, 2010:
bought my 4810T in november 2009 and had the same freeze-after-sleep or after-closing-lid problem.
i found this blog: 4810t.blogspot.com
and followed its suggestions.
i downloaded and installed new bios and vga drivers from the acer site.
no change after installing the new bios but after i installed the new vga driver, it doesn’t freeze anymore.
hope this helps.
Dawn wrote, on January 5th, 2010:
Ok, after my 4810T, crashed for a 2nd time New Years eve, I called tech support, and it is supposed to be sent back, cause like I said before, the hard drive is again defective! I was given a fedex return number, but low and behold..I was again told wrong, every fedex place around me was closed for the next 3 days, and of course the number was only active for 48 hours!!! So I called back, and was told to call Sunday night, of course I called Sunday, and before I could say anything, the freakin tech wanted to trouble shoot the whole thing again! I told them why I was calling,(about another fedex #), he ignored me and proceded to try and trouble shoot the laptop again, at this point I was very, very angry, and told him about the fedex #, and he said he could not get the number because the whoever gets the numbers dont work weekends!!! I then asked to talk to a supervisor, and he refused to transfer me, and said the supervisor would say the same thing. I asked the tech for his name and number, and he wouldnt answer me, this went on for about an hour. I ended up hanging up, and calling back to talk to someone different. I ended up having to call Monday morning to get another fedex number, and when returning the laptop, the number was not valid!! So to make a long story short, I have gone back to where I bought the laptop,told them about Acer, and what has happened, they are going to fix it for free for me, and probably stop selling Acer products. I have also contacted the BBB, and attorney general, and my lawyer. I will be getting a full refund…I have found after talking with the techs at Staples, that Acer is not a company to buy ANY electronics from!!1
Alex wrote, on January 19th, 2010:
hey guys, i have one Acer 4810TG for the last 6 months and it works very well, i do not have any problems with it. i can give u an advice, do a fresh reinstall of windows, the one that it comes with has a lot of bullshit software on it that only slows down the system…i had problems with my win vista at the beginning trying to uninstall some software and ended up by having to recover it from the cd…so i made a fresh install, and it worked perfectly, just get any version from the internet and use the cd key on the back… i also got the win 7 upgrade kit, i did a fresh instal to and it works very well now.
the only thing that is annoying is that with windows7 when charging the fan stays on all the time…
Robert wrote, on January 20th, 2010:
I experienced the freezing issue under both Vista and later, Win 7 (clean install). The problem is with a faulty VGA or LAN driver. Update the drivers and the problem will go away. Doing this fixed the problem under both operating systems for me on my 4810T.
Ro wrote, on January 28th, 2010:
*Screen Rotation*
just wondering if anyone has worked out a way to enable screen rotation on the 4810T.
The Enable Rotation Option is missing from the display settings on my machine. Fresh install (after registry clean) of the latest Intel drivers does’nt work either.
Tried eeeRotate and iRotate to no avail.
Never owned an Acer before this but afer going throught 5 different laptop brands, I assumed that a laptop manufacturer would NOT purposely disable rotation when the graphics card supports it???!!!
AAAAaaaarghhh!
Please HELP!
s2ryofdyr wrote, on February 2nd, 2010:
Oracl3r wrote, on November 5th, 2009:
I have a problem with Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus with this Acer 4810T.
Does anyone knows how to solve it?
I also have this problem..
Does anyone know how to solve this?
tnx
Jason wrote, on February 18th, 2010:
To rotate the screen:
If you install the VGA drivers from the intel website, screen rotation options are built-in.
Morris Lee wrote, on February 18th, 2010:
Nvidia ATi, Intel all have build in screen rotation support, you may need the latest driver to work properly
Cameron wrote, on February 22nd, 2010:
I’ve had this laptop for about two weeks now and I love it. I installed Windows 7 on it and the thing is solid! Updated the BIOS to 1.33, and it works great. No problems with it at all.
I would, however, like to upgrade the CPU. Already bought the new CPU for it, now I just need some guidance through cracking open the case. Any ideas? Pictures or videos?
efril21 wrote, on May 3rd, 2010:
Hi!
My sister’s laptop is 4810T as well. We have problems because it cannot run the BIOS at all.
The light of the power is blinking of color white when you turn it on. It has power, but nothing appears on the screen. BIOS no work.
We cannot use it now. Pls help us.
ben wrote, on May 28th, 2010:
i can’t remember hdd password. how can i reset hdd passwords??? please help my laptop acer aspire 4810T… tnx
David wrote, on May 29th, 2010:
Hello,
Have purchased a 4810t from Simply Acer, installed the updated windows 7 version (supplied with Vista)and can’t use skype other than for texting. Simply Acer are not interested, and I don’t seem to have much rights with the purchase. Can someone please assist. The audio device simply does not work.
Many thanks,
David
Vincent WW wrote, on October 27th, 2010:
The problem might be as simple as overheating of the GPU on this model computer. See this website for possible answers:
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=425589&page=3
For one person, the answer was to clear the dust from the the GPU and GPU exhaust fins using compressed air. For another person, the solution was to remove a dead battery from the laptop. Another removed the battery from the laptop and presumably ran it on A/C power without the battery installed; overheating problem solved!
I use Process Explorer from Sysinternals in place of Task Manager and have recently noticed that Process Explorer was showing CPU usage at 95 to 100% and was also registering high usage rates for Deferred Procedure Calls (DPC) even when I was doing little or nothing on the computer. I have since removed the battery and use the laptop solely on A/C power; CPU usage is in the 30 to 70% range, depending on what I am doing but does not climb into the 100% range and slow the computer to a crawl anymore now. Hope this helps.
Alastair smith wrote, on September 7th, 2011:
Hi,
I bought one of these timelines for my mother and had the same issue with random freezes in windows 7 64 bit.
I upgraded the bios, changed display drivers, the lot but no difference, just random freezes.
I contacted Acer but they were hopeless.
What I did in the end was I rebuilt with windows 7 32 bit, sadly the freezes still happened.
I then watched the system performance and noticed CPU spikes which seemed to cause it. I changed the advanced power management settings to restrict the CPU utilisation from going above 95% and since then have had absolutely no freezes.
I suspect I could have done this on the original 64 bit build too.
Hope this helps someone else out there because apart from this (major) flaw it’s a nice little laptop!
Cheers
Alastair
Your Questions About Laptop Review Forum wrote, on September 18th, 2011:
[...] [...]
Nel_mort wrote, on November 20th, 2011:
hi,
i bought my 4810T with window vista licensed two years ago.
i decided to change the OS into windows 7 32-bit because it works fast than vista.
but problem occurs. when i opened more than 5 windows, the screen and all the characters within get distorted. i thought it was installer windows is at fault. i have it reformatted with using another installer windows 7 32-bit, but still the problem remains the same.
need help.
Nel_mort