Quick Links

If you don't know anything about computer hardware here is a quick guide.
If you want to buy laptops but not interested in Reading Lines of Specification here is a quick fix
Acer Driver/BIOS/Software
Downloads
Miscellaneous Tweaks
Any Other Question Regarding Computers
Modified Aspire 4530 Optimized BIOS
Recommended Anti-Virus Software
Convienient Scripts
Disk CleanUp Scheduler(Remove System Logs and Temp files weekly automatically for Windows Vista and Windows 7)
Superfetchkiller(Causes harddisk thrashing on Vista only so kill it)
There are actually a lot more interesting stuff than all the above.
Feel Free to Explore.
External Links
Dissemble Laptops From Other Vendors: http://repair4laptop.org/
Another Informative Site regarding Acer Aspire 4530 and Benchmarks: http://expertester.wordpress.com/
Enable Virtualisation on Laptops with Insyde BIOS (if the BIOS doesn't support VT but CPU does): http://feature-enable.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Full Acer Aspire 4530 Optimization

Some people just can't be bothered to READ yet want their issues fixed.

1)Dissemble the Computer
Dissemble the fan completely.
Clean up all the dust in the fan.
Throw away the thermal pad the thermal sink interface well with the GPU without the need for a thermal pad.
Replace their factory thermal paste with MX-2 (recommended)

2)Undervolt the Griffin CPU using K10STAT
1)Make sure the voltage setting is stable and tested using K10STAT and Intel Burn In.

3)Use my Modified Undervolted BIOS
This BIOS will undervolt the 9100M G GPU
Download/Borrow Windows 7 Disc
Install and activate it
Install all the latest drivers

4)Download Acer Aspire Fan Control Program
Run the speed to high during gaming.

5)If you want you can cut larger vent holes into the laptop casing but this is optional.

6)If you have webcam driver issues, try Bison Drivers(32/64bit Compatible) and make sure during dissembly the large white connector in the top left hand corner is fully secure.

Please don't ask me the same question again & again I am tired of repeating myself like a broken tape recorder.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

HP G60-244DX BIOS

I have Modified a HP G60-244DX and undervolted the GPU 8200M G
The new BIOS should make the GPU assume 0.80V at Default Clock, 0.81V at 2D Clock and 0.82V at 3D Clock.
I also took the opportunity to recompile the DSDT and remove all the error messages.
DOS Flashing Utility here or use the original HP Winflash but remember to replace the HP BIOS with the modified one.
Download BIOS here.

Note: HP G60 uses 8200M G Graphics which is integrated to the motherboard so no upgrades just like Aspire 4530.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Interesting Stuff From Microsoft Hardware Developer Documentation

The Information below is taken from Microsoft Hardware Developement Document, Specifically Processor Power Management

Artificial Processor Performance State Domains

When Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 were developed, several dual-core and dual-logical processor designs were prevalent in the marketplace. These CPUs typically provide one set of performance state controls that are shared across both cores or both logical processors, which implies that a control dependency exists. However, the system firmware for systems that have these CPUs targets earlier operating systems or otherwise predates the release of Windows Vista and therefore generally does not provide the ACPI 3.0 dependency objects. To support these popular processors without first requiring a platform BIOS update, Windows 7 creates an “artificial” processor performance state dependency domain for the operating system to use. Windows synthesizes a dependency domain for all logical processors in the same physical package. This is the default behavior for Windows 7, and therefore the _PSD object is not required to be present in the ACPI namespace to realize multiprocessor performance states on systems that are equipped with these dual-core processors.

· Include a _PSD object in the ACPI namespace that describes a separate dependency domain number for each logical processor or for each processor core.

· Create a DWORD value that is named PerfEnablePackageIdle under the following registry key and set its value to 1:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Throttle

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Some Laptop Recommendations

If you guys want to buy laptops but don't know anything, don't care about anything. I happen to have a list of "Not so Bad" recommendation (Someone asked me what laptops do I recommend).
Note they are all cheap or rather value for money systems because personally I don't recommend paying a lot for a laptop since they are all powerful enough to perform daily task.
I consider 15" a bit large for a laptop so I will only list 14" at most.

Disclaimer: When I meant Virtualisation in this article I meant Hardware Virtualisation


Dell:

Dell Vostro V13

Why it is great:
Looks good, long battery life, Light and highly portable Alumium Casing like Macbooks (Although I see no point, personally I prefer magnesium casing like HP Probook)

Why it is not so great:
Lousy Intel Graphics.
1 RAM slot only limited expansion
If you need to game look somewhere else otherwise this laptop is actually quite good.

Tips:
Try to look for Dual Core(SU7300) version as Core Solo is slightly underpowered, however this increase the price point so weight your pros and cons.
Only the SU3500 and SU7300 supports Virtualisation.


HP:

HP Probook 4415S

Why it is great:
Look awesome (Design very similar to Macbooks but Black is cooler)
It has a nice rubbery plastic palm rest very ergonomic.
Has decent entry level graphics for gaming Radeon 4200HD.
Decent Mobility.
Virtualisation support.

Why it isn't so great:
AMD Turion II Processor may not be up to par to Intel Low Voltage Processors in terms of batterylife but rather decent processing power.
Uses BroadCom Wireless which isn't so good compared to Atheros

Tips:
Try and get the M5XX Processor +35 dollars but it is Turion instead of Athlon which is more power optimized.


HP Pavilion dv4-2140us
Why it is great:
It is actually the HP equivalent of the Acer Aspire 4540 (No G)
If you hate Acer for whatever reason you can consider this

Why it isn't so great:
It is slightly more expensive than Acer for the same specification.

Acer Aspire 4540G

Why it is great:
Like all Acers this is cheap
Great Graphics Radeon 4570HD the slightly lower end version(4540) comes with Radeon 4200HD.
Looks decent but more like a entertainment laptop instead of a serious look like the Probook.
Support Virtualisation.

Why it isn't so great:
AMD Turion II Processor may not be up to par to Intel Low Voltage Processors in terms of batterylife but rather decent processing power.

Tips:
Try and get the M5XX/M6XX Processor but it is Turion instead of Athlon which is more power optimized.


Acer Timeline

There is a lot of Timeline offering different specification options.
Travelmate Timeline: TravelMate 8X71 (X is the inch of the screen 13(3), 14(4), 15(5))
Aspire Timeline: Aspire X810 (X is the inch of the screen 13(3), 14(4), 15(5))
For Aspire Timeline there is TZ, TG, TZG
G means there is better graphics Radeon 4330HD with switchable Intel 4500MHD graphics.

Why they are great:
Cheap as usual, Light Portable and great batterylife
The TG version has entry level graphics for a bit of gaming.

Why they are not so great:
The TG is slightly costly.

Tips:
Pick the one that fits your needs.

ASUS:

ASUS UL80
Why it is great:
Low Voltage Intel Processor with Nvidia Graphics (You seldom see this combination for a low Price).
It is said to switch graphics automatically according to your needs in Windows conserving more power. How bug-free is this implementation I seriously don't know.

Why it isn't so great:
Some people said the keyboard and casing isn't exactly good(Solid) enough.
Slightly more expensive than Timeline if you are not fond of ATi Graphics you can consider this.

Other Laptops
These are the following laptop with a Generic Intel Processor and Entry Level Nvidia Graphics (G105M/9300M GS/Radeon 4330 HD/Radeon 4200) (Not too special not too bad either)
-Compaq Presario CQ35 (Nvidia)
--Compaq Presario CQ45 (Nvidia)
-Acer Aspire 4736G (Nvidia)
-Dell Inspiron 1440 (ATi)
-Dell Inspiron 1470 (With Low Voltage Processor SU7300)(ATi)
-Toshiba M300 (Nvidia)
-Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 (Above Average Nvidia Graphics solution G130M quite a powerhouse)

The rest of the laptop are
1)Too expensive
2)Has Generic set up Intel graphics + Normal Intel SKU Processor (T6600) (Not good enough for me) normal sized not as portable.
The rest of the value segment is probably:
Intel Mainstream Processor (T6600)
And Intel Graphics 4500MHD
Nothing especially interesting.

If you want to ask my opinion on certain models post below.
I will pick out the pro and cons of the specific model for you to have a better understanding.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Acer Smart Power Manager

Finally some useful software from Acer

Acer Smart PowerManager

Download here
Conserve Power On the Go.
Installable on most Acer/Packard Bell/Gateway/Emachine Laptops (Even on Laptops that doesn't came with this originally).
When you install it on a (eg. Packard Bell) Computer the software calls itself Packard Bell Power Save!

Optical Drive PowerManager

Download here
Conserve Power On the Go.
Installable on most Acer Laptops (Even on Laptops that doesn't came with this originally).
Software originally meant for Acer Aspire Timelines but work on Non Timelines as well.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Tips To A Longer Living Laptop

1)Treat your laptop properly.
Do not drop it. Especially when it is on. Quite obvious actually ,you don't need anyone to teach you how you should handle fragile object.
Every Laptop should be treated the same unless it is a Toughbook.

2)Monitor the temperature.
As everyone know number 1 enemy of electrical components is heat.

Laptops should be subject to as low a range of temperature exposure as much as possible.
Imagine from boot it is the same temperature as Room Temperature then you boot and play games then it heats up to 90 degrees flat in 30 minutes.
Sounds more like you are boiling water.
Rapid heating and cooling causes a lot of stress to the electrical components so for a safe guide, make sure temperature is < style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">And using the computer on your bed is plain stupidity.
There are vent holes located on the bottom of the casing.
Try putting a plastic bag over your head see if you like it.

One additional note is high temperature can result from design fault.
There are 2 solution to this.
1)Passive Hard Modification to improve the design to improve heat dissipation, to do that you have to use your brain and some common sense together with your knowledge on heat from your younger days lessons.
The most common solution by consumers not willing to think out of box is to buy laptop coolers,
it is a waste of money since all laptop are suppose to be able to dissipate the heat they produce in normal operating environment not to mention laptop coolers inhibit mobility and consume power.

2)Return it to the OEM and prove that it is indeed overheating and request a refund most likely replacement will not help since it is a design fault.

3)Condensation
Another enemy of electrical components is an electrically conductive liquid.
When moving from a cold to warm place especially in areas with high humidity keep it off and wait for temperature to equalize before booting to prevent short circuit.
I am sure everyone knows water is a good conductor of electricity.

4)Disk Activity
There are recent talks on data security yes.
There are paranoid among us that like to sanitise disk free space.
Unless you have expert snooping around the laptop or you are selling it off, I am sure just a normal delete (Removal of file pointers) is sufficient. Try not to stress the harddisk unnecessarily.

I am sure you must be thinking I forgot something along the lines of malware etc.
For this there are malware which attempts to write crap into your BIOS killing the laptop immediately.
However you must know for a Malware to spread it mustn't kill the host, so such malware is rare as it totally killed the system before it can use the system to propagate.
(Which is more common? HIV or Ebola?) .
For 90% of the Malware it can be remove by a full format so it won't in anyway kill or shorten the lifespan of your hardware (Maybe some extra disk activity when you are doing a reinstall, but then again a mechanical device is doom to fail at some point).

Latest Modded BIOS for Aspire 6920G/6920

Keys:
How to use here

Windows 7 Acer Certificate here

BIOS Download here

What this BIOS contains:
1)SLIC 2.1 (Activate Windows 7 with the required certificate and OEM Key)
2)Corrected DSDT for no errors in Iasl Compiler
3)Added new support for Windows 7 and Linux in the DSDT
There is no undervolting because 6920G and 6920 uses the same BIOS yet different VGA moreover the VGA BIOS doesn't show up good enough so no undervolting is done.

For this BIOS the DSDT is unique take a look below:
Store (0x07D0, OSYS)
If (CondRefOf (_OSI, Local0))
{
Store (Zero, VSTA)
Sleep (0x0A)
If (_OSI ("Linux"))
{
Store (One, LINX)
}

If (_OSI ("Windows 2001"))
{
Store (0x07D1, OSYS)
}

If (_OSI ("Windows 2001 SP1"))
{
Store (0x07D1, OSYS)
}

If (_OSI ("Windows 2001 SP2"))
{
Store (0x07D2, OSYS)
}

If (_OSI ("Windows 2006"))
{
Store (0x07D6, OSYS)
Store (One, VSTA)
Sleep (0x0A)
}

If (_OSI ("Windows 2009"))
{
Store (0x07D6, OSYS)
Store (One, VSTA)
Sleep (0x0A)
}
}

I have added the Code in Red however I am aware of the throttling behavior.
To any Aspire 6920G/6920 users out there if it doesn't throttle in Xp please drop me a note so I will use Xp ACPI code instead hopefully it might stop the throttling.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Latest Modded BIOS for Aspire 4520/4520G

Keys:
How to use here

Windows 7 Acer Certificate here

BIOS Download here
What this BIOS contains:
1)SLIC 2.1 (Activate Windows 7 with the required certificate and OEM Key)
2)Corrected DSDT for no errors in Iasl Compiler
3)Added new support for Windows 7 and Linux in the DSDT
There is no undervolting because 4520G and 4520 uses the same BIOS yet different VGA moreover the Nvidia 7000 Graphics VGA BIOS doesn't show up good enough so no undervolting is done.