Acer Timeline 3810T

[haywire.dk]

I've been comparing the "minimum power usage footprint" of my AS3810T-354G50n under Ubuntu Karmic and Windows Vista, trying to figure out why Linux uses an extra 2.4 Watt. I even went as far as physically disconnecting bluetooth, wlan and camera to measure the impact on power usage.

I used powertop with all it's recommended settings plus "iwconfig wlan0 power on" under Linux, and RMClock under Windows. I used the lowest backlight setting under both Linux and Windows.

I didn't find the culprit of the extra 2.4 Watt, but I've at least I can say where it isn't:

CPU power: 1.5 Watt
At rest linux use 7.3 Watt, and Windows 4.9 Watt. At 100% CPU load linux used 11.3 Watt and Windows used 8.9 Watt. Since the processor has a TDP of 5.5 watt I tentatively conclude that it is using 1.5 Watt in idle mode (on both Linux and Windows)

LED Backlight: 1.2 Watt
Power consumption dropped 1.2 Watt when blanking screen, bringing Vista down to an impressive 3.7 Watt total, and Linux to a less impressive 6.1 Watt.

Bluetooth: < 0.1 Watt
I tried opening the laptop and physically disconnect the bluetooth hardware. Running Linux without Bluetooth connected didn't change power consumption.

Camera: < 0.1 Watt
I tried opening the laptop and physically disconnect the camera hardware. Running Linux without camera connected didn't change power consumption.

Wifi: 0.2 Watt
I tried opening the laptop and physically disconnect the wifi hardware. Running Linux without wifi lowered power concumption about 0.2 Watt, down to 7.1 Watt total.


That leaves Audio, USB, SD-Card Reader, Video controller, RAM-controller, SATA controller, Harddisk and Chipset to search for excessive power usage.
I'd really like to save the extra 2.4 Watt that Vista shows is possible, but I'm currently out of ideas.

Any suggestions?

[cyberfish]

My guess is the northbridge (video and RAM controller) probably doesn't matter, and it's in the southbridge (USB/SATA). Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that, except trying to get Intel to release better chipset drivers for Linux.

I'm pretty sure it's not the harddrive. I have the SSD and it's about the same (SSD consumes about 0 power on idle).

I'm not as concerned about power, though. 8 hr is enough for me (Vista can do about 10). I don't usually let the battery go below ~50%.

*edit* If you really want to test the harddrive, you can take it out and boot from USB (and do apt-get install powertop to install powertop to RAM)

[bududu]

hey i found solution in skype set this:

sound in - HDA Intel (hw:intel,o)
sound out - HDA Intel (hw:intel,o)
ringing - HDA Intel (hw:intel,o)

and then
# alsamixer
press tab than use arrows to switch mic from Front to Int
and prey..

Cool! That works for me. Thank you very much.

P.S. Updated to 1.14 BIOS today. Still no restore from suspend.

[haywire.dk]

BIOS v1.14 for Acer Timeline 3810T

I tried the new BIOS 1.14 today.
On battery power the fan now starts at 45°C and stops again at 42°C. With BIOS v1.10 the fan started at 55°C and stopped at 52°C.
The result being that with the current Ubuntu Karmic power usage the fan starts and stop all the time on battery, instead of just keeping quiet.

Luckily it is possible to revert back to BIOS v1.10...

[Friqenstein]

Hello all,

I finally got my Acer. It's the 4810T model, and I was able to get a unit that came with XP instead of Vista! (yay me)
However, after about an hour of fishing through windows software and installing certain apps, I realized I really didn't need windows at all on this machine, so I wiped the entire HD and installed Jaunty Jackalope 9.04?
Everything seems to be working perfectly as far as I can tell. So far everything worked right out of the box, well everything that means something.

So now on to the questions:
I know I have a 4810 not a 3810 but I know there are others posting and reading this thread that also have a 4810.
1) How come the Fn keys don't seem to work? I cannot control my sound and a few of the other Fn keys don't seem to do jack.
2) How do I get the laptop to output via the HDMI port to a TV with HDMI input? I tried the Fn keys to switch vid modes, but again it's one of those Fn keys that don't seem to do jack.
3) Anybody figure out how to get the on/off working for the touchpad button?

Thanks

[miegiel]

Hello all,

I finally got my Acer. It's the 4810T model, and I was able to get a unit that came with XP instead of Vista! (yay me)
However, after about an hour of fishing through windows software and installing certain apps, I realized I really didn't need windows at all on this machine, so I wiped the entire HD and installed Jaunty Jackalope 9.04?
Everything seems to be working perfectly as far as I can tell. So far everything worked right out of the box, well everything that means something.

So now on to the questions:
I know I have a 4810 not a 3810 but I know there are others posting and reading this thread that also have a 4810.
1) How come the Fn keys don't seem to work? I cannot control my sound and a few of the other Fn keys don't seem to do jack.
2) How do I get the laptop to output via the HDMI port to a TV with HDMI input? I tried the Fn keys to switch vid modes, but again it's one of those Fn keys that don't seem to do jack.
3) Anybody figure out how to get the on/off working for the touchpad button?

Thanks

Others might disagree with me, but as far as I'm concerned this has become a general timeline thread

On question 1 and 3, that stuff works in karmic, it will be released in a month (9.10 beta is released next wensday).

[Friqenstein]

Thanks for the reply Miegel.

Anybody know anything about the HDMI output?
Also, I'm not getting anywhere near 8hours of battery life. I get about 4hours tops and that's even when I'm not running anything... as in just letting the laptop sit there idle. Any ideas on what I might be missing for proper power reserve?
I've not changed anything regarding the settings. All was from initial install.

Tnx.

[cyberfish]

Thanks for the reply Miegel.

Anybody know anything about the HDMI output?
Also, I'm not getting anywhere near 8hours of battery life. I get about 4hours tops and that's even when I'm not running anything... as in just letting the laptop sit there idle. Any ideas on what I might be missing for proper power reserve?
I've not changed anything regarding the settings. All was from initial install.

Tnx.

Try powertop. What does it say for power consumption? (you need to run it on battery)

Post a screenshot.

[Sashin]

On the 4810T model touchpad does NOT work with karmic. Neither does the "two finger scrolling" tick.

[Sashin]

Neither does brightness, I get the same problem with jaunty prior to upgrading.