DIY Guide To Replace The Graphics Card in The Aspire 5920 Model

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Morris’ Aspire 5920 GPU Swap/upgrade (http://www.theacerguy.com/2008/12/morris-

aspire-5920-gpu-swapupgrade/)
posted by Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) on December 1st, 2008

(http://www.theacerguy.com/2008/12/morris-aspire-5920-gpu-swapupgrade/email/)
(#)
(328) (#respond)
This is a DIY guide to replace the graphics card in the Aspire 5920 model. 1
tweet
Warning! Do this in your own risk, please observe other similar modifications and understand your own skills on these tiny
retweet
operations, unplug the computer and eject the battery for safer working enviroment. REQUIRES A STEADY HAND for the
physical part. I am not able to hold responsible for any damages to your own systems.
(http://www.theacerguy.com/wp-content/uploads//2008
/12/PB071377.JPG)
Table of Contents:
1a. Suggested Tools

1b. Materials
2a. Open the back plate
2b. Replacing the card
2c. Close the case
3a. Install the driver (ATi)
3b. Install the driver (NVIDIA)
4a. Remarks
5a. Reference
6a. Contact
1a. Suggested tools:
philips screw driver
1b. Materials
Aspire 5920 (With 8600m GS or GT, intel x3100 does NOT have the MXM slot)
Thermal Paste/Pad
MXM Type II card with Acer bios preloaded.
2a. Opening the back plate
1 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
First make sure you unplugged the laptop, pulled out the battery. There are 9 screws needs to be unscrewed to open the back plate
they are indicated by the small red circled locations as follows:
/12/PB071365.JPG)
Once all the screws are removed, you should be able to

easily remove the back plate revealing the heat sink,
graphics card, RAM, etc.
2b. Replacing the card
The card’s compatibility can be tricky, but if you chose the

ones with Acer vBios preloaded, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Which one is the graphics card? yes, the laptop graphics
cards are very different then the desktop editions, you can
be amazed by how small the card is compared to a
desktop edition. The graphics card is shown in the image
below:
/12/PB071370.JPG)
Locate the 4 screws that holds the graphics card in place,
while holding down the graphics card(avoiding the graphics
card from poping out when you are unscrewing it) unscrew
all 4 screws.
/12/PB071373.JPG)
Remove the 4 screws and slowly let the graphics rise like
shown:
/12/PB071375.JPG)
Pull out the card
/12/PB0713771.JPG)
Here is a picture of the old and the new card
/12/PB071379.JPG)
Looking at the heatsink, there is the old thermal pad, you
can still use this one if you are swaping with a 8XXX
series, they have the same thickness to the core, but if
you have something with thinner core(usually smaller nm
technology such as the ATi Radeon HD3650) you need to
either use ALOT of thermal paste or a thicker version of
the thermal pads, thermal pads are harder to locate in a
local store.
/12/PB071380.JPG)
2 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
/12/PB071381.JPG)
/12/PB071382.JPG)
Here is a picture of the Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste
/12/PB071384.JPG)
/12/PB071386.JPG)
If you have metal frame with your new card, you can
remove it simply by pushing it out
/12/PB071389.JPG)
Insert the new card in the angle you have pulled out your
old one
/12/PB071392.JPG)
Noticed that i kept the thermal paste from the shape ai
squeezed it out
/12/PB071394.JPG)
Push the card down
/12/PB071395.JPG)
Screw the card in place
/12/PB071397.JPG)
2c. Close the case
Close the case as you opened it, check all the 9 screws
are screwed back in.
3a. Install the driver (ATi)
You will be able to retrieve the driver from here

(ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5530/vista
/Drivers/VGA_ATI_v8.513.0.zip) (this is the ATi Vista driver
provided directly for Acer laptops from Acer)
you can also find drivers from here
(http://www.donotargue.com/list.php?c=dnaati) but these
have touble playing HD-DVD or Bluray, but if you just care
about games this will be better.
3b. Install the driver (NVIDIA)
You will be able to retrieve the driver from here

(ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_8920G/vista
/Drivers
/VGA_nVidia_8PGS_8ESE_v7.15.11.7451_Vistax32.zip) (this
is the NVIDIA Vista driver provided directly for Acer
laptops from Acer)
you can also find drivers from here
(http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/) but these have touble
playing HD-DVD or Bluray, but if you just care about
games this will be better.
4a. Remarks:
3 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
4 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
- I got my card off ebay
- My card had Acer bios preloaded, a blind flash may be

required if you have another brand
- I am actually using ATi Mobility Radeon HD3650, since

the 8600m GT had issues.
- This DIY guide is written by me.
- The primary opjective for this guide is to share my

findings to worldwide. so others can follow, and no need to
waste time for trial and error like I had to.
- Link to the picture gallery (http://techdaily.uni.cc

/5920review/gpu/pic)
5a. References:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com
(http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/) MXM upgrade info can be found here
6a. Contact
If you have other questions, please reply on the bottom here,www.theacerguy.com (http://techdaily.uni.cc/5920review
/gpu/www.theacerguy.com) or Email me at morrismurphy@gmail.com
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1. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 9th, 2008:
Hello there, this is a test post, also like to say that I like the new site
2. Attila wrote, on December 22nd, 2008:
I just bought a geforce 9600m gt videocard with acer bios inside to upgrade my Acer 5920g. I
could’nt get it work at all, the screen is doesn’t boot. Please tell me. Whats the problem, and what to
do???
3. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 22nd, 2008:
remove the card, and put your old one back, go to acer’s website and download latest BIOS for your laptop,
once BIOS updated, then try the 9600m GT again.
4. Attila wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:
I have the newest BIOS (v1.3813), but the problem is still exist.
5 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:
does your old card work with the machine?
6. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:
oh btw, I do know for a fact that Aspire 5930 model comes with 9600m GT’s, but I don’t
think it will be compatible to a 5920. Which card did you upgrade from?
From 8600m GT to 9600m GT. It’s both of MXM II with Acer Vbios. My old
card does work well, but sometime cannot recognize the supported nvidia
driver. I need to install it manually.
-I think the same as you… This notebook never will be compatible with
geforce 9600m GT untill they don’t make a much better BIOS.
It’s has too many trouble.
Thanks for your help. All the best.
if you can, hold on to the card a little longer, I am contacting someone who has the resources to both a Acer
9600m GT and an aspire 5920.(he might be able to test the compatibility for you)
However, I must tell you, I upgraded to an ATi Mobility HD3650
That’s would be very great! I’ll wait for your response. He might be able to resolve this compatibility . I believe
you could done it, because I just found a site about MXM upgrades: http://www.mxm-upgrade.com
/Table.html (http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/Table.html)
Many Thanks & Merry Xmas!
Just got his email, no it does not work. must be a bios problem he says.
Merry Christmas to you too!
11. Attila wrote, on December 24th, 2008:
It’s was pretty fast… Thanks for your time.
I must tell you I am soo disapointed in this machine, and I’ll never buy again Acer products.
I’m sure. Acer are only interested in selling new notebooks without taking care of current owners. Forexample
why they made ACER 5930 with only small differences and why they did’nt change only BIOS in ACER 5920???
I don’t recommend ACER notebooks to nobody.
@Attila,
It is not just Acer that is very limited, MXM modules are at a very early stage at a consumer level. ALL brands
has trouble in compatibility.(Macs are worse)
Don’t get your hopes down for Acer, it is because MXM are not standardized yet.
I having problem also with memmory… this machine can’t recognize 4gb memmory. 1giga missing always, and
the cooling sistem is very poor. When I play game I need to take off the back side:D
6 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
do you think your Ati card is faster than geforce 8600m gt?
you need to take off the back cover? you mean the bottom cover?? shouldn’t be that hot. the 3650
needs some video bios tweaking, like down volting the core, cause the card is too hot for the heatsink
provided for the 8600 and slightly faster then the 8600m GT.
As for the memory, you need to have Windows 64 Bit to use ALL 4 GB of memory, if you have 32bit,
you can only use about 3.3GB of the memory.
16. Zach wrote, on December 27th, 2008:
my acer aspire 5920 came with a graphics media accelerator x3100. ive been told it cant be replaced. is this
true? if not can you recommend a suitable GPU?
I am sorry, no you can’t, you don’t have a MXM slot
18. Zach wrote, on December 28th, 2008:
darn. payed up £500 too.
19. danny wrote, on December 30th, 2008:
Hi , is there any shops you can buy the laptop graphics cards from, ive had a
search but cant find any.
I have a 5920g with ati 3450 installed, but wanted a 8600gt or ati 3650
preferably.
thanks
danny
20. Ronald wrote, on December 30th, 2008:
I have heard the 5920 has a Nvidia G86 GPU, which has heating problem. Was it true?
I just purchased a new one a few days ago…Please advise.
@danny,
I have some cards available for sale, 8600m gt(I fixed this one) 8600m gs(report to have possible same problem,
but no one has any problems with it, neither is the 8400, they are both G86)
only problem in 8600m GT is downclocking, but I fixed this one up in the BIOS
I can also order HD3650, but they get way too hot in 5920
@Ronald,
Relax, your G86 is fine, no user has report problems from what I have know of, only G84 has “downclocking” from drivers,
that is it. but can be fixed by modding the video card BIOS
22. micter softy wrote, on January 4th, 2009:
- morris lee -
sorry, this is off topic, but you really seam to know your stuff.
7 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
i have an aspire 5920 ( with the geforce 8600m gs )
it doesnt matter what i try, just cant get it to tell me when power is low. the machine just shuts down when battery is done
with no warning. the only thing i can do is press the empower button occasionally to manually check the battery level. have
contacted acer but they are not exactly helpful asking me to return machine to factory settings. it’s only 2 weeks old and
nothing has been done to it ?
thanks in advance
softy
23. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 4th, 2009:
@micter softy,
Sounds like your battery has worn out already, must be a defective battery. My old battery does that, but it is like
1.5 years old now. however, you can check the powersettings in windows, make the warning a little earlier, that
way you don’t have to keep on checking.
24. mister softy wrote, on January 5th, 2009:
cheers mate,
the battery actually lasts 1.5 to 2 hours depending. the real problem is i just don’t know how to set up warnings
when it’s nearly done ?
25. Ronald wrote, on January 5th, 2009:
I assume my 8600GS is a G86.
Are you suggesting the GPU over-heat problem is only limited to certain batch of G84 and G86? And Acer
happens to use the good batch?
So my 8600GS is fine bone stock without tweaking? That’s great!
Ronald
not necessary “overheating” but the material itself can’t with stand the heat created during processing, what you
could do, use the NEWEST driver from laptopvideo2go.com and download 3dmark06, run the SAME scene over
at least 60 times, check if the frame rate drops significantly, if it does, means it downclocked, the it is “defective”
contact acer for the video card replacement.
27. 5920G! wrote, on January 12th, 2009:
my acer aspire 5920g came with an ATI HD3470 Mobility radeon 256mb(upto 1535mb hypermemory) first of all i
dont know how to use the 1535 mb hypermemory it only shows 256 mb in all games. and second can i upgrade
to 8800M GTX or 9800M GTX ? or is 8600M GT the final upgrade?.
PS. i dont want to replace my laptop as i purchased this laptop just a month back
@5920G!
8600m GT is the max you can get
29. djrh wrote, on January 19th, 2009:
I have few questions regarding the upgrade.
1. What kind of issues have you had with your 8600 GT? I am asking because mine gets extremely hot even if I
am not playing games or the laptop is idling so I am considering a replacement. Mine is a stock 512mb 8600 GT.
8 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
2. I assume that I could upgrade to a 3650. How about 4850 or 4870? Would they fit in a 5920g?
3. How do you know if the video card has ACER bios?
Thanks.
@djrh,
What driver are you using? you can upgrade to 3650, not 4850 or 4870(both MXM type 3 for sure) 8600m gt
downclocks in games, that was the problem.
what do you mean by extremely hot? outside the case? you should clean your fans.
please use ntunes to check your temperatures, and report back.
you can only know if the seller specified that it has Acer BIOS or it comes straight from Acer
31. jonathan wrote, on January 21st, 2009:
hey acer guy….
i need to reset my bios to default status…i am attempting to take out the cmos battery and let stand for a short
time …need more assistance please.
jonathan
32. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 21st, 2009:
@jonathan,
I don’t think there is a CMOS battery when i opened my 5920 last time, even taking it out probably won’t remove
the password. what you can try is to put it in the freezer, that seems to work for SOME people, make sure you
put it in a Zipplock bag or some sort – i can’t guarantee this method.
33. Steve wrote, on February 12th, 2009:
@Morris Lee:
Hello, im looking for a Geforce 8600M GT / G84-600-A2 (G84M) 256MB with Lg-Bios for a
Lg s 900.
Do you have any Ideas – where i can get one? ( the Cards with Acer- Bios dont work )
Regards Steve
34. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on February 13th, 2009:
@Steve,
look here http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=&manufacturer=&

model=8600M+GT&interface=&memSize=0 (http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&
architecture=&manufacturer=&model=8600M+GT&interface=&memSize=0)
even though no LG, but try nvidia one?
35. enver wrote, on February 28th, 2009:
Hello,
I have a quistion. I have a acer aspire 5920G t7500, 8600GT, 2 gb ram. I want to upgrade my ram to 4 gb and
upgrade my processor to a p version. I remember when i bought this laptob i saw by the specifications max 2 gb
ram. Are the parts that i want to upgrade possible? Thanx.
36. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on March 1st, 2009:
9 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@enver,
I am not sure the top CPU you can upgrade to, but I know you can upgrade to ATi Mobility HD3650(slightly faster
then 8600) if you want an HD3650, let me know, I will hook you up with the right guy with the right card that will fit
the laptop.
The ram will work to full 4 GB at 667MHz, best if you get a pair for dual channel effect along with a 64 Bit OS to take full
advantage of 4GB.
37. enver wrote, on March 1st, 2009:
Thanks for youre answer, im not planning on upgrading my videocard but maybe in the future. I want to buy the
folowing ram parts http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/219300/kingston-kta-mb800k2-4g.html#tab:prices
(http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/219300/kingston-kta-mb800k2-4g.html#tab:prices)
are the parts compitable with my notebooke? and if i replace the ram must i change something to the bios?
38. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on March 1st, 2009:
@enver,
it looks like DDR2 800MHz models, it will only work at 667MHz in 5920. but it will work.
you don’t have to change anything in BIOS, but for windows to take full advantage of all 4GB and up, you need
64bit
39. enver wrote, on March 2nd, 2009:
Thanks for youre answer. http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/170697/kingston-kta-mb667k2-4g.html

(http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/170697/kingston-kta-mb667k2-4g.html) this is the one with 667 mhz. It says
(SODIMM), 5 and by the 800 mhz its says 4.5. Is 5 suitable for my notebook. And also if i want to open my
notebook i screw al the 9 screws open but i cant get it open some places go open but i must force it and i am
scared that i wil break it can you give me some quide. Thanks.
40. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on March 3rd, 2009:
@Enver,
you open it from the little nail hole that is between the 2 most centered screws at the bottom of the laptop.
As for the 5, I am not sure, I am not very familiar with the cache timings etc.
41. Kancer wrote, on March 3rd, 2009:
well i have decided to replace the stock thermal paste on my 5920g, however, i was suprised to see that acer
used [B]therma pads[/B] intead of thermal paste
im even more suprised to see that there are thermal pads all over my gpu and cpu
heres a rough picture of how it looks like
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/9881/5920g.jpg (http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/9881/5920g.jpg)
silver color denotes where thermal pads where installed
the weird thing is that the copper plate of the heat sink only touches the parts of the picture with the orange circle
should i put AC MX-2 on the areas where i found thermal pads or just on the areas where the copper plates of the heat sink
touches the core
42. jacob wrote, on March 11th, 2009:
Hi ive just bought an AS5920g with dedicated 256mb from an ati 3470. I know there are loads of differences
between this model and the one in the guide, so I was just wondering if there was anyway to upgrade it to a 3650
or if there was any point upgrading to an 8600. Any reply would be greatly appreciated,thanks.
10 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on March 11th, 2009:
@jacob,
it really is entirely up to how much you want to spend on gaming, I believe you have MXM aswell, you can
upgrade to HD3650 too. 8600m GT version is screwy, 8600m GS is more stable. but I prefer ATi now
cool, thanks for the reply, if I do upgrade i think ill get a 3650 but I wasnt sure if there would be enough power,
the 3470 needs 12w and the 3650 30w i think. also i just wondered what id have to do about the thermal stuff to.
thank you
sorry, just another question, would there be any point upgrading to a 3650 with 256 ram and would it be possible
to get it for less that £160?
thanks
46. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on March 13th, 2009:
@jacob,
For thermal, make sure you have all 4 stock thermal pads for the RAM chip, these SHOULD be able to handle it.
As for the core, it gets pretty hot, I had to down volt mine slightly, and i didn’t have the stock thermal pads, so I
had to downclock the memory to 700Mhz (original 750Mhz), the one I got is kind of overclocked (680/750mhz
core/mem vs normal 600/700Mhz)
HD3650 uses 35w
I got mine for about $200 CAD, just did a quick calc, is about £110~ish, I know the guy, he’s stuff is directly from acer, and
his HD3650’s is confirmed to work in my 5920G, so it is safe to buy it from him. if you want, I can hook you up so you don’t
have to go through his ebay store.
oh and yeah, the price is just an estimation, you have to contact him for the new price, if he still has it in stock….
48. Skid wrote, on March 13th, 2009:
@Enver, did you get any joy dropping the CAS latency with the 800MHz RAM?
and
@Morris With the Vista 32 limit on RAM addressing, what happens with HyperMemory?
I’ve got an 8600GS with 256MB & upto 1GB taken from the system. If I get 4GB RAM is the Hypermemory taken from the
3GB that Vista can use?
@Skid,
I really don’t know what happens, but I have heard of this similar inquiries on the same topic, but my assumption
is that it will take the RAM from the RAM available to Vista since i believe it is software controlled by Windows.
Thanks for the reply, it was very helpful.
The cheapest I could find on ebay was for £150, but Im not planning on buying this just now so if you could just
tell me his ebay name it would be great. Also what shop can you get the pads from?
Thanks
11 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@jacob,
he acutally has 2 left, but somehow it says 6 available on ebay, it is listed here
http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3650-MXM-Graphics-
Card_W 0QQitemZ170279943375QQihZ007QQcategoryZ74957QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262
(http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3650-MXM-Graphics-
Card_W0QQitemZ170279943375QQihZ007QQcategoryZ74957QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262)
but with shipping, I think it is just little over your budget, but I can say it is a safe buy since it worked in my 5920. you never
know if the other ones on ebay has a BIOS that is not compatible to your machine.
Great thanks
@jacob,
let him know I referred him to you.
54. Sander wrote, on March 24th, 2009:
hey Morris,
First of all, thanks for this page and your help.
I own an Acer 5720G with an ATI HD 2300 installed (MXM II). I don’t know, but I am guessing that the laptop
model is somewhat similar to a 5920G. I was hoping you could answer some questions:
- Should it be possible to replace this card with a HD 3650 (MXM II)? I see you mentioned some heat problems (although you
also mentioned you are using a HD3650 in yours), are these problems known to apply to 5720G laptops?
- I may have access to a HD 3650 that was taken from a HP 8530w laptop – so probably no Acer bios on it. Could you refer
me to a website that clarifies this “blind bios flashing”?
- Since the HD3650 uses HyperMemory in its original HP laptop, should it be able to do so in mine?
Thanks in advance.
@Sander,
It probably will work if you get the acer BIOS version. Blind flash is very risky, there is a possibility that it will not
even work to the point where you can use a blind flash method.
Couple posts above i have a link to a HD3650 that will work with 5920, it should with 5720 too, that is if your
laptop BIOS is updated.
good luck!
56. Mitsumassa wrote, on April 28th, 2009:
Hi, i want to know if I can do an upgrade on Aspire 5920? Not the Aspire 5920G. I want to put in a 8600mGT.
Thanks
57. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on April 28th, 2009:
@Mitsumassa,
12 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
If you have intel X3100, then you are out of luck. if it has a HD3470 or HD3650, then you can switch to 8600m gt.
58. Jacob wrote, on May 21st, 2009:
Hello again
Sorry to bother you again. The price of cards on ebay seem to have come down so I might well choose to
upgrade soon, here are a few and your thoughts on them would be very much appreciated.
This is very cheap but there is no info

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170332430420&
ssPageName=MERCOSI_VI_ROSI_PR4_PCN_BIX_Stores&refitem=170279943375&itemcount=4&
refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&refwidgettype=osi_widget&_trksid=p284.m263&
_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%252BP%252BS%252BIA%26itu%3DFICS%252BUA%252BUCI%252BIA%
(http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170332430420&
_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%252BP%252BS%252BIA%26itu%3DFICS%252BUA%252BUCI%252BIA%26otn%3D4%26
This is cheap too, but it looks different, there is little info, and he says it came from an hp:
This one is more expensive and the rating is 100% but like the previous 2 doesn’t say much about cooling:
I’m drawn to this one because there is no currency conversion and it states that a heat think is included:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATI-HD3650-HD-3650-DDR3-256MB-M86-MXM-II-Vedio-
VGA-Card_W0QQitemZ120413857170QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_V
_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1683 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATI-HD3650-HD-3650-DDR3-256MB-M86-MXM-II-Vedio-
VGA-Card_W0QQitemZ120413857170QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_T
_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1683) |66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50
All the 8600s on ebay are about the same price so I’m guessing its better to get a 3650, I’m still not so sure about how I
would sort out the heating stuff so could you tell me any more about that?
Also the earlier link shows a price of $499 has he got anything cheaper left?
Thank you very very much
59. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on May 22nd, 2009:
@Jacob,
uhm, the links are dead links….. anyways, I suppose he upped the prices to 499, cooling is only necessary if you
get the ones with core clock at 680Mhz and memory at 750MHz, lowering the voltage and the ram to 700MHz will
fix the problem of heat.
13 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
60. nobb1x wrote, on May 22nd, 2009:
Hello, i have a TravelMate 5720G (not Aspire) it has mxm2 slot and an ATI HD2400XT (defective,random pixels
and stripes) i want to change it,i’ve wroted to Acer and they told me “no support for these things”, not fair!! i’ve
got a spare 8600mGT acer bios and tried to replace but my laptop beeps and no video, i’ve tried the card on a
Aspire 5920G and it works flawlessy, so it is not defective. I need a new card!!! what kind i can buy for my
laptop??? thank you
61. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on May 22nd, 2009:
@nobb1x,
you may need a BIOS update on the laptop’s motherboard, go to acer’s support site (euro site) and download the
latest one, but read the info very carefully.
62. nobb1x wrote, on May 22nd, 2009:
thanks for the answer, i have the latest, 1.35 bios already,i’ve tried many,including old releases, but none seem
support the card i got. i’ve returned it back now.
Maybe this model(TM 57920G) only support ATI cards, but what models, other than the hd2400, i don’t
know.Before to get another card i like to know if possible
63. nosey wrote, on May 30th, 2009:
When I bought my Acer Aspire 5920 I was told that it had an nvidia graphics card. I was surprised when I
realised that it actually had a rubbish that won’t play my HD videos that I’ve recorded well at all.
Can I replace the intel one with a half decent nvidia one?
64. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on May 30th, 2009:
@nosey,
Sorry, the intel editions does NOT come with a MXM slot, upgrade is almost impossible
65. Lisa wrote, on June 8th, 2009:
Hi Morris
I have an Acer 5920g with the Nvidia 8600GT (256mb). I bought the sims3 to try but it keeps randomly
crashing and I have to shutdown the notebook each time.
I’ve tried upgrading the directx, and installed the latest nvidia driver for that card but it’s still doing it. I have the
basic 32bit system with 2gb ram, thinking of upgrading to 4gb.
Can you suggest anything or is the card just not up to it?
Thankies,
Lisa
66. Peter wrote, on June 9th, 2009:
Well upgrading to 3 GB of ram would help. 4 GB would be a waste as a 32-bit operating system can’t use it all.
Make sure you’re getting your drivers from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com (http://www.laptopvideo2go.com)
for best gaming performance. I own the 5920G-6313 and Sims 3 is playing just peachy with it.
67. Lisa wrote, on June 9th, 2009:
Thanks Pete
Which nvidia driver do you use? I upgraded to the 8.15.0011.8585 and its still crashing…
68. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on June 10th, 2009:
@Lisa,
Please use driver sweeper to clean out all the nvidia drivers, reboot the laptop then install one of the driver from
14 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
this page
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=84 (http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum
/index.php?showforum=84)
69. Trace wrote, on June 24th, 2009:
Hey, I have an Acer Aspire 5920 with a Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family as my GPU. Can I upgrade this?
If so, what card do you recommend(I’d like it to be capable of running Oblivion and Crysis) Please Reply
@Trace,
No, you can not upgrade it, you don’t have the MXM slot for it
71. emman wrote, on June 27th, 2009:
hey morris,
First of all, thanks for this page and your help.
I own an acer aspire 5720G with an ati mobility radeon hd 2300 vista driver 366 MB but i can’t find the ATI video
card software for the driver.
Can you please tell where to download the correct ATI driver program because currently the driver installed is only its vista
driver but the ATI software wherein you can adjust furthermore the screen resolution is not there.
Before it was there but the moment i reformat the system using acer e-recovery command the ATI logo in the desktop
anymore.
I hope u understand what i meant.. coz i’m not really an IT expert guy…
Thanks again for the help… many many thanks.
@emman
bookmark this http://www.donotargue.com/ (http://www.donotargue.com/) XD
73. Undertaxxx (http://notebookreview.com) wrote, on July 4th, 2009:
Hi Morris Lee.
First of all, great site and guides/reviews.

Secondly, nice to see someone actually posting pictures of what he/she is doing.
I have a 5920G myself:

-T7500 @ 2.2~
-GeForce 9500m GS
I bought some I.C. diamond (thermal paste) and will be applying it soon.
Today i opened up my 5920G only to find myself struggling to remove the heatsink and gpu (card). I’m not quite sure why I’m
not able to do so. Maybe I’m missing some screws? Or maybe I’m beeing too gentle?
Also when I’m applying thermal paste, do you reckon it’s safe to do so? And will it be alot better then the default thermal pad?
Kind regards,
- David
74. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on July 4th, 2009:
@Undertaxxx,
yes, applying thermal paste should be better than the thermal pads, but for the core, you have ot make sure you
15 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
apply plenty to fill the entire gap
75. nev wrote, on July 21st, 2009:
hey there Morris,
thanks for sharing your knowledge – this small

site is one of the rare good ressources for
every aspire 5920 owner
so *thumbs up*
now to my question – im aleady looking arround

for better termal solutions since a few month
the aspire gets very hot after some time of

needed performance and even im idle. if a unix
system is used the fan is already at full
performance when running a terminal session
without x (yes also with installed termal
management software, maybe a problem with
monitoring the gpu temperature correctly)
but im away from my point: i simply wanted

to ask if you already figured out a solution
to optimize the temperature without downvolt
the gpu. maybe a “fan pad” to put below the
aspire? but they look very crappy and test
results arent that good. or maybe theres
a more silent fan available which gets better
temperature handling if gpu and cpu is used
with termal paste and not pads?
alrealdy looking foreward to your reply
br
nev
76. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on July 21st, 2009:
@nev,
Well, what I did was I removed some of the plastic covering that is taped to some of the ventilation area such as
the ones just over the RAM location, I also removed the extra filtering layer tapped to the vent right where the fan
is. hope this helps
77. nev wrote, on July 23rd, 2009:
mmh – i already did this simple improvements.

Im still looking for the big deal of cooling
maybe with a hardware change and was hoping
for a hint in that direction.
But thanks for your reply!
There are simply not enough people modding

the Aspire ;P
78. ACerManiAC wrote, on July 29th, 2009:
Hello, i have an Acer Aspire 5738, can i do this mod to my notebook?
16 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
nobb1x wrote, on July 31st, 2009:
referring to a my old post here, i got finally a card working on the Travelmate 5720G with bios 3.50
the card is a ATI Radeon HD3650 512Mb ddr2 and it has worked OTB.
Some infos:
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9591&SUBSYS_011F1025
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/z6eyb/ (http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/z6eyb/)
It has Acer vbios.
it outperform my old hd2400xt with a score 5.5/5.1 on Vista (gpu/mem)
i hope this is useful for someone.
80. Anonymous (http://www.chw.net/foro/tarjetas-de-video-f20/263469-donde-puedo-comprar-una-tarjeta-grafica-para-un-

portatil.html#post3277978) wrote, on August 7th, 2009:
[...] [...]
81. Paulus (http://www.paulussetyo.com) wrote, on August 26th, 2009:
Hi Morris, interresting guide. Very appreciate if you upload the image again, coz I cab’t see the photo. Thanks
82. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on August 26th, 2009:
@Everyone,
I reuploaded the pictures, cheers!
83. Paulus setyo (http://www.paulussetyo.com) wrote, on August 27th, 2009:
Thank Morris for the pictures.

My laptop VGA is dead, probably by overheat. I use 8600 GT before. I planning to replace with radeon 4650.
I read on Internet, someone had sucessfully replaced 8600GT with Radeon 4650.
I have a question, what if the new VGA do not have acer preloaded bios? what do you mean by blind flash and
how to do it, Thanks
84. Matt V. wrote, on September 5th, 2009:
Hi. I’ve had my acer aspire 5920g for almost 2 years now… about a month ago i had its fan cleaned and air
blasted and windows reinstalled… everything works perfectly for the most part, but a few weeks back the
graphics (8600m gt) card started heating up…
now while playing a game like prototype it lasts for a while and then the computer freezes, due to overheating…
i’ve vent through several nvidia drivers and the rpoblem still persists, only with the current one the onset of the
problem is delayed for about 45 min, 10-15 give or take, after starting the game…
any advice would be much appretiated…

also, someone mentioned taking of the bottom cover? will that help, or is that even safe?
85. Dave wrote, on September 11th, 2009:
Hi
I have an Acer Aspire 7720g with a mxm gforce 9300g in it and would like to upgrade to an ATI 3650m could you
link me to to someone who sells them with Acer bios pre installed thanks
86. Max wrote, on September 22nd, 2009:
Hi acerguy,
I have got acer 5920 a year ago, It is extremely slow when I play computer game. My computer is shown as
below:
-Intel Core2Duo processor T5450
(1.66GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache)
17 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
-Up to 358MB Mobile intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
-2GB DDR2
What can I upgrade to get the best performance?
And can I buy the GPU from you?
87. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on September 22nd, 2009:
@Max,
No, I am sorry, you do not have the MXM slot for the X3100 model, that is probably the best you can get out of
your laptop.
you can only upgrade to 4GB and a better CPU, but that is not going to help much about the games.
88. awaiting mw2 wrote, on September 30th, 2009:
Hi Morris,
Fantastic page, I’m awaiting the release of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and was wondering, do you think the
HD 3650 will be enough to run MW2 as my HD 3470 just about runs MW1.
The specs of my 5920g are:
-T5750 duel core processor
-4GB Ram
-250 GB HDD
-Blu ray drive
-ATI HD 3470 Graphics card.
Think its the top spec 5920g AFAIK
Thanks
89. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on September 30th, 2009:
Call of Duty MW2 should be about the same performance as the original one. Since it is a cross plateform game,
if MW runs on the xbox and your laptop runs MW just fine, then MW2 will work just about the same.
There aren’t many graphics improvements I know of, only more changes in game play
Upgrading to the HD3650 will not benefit you much in games performance, plus, you risk compatibility issues too.
90. Johnny wrote, on October 2nd, 2009:
Hi,
I also own 5920G for about 2 years. Just recently my GPU died due to overheat (most likely). I own gforce
8600GT with 256 MB RAM. On ebay I saw a bunch of same cards but with twice as much memory as my dead
one. Could this be problematic if i install a 512 MB version?
But since many are reporting various problems with Nvidia cards I might also buy ATi card, still haven’t decided yet.
What about repairing current graphic card? Anyone tried it? I also own XboX360 and got RROD (Red ring of death, VGA
card broke down). I fixed it by using a “cooking” method, meaning that i wrapped it in a bunch of towels and left it on for
about an hour or so until it shut itself down due to overheat. It started to work after the hot treatment . Could sonthing
like this work on my dead geforce?
Regards,
Johnny
91. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on October 3rd, 2009:
@Johnny,
I would NOT recommend another 8600, they are all having problems like that, you can however, try a HD3650.
18 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
92. Dan wrote, on October 7th, 2009:
Hi,
Could someone please help. I have a 5920G with fried motherboard. I have attained a used motherboard from an
Acer 5920 (not 5920G) on eBay. The 5920 apparently has onboard graphic and has no MXM slot so when I
replaced my motherboard I could not use my NVidia 8600 graphics card. When I have installed the replacement
motherboard and hooked everything up the laptop appears to boot fine (all lights on, no beeping noises etc.). However the
screen is totally black – it does not come on at all – not even during boot. I imagine it is a graphics problem but not sure what.
Can someone please help?
Thanks
maidans42
p.s. on my replacement motherboard, where the MXM board would be on a 5920G, there is a spot where it looks like the
MXM slot could be attached. From the indentations on the protective plastics that you have on the motherboard it looks like
some component was fitted in that position. Is there any possibility that I am missing a connector or motherboard add-on
piece?
pps. I have the service manual for the Acer 5920g (dedicated graphics card) but am not able to find the service manual for
the Acer 5920 (on board graphics). Can anyone help with this issue either?
p.s. I have uploaded some photos to illustrate what I am talking about –
http://www.snapdrive.net/files/601388/acer_motherboard_graphics1.JPG (http://www.snapdrive.net
/files/601388/acer_motherboard_graphics1.JPG)
http://www.snapdrive.net/files/601388/acer_motherboard_graphics2.JPG (http://www.snapdrive.net
/files/601388/acer_motherboard_graphics2.JPG)
94. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on October 7th, 2009:
@Dan,
you sure you plugged everything in correctly? the only “difference” between 5920 and the 5920G is that the
5920G’s “G” identifying it as “Glossy” for the lid. so technically, the board should work with each other.
As for the MXM, some models of the 5920G does not have the slot either, where they were equipped with Intel
X3100 instead, the MXM and the MXM required components are not soldered on for the intel version. so technically, you are
not missing any part to make it work, but now you have an 8600 sitting on the side and have to stick with X3100.
Only few things I can think of that maybe problematic if you didn’t install them correctly are the following:
CPU/CPU socket(make sure you use the flat head screw driver to tighten it.
Memory (just use one stick at a time, to check if one of them is broken or not.)
Last check, make sure the fan is plugged in
Hi Morris, thanks for your reply.
Yes I have seen documentation that suggests both 5920 board types should be compatible.
Hopefully, as you suggest, it is simply a connection problem so I will recheck that. The only thing is that I would
expect the laptop to beep or something if there was a loose connection.
I uploaded some photos and explained the concern that I had about the place where the MXM slot would be on the following
blog. Maybe u could check it out quickly please – it illustrates very clearly my concern.
19 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
The link is:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=6257053&posted=1#post6257053 (http://www.ocforums.com
/showthread.php?p=6257053&posted=1#post6257053)
And the last 3 posts by Danny99 are mine.
I would very much appreciate your opinion.
Thanks again & I’ll let you know how I get on.
Dan
@Dan,
That is perfectly normal, it is just that the board you bought is equipped with the intel graphics, that is why the
MXM is not available.
If I recall correctly, quite a few people with 5920G with intel X3100 were questioning this specific problem since
they have a horrible graphics performance and want to upgrade.
But I think it is more important to get your laptop running first, you sure the board you about is fully working and not defective?
97. amidose wrote, on October 19th, 2009:
Hi
Can 5920g use radeon hd 4650 card?
98. Maichel wrote, on October 19th, 2009:
Hi!
I have acer aspire 7720G, with 8600m gt 512mb. Can you tell me where i can find 9600m gt card
instead? I’ve been lookin allover, but seems that i cant find one And is there even big
differences with those cards on my 7720g?
Thanks already!!
-Maichel
@amidose,
It has been reported working with the real hardware, so yes, but you never know if the video card firmware might
be incompatible and a blind flash maybe required
@Maichel,
places like ebay http://cgi.ebay.ca/New-Nvidia-MXM-II-Graphics-Card-GeForce-9600M-

GT-512MB_W0QQitemZ290351516134QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item439a4c89e6
(http://cgi.ebay.ca/New-Nvidia-MXM-II-Graphics-Card-GeForce-9600M-
GT-512MB_W0QQitemZ290351516134QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item439a4c89e6)
only place I know where I can find it.
100. Younes wrote, on October 24th, 2009:
Hi Morris ,
First thank you , for your web site , it’s more instructive than the official one.
I have a prob, my 8600m GT 512Mb died on my 5920g t7500 2gb/250gb…
20 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
I found on ebay an Ati 3650hd which more performant than gf and more reliable(not sure). But it’s flashed with an Ati original
bios , will it work on my computer or not?
thx for reply…
@Younes,
if it is ATI BIOS, it should work just fine, but depending on the clock speed, you may have to change the clock
speed in the firmware of the video card or replace the thermalpad with a piece of copper like I have done, which
allowed me to do some overclocking too.
102. Younes wrote, on October 25th, 2009:
Morris you are the man of the situation…

thx a lot for your quick response…
103. Tberg wrote, on October 27th, 2009:
Hi Morris! Great Site.
I am looking for a new gfxcard. Got a 5920g with 6800m GS now, Intel 965 Chipset T5550 1.83 GHz.
pretty sure i have the MXMII model.
Do you still have your connection to whom you could buy cards from?
Currently i found that these cards are aviliable for upgrade in the 5920g (non GMA)
8600M GT
9500M GS
HD 3650
HD 4650
HD 4670
Which is better? (i could imagine that both 4650/4670 is so new that it would have compabillity problems with my system)
Best Regards
Tberg
@Tberg,
You meant 8600m GS? and yes, you would have MXM type II slot. HD4650 was reported to work with 5920, but
I am not sure if the BIOS could be a problem, so far, all ATi cards I have seen tested have worked with 5920(the
nvidia 9XXX series may not work, since 9600m GT did not, but 9500m GS is really a 8600m GT).
I will have to contact him maybe later today, his time zone is GMT + 8 hours.
@ Morris
Yes! Thats the card i meant
Ahh glad to hear you still have a connection. i will await your response.
Thank you
@Tberg,
Can I just ask what your location is? he may need it for the shipping cost
21 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Tberg wrote, on October 27th, 2009:
Europe – The state of DENMARK
;D
108. Michael W alsh (http://www.theacerguy.com) wrote, on October 28th, 2009:
@Tberg – very cool place to live.
@ Walsh
Thanks. i assume you know people from DK?
110. Michael W alsh (http://www.theacerguy.com) wrote, on October 28th, 2009:
@Tberg Had a few of my “life’s great moments” with Danes, yes.
@Tberg,
This is the price he emailed me,
8600M GT $219.99 + 15.99 shipping cost

9500M GS $224.99 + 15.99 shipping cost
HD 3650 $169.99 + 15.99 shipping cost
no word on the 4650 or 4670 yet. Yes, more expansive, but I believe he includes new thermalpads with purchase and he is
got a few machines to test compatibility with, and yes, he has a 5920G to test with.
Cheers!
112. Peter wrote, on October 30th, 2009:
hmm… if a 4650 or 4670 will work in a 5920G it’d be worth it to get, with a CPU upgrade.. well I might be
pushing the thermals a bit then.
Might be worth a shot though.
113. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on October 31st, 2009:
@Peter,
yes, you are correct, it it is hard to find HD4650 or the 70. They only seem to appear on some non North
American sites, or even Asian sites for that matter.
I did push my HD3650 to 725Mhz core 700Mhz mem, the core has the thermalpad replaced with copper plat so
the OC on the core was possible, the copper for the memory are about to come(my friend has an old broken acer with more
copper heatsink to salvage from) XD
I got 4888 on 3Dmark06, that is only with a t5550 1.83GHz C2D.
So, Tberg, any thoughts on which card you want to purchase?
114. Tberg wrote, on October 31st, 2009:
@Morris
Ouch, well i guess i could have told myself that, it woundn’t be cheap But currently, i aint got that much
sparecash for such modification.
Anyways. Thanks alot for you effort! Be sure to thank your friend for his time too. i might return, or might
22 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
not. relies heavily on cash hehe.
But perhaps there would be others who would be interested.
Thx so much again.
115. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on October 31st, 2009:
@Tberg,
No problem! 8600m GS is pretty fast card, only replace it if you really have a problem with it.
116. Johnny wrote, on November 7th, 2009:
Hi,
looks like I managed to fix my dead GF 8600 GT. I came across a certain page where people were using baking
method to revive their dead GPUs. Here is what I did:
1. remove thermal grease, any plastic foils and glue (my bro has 8600 GS version and it’s covered in some alu
foil)
2. heat the oven to 200 C +- 5, more can be dangerous, less would have no effect.
3. make 4 balls using kitchen alu foil and put em on steel grid which you put into the oven when heat is high enough
4. put your GPU on those 4 balls
5. if the temperature is ready put the grid into the oven
6. wait 5-8 minutes (i did 6min 30s)
7. take out GPU, wait till it cools down and test the result
However this method is unreliable, but if your card is already dead you have probably nothing to loose anyway. I used the
same method on my dead XboX 360 and it worked both times. I thought I’d share my experience here because it seems alto
of you are experiencing the same problem as I did.
This fix is not permanent, card will most likely break sooner or later again so buy yourself a spare one.
Regards,
Johnny
117. Defender Sweden (http://none) wrote, on November 25th, 2009:
Hi there..
Well i guess i have a fried geforce 8600M gt aswell…Would be glad if someone posted the symptoms of it aswell
so people could get more sure about it!
Well i have done almost everything besides the oven thingy..
My problem is that i cant get a picture from either the lcd on my 5920g or from the vga output or the dvi out..
The comupter boots all fine, gets into windows..But no picture!
I have opened up the lcd panel, checked the connectors and inverter but everything seems fine there…its not the backlight
either i guess since i have used a lamp against it and nothing shows!
But a funy thing is that over night when i have woken up sometimes there is no battery in the machine….as if it where
uncharged or something…happened 2 times…last time was the morning i didnt get picture from it, and yes the power cable
was connected..But it seems now that it doesnt charge the battery anymore…
But with cable it still boots fine from what i can hear (login windows sound)
I have tried the rams, loosen the processor and put it back no result..But does this seem like a gpu error? i have read about
people with the same problem but with no directly clear answer if it is the gpu! I myself will order from u guys if i just knew it
was the gpu…and i will for sure go with an ati card since apple computers have been reporting in BAD nvidia gpus especialy
the mobile geforce 8xxx series! Pleas reply as fast as u can plz! This is driving me nuts!
118. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on November 25th, 2009:
@Defender Sweden,
you can try enabling Remote Desktop(without the screen, you need to do it by using keyboard shortcuts) after
23 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
enabling it, press “PrtSc SysRq” key and press Winkey + R(which opens up the command prompt, type mspaint,
enter, wait 2 seconds, and press Ctrl + V to paste the screenshot.
When the screeshot is pasted, use another computer to access the laptop and check the screenshot, if the screenshot is all
garbled, then it is indeed graphics card problem, if everything looks fine, then it should be internal connection issues.
@Morris Lee…Haha u wont believe this…
Realy…i got soooo pissed at my damn laptop…

I read about the oven trick, and omfg u wont believe me when i say ot worked…my girlfriend thought i was
crazy…..hahahaha it did freaking work..I read another guy with the exact same laptop and with the exact same
problems did this and got his to work…375F in 8 minutes did the trick, allthough i did a fast cooldown…buti could hear it crack
when i it cooled down…But il be damned it freaking worked But now i know for sure it was the gpu so if it says bye bye
i can order a new one…totaly sure it was the gpu guess if im happy! Ty for the tip though i will save it!
hahaha….omg
@Morris Lee
The one thing i do regret was not to film it so i could post it here..but i guess noone wouldof believed me
anyway..realy dont care main matter is that it worked!
@Defender Sweden,
Not that i don’t believe you or anything. I do have to give you a congratulation! so you don’t end up spending $$ to
repair it
@Morris Lee….
Well i have read up about this problem and there are MANY and when i say MANY i mean almost all errors with
some of the chips on the 8xxx series can get ging with the oven trick….Im still typing on the same faulty
machine/gpu and it has worked out greate!
But i know where the error is now so it will be easy to see the error now…Allthough i still have battery/cable pluged in
error…it wont recognice the battery…so it might be a a board for the recharger thats blown in the laptop…but right now i
dont realy care…everything works just fine!..But im going to look at it some day if the GPU still lives on…i mean to ship a new
motherboard to this 5920G will cost about 800 dollars so i wont go that way!….damn expencive….if the motherboard fail i will
do the same oven trick…well i guess it shortens the life of the computer…but ive downclocked it after it worked…i cleaned
the coolingsystem and took some arctic silver paste on it….and i must say its cooler then ever…even if i do some hard hard
3d games on it! well im glad as u can see
@Morris Lee
Its like when u put a hand on body heated places like under your arms..its so so so muh cooled now! and
the gpu fan doesnt even speed up when i play games like the sims 3 or counterstrike 1.6…I did not
underclock the gpu…its just stock speed!…and i must say…its amazing how cooled down it is under load!
124. adm15 wrote, on November 27th, 2009:
@Morris Lee
Thanks for pointing this out. Exactly what i needed! Thinking of getting a 3650. I’m pretty sure i can update the
drivers, but what about the bios?
24 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@adm15,
The bios shouldn’t be a problem(or firmware), ATi ones tend to be very generic.
Great! Any other optimization tricks i should know?
@adm15,
you can try and get some copper plate, which is best if you do anyways, some hd3650 comes with
680Mhz core which is too hot for the current heatsink, the copper to replace the thermalpad will
reduce up to 30 degrees Celsius, you can even do overclocking, but if you don’t, you need to extract
the BIOS, down volt the card or downclock it to work properly.
if it is GDDR3, then you need to make sure you have thermalpads(or copper plate) for all 4 piece of RAM.
Ok! Ill try to get my hands on that copper plate. The other options sound complicated. Thanks!
129. Tberg wrote, on December 1st, 2009:
Hello Again Morris. I Finaly suceeded in finding a ATI Mobility HD 3650 512mb card with Acer
Preload (for a reasonable price)
Now i need to do some prep. work before i install it. I Need to messure the current heat of my
components and record em, and compare them to the new results with the new card How do i
messure that best?
And get that copper plate thingie (hence the technology is smaller than the 8600 GS card, so i have read) I Am just a little
unsure about where to put in thermal Paste, between the GPU and copperplate? or between the Heatsink and the
copperplate, so the the copperplate is laying loose under the GPU?
Thank You.
130. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 1st, 2009:
@Tberg,
you can use “AMD GPU Clock tool” to log the temperature while you run a 3D stress test.
as for the thermalpaste, you put it between the copper and heatsink and between the coppeer and the core, so
both sides of the copper
131. Tberg wrote, on December 1st, 2009:
OH!
I also Run with a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 bit OS
Which driver do i need to download? (a direkt Link would be nice)
Been browsing ATI’s site and found 3 different drivers which seems like the one i need, i am new to AMD/ATI site.
Thanks Again:)
132. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 1st, 2009:
@Tberg,
25 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
here http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/download.htm (http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support
/download.htm)
is the farthest I can get you, you have to browse other machines for Windows 7 64 driver for Ati, the newest version may not
be right under 5920, you may need to look up other machines for the driver.
133. Amigaman wrote, on December 2nd, 2009:
You can use ATI HD 4650 1gb DDR2 card with 5920G. I tried it at world first time. Yeah it works very well. Vista
sp1 on 3d mark 2006= 5100 score like 9600GT 512 mb DDR3. Thanks and regards.
134. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 2nd, 2009:
@Amigaman,
May I ask where you have sourced the HD4650?
135. Amigaman wrote, on December 2nd, 2009:
Acer 6930G I am an Acer Tecnician.
136. Michael W alsh (http://www.theacerguy.com) wrote, on December 2nd, 2009:
@Amigaman …then why don’t you introduce yourself (to me, via mail, or the /Contact page)? Or do
we know each other already? In any case I’m glad your here.
@Amigaman,
Since you are an Acer tech. possible for you to check if an Acer 9600m GT works on a
5920G? the world out there would like to find out if it is simply a BIOS limitation or
mechanically impossible.
138. Amigaman wrote, on December 3rd, 2009:
9600m GT doesnt work on 5920G. 9600m GT MXM II uses but no display on 5920G. I heard some guys modes
to 9600gt bios for 5920g but too risky and %50 chance for work. Anyway 4650 better than 9600GT at 5920G
That informations enough for you. Regards.
@Amigaman,
however, 9600m GT still stands in feature wise as in PhysX support, until supporter for ati writes a CUDA
extension for Radeon cards, we won’t see PhysX on 5920G unless we go back to 8XXX series.
140. Emmanuel wrote, on December 4th, 2009:
i have an acer aspire 5920G how do i know if it has the MXM slot?
@Emmanuel,
2 ways, open it up to check, or check if you have Intel GMA X3100, if you do, then you ain’t got the
slot, if you got HD3400 or Nvidia 8600m series, you do infact have MXM.
142. Guest wrote, on December 4th, 2009:
Morris, there are third party hacks/patches to enable cuda tech on ATI cards. Real easy to do and it works great!
@Guest,
26 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Really!!! would you like to tell us where you can find such patch? write up a How-To maybe? I am sure
Michael(owner of the site) would be happy to post something this cool!
144. Vincent wrote, on December 6th, 2009:
@Morris,
There is no picture at all not even during boot but you could tell that the system is up running with all those logon
sound. Besides, nothing appear even when I connect via the ‘blue port’ with an external monitor. One more thing
is that, the system would restart itself a minute after logon when turned on normally, but it doesn’t restart in safe
mood.
I believe my Nvidia 8600M GT got crashed but I’m not sure how to confirm it. Is there a way to tell whether it is either GPU
failure or LCD?
Besides, I’m interest with ATi HD3650, but I’m not sure how is the cooper looks like. So, could you post some picture for me?
Thanks in advance for everything.
@Vincent,
I think it IS your GPU, since it will reboot on a normal bootup(where video card driver is loaded to run the video
card) but when in safemode, it does not(video card driver does not load in safemode)
the “blue port” is known as VGA port, and no it will not work if it the video card is not working.
copper plate is simply a piece of copper with 1.5×1.5x~0.1cm dimension, I can’t provide you with any pictures, since I have it
installed inside already
Morris Lee
@Morris,
Thank god it is the card not the screen. At least I could perform an upgrade with the money spend.
I plan on replacing it with HD4650 and still finding a reliable source. In case I could not find it, maybe I will go on
with HD3650 like you suggested. So, do you still have your source for HD3650?
Btw, will DDR3 cause any incompatibility?
@Vincent,
Yes, I still have the source for HD3650, it ain’t cheap though I tell you.
Last time he answered me was
HD 3650 $169.99 + 15.99 shipping cost
I believe it is in USD.
If you are interested in that price, let me know.
@Morris,
It sure is expensive. Anyway, I will let you know when I need it, thanks!
By the way, one thing to clear off my mind regarding the copper, did you apply the same concept using copper on
all four GPU RAMs or just the core (the big one at the center)?
27 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@Vincent,
you would need to use copper for the core if you don’t want to screw with the firmware of the video card. copper
is unnecessary for the RAMS, but the RAMS HAVE to have thermalpads if they are GDDR3
Morris Lee
@Morris,
Thanks again for the quick help. Once I get my hand on it, I will try to ask more on the firmware. Since I decided
to replace the GPU myself, it is good to learn all those technical thinggy too.
151. Tberg wrote, on December 7th, 2009:
Major Heat Problem!
I Finaly got installed the HD 3650 512mb. With the right drivers i believe.
I cant seem to be able to play games, at some point it just goes black screen and starts “flickering” with bluish
and white lines and boxes.
I used GPU-Z with 3Dmark06. 1.5 – 3.0 minutes in the test. THe same thing happens, The GPU-z in the background recorded
up to 124C Degrease, no wonder why it goes black screenie
I only used Thermal Paste between GPU and HEatsink, i did not use any copper or thermalpads on the RAM.
Any Suggestions?
@Tberg,
you will need to downclock the video card by extracting the firmware, modifying the clock speed and voltage to
something lower, then put it back in.
Or, you can do a copper mod! if you ain’t got copper, use a penny(1 cent coin) use a vice and compress it , or
use sand paper to make sure it is flat and smooth, cut it to the correct size and use it as the copper/thermalpads, I never
tested this, but it was a method someone suggested from the web I saw a while ago, and it works ok. Do make sure your
clock speed of the RAM is at 700 if you are using thermalpads for it(this is for GDDR3)
Morris Lee
Think i’ll try the copper mod, and also add thermal pads to the RAM aswell even thouh mine is not Gddr3
Memory.
I am not sure about the clockspeeds at all. its no where Near 700 mhz thats for sure.
info taken from GPU-z
@Tberg,
I suppose you have DDR2 only, thermalpads or copper plates are not required for the RAMS, after copper
modding your Core, you should be good to go!
@Morris,
28 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
What is the different between DDR2 and GDDR3?
Besides, how am I going to update my bios when my GPU is broken? IS there a way doing it without have to
watch over it? Like self update?
Looking forward to upgrade into HD3650 since I could not afford HD4650. Found one item in ebay selling at $78 USD.
@Morris
Referring to my question above, where I need to update my bios without knowing what is the current version i’m
using, I found this thread(#8) and wonder will this be mine solution? Could you double check for me please,
thanks in advance!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=251906 (http://forum.notebookreview.com
/showthread.php?t=251906)
@Vincent,
to make sure the BIOS compatibility problem is not in the way, extract the CURRENT one from the card you
PURCHASED, then modify it to user lower settings with out overheating.
GDDR3 is faster then DDR2, but it also generates more heat(but it is also depended on the clock speed it is
running at)
@Morris,
okay, now that I’m one step away from purchasing a new HD3650 from eBay. There are two units that caught my
attention, HD3650 with 1GB DDR2 and 512MB DDR2. Somehow, I read about something that 5920G could not
support 1GB RAM for GPU. Is there something like this? Just to confirm so that I would not regret buying it.
Thanks!
@Vincent,
I don’t think it is a good idea to go for 1GB, I recall that desktop version of hd3650 with 1GB actually became
slower, since it is not designed to handle that much RAM, I would only recommend something with 512 or
anything GDDR3 rather than DDR2
I don’t think there is such limitation to the RAM size anyways.
160. ReMiX wrote, on December 19th, 2009:
whats up morris nice blog dude …
any way i have an old amilo 3438G and got a used ATI hd 4650 1gb DDR3 but from Toshiba laptop….
by the looks its an mxm II for sure and it did really fit nicely on laptop but when i power on
there is deep darkness with no response at all
i don’t know where to start
any ideas?
@ReMix,
29 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Sorry, I am not to familiar with the amilo lines, you can consult with more experienced users with amilo on this site
http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/ (http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/)
Hopefully, that will get you somewhere!
162. adrian wrote, on December 19th, 2009:
hey acer dude i have a proplem my acer 5920 came with a chipset 965 i see the spot where the graphics crad is
suppose to be but i do not know if i can buy a graphics card and instal pleasehelp
163. Niko (http://@Morris) wrote, on December 27th, 2009:
Hi, Morris!
My GeForce 8600M GT is dead after 2 years of good gaming experience and now I am looking for
ATI HD3650, but everything what i can find on eBay looks too suspicious(very cheap and without
warranty) to be good. If you still is in contact with guy who is selling graphic cards, maybe you could
give me his coordinates. I would appreciate that!
P.S. You have very good topic here. I was looking all over the internet to get information, but here everything is in place.
@Niko,
Yes, I still have the contact, I will see if he still got stock for HD3650, maybe he is got the 4650 or 70, hehe, I will
check it with him, and let you know
Morris Lee
165. Boonie wrote, on December 28th, 2009:
Hi Morris, Firstly, I like this page a lot, just because I have learnt a lot from here. I have a Question:
I am planning to upgrade the current dvdrw rom to a blu-ray rom/writer in order to get HD display on my laptop.
So, which graphic will be the best choice?
my laptop spec:
Acer 5920g: T9300, 2*2GB ddr667, 256MB 8600M GT
166. naz (http://n/a) wrote, on December 28th, 2009:
hi pal!
just wanna ask u a question.
is my nvidia gf 8600m gs upgradeable?is yes,what is the best graphic card available?
how about the processor?what is the best processor that can fit into my 5920g acer?
boo me.silly questions =P
@Boonie,
if you want Bluray, get a new laptop, price for the drive+graphics is almost enough for a new laptop, trust me!
@naz,
you have 5920 as well right? HD4670 should be the max for now, GF9600m GT WILL NOT WORK
Hi Morris. I seek your expertise once again
30 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
After very dissapointing attempts with coppermodding the HD3650 512 ddr2 i give up. it continues to
produce too much heat (123-124C and the screen goes black, you know the story.
Id like to try to undervolt it. However i have no idear of how to do it. reading through this thread is not enough for
me, can you help me out?
Thanks alot,
Tberg.
@Tberg,
no problem, download atiflash, DOS version, you need to create a USB bootable disk using unetbootin, select
FreeDOS and your USB drive letter.
after that is done, don’t reboot when it asks, put atiflash files in the flash drive too.
Boot from the USB using F12 key when you see the acer logo, if you don’t have boot menu enabled, press F2 and change
find the enable F12 option.
when FreeDOS is enabled, run atiflash /? to get all the commands on how to backup the BIOS/firmware(should be -b or
something like that), back it up to a file on the flash drive
once backed up, reboot back to windows, download “Radeon BIOS editor” from techpowerup.com, use that to open and edit
the BIOS, change the voltage for GPU clock higher than 550MHz, example would be a 600MHz need to be set to voltage @
1.150MHz or 1.050MHz, you will have to estimate which one in the drop downlist to use(when I had my 680MHz core, I had it
on 1.150v) you can downclock to 600 and have it maybe @ 1.050, just to be sure it is cooler
save the BIOS once all the clock profiles that requires editing has been edited. save it to the USB drive again.
boot from USB drive, and use atiflash /? and see what command is it to flash the BIOS in to your card, with the correct new
BIOS name you used for the edited version(command should be -p)
once it says completed, use AMD GPU clock tool to log all temperatures and see if it is still above 120c. should be around
110 if you have 680 @ 1.150v.
if your RAM is above 450MHz, you probably want to lower it to 450 too.
Good luck!
Morris Lee
@Morris.
Thanks alot for the quick answer. I have not yet done it. However i have downloaded the needed programs and
prepared the USB flashdrive.
There are two things which bugs me atm.
1. The AMD GPU clock tool wont work. it says something with “Wont load kernel bugger/driver”
I guess i can use GPU-Z or HHW Monitor instead from cpuid.
and 2. I managed to get a 3DMark06 score on 37xxish and i remember to have read, that you got a score on 4840-ish is that
still a fact??
Thanks again.
@Tberg,
31 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
4840 is correct, but remember, I am on GDDR3, it does make a difference.
172. Tberg wrote, on January 2nd, 2010:
Happy New Year!
awesome score i think, considering that we “almost” have the same hardware inside. still its a 1000 points hehe.
Well. I can’t seem to get the undervolting to work. Actually i cannot even get a backup of the bios, because the
ATIflash program wont start up.
I did the following.
1. prepared the usb flash device with unetbooting using the freeDOS option.
2. extracted the files and put em onto the flashdrive.
3. restarted and choose usb for the booting.
Now. i get a menu window, i can either choose default, or TAB to edit options. i just do the same really. i get stuck up with
this line at the buttom om the dos window:
Interrupt divided by zero, stacks:
xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
now those x’s was really numbers and letters.
and theres a flashing _ also.
I waited for 10 minutes and nothing happend. any idear with what i am doing wrong?
173. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 2nd, 2010:
@Tberg,
interesting, do you have an USB based floppy drive and 2 floppy disk lying around? if you do, use XP or find a
way to make one of them boot disk, and load the atiflash software.
boot from the USB floppy with the boot floppy disk, and replace it with the one loaded with atiflash software after
DOS is loaded.
do the same from there, use atiflash -b .rom etc…
174. Tberg wrote, on January 4th, 2010:
@ Morris
Hehe, thats very interesting. Too bad, but i dont own sich hardware, never even knew that exsisted.
My thoughts about is was more like, that there was something wrong with unetbootin, or my USB device. maybe i
could use another software to prepare it?
BTW i actually made a successful modification the other day, it works, so far id say:) but it still gets pretty hot.
@Tberg,
you could try different USB flash drive, unetbootin is pretty generic, the MORE generic the USB drive the better.
176. adm15 wrote, on January 9th, 2010:
Hi Morris,
got a 3650 ddr2 512 mb, had it installed. Guy said he put in copper thing and thermal pads for the gpu. But the
32 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
card still gets too hot for games.
Questions:
1)are having thermal pads better than none?
2) do drivers affect the heat?
Thanks. I’m not sure if I should take out the thermal pads or not. If nothing else will help, ill probably follow your instructions
for downvolting.
@adm15,
driver has very little to do with heat, it has to do with clock speed and the voltage, try downvolting it is the best
solutioni I can offer.
Don’t remove the thermalpads, and yes, thermalpads are better than none
temp maxes out 110. That’s really bad no? i guess i should check the work the guy did.
then downvolt if ever.
@morris
also, you mean i should leave both the copper and thermal pads?
@adm15,
Use copper for the core, thermalpads for the memory chips.
What do you mean leave both the coppper and thermalpads?
yeah, that’s what i though too. the guy who put the copper i think put in something a piece that’s too thin. too
make up for it he also put some sort of putty with chewing gum consistency.
i though that putty was the thermal pad until i noticed other pads at the sides.
so took that piece of copper out, replaced it with something thicker, applied as5 like you said.
im checking the temps now using amd cpu clock, and got a minimum of 44 deg C. I increased the engine and mem to 594
MHz and 495 MHz respectively. Temp increased to 74 deg C max after about 12 mins, but still slowly steadily increasing
increasing.
So now i ask you, is that okay? Am i check the temp correctly? I’m now curious with overclock and downvolting since the
copper mod seems successful (compared to my 110 deg before replacing the thin copper)
Thanks very much. this little project took about a month and a half, and your help was invaluable.
oh wait. it seemed to have maxed out at 74.
@adm15,
Yes, 74 is perfectly safe, actually, it is cooler than the original 8600m GT if I recall correctly, and
congrats! it should work flawless now
33 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
have a look at
http://morrisoft.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/ati-custom-resolution-tool/ (http://morrisoft.wordpress.com/2010/01
/06/ati-custom-resolution-tool/)
actually, after a while it went up to 75 deg. But hey, i guess that’s still pretty good.
what’s that custom resolution tool? Sorry, i’m really not so knowledgeable with these things.
My next project will be reformatting and installing win7.
@adm15,
the Custom Resolution tool can add resolutions that is not supported to your monitor, but within your monitor’s
max resolution. you can have a really wide resolution for ultra wide screen gaming
thanks! will look into that when i’ve installed win7
187. Thomas wrote, on January 11th, 2010:
Hey,
My acer 5920G died today, not totally though. It starts, you can hear the windows sounds, but the
screen stays black all the time. I think that the GFU is broken, it is a 8600m GS 256Mb. What GFU
should i get?
@Thomas,
I would recommend AMD ATi Radeon HD4650 if you can find one, I think it is not as hot as HD3650, but if you
can’t find one, go for HD3650, since 9600m GT or higher won’t work in 5920G and the 8XXX are bad.
Morris Lee
189. Liam wrote, on January 12th, 2010:
I’m looking for a graphics card that will play games like left 4 dead 2 and star trek online, in better quality than the
hd 3470 card my 5920G came with.
Have you got any advice on which would be the best card to upgrade my 5920G with?
Cheers
@Liam,
my HD3650 runs Left 4 Dead and L4D 2 on max, no AA like cupcake! but if you can get HD4650 or 70, they are
even better!
191. Liam wrote, on January 12th, 2010:
Cheers any nvidia cards u can suggest?
@Laim,
a lot of nvidia movile card suffer the problem that 8600m GT does, I do not recommend any nvidia
cards at all.
34 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Morris Lee
193. Stefan wrote, on January 13th, 2010:
Hello everybody! If there is someone left, which I suppose after all reading of this site I have done right now.
I own an Acer Aspire T7500, 8600GT, 4 gig RAM, since 2 and a half year back. I did a huge mistake for
like 10 months back. I was going to change HDD to a WD Scorpio 10k rpm 320 gig, but eventually I
crashed into an green PCB with my screwdriver (yes I know it was kinda newbie thing to do, but I slipped)
and a little bit of something went off a green card.
Anyway, after trying to start the computer it was just a black screen, gott im himmel, I thought, it was then I realized that it
was the graphic card I had broken. I desperately look after a DVI adapter to HDMI, cause I knew I have a HDMI input at the
computer.
I found it and plugged in… SUCCESS! I had picture at the screen (mine 22″ SAMSUNG 2ms, stationary computer screen), so
I plugged the Acer to a 19″ screen, which had became a leftover after the newer screen.
After this little story I shall came to the point. =)
Yesterday, 2010-01-11, I just surfed and looked to a new laptop for gaming, but a friend told me that I had MXM at mine so I
should look it up before I went to go and buy a new one for kind 1 500£ or Euro or 2000$.
Yes, I find the http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/ (http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/) site and this

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=396320 (http://forum.notebookreview.com
/showthread.php?t=396320) and of course this fabulous site.
(bookmarked) Like I even had to mentioned that?
My comp. was compatibility with HD4670, HD4650, HD3650. So after typing kinda stuff in google bar, “mxm where to buy”
phrases didn´t hit so many hits. So why not Ebay? Looked around there and found many HD3650 brand new for saleprice
70$ not incl. shipping worldwide, many Chinese dudes sitting on computer components. How weird? (ironic)
My question to you my friend @Morris Lee can you get HD4650 or 70 for a comparison price from your friend incl. shipping
price or the price at HD3650 has been gone down. He maybe have sale out for those cards? =D
I live in Sweden, the country we have -25C degrees right now and walking polar bears at the street like the Americans think.
(No offense to the USA, just some of the ppl).
Best Regards
Stefan
@Stefan,
I am don’t think he has any HD4XXX series, only HD3650, 8600m GT
Morris Lee
@Morris Lee
BTW why does we do an @ in the beginning of the name? I did it just because everyone else did it ^^
Okay what does it cost you think? With shipping also, living in Sweden like I told ya before
“BRAND NEW” on ebay for 70 dollars, but don´t know the shipping cost lands on. Have your friend a similiar
price? Or cheaper? =))
BR
Stefan
35 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Hey morris, i can buy a hd 4650. But what do i need to do to get the heat down, so it wont get to hot?
And will it work in my 5920g without any drivers? I cant get into windows as my 8600M GS died.
@Thomas
pls, where can I buy a HD4650 to mine 5920G.. plss tell me!!
@ Stefan,
U can buy it here:

http://www.notebook-doctor.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=hd4650
(http://www.notebook-doctor.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=hd4650)
They are pretty expensive.
@Stefan,
ahah, I did it just because everyone does it too , not sure about the real reason…
My contact can test the cards sometimes, he has machines to test for the buyers, but it cost arounf $200
USD right now. Not cheaper
Other then the place Thomas mentioned, I don’t know anywhere else.
@Thomas,
You will need drivers, you can find them on Acer website. And yes, the website you showed everone is the only source I
found, and it looks sketchy~~
Morris Lee
okay spanks @Thomas!
yes maybe little over my budget, perhaps I shall be pretty pleased with a HD3650 GFU, enough to play
L4D and CS:S.
I guess it will work better than mine 8600GT did
Maybe you have some test or reviews with Aspire 5920G HD3650 @Morris ?
BTW what does your contact take for price for HD3650 and shipping? The 200$ price you wrote
before was for the HD46xx I guess?
And I think I figured out why people use @ in front of the name, if you write @ before the name at facebook than you are
tagging(linking) someone and go directly to the person, maybe that´s why ppl does an @?
BR
Stefan
@Stefan,
$200 is everything, including shipping, it is a 512MB card DDR2
I think the @ is just who you are addressing to, like I am addressing to you right now.
The only test I did on the HD3650, I got a score of 4888 in 3d mark 06, after overclocking though, and I use copper plate
36 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
aha okay, sorry I don´t know if its just me or something, maybe be slow in the head or something when you
are writing 200$ include all thing, are we still talking about the HD3650 card or HD4650 or HD4670? Thx for
answering so fast mate ;D
Hi again! I couldn´t hold me, so I bought a HD3650 Card at ebay right now, so now am I looking forward to screw
my computer again and hope it will be better this time, if it will work functionally I will buy a SDD so the comp. will
fly awaaaay!! By the way, I bought the card for 71($)dollar inclusive shipping.. kinda cheap, instead of buying one
here it should cost at least three times more here at home, just for the damn card.
BR
Stefan
@Stefan,
Yes, I look forward to your success too!
Morris Lee
@morris
Hey morris, tried checking the temp of the gpu again, now im getting a minimum of 60 and a max of 87. It
increased from a min of 44 and max of 75 when the copper mod was newly applied.
any idea of what caused this? should i reapply the mode thing again?
@adm15,
did you clean the surface of the copper? did you use Arctic Silver 5 on both sides?
yep. as5 both sides and cleaned the copper. checked the temps again and now the min is back to mid 40s. i don’t
get the fluctuation at all.
btw, any link to nice overclocking guides?
@adm15,
I am not sure about the overclocking guide, cause i just do it by myself. I do it through BIOS though, not software.
@morris
Ah, my current figures are 595, 494. Will it be worth it to overclock those?
I just need to follow the steps you gave to tberg before?
@adm15,
you can probably push the core to 650MHz, RAM to 550Mhz, 50Mhz more for each pretty much, but watch your
temperature
37 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Morris Lee
@morris
Okay. Ill try the bios method. after my exams. haha i feel intimidated with the flashing the bios thing.
o btw, what driver do you use? sorry for being such a bugger
@adm15,
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/25948-atiamd-86821-acer/
(http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/25948-atiamd-86821-acer/)
enjoy!
@ morris
thanks! I really appreciate this site. so much help for acer users all around the world hehe
215. Vincent wrote, on January 16th, 2010:
@Stefan,
Hi, I bought myself a HD 3650 off from eBay at your mentioned price as well few days ago. It would takes around
a week or two to get here. So, hopefully we could share our modding experiences later on when we get our
hands dirty. Cheer!
@adm15 and @Morris
Hi, first I’m happy for you adm15 for your success in swapping your GPU and Morris, you are awesome always.
While waiting, I would like to place my order on those Thermal Pad (3M) which I find available in my local e-Garage. To do
so, I need the exact size of RAM. The vendor would cut it accordingly and of course I would purchase the size with some
offset around the actual RAM size. Do you still have the value in mind?
Copper modding seems to be very effective in this case. Could you provide me the size too or maybe just thickness itself
would be perfect? Thanks in advance for everything.
BR,
Vincent
@Vincent,
the copper is .8-.9mm thick, roughly 1cmx1cm, same as for the thermalpads for the RAM.
@vincent good luck! Morris made it easy.
@morris i downloaded the zip from the link you gave, and run the setup, but when i check device manager, driver
version stays the same. any tip for this? thanks
@adm15,
38 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
interesting, does it say 8.682.1? what is the date of the driver in device manager that it says?
@morris
it says 8.513, 7/8/2008.
@adm15,
I suggest uninstalling the driver, after rebooting, use Driver Sweeper or Driver cleaner clean out all ATi drivers,
reboot again, then install the one I linked you
@morris,
nope. didn’t work. uninstalled, rebooted, ran driver sweeper, and rebooted again. after running the setup file, i
checked device manager and i’m now running the standard vga. tried having the device manager look for the
driver in the folder from the link, and got no hits. Ill run may display with what i get from windows update in the
meantime.
@adm15,
are you on XP? which ever case, you can try here http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/
(http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/) search for Mobility HD3650
@morris,
cool. since im using 32-vista, ill use x86 right? amd64 for 64 bit?
@admin15,
Yes! you are correct, but remember, not only AMD has 64bit
Morris Lee
@morris
No luck. after uninstalling the display driver from windows update (which is 3.850, january 2009) and cleaning up,
the standard vga driver installs. I try to update the driver by having the device manager look the 3.86 up in the
folder where i downloaded it from windows catalog. Device manager says my display driver is up to date (the vga
standard). Im probably doing it wrong.
is there a big diff between the two drivers anyway? the 3.8621 (June 2009) and the 3.850 (january 2009)?
@adm15,
if you don’t play the latest games, you will be fine witht he january one.
but I am not sure why it is not installing for you, what is your device ID?
39 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@morris,
well, i did all of this hard work to play dragon age. that’s pretty much it so let’s push forward!
according to gpu-z, my device id is 1002-9591.
@adm15,
can I have the full string of it? like mine is

PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9591&SUBSYS_01211025&REV_00
Is this it? PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9591&SUBSYS_01211025&REV_00\4&176ACB4A&0&0008
btw, i might try replacing the copper plate I put. I might put something a bit bigger because the one I have now
doesn’t feel the whole gap. I also would try to apply as5 as cleanly as possible. right now, my temps starts at 42
degrees at startup, launches up to mid 90s while playing codmw2, then decreases to about 50 degrees and won’t
go lower than that after. Just wanna try what happens
oh wait. i think this is the correct one:

pci\ven_1002&dev_9591&subsys_01211025
that’s the matching device id from device manager/display driver/ properties/ details
@adm15,
hum… driver I linked you should install fine, at least it works in windows 7, but it does have XP, Vista, and 7 all
packaged in one.
maybe try windows 7?
Morris Lee
ill install windows 7 after my exam on wednesday. im trying out stuff (like overclocking/undervolting) in this laptop
before doing a clean install. thanks dude! ill update when i get to do something brilliant. hehe
233. Mike F wrote, on January 21st, 2010:
Hi Morris,
Thank you very much for this incredibly informative site!
I’m considering buying a 3650 to put in my 5920g – just a little concerned about the initial bios loading
on the card. If the card doesn’t have an Acer bios preloaded will i be completely unable to see
anything on screen or will i be able to get in to the os and update?
Thanks Man!
234. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 21st, 2010:
@Mike F,
technically yes, if it is not compatible, you won’t see anything, but typically for the HD3650 with the 5920G I have
seen so far is problem less, when you are on ebay, check the description, they say if it is for acer and HP, those
should work fine.
if there is no screen, you need to do a blind flash, but sometimes it does not work, since if the video card is not compatible, it
40 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
won’t even load the BIOS, so don’t bet your money on that, just get something that is stated for acer and HP
Morris Lee
235. Michal wrote, on January 21st, 2010:
Hi Morris,
I changed the graphics card on my 5920G to ATI 3650 (from 8600M GT), which I bought on ebay
(http://cgi.ebay.com.my/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3650-MXM-II-Graphics-
Card-512MB_W 0QQitemZ250526607694QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item3a548ca94e)
(http://cgi.ebay.com.my/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3650-MXM-II-Graphics-
Card-512MB_W0QQitemZ250526607694QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item3a548ca94e)) . What I read
there, the card is able to work with this notebook, but no luck ;-( the boot is ok, I think, but got nothing on screen…
have you please any idea what to do? The bios on notebook is the latest, so probably to flash the graphics card BIOS? Do
you know how?
thank for some advice, Michal
236. Mike F wrote, on January 22nd, 2010:
Thanks Morris, much appreciated!!
237. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 22nd, 2010:
@Michal,
they simply pulled the list from mxm upgrade’s website, which displays a insufficient in this aspect.
They never specifically said that THEIR version of HD3650 works with the acer aspire 5920. if you
can, return it, flashing the bios will lose the warranty most likely.
I never did blind flashing before, you should be able to find some on mxm-upgrade.
@Mike F,
no problem!
238. adm15 wrote, on January 22nd, 2010:
@Michal,
that happened to me when i tried installing the 3650 to my 5920g without the copper mod.
239. anil wrote, on January 22nd, 2010:
hi morris. i have acer aspire 5520g with nvidia 8400m g. today i tried to upgrade it with 3650, everything went
smooth while replacement except i didnt have a thermal paste so i couldnt applied it on the gpu surface. but there
was some amount of thermal paste left on the heatsink and i used heat pads from 8400m g on the rams. i
completed the installation and open vista after 1 or 2 mins. later, while i was clicking on setup.exe of ati driver
screen got black. then i restarted the vista, this time when i click on the mozilla.exe again the black screen came
out. my question is for you: what caused this situation? not applied thermal paste or is there a vbios problem. if you reply my
question i’ll be glad…
240. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 23rd, 2010:
@anil,
so you are saying you are using the original thermalpad for the core that is from the 8400m GS? cause that one
should not be thick enough to contact the HD3650 core, you should try using the one from RAM and move it over.
41 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@Michal
No luck at all????
I bought my card from that store in eBay too and it will be here tomorrow. Sigh, my feet are chilling out.
@Morris
Thanks for the dimensions.
242. anil wrote, on January 24th, 2010:
thx for your reply. you are right.now, i ordered thermal grase, i am going to apply it on the core and use thermal
pads on the rams. i think this is the right combination:D
@Michal,
I asked the vendor and he told me that the card is preloaded with acer vBios. So maybe you should
try out what adm15 was doing back then, which was the copper mod.
I just received my item and will get my hand on it tomorrow once I receive everything I ordered such
as heat spreader and copper.
@Guys,
Oh yeah! My screen is back online, yieepiee!!
One thing, I could not boot into DOS even though I did do the right setting. It manage to boot but end up stuck
when it show FreeDos. So I did try to create another boot stick using dos.img file and somehow it stuck while
showing MS Dos. Why is that happening?
As for my copper mod, I use 0.1 mm thickness of copper sheet and since Morris you told me the size would be 0.9mm right,
so I double the layer instead. Still, I’m not sure how was it until I can get myself flash!
Vincent
@Morris,
By the way, what is the program uses to grab the temperature reading of the GPU? Thanks for all the help up till
now!
@Vincent,
Congratulations! Welcome to the club! I used amd gpu clock tool and gpu-z to get the temp readings. I had the
same problem with freedos, so i never got to try to flash. Anyway, my temps range from 50-90, so overclocking
is not an option. I’d love to undervolt though! Hope you get better temps!
@morris,
any chance you’ll put up an 5920 cpu upgrade/swap? haha, i only have a T5250 1.5 ghz in my 5920g hehe
@adm15,
Thanks! If you are not flashing then are you saying that you use GPU-Z to grab the bios directly in Window?
By the way, I just downloaded the latest ATI driver by Morris.
42 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@adm15,
CPU upgrade, sigh… don’t have enough extra funding for even a T7300. Donations anyone? LOL
@Vincent,
You can try the ATIwinflash, not sure where to get it anymore, but you need 32bit OS to flash your video card firmware,
works good, but you can’t extract current one I recall.
Morris Lee
@Morris,
I just formatted my PC with a clean 32-bits Vista Ultimate installation. Everything seem to work normally except
the Ati driver. I installed the latest driver which is v8.635 but then when I checked in Device Manager, it shows
other driver (I forget the name but its belongs to microsoft I guess). Even when I tried to update the driver by
locating the search location to the 8.635, nothing changes.
Any idea?
@Vincent,
which driver are you trying to install?
Morris Lee
251. Michal wrote, on January 25th, 2010:
Hi to all,
thanks to replies, I tried one more think – I made an USB bootable stick with MSDOS and i put there the AtiTool.
After the system start I run the prepared BAT file with Atitool inside with the parameters to write the info about
the adapters in computer. The output was set to file and after this all -> “No adapters found”.
So after this I spoke with the guy from ebay and I sent him the card back…But to China, so have to wait another 20 days or
more ;-(
Michal
@Morris,
The driver I used was the one from you link to Adm15. Weird, the version appears on the site is 8.6821.1 but
when I downloaded it, it is 8.635.
The link is
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/25948-atiamd-86821-acer/ (http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/25948-
atiamd-86821-acer/)
I will try downloading it again and also the one from the link you recommended on the top of your post.
@Morris,
Add-on: Should I need to use WinFlash? Or could I just simply use GPU-Z which I find it quite easy to use. Is
there any different?
43 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@Morris,
Updates: Okay, I have just installed Ati driver version 8.513 and it works perfectly. But then, since I’m quite font
of playing games myself, getting a better driver would not be considered a waste of effort. So, please continue to
guide me!
@Vincent,
I just use gpu-z to get temperature readings. nothing else. hehe and the my bios is 8.633. The link Morris gave
did not show any driver compatible with 3650, for whatever reason, when i tried to look for the driver manually. I
don’t know where i got 8.633 haha. I collected a lot of drivers when i was preparing to upgrade to win7. Best of
luck to you!
@adm15,
Thanks and congratz. If you are using GPU-Z just to get the temp reading, then what method did you use to
backup and flash your bios? Could GPU-Z use to flash my card without having to go through those dos flashing
thingy?
Anyway, I just run 3DMark06 test and I got 3746 with my default bios setting which run at 600/500 (GPU/Ram) MHz with
1.1v. Averagely, my temp maintains in between 50-55C. Somehow, I manage to peek into the temp reading while
benchmarking, it goes up to 68C. Anyway, I will try to install some games after this to check out the temp at 100% load.
Btw, regarding Radeon Bios Editor (RBE), I’m having this pop-up showing stating that my card does not support overdrive.
Does that mean my card is not able to overclock? And what is the maximum clock rate for both GPU and RAM of my HD3650
DDR2 512MB?
Vincent
@vincent,
i got new bios from acer, and i think it had winphlash or something. I have no idea how to flash using gpu-z. I
never flashed my vbios, only the normal bios. I think there’s a way to overclock using software, not by flashing try
looking for overclocking guides forum.notebookreview.com
after running 3dmark while logging using gpu-z, try clicking the temp and looking for “max” just so you’ll see
how high it actually goes.
if it’s really 68 degrees, you’re lucky! I have no idea why mine reaches 90 degrees
@adm15,
Never thought of that (reading the max value). I will post it here once I get the reading. I don’t believe it is 68
degrees though.
By the way, what do you mean by Acer Bios? Is it you meant by the menu that used to select our boot drive
sequence? or did they actually send you the bios for your ATI display card?
@vincent,
boot drive sequence. i never flashed my ati card with a new bios. not yet at least. maybe soon …
44 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
Vincent wrote, on January 26th, 2010:
@adm15,
Okay, I score 88 degrees (max) while running 3Dmark06. So, it is good or bad?? No idea at all. Besides, the
temp hits 54 degrees during normal operation so I could say I have successfully swap my GPU personally
*BUMP!! Lol
Right now, I would love to get my hand on the latest driver available. I found 8.633 and it was designed MSI
laptop driver. So, for now it is just a matter of compatibility. Does it match somehow?
Vincent
I have no idea about the bios matching. I found the 8.633 in the acer website for 5920g, Win7(32bit). That’s what
im using.
88 degrees i think is normal for the 5920g, based on the comments in forums.notebookreview.com. The 5920g
gets pretty hot and the cooling system is not that good. Other people post high 70s, mid80s in their laptops.
Maybe time to clean your vents? There’s a cooling guide in the forums there too. hehe
Congratulations on the swap! tell us about your flashing when get to do it.
@adm15, Vincent,
Woooohh!! I missed TAG for few days, feels like I missed 100000 messages!!!
@Vincent,
Weird, the driver I linked should work with HD3650, at least for acer versions, maybe mine is exactly genuine Acer device ID,
therefore it only works for me. You can look up http://www.cell-systems.net (http://www.cell-systems.net) for 3rd party
ATi Drivers.
@adm15,
I don’t think there is much differences, as long as it can run games fine(where the powerplay is working properly, sleep and
shutdown also works) then you are in the green!
Morris Lee
263. NekoBones wrote, on January 27th, 2010:
Hey i have a Acer Extensa 7620G…
it has a ATI mobility HD 2400 XT
this card has done me well but its definatly time to upgrade….
im wanting a HD 3650 as these are definatly brilliant value for money due to the perfomance….
could you give me info on the guy who sells them as im wanting one that will definatly work in a acer laptop….
another thing is are they DDR2 or GDDR3?
really hope they are GDDR3 but i may have to settle with a DDR2 because i cant seem to find anyone selling them -_-
anyway hope to hear back very soon as im doing a full upgrade of this laptop with a T9500, 4GB ram etc etc…
NekoBones
45 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14
@morris
46 of 46 07/04/2010 13:14

DIY Guide To Replace The Graphics Card in The Aspire 5920 Model

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The Acer Guy » Blog Archive » Morris’ Aspire 5920 GPU Swap/upgrade http://www.theacerguy.com/2008/12/morris-aspire-5920-gpu-swapupg...

Unofficial Acer Blog

The Acer Guy (http://www.theacerguy.com/)

Morris’ Aspire 5920 GPU Swap/upgrade (http://www.theacerguy.com/2008/12/morris-

posted by Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) on December 1st, 2008

1a. Suggested Tools

1a. Suggested tools:

philips screw driver

2a. Opening the back plate

Once all the screws are removed, you should be able to

2b. Replacing the card

The card’s compatibility can be tricky, but if you chose the

3a. Install the driver (ATi)

You will be able to retrieve the driver from here

3b. Install the driver (NVIDIA)

You will be able to retrieve the driver from here

- My card had Acer bios preloaded, a blind flash may be

- I am actually using ATi Mobility Radeon HD3650, since

- This DIY guide is written by me.

- The primary opjective for this guide is to share my

- Link to the picture gallery (http://techdaily.uni.cc

Tagged As: Expert Voices (http://www.theacerguy.com/category/expert-voices/)

HP Mini 210 Notebook

You want comments? We got comments:

1. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 9th, 2008:

2. Attila wrote, on December 22nd, 2008:

3. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 22nd, 2008:

4. Attila wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:

does your old card work with the machine?

6. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:

7. Attila wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:

8. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:

However, I must tell you, I upgraded to an ATi Mobility HD3650

9. Attila wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:

Many Thanks & Merry Xmas!

10. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 23rd, 2008:

Merry Christmas to you too!

11. Attila wrote, on December 24th, 2008:

It’s was pretty fast… Thanks for your time.

12. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 24th, 2008:

13. Attila wrote, on December 25th, 2008:

15. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 26th, 2008:

16. Zach wrote, on December 27th, 2008:

17. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 27th, 2008:

I am sorry, no you can’t, you don’t have a MXM slot

18. Zach wrote, on December 28th, 2008:

darn. payed up £500 too.

19. danny wrote, on December 30th, 2008:

20. Ronald wrote, on December 30th, 2008:

I just purchased a new one a few days ago…Please advise.

21. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on December 30th, 2008:

22. micter softy wrote, on January 4th, 2009:

23. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 4th, 2009:

24. mister softy wrote, on January 5th, 2009:

25. Ronald wrote, on January 5th, 2009:

I assume my 8600GS is a G86.

So my 8600GS is fine bone stock without tweaking? That’s great!

26. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 5th, 2009:

27. 5920G! wrote, on January 12th, 2009:

28. Morris Lee (http://techdaily.uni.cc/) wrote, on January 12th, 2009:

8600m GT is the max you can get

29. djrh wrote, on January 19th, 2009: