Annoying keyboard lag problem with Acer 4520
A number of my friends recently bought Acer 4520 laptops. These laptops are from Acer’s new Gemstone series.
These babies really look good, are very affordable and packed with so many features. In fact, I can even suggest them for those who are into light PC gaming since there are models that carry nice ATI or Nvidia GPUs.
But here’s the problem, a number of them are complaining about an annoying keyboard lag. They press a key and it takes a second before it registers on screen. It’s a minor glitch, yes. But it can be very annoying, too. My friends have tried updating drivers from the Acer website with no improvements. A laptop store owner who is a member in one of the forums we go to admitted that he has not been able to duplicate the keyboard lag problem in any of the Acer 4520 units in his store. He then suggested replacing the RAM inside the laptops to Hynix modules, which some of my friends did. He may have been on to something with his suggestion because some of the 4520 owners did upgrade to bigger RAMs but they used the Kingston brand. The guy suggested Hynix because he noticed that Acer uses RAMs from this manufacturer. The result? Although some reported that the situation improve slightly — meaning the response is a little faster — the lag was still there!
My friends are pissed because they could not find any solution to this annoyance. Last I heard, they are planning to compile a list of 4520 owners who has the same problem and then contact Acer with an official complaint. I’ll keep you guys posted about this.
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Comments / What do you think?
August 17th, 2007
oh noo.. i planning to buy this machine.. hope this bug will fixed..
August 20th, 2007
I also have this problem, I’ve upgraded the RAM since day one i bought this damn machine, I’m a programmer and this lag really annoys me!!!
If there is any solution to this problem please inform me :)
Thanx before!
August 20th, 2007
I’ll keep you informed about any new developments regarding this guys.
August 20th, 2007
[...] has been a great response to my blog post about the keyboard lag problem on the Acer 4520 laptops. It seems that people who bought the laptop in other countries are also experiencing the same [...]
August 21st, 2007
hi i came across your first post on the Acer 4520 right after i got it. its great..EXCEPT for the 2nd post you raised which was on the keyboard lag (in fact that prob got me right as i was typing the word keyboard earlier, the backspace just doesnt response well if at all, ironically its almost forcing the typist to develop errorfree typing skills ha!)..i read many sites and came across a rather simple yet interesting solution that seems to work finally! (oh some my friends who had been advent laptop users, said that they had experienced this prob previously so it is not just inherent in Acer, leading me to suspect…hey get in touch with me k!! cheers!!
August 30th, 2007
I bought an acer 4520 this week, and I now see your website. as I am not a geek and have no knowledge of laptops, should I think of returning this one, or wait to test it
Thankyou
Joan
August 31st, 2007
The Acer 4520 is a good value for money laptop. If the keyboard lag is something that you can live with and you can follow the solutions for eliminating the problem then just keep it. You can also ask your dealer if they can help you fix the problem using the solutions given here. If that is a little too much for you (and I know it can be quite a handful especially for people who admit to not being to comfortable with tech related matters) then a replacement is the best option. Acer does have other models that do not have this keyboard lag problem.
September 13th, 2007
additional rams will not solve keyboard lag.
just bring your notebook on acer service center near to you and ask them to re-flash your bios and your problem will be gone.
October 2nd, 2007
Hello nice blog! !!
pen
It’s my new page.about shoes.
October 2nd, 2007
This is not limited to your model, it appears to happen to the aspire as well - my mate has one as do I - mine us dual core 2ghz and his is AMD 2X64 2ghz too his has a gig of RAM and mine has 2 gig. Thought it may be Vista being slow at first but it happens under XP too (complete reformat and clean installation). It seems to be an ACER problem rather than any OS/driver issues.
Dan
October 4th, 2007
Hey Mel… I have just bought an acer gemstone and I haven’t got the keyboard lag problem that you mentioned. I had an idea as to what it might be though. I have a gemstone aspire 5720 with 2GB RAM, and noticed that most of the time windows vista runs it at around 1GB RAM without any programs open! There are many of these models sold around with just 1GB RAM. My comp nerd friend tells me that Windows Vista just chews RAM. This might be where the keyboard lag problem lies… what do ya think? Hades
October 9th, 2007
Hi Hades, the RAM issue with Vista was one of the first things looked at by Acer buyers who suffered from the lag. I think I’ve written somewhere here that some users even tried upgrading their RAM or even buying branded RAM. All to no avail. The problem was identified with drivers for the mousepad.
The RAM issue is a big deal though. I just recently upgraded to a new videocard for my desktop and I am encountering a problem with some games. I’ll blog about it soon. :)
October 11th, 2007
I have been having issues with my acer aspire 5101awlmi (I think thats it dont quote me on that) and its meant to have 1GB a RAM but firstly it showed up as 849MB (80GB HDD) and was having the keyboard lag that you have been talking about… SO ANNOYING!
I sent it away to get fixed ((it had even more problems than this but wont go into details) and I finally get it back and its now reading the RAM at 949MB ???? What the…?? Any explanations on this or am I just thick? Cos my boyfriend has the same laptop just like an upgrade model up - and his is also 1GB and reads at 1GB, so why doesnt mine.
Also the 80GB HDD is partitioned into 2 parts (as normal) and I know that some of the space just disapears somewhere.. but one side reads like 51.4Gb and the other side reads 14.0 GB - this just doesnt seem right to me.. I duno… any replys would be useful.. Im not a moron, I know a fair bit about computers, but it doesnt help to just have back up opinions does it? :-)
THANKS!
October 16th, 2007
I have the 4520 and the lag can be fixed by updating the BIOS. Google acer 4520 club. The thread is dedicated to setting up xp on the 4520 but has a fix for the lag which I imagine would work if you wanted to keep vista on it as well.
October 18th, 2007
Hello, I bought an Acer Aspire 5720 (Gemstone) with 2GB RAM in the Netherlands and I’m having the same keyboard lag problem. Very annoying!!!
grtz
October 21st, 2007
I too have this lag spike trouble when I press the keyboard ingame. I have an ASUS gaming laptop and all is smooth. Yet, a couple of minutes later after ingame it has this lag spike problem. Also, it makes a beep sound everytime I press a button.
My specs are:
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz, 2.0GB RAM, NIVDIA GeForce 8600 GT
October 25th, 2007
I bought 4520 recently here in US from Staples. In my case it just misses a keystroke completely..!!
Whats more, Acer US site doesnt list 4520… there’s not a single model under Aspire series that begins with a 4..!! Dont know where Staples ppl got it from.. I am stuck as I dont know exact RAM specs..
Mine came with AMD Turion Dual Core with Vista Home Prem and 1 GB RAM.. anybody here, can you tell me RAM frequency and pins… and where do I buy it in US.. pls ASAP..
October 29th, 2007
Try to download and install either Everest or Sisandra Soft. These utilities will help you determine what kind of RAM your laptop has.
October 30th, 2007
disable your touchpad while typing. prob may be solved. and use an external mouse.
November 11th, 2007
I tweaked the settings on my Synaptics Application. Here is what I did:
1. Open Synaptic Appz and go to Device Settings Tab.
2. Select Synaptic and Click on Settings.
3. Go to Tap Zones and Uncheck Enable Tap Zone.
4. Select Pointer Motion, Go to Edge Motion, and Select No Edge Motion.
5. Now the last thing I did was, Select Pointer Refresh Rate, and Check Slow Refresh Rate.
All these steps fixed my Keyboard Lagging on my Acer Aspire 4520. Keyboard responded normal now and its really nice to work with.
November 17th, 2007
Have same keyboard lag problem on my Acer Aspire 4520 and am looking for a fix.
November 19th, 2007
I bought my acer aspire laptop with a vista operating system, then I change it to microsoft xp, coz I don’t like vista and it’s running slow, since I replace it with XP I never had a problem since then. It could be causing that problem with that vista that they install in the machine. I have a couple of friends bought different brand of labtop and they also have different kind of problems in there machine, since they replaced vista to microsoft XP they never had a problem anymore.
I HOPE THAT THIS WILL HELP YOU.
November 24th, 2007
Hey
I went ahead with a BIOS update for the 7720 which fixed the keyboard lag. However now the mouse jumps around the screen and sometimes gets stuck. I contacted ACER and they say they do not support BIOS updates so I am stuck basically.
December 1st, 2007
A lot of useful information to be found here. I’ve bought a 4520G in Thailand and experienced the keyboard lag immediately. I followed the workaround solution outlined on this site — I actually modified my touchpad settings rather than actually disable them entirely — and now my keyboard works like a snap. I have found on the web a more permanent solution described, which no doubt many of you have already seen and some have tried. Please refer to http://coolerpads.blogspot.com Problem is that the links to download the 2 necessary files (SWinFlash2034.exe and Z03_3619.wph) are dead. I found the SWinFlash2034.exe file on another site and would be happy to share it. If someone has alreay done this BIOS update, could you upload a zipped (.zip) copy which includes BOTH files. http://www.sendspace.com allows you to upload the .zip file — just provide the link on this site for anyone who wishes to download thereafter. I can provide a more permanent server space for the two files once I have copies of them myself.
December 6th, 2007
My Acer Aspire 5520-5912 has the same problem with lagging keyboard and touchpad response. I’ve tryed all the various settings. This notebook came with “2GB’s” of RAM and Vista Home Premium. The problem is very annoying. Sometimes typed characters are completely missed and I have to make corrections.
December 10th, 2007
Pritam’s message of Nov 11 2007 solved keyboard lap problem, after I figured out that “Synaptic Appz” means Control Panel/Mouse. I’ll repeat the rest of the instructions that worked:
1. Open Synaptic Appz and go to Device Settings Tab.
2. Select Synaptic and Click on Settings.
3. Go to Tap Zones and Uncheck Enable Tap Zone.
4. Select Pointer Motion, Go to Edge Motion, and Select No Edge Motion.
5. Now the last thing I did was, Select Pointer Refresh Rate, and Check Slow Refresh Rate
December 13th, 2007
i have the same problem with keyboard lag on acer aspire 4520
December 16th, 2007
Hey, I just tried the fix above and it worked on my 4520 (now types like a champ with no keyboard lag!))
I’ll repeat/clarify the instructions that worked for me:
1. Go to control panel and select “hardware and sound”.
1B. Click on Mouse to adjust settings.
2. Click on the tab “Device Settings” with the Synaptic “Logo”.
3. Go to Tap Zones and Uncheck Enable Tap Zone.
4. Select Pointer Motion, Go to Edge Motion, and Select No Edge Motion.
5. Select Pointer Refresh Rate, and Check Slow Refresh Rate.
6. Click on the tab called “pointer options” and adjust the pointer speed to suit your needs.
That’s it. I’m now very happy with my computer!
December 22nd, 2007
I’ve recently bought the 5720 model and have had the keyboard lag which hasn’t been too bad really but I’ve also had the mouse jumping about randomly or freezing and it’s been very annoying as I’d be typing stuff out and the mouse would jump into another word and I’d end up typing half way through a word.
I’ve just disabled the tapping and dragging options and I’ve managed to type out this comment without my cursor moving to the middle of other words!!
December 26th, 2007
Hi guys need your help , i have a acer 4520 ,Nvidia GeForce 7000M onboard ,
If i play any video ,it will just reboot itself no errors , Please feel free to contact me
January 2nd, 2008
I was having a heck of a time with my keyboard on my new Aspire 5520 and then I found this discussion board. I unchecked my “Enable Tap Zone” and my keyboard is acting like it should.
Thank you!
January 5th, 2008
I just bought the 5520 w/same issues.
In the Mouse properties, I disabled the “tapping” (Tapping) and disabled the “use scroll func.” and “use back/fed buttins” (Gestures). Noticed substantial improved performance of keyboard, with no more jumping mouse or inadvertant drag highlights.
January 11th, 2008
I have an Acer 7720 which has a terrible keyboard lag at times. Like now!! I turned off tapping and scrolling, which only made a minor difference. I do not have a Synaptic touch pad, mine is Alps. I am afraid to flash bios until after I get home from this business trip. I wish there was a simple answer to this problem! I am glad to know that I am not alone!
January 12th, 2008
Went to the Acer Europe website and downloaded Bios V 1.21 for the 7720 (was ver 1.17) and it fixed my typing/keyboard lag problem. Actually, ver 1.19 said it was to fix that problem. It is also supposed to turn the fan on at a lower temperature and fix some other stuff. No jumping mouse problem encountered!!
February 6th, 2008
does anyone have any knowledge about what jim (12.01) posted? i have an 5520 and the jumping mouse is annoying me, i’m thinking about returning my laptop….
February 10th, 2008
Oh, wow, THANK YOU Bill S.! I bought my Acer Aspire 5520 two days ago and have loved everything about it except for the fact that my cursor would sporadically jump around while I was typing. I followed your instructions and now the laptop is PERFECT! Thanks for your detailed instructions!
February 14th, 2008
Keyboard lag problem?
Disconnect the battery and then power the system back up. The issue on older Acer laptops is tied directly to the battery. Sounds strange but try and see for yourself. Patrick/Senior Technician for CyberSouthern Computers
February 21st, 2008
I’ve got the 5520 and this problem with the laggy keyboard is pissing me off something awful, definately on games since it interferes and makes you do stuff you’re not actually doing. I’m thinking about returning this laptop because i’ve had nothing but trouble. I want my keyboard just to response normally like any keyboard would. Can i have more info on the bios updates please.
April 3rd, 2008
I have a new 4520 from Walmart. I’m not seeing these problems. I also own a 5050 and have never seen any of these issues. Maybe mine are new enough the problem is fixed
April 4th, 2008
hi if i want to make a screenshot which buttons i have to press?
April 9th, 2008
Try this to see if it’s a similar issue. Keyboard problems have been known to plage other Acer models. The thing that’s odd is disconnecting the battery and running off of AC power resolved the issue. So start here and see if this takes care of the issue. The question is what does the battery have to do with the keyboard? Patrick, Tech / CyberSouthern Computers http://www.cybersouthern.com
April 9th, 2008
Oh one last thing and having the laptop plugged into power with the battery still installed produced the same problem. You actually have to disconnect the battery and plug the laptop into AC. Let me know if this resolves the issue on these newer computers as it did on the older systems.
April 17th, 2008
There is also a registry tweak that will fix this; it seems to be a particular problem with laptops that are sold with Vista pre-installed.
http://searchwincomputing.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1246895,00.html
May 14th, 2008
I have a 5520 and have the same problem with key
lagging. Typing a email is a real problem (so annoying). Another thing about Vista - so many
of my XP games don’t work.
May 28th, 2008
I bought an Acer Aspire 7720G and have the same keyboard lag and jumpy-mouse pointer problem in both Windows XP and Vista. I’ve tried reinstalling and reconfiguring the touchpad software, updating BIOS, changing drivers, etc all had little to no affect.
Lately on Windows XP; I’ve been getting random freezing as well where I just have to restart my system. I think in this case it may be because the nvidia drivers from Acer have problems with XP and should be running on Vista.
Sigh….
June 15th, 2008
Here is an experiment to show what is wrong when the cursor jumps or there is keyboard lag.
Type on the keyboard, although keep your hands elevated so that no fingers or palms touch the touchpad at all. You should see that the cursor does not jump and that there is no keboard lag. The problem is that many people want to keep their touchpads and don’t want to disable them.