Never buy an Acer. EVER.

[DarkSynergy]

The problem stated about 2 weeks ago when my DVD-/+R on my Acer 1681 WLMi stopped recognizing blank media. This was/is a problem that I contacted them with as soon as it happened. 2 weeks later I have still not heard back form them but since it's only a optical drive, I am really not to terribly worried about it. Then 2 days ago, my notebook just starts shitting all over me. The windows loading screen takes forever to load windows and when it does, I log into my account and then it locks up. The problem is that the PC cannot access the hard drive. At all. This is a problem that I have contacted them with and have not heard anything back from them at all. I can't even call them without paying $2.95 a minute. All this is happening and my warranty ran out at the end of September. Anything that can only last 15 months is a pile in my opinion.

God damn you Acer. Damn you to hell! :techgage:

[madmat]

Ouch, that's just wrong. I'm thinking that the problem is related to the mobo more than the drives as it stopped seeing media on one drive then stopped seeing the other drive during bootup.

I hope you get it resolved man, I know what it's like to have those kinds of issues.

[DarkSynergy]

Well, still on reply so I am going to hvae to pull the hard drive and slave it over to my desktop. There are a few reviews on there that I have to hvae and once they are recovered, I am going to do a fresh install and see how that goes...

Time will tell but one thing thats certain, I am never dicking with Acer again.

[madmat]

FWIW, ASUS makes a really nice notebook and I believe they offer a better warranty.

The shop I worked at in Russellville sold the ASUS lappies and never had one come back for anything more than ram upgrades or u.e.

[DarkSynergy]

I was actually thinking of building an Asus. If Acer wont work with me, and I am afraid that they wont, I would love to build a barebones Asus and actually build it myself. The Acer I have now has a mobility 9700 pro in it and that is more than enough at the moment for games. Hell, I can even play BF2 with it so if my Acer is toast, I am strongly thinking about trying Asus out.

Thanks for the recommendation! I do appreciate it.

[madmat]

Not a problem, glad to help :)

[Tech-Daddy]

whitebox lappers should be the "next big thing" in my book. Similar to PC's, it is the users ability to put in the componens that they want into a lappper config.

SOrry to hear your woes.

Sounds more like the IDE controller flaked out.

If a fresh install wont work (and I'm betting it wont) and Acer is of no help to you on their product, which blows big chunks, then check out ebay for a similar unit. Someone may be parting out a junker (busted LCD or something). You may get lucky.

Also, look around for a company that supports Acer products. If they are local to you, plead your case to them, and see if there is anything they can do to assist. "They" have a much more established path to Acer than you do, and may have an inside track on getting hte parts needed to repair. Even better, this issue may be something they have seen too much of, and Acer has an "unofficial" policy to "repair on site no questions asked".

Worth a try.

[DarkSynergy]

I received an email from Acer today that stated that I am to call a certain number to discuss my problems and arrange for a repair to be made. This makes me happy but does not exonerate Acer form the problems that I have experienced up to this date and the time that it took them to reply to my problems.

I have made up my mid for the most part that i am going to sell this notebook, should they fix it, and get an Asus W3V notebook. If they decide not to fix it, I might part this notebook out on eBay, cut my losses and get the same Asus notebook. I am honestly tired of Acer and this whole experience has left a bad taste in my mouth for this particular company. I understand that PC parts are differant from notebooks but I have never owned an Asus product that I have had a problem with. I did fry a mobo once but I RMA'd it and recieved a brand new mobo from them without any questions at all. I love Asus but wish their boards OC'd more than what they do...

[Rob Williams]

I'm glad to hear that you are on the road to recovery man... I will never look twice at an ACER laptop in the future. I'm happy with my Dell for the most part, but wish I had been smarter with picking one with a better video card.

My next laptop will likely be a Thinkpad, but I don't really think they are for gaming either. I can't wait to see what you think of the ASUS one when you end up picking it up.

[DarkSynergy]

I am not sure if IBM makes the thinkpads anymore or if thats now a name brand but I had an IBM notebook a few years back and it was incredable. IBM makes some of the finest computers in my opinion. And yes, I am getting excited to try out the Asus notebook. This new promotion I got pays out monthly bonuses so I might be able to skate one in sooner than expected :D

[Rob Williams]

IBM passed the Thinkpad over to some other company, but they are still as solid as ever. That rocks about the promotion ^_^

[Blumen]

DS, i think you should do what we briefly talked about today....

Yank the cpu, get the right Intel board, throw my Asus v9999 GE and some decent ram on it, and let's beat the hell out of 100k.

[DarkSynergy]

Well, I am going to give Acer a few more calls and then its on. Get a really nice Intel mobo, the Dothan converter and then it's on like Donkey Kong. The 1.5 Dothan in there is tough, but when it's in a mobo that we can overclock.......killer rig from hell man!

[Blumen]

Let's do this like Brutus.

[Sledgehammer70]

I also had an Acer Computer back int he day, it was one fo the first pieces of Crap I have ever used. I eneded up frying the CPU!

[zachig]

I don't think ACER (or should I call them BENQ) are that bad. Of course they are not one of the leading hardware manufacturers but their products are pretty cheap and worth the money you're paying for. But hey, that's only my opinion. ;)

[tomato]

Acer/Gateway and similar computers of that mainstream sort have gotten my attention, and I will never recommend their computers to anyone. They basically exist for the person who knows nothing about computers, a sort of beginner's system that's all flash (if at all) and not much substance...

[DarkSynergy]

I don't think ACER (or should I call them BENQ) are that bad. Of course they are not one of the leading hardware manufacturers but their products are pretty cheap and worth the money you're paying for. But hey, that's only my opinion. ;)


Would you lease a computer for $100 a month?

Thats all I got from them. Had the thing 15 months, paid $1500. Shitty in my opinion.

But hey, that's only my opinion. ;) lol

[werty316]

I currently have an Acer 17" LCD and find it ok/good. I guess some people get bad experiences.

[DarkSynergy]

^That goes without saying for any product. Was my product out of warranty? Yes. Should it have crapped out so soon? IMO, no. I am more or less upset with Acer for completely blowing me off. It took them 2 weeks to get back with me, only to offer to fix my hard drive when I had tested it, told them taht it worked wonderfully, and they still thought it was the HDD. Many have great experiences with certain companies but I had a problem and it was the way they offered to deal with that problem, or lack there or, that has me preaching against Acer.

[T-Shirt]

IBM passed the Thinkpad over to some other company, but they are still as solid as ever. That rocks about the promotion ^_^
The company is Lenova(china), and they still make the thinkpad line ($$$). They also are now making a budget laptop line with many of the thinkpad features that looks promising.

I don't think Acer is all bad, but DarkSynergy's experince shows the value of a full service warranty with professional service centers in many cities, and fast turn around if it must be shipped in for repair.
This is where Dell has excelled, with up to 4 year full replacement warranties and a high enough volume for factory authorized service centers eveywhere. But you do pay a high price for it, and it's really needed for a notebook, which combines all the high risks (fragile, mobile (rougher treatment than seating under a desk) high cost, limited parts availablity, and less user servicable)
Laptop generally have a 4-5 fold TCO than a similar powered desktop. Luckily we are starting to see some "ruggidized" models(designed based on military and remote industrial service experience)
one of the new ones from Toshiba has a 3D accelerometer three-axis monitoring system detects free falls in all directions and rapidly moves the HDD head from between the HDD platters in preparation for impact.
even if the laptop doesn't survive the HD and your data might and can be plugged in to a replacement unit to quickly get you going again.
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/ebtext.to?page=360_protect

[izzie]

I owned an Acer CD-Writer that never had a problem. It lasted years. I got no complaints against Acer. Not sure why others don't like them. I always believed they made good products.

[SqueekyClean]

I owned an Acer CD-Writer that never had a problem. It lasted years. I got no complaints against Acer. Not sure why others don't like them. I always believed they made good products.

My Acer brand laptop died a few weeks after I got it.

[tugovony]

I just posted a message on another thread about Rosewill. Acer is similiar to Rosewill because they do not manufacturer any of their own parts, they just put their brand name on other company parts. But that is where the similiarity ends, Acer is usually cheaper-quality parts then Rosewill.

Those people who have an Acer product and are happy with it have lucked out. Sometimes Acer puts their brand name on NEC, Samsung, or similiar company products, where those are high quality products.

[DarkSynergy]

There are always people who luck out and get good quality products. Actually, the ratio is is far inthe advantage to the good products. My problem with Acer was not that my notebook died, shit happens, but rather that they would not get back to me in a respectable amount of time. They might have rebadged the notebook, but they were the ones who sold it and that means they are the ones who should make it right when something goes south. And even if they cannot do anything for me to help, at least let me know in a timely manner.....not 2+ weeks.

[Worldstar]

My problem with Acer was not that my notebook died, shit happens, but rather that they would not get back to me in a respectable amount of time. They might have rebadged the notebook, but they were the ones who sold it and that means they are the ones who should make it right when something goes south. And even if they cannot do anything for me to help, at least let me know in a timely manner.....not 2+ weeks.

Its best to judge a company when stuff goes wrong instead of only judging a company when stuff goes right. Its how a company behaves when something goes wrong that seperates the good companies from the bad ones.

[amatuerfisher]

IBM passed the Thinkpad over to some other company, but they are still as solid as ever. That rocks about the promotion ^_^

Lenovo owns the Thinkpad now. The entire PC division of IBM went to lenovo when they decided to sell. I have firsthand experience seeing as how my dad was also sold to the chinese.

The thinkpads are still really great even though it isn't IBM anymore.

[Rob Williams]

I've heard mixed reactions with Lenovo... so I'm not really sure.

[DarkSynergy]

Many of our servers are IBMs here at work and because of the Lenovo purchase, we are seriously contemplating migrating over to Dell's when our 18 month cycle is up.

[amatuerfisher]

Many of our servers are IBMs here at work and because of the Lenovo purchase, we are seriously contemplating migrating over to Dell's when our 18 month cycle is up.


Dell??1!!!??? EWW!!!!!

for the love of god and all that is holy, don't switch to dell. (i might just be biased though :))

[DarkSynergy]

Everyone hates Dell but I have never had a problem with them. Nor have I read anything bad about their server division either. That and Dell is not part owned by Red China. Not that I really have anything wrong with China, but at least here, our quality standards are a bit more controlled.

[amatuerfisher]

true that is the one thing that I hate about lenovo. My dad hates it too because he has to work for the commies

[DarkSynergy]

lol....

We have an eclectic mix of hardware here. We have mostly IBM servers but we just got in a new Dell server and we also have a couple HP. The only reason we are considering Dell is because we had a meeting with their mid-west business rep yesterday and if we go with them, we are hoping to get some good deals to go along with their good support.