AcerAspire review

[PrairieLily]

I am looking to purchase a laptop computer and am considering an Acer Aspire 9804WKMI-MCE notebook. Unfortunately I know NOTHING about Acer computers let alone Acer notebooks. I would like to get feedback from people who either own and use an Acer personally OR who provides technical support and fixes them. Thank you .. PrairieLily

[baines]

I've had my 4010 T'mate for almost a year now-absolutely no problems.
Best machine of any kind I've ever owned.

I'll never buy anything but Acers--most bang for the buck,and just damn good computers .

[eatsmice]

Had my Aspire 2023WLMi for over a year now and no problems at all. I found it the best value of any laptops that my colleagues bought around the same time. It's been to very hot and sandy conditions twice now with no problems with overheating or dust ingress. For the money I reckon I'd buy Acer again.

[PrairieLily]

Thank you to those who provided feedback on the Acer Laptops ... I am looking to purchase by the month end so appreciate all the feedback available.

[corrado85]

have the ferrari 4005 for almost a year now and its been awesome. had to send it for repair to acer and it was a delightful experience. i would not mind at all purchasing another good top of the line acer models

[Morphius]

Another Ferrari 4005 user, no complaints. Had the usual driver upgrade problems but this is all sorted now. Best machine I have ever owned. If you look around the forum you will see people with overheat/restart problems, but you get this with every manufacturer. It really is the luck of the draw. Statistically, for the amount of machines they sell, Acer reliability is above average.

[dn06se]

Ya, my friend also told me that his sister is using Acer notebook for about 3 years adi with no problem at all.(She is a rough user !!!)

[Joost]

I work in a computer store and when somebody wants a new laptop, I sell them an Acer, and quess what, I see more other brands come in for defects then Acer :)

[Morphius]

Joost, I would be really interested in your opinion.

I work as an IT Trainer (UK) so I get to meet a lot of Laptop people. The same unreliable names turn up.

1. Toshiba - Oh man, when ex-owners talk about Toshiba you should hear the swear words!!!

2. HP Compaq - less hated than Toshiba but components break constantly.

3. Dell (Who can be excused for the shear number of machines they sell)

4. Sony (Generally reliable but software support needs work)

5. IBM, hardly hear any complaints at all, and this is generally true of the opinions in these forums.

6. Acer, Never met a person who had a broke one yet! (unless it's here in these forums).

This is in fact the reason I'm an Acer owner. Any thought's from your side would be fascinating...

[Joost]

Mainly, you opinions are correct :) So I just will add some extra notes

1. Toshiba - Oh man, when ex-owners talk about Toshiba you should hear the swear words!!!
- no great service there

2. HP Compaq - less hated than Toshiba but components break constantly.
- some models are just like -kids play platic stuff- I just had a Compaq whoes "rubber feets" on the bottom just melted because of heat problems :thumbdown 3. Dell (Who can be excused for the shear number of machines they sell)

4. Sony (Generally reliable but software support needs work)
- Not bad for ultra-portable pc's but a bit overpriced, support soso

5. IBM, hardly hear any complaints at all, and this is generally true of the opinions in these forums.
- never really dealt with IBM, but worked on some, mainly they look verry strong, but again, super-overpriced
6. Acer, Never met a person who had a broke one yet! (unless it's here in these forums).
- I may be a bid biased, but imo for the middle-class best laptop for his price
(and for higher class one good 8200)

other brands : Siemens : helpdesk/service is THE worst
Packard Bell: used to be overpriced and not that solid, but from september they are comming with a new line that is rather nice priced (still I prever ACER :thumbup: ;) )
This is in fact the reason I'm an Acer owner. Any thought's from your side would be fascinating...

[Morphius]

Thanks for the insight Joost,

I agree with everything you have added. I had been planning to buy Acer for at least two years before I parted with the cash (mainly based on my experience, or should I say, the experience of others). I don't know why some people consider Acer a 'suspect brand' because they have been turning out long lasting laptops for ages. Maybe the name doesn't sound as exciting as Sony... Who knows?

[Joost]

I don't know why some people consider Acer a 'suspect brand'

The reason for that is, I think, because Acer is not one of the biggest players in the usa, but Acer is on the other hand the third-largest PC vendor in EMEA – Europe, Middle East and Africa. :)

[buckztorm]

Bought our daughter an Aspire 5003 WLMi 6 months ago, had a lot of trouble.When we first took it home it wouldn't go into 'standby mode'. We would see all these squiggly lines on the screen. Took it back to Circuit City and they re-installed the recovery disk, told us if it happened again they would exchange it. 15 days later same thing so they did. A month after that same thing with new one,we also get the blue screen with what I call DOS looking script about 'Windows is fixing corrupted files and folders'.This goes on & on for a long time (45 min or so)& we can't stop it.Acer tells me it's a software glitch with Windows, I go to MS site no fixes that I can see. It's March 23 2007 & it just crashed again with another problem ,the DVD quit & it says it can't see the 'driver' and you can't get it from Acer or the Pioneer site, I tried,and now that blue screen is back with the "Windows is fixing... 12% complete." script. I shut it off and rebooted with the recovery disk in the carriage and it loaded it, ( so it must see the drivers now!)We are now back to the original out of the box desktop,however everything is lost(at least I can't see any of the original stuff ie: 2007 Norton etc), plus all her school work.This unit is only 6 mo old, is ALWAYS shut down properly , & has no exotic stuff on it, only schoolwork, notes etc.
Can anyone advises us how to backup the entire c drive, not just 'data' ,so we can reload it in it's entirety when this happens again and I'll bet my bootle it will.We tried once & got " these are not video files". I hope we don't have to use CD's, we'd need a 100 of them!
Is anyone else having these crash problems with the 5003's and has Acer sluffed you off as well?
Any advice would be most greatly appreciated,& with THANKS.
Dad & Sarah

[Evaders99]

If you didn't create the recovery disks when you initially got the computer, you won't be able to reinstall things without a Windows disc. If it has a DVD burner, it should burn a DVD image. I remember the Acer I got took about 5 CDs but fit on one DVD just fine.

[buckztorm]

Thanks Evaders, We took it back to Circuit City last night & exchanged it for an Asus A8H, hope it works out better.
Question; Can anybody advise me if my daughter can burn a 'recovery disk' at anytime; like as she adds software ie: anti virus etc, and work, & how does she do it, & if there's a crash, by installing the recovery disk, will it bring the unit back to the setup when the disk was burnt?
Also has anyone had any experience getting a refund from Acer on an extended warranty, bought 3 yr ExW it 6 mo ago never used it.
Thanks

[Evaders99]

Well I can't say for Asus. But yes, you can burn the recovery disks at any time using the Acer eRecovery tool.

Using the recovery disc returns the system drive (the C drive) back to the state it was when the disc was burned.

Sorry, no experience with the warranty.

[Orlbuckeye]

Thanks Evaders, We took it back to Circuit City last night & exchanged it for an Asus A8H, hope it works out better.
Question; Can anybody advise me if my daughter can burn a 'recovery disk' at anytime; like as she adds software ie: anti virus etc, and work, & how does she do it, & if there's a crash, by installing the recovery disk, will it bring the unit back to the setup when the disk was burnt?
Also has anyone had any experience getting a refund from Acer on an extended warranty, bought 3 yr ExW it 6 mo ago never used it.
Thanks

I'm new to Acer I've had my 9810 for about 4 days and it was my first Acer but when I saw it at Comp-USA I said to myself I have to get one of those. I did research it for about a week looking at reviews I was able to Google. I went to Comp-USA to play with it in person and they got with the sign right below it saying 10% off on all notebooks. I was floored and I purchased right there. He wanted me to get the 2 yr extended for 300 but I see from Acer it's 199 but i will have to send to Acer. I love it even though it's huge but it's a beautifull multi-media machine.

My understanding of the Erecovery is that there are 3 options with 1 being a system backup (which backup up everything at that moment) 2. Second option is burn disk which creates a bootable disk with the factory default that can be used to reinstall initial configuration but not to a the backup point you created. The 2nd option doesn't need an OS on the drive because it installls it. Option 3 a restore is done to restore to the point in which the data was backed up. The restore isn't on a bootable disk so you run it from within windows and don't boot for the restore disk.

I did have problems with error in my erecovery application but last night when I tried it it work and it actually used 2 dvd's and after that it asked if I wanted to back up the drivers and application and that took another DVD.

[buckztorm]

Thanks orlbuckeye;
After much research on the net,I went out & bought Stompsoft's PC Backup and a Western Digital external HD, came home with great anticipation to my challenge. Went into PC backup's 'backup wizard' and and backed up my entire "C" drive on my desktop to try it first, not a hitch did all 35 Gigs. Did exactly the same on my daughter's brand new Asus laptop, & non of the fields in the software pop up would fill, nothing on the c drive would read, so back to square one for backing up the laptop. I was wondering if Vista is blocking it? There was no popup indicating blocking, or error or anything,just nothing would happen!