Has your wireless LAN button broken?

[KWAKI]

Hi .i have had an Aspire 5685wlmi for one month and it has two buttons on the front that slide to one side to switch on the LAN, bluetooth and 3G. I noticed when i first used it that the LAN button needed to be pushed two or three times before it would turn the LAN on or off but thought this was just probably the way they all are. The last time i used it i pushed it about four times and on the last push it felt like a spring had broken inside it or something and now it does'nt work at all.

I phoned Acer to get it repaired but it will take up to ten working days to be returned and i could really do without this ,so my question is ,has anybody had this happen before and is it a common fault. The reason i'm asking is because i have found that i can turn the LAN on and off in the Acer epower manager ,so if the switch is probably only going to break a few months further down the line again i would rather not get it repaired. This is because i would rather be using it for the two weeks i would have to wait for it to be repaired.

My real question is......is it worth it seeing as the buttons seem to be a bit feeble and the operations can be accessed in the software and is it a common fault? Has anyone else had it happen and should i just send it for repair on principal?

Thanks for any advise.

[dave38]

My 5652 has the same two buttons, and I have had this one for a year now...once I found out that I could set the wireless to automatic, I didn't bother with the button. They certainly (the buttons) don't seem to be weak to me in operation, even now. perhaps yours was a Friday afternoon build. I would definitely send it for repair, and as soon as possible. Its unfortunate, but its a good 'warning' I suppose, of the fragileness of the buttons...

[southcali]

This WIFI button on my old Acer TravelMate 800LCi did the same thing. It required a few push before it would turn on. It eventually died. It died when I was traveling in Hong Kong. I took it to Acer Service and talked to the technician. The technician suggested that I swapped the button for the Blue Tooth with the WIFI button. My model did not have the Blue Tooth option anyway. So I only paid labor and got it fixed.

I now have a Ferrari 4005 and I set both WIFI radio and the Blue Tooth radio on all the time. I only turn off if I do not need them. I figure, if the buttons ever go bad, my radios would always be on. If the buttons cannot turn the radios on but since the default is “ON”, all I have to do is reboot the notebook.