Acer Aspire 3003WLMi Review

[LaptopFan21]

My story goes as follows:
I purchased an Acer Aspire 3003WLMi (Serial Number: LXA550 56255380 D3A1EMO1) in mid-December of 2005 while I was traveling in Canada. It seemed like a good purchase, and at the time the salesperson assured me that it was both reliable and durable. Furthermore I was thrilled to receive with my purchase a 1-year travellers warranty just in case.

Initially the laptop performed quite well. It seemed to be reliable, and while I had to rebuild the O/S once at about the 6 month mark actual hardware performance was good. Basic applications ran fine. Wireless functioned well. Battery performance detiorated very quickly.

On Saturday (10 February, 2007), a little over a month after my warranty period my laptop computer stopped working. The power light was on but my computer refused to show even the opening Acer screen. I removed power, gave it 2 hours to cool and then tried to boot again. It got as far as the WindowsXP diagnosis screen before rebooting itself and giving me a blank screen. Since then it has refused to even get that far. I've since independently tested the hard drive (which is completely fine and stable) and spoken to a number of computer engineers, including one of your technical staff. They have advised me as follows:
1. I'm suffering from a System Boot Failure. In layman's terms thismeans that my motherboard is competely rubbish.
2. It will cost me £41 to get the machine looked at
3. It will then cost me a further £350-700 to get the motherboard fixed / replaced.
In addition, an Acer technical engineer advised me over the phone that I'd probably be better of just buying another laptop.

= PERSPECTIVE
But wait, let's put this all into perspective -
1. I purchased this laptop just over a year ago. Last time I checked a reasonable laptop life was 2-years minimum.
2. I have used this laptop computer regularly, but have taken good care of it.
3. A little over a month outside the warranty period the laptop breaks down with a problem that will cost what I paid for the computer in the first place. Not happy Jan.

Acer staff informed me that since it is outside of the warranty period it is completely my problem. Furthermore, even if it was still in warranty they would not help me because I purchased the computer in Canada and I could not prove I was going to be in the UK for less than 3-months (I am not a resident here). Finally, the Acer engineer tells me that I'm better off to just purchase a new laptop. THIS IS COMPLETELY OUTRAGEOUS!

In essence I've been told that the computer I purchased has a 1-year lifetime. 2-years I could maybe understand. But having my computer break down as soon as the warranty period has expired and then having Acer shrug their broad shoulders and tell me to just go an buy another laptop is a ridiculous.

= WHEN I PURCHASE
Purchasing a laptop computer isn't a trivial experience for most people. It is an expensive outlay that they will be using for business as well as entertainment. As such, most people opt for a brand they feel they can trust - names like IBM, Apple, Toshiba and... once upon a time Acer. Products speak for themselves though, and in this case it has disappointed. When that occurs then the business has a number of options - they can either act or reap the rewards of their sloppy quality control. Selling sub-standard products is like theft.

I am not a satisfied Acer customer. I am not going to just let you hit me for $1000 and treat it like some kind of bad joke. So far Acer haven't had anything to say for themselves.

Overall:
3/10 - I've suffered from Dell customer service before, but I've never had a computer commit harakiri straight after it's warranty period. Quality control issues.

[adinu]

Computers fail, its a part of life and u should get used to it. It just so happened that it failed right after the warranty ended, but that's not always the case. And dont think just cuz u buy and IBM, Apple or any other manufacturer that u wont have it fail like ur Acer did. And another thing, all companies pretty much do the same after ur warranty is over: leave you with the problem.

So dont blame this on Acer and their machines, because ALL laptops have a chance of failing, and ALL manufacturers will not care about ur problems once the warranty is up.

[jpqsat]

I have a 3003wlmi for 1 1/2 year now. Cost me 699$cdn.

This is the most reliable piece of electronic i ever owned! Most of the time, this laptop serve as the main component for my car PC, it's laying on the floor of my car and get shaken quit a lot. It spent the the entire last winter in my car and took a lot of abuse, i get in the car at -30celcius, push the button without leaving it defrost and it power up after 3 or three time when the hard drive un-ice!!! It's alway working with condensation on the motherboard and so far, it never complain.

I even got thrue an accident while it was on the floor. It smash my passenger side window and landed back on the rear floor and it keep rocking!

My main computer is a Dell XPS m170 wich i purchased 2 month after the Acer for 8x the price and it make me swear a lot. It's always showing blue screen of death and MCE never record a show without buging, the keyboard and touchpad are cheaper than the 699$ Acer....

I am now a Acer fanatic, i'll never buy anithing else in the future. My only complaint is the included battery wich last 1 hour or so, but i got a 4400mha on ebay for 59$ and it last more than 2 hours, so for 750$, it's a damn good laptop wich last 2+hours and can take a lot of abuse, it keep impresing me for it's reliability.

If it fail tomorow, i'll run to thesourcecc to get another 600$ acer. I just wish that i took the Acer Ferrari instead of the 6000$ piece of shit XPS m170... it got killer graphics, but i can't play more than 20 minute without rebooting..... still have 7 payment to make...

[Ransomed1]

Always get the longest warranty that you can on any notebook. It's important to have the protection, and worth the money, since these usually cost less than $100.

Sorry for your problems. If it's a notebook and it lasted a year with basically no problems, then you're doing pretty well.

Ransom

[Hamsteria]

I've got this very same model, which I purchased (well, my then-fiance-now-husband actually paid for it) in mid-September of 2005. I have had to replace the battery (call me crazy, but a battery life of 1/2 of 10 minutes doesn't work well for me as a student), and it has a tendency to overheat when I'm working on something really important, but other than that, it's worked pretty well. It is, however, starting to show its age physically (and I am rather clumsy), the little rubber things on the bottom are all but gone, and the glue from it sticks to everything. I also purchased an extended 3-year warranty, but from the way you talk, they're not willing to honor any warranty due to your level of travelling (which is totally unacceptable, it's a mobile computer for Christ's sake). Anyway, if it's going to be that much trouble, I would tell you to just get a new computer, too It will be much faster by now anyway. Given the age of it, you'd be better off with a shiny new (and much faster) computer.

[SirDiesalott]

The 3003WLMi was my first notebook. I bought it late Dec 2005 and have been using it daily since. Mine originally came with 512Meg of ram and a 80 Gb hard drive. I added a 1 Gb and left one of the 256 Meg in place so I now have just over 1 Gb of ram total. I also purchased a second higher capacity battery last year which helped quite a bit. The only thing I had a problem with as far as the chassis goes is some hairline cracks around the hinges. I found out that my habit of picking it up by one hand from the back of the notebook was stressing the joints. A bit of Zap glue repaired the cracks and it has not gotten worse since the repair.

I know that this notebook pretty much brings in the rear as far as performance goes. But for what it is, I am very pleased with it. I used it for work, school, and even * gasp* games! It can run some older games very well. I played Starcraft, Diablo2/ LOD, Age of Empires2, and Age of Mythology.

I feel bad that not everyone has had the same level of reliability from their 3003WLMi as me or jpqsat. There is not one manufacturer out there that does not have a few bad ones which will make life miserable for the poor buyer. I have only had to reload the OS once so far because boot up time was taking longer and longer. While I do not intend to push my luck to the ragged edge like jpqsat, I have accidentally over-heated it a couple of times by blocking the air vents and used it in less than stable situations many times. despite all that, it still runs like new!

Overall, I am happy with this purchase.