TravelMate 8204 Reviewed - Page 5

Gallery problems

Hi there, first of all, thanks for the very good review. I tried to get into your gallery, but I have some troubles to get there, so if you could help, it would be fine.

With regards and happy easter

Ninka

Hey again, it's works fine now. Thank you again for awesome pics.

One thing, do you work with the pre-install XP-Pro and the software from Acer, or do you made a clean XP-install ?
Read in another forum that the Acer work much faster if you throw the Acer software out.

With regards Ninka

Read about potential problems, and think 10x before you decide to buy it... I wouldn't make this mistake again... BTW: Bluetooth "phone" is complete crap. It's useless because of poor sound quality and huge delay. I hope that Acer is going to improve something with new driver...

With the very best intentions, I do advise: do not buy it, do not do the mistake, it is gonna go over your head - very expensive lesson learned. One huge collection of problems!!!!! Go chceck similar systems, but do not go with ACER, it really has some serious troubles with no solutions so far: screen quality issues (most of them), buzzing GPU are just the icing on the cake.

Like any new product that comes onto the market, it's going to have teething problems. My 8204 is from the second batch and has none of the problems experienced from the first, except for the slightly dark corners on the screen. This bugged me for awhile, but I have since gotten used to ignoring it.

Although it is early days yet, I'm very happy with the laptop and would happily recommend it. The true test for me though is when it passes it's one year anniversary. My previous laptop (Compaq) had a manufacturing flaw that seemed to pop up just after one year (timed to perfection when my warranty expired) and it died.

Same here. No problems here. I have done all the tests available, and no grey lines or gpu buzz. The only problem I have had is that the original graphics driver would sometimes "stutter" in games, but the omega driver took care of that. Nice piece of machinery!


It’s unfortunately that some people have had bad experiences with their Acer, but when it comes to Acer, your damned if you do and damned if you don’t :-)

Ok. So basically you say that you don't have any issues? Really? No grey lines, light leakage, dark corners, wrong color reproduction or noise in dark colors, video card buzz, dvd drive noise or slow dvd burning, webcam issues, overheating, wireless/wired ethernet card problems? Memory card reader/writer works and SPDIF output too? Bluetooth phone has usefull sound quality and no delays? Gravisense, anti-theft and smart card work also? No BSODs or strange software messages with fresh installed Acer system? So maybe it's not an Acer notebook?
I don't say that I have all mentioned issues, but I have a lot of them. And they call it high end notebook... Do you really want to tell someone to play russian roulette with Acer?

The quality of the screen is far from perfect, but I have seen worse, and there are no grey lines, light leakage or dead pixels. If I show a white picture in fullscreen, there might be a mm in the lower right corner where the colours are a bit darker, but I have to use the white picture to even notice it. It’s not a perfect screen for a notebook in this price range (in comparison to my old notebook) but it’s not a bad screen either.

I burned my first DVD on it today. Normal sound and speed (compared to my external LiteOn dvd burner).

I have only used XD card in the memory card reader, which worked like a charm, and since I don't have any devices supporting SPDIF I haven't tried that either.

Wireless and Lan worked right out of the box. Even with a clean install of XP I didn't have to do anything other than install the drivers from acer-euro.

When running on batteries, the laptop is cool and silent. When running 3D apps (which I do a lot in my education) the fan starts and it’s far from silent but I think that’s to be expected with this graphics card. Having had and used a lot of different notebooks, I would say, that if one expects less heat and noise they should not go for the X1600 or higher graphics cards.

I haven't tried the Bluetooth phone. It seems “cheep” and is, when you think about it, pretty useless. I mean, who would sit in front of their notebook talking into a phone when you can buy a decent headset for no money?

Gravisense worked when I had it installed. I reinstalled XP this weekend and haven’t installed gravisense since I had no need for it (less programs running, more free system resources). I never tried out the antitheft function so I can’t say if it buggy or not.

Logitech’s cam driver is buggy when it comes to e.g. compiling c++ in gcc. My other Logitech cam has the same problem, which is a bit annoying. Otherwise the cam functions perfectly in all apps.

I hate preinstalled systems, and did a clean install with a fresh XP as soon as I got the notebook, so I can't say if the installation works or not. Just the fact that it has Norton antivirus and useless Acer programs preinstalled was reason enough to get rid of it. :-)

This is of cause my own experience, and I’m sorry you (and others) have had so much trouble with theirs. I have recommended this notebook to two of my friends who have both bought it (the 8202 model though), and they are also very satisfied with it. A quick note is that I live in Denmark, where there is no or little risk in buying a faulty notebook. This of cause made my choice easier, and I haven’t regretted it since.

Would you check this thread then? I'm curious if your X1600 can display colors properly... Your 8204 seems to be so unique...
http://www.notebookforums.com/showth...80#post1985180

But you're right, XP clean install would help a lot, and I'm sure that I'm gonna do this sooner or later...

Your right. I the right lighting I can see some colour errors in that background. Too bad they didn't put a top of the line screen in this notebook, but it's still not enough to not make this a kick as machine :-)

It outperforms every notebook in my school. This of cause also has to do with the fact that none use desktop replacements for school use ;-)
It's perfect for 3D programming and it's still portable and usable for taking notes in class. I don't think you can buy pc more versatile today.

This is of cause only if you get one that works :-)

For that part with Russian roulette I give you 100%!!!

Mhm, well, pretty expensive lottery, dont you think so?

Depends on which country you live in ;-)

I'm with Kohaar. First thing I did was reinstall the OS and updated all the drivers.

I can't see the grey lines (although the LCD failed the four quadrant test). I looked at the grey background and under intense scrutiny saw something that might be grainy background, but I generally don't work on my laptop with my nose to the screen.

I've not had buzzing sounds. Wireless and wired network worked straight out of the box. So did the webcam. Don't have any ripples on the screen from closing the lid or applying pressure from the back. Gravisense is working, or rather it is installed and seems to be working. It hasn't done anything to indicate that it isn't (although it hasn't actually done anything to say that it is either).

Will have to try burning DVDs and CDs.

The manufacturing date on mine is 02/06.

Dennis

Nice to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't have all these problems :-)

Many LCDs fail the test, so it's nothing to be concerned about. My old laptop which had a really nice screen also failed that particular test, and I had no problem with that screen what so ever.

Mine also has the manufacturing date of 02/06.

I have 0601. I wouldn't care about grey lines and even slightly darker lower corners if I had no light leakage, and poor vertical viewing angles (it seems to be related somehow). I'm waiting for Acer to resolve LCD problem completely and I'm gonna send them my notebook to replace the screen then.

Yea dissapointed at the 533 ram but even more dissapoined with the buzzing... I wonder if i could legaly take action claiming that the buzzing causes a ringing in my ear and gives me headaches