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Why I just bought an 8204 - Page 2

post #21 of 31
3/22/06 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Falafel
If you return it and swap it for another, i doubt you will get rid of the buzzing noise. To this date, Acer has not officially admitted to the problem. There are reports of 2 people who had the problem fixed, but calls to Acer say they've never heard of the problem.

My laptop was at Acer for 3 weeks since Feb 28th, and I've told all the Acer reps I've spoken to about this problem and informed them that it is a widespread problem. No one was really interested in looking into it. I've even pointed them to the the thread dedicated to the noise issue.

A couple of days ago, I called them up pretty upset. I was polite and didn't even yell, but I made sure they knew I was not pleased at all. I've been waiting on a response from the supervisors at the support center to get back to me for the last 2 days.

One thing is for sure, Acer doesn't respond to these problems with the same quality and seriousness as other companies.
So Falafel, do you think I should hold on with my third attempt of purchase at this time? Meaning: there i snobody who does have NO buzzing even with playing the demos, except from the people who got it back from the service centers???

The last one that went through my hands had no buzzing (audible only with my ear on the keyboard) with the little car 3D demo, but got some little buzzing on Tokamak. Are ALL the TMs like this so far?

I contacted Acer here in the Europe and pointed out towards these threads as well, so we will see, what they say. Anyway, even when I started separate topic, I was not able to find out, if there is an user with spankin new unit withou any buzzing whatsoever....-????

cheers
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post #22 of 31
3/22/06 at 12:29pm
Iv got a 0601 build and i have no buzzing noise whatsoever. I did have two before this one though and i returned both within a week and they had the noise. This one for some reason is dead quite. The acceleration is on max.
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post #23 of 31
3/22/06 at 1:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by looxonline
Iv got a 0601 build and i have no buzzing noise whatsoever. I did have two before this one though and i returned both within a week and they had the noise. This one for some reason is dead quite. The acceleration is on max.

Also if you run the Tokamak?
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post #24 of 31
3/22/06 at 2:09pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bwethington
My last ditch effort will be to contact the local support tomorrow and see if they can update the gpu firmware. If not, off to Acer it goes...
Well, I talked to the local authorized repair center, and they said that they could do the firmware upgrade, if they can get the files. Of course the website for the repair centers is down and they cannot confirm if they can get the firmware or not...also, Acer requires that they charge $72 per incident. Thanks, Acer.

Also, FedEx just called to say they can pick up the package early, so now it is race between the local techs and FedEx to see who can get back to me first....

So, is it worth giving it to the repair shop for $72 and getting it back in 1-2 days and maybe the can't fix it (at which point they charge me to send it to Acer for repair), or just sending it and getting it back in 2-3 weeks?

It better get fixed the first time....
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post #25 of 31
3/26/06 at 7:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bwethington
Ocean: Are you going to get it replaced through Acer, or after market?

B
Yah I'm thinking of going with screentek or getting the acer ferari 20 inch external LCD. I'm trying to figure out if I'm getting used to the grey lines and need a serious screen to do graphics on.
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post #26 of 31
3/27/06 at 2:01am
If its of any help, i have a 0601 with no buzzing. Its all good except for the Samsung screen which i am not a big fan of.
However, i might have finally found the settings i love. For those interested here they are -
In catalyst control center,
Notebook Panel Properties, AVIVO color - set Hue to 0 and Saturation to 106
Color - Set Gamma to 1.05, Brightness to -44, Contrast to 125
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post #27 of 31
3/27/06 at 11:19am
Quote:
I am debating whether or not to go through the effort, or just send it back and get another....
Ok, call me crazy, but this is exactly why I wont buy an 8204, and perhaps will never buy another acer. I would have named your thread "Why I WONT buy an 8204"

I can't believe that on a 2500 dollar laptop (+ or - a couple hundred), that people are not IRATE that the screen isn't absolutely perfect, not to mention the buzzing sound. I wouldn't put up with Grey lines, light leakage, and dark corners on a 1000 laptop. Let alone one that costs two and half times more. Acer really should have delayed release of this one. How can we trust their next new release after the 8204 fiasco??

PS. I own a TravelMate 8104, so I'm not just dumping on Acer because I'm a Dell guy or something. The 8204 never should have gotten out of their quality control department as is.
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post #28 of 31
3/27/06 at 2:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by skypine27
Ok, call me crazy, but this is exactly why I wont buy an 8204, and perhaps will never buy another acer. I would have named your thread "Why I WONT buy an 8204"
Well, I lined out the reasons when I purchased. I am revising some of my sentiments, but I am going reserve complete judgement to see how Acer fixes the issues. If they fix them all and it is exactly the machine that I want, then I will be very happy.

I agree that Acer should have worked these issues out ahead of time, especially on thier "flagship" notebook, but I also can't remember ever buying a brand new, cutting-edge-of-technlogy product (less than 6 months old) that didn't have some issues. Not that a laptop is rocket science, but Acer has fixed many of the problems that this laptop had with each succesive builds and as long as they make a good effort to repair the problems, I'll be happy.

Just about every machine I looked at that was close to these specs had something wrong with it (according to posters at various forums), so we are sort of damned if you do, damned if you don't. If we want the specs, were going to have deal...
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post #29 of 31
3/27/06 at 4:04pm
Congrats! It's a great system and you're right on many points. It really is a shame that screen and sound are not top notch but overall it's a great buy. I got an 8202 and it's very impressive, I can only wonder how a 8204 performs in theory it's at least 25% better. I like the screen. And for the sound, my Agudigy 2 Mobile is on its way. Consider it if you like quality music in your earphones because Acer's sound is useless except for playing dings and dongs.
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post #30 of 31
3/27/06 at 4:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bwethington
BOF: This is the first I have seen of the omega drivers, and I spend some time on the omegadrivers.net website poking around. Could you tell me why this driver would be any better than a most current ATI Driver? I am always a bit nervous using an after market driver rather than a manufacturer one...

I also looked through the forum a bit and see that you loose some ability to control power-saver settings. Not critical, I think, especially if it gives me much more control over brightness and color settings...but, still something to think about.

Thanks in advance.
I'm interested in talking about omegadrivers in the 8204/8202 because it tried with mine and it improved on 3DMark 05 (a lot) but games in fact became choppy. Also overclocking was not available so I returned to Acer's Catalyst.

Perharps we should open a new thread?
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post #31 of 31
4/6/06 at 3:45am
Thread Starter 
Update:

Well, I received the laptop back on Monday and decided to live with it a week before posting anything in regards to it.

So far, what a nice laptop. The weight and size of the screen are just wonderful, and my battery life has been better than I expected. I haven't run it all the way down to see how long it lasts, but I have a Slingbox hooked up to my HD Comcast, and watched TV in bed for a good 2 + hours last night (basically constant use of the wireless) and sill had about 30% left on the battery.

So, my pros and cons at this point:

Pros:
1. Size and weight; much lighter feeling than I expected, although I haven't had to carry it around too much yet.
2. Keyboard. I like the smile, and got used to it rather quickly. The flex (or lack thereof) and the key travel are just right for me. It is more stiff than I am used to, but so far I like it.
3. Worked pretty much out of the box. I haven't been bugged by driver issues, or none of the Acer programs not working. Even the gravisense works as advertised, and I am starting to like the gridsense...it will be nice when I have this thing hooked up to external monitors.
4.Bluetooth; I have heard a lot about bluetooth's lack of reliability, and mine hasn't been perfect, but so far it has preformed pretty well. I have a bluetooth mouse, and it drops every now and then, but not often.
5. LCD; Admittedly I had it replaced, but the new QDI screen is quite nice and very bright. My only complaint is that when it is brightened up, it actually looks a bit washed out, but that may just be me getting used to it. I am very happy with the WSXGA...I wanted to get a WUXGA screen, but after seeing this one, I think the higher res screen would be too small. Just right.
6. Port locations; I am actually pretty happy thus far with were the ports are on the machine. I won't have a bunch of stuff plugged in all of the time, but so far so good.


Cons:
1. The f*ing video card. Sent it in to get repaired, and they still couldn't figure it out....They applied the latest bios (like I couldn't have done that....) and it did help noticebly, but I still get it pretty badly on some of my larger 3D SketchUp files. At least I can move windows around without hearing it. I did try transparent windows through the gridsense, and it buzzed a bit so that worries me about Vista coming out. I just know that I will set up Vista the way I want, and it will buzz like a bee after my warranty has run out. Argg...still debating on what to do about it.
2. The touchpad buttons. The entire touchpad is a bit clunky for such a smooth laptop. The buttons are obnoxiously "clicky". Way more so that my much older, clunkier laptops.
3. The multi-card reader. The little door is very futzy. I use my SD card a lot, and it will be kind of annoying. I may just break the door off....
4. VOIP phone; What a waste and piece of junk. Nice idea, but not ready for prime time. It may work, but why use it?
5. Security Card; Anyone at Acer heard of biometric scanners? You can't loose your finger, unless you work for the mob. Then the card might make sense. Of course, you wouldn't need a machine this fast in the mob...I don't think.
6. Partitions; While I have come around the bit to the idea, I don't see why acer would format these drives as FAT32. I would have been perfectly happy with 2 partitions (one recovery, one for the rest) as NTFS. I wouldn't be suprised if the recovery has to be FAT32, but still. I have my partition programs and will likely convert to NTFS, then resize my OS partition to 40 Gig, leaving ~80 Gig for the rest.

So, pretty happy. I think it is a keeper.
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