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Extensa 5420: How is the laptop?

post #1 of 9
1/19/08 at 2:41am
Thread Starter 
Hello, I am thinking of buying one if these soon from BestBuy. I have an Aspire 5003 and no problems with it. I will be getting this for 250 as I have a broken PDA with replacement plan and they no longer sell this model. I will probably buy it tomorrow or next weekend. Thanks. It scores a 4.4/5 and only bad reviews seem to be a few who got dead units.
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post #2 of 9
1/19/08 at 4:31am
heard from many "friends" that it was a good unit. do stay with vista if u can or dual boot it - reason being that the integrated cam would not work too well under xp

so coming back for review/benchmark and pics once u got it?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 9
1/19/08 at 11:02am
Thread Starter 
Sure, I will do a review of it! I guess U will just get it. I know some people hate Acer but I never had problems!
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post #4 of 9
1/24/08 at 3:13pm
Just a heads up...I have the Acer Extensa 5420 - purchased 4 weeks ago - and it has a serious problem with the screen going black and you have to manually (hard) shut it down and then turn it back on. I've actually been on it for a couple of hours now and it hasn't happened, but it can happen any time. I've had to hard boot it at least 7 times in the last week. Rumor has it it could be a bad chip in the motherboard. I got mine at Best Buy along with a 3 yr service contract and will be taking mine in to see if they can resolve this problem. I LOVE this laptop except for this one issue.
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post #5 of 9
1/28/08 at 5:44am
I have similar problem with screen blackout and system crash with my Extensa 5420 too! Did you talk with BB and did they replace you with a new Extensa 5420 or other laptop? I think I will bring this back to BB tomorrow.
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post #6 of 9
1/28/08 at 11:43am
Have been ill and haven't been able to get to BB yet. I DID, however, call 2 stores yesterday and spoke with techs at Geek Squad. Neither had heard of this problem, which I am having a difficult time BELIEVING. There are several forums discussing this issue. The 2nd tech did tell me to bring it in and they'd exchange it. So, I plan to take it in tomorrow.
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post #7 of 9
1/28/08 at 1:29pm
Thread Starter 
Well, my Plan didn't work out so I won't be buying any computer.
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post #8 of 9
4/4/08 at 6:57pm

BIOS fix for black screen

I know it's a bit late for this particular discussion but, for anyone considering the 5420 or having the black screen problems, I'll submit anyway. I recently purchased one of these and think that it's a great machine. After looking at *many* threads on this, it appears the fix is a BIOS update (to 1.16 I belive). Mine came with it and I've not experienced ANY issues whatsoever.

To add a bit more, I've removed some of the bloatware (not too much there really) but found that the Norton Internet Security app was dogging things down quite a bit. I replaced it with AVG and have the latest upgrades from MS including SP1 for Vista. Smooth sailing!

Best regards,
DrBillC

Quote:
Originally Posted by Abbiegayle View Post
Just a heads up...I have the Acer Extensa 5420 - purchased 4 weeks ago - and it has a serious problem with the screen going black and you have to manually (hard) shut it down and then turn it back on. I've actually been on it for a couple of hours now and it hasn't happened, but it can happen any time. I've had to hard boot it at least 7 times in the last week. Rumor has it it could be a bad chip in the motherboard. I got mine at Best Buy along with a 3 yr service contract and will be taking mine in to see if they can resolve this problem. I LOVE this laptop except for this one issue.
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post #9 of 9
4/6/08 at 5:13pm
To everyone having black screen issues with bios version 1.14 or 1.15, try updating your bios to version 1.16. Please be aware...this is a do it at your own risk solution. If you have a service contract with Best Buy, it will be voided if you have any problems. Directions on how to do this can be found on the following website: http://thoughtsfrommylife.com/articl...een_On_Startup. See Dave41's Feb 29th instructions. I followed the instructions back on March 2nd and have not had one black screen since. I was scared to death when I updated mine, but everything went well with the update. Also note: the bios update is for the Acer Extensa 5420-5687 only. The updates are not found on the US Acer site, but instead on the Europe Acer site.


Quote:
Originally Posted by DrBillC View Post
I know it's a bit late for this particular discussion but, for anyone considering the 5420 or having the black screen problems, I'll submit anyway. I recently purchased one of these and think that it's a great machine. After looking at *many* threads on this, it appears the fix is a BIOS update (to 1.16 I belive). Mine came with it and I've not experienced ANY issues whatsoever.

To add a bit more, I've removed some of the bloatware (not too much there really) but found that the Norton Internet Security app was dogging things down quite a bit. I replaced it with AVG and have the latest upgrades from MS including SP1 for Vista. Smooth sailing!

Best regards,
DrBillC
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