Is it time to contact Acer tech support??:(

Where to begin???
I bought my very first laptop / notebook whatcha-ma-callit, (an Acer Ferrari 3200) going on three weeks ago. I did the usual, read everything, bug everybody, information overload before buying what I believe to be the best bang for the buck gizmo going. All was well in my little universe for the first week, well sort of... but then, all heck broke loss.

1st, it wouldn't boot off the battery. I hadn't tried it before to see. It had always been plugged into the AC, oooppps.
2nd, it locks up solid for no apparent reason. Will not respond to keyboard inputs. Requires shut down by power off. One time the power button didn't respond either so then I resorted to pulling the battery out, ooooppps for the second time.
3rd, it does this funky "Matrix" like video stuff but only when coming out of stand-by or hibernation modes. I mean I get theses vertical lines streaming down like the "Matrix" code. The desktop image is very broken up and hard to see. Strange stuff..... I read of another chap who described a similar problem as being like a waterfall effect.
4th, it shuts down at random. I can be working away and BANG! Just a black screen, no power light, nothing. It's happened with a fully charged battery, partially discharged, after running for an hour or just after boot up.

I've been getting "expert" advice from all sides as well as reading pages and pages of posts. But, I'm not sure who or what to believe. I'm sure the answers are all here on this excellent site but.... I've been pouring over post after post (some with 50 plus pages of replies) and I'm not known for being the most patient individual. So I ask for your indulgence and if these questions are answered else where please just indicate with a link to the appropriate thread.

It's apparent from what I have read (both here and in the manual) that Acer doesn't want to hear from an owner until all other avenues have been exhausted. So here goes.....

This is what I've done and what has happened so far.

I was told by the salesman that a single charge was all that was required for my new system. Oh, and that I could use it while I was charging the battery. WRONG!!!! Well, that was my first lesson. DON'T listen to the salesman! I have since "conditioned" the battery as per recommendations by fully charging and then fully discharging it three times in succession. I now only use the battery when it's fully charged and run it 'till it's spent. I have also purchased an inverter for the car and when the battery is not in the unit I plug into it or the AC at home.

Battery life is getting better. The first time I charged it, it reported 2 hours (100%) remaining. The last time I charged it, it reported 2 hr's 38 min's (100%) remaining.
(I did the "play a DVD" trick for the full discharge and the first time it went into hibernation mode after only 1 hr 23 min's.)

The very first problem I encountered was Norton Anti Virus Status Unknown. I've uninstalled then re installed it. I've been online and updated the definitions but I was still getting this error at boot up until this evening. (I might get it again tomorrow, who knows.) Also I constantly get the Auto Updates Is NOT Turned On warning. I'm on the worlds slowest dial up so I don't want auto anything. Are these just nuisance messages or are they an indication of worse things?

Speaking of updates I received Micro$oft's SP2 on a disk with the Ferrari and was told to load it before I did anything else. Of course I did that and then spent hours on the M/S Updates website too. My I.S.P. 's tech support says that most of my problems are related to this. They tell me I should get out the Rescue Disks and do a total re install and NOT to just un install SP2 cause it leaves little nasty's behind.

The lock up /screen freeze thing I think I've narrowed down to cursor movement. It seems to always happen just as I'm moving the cursor to do something. Surf a site, select an option or similar. And it's happened whether using the USB mouse or the touch pad, so it's not limited to just one. Is there a known issue with the Synaptics pointing software or USB mouse drivers?

Being a bit of a gamer I ran 3D Mark 2001. Right out of the box it scored 10450. I installed the Omega drivers a week later and it jumped up to 11245 with no tweaks or overclocking. But, I have to wonder if this video update is causing my funky "Matrix" like screen problems. What else could it be????

The random shut downs are what have me most baffled. I've read about possible bad memory, hard drives and even mobo's. Could one or a combination of these be at fault?

And I haven't even begun to get into issues like; finding and connecting to a wireless network only to get "404 page not found" errors.

So, is it time to make "THE" call??? Or should I battle on and try a BIOS flash?

Sorry for being so long winded. If you read this whole thing, thank you. If you have some answers than an even bigger THANK YOU!

Reply from Acer Tech Support

RedSky009, I did as you suggested and contacted the Acer Tech Support here in Canada.
This was the reply I recieved.

Dear Mr. Warburton,

Thank you for contacting Acer America. First I recommend you use the
Recovery cd's and restore the notebook to factory configurations. Then test
your notebook to make sure it functions as it should. Before installing any
updates, third party software or hardware of any kind, install SP2. Again
test your notebook before installing anything else. If all functions, I
suggest you do not install any third party driver updates; we can only
recommend updates that are posted on our site at www.acerpanam.com as they
become available. Then if you want, go back to Windows Updates and install
only the critical updates. In general, please note that we do not recommend
installing any updates even those posted on our site unless you are
experiencing problems with the device for which there is an update. If you
are still experiencing problems after this, please call the technical
support line at 1-800-816-2237. Hours of operation for live support are
from 7am-9pm CST Mon-Fri and 8:00am - 5:00pm CST Sat & Sun, excluding
holidays.


Regards,
Mary Boggs
Acer America Online Technical Support

Ok, about what you'd expect. The old, "Lets do nothing and have the newbie owner do it all and really bollix-it-up" trick, eh!
She say's to set everything back to factory specs using the recovery CD's and then to test it.
Then install SP2 and test it again.
But she fails to say how to test it. Does she mean to simply turn it on and wait for it to act up? Or, to use some special test software? If so, what software? Can't be any third party stuff as they don't recommend that, right? hmmmmmmmm??????
I love how she says "... please note that we do not recommend installing any updates even those posted on our site unless you are experiencing problems with the device for which there is an update."

Sorry, I'm not impressed.

OK, so I wanted to believe that it was a Hardware issue. Or at the very least a software problem related to SP2 or the stock drivers. Anything but me (or a driver I may have installed.) To try and prove one or the other I spent last Saturday testing what I could with what I had. I've checked everything I can with SiSoftware's Sandra 2002. The only thing it suggested was to switch to a different version. (the A64 I think it was.)
Furthermore, I ran two sets of two hour memory tests on the RAM and no errors were disclosed. (However it was suggested to run the tests longer, like over night.)
I thought that before I do the deed and run the Rescue disks I'd try using System Restore. My logic here being that I should be able to restore it to the factory specs with out the time consuming tedium of the Rescue disks. To my amazement there was no factory restore point. In fact, the earliest point was about five days after purchase when I loaded AAO 2.2.0 So that's what I did. And everything seemed to work fine. Go figure, eh! But running Restore didn't change any drivers or un install any programs. hmmmm????
So I undid my restore point and continued on.

I'm soooo NOT impressed with the online testing!

While surfing the net for testing software I found PC Pitstop recommended by various people on this as well as other forums so I thought I'd give them a go.

I was shocked beyond belief after running the test to read the following words found a the top of the results page.

Test Results Summary
Computer Name: ACER-FERRARI312
Date Tested: Sat Nov 13 10:48:08 EST 2004

This system has enough power for most applications and web browsing, but will not give you the best experience for fast-action
games, video editing, and computing-intensive work. If you are mainly using it for web browsing, you can probably get by with a few
simple upgrades and regular system maintenance. Otherwise, consider buying a new system.

Overall score for system "ACER-FERRARI312": 1060

Say whaaaa????
"...will NOT give you the best experience for fast-action games, video editing, and computing-intensive work."

"...consider buying a new system."

But this system has some of the best / latest Kick-Butt goodies, right? And at the price I paid it should do more then just browse the web!

The only two Yellow flags (considered "minor") were for the internet connection speed and hard disk. I'm on the worlds slowest dial
up so the connection speed has nothing to do with the system. As for the hard disk flag it didn't say why it was yellow or what I
should do to correct the alleged problem. This was a new computer four weeks ago. I have loaded SP2 and the Norton updates. Only one game and M/S Works 7. I do not use it for e-mail and it has had very limited time exposed to the internet. Only used to connect to the Windows update site and to experiment with wireless (war driving) and to run some tests. So I can't see it being infected or badly fragged.
So why the message? Someone at PC Pitstop not a fan of the Ferrari??

Anyway on Sunday I went WAR driving. It locked up first thing right after boot up on the battery. I plugged it into the inverter and rebooted with no problem. I've been running it every night since and so far, no more problems.
I was going to run the Rescue disks but of course it's running fine now so what's the point. I have not been able to recreate any of the problems I was having. That in it's self has me a little spooked. If it was software you'd think that it would do it the same time after time. If it was hardware you'd think it would have happened again by now.

I've been problem free for five nights now. I was even able to get a wireless highspeed connection to the net last night while parked outside an electronic retail store. I was able to download SiSoftware's Sandra 2004 SP2 and Aquamrk3. Over 70 megs in less then a half hour. I was averaging about 45 to 50 kps. Compare that with my dial up at home at 1.9 to 2.2 kps. Ya gotz ta luv WiFi highspeed.

oh.... shee...it!!!

While I've been typing this on my desktop system (still haven't managed to enable the spellchecker function in Outlook Express yet on the Ferrari) I've been running checks and benchmarks with Sandra 2004 SP2 on the Ferrari while on battery power. The screen saver came on several minutes ago and I just now noticed that the screen was froze. I've tried the ctrl / alt / delete but nothing. So I turned it off, let it sit and then re booted it. It just shut down again right after the F1 car sounded.

Oh well, forget every thing I just typed.
I guess I'll have to do the Rescue disk thing after all.

Yes it finally became time to call Acer!

So it started all over again. After running the rescue disks and setting everything back to "As Shipped From The Factory" it was worse than before.
I had a devil of a time getting my email set up this time. I don't understand why, might have been an issue with my ISP but who's to say.

It worked sort of OK for the first little while. I watched most of the MotoGP movie Faster to discharge the battery. Then I let it charge all afternoon. When I first booted it up last night it showed 3 hr's of battery life 100% remaining. But windows and screens were agonizingly slow to open.
Then I tried to run Aquamark3. Before with the Omega drivers it scored 27310. But last night, the longer it ran... the longer it ran! I couldn't believe the sluggishness and ultra low frame rates. It took forever to finish and it barely scored over 7000. Then it froze up. Then it failed to reboot. Then it froze up again while running on AC. So today I called Acer.

Funny thing was, the girl I talked to at Tech Support didn't sound surprised. She didn't ask me to try anything else. Once I established what the problems were and what all I had tried she only asked if a pick up tomorrow was acceptable.

So now it's all packed up and ready for pickup tomorrow, (Monday).

I'll post the results (if they tell me) when I get her back.

Sorry, I can't answer your question at this time. Acer has not yet returned my Ferrari 3200. I did receive an email on the 24th to inform me that the Acer Repair Facility had received my unit for repair. That's the only information I have to date. They will send me another email when they ship it back. I'm not sure if they will include what they did to fix it or not.
I'll post what ever info I get, when I get it.
In the mean time I'd suggest you do as I did and follow the advice as given above. If you've just bought your Ferrari 3200 you can try to take it back and explain the problem. But, in all likelihood the retailer will just tell you to contact Acer as mine did.

Latest news on my Ferrari 3200

I received this email from customer service last week (Dec. 07):

"Based on the information in our database it shows your notebook is on hold for a motherboard."

Great, eh? NOT!
Now how many Ferraris (3000 - 3400 series) have had their mobo's replaced, to date? (Or do they not all use the same mobo?)
What is the problem with the mobos that requires them to be replaced??
What are the chances that the new board won't suffer the same fate as the old board????

They sent me another 3200

My experience has been very disappointing to put it mildly. If you've been following my story you'll see it took me a couple of weeks to accept that it wasn't me but the computer that was faulty. Then a couple more weeks to get Acer to accept that I could not fix my system with the "System Restore Disks". A few days of transit and another three weeks plus to finally get them to do something for me. (The tech knew it needed a mobo but I didn't find this out for two weeks. Then I'm told that they're on back order and not expected till this coming week. The week before Christmas! Like, even if they could get right on it I'd not get my system back till after Christmas.)
Thursday night I found another Ferrari 3200 waiting for me, (It was left at the house next door by the courier).
Merry Christmas to me, or is it?
This may be a new, left over one that was kicking around a warehouse somewhere, (the box is a little beat up looking and it was shipped up from the states). Or, it may be a referb. I don't know as there was no documentation with it. No info as to whether this is just a loaner or a replacement. I was expecting a phone call from a customer service rep. At the very least, an email. But I got nothing!
Now all this came about after my last call to Acer PanAmerica Tech Support. I have sent and received several emails. I have also spoken with three different people during some rather lengthy phone calls to Acer. But, the last straw came after being on hold for over 45 minutes during my last call. I snapped when I finally got to speak to a real human being. That is not support, that's consumer abuse! There is no reason why a customer should be kept on hold that long. Let alone expected to accept it as the norm. Why should I or anyone for that matter, put our lives on hold because a product failed to deliver as advertised.

Now from what I gather the Ferrari 3400 is more than just a faster processor over the 3200. And right now it's available at the store I bought my 3200 (going on eight weeks ago now) for $200 less then I paid for my 3200.
Talk about rubbing salt into a wound...

Right now I'm halfway through conditioning the battery in this new (to me) unit.

Question: This time do I patch to SP2 or not?