Read this BEFORE considering Acer!
Aug 02 '00
I have a good deal of PC knowledge - my garage is sprinkled with various machines in working and non-working states, and I often upgrade my friends machines or build PCs from new and used parts. My job also involves maintaining both the hardware and software on many PCs.
I worked for five years at a small (35 people) company using mostly Acer and Packard Bell desktop PCs. By far the most troublesome computers in the office were the Acers. They seemed to have a life of their own and would break in unusual ways without provocation or warning.
The desktop cases on these computers had a front panel that could be removed without tools. You would open this panel to gain access to the plastic tabs inside that released the cover One particular Acer desktop PC would operate normally unless this front panel were snapped into place. It would then refuse to boot when powered on. We never found a reason for this odd behavior, but taking this panel off would always fix the problem.
A second unit had a similar problem. If anything were placed on top of the desktop case, the machine would lock up. "Anything" turned out to be related to the amount of weight involved - a single hardback book placed on the case had around a 50/50 chance of stopping the machine dead in its tracks. Anything heavier would shut it down instantly.
Add-in slots (PCI and ISA) were on a riser board rather than directly on the motherboard. There were always problems with these cards "disappearing" from the operating system - almost certainly a problem with the connections between the riser and the motherboard. The inexpensive and lower quality plastic used was probably to blame here. A machine did not have to be dropped for this to happen - some days the PC would just ignore the cards.
Configuration problems abounded with these machines. It was odd, but even if we started with the same installation CDs and loaded two identical machines in an identical way, each would develop a different problem. I never had any of these problems with our other brands of computers.
Problems with Acer equipment were not limited to the CPUs. Each machine came with an Acer 17" monitor, and we replaced four or five of them in my time with the company. During that period no other monitors were ever sent out for repair. We eventually began replacing the Acer monitors with new ones rather than paying to have the Acers fixed.
There is only one thing I really liked about Acer equipment, and that was the easy to open case. No tools were required to get inside the machine. Unfortunately, I like this because I always seemed to be opening the cases…
I will be the first to admit that I have not worked with Acers in the last two years, and your recent experience with Acer may vary greatly from mine - I hope they have improved their product. However, due to the number of these computers I have worked with and the consistent headaches they caused me, I must recommend avoiding Acer equipment. My experience proves them to be unreliable and, for lack of a better word, flaky.
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Epinions.com ID:
danrj
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