I lived through Acer Hell,and Heaven(kinda)
Apr 15 '00
I bought my first Acer,and for the first 8 months or so,had no real problems other than the usual Windows nonsense,but it came with a very small hard drive,so I wanted to add one on.I bought a drive,about 3 times the size of the original,and was installing it,when I found there was only one IDE plug on the mother board.Now,I had to choose,did I want to put one of those little ISA CD controller cards in,and make the IDE channel available for both HD's,or buy a controller card that would have two IDE channels on it.
I called Acer,and they sold a card that was supposedly MADE for my PC,that would fix me all up.OK,sold,and gave him my CC number.A few days later,it shows up.First,I had to SAND the plug down,it wouldn't fit in the slot,it was way too big.I finally get it in,and fire it up,the instructions are a joke,and I cant get the thing to boot,so I call back.I get a guy who speaks perfect English,the first one I'd had,and he is confused about the whole thing,finally his supervisor gets on,and we get it to boot,and all SEEMS well..Seems is the right word...
I spent about 4 hours setting everything up,and it seemed to be working fine,then,I get the "Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD)".I wasn't doing anything,just making shortcuts.Everytime I accessed the new drive,it locked up,so I run scandisk,It says the drive is trash,so I call the manufacturer,Conner,and they send me a new one.I get it a few days later,and install it,I had not run the PC since I yanked out the bad drive.I turn it on,and I see the Icons start to appear,and get the BSOD!
Ok,I reinstall Windows,and everything seems ok again,and I start working on setting everything up again.
All seems well about 6 hrs later,when I get off and go to bed.I get up,and drive "D",the new drive isn't being found,I can get it in DOS,at first,then it's gone!I am getting kind of upset.I call Acer,get some moron who is totally clueless,get the same supervisor I got the last time,and he says the new drive is bad,like before.Ok,I call,get another replacement,put it in,and the same thing happens!Hmmmm,I'm wondering what's the deal,I call Conner,they are puzzled by the whole thing,and ask me some questions about MY PC and stuff.I tell him about the controller Acer sold me,and he laughs,and says:"That controller will destroy just about any standard hard drive you put on it,that's the problem!"I tell him my original HD is still ok,he asks what the model is,I say:Conner XXXX,he says it WILL be dead really soon,and back everything up if I can.
He was right!The next day,even after I removed the controller card,I lost my C: drive!I call Acer,and after I get some guy who barely speaks English to understand what's happening,he agrees with Conner,and says don't use the card!
So,I go buy the little CD controller card,and wait for either of my two HD's to come so I can get back in business.If only it was that easy.I get the Conner one first,put it in,and load my stuff,works fine.I do something that has to restart Windows to work.OK,I say,and the screen blacks out,forever!The video card has died!After talking to a friend,I try moving the card to the other PCI slot,and it fires up,and I'm ok for a while.
One day about a month later,I walk into the room where the PC is,turn the power on,and the PC does nothing,just sits there with the power light on.After turning it on and off a couple of times,it boots,and seems ok.Nope!It starts refusing to boot more and more often,I'm getting disgusted,and call Acer again.They decide to replace my motherboard,and send some guy out and it SEEMS ok then,but I was totally paranoid waiting for it to screw up again,and I was right!
It started rebooting itself at random times,and I had had enough!I tried to see if the store I bought it from could help me get my money back or a new PC,but they wouldn't/couldn't help.I took my mother to the Doctor a day or two later,and there was an article about Acer,with the name of the big cheese in charge.I decided to write a letter to him,and see what happened,what did I have to lose,the PC was almost out of warranty.
I sent the letter,two pages of basically what I'm writing here,and five days later,I get a call from Acer,they are giving me a new PC!Refurbished,but I didn't care,as long as the first one was gone.A few days later,the new one showed up,and I had received a major upgrade in all areas,and the new PC stunk like a brand new one when I first turned it on,and all semed well!
I still have this PC,it's an antique now,just a P100,but it works fine,always has,except for HD failures due to power outages while writing to the HD.These were caused by cars hitting nearby trees,or branches falling on power lines,the PC was,and is still fine.I bought a UPS,and haven't lost a drive in over 2 years,I use the PC every day,and it's rock solid,AND I found out recently when I called to see about a replacement W95 CD-ROM,it's still under warranty almost 5 years later!I don't think I'll buying an Acer to replace the newer one when it dies,but I've been very happy with the newer one,but I have learned one thing,avoid Acer Support at almost all cost!They seem to be totally clueless,and want to tell everyone to "rebuild your hard drive,and se if that fixes it!"I never want to talk to them again.I did it recently for a friend who knows nothing about PCs,and had bought an Acer laptop,and it was as bad as I had remembered it to be,I ended up searching the Web,and found a simple solution to the problem,Acer told me to wipe the HD,and reinstall Windows.Five minutes after I read what to do,I had the laptop working fine,nad it still is fine,stable as a rock..
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Epinions.com ID:
jupiter2
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