Acer PC`s

[Roger]

Anyone got experience of Acer PC`s? I am looking for 30 Ultra Small Form Factor PC`s. The Acer Power 2000 meets all requirements, just no experience of this brand !!

 

Roger

[MK-2]

I bought an Acer Aspire L100 for home and it's been pretty stable so far. Only issue I have is with their tech support.

I enquired whether the DVD drive I had with it could write DAO DL or if I needed to update firmware on the drive.

Their response: We would suggest performing a recovery with the recovery CD to put the Pc back to it's initial state so any software issues can be ruled out.

 

Erm no, how about an option that doesn't involve me wiping a PC for no good reason.

So good PC but dodgy techsupport

[Geoff]

Acer tech support sucks.

[Elky]

Acer tech support sucks.

 

Exactly what so many people in the industry think

 

Roger - have you looked at the Asus Pundits? I've sent you a message with some information on - it might be worth you taking a look. We have supplied over 230 of these to 1 school since September and not had one single problem yet - a very nice unit

[mattx]

Acer tech support sucks.

 

Agree, if anyone wants a real laugh, ring them up.....

[Sylv3r]

I've had 2 personal laptops from Acer and have both been fantastic. I also ordered a Acer computer for a near by church and up to now they have had no problems.

 

The specs are generally decent for the price but I've never needed to ring Technical Support so cant comment on this.

[Andrew_C]

Acer tech support sucks.

Agree, if anyone wants a real laugh, ring them up.....

You're weird. WTF would anyone want to be kept hanging on the phone for 20 mins to be told that your HDD is dead when you can see bits of electrolytic capacitor sprayed all over the MoBo? Then to get told you've b0llixed the warranty by opening the box to look. :x

 

Me, I don't find that funny. What I do find funny is that they are still in business.

[sidewinder]

Another vote for their appalling tech support here

 

If something like a hard disk goes in one of our Acer laptops I honestly would rather fit a new one at our cost rather than phoning them

 

However, their laptops are pretty well made (except the wonderful feature on the 4150 where the wireless defaults to off every time you switch it on, whatever you do - just what you want in a school

 

Also used to use a few of their Pundit SFF PC's at home and they were pretty decent

[maniac]

Acer laptops are OK, but IMO acer desktops are not. I like the look of them, but in my experience they are poorly built, easily vandalised, and have a tendancy to go wrong more often than some other makes.

 

Also their technical support is not the best, I had one PC DOA, they wouldn't accept it as DOA because I'd had the machines more than 28 days, can't blame it if I ordered the machines well before the summer break for installation over it. They wanted me to send the machine back at my expense for examination and repair, which never got arranged as I got cut off before i could get a return number, and I couldn't be bothered to stay on hold another half hour and go through it all again. In the end I examined it, diagnised a faulty motherboard, just happened to have a spare one in my workshop, anf fixed it myself within half hour.

 

I'm basing my opinion on acer desktops we had in my last school about 2 years ago, they may have improved since.

 

Mike.

[netadmin]

We have purchased about 22 Acer desktops and one laptop in the past year. The laptop works great and is very fast.

 

The desktops are all fine, we have only had major problems on three systems. Acer US support is decent, but slow (about 25 minute hold time).

 

One of the best benefits for us is the Acer erecovery system. With this program, I was able to figure out how to use the Acer factory sysprep tool to create a standard system image for each series we get (in process of combining all images into one image). This works great, and gives us a free [legal] Ghost recovery cd to use.

 

I'd recommend the Acers.

[mattx]

You're weird.

 

Not as weird as their 3600GTs which had two Mic slots, one at the front and one at the back. Of course, only one would work at a time so working out which one was not a problem. Switching them over was another matter, there was nothing in the driver, nothing in the BIOS, nothing in the manual.....

After about 27 E-mails and 50 phone calls they didn't even know. In the end I purchased some extension leads for the mics as we did not want the boys trying to plug them in round the back of the PCs with all the other cables etc..

I agree good kit, - although the GX's have the RealTek sound driver problem which is easily fixable but first time around there support on that was rubbish.

[Phreadlock]

We have 75 acer wireless laptops acer290cxi now 3 years old out of the the 75 we have had 3 cpu failures 1 inverter, and one MOB. Considering the stick they get we have be very please with them. However it has to be said tech support has gone down hill of late as everything is now back to base ( no local approved outlets for repairs/spares) and a closed shop.

 

Before my supplier could get parts put now i have to go direct to acer. roll on refresh!

[_Bat_]

I agree with the bad tech support.

 

I made a thread about them being rude on the phone a few weeks back, but since then I haven't been able to do anything because they won't reply to my e-mails.

 

They want me to send the computers back to base for repair, but I only have one repair number, when I should have two. No-one seems to be willing to give me the second one.

 

After reading this thread, i'm tempted to just repair them myself for a cost of about £40 (replacing two broken sata HDDs which cost about £20 each). I just don't think the hassle is worth it, it'd be much quicker and easier doing it myself. Besides, will they tell me the warranty is void for opening the case up and breaking the lil warranty sticker? If so, i'm doomed anyway because i've already done that several times.

[Zoom7000]

I read somewhere there is a loophole that you are legally allowed to open the machine to say your checking that you got what you paid for, without voiding the warranty.

 

Not sure if it is true, but it is food for thought.

[davyboi]

Acer tech support sucks.

 

Exactly what so many people in the industry think

 

Roger - have you looked at the Asus Pundits? I've sent you a message with some information on - it might be worth you taking a look. We have supplied over 230 of these to 1 school since September and not had one single problem yet - a very nice unit

 

yes ive used asus pundits before there nice machines, only issuse ive come across with them is they scrach really easy, there also a pain to build if like me you get the bare bones system because there so small, ive had penty of cuts from building them only used acer laptops and they seem pretty good dont have much trouble with them, agreed though their tech support is bad,

[here_hare_here]

Ive got 2 old PIII Travelmates. About 6 or 7 years old and still running fine. Running XP on them and they run great. Theyre not used on the network, only used for powerpoint, playing dvd's, word, excel etc. Newer ones ive seen in shops feel flimsy. Just got an AcerPower 1000, not yet out the box though so will post any problems I have with it (if there are any).

[Elky]

Acer tech support sucks.

 

Exactly what so many people in the industry think

 

Roger - have you looked at the Asus Pundits? I've sent you a message with some information on - it might be worth you taking a look. We have supplied over 230 of these to 1 school since September and not had one single problem yet - a very nice unit

 

yes ive used asus pundits before there nice machines, only issuse ive come across with them is they scrach really easy, there also a pain to build if like me you get the bare bones system because there so small, ive had penty of cuts from building them only used acer laptops and they seem pretty good dont have much trouble with them, agreed though their tech support is bad,

 

I cant comment on the scratching as I've not seen this problem but with regards to the build - why not let our technicians take the pain and build them? Seriously, we haven't come across this either, well at least no-one has complained when bulding them, haha!

[RoyG]

We've bought 15 Acer desktops & 6 Acer laptops in the last year.

 

Two desktops have had to be returned for repair & 4 laptops - one 4 times!!

 

Their call centre is DIRE!!! Generally around 20-30 minutes wait!!

 

Shan't buy any more - EVER!

 

RoyG

[mark.hopgood]

I'd recommend Acer for cost and performance. As far as support, we've had 12 at plasmanet (L100) which we used for digital signage.

 

For a dual core AMD, £499 including a screen is pretty good value.

 

We've also used their laptops (8 of these) - only problem was when one guy trapped his power supply in a door, but was fixed with some silicon sealant. Another good point is that usually they include DVD-RAM drives and DL DVD, so a plus for us.

 

As far as ASUS pundit, this is ok as a desktop, but I've seen issues with stability (freezing) which may be ok if you don't mind rebooting your machine periodically.

 

Hope this info helps.

[alonebfg]

Ok here i go. I used to work for acer tech support (esplex) and to be honist i cannot defend them. They employ anybody off the street ( a lot of agency staff as most people walk out due to abuse from callers) they work off a call card and have to sort many people an hour in the call center. This is why if it look like it might take too long some hang up. Now for the good bit engineers there were about 20 when i was there sometimes more as they employed more when they needed it (agency staff again) and they have a deadline as well. when i was there it was 12 laptops a day (7 hours) for someone new and up to 16 for older staff. To be honist with everyone knowing what i know i would never buy an acer. We had one machine that had been fixed 3 times ( this was due to the fact the engineers never have time to diagnose falts correctly as if you find the fault but cant fix it it does not count towards you count)

[Guest richard]

I have in the last 2 weeks had to work on 2 different Acer Aspire laptops as private jobs and found both to have had the motherboard fail. This has now put me off Acers for good.

[RoyG]

Still waiting for a laptop returned on 19th March - this is the on e which has been back 4 times!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

 

RoyG

[RoyG]

As far as ASUS pundit, this is ok as a desktop, but I've seen issues with stability (freezing) which may be ok if you don't mind rebooting your machine periodically.

 

Hope this info helps.

 

Acer & Asus are very different outfits. We've bought over 200 Asus desktops & laptops over the last 4 years. Only 2 issues during that time.

 

ASUS - recommended, ACER not!

 

Roy G

[Offroaderuk]

Oh dear sounds like I may be in for fun.

 

Had an Acer 5101 notebook since November last year, sent it back with a few month for a loose mousepad.

Then about a month ago the screen developed a problem in that it would lose brightness, if you kept adjusting the tilt of the screen it would light up again.

sent it back and they claimed faulty hard drive, replaced it ??

Had it back two weeks and same fault occurred so sent it back along with explanation of previous work.

It's come back today with tech report software fault ?? no hardware problems ???

eerrrr the've just fitted a new hard drive totally reinstalled the operating system how can the same fault be software...

I'm waiting see what happens now, I've already emailled them asking for an explanation

[zag]

Another reason to build desktops yourselves

 

I actually like the acer laptops, they seem well built to me. Never had a problem with sending one back.