Monday, March 15, 2010

Acer laptop dissapointment, part II

Well, even though I said I would not get suckered again by Acer, I simply could not find the feature set that matches the Timeline units (the only missing feature was the hardware virtualization support, but I found a workaround). When I saw one at Costco at $629.99 (AS4810TZ-4120), I could not resist. I figured I'd have three months to test it.

I spent few weekends installing all the tools I normally use, tweaking everything just so. Since all was running smooth (no crashes or any other mysterious errors), I put it in production as my business laptop, although I held onto my old one for a month or so. Finally, I sold my old unit on Craigslist as it was just gathering dust...

Week later, my screen started flickering occasionally, and when the laptop's lid was moved, some LED back-lights would be on some would not. I called Costco Concierge service since I could not get hold of Acer. They tried to tell me it was a driver, but since the external monitor was fine, and it only happened when lid was moved, the logic finally prevailed and they agreed to repair the screen.

Mind you, if Costco still had these for sale, I would have imaged the hard drive, exchanged the laptop, and restored the image, not losing any data or more importantly, many $$$ of software that I had already installed and activated. But since these were no longer available in stores, I had few options, unless I was willing to start from scratch.

So, on 2/16/10 I sent the unit in to Acer's Texas repair facility. I was irked that I had to pay for shipping on a unit that was only about 90 days old. Other than the email that the unit was received, there was no status updates from Acer. I had to call Costco to find out what was happening.

Finally, the unit was returned to me on 3/4/10. Longer than I wanted to be without the laptop, but it was all behind me now...Excited, I opened the package, laptop appeared well packed, but as soon as I lifted the lid, a small plastic clip wedged between the keyboard and the screen was staring at me...I looked but could not find where it belonged. I had hoped that it was maybe in the plastic bag the unit was shipped in, but the chances of the clip jumping and wedging itself between the screen and the keyboard were low....

The note from Acer said they replaced the screen and updated the BIOS. With fingers crossed, I fired up the unit, and there were no bright/dark LED spots, nor any strange flickering. Okay, maybe it was all over. I took the unit home for the weekend, but did not use it much as we had a busy weekend with kid's sports and all. I did manage to call Acer and Costco and tell them about the mysterious piece, just in case it turned out to be some sort of a crucial piece, such as a key retainer clip or similar.

I guess it was not meant to be...As soon as I started using it on Monday, I noticed these strange white/blue/green dots on the rightmost two inches of the screen. As soon as I moved the mouse cursor, they would blink and appear to move, sort of like army of ants walking around. The image is surreal, as it depends on the background. For example, on black or white background, the dots are not visible, but as my Windowns 7 is set to change the desktop picture every 30 minutes, the dots seem to get situated on the outline of items, where two different colors share a border.

When I called Acer, first they kept saying "I understand you have the same problem", and I kept correcting them that it was NOT the same problem, but a different one, although it involved the same component (the screen). They seemed to think I was making things up...I offered to send the photos or the video (video 1 and video 2) of the "dancing dots" as I've started calling them...Finally, they agreed to have it sent in, but this time they at least paid for the shipping.

Now, the unit has been shipped back to Texas on 3/8/10. I've not yet received any calls or updates from them, and I am nervous because the Acer rep kept stressing that if Acer deemed the unit was malfunctioning due to owner's misuse, they would only ship it back after I paid them...Mind you this laptop is in a neoprene sleeve when not in use, and it does not have as much as a fingerprint smudge on it (well, other than the scuff made by the extra piece wedged in the laptop, courtesy of Acer).

I will post the update once I receive the unit back (or not). In either case, based on my non-scientific, small-sample, the conclusion is clear: do not buy new Acer laptops. I say new because, my family currently has three other Acer units I purchased refurbished, that have been perfect in every way. However, both two of my brand new units had defect, and the same was true for a customer's laptop I set up last year.

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