Purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 series laptop end of May 2007 from Simply Acer. Mid August lost CD/DVD drive and use of orbicam. contacted Simply acer who stated that it was not their problem and I should contact the warranty dept. I did this and after several lengthy calls and time off work to make these calls (there hours are 10 - 5.30) and unreasonable amounts of downloads to fix the problems said it was now a windows issue with Microsoft. Vista is rubbish and should have never been released - Acer were aware of these faults and did not let anyone know, now I have a laptop that is useless to me and Acer do not want to know without charging me for it. The last conversation I had with support resulted with the maintenance support guy putting the phone down on me. Acer were very unhelpful and keen to pass the book to anyone but them selves. I am very disappointed I will NEVER buy another Acer product - I am now looking to take them to court!
I have faced the same problem
Acer Aspire 5100 series lost CD-DVD drive and boot freezes
Helplines failed to provide any help
The laptop is still within warranty
but the service centres are not willing to provide any help.
Sueing may be an option left.
Its actually been quite a relief to come across your comment. My husband and I also bought the same laptop (5100 Aspire notebook) back in May this year for our Gap year around Europe and we have had no end of issues with it. Not being very "up" on the technology side of stuff though it was something that we had done but the more we research it the more it becomes clear that others have had the same problems. This was s huge investment for us and being away from the UK is proving tricky to get the issues sorted- mainly with the camera and microphone not working , also it never seems to shut down properly - even though you select "shut down" and it shuts down, then when it comes to open it says "in proper shut down", the battery life is crap, the mouse button is pretty much knacked - so we like you feel pretty peeved off with Acer and Windows Vista!
I am proud to say, I own a Acer 5100 laptop that has never been turned off for a full year! it is used heavily 9 hours a day and runs like a race horse! no flaws at all! best laptop I have ever owned! I recommend Acer laptops to all my friends!
My Acer Aspire 5100 is really starting to piss me off. I also bought it in May 2007 to take to University with me, and I had the same problem with the CD/DVD drive, and now whenever i install software for a new hardware (printer) I lose the use of my mouse and/or keyboard and have to restore my computer to a previous date in order to regain use of these. However, restoring it means that I have to re-install my printer and when i do, I lose the use of the keyboard and mouse all over again. I am so sick of this laptop, and i would never reccomend an Acer with Vista to anyone.
Yep, lost CD/DVD after 9 months and now major startup problems. Only seems to start when its been turned off for hours. It's a piece of crap.
Will try pressing the CD/DVD drive in towards the lapop, it isn't mounted well, and this tends to fix that issue. Make sure you have the laptop shut down while doing this, or atleast reboot it when your done. I have had no end of problems with laptop, Calling now to call in my warrenty
i also got a laptop from simply acer and recieved it damaged on delivery but they wont take it back echange it or refund. it is now going to coart any advise please.
The only way forward was to buy an USB DVD RW. I have been told it is a motherboard problem, in which ACER would never admit to.
We have two Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi at home and both are the biggest crap we have ever owned. Slow, don't shutdown properly, you get black screens sometimes, things just don't work.
Just today we have both experienced black screens, and one of those two machines is not even used very often.
I will never ever buy any Acer computer again.
I bought an Acer 5100 about a year ago, and it's gone bad on me. It comes on, but it will not allow me to put in my password. I took it to have it repaired, and the repairman told me it was a Motherboard problem. He went on to tell me that it had something to do with the south bridge on the motherboard.
i bought an Acer Aspire 5100 2 years ago and i have had 3 faults firstly a hard drive fault, the laptop could not find it, then the fault where the power would not charge and then after paying £100 to get that done the display has gone, and as for ACER.. well buy an extended warranty and then you can get it fixed, however acer do not sell them and when i took it to comet. they recommended someone else.. ACER A Crap Expensive RIPOFF... and i have had more help from a monkey in africa. i would say do not buy a Acer Laptop until you have called there so called customer helpline.. and then you know how much help you will get if you ever needed it.. and to answer how much you will get.. NONE !
I payed 1000$ For This peac o Sht
Slow
Can't Play any good games
Has a hard time with Home networking
I've had the black screen 3 Times won't turn on for 2 days after that happens.
It's battery life is None
It takes forever to burn Dvd, or any of that music to disks
It Over Clocks (over heating) all the time i will just have it on for 1 hour and i hear that shty fan doing a great job of BURRhhhh,
I loose connection to the internet a lot, my modem is faulty and turns of a lot i have to open the laptop and shuv it back in,
It freezes much to fast and can not handle to many screens.
The "Great Speakers for 40$ extra" broke after 5 Months
The keys always fall off and don't connect well
The Start up, shut down is slow
tuch pad is sad.
I have many other problems with this laptop but i think your got the point
Well I have to agree with all your comments I have read, I too bought a Acer Laptop in about May 2007 andhave had nothing but problems with it. Starting with it inability to connect to certain printer drivers, then networking issues and now it will not start up. It just keeps going in a loop through to the restore point and then says windows cannot solve this problem.
I not only cannot restart the stupid thing but it has all my business accounts on it as well as all my emails and business contacts and I cannot turn it in on.
So what am I supposed to do ... No one seems to have an answer ... This is NOT supposed to happen ... I do not go to any sites that might cause virus problems as my computer is purely for business...
Anyone got any suggestion? VISTA sucks.
i got my acer 2 years ago and now my mouse does not work my battery cant stay on for longer than 5 min even with a full charge and it is slow. u have to wait 5 min after it has started up for it to work faster for about an hour. i cant leave it on hybrinate because then it freaks out and says that some things dont work so i have to do a dianostics. DONT BUY AN ACER LAPTOP IT SUX. i would rather buy a mac. how much can i sell it for?
Bought a high end Gateway (acer owns gateway) computer and in 2 months have formatted it 5 times. I talked to customer service and the only response was " if you send it in for service, it will take weeks maybe months to get it back".
I thought Dell's service was bad, but Dell cannot hold a candle to Acer.
So the moral is Dont Buy Gateway Either.
gary
I agree totally with the comments about Acer and their products and customer service. The Acer Aspire mini netbook is junk and Customer service is no better! Six months after the computer was received as a gift, a green spider like image appeared under the screen of the computer when it was turned on--no cracks or broken pieces just a green image filling the screen. The computer had not been dropped or forced or moved, simply turned on as Acer is trying to get away with saying.The computer still worked but this green image was across the screen. After calling Acer and being treated rudely and being told that it was not covered under the standard warranty as it HAD to be customer caused, the Company was contacted via FAX, E-mail and snail mail. A call from a representative yeilded the same accusations and refusal to take or consider any responsibility or any other possible cause for the problem. Like someone stated above, if $199.00 was sent with the computer to the repair facility then it could get fixed. Pay and all is well with Acer. The Better Business Bureau was contacted (of which Acer does not belong---what a surprise) and all communications thus far simply got the same response from Acer: Not their fault: Not covered; Customer fault; Customer refused to pay $199.00. It is still being pursued through BBB. Acer is a company that does not consider the customer but rather only the bottom line: MONEY. I would NEVER purchase another Acer product. Maybe if more complaints went through the Better Business Bureau about Acer and its products, Acer may be convinced to back their products and treat their customers with respect.
Acer laptops have major flaws, I own a 5100 and I`m having problem with the DVD drive (the Southbridge problem Acer will neve admit), the solution is to press the left of the touchpad, this worked for me and for a friend who owns a 3000 series... This show that the problems in the Acer laptops keep going and going, they never fix such obvious problems.
Yes. In December 2006 my wife surprised me with an Acer 5100 as a birthday present. I am pretty familiar with computers. Up front I was suspicious about its quality. So I bought a three year factory warranty. I had too many problems to enumerate but I shipped it back to Texas for service perhaps 5 times. Hard drives, DVDs, touch pads, keyboards and motherboards were replaced several times. Good news was it came with XP and a free Vista upgrade. With the upgrade it did not run but crawled even with 2 gig memory upgrade. When it went for several repairs they restored it back to XP where it had remained.
Last repair was a new motherboard+++ at the end of 2009. When they returned it it had a defective wifi card. I sent it back again and they replaced everything but the screen. Now it has been perfect for many months. The warranty is over and when it dies again I will not spend a penny on it.
I think it was assembled from a series of cheap junk defective parts.
No company can stay in business selling such a product.
My local computer store whom I highly respect told me some Acers are no good and some are very good. They know which is which and only sell a good model.
Now 3-1/2 years later I hope Acer has figured out how to sell decent product across their line.
You get what you pay for and you should not pay for more than you need. If computers are apples to apples different in price then the difference may be in the build quality and parts quality. The specs may be the same but the quality and support may be different.
It may pay to get a corporate quality laptop with premium USA based support instead of a "bargain" discount store model. The brand name may not mean that much, rather the level of build quality in that brand may.
Regarding Macbooks, they look great but do not have allot of bang for the buck. I want one. But I want an Audi S4 also. Not sure either makes sense.
Windows 7 is pretty good. I have it on my wife's infrequently used Sony Vaio. Sony has a good build quality. The case and keyboard as much better than an Acer. I bargained off $100.00 in the Sony store so they met a Best Buy store price.
Can you return it? Is it under warranty?
If not are you handy and can you fix it?
Cooling fan may be dead or plugged with dust in exhaust pipe.
Wireless card sounds defective.
May need more RAM memory.
May have software you downloaded tying up the processor.
Overheating issues should be taken care of immediately or you will fry the CPU and motherboard. Take off bottom panel and see if fan is running. If not replace it. Clear path to vent on side so air will flow. Once mine was plugged with a lint ball of doggy fur.
Make sure air flows under the machine when using it.
If it still overheats it may be a defective power supply. My OEM one was running very hot at the transformer box. I bought a substitute on line for $15.00 US.
Not worth the money to repair these machines out of warranty. Not hard to replace wifi cards, hard drives, DVD drives, ram chips yourself. Parts are cheap.
Good DIY dis-assembly instructions on line. for Acers.
I bought and replaced a busted (my fault) LCD screen my self. New screen was about $100.00.