Originally posted by renig:
Well DonM, I'm happy for you that Acer's service was decent enough. However, in the interests of balanced reporting and, for what it's worth, here's my daughter's story.
1. Everything in the laptop has been replaced at least once. - sound card replaced twice, motherboard replaced twice, HD replaced more than once (see below), the launch keypad board replaced once, the USB port replaced once...need I continue??
2. They removed the HD without consent. It was not backed up.
3. The "new" HD they put in, bottomed out. It would not even load windows. I ended up buying one myself because at this point I no longer trusted them.
4. They replaced the locking latch, when it was not broken. The new latch has never worked so the laptop does not close properly.
5. The monitor was replaced once.
This whole bloody saga was strung out over a period of 2 (count 'em TWO) months.
My daughter says her ACER laptop was the biggest piece of garbage she ever bought. The computer was under 2 years old when all of this occurred.
Interesting, did you have an external or PCMIA sound card installed, (If so this would not be made by Acer but by a third party) as apart from changing the sockets, the only way to change the internal sound system is to change the Motherboard, as the sound system is built in. (The same applies to the USB port)
If the hard disk has failed, then apart from using specialist companies to get the data off the disk, (Which costs an arm and a leg) the only thing that can be done is to replace it. (If you read the small print from any manufacture you will find they do not guarantee to be able to save your data, although if you ask they will always try there best)
Again the Hard Disks are not made by Acer, and are used by many other manufactures, and so again the fault cannot be blamed directly on Acer.
BTW. What do you mean by bottomed out.
The rest of the problems most likely came about through miscommunication between the different departments. (An all too common problem from most manufactures)
I personally would not by an Acer Laptop, as they set up using the FAT32 file system, which means that any Tom, Dick and Harry can easily get at your data, plus they install there own special utilities which are a pain in the butt.
BTW. Make sure you keep the vents clear when using the Laptop, as heat is the biggest killer of Laptops.
Anyway I hope your Laptop is now functioning correctly, and that you have no further problems.
Bill