Acer Laptop problems

kaydoh1981

Hello all,

not sure if this is the correct forum for this, but hopefully someone can set me on the right path...

I bought an Acer 3692wlmi laptop last December from play.com (it cost £369 at the time) with the option to upgrade to Vista through an official Acer scheme- I received my vista disc around March and duly upgraded. I had found that the XP loadtimes were quite long, but this problem was really exacerbated in Vista; computer could take up to 10 minutes to boot. Then (around August) I started to see the computer not booting at all (usually after turning it on for the first time in a day), basically the computer would POST, then when the OS should have loaded from the harddrive, it was as if someone had pressed a reset key; the computer would go back to the POST screen. I could always get the computer to work (eventually) even if it meant booting into safe mode and taking it from there.

Eventually, enough was enough (and I was worried about running out of warranty) I rang play.com a few weeks ago, who immediately fobbed me off onto Acer- I rang Acer and explained the problem and was told that I could return the laptop to a local company in order to 'return it to factory settings' - basically re-install XP, and charge me £50 for the privilege! I am extremely annoyed that even though I upgraded through the recommended path with Acer, they will not carry out any repairs until I have paid this money - has anyone any ideas of what steps I should take?

Thanks in advance!

adr0ck

is this worth buying?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Years-extended-Warranty-Laptop/dp/B000RK1Q2E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1196072827&sr=8-1

says it can be bought upto a year after buying laptop

adr0ck

terms and conditions here

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/AcerAdvantageTerms.htm

you can get 1 yrs for £40 from amazon or 2 yrs for £50

kaydoh1981

Thanks for the quick reply- I was thinking that I should be covered for a year by the Acer warranty (I basically still have a month left), but Acer have told me that I have invalidated my warranty- they will only carry out repair work on the laptop under the initial factory settings- but I can't get back to these as Acer don't provide you with an XP cd ,(sorry, should have put this info in original post) and It'll cost me £50 to buy this CD from them. I was told by a friend who works in IT that my warranty should be on the hardware, not the software- can anyone confirm this?

steve_r123

kaydoh1981 wrote: »

return the laptop to a local company in order to 'return it to factory settings' - basically re-install XP, and charge me £50 for the privilege!

I dont quite get what you mean with this statement? Did Acer tell you to take it to a local indepedant computer shop so they could take a look?

Most warranties do not cover software issues.

If you press Alt and F10 when it boots up you will be able to do a system restore yourself for free. Just be warned you will lose all data on the hard drive.

superscaper

You'll have to check the terms of the warranty. Acer can set whatever terms they want when they give a manufacturer's warranty for a product. There's no general rule on it and is specific to the terms of your specific warranty contract. Unless they're specifically breaching their own written terms there's nothing you can do in recourse.

kaydoh1981

I'm from Northern Ireland, so all Acer's support (repairs etc.) are carried out by a company called ER Media Ltd in Banbridge. They told me to take it there to get XP reinstalled.

I feel that it's not a software issue, but rather a hardware issure (specifically the hard-drive) that's causing this - to confirm this I've done about 5 'clean' installs of vista, but unfortunately the problem remains.

Acer won't look at my hardware until I resolve the software issue. i upgraded my software as per Acer's own upgrade path http://global.acer.com/support/win_vista.htm
but even though I did this as per their instructions they're now telling me that I've invalidated the warranty; I feel that they're reneging on their commitment through a loop-hole...

adr0ck

i was actually looking to buy a acer laptop for christmas

thinking again now after your comments

sco0ter

kaydoh1981 wrote: »

they will only carry out repair work on the laptop under the initial factory settings- but I can't get back to these as Acer don't provide you with an XP cd

Acer laptops usually have a D2D (disk 2 disk) system in place.

Go into your BIOS and make sure you have the option then make sure its turned on. When you highlight it you will be told what it does and how to activate it (I think its Alt + F10 while the ACER logo is showing on boot). The partition should be intact for this to happen only problem there might be if VISTA has corrupted the acer MBR... I know mine is OK as I can boot in and get the option to restore but my Mate cant.

superscaper

adr0ck wrote: »

i was actually looking to buy a acer laptop for christmas

thinking again now after your comments

Well if you buy it in the UK at least you'll be covered by the Sale of Goods Act so you'd have some kind of recourse.

steve_r123

If you have done 5 clean re-installs, how do Acer want you to resolve to software issue?

They are probably holding out because they know you are shortly out of warranty. Phoning up is usually no use in these situations. Write a letter to their CS, dated etc, explaining your problems, and send it recorded. That way it is all documented that you were having problems before the warranty ran out.

I deal with outsourced CS everyday for customers computer repairs etc, and it is a waste of time phoning the call centre. I always write a quick letter and get the problem resolved. A LOT less stressful than on the phone to Outer Mongolia for a few hours at a time.