Computer help

[Kuciwalker]

"Dust clogging the transistors" is best, though.

[StarLightDeath]

Dell support gets you an indian half way around the world that can't speak English. I was stupid enough to buy a dell again, but not stupid enough to buy technical support again.

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by Asher

http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/tm8200.htm

Well, it's convenient there's no price.

[Wiglaf]

Their USA site is broken

[CrONoS]

http://reviews.cnet.com/Acer_TravelMate_8200/4505-3121_7-31679411.html

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202166276&SearchEngine=Shopper&SearchTerm=202166276&Type=PE&Category=Comp&Gad=0&dcaid=15889

[Kuciwalker]

I was composing a snappy retort to Wiglaf, except that, Asher, I actually can't find the price on their stupid website.

[Wiglaf]

That's more expensive and no faster.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Acer_Travel...7-31679411.html
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.a...d=0&dcaid=15889

[germanos]

Asher's PC help: always on the spot

[Wiglaf]

from cnet

I am frustrated and feel betrayed by the media expert reviews of this unit. Every expert seems to focus on performance. Very few consider ergonomics, quality, and usability. None seem to need to call tech support. I am returning this unit after giving Acer plenty of time to address my issues, without success.

I had (and still have) boot problems out of the box like many other users reported. Once every 2 or 3 boots the system hangs. Also had the same Intel network issue and installed the fix but in my case it didn't help. The built-in camera is not recognized on every other boot. This is a repeatable problem and the tech support person also reported seeing this on the unit he was using while helping me. The microphone works only randomly.

Terrible docking solution; ezDock requires connect/disconnect via a cable; no drop-in and locking mechanisms like those in Thinkpad or Toshiba and HP docking solutions. Docking and undocking hangs the unit and despite the undocking via the start menu, I have to reboot and go through a disk check every other time or so.
Also, no on/off switch on the ezDock; you have to configure the unit to do nothing when you close the lid. This means that you can't put the unit in stand-by mode by closing the lid, if you want to use it with ezDock. The unit has been turning on with no apparent reason while in stand-by. This is very dangerous when the unit is in a laptop bag with no ventilation. Hibernation does not work and despite tech support trying saying so, an existing Microsoft Win XP patch is unrelated to this issue.

Heat dissipation on the right side of the unit makes the use of a right handed mouse impractical. Within minutes the heat is unbearable.

The express card slot cover is loose and keeps falling out.

The TFT screen is average at best; it has a very narrow horizontal viewing angle ( about 50 degrees) before the top or bottom darkens.

My Nokia phone has better sound than the speakers on this unit.

Both the printed manual and the online version are anemic at best. They do not explain basics such as the meaning of the blinking power and battery lights.

I couldn't get a good explanation from Acer why the file system is FAT32. The Tech support told me that if I covert the file system to NTSF, ACER will not support the unit anymore!!!!

Acer’s empowering technology applications don’t have proper documentation. For example, there is no explanation of how to disable the Launch Manager from appearing in the task tray on start up.

...And the list goes on.

As an early adopter of new technologies, I am reasonably tolerant of kinks and bugs, but in this case it seems Acer tried to beat the competition to market, and sacrificed quality and usability, as well as its reputation. And they seem to have successfully recruited key media reviewers from reference organizations such as PC Magazine and CNET to write premature favorable reviews.

Stay away from this one!

[StarLightDeath]

Ok, **** it, obviously no one here can help. I'm not surprised since the ****ing dell forums were even less help. At least asher suggested a way to destroy my computer.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
from cnet

Exactly, there's all kinds of quality problems with Acer's products.

You just walked right into that one, Wiglaf.

Here are some more Acer/Apple quality problems with the MacBook Pro:

The bottom of the LCD is noticeably brighter than the rest of the display, with a translucent white stripe (no affiliation to the band) stretching from one end to the other. Also, at the back of the bottom of the display (near the vent area) there seems to be a high-pitched hissing noise, presumably (?) emanating from the LCD (as the sound is consistent from one end of the lid to the other).

Everyone I spoke with who bought one of these new laptops also has these problems, and so did all the MacBook Pros at my local Apple Store.

http://www.skattertech.com/2006/03/macbook-pro-problems/

We were disappointed when we saw how many problems the unit had. The first problem encountered was the loud hissing sound, which occurs when the LCD’s brightness was turned up all the way and the CPU wasn’t being put to work. The sounds didn’t seem too bothersome at first, but became extremely irritating after working with it for about 30 minutes. The biggest problem we ran into was with the touchpad. The touchpad on the unit we received was smashed in the top and was pushed off to the right. It wasn’t noticeable at first glance, but after working with it awkwardly for a few minutes we could tell that something was wrong.

With all the reports on its awesome performance, it was hard to believe how slow our 2.0GHz Dual Core Processor with 1GB of ram was running. For some reason it took us over 10 seconds just to launch iTunes with no other programs running. Apple’s new Front Row application was also quite slow and buggy. After pressing the “menu” button on the remote a few times, nothing happened. But after about five minutes it suddenly started to take in all the previous actions we had given it, making it go crazy. The computer also kept saying the DVDs we put in were corrupt until the 3rd time we restarted the machine. Apple has a lot of work to do with this.

Early adopters of Apple's new MacBook Pro have been experiencing a variety of odd quirks, such as random drops in AirPort reception and extremely high heat. DailyTech writer Tuan Nguyen has noticed those issues as well, and has verified with an Apple source that some of them "are well known."

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2740&p=2

Unfortunately, the MacBook Pro does have a couple of assembly related issues, both of which are visible on the keyboard itself. A few of the keys squeak a lot when depressed, mainly the spacebar. More bothersome is the fact that two keys are poorly mounted. The eject button is by far the worst on the unit I'm reviewing as removing the key and replacing it doesn't actually put it back in line with the rest of the function keys. The only solution for this problem is to take it back to Apple.

[CrONoS]

Something doesn't work in your dell, if I was you, maybe I try another pci-e vid card just to see if it will work.

But it seems you try anything possible to make it work, so something must be not working into your motherboard.

Good Luck!

Originally posted by StarLightDeath
Ok, **** it, obviously no one here can help. I'm not surprised since the ****ing dell forums were even less help. At least asher suggested a way to destroy my computer.

[StarLightDeath]

My brother has the exact same computer and I tried it in his with out any success so it's not my mother board but something in the E310.

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by Asher

Exactly, there's all kinds of quality problems with Acer's products.

You just walked right into that one, Wiglaf.

Here are some more Acer/Apple quality problems with the MacBook Pro:

http://www.skattertech.com/2006/03/macbook-pro-problems/

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2740&p=2

Macbook Pro is first generation hardware, and just like Bootcamp, you'd be wise to avoid first generations or betas to avoid all the little quirks. Also, Acer has been making PC notebooks for much longer. And they certaintly do not make the Macbook, sorry to inform you.

[Agathon]

Take it back, and if you can't take it back eBay it.

Isn't the FX5200 a pretty old card? My Powerbook has that card, and it's getting long in the tooth now (although still fine for my work).