Acer Laptop Support - Tech support only, read the rules or you will be banned

Acer Service

Brenner wrote:

Hi Cheers for the info,

I hadn't installed the modem driver yet, guess that will fix that...

Yeah I'd installed the launch manager because I knew I needed that for the program launch buttons etc. (the only drivers I've installed are from ther acer FTP/downloads URL)

Yeah, come back to me tommorrow and see if any of that helps. I'll take a look at any further issues you have.

Brenner

Hey,

Thanks for your help there, it seems that the issue was that I didn't have the modem driver installed, I guessed I'd never be dialing up so I overlooked it at the time, just for interests sake... do you know that this was the issue here,

If I don't have my modem driver installed, but do have my LAN/ethernet driver and Wireless driver installed there will be issues with the wireless connection?

Either way I'm up and running wirelessly now,

Much appreciated, nice one for being on boards BTW! Good Idea.

Regards,
Bren

Riamfada

Hey

Acer. I have a problem.

My power light is on when I plug in the charger. The battery is green yet the thing wont turn on when I press the button. Any idea what this is and how much it would cost to repair.

Cheers
G

aspire 1690

Acer Service

Grimes wrote:

Hey

Acer. I have a problem.

My power light is on when I plug in the charger. The battery is green yet the thing wont turn on when I press the button. Any idea what this is and how much it would cost to repair.

Cheers
G

aspire 1690

Depends on what exactly it does when you press the power button;

1. Press power and fans start and lights come on but nothing appears on the screen - probably faulty RAM, possibly main board.
   
2. Press power and lights flick on and immediately off again with no fans - CPU or mainboard usually faulty

If it was RAM you'd probably be looking at around £40-£50, a mainboard would be close to £220 and CPU dependent on what's in the system. These are all ball park figures and not quotations, I would need to inspect the unit to give definate quotations for repair.

Contact me on 00353 (0) 870 803 4915 to bring the machine in for an out of warranty inspection.

Voodu Child

The pin/plug on the male end of the PSU was (mostly) at fault, as the new PSU arrived last week and the laptop is getting power 99% of the time (still slightly sensitive to moving or twisting the plug).

However, both the large and small batteries are still refusing to take a charge, they are remaining at their current levels (25% and 4%), and I presume will slowly discharge over the coming weeks.

Acer Service wrote:

Three things could be wrong;

1) You've damaged the power pin inside the laptop which now isn't making proper contact (your new PSU won't help).

2) The pin on the male end of your PSU is broken (check for physical damage)

3) Your using the wrong PSU, you'd be surprised how easy it is to mix up PSUs that all look the same at home. This would also explain why the battery isn't charging.

I'd really need a look to make any definate faults though.

dohouch

Acer XP laptop dead,
I had this problem maybe a month back but now I can't find the thread. So I have the battery in and power connected. But there is no power light showing either Green/Green or Green>yellow =charging. It doesn't react at all to the ON button.

If I remeber correctly there is a Keyboard combination or something like holdng the "escape" key for 10 seconds. But have no idea any more what it was.

Acer Service

dohouch wrote:

Acer XP laptop dead,
I had this problem maybe a month back but now I can't find the thread. So I have the battery in and power connected. But there is no power light showing either Green/Green or Green>yellow =charging. It doesn't react at all to the ON button.

If I remeber correctly there is a Keyboard combination or something like holdng the "escape" key for 10 seconds. But have no idea any more what it was.

If it wasn't recting to the power button "at all" then how are you going to use the key combo to resolve the issue? that only works to restore the laptops software partitions and OS

dohouch

I had the same problem maybe 4 weeks ago, and I just can't rember the key-combo. It was like the key-combo was a way of freeing the system of static build-up. It was like remove alll power supplies battery/power cord and then hold some button for 10 seconds. Will have to go on searching.

Acer Service

dohouch wrote:

I had the same problem maybe 4 weeks ago, and I just can't rember the key-combo. It was like the key-combo was a way of freeing the system of static build-up. It was like remove alll power supplies battery/power cord and then hold some button for 10 seconds. Will have to go on searching.

If your trying to remove static, which is usually just a short term fix, you would remove the battery and power cable and simply hold the power button in for at least 30-60 secs to discharge all the capacitors etc.

Although, from experience this is often a temporary solution and the problem will most likely happen again.

wet-paint

Here's a bit of a stupid question.

I've a Ferrari 405wlmi.
Y'know the directional button between the left and right mouse buttons? What does it do and how do you make it work?
Cheers, WP.

KTRIC

Acer Service wrote:

Certainley, call me and I'll mail them to you. 0870 803 4915

I spoke to your support line several times over the past few weeks and I still haven't received the rubber pads for my C311XMI.

The motherboard was replaced a couple of weeks ago because the VGA out wasn't working and since then the track pad has developed a fault which means the courser drops to the corner of the screen and stays there when then the laptop is on for a few minutes.

The laptop is now unusable and the warranty which i presume is only 1 year is up a in a couple of weeks time.

Hi Acer Service,

I have an Acer Aspire 7112WSMi, still under its 1 year warranty. A week ago I noticed that when I plugged in my charger, the laptop didn't charge. I at first assumed it was a faulty charger, but I then noticed that it felt like there was a slightly loose connection between the charger and the charger port in the laptop.
I unfortunately don't know know anyone who has an Acer laptop or even a similar charger so I that can confirm what the problem is. Do you think there is a possiblilty that they might send me out a charger to check, to save me from posting that laptop for what could be no reason. And after testing the new charger I either:

• pay for the new charger if it was the charger that was the problem
• send the laptop to you if I find out that it wasn't the charger that was at fault

Any help is greatly appreciated...

Acer Service

Deleted User wrote:

Hi Acer Service,

I have an Acer Aspire 7112WSMi, still under its 1 year warranty. *** Do you think there is a possiblilty that they might send me out a charger to check, to save me from posting that laptop for what could be no reason.

Unfortunately not, ACER don't supply us with parts for such a situation and usually only send us parts if we are returning the faulty parts at the same time. Also, this doesn't sound like it will be the PSU, it sounds more like you have broken the power pin off the main board to be honest, but I'd have to inspect it to tell that.

Send the entire unit including PSU back to us and we'll get it repaired for you asap.

therecklessone

Hi Acer Service,

Suspect there's nothing you can do for me, but no harm in asking.

My Travelmate 290 LCi died on me today. The screen went blank then the laptop tried to restart. It got as far as the Acer POST screen, but then restarted again. This happened a number of times, before stopping (though the machine was still powered on, and I had to hold down the power button to switch it off)

I don't believe the problem is HDD-related, as I replaced the HDD less than a year ago.

I tried entering the setup page from POST but after displaying some text the screen went blank completely (machine still needed to be powered off though)

I've googled and one of the first hits suggests the CMOS battery might need replacing http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=56804 Could that be the problem?

Thanks for any help.

jellie

Hi,

this is not a big issue but hoping somebody could help me.

Bought an acer aspire 5612WLMi, when i was first setting it up had to make some selection for the keyboard type, cant remember what i chose, but now im finding that the keys are all messed up, eg. " is printed when the @ key is clicked & vice versa. The same for a lot of other keys.

Any suggestions on how to set the keyboard so that the keys print the right character, its getting a bit frustrating trying to find some of them!

Thanks

Acer Service

therecklessone wrote:

Hi Acer Service,

Suspect there's nothing you can do for me, but no harm in asking.

My Travelmate 290 LCi died on me today. The screen went blank then the laptop tried to restart. It got as far as the Acer POST screen, but then restarted again. This happened a number of times, before stopping (though the machine was still powered on, and I had to hold down the power button to switch it off)

Sounds definately main board related. You could possibly get away with a CMOS battery although a lot of the Acer ones are soldered on to the board and aren't easy to swap out. This will more than likely require an entire new main board though which wouldn't be economically viable.

Acer Service

sar84 wrote:

Hi,

this is not a big issue but hoping somebody could help me.

Bought an acer aspire 5612WLMi, when i was first setting it up had to make some selection for the keyboard type, cant remember what i chose, but now im finding that the keys are all messed up, eg. " is printed when the @ key is clicked & vice versa. The same for a lot of other keys.

Any suggestions on how to set the keyboard so that the keys print the right character, its getting a bit frustrating trying to find some of them!

Thanks

Hi,

You have accidently selected US keyboard settings, you will find the @ key gives you " symbols and vice versa. You must go into control panel, select reginal settings and change these settings to United Kingdom Keyboard settings

jellie

Acer Service wrote:

Hi,

You have accidently selected US keyboard settings, you will find the @ key gives you " symbols and vice versa. You must go into control panel, select reginal settings and change these settings to United Kingdom Keyboard settings

Found it, Thanks

shane_by

I want to format my hard drive and reinstall Windows from the back up disk I made when I first got my laptop (I accidentally deleted the hidden partition on the hard drive so I can't restore factory settings). However, no matter what I do, the laptop will not boot from the CD ROM/DVD Drive. Neither changing the boot order within Acer eSettings Management or hitting F2 on startup and setting the drive to boot first works. On startup the computer briefly reads the CD but then boots into XP as normal.
I can't think of anything I did to cause this. Another couple of weird things happened yesterday: first the time changed from 18.40 to 00.40 and the date changed to June 2005! Secondly, when I hit F2 and get into the setup screen the laptop's name is given as YYspire not Aspire. I never noticed that before so I can't say if this is something new.
Any suggestions anybody??

barrett1965

Hi,

My Acer laptop is still under warranty. Recently, the screen vibrates or jumps when I power up. It has happened on two occasions.

Can you advise please?

Stky10

I don't know whether you can help with this or not. A friend of a friend has asked me to help him with an Aspire3633WLMi that he bought second hand. Somehow he managed to buy it without finding out what the BIOS password set on it was, so he can't get it to boot.

So, I'm wondering if there is any way in bypassing/resetting the BIOS password?

Acer Service

shane_by wrote:

I want to format my hard drive and reinstall Windows from the back up disk I made when I first got my laptop (I accidentally deleted the hidden partition on the hard drive so I can't restore factory settings). However, no matter what I do, the laptop will not boot from the CD ROM/DVD Drive. Neither changing the boot order within Acer eSettings Management or hitting F2 on startup and setting the drive to boot first works. On startup the computer briefly reads the CD but then boots into XP as normal.
I can't think of anything I did to cause this. Another couple of weird things happened yesterday: first the time changed from 18.40 to 00.40 and the date changed to June 2005! Secondly, when I hit F2 and get into the setup screen the laptop's name is given as YYspire not Aspire. I never noticed that before so I can't say if this is something new.
Any suggestions anybody??

Sounds like your mainboard is faulty or at very least your CMOS battery. If you're setting the boot order then it's forgetting it because of a mainboard setting it will never boot from the CD. If it's under warranty then arrange for it to come in for repair www.acerwarranty.co.uk. If it's not under warranty the engineers could probably remaster the hard disk for you in another computer at very least and possibly repair the board for you at a small cost.

Acer Service

barrett1965 wrote:

Hi,

My Acer laptop is still under warranty. Recently, the screen vibrates or jumps when I power up. It has happened on two occasions.

Can you advise please?

I've seen this on many 5100 range, return under warranty on www.acerwarranty.co.uk

Acer Service

Stky10 wrote:

I don't know whether you can help with this or not. A friend of a friend has asked me to help him with an Aspire3633WLMi that he bought second hand. Somehow he managed to buy it without finding out what the BIOS password set on it was, so he can't get it to boot.

So, I'm wondering if there is any way in bypassing/resetting the BIOS password?

I wish I had better news, unfortunately, like dektop machines you have to either cross jumper terminals or remove the CMOS battery to reset/remove the BIOS password. If your not comfortable stripping the entire machine to get at the battery we will do it for £55 inc VAT, inc shipping.

Stky10

Acer Service wrote:

I wish I had better news, unfortunately, like dektop machines you have to either cross jumper terminals or remove the CMOS battery to reset/remove the BIOS password. If your not comfortable stripping the entire machine to get at the battery we will do it for £55 inc VAT, inc shipping.

I reset the CMOS battery, but now its looking for the HDD password?. Any ideas?.

Acer Service

Stky10 wrote:

I reset the CMOS battery, but now its looking for the HDD password?. Any ideas?.

That's basicly impossible I'm afraid. You need specific cracking software for that exact make/model/serial number of hard disk, which may be possible for some of the more common hard disk drives but in our experience it's not possible for Acer hard disks. You may have more luck than us (we don't spend much time trying to crack hdd passwords :P) but it's probably easier to buy a new hard disk to be honest, any laptop hard disk will do.

KTRIC

Heres a little history of the support I have received from Acer Support (ER Media) over the past three months.

Just of 3 months ago the VGA output failed on my Acer C311xmi (tablet) whilst I was watching a movie on my plasma. This is what happened....


- Told by The Laptop Shop thats its not their problem and I should contact Acer Support.
- Spoke to Acer Support and booked laptop in for a warranty repair.
- Got laptop back over a month later with a new motherboard. Memory was not seated in motherboard properly and some of the casing of the laptop was seperated. Rubber feet were removed from the bottom of the laptop. Sorted this myself in a few mins so no biggy.
- The touchpad started to act up when I got the laptop back with the new motherboard and started taking on a life of its own.
- After 2 weeks waiting for DHL to collect the laptop I found out that Acer had not booked the collection.
- Laptop collected.
- Received laptop back from repair with rubber feet installed, touchpad was not replaced and the laptop looks like its been dropped. Big dent in the corner and some of the plastics were seperated again all along the left hand side.


For the past 3 months I have been without a laptop, now it is just out of warrenty by 2 weeks. I am really appalled by the supposid support that Acer have provided.

Now I am left with an out of warranty broken laptop that I'm sure Acer will try to wash their hands of.

acerwarranty

Hi,

I am another staff member within ER-Media LTD.

In response to the previous post:

DHL sometimes state they dont receive our emails, we log everything that is done in our software and the collection is automatically emailed through to DHL. So somehow they must have mislead the collection request, something which we cant track due to the way DHL in the Republic Of Ireland work.

All laptops are inspected before they leave the repair centre to make sure that no scratches or dents were put in the chassis. Memory had more than likely become mis-aligned in transit. Touchpads have numerous components and although it may looked as if nothing was replaced it is more than likely an internal item was.

Please email me the current issues of the equipment along with the previous repair numbers and I will look into it for you.

Email: admin @ acerwarranty.co.uk (without the spaces - just to protect against automatic crawlers)


Thanks

NeoSlicerZ

Hi,

I've been trying to get my laptop collected for repair, without much success for a few weeks now. I've rang many times and usually been told that they'd get back to me (which they haven't). I'd really like to get my laptop repaired within a reasonable time frame.

Acer Service

NeoSlicerZ wrote:

Hi,

I've been trying to get my laptop collected for repair, without much success for a few weeks now. I've rang many times and usually been told that they'd get back to me (which they haven't). I'd really like to get my laptop repaired within a reasonable time frame.

Hi, Can you PM me your ERM reference number please, I'll take a look into it. Frankly couriers in the south of Ireland are terrible and unless you have static routes already set up with them they seem difficult to arrange definate times for collection. This is unfortunately the business environment in which we work, whilst we do everything we can to escalate the couriers to find the address and collect a parcel, if they cannot or will not travel to your address I suggest you drop the unit into a local depot or provide a more suitable address for collection.

Acer Service

KTRIC wrote:

Heres a little history of the support I have received from Acer Support (ER Media) over the past three months.

Just of 3 months ago the VGA output failed on my Acer C311xmi (tablet) whilst I was watching a movie on my plasma. This is what happened....

Please restrict your posts to Technical queries about Acer laptops, our aim is to help Acer customers within Ireland solve the issues they are having.

If you have specific issues with your repair contact us and discuss it with us. I would like this thread to remain positive and helpful to Acer customers.

As with any warranty service related business, it's an unfortunate truth that some customers will not feel satisfied with every part of the experience they have had. It is important to not accumulate these experiences here without the demonstrating the positive work that we do, creating an inaccurate representation of our service level.

We represent a large amount of very satisfied customers every week with whom we work closely to resolve the issues they are experiencing and appreciate the work we do. I want this thread to continue that work, providing a resource for known technical issues, thus helping our customers experience the continued working of their Acer product.

Regards,

Andrew Elwood

ACER Service Manager,
ACER Warranty Centre Ireland,
ER Media, IT Partner.

70 Scarva Street, Banbridge, Co. Down. BT32 3AD │ Tel: 0870 803 4915 │ Fax: 0870 803 4918 │ www .acerwarranty.co.uk

Tom Dunne

I would echo what Andrew is saying.

This is not the place to vent at Acer - if you have gripe (and taking it at face value, it certainly sounds like you have, KTRIC), an unofficial, public support forum like this is not the place to air those grievances. Take up directly with them in writing, or whatever.

I am updating the rules for this thread to reflect this.

curious_george

Apologies if this shouldn't be here but here goes:

I got a new Acer Aspire 5101 (WLMI I think) all's fine apart from when you are playing music or watching a DVD on it. It's like there is intermittent static when you listen, the quality is excellent but at different times you can here what can best be described as a 'fuzzy' sound. It happens with or without headphones connected.

Any ideas as to what it is?

Cheers.

Acer Service

curious_george wrote:

Apologies if this shouldn't be here but here goes:

I got a new Acer Aspire 5101 (WLMI I think) all's fine apart from when you are playing music or watching a DVD on it. It's like there is intermittent static when you listen, the quality is excellent but at different times you can here what can best be described as a 'fuzzy' sound. It happens with or without headphones connected.

Any ideas as to what it is?

Cheers.

Hi,

This is what the thread is for It should certainley be here George.

We are unaware of any issues like that which you are describing. I may be that your volume settings need adjusting, sometimes if 1 volume control (wave volume for example) is too high and another (master volume for example) is lowered to compensate it can introduce hissing or static on the out line.

You could try using the Acer E-Recovery program to reset all software on the machine back to factory settings, this would rule out any software issues. BE AWARE THIS WILL WIPE ALL YOUR DATA!

If your still experiencing the problem after resetting the software and the machine is under warranty please log it with us on www.acerwarranty.co.uk and we will collect and repair the machine.

cyclopath2001

I've a Ferrari 4000 WLMI. The SD slot in the front does not read 2gb cards. If I use a PC card adaptor in the PC card slot on the side it does.

Is this a fault or a design limitation?

Acer Service

cyclopath2001 wrote:

I've a Ferrari 4000 WLMI. The SD slot in the front does not read 2gb cards. If I use a PC card adaptor in the PC card slot on the side it does.

Is this a fault or a design limitation?

It's not something I've ever experienced, I'll look into this and come back to you.

Tom Dunne

cyclopath2001 wrote:

I've a Ferrari 4000 WLMI. The SD slot in the front does not read 2gb cards. If I use a PC card adaptor in the PC card slot on the side it does.

Is this a fault or a design limitation?

I've seen this with my HP Laptop card reader - update the drivers, that should do it.

Acer Service

cyclopath2001 wrote:

I've a Ferrari 4000 WLMI. The SD slot in the front does not read 2gb cards. If I use a PC card adaptor in the PC card slot on the side it does.

Is this a fault or a design limitation?

From what I read, Tom is correct. The new generation of larger cards are not recognisable by the old drivers present in your card reader. Update your drivers on Ferarri 4000 @ Acer.co.uk This should do the trick.

Hi Acer Service.

I sent in my laptop as you recommened on June 11th. However it has not yet been returned. I have tried that phone number a few times but with no response. I was wondering if you could check on its progress? I've sent you my reference number via private message.

Thanks for your help.

Acer Service

Deleted User wrote:

Hi Acer Service.

I sent in my laptop as you recommened on June 11th. However it has not yet been returned. I have tried that phone number a few times but with no response. I was wondering if you could check on its progress? I've sent you my reference number via private message.

Thanks for your help.

I'll have a look for you now, see if I can sort it for you.

Thank you for the quick reply, and for the good news.

John Doherty

i need restore disc for aspire 5051AWXMi
by the way, this case was too easily scratched imho, and since i've had it, it looks alot older from the scratches, is there anything i can get to paint over it before i sell it??
i'm talking about the silver specifically, a guy told me plasti-kote, but i don't think it'll work.

patzer117

Hi Acer Warranty,

I have an Acer Aspire 5020 series and I want to know how often the hinges break on the screen. It's happened to my laptop (i can post pictures if you like) and I can't afford to get it fixed right now, with both losing it for a month, and the money aspect.
It seems to be a fairly common occurrence based on other forums, as do things like the dvd drive cover falling off.
Also, as all consumer goods come with an automatic 6 year guarantee in the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain, I'm wondering do you honour that, or do I have to go through the shop I bought my laptop from?

Also any idea how much a new battery would be?

And what happened to your repair service in Dublin? I know they weren't very good, but at least you didn't have the risk of the dodgy courier tales this forum tells


cheers

patzer

mattsylv

Hello,

Bought mine in Feb this year from Tesco. It's running Vista and today just decided to not boot.

Startup repair says that it can't fix the problem, I have no restore points (I did!) and if I click the PC restore button I come up wth an error.

I can't enter safe mode but I can enter dos so I've managed to copy everything from c: to d:. There is also an x: and it has something called Factory.

How do I do a restore so that I can get my laptop back to the original state without losing what's on d: and, since it didn't come with any disks, will this restor Vista correctly?

Thanks

Matt

NeoSlicerZ

Could the Acer rep please reply to my PMs.

Tom Dunne

NeoSlicerZ wrote:

Could the Acer rep please reply to my PMs.

This is an unofficial support forum. I personally think your best bet is to contact them directly if you are getting no response here.

jarri

I recently purchased an Acer 3690 Series from Tesco. The problems I have since the first Boot is as soon as windows Auto updates Internet Explorer goes down. Also all files downloaded stop at 99% even though the file has downloaded and the dialogue box can only be closed with the task manager.
There are some issues with Microsoft Office but one thing at a time eh!

Acer Service

Hi,

Sorry for the delay, I will have a look at outstanding posts today.

Acer Service

John Doherty wrote:

i need restore disc for aspire 5051AWXMi
by the way, this case was too easily scratched imho, and since i've had it, it looks alot older from the scratches, is there anything i can get to paint over it before i sell it??
i'm talking about the silver specifically, a guy told me plasti-kote, but i don't think it'll work.

Hi,

We can sell you recovery media, however, there is a hidden partition on your machine that should enable you to recover the operating system on your laptop.

Acer Service

patzer117 wrote:

Hi Acer Warranty,

I have an Acer Aspire 5020 series and I want to know how often the hinges break on the screen. It's happened to my laptop (i can post pictures if you like) and I can't afford to get it fixed right now, with both losing it for a month, and the money aspect.
It seems to be a fairly common occurrence based on other forums, as do things like the dvd drive cover falling off.
Also, as all consumer goods come with an automatic 6 year guarantee in the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain, I'm wondering do you honour that, or do I have to go through the shop I bought my laptop from?

Also any idea how much a new battery would be?

And what happened to your repair service in Dublin? I know they weren't very good, but at least you didn't have the risk of the dodgy courier tales this forum tells


cheers

patzer

Hi,

In order to avail of the automatic 6 year warranty (I thought it was 5 years, but you may be right) the issue needs to be a known issue coming from the factory defective (but presenting itself after the 1 year warranty has passed). A good example is the sunroof on all 106 cars leaks after about 4 years so they accepted blame for that.

However, Acer have never said that the breaking/cracking hinge issue is a known default and put it down to mishandling of the unit, thus meaning you cannot avail of this unless you hire two independent engineers at your own expense to prove otherwise at your own cost in court (I realise this is excessive, but it's the law as far as I'm aware). They do however as a customer service offer replacement of the plastic part under the first years warranty as good will free of charge.

A new battery would be £80 inc shipping and VAT.

I'm not aware of any repair center in Dublin, there are 2 shops in ROI that repair their own machines, but only their machines.