Acer 5684WLMi hump under touchpad top left side

I recently bought a 5684WLMi. Lovely machine with Core Duo, nice graphics card and bright, clear display. Potential problem: the touchpad has an uneven feel to it with a definite hump under the top left hand side. I contacted Acer support and was told and I quote: "that is part of the design".

I replied that why on earth would Acer design and build a laptop with a hump ander the touchpad?. The reply was "to accommodate the hard drive that sits beneath it".

Is this Acer a laptop/notebook on steroids (it is very speedy) or it just a manufacturers way of stalling for a better explanation (maybe an assembly issue).

I don't know.

As the hardrive sits directly beneath the touchpad, the touchpad tends to get fairly warm. SiSoft Sandra 2006 reports the hardrive temperature at around 53 degrees celcius (normal ambient) up to 63 degrees celcius (hot day ambient).

Anybody know the NORMAL max temp for a 5400RPM 120GB notebook hardrive?

If you own a 5680 series Aspire have a close look and feel of the touchpad....

 

I've never heard of a lumpy touchpad before, and I find it quite odd that it was supposedly done on purpose. I think it is more of a design flaw rather than a "part of the design."
Sounds like they are stalling. If you could check out another laptop of the same series in a store, you could see whether or not yours is the same or different. If it turns out to be the same, I guess that's how it is. Odd, but there's a first for everything I suppose.

 

Core Temp Beta 0.94 ( http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/CoreTemp/ ), reports a normal ambient temp of 44 degrees Celsius and about 65 degrees under load.

As for the lump in the touchpad, I just checked my 5683WLMi and it has one, although it's not as big of a deal as you make of it.

 

It's one of those quirky things that adds charm to Acer products.

The 5672 has a lump by the touchpad too.

 

my 5672 doesnt have a lump anywhere... i vote design flaw, either that or i have heard it is warping from heat.

 

Hi PRH

You are spot on. Acer is quirky but also has huge amounts of charm. A nice product.

 

Just installed Notebook Hardware Control (NHC) ( http://www.pbus-167.com/ ), which has more detailed info about HD/CPU temps. Right now, NHC's reporting HD temps of 50 degrees Celsius and a cpu temp of 51 degrees Celsius -- a bit too hot for my tastes, but nothing to worry about.

According to NHC, hard drive shutdown occurs at 75 degrees Celsius.