Acer TravelMate TM8204WLMi

Anyone personally have this thing? I was just wondering first hand experiences so far with this computer considering i'm about to buy it. I need atlease a x1600 for games and this thing has everything else i need(HD, RAM, integrated wireless) If anyone can give me some input, it would be apreciated.. PROS and CONS. Thanks

 

If you read the Acer forums there are a lot of opinions, a lot of it seems to depend on luck and build. A number of people have the first build and it works fine, others seem to be having no end of issues (although a lot of them seem to be "this program I ran says I have an issue").

The main "warning" points that I've picked up,

1. Bluetooth may not be perfect (I don't use bluetooth so don't care, but I know I've read posts about bluetooth mice dropping out every few hours)
2. Screen quality, My Screen has dark and light grey lines down it (as one of the first builds) apparently for some this is an issue (I don't even notice it, but some do).
3. Headphone volume, some people seem to have issues with this, not sure why (mine work just fine, for both my good headphones and the really cheap headphones I was using this weekend).
4. Older models had 533 Memory not 667 as advertised (new builds don't seem to have this issue).
5. Heat vent on the right side of the laptop, if you live in hot climate this MAY cause you problems, I only find it blows out of the heat vent when running high processor required programs (like EQ2) and living in San Francisco it really doesn't bother me, a bit of heat once in a while is nice
6. Hard Drive is too small (okay okay, so not really, but I've filled it already, darn these hours of video I have to store).

Any specific questions?

 

Here are two reviews written by members of this website:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2783

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2723

Cheers!

 

Thanks alot for giving me alot of good useful information, its really appreciated. Can anyone give me a true amount of battery life, idle or heavy use? ANyone having problems running any specific games? (Graphic intensive ones.) Thanks again

 

Well for battery life, I've used it to watch Videos on a plane, watched two and 95% episodes of Lost, from about 90% battery life, so I figure from full battery it would give 3 episodes (that's what, two and a quarter hours approx).

That's with power settings set at "don't turn nothing off"

I'm running EQ2 quite happily (well let me rephrase, was until yesterday when the EQ2 Patcher downloaded something and it started crashing with DirectX issues, but that's something to do with EQ2 not the computer) not really tried anything else, don't honestly play that many games.

 

Gaming wise, you'll be able to play just about anything on at least medium, if not high settings. I play NFS:MW with everything on at 1024x768 and it runs fairly smooth (by smooth I mean 30FPS range). If you're hoping for 60FPS with everything maxed in games, I suggest you look at a laptop with a more powerful GPU. For that matter, if you can hold out until October or November to buy a laptop, you can get one with the new Core 2 Duo chips.

 

Hello.

I was in the same position as you, I read all of the comments on the forums here about the Travelmate but decided to go for it anyways since buy.com has a 30 day return policy.

Anyways, I put my order in at buy.com, and it sits in the "Processing" status for about 2 days. I then get an email telling me I need to put a copy of my photo ID/credit card onto a little form of theirs and fax it back to them, however they didnt mention WHY in the email.

I figured this was because I had previously tried to order it but cancelled the order.

it turns out that the SHIP to address was wrong. I put in 903 instead of 930.

I noticed this about 5 hours after the status of the order changed to "Sent to warehouse"

I send a comment to buy.com customer service letting them know that I would like to get the address switched to the appropriate address, and they reply with some nonsensical response. I decide to look for their phone number (which isnt listed on the page) to call them up to see if they'll switch my address, and they tell me they CANT do it, I need to cancel order and replace it. I don't really know WHY they cant do it, but the I was trying to communicate had a very heavy accent and I couldn't understand him.

So I cancelled the order but it ended up shipping out to the incorrect address anyways, 9 days later (after many calls to fed-ex) they let me go in and pick up the laptop. I brought it home, very excited, took it out of the box and started playing with it.

At first, I didn't notice any real problems with it, I heard everyones complaints about the screen not being bright enough, the right heat vent, etc... so I was relieved.

The screen itself wasn't necessary bright or dim, on the full brightness it was what I would consider to be normal. You could it down a few notches and it was still fine. I brought it into work with me and was playing around with it then after about 2 hours, the left speaker just completely stopped working..?? I checked the drivers, checked the mixer, etc. It seems as if the speaker itself either failed, or the audio cable got unplugged. The overall volume on the speakers (when they were both working) would be acceptable for watching a DVD from a few feet away.

I also started to notice a weird quality of the LCD... the colors seemed a little bit.. splotchy?? That's all I could really describe it as really. For example, the grey color here on the notebook review forums was not a solid grey, rather, it was mostly grey and but there were areas where it was a bit darker or lighter making upthe overall grey. Sort of noisey, I thought. It wasn't an area of concern for me, and unless you were paying close attention you wouldn't even notice it.

I plugged in an external monitor to see if it was a problem with the LCD screen or perhaps some sort of weird video card issue... the monitor I plugged it into did NOT display this weird video.. I also had to set the DPI to 120, because the normal DPI (dots per inch for the font) on the 15.4" screen made everything a little.. small... it's not that it wasn't clear, I just couldnt imagine trying to read it in a dark room over the course of a few hours...the DPI made some of the Windows dialog boxes looked smooshed...so I've sent it back. It should be arriving back at buy.com tomorrow morning, and I'll be getting a full refund.

The weight of the 8204 was fine for carrying around in a backpack.

I think the laptop itself is probably fine, I primarily decided that it wasn't for me because of the high resolution/shoddy QA on this speaker.

If you don't mind the higher screen resolution and both of the speakers work, I think this would be a decent purchase at it's current price.

I will probably be purchasing an ASUS w3j instead, or perhaps the EL80 model from COMPAL. The EL80 ( http://www.powernotebooks.com/specs/PowerPro/l8-15.php) has almost all of the same features but a lower resolution screen/lower price/slightly lesser video card. I think video games will look/run a bit faster on a laptop with a lower native resolution.

This is my first time buying a laptop so it has been a learning experience.

Good luck!!

 

Hmm... i'm not sure if this thing is worth it with some of these problems, well acutally i found it for a great price ($1759) but its still alot for a laptop with problems.... crap, i need one soooooon

 

Way too risky to buy this thing. I was in the same boat as you, and I thought that the 8204 had everything. Well, I was wrong. I was not about to buy a $2500 laptop that suffered from a dim screen, buzzing noises, and all sorts of other unresolvable problems. There are much better alternatives out there that I would strongly recommend. For instance, the Dell Inspiron E1705. This thing is godly. It has an excellent graphics card and can be upgraded to the Core 2 Duo (Merom) processor when it comes out. I would highly recommend it. I just bought it last night and am so excited. Had I bought the Acer, I would of been screwed BIG time. Don't buy it, BUY THE DELL e1705.

 

I dont want a huge 17 inch screen though, i do need mobility, and i absolutely despise dell, sorry to offend anyone but after you have lived through the problems and horrible support, you'd be in the same boat. Yes they are cheap, but its because they are a dime a dozen. I need a 15 incher with atleast a x1600 graphics card, any other suggestions anyone? not interested in msi or asus so dont bother....

Sorry to put down you recomendation, just my experience and opinion, i could be totally wrong...

 

ive now had the 8204 for about a month now and ive encountered zero problems with it at all. my screen is perfectly bright, no buzzing, bluetooth works great for my bluetooth mouse. i did the grey line screen test youll find posted at the other notebook forum and i 'failed' it. but tbh i cant see any probs with the screen. its not splotchy or anything weird like that. and for me the matte finish works great because i spend quite a bit of time outdoors and i think the high glossy would be too much.

as for the x1600 its awesome!! on my desktop i have the lowly x800 and i swear my desktop doesnt even compare to this laptop for pushing the games. its not the best card out there atm and i cant push all games to the max. but they run pretty sweet and smooth so far. ive tested doom, prince of persia 2 and 3, and hitman blood money so far and all run fine.

ive also heard people having issues with the speakers etc. if you download the latest realtek drivers from the realtek website it GREATLY improves the volume and sound quality than if you used the ones of the acer website. im currently listening to the latest red hot chili peppers thru my headphones at 50% volume and it sounds great. certainly not surround sound quality but pretty darn good.

my advice to anyone is to not use any drivers found on the acer website. get them directly from the manufacturers.

as for the voip phone, never used it looks lame, no need for something like that personally. i used the webcam briefly to check it out. it worked just fine. i then promptly disabled it because, again, useless to me.

ive burned several xvids to disc so i can attest the burner works perfectly fine. and both my wired and wireless connections work perfect without any issues when i connect to the net.

as for battery life its got great battery life considering i abuse it. just make sure you get the battery leak fix put out by microsoft. it fixes a bug in xp. at first i got around 2.5 hours of battery life. after the fix im up to 3.45 hours. and thats watching movies. playing games decreases battery life a smidge to just over 3 hours.

overall im quite pleased with this laptop and would recommend it to anyone based on my experience so far. my build date is 0603. good luck and hope you get exactly what you want.

 

Could you do me a favour and post a link to the exact driver you downloaded from realtek. I believe I had already downloaded the latest driver but it really didn't make any difference to the sound for me.

Apart from that I have the same build date as you and I too am very happy with my choice.

 

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...s=2004061&Software=True&title=HD Audio CODECs

i dled the exe. hope that helps.

i also tinkered a bit with the equalizer settings and sound effect in the realtek HD audio manager to get it to sound how i wanted.

 

For $1759, you're probably gonna get screwed. Either it'll be bait and switch, or they'll take things out of the box and try to "sell" you them separately, or give you the hard-sell on worthless extended warranties and items you don't need for ten times what they're worth, and if you don't buy them then the machine will become magically "out of stock" for you, permanently.

Let's guess, the retailer is in Brooklyn, right?

Nobody reputable is selling the 8204 for under $1900.

You sad, sad man - you based your decision on nothing more than a few rumors, and now you think you can tell other people bad things about the quality of a notebook you've never owned and probably never even seen in person...

A few facts for you:

* The 8204 is not a $2500 laptop. Even with the three year extended warranty with accidental damage coverage, it can be had new for $2100 or less.

* Spec the Inspiron E1705 as close as possible to the config of the 8204 (T2500, WinXP Pro, 2GB DDR2/533, 120GB 5400rpm SATA, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, NVidia graphics, HD audio, 9-cell battery, 3 year warranty, 3 year accidental damage) you will not pay $2100 like the Acer, you'll pay $2989! Yes, there are a few specs where the Inspiron would win specced this way, but there are still others where the Acer wins, so overall it is a fair comparison. That's almost a 50% premium for the Dell.

If you bought the Dell, you either have a machine that is vastly less powerful than the Acer, or you got ripped off on pricing. That simple.

 

Well the store i was looking at was called projector expo... anyone heard or bought from it? It is located in New york however i dont know if its in broklyn or not, even if u were being sarcastic about it. Their warranty for it is iffy because you call up the number and theres supposidly thousands of different places to take it to... anyone have experience from here, its a great deal though.... http://www.projectorexpo.com/productdetail.asp?level=7&catid=187&productid=5761

 

Oh and i actually called them up, and there was a customer service representative present. I askeed where they were located and the response was new york.

 

AbN610,

How do you know you'd have been screwed big time? I have a 0601 build 8204 and have no problems. And supposedly the quality control has gotten better since then.

 

well it says that particular notebook projectorexpo has for sale has been 'reserviced'. 'This product has been reconditioned by the manufacture to meet all of the original specifications and has been tested to be in perfect working order this product has a manufacture warranty and has no cosmetic blemishes.' according to their website. i wouldnt get a used laptop personally.

 

Thanks for the info, its greatly appreciated.... i think i might pass on buying such an expensive one, i'm tryin to find a laptop with a x1600 256mb graphics card for a decent price(not asus or msi, dont bother) while i have seen the acer 5672 series with a x1600, however its a 128mb model and i've heard it comes up short? hoping to find a 5672 series laptopp with the 256mb model.

 

That price is smok'n on the 8204......me wants.


Its Reserviced - AKA REFURB!!!


Are you insane or did you overlook it?

 

What do u mean i'm insane, for not goin to buy it anymore or for looking at it in the first place?

 

adrock2021,

Could you post the link to the MS XP patch which improves the battery life?

Thanks a lot!

zts

 

I'm sorry, but google is your friend on this one

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=xp+core+duo+patch&btnG=Search

First hit links to the xp patch by M$ over the power drain due to USB 2.0 devices. This thread might be better represnted in a private message instead of in the community forum.

I'm all for helping people but at the same time please take into account that a simple search on a major search engine will result in you finding most of your questions answered.

--ssx--