Acer Wants to Replace my Aspire 5601AWLMi with a Refurbished Acer 5100

Hi everyone! I hope that you don't mind that I came here for your opinion on my issue with Acer .

I bought a 5601AWLMi from CompUSA during their Labor Day sale. Since then it has been sent to Acer Repair at least 5 times and possibly 6 for the same problems. The main problem is that the laptop simply freezes or hangs for 5-10 seconds at a time and then resumes. This can happen several times an hour. A secondary (and perhaps related) problem was with the sound. It would play garbled as if it were an old record player that would turn at different speeds. Sometimes it would be OK, but mostly it would play s-l-o-w ... even on start-up and on the screen saver's audio.

Acer eventually took a "shot gun" approach to fixing my problems and replaced virtually all the parts of the laptop one or two pieces at a time. They replaced the hard drive, the memory, the mother board, the sound card, the touch pad and reloaded the operating system multiple times. I even suffered through using IE and a vanilla load so they could not blame the issues on added software! My laptop has even been in the tender care of the level 2 techs three times and when it came back from it's last visit the original problem still exists and the sound if now completely gone!

At one time (I think the 4th repair cycle) a manager said that they would consider sending me a *new* laptop from overseas, but they ended up sending back my "fixed" one instead. They would have to send it from overseas as Acer America does not have a supply of new laptops. So, I called about the hanging and the lack of sound and Acer finally said that they would replace me laptop. Yippie! However, they said that they could send me a refurbished Aspire 5100 instead.

I have two concerns with this.

(1) I am afraid that a refurbished laptop will just be someone else's lemon.
(2) I do not believe that I am getting a comparable laptop in return. FWIW, Acer does say that I can wait for a different laptop to come into them, but they have no idea when that might be.

Here are the specs on the laptops:

Aspire 5601AWLMi
Processor Brand: Intel
Processor Class: Core Duo Processor
Processor Number: T2050
Processor Speed: 1.66 GHz
NOTE: My laptop actually came with the 1.8 GHz T2250!
Front Side Bus: 533 MHz
Mobile Technology: Centrino
L2 Cache Size: 2 MB
System Chipset: Intel 945GM Express
Memory Speed: PC2-4200 (533MHz)
Memory Type: DDR2-SDRAM
Installed Memory: 512 MB
Maximum Memory: 4 GB
Memory Slots Total: 2
Hard Drive Capacity: 100 GB
Drive Controllers: IDE (Ultra ATA/DMA)
Optical Drives: Double Layer DVD SuperMulti Drive

Aspire 5100

Processor Brand: AMD
Processor Class: Core Duo Processor
Processor Number: Turion 64 X2
Processor Speed: 1.66 GHz
L2 Cache Size: 512KB
Installed Memory: 1 GB
Hard Drive Capacity: 80 GB
That's all I know ... the customer service person didn't know exactly which sub-model it was.

I highlighted the differences is red, but in a nutshell it's a different processor which is actually slower than the one I have (BUT equal to the specs of my system), it has more memory but a smaller hard drive. I have been trying to dig up stuff on the AMD processor but everything I find says that it's slower than the Intel one that I already had.

So ... here are my questions.

(1) Refurb aside, how comparable do you think there laptops are? Does the extra memory make up for the smaller drive? Is the AMD processor just as good as the Intel? Better? Or, is that a "religious" question ?

(2) Has anyone received a NEW replacement for their Acer lemon, or am I completely stuck with a refurbished model?

Thanks everyone! Any comments or advise welcome .

 

Tell them to go to hell. Demand a brand new equivalent replacement or take the Legal route to sort it out. If I were you I would fight this tooth and nail. You bought a brand new laptop from them and they are offering you used goods in return because they canno't sort out the problem. It sucks.

 

I agree with Theo. If they won't replace it with a brand new laptop same model I would tell them they'll be getting a call from my lawyer.

 

I Googled the freezing and the sound problems back in December before and got nada. A lot of other people seemed very happy with their 5601, so I thought maybe I just got a lemon. Especially when they didn't seem to be able to fix it! While I was waiting for a response I used the search feature here (duh) and found both problems represented on these boards.

Interestingly enough, the freezing diminished to only a few times over days (instead of many times per hour) when the sound didn't work. I am thinking that they may be related, so I think I will try to reinstall my sound drivers from the internet and then if I get sound, follow the directions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1809647&highlight=acer+5601#post1809647 to get rid of the garbled, choppy sound and see if the incidence of freezing/hanging occurs more often.

 

From what I know the 5100 which I own has many sub models I own the 5100 5674. From what I have read the bub models varry greatly I don't know why they do that why they don't just make a new model # the sub #'s are just confusing. If I was you i'd take the 5100 if you think it is equivalent or better I would demand at least an equal computer. In my opinion refurbished goods ARE USUALLY RELIABLE THEY BASICALLY REPLACE ALL THE INTERNAL PARTS BUT IN YOUR CASE APPARENTLY THAT DIDN'T even solve the problem. Sorry for those caps.

[email protected]

 

lol, I tried demanding a new one. they told ME to go to hell.

I said that I would go to the legal stage and they were not even worried.

I got a refurb now, and it has worked now for 6 days, which has beat my expectations... (the original new unit lasted 5 after the last repair).

 

Demand i a better model

:> i can give you name person that i was work get mine replaced the rep at head office and some contact info

they replace 5630 with 5633 mind specs are little diffent but it okay

 

It's interesting that someone bumped this old message. Since I originally posted Acer agreed to replace my laptop with a slightly better model. When I sent my laptop in the replacement *poof* disappeared. I waited weeks for another one that was acceptable and they came up with another 5601AWLMi. I was leery about accepting a the same model given all the problems that others had and they assured me that they would replace it if it did.

That laptop now sits on my table in a box to go back to Acer Repair for another replacement. It had the exact same problems: freezing and garbled sound. They are sending me a 5570 in replacement running Vista Premium Home. It has more RAM, a smaller hard drive and a smaller screen. The smaller screen doesn't bother me because I was thinking that my original laptop was a little big anyway. They also offered me a gigantic 17" laptop (can't remember the model) and a 3100 running Vista Home Basic.

At this point I will be happy with a laptop that works!