HI GUYS! New acer owner, emergency laptop purchase!

Hi guys! I am now an Acer owner... But to be honest, I didn't want to be

It's a funny story... I actually have a Thinkpad T61 on order with all the highest performance options, a real monster of a machine, but Lenovo is taking freaking FOREVER to ship it and I needed a laptop NOW NOW NOW!!!

In fact, I have a test in the morning, and the teacher allows us to use laptops and a circuit simulation program to check our answers! This is a HUGE advantage and it could mean the difference between an A and a C!!

So I really needed a laptop and didn't know about this rule until around 10 PM. I ran over to Wal-Mart to make an emergency laptop purchase!

Stupid Wal-Mart was sold out of almost every laptop, but they DID have an Acer 3680 with 14.1" screen, 512 megs RAM, and 80 gig 5200 rpm hard drive, and a Celeron M procesor. It had been returned so it was on sale for $350. I dunno what the regular price was.

Since I really needed a freakin laptop I went ahead and bought it. My stupid Thinkpad will probably not come for a month or so, meanwhile I will use this Acer! I am typing on it right now.

The reason it had been returned, according to the wal-mart guy, was that SOMEONE had tried to log in over and over and so the windows accounts were all locked out... Huh? That is wierd.. Well when I got it home, sure enough, the accounts were passworded already and locked out. I used a Linux boot CD to reset the accounts and reset their passwords to blank, then deleted the accounts and added my own.

My first impression is... hey this isn't as slow as I expected. For surfing the Web it's actually tolerable. Surprise!

My second impression is, WOW THIS KEYBOARD SUCKS !!!!
Anybody else think so? The keyboard is horrible, not responsive at all, I get lots of missed keys when typing fast and the response rate isn't even fast enough for me! I am a fast typist though.

I removed all the crappy software that came on her so Windows is running OK so far.

The good news is I have 1 gb of RAM in my toolbox I can put in here, that should speed things up. I also have a 160 gig 7200 RPM hard drive to put in here! With those 2 upgrades maybe this machine will be good to last me for a while.

I'm thinking when my Thinkpad comes I will either sell this Acer to a family member for cheap, to use for school, or else just keep it around for a beater / loaner laptop to let friends and family use and stuff.

I have to admit though... It's pretty fun to have a laptop even if it's not top of the line! I have never owned a laptop before so it's fun. This Acer is fairly light and thin too.

This keyboard REALLY sucks though, I am kind of surprised how bad it is. Wow. Awful awful keyboard. Is there anything I can do to make it not so crappy I wonder?

 

the keyboard . . .

i assure that you just didn't familiar with it !

 

What did you expect from a $350 machine? You should have been patient, and just have waited for your thinkpad. a C isn't that bad What are you going to do when your thinkpad arrives? You just threw 350 bucks away.

 

Ill buy it off you when you come to resell it.

 

You clearly didn't understand my post. I TOLD you I needed a computer NOW. My grades are a lot more important than $350. Do you even know how much it costs to go to college? $350 is nothing compared to my other educational expenses. I needed a laptop RIGHT NOW for school, I couldn't wait any longer.

 

What are you trying to say? Do you speak English?

I'm going to upgrade the CPU on this thing just for fun, I can get a T5200 CPU from my buddy, he isn't using it. I bet it will work in this laptop! LOL... That would be a fun project.

You guys have the wrong attitude about this. I can afford $350 no problem if it helps me with school. Plus I can resell it later, AND It's nice to have a spare.

 

I personally think that you aren't accustomed to using a laptop keyboard yet. It is somewhat different that using a desktop keyboard. I have been using an Acer laptop keyboard for over a year and a half now and I still can't type as well as I did before on a desktop keyboard, and even then after using a laptop keyboard I can't type as well on a desktop anymore.

I just think that you need to adjust to using the new keyboard. Its different for all people. Some can adjust faster than others, some may never adjust at all. But there will be some level of adjustment that you will have to get used to.

 

Well I hope you're right. Thanks for not being rude about your post like a couple people here.

 

Well, you really can't expect anything great from WalMart...

 

Sure but it's not Walmart brand laptop it's an Acer brand laptop... But that's OK I am actually enjoying it so far.

The keyboard isn't bothering me as much now, I just have to type a little slower then it's fine. The battery life is really bad though.

I am hoping the T5200 CPU will help give me better battery life. I also was thinking of buying a higher capacity battery, if they sell them for this laptop.

 

I'm not sure, but I heard that a lot of products sold at walmart are usually inferior than the products of the same brand sold at other places.

Well, I'm glad that you like your laptop so far.

P.S. Sorry, but I immensely dislike walmart for its horrible business practices.

 

as soon as you get you leveno, sell that acer, before it breaks!!!

acer support is bad, really really bad.

 

LOL ok you guys can make fun of me now... Lenovo said my laptop wouldn't ship until October 10th or so, then I read that they had a shortage of WSXGA+ screens and so orders were taking a month or more to ship, so I was thinking I definitely needed the Acer to use until then.

Well guess what, I got an email today that they shipped my Thinkpad today!! So I will have it sooner than I thought. I guess I will only get to use this Acer for about a week lol...

That's OK though, my friend who can't afford a laptop for school will buy this from me, I'll give him a good price.