If you dont mess around your computer will live.

04 April 2007

I have owned 5 computers in my 44 year old life. I have only seen the BSOD about 10 times in that period and they were mostly while using ME. Otherwise, no problems or issues with 2000 or XP. I really battle to fathom out why there are so many kids (mostly) who have all these hassles with relatively stable OS like 2000 and XP. With new computers.

I reckon that far too many people start stuffing around with their new notebook or P.C. the day they get it. They start changing things at random without noting what the effect can or will have on the PC's long term performance. Instalilng go faster software from day one, overclocking etc.

Why not use the P.C. or notebook for a while and then decide to change settings etc. in an orderly fashion? Make a note of what you are doing and change one thing at a time. If what you changed does not work or makes things worse then simply go back to what worked before. It is so easy.

One step at a time. My Aspire 5684WLMi has loads of software installed on it. Freebies, Trials and permanent programs. Never once a problem. I set a restore point with System Restore BEFORE I install the program. If I don't like what I see revert back to before instalation. 2000 did not have this facility so I was more careful.....

The point I am trying to make is do one thing at a time. At least then you know where you are coming from.....

19 October 2007

Still going strong and in everyday use. Responsible use as a tool and not a toy helps. Not one BSOD so far. Acer rocks and so does XP. And the handling of the lappie passed from the "keep it squeeky clean and polished" stage to the real world use stage long ago. Acer has not yet dissapointed. And nothing has failed or fallen off either......keys, body parts or anything else. The only thing I can think of right now is this....

Maybe, just maybe I am one of the hundreds of thousands( probably many many more) of Acer users out there who have had positive experiences with Acer. There are a few though that that have had bad service or lemons (this happens to all electronic manufacturers, no matter how hard they try to make all perfect). In a way, it's a good thing that you speak out. It will make Acer stronger in the long term. If a company is not made aware of service/product quality control problems it will rest on it's laurels.

Thanks,
Theo

03 March 2008

Still going strong. No issues whatsoever. Cant be an Acer right ?

I might as well add this too: As far as hardware reliability goes my Acer is on and working around 18 hours a day. Every day of the week except maybe Sundays.

07 January 2009

Update: Lappie still going strong. Have had CD Rom issues. Otherwise, lappie is good to go and as quick as day one. Still a pleasure to own and use.

Cheers,
Theo

 

good idea ive stuffed a computer from mucking with it

 

I could not agree more. I however am a minimalist.

I recently purchased a 5610-4491 from Circuit City for $699…core due 1.73ghz, gig of ram, 160gig HD….etc. I upgraded to 2gig or RAM. It came loaded with its normal barrage of trial software, all of the Acer stuff and two partitions It also came with the Vista DVD….so I blew it away all of it including the hidden partition.

I reinstalled Vista Home Premium. I only used the ENE drivers,the Orbi-cam drivers and the sound card drivers from Acer. Everything else I got from the manufactures website…like the latest Intel video, chipset and wifi drivers. That is it and the notebook works great.

I see posts on here about going from Vista back to XP???? Or posts about what power manager to use??? Vista rocks to me its performance is as good or better than XP. Things like the Acer power manager or 98% of their tools already have equivalents in XP or Vista that use less memory and work better with the OS….more stable.

Clean install…and then install only what you need and nothing more. USE YOUR COMPUTER….don’t screw with it.

 

Oh come on a PC is a toy ... must be tinkered with just to see what it does =D
That said I always stick with the mininalist choice ... reformat re-issue sans all the bloatware. A $400 PC becomes a $600 one ina matter of a few hours ... bang for the buck and a learning experience. The way it should be IMO

 

You're right ! My last desktop was with barton 3200 @ 2,7GHz (WC) and a radeon x850xt @ PE frequencies, it did a great difference in HL, Farcry and others, I finally saved quite a lot of money and finally selled it a good price.... Computers are a playground for me, and some new experiences and learnings too. After unmounting three times my Acer, I fixed some problems that acer would never have fixed, as a better cpu temp disssipation, a brand new 10$ bluetooth module integrated (searching, findind, soldering, testing, working ! ), or a non cracking screen by lubricating the turning points with a good silicon grease... As I'm used to say at work traduced from french, more funny in french...) Unknown material, touch your ass ! (Matériel inconnu, touche à ton cul !) But when you know what you're doing, do it !

 

How will you learn to fix it if you don't break it?

 

Here's another thought...

if you never use your computer, you'll never have reason to believe it's broken, therefore you won't have to worry... your computer will be in "perfect" working order forever since you never use it.

 

I'm glad I went through the horrors that I did from experimenting with my laptop & Desktop. Now I can set-up basically any PC exactly the way I want it, with out the headaches and error. Not to mention Trouble shooting has become a breeze for me.

 

I hear you folks and there were some good points made. My learning curve was with Millenium Edition. You had to figure out for yourself what was wrong or crash and burn as there was not that much help out there then.

Nowdays, my computer is used mainly for bussiness purposes. I don't fiddle so much anymore because I simply cannot afford to have it humbugging whilst dealing with customers.

If it is working fine I dont fiddle anymore. Anyhow, that's just me.

 

I certainly have learned a lot of what I use in solving other people's computer problems (and my own) from years of tinkering. It's a computer. Other than hardware problems, if you mess up and make it unstable, you reinstall the OS. No big deal, really, at least nowadays, when it has become a pretty simple matter to backup your data and settings on a CD or DVD. It was a lot harder in the old days when a backup might require dozens of floppy disks if you didn't own some kind of extremely expensive tape backup system. It's fun to customize and tweak things. There are people who are computer users, and there are some who are computer enthusiasts, and everything in between. By all means, I think those who are merely users shouldn't mess around with their system much if they don't have a computer enthusiast handy to help them afterwards

 

Best thing learn't from fiddling.....


BACKUP, BACKUP and lastly....

BACKUP

While I do understand your approach Theo, and I think for a majority of people that is actually quite good advice, sometimes you just have to fiddle (whether to actually do something, or just because you have the inane curiosity gene) but it's knowing how to make sure that when you do fiddle that you can get back to your "pre-fiddle" that's a really important lesson.

 

Exactly. See how I started the thread and my suggestions there. Thanks for the input. Great stuff!!

 

Slow phone modem speeds didn't make it any easier eithier. I use to dread downloading updates after a reinstall.

 

Flat out. You never knew what would happen next

 

i started to find out what i needed and didn't need with w95.
and have always built my own pc's from scatch so i know what i've got and what makes it tick.have only been useing laptops for the last four years and started with xphome.
it came with no third party software and is still running like a dream and is used every day by the wife.
my new acer turned up with so much junk i will never use that it was using loads of ram.but ive never had to worry about this before as ive always started with a fresh hdd.
i've now removed empowering tech as this was just a time waister.
and i've only reloaded xp on my travelmate 230 twice.
watch what you put on and what you remove.and you will never have any trouble.

 

Ditto in my update above.... Going for almost a year and no problems whatsoever.

 

nice I am going for day 5 after repair #4, already issues.

repair 1 = main board
repair 2 = hdd
repair 3 = lcd inverter, mainboard
repair 4 = hdd

after all that and the hundreds of hours on the phone with supervisor who are abosolutely clueless... and jerks.

I think acer's logo should be something like this:

Acer
- if you don't use it, it'll work.

or

Acer
- lowest price, lowest quality, lowest support.

I speak out not to help acer, like was mentioned above, I do it try and save other people from the same grief I am going through and there horrible support.



PS: for those of you with acer's that are working well, I am glad for you, but until acer actually completely fixes my problem, I will maintain my attitude towards them.

 

Interesting to read of your (all of you) experience with Computers. I'm an Old F**t waiting to die and needed something to bug me so I chose to learn to use a PC. Have done fairly well considering everything.

I recently bought an Acer Aspire 5610z and have not screwed anything up.

I read where one of you used silicon to lube the hinges. I think I need to do that. They (hinges) are so stiff that one can see the screen bend. Use two hand when I remember.

Would you please state more specifically what type silicon you use and tips on application.

Would appreciate it much.

Thanks

 

15 Months and still going strong....can't be an ACER right?

 

Travelmate230,5 years still going strong(its old so its slow)
Aspire 7112,1 year old and still going great. love it
wifes new acer gets here next week, can't wait

but ive got loads of acer junk to remove.can't have it all your own way

new internet connection.virgin media 20Mb,wow its fast..

 

I'm 19. I've been running XP on one of my computers since Jun 2006 ... same install. Granted I don't use it much, but still.

Almost reinstalled XP once on it. The stupid thing kept bluescreening. Turns out it just popped a memory chip.

I make regular backups of all of my system drives (2 laptops, 2 desktops) using norton ghost. I'll do the routine mainteneance (spyware, virus, reg cleaner, defrag) then make the backup.



I do have a high amount of hardware failures though - motherboards and power supplies most notably.

 

looking at your list of past PC's, I can see a troubling pattern. you're buying pre-made PC's from manufacturers that cut corners on a lot of necessary parts. now this is opninion and coming from someone who's ALWAYS built his own PC's but for this Acer laptop I'm on. bad PSU's are a huge source of system instabilities and when they go, they often take something with them, such as motherboards.

Maximum PC coined a recommendation I espouse all the time. 10% of your PC budget should be invested in your PSU. another recommendation from a high end PC user (ie, $4000 home built PC's) is it's better to have to too have a high end PSU at medium use (ie. 300w use on a 500w PSU) then a low power PSU at high use (ie. 300w on a 350w PSU) as most PSU's just weren't made to live with a high sustained load.

of course, if you build your own PC, there's no way you'll be able to beat a $500 name brand PC that has the whole kit & kaboodle, but, for the bit extra, you'll know every part is quality enough not to fear expensive breakdowns.

/end rant

PS - that wasn't so much a rant at you, then a thought due to the circumstances you often found yourself in...I've heard a lot of that from the PC forums I fequent.

 

I agree on premade PCs lacking power supplies - my gateway 2100 has a 130w power supply. Luckily everything is in external enclosures (drives).

The gateway 4600 and dell both had 250w - not big enough for what I was doing. But I bought those PCs used - $125 for the dell and $150 for the gateway 4600. I can't complain too much.

I've never built my own PC; never needed to. The cheap used ones will do the internet browsing, light duty gaming and server duty.

But now I have my Dell laptop for gaming.

 

Think before you leap. And be aware of the consequences of your actions....

Acer canno't be blamed for your fiddling.

 

If you compare the number of people who have computers to the number of "kids" having hassles you will find that there are not "so many". Generally people who don't have problems dont come to a forum to post about how they don't have any problems.

I have been exposed to computers since I was a small child when my father was building his apple 2e from scratch, when floppy drives were $600. For me experimenting is the only way.

Sure I run into a problem now and then that I can't figure out and search the web for answers but without other people having the same issues there would be no solutions. Imaging your computer was acting weird and you couldn't find anyone who could help you?

 

Overall I think your post has reasonable merit, in general you are right, if you don't try to fiddle too much you probably won't have hassles, however the other issue is that a lot of people have no idea what they are doing, so end up stuffing the computer up because they install a TON of software that just doesn't play well together.

 

Thank's Arla

I appreciate your post. I need to keep reminding the Acer noobs out there that they need to think before they leap.

It's great that Acer is growing from strength to strength. Acer is best bang for buck bar none. That's why there are so many people using Acers as maybe their first entry point into the world of computing.

And it's a notebook too. Instead of a desktop which serves well as a medium to experiment with.

Just my thought's

Cheers and thanks

Theo

 

I've never had to reinstall Windows but I do get BSOD once a while.
It mostly has to do with the fact that I want to push its performance to the edge and don't want to spent so much time on changing settings.
I change settings about 5 settings at a time so I have no idea what causes BSOD (most of the time there's also very little information about what causes a BSOD in windows anyway) so preventing is quite impossible.

I do get more and more frustrated the last year because of Vista. I'm not one of those kind of people who just hear other people talk about how bad it is and copy their opinion. I'm using it for about 9 months now and defended it for quite a while (as if I'm a Microsoft employee lol).
I use it for all kind of purposes (electical engineering design, HD movie playing, wireless capabilities (like wifi and bluetooth), gaming). It's a good operating system for people who do not demand so much settings and capabilities. But for example when I need special design software with a lot of functions, there's a bigger risk of causing a BSOD compared to people who only surf and game now and then.

 

most of the time BSOD can be traced back.
reading most of the problems on here they can be sorted if people just use The Event Log as this can some times show you what failed or what part of windows has got the problem.
most if not all the error codes can be googled or the micro$oft site lets you know what has happend in relation to that error code.
not enough people use the event log or error reporting enough.

my laptop used to wake on lan at the same time for ages.event log showed it was windows updates.even when updates was switched off.
the logs do have there uses

 

I always use the error reporting
But I then get a popup with 'Your error was caused by a device driver'
And I go like.. o rly?
I'll try the event log next time, thanks.

 

Just resurrecting the thread I started a while back. To remind people that a computer is best when not fiddled with too much.

Unless the user understands the outcome of their actions "before" they start changing things at random.

 

As professional technician, i am on your side ,
because i do not work for ACER

But .. we cannot stop any one from messing out with his laptop.

As Pro , i have one Gold advice .

Buy one new hard drive compatible for your laptop .
Remove the healthy one , and use the new hard drive as your new battle field.

At any moment , you can load the original hard drive , and have a working laptop again.

In general all problems starts , if some one believes that he can play God ,
just by the laptop and few CDs at hand.

Laptops have other rules than desktops, and needs special handling as repair process.

The sad stats are that the 95% of the people, are unable to handle this tasks.

So , if the rule of not messing with them , is going to save more people from trouble , i will go with it too.

 

lol ive had so much bsod...i reformatted my pc and now use everything that is offical =)...going hope this computer lives long

 

Computers are best when fiddled with IMO.

Yes, XP is a stable OS for the most part. Vista, not so much. Does not matter if it is left alone or fiddled with.

 

Since Vista SP1 it has become a lot more stable, definatley a worthwhile OS since. I would recommend it to anyone. I think the major issue is all the bad press it has had, people remember the bad things without giving it a try.

 

Well if Microsoft starts paying me for my lost hours over Vista .
Learning curve and troubleshooting .
I will accept to give a try .

 

Agreed...if you know what you are doing. And what the outcome of your actions will be before you start making random changes.....

Just a thought from a guy who canno't afford to have his lappie down and out after too many "random changes".

Cheers,
Theo

 

I must say, that this thread was a nice read. No flame wars, and opinions stated clearly, and with merit.

Aside from that, I'm a firm believer in fiddling and tweaking, but that is on a desktop system, and only after I have it built, and I understand what it is capable of. It doesn't matter what hardware you buy, your results will allways be different from the next guy. I have been using computers for 20 years, and building them for the past 15.

Over this time, I've seen OS's, fads, and styles come and go. The only thing that has stayed true over time is that people will allways tweak, test, fiddle, and push their systems to their limits. The only problem with this is that half the time it is someone reading a how to, skimming over it, not reading the disclaimers, warnings, and having a good general know how of a computer, then they mess it up.

As for software... that is the hardest thing to keep comtrol on.. My wife is notorious for installing limewire and the such, which can kill any system by itself.. The program just sounds too good... too good to be true... Just like 'Security Suites'.. Symantec and the likes... Not only can they cause more damage than they fix, they can, and will slow down your system, taking you back 10 years in performance..

Vista, my favourite topic. I've allways like it. I installed it as soon as it came out, and been using it ever since... Very few crashes, aside from unmature drivers. All in all, its been a great ride, and now with my new Acer laptop (Aspire 5735z, bought it for Christmas), its been even better. After SP1 was released, Vista almost felt like a new system. More stable, faster, more effecient. In my opinion, Vista SP1 is a better than XP for stability, and speed.

I've allways been a firm believer in defrag, virus scan, and updates. Once a year, a clean format and reinstall of your favourite flavour of Windows, and away you go. This was until a couple of days ago, I was getting ready to format, and thought.. 'I hate doing this all the time', so, I tried something out of the norm.. a registry cleaner.. cclean to be exact.. and now, I'm still running my year old install of Vista.. LOL.. even us old veterans, can learn a thing or 2..

Wow.. I can't believe I have typed this much, especially in the 'Quick Reply'... sorry for the long read, and thanks for the great read!

 

The route of format reinstall , was as fashion at the times of Win98.
The reason was that many system files, was replaced by tweaked ones,
that software programmers had tweak, so their application to run smooth ,
no matter what.

The Win2k Pro , and XP started to have protected system files,
and new standards imposed, as NEW application creating rules.

Since the win2k Pro and after , system stability at normal use, stopped to be an issue.

I have a wish list , i like to have a software that will have control over Windows registry.
That will keep it error free, and it will not just delete , it will reconstruct.
It will reconstruct at list , all windows OS errors made by other software, web related ,and multimedia related problems.

If this get build from Microsoft , we will only select OS over specific hardware configurations as 32 - 64 bit.

Microsoft has lost the game over Vista , due the changes over the environment - usability , in comparison with the previews windows.
The new OS become complex , and the latest Office pack become complex too.

I could be named as Vista hater, but this is not the issue,
If a Microsoft engineer needs 5 years of training, to understand,
the Vista operating system security layers .
How many years we need for all the rest OS parts , so one person to be able to completely troubleshoot one windows system ?

And now the surprise .. I am trained at Windows 2000 Server , with Microsoft MCSE lessons curve .

Lots of information that i had to learn , and many parts of it , got replaced from MS over a night .

For everything it worths , i prefer to blast MicroSoft , because it had select in the name of their progress , to let behind trusty persons " volunteers" who lost, lots of energy and time , so to be able to support their products .

The modern user is doomed to use registry cleaners , that their work,
does not offer any warranty , for the upcome.

The bottom line are , how seriously we estimate the value of the OS ,
as property.

As trained technician , i deny to format a system ..
Format , is the option for the untrained to revitalize computer boxes.

 

Most BSOD I have seen is cause by a bad memory stick.

 

Tinkering/messing with the computer won't 'kill' your computer if you know what you are doing and accept the possible risk that comes along with it.

I am not in the ballpark of 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it', because for the most part, sometimes you are faced with an unavoidable option of updating the BIOS (or something entirely else) for example if you want to perform specific upgrades that will result in improvements as far as your laptop/pc is concerned.

People can learn a lot tinkering with computers (again ... as long as they accept the possible risks that accompany the said tinkering).

 

if you know what you are doing ??

Only trained people do that ...

And believe me , for the most people , training are boring.

Thats why we have many more sad stories ..

Hopefully , this forum plus others , are one good place for the hunters of knowledge .
So to get redirected at the right sources, so to study them .
The ones who act backwards .... Cause a damage.. and looks for quick solutions,
most of the times stays empty handed.

 

Trained people?
You have to be kidding me.
A lot of people learned how computers work by directly tinkering with them not knowing what they were doing without damaging their machines in the process.
Some of the initial tinkering people do will essentially be harmless ... and all of the necessary info on precautions they can get from google and other online sources, or just people they know in general.

You have a lot of examples of people who were not specifically trained to do various jobs on PC's and they do better than the so called 'trained people'.

 

Experience is the decisive factor! But it is preceded by knowledge/learning process which almost in any case it's not complete. So what remains is learning by practice - using your knowledge our searching for it somewhere else. What if you fail? No problem! You can try 10000 times to solve a problem if you do not succeed that means you have just found 10000 ways that do not work! TRY MORE! Alone you are unable to solve everything - there is always someone - which by sheer chance has gone through the same process victorious. Then you have to find that someone! And learn from him!
Always remember : LEARN FROM THE EXPERTS!

COMPUTERS ARE MAN-MADE - HUMANS DO MISTAKES - SO BY DEFINITION COMPUTERS TOO!
NOTHING IS GOING TO WORK 100% PERFECT!

 

Old thread resurrected again. Always serves a purpose though..

Think before you leap.

Cheers