New Extensa 4620Z, No Recovery Disk

Yesterday I bought an Extensa 4620Z from my local Best Buy. It was on sale and I liked it better than any of the other under-six-pound notebooks. Unfortunately, the only ones of that model that they stock have been "Optimized" by Best Buy. As far as I can tell, that's basically a way to tack $30 onto the advertised price sort of like Honda dealers with the floor mats and the "paint sealer" or what all.

I didn't mind too much as it was still a decent price for a fairly loaded machine and I really like the form factor, keyboard layout and so forth. Plus I figured that meant they had powered it up and made sure it wasn't DoA or anything like that.

But here's the thing. When I powered it up for the first time it did not prompt me to make a recovery disk. And the Best Buy guys didn't seem to provide anything like that when they did their deal on it. Am I correct that this is a major oversight? Surely you're supposed to do that very first thing with a new system but now I don't know how to do it myself since I'm not prompted.

The other thing is I now don't trust what other screwing they might have done while they were in there. It was nice for the battery to be fully charged and so forth but for all I know their "Optimization" included changes to windows settings or security or the recovery partition or a bunch of stuff I wouldn't even know to ask about. And I overreacting?

My inclination is to take it back today and at least ask for my $30 back. Or maybe even return it and either find one that hasn't been "Optimized" or do without. My second choice is to try and revert the system back to its factory form (and still get my $30 back). I really like the computer so far and mostly I want to get my recovery disk made and go ahead and use it knowing it's the way it's supposed to be. I'd be interested in knowing if it's OK to go ahead and to the Alt-F10 thing without a recovery disk and if that will get me back to the original configuration.

 

If I were you I would take that notebook back and try to find one that hasn't been "optimized". Most likely that optimization was done by "geek squad" which IMO are mostly idiots !

Perhaps when they first turned on the notebook they were prompted to create the DVDs and canceled the operation? Anyway usually acer erecovery console can be used to create the recovery DVDs (if you aren't prompted at first boot) but since your notebook has been optimized I don't know if they have tampered with erecovery or removed it, which would only leave you with the hard drive recovery partition(Alt+F10) .

I wouldn't have paid that extra $30 for optimization as they could have done who knows what to your notebook. Maybe its just me but I don't want anyone tinkering with my brand new notebook but it is up to you what you want to do.

 

At the moment my inclination is to pop in a DVD+R and use the eRecovery to make a "factory default" disk. I've found the menu for doing that. After that, isn't there an option for having the original factory configuration restored from the emergency partition?

I'm tempted to try and restore it to pre-"optimized" form and figure if it works I'm safe. If it can't get back to original config then it means they've buggered it up somehow and I would definitely return it to them for a refund.

I'm caught in a typical attachment bind. I've become set on the idea of this model as being "the one" and it's sold out online and in the other store in town. So I'll probably end up trying my best to confirm that it's OK before giving up on it as my last option. Heck, it doesn't have a single dead pixel that I can find with Dead Pixel Buddy (tm) which only makes me love it more Gosh I'm too easy.

 

This is what I was telling you could be done. The erecovery console will allow you to make a factory default discs. If you want to recover windows using the DVDs then put in disc 1 and restart your computer and the recovery process will start. However if you want to use the hard drive recovery then press ALT+F10 at the POST screen (screen that says acer), and the recovery will start from the hard drive hidden partition.
Note recovering via the hard drive is alot faster than DVDs , just thought I would let you know that.

I guess doing a recovery to factory state would be the safest way to make sure you undo whatever "optimization" was done. Also being that it was the last one they had in stock and everything is working hardware wise then I guess you could give it a try and see how the notebook works out.

 

Evo,

Hope you don't mind if I call you Evo...

Does your Aspire have the curved keyboard like my Extensa? I think that's a big selling point for me. It was the only notebook in the store that I could type on accurately right off without peeking at the keys. Plus I'm amazed at how much easier to carry this one is at 2.4kg compared to the one my wife occasionally uses at work that's 2.8kg-ish. Shoulda done this notebook thing a couple years ago I guess.

All of which makes me happy to report that yes indeed restoring from the hard disk is quite fast, barely long enough to go grab a Coca-Cola and a granola bar. And yes indeed it seems to be thoroughly restored to its pre-Geek Squad pristine state. After the restore it goes through the whole initialization thing, asking you to make up a username and password, pick a time zone, etc. I think any time now it will ask me to make a recovery DVD (which I'll probably do just to have a spare).

They seem to have this recovery stuff down to a science nowadays. Is that just Acer or is the hidden recovery partition and so forth pretty standard of late?

 

Yeah you can call me that if you want

No my aspire doesn't have the curved keyboard that kind of keyboard is only really found on the travelmates and on the travelmate siblings the extensa series, I have a straight rectangle keyboard no curve. My older travelmate however has the curved keyboard.

I am happy too see that the recovery is/went well, atleast now it would have undone anything that geek squad did. It should ask you to create the recovery discs once windows has finally finished loading for the first time. It does this every time you restore by the way.

Most if not all manufacturers now sport some kind of hidden partition for restoring windows so yes it is standard now these days. They don't even send you the old standard windows OEM discs anymore, they make the user burn a copy when they get the notebook. I guess this makes it cheaper/easier for the manufacturers but I find it to be a little cheap on there part! You can get actual windows recovery DVDs from acer but they charge a fee for it the last time I checked.

 

Well, a final update. Perhaps I was slightly hard on the Best Buy guys. After doing my restore-to-factory and going through the entire new-computer setup routine...it did NOT ask me to make a recovery disk. The menu is there under Alt-F10 of course as well as on the Acer Empowering widget that installs on the desktop. But no prompt to go use it other than a mention in the user's manual.

I had an additional wrinkle. After it was back to brand new I allowed Windows Update to download all the required updates as well as an optional one with Intel chipset drivers. During the automatic reboot and "Configuring Updates" process I got a black text screen with a system dump. Then it got hung up in a loop or reboot-dump-reboot-dump until I shut it down.

So I got to go through the whole process again except this time booting from that factory-restore DVD I had just made. You're right, Evo. That takes longer. Anyway, this time around I chose no optional updates and everything is copacetic. I've since set up a Linksys router at home and established a fairly secure wireless setup off of my home cable-Internet connection (WPA2 with a long pre-shared key, no SSID broadcast, MAC restriction, etc.) and can even share the printer that's USB connected to our desktop machine.

Bottom line, last night I got to live the dream. While watching 30 Rock we were curious whether Tiny Fey is really 37 years old as her character stated. So I picked up the Extensa, typed her name into IMDB and confirmed her birthday (she is really 37 BTW). Gotta have that wireless notebook, man. This is the 21st century!

 

hi,

I would like to know if you guys know how to burn any dvds on the 4620z

i tried to find the instructions but I dont really understand them

thanks

 

Hey there party people... My Acer won't go to "rehab". I tried to use the recovery partition. After booting up + Alt-F10, I got hit with a "Please enter Empowerment Technology password". Tried using "000000", No go though
I even tried resetting by taking off battery, unplugging, pressing power for 20 seconds, then restarting.
I know, I know-should of backed up to DVD's right from day one, but I figured, I've got a dedicated partition so... Any suggesties?
Classification: Intermediate tech knowledge, but Vista/Acer totally virgin experience. Thanx in advance....

 

I had the same problem. When my Acer Extensa 4620z was purchased from Best Buy it didn't come with a back-up disk.

But I've been having many other problems with the laptop, such as the screen shutting off when I turn the Wlan button on or off, another problem is that it cannot find my home network but the WLan is on and the orange light is blinking.

Many other problems include when I first boot it up it sometimes doesn't turn on and when I put in my password to log in it freezes and I end up having to press the power key to shut it down. It also sometimes freezes when I go to restart the laptop.

Another weird problem I'm having with the Acer is that it works completely fine in Safe Mode with the network adapter and wireless working perfectly fine but when I boot it into Normal mode all the above errors occur.

I don't know if it's the harddrive the video card or maybe the network adapter. It's all really confusing. I've been to acers' website plenty of times but no luck with the problems I'm having.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
J_Boi89