Screen or graphics problems 3023WLMi

Hi All.

I have had my 3023 for some months now, and until recently all was peachy. However, I am now having problems where my screen goes black for no reason, and flickers. I can do nothing to get the screen back. The first few times a reboot fixed it, but now, even that won't work straight away.

I have updated the ATI drivers, to no avail.

I think it could be something to do with changing the screen resolution.

I am going to contact Acer to see what they say - just wanted to know if anyone has had a similar problem.

I bought two of these, and the other doesn't have this problem, but when you lift it with you hand under the CD drive the tray ejects. This can be annoying when you are playing a game and it freezes coz the game CD can't be found.

 

Yes - definitely call to see what Acer says, sounds like a hardware problem. There have been a lot of issues reported similar to this lately...I'm not exactly sure what the problem is either. So, if you could tell us what they say, that would be great.

I think it may have something to do with the connection between the screen and the notebook, but I can't be positive.

 

Cheers Chazman

Had the same problem again last night. Took me an hour to get the screen working. It was OK in the DOS type modes, but just went flickering black when trying to get into the higher resolutions.

I'll ring Acer tonight and let people know what they say.

 

Wow! Acer are SO difficult to got through to. Called them 3 times today and each time there were more than 8 people in front of me. Emailed them instead. I'll let you know the outcome.

 

Cool. Yeah, sometimes they are pretty difficult to get to - and I really don't like how their tech support has limited hours - for a company that wants to be #3 in the world for notebooks, they should have 24/7 support.

 

Hey there, I had the same problem when I installed Win XP service pack 2 on my NEC laptop. The tech support did not know why. After I reformatted my laptop, it the screen seemed fine. but after updating windows again, the screen acted funny. So i guessed it was the service pack and I am now using Windows Media Center... it seems fine now.

 

Right - after almost A WEEK Acer got back to me and said "You should ring the helpline". What a bunch of nobs! I decided to give the helpline a chance AGAIN, and had 7 people in front of me. Amazingly, only 15 minutes later, I got answered. Yes - it sounds like a problem. Gave me a case number and a phone number to ring to arrange pick up. No box supplied - I have to parcel it all up myself. So I ring the 0870 courier number. NO ANSWER! 3 times I have tried. Do they finish early? I am getting a little peeved now! My reccomendation. Don't buy Acer. Their backup is CRAP! Now my wifes machine is playing up. Loose connection to the DVDRW drive. You only have to put pressure under it and it loses the CD/DVD you are using. Then you have to manually eject it or reboot. I knew I should have paid that little bit extra and bought a Dell.

 

Bit more news for alpha-q. It wasn't software related. I couldn't even get the Acer BIOS screen.

 

A friend of mine had to send in their Acer Aspire twice already. I never had a problem with my Acer - it was a TravelMate series, which tend to be a bit more reliable than the consumer level Aspires.

Everybody has both good and bad experiences.

 

UPDATE

After contacting the helpdesk AGAIN to check the courier number I had to go around the houses (directory enquiries, local office main courier number) to get another number to arrange pick up of my laptop. After only 2 weeks from the first email, many calls trying to get through to the helpline I am having it picked up for repair.

Can I just point out that this is the third Acer (2 current and 1 old TravelMate) all of which have had problems. The travelmate case was cracking around the lcd hinges.

They say that turn around is 10 days. Well tomorrow is a friday, so I will start counting from Monday.

More to follow.

 

UPDATED

Rang the helpdesk the other day to find out where my laptop was (they have had it for 3 weeks). I finally managed to speak to someone who read out the engineers report to me. They have replaced the LCD panel, but when rebuilding the laptop, they screwed throught the video cable and broke the screen bezel. Now my laptop is waiting for a new bezel. Acer can't even fix things properly.

After being quoted a 10 working day turnaround I am still waiting for my laptop back. I'll be lucky to see it before Christmas.

I will definitely NOT be considering Acer for my next laptop. Their build quality is questionable and customer care/service is CRAP!

 

After waiting a further 30 mins in the queue (can you believe that Acer closes it's phone lines for lunch!!!!) the latest on my laptop.

Still waiting for spares. Blaming it on the Xmas post. Cannot give an ETA (even though they did last week).

Looks like it is gonna be the new year before I get my laptop back. Good job I have ADSL. Can you imagine the email backlog???

I recently had a company laptop screen get broken. Called Dell at 12pm, and it was fixed for 5pm. Now that is service! Even Sony replaced a broken screen - out of warranty - within a week. And that included sending it to Belgium.

DON'T BUY ACER IF YOU WANT GOOD BACKUP SERVICE!!!

 

Interesting news yesterday. Spoke to a helpful man about my laptop. Still no eta on the part it is waiting for. He tells me that Acer have a policy whereby if a laptop has been in for more than 10 days (today would be the 10th day they have been working on it) then they review its case. If the ordered part is not due to arrive within a reasonable time (he says that mean a week) then they send me a new laptop. If it is no longer available then a better one. Now that sounds interesting. Only problem with mine is - coz the screen died I could not perform an up to date backup (latest was a few weeks before) so I want my hard drive back to recover files.

So it looks like I will have to ring back after Xmas to find out where it is up to.

 

This is getting to be more of a blog than anything else (lol!)

Rang Acer again today. My laptop still has not been fixed. Waiting for spares.......

Acer have had my laptop for over a month now. The guy on the phone gave me a fax number (seeing as their escalation dept don't hav an email address) and I have sent them a fax telling them what I think of their repair service.

So - a 4 month old laptop that has spent one month of that on a shelf waiting for a part that the repairers broke.

Still no sign of them giving me a new laptop either.

Hope they get back to me soon........

 

Man...I would be escalating the crap out of it.

I do this for a job...I am an expedite/escalation manager and I would fax them and then get a phone number. I would tell them that you want a new computer for the same cost as the old one considering they have had it for over a month and it is going to be outdated by the time you get it back. Just my thoughts.

Push them and see what you get.

 

Cheers USAFdude02. I'll do that. You don't work for Acer do you ???? lol! ;-)

Most important to me is that I want my original hard drive back. Because the screen died I couldn't back up the drive and I want my files!!!

More will follow.......

 

Interesting thread. But what else has a similiar spec re: non-shared grahics, firewire and sexy screen?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=36059

 

Not too sure what you are after blahblah???

Anyway! GOT MY LAPTOP!! RAHHHHH!!!!

I haven't had chance to catch up with what has happened since my last post.

Wednesday I let them have a day of from me whilst I waited for a response.

Thursday (5th Jan) rang Acer AGAIN!

The fella told me that the repair was done. I asked if it had been despatched - didn't know. Asked for a tracking number - got one. So it has been despatched then I asked??? Errr well yeah then. Dopey people!

Checked the couriers website and it had been delivered to home. Next bit of fun - rang the courier to ask if I could have it redirected. No! Has to be done from Acer. Another long wait to get through to Acer, asked them if they could tell the courier to redirect. No - you ring the courier. Back and to argument for a couple of minutes. Acer finally agreed to contact them.

After not getting a phone call from either party, I went home and got the delivery card from the courier. Called the phone number and arranged to pick it up myself.

So after 5 weeks wait for a repair that took two days, except for the bit that they broke. I am now relatively happy.

Funny bit - Acer included a satisfaction survey........... Of course I gave them top marks in everything - NOT!

I wonder if their escalation dept will EVER get back to me???

Cheers for the responses guys. I hope others don't have the same experiences with repairs that I have had.