Why avoid Acer

In my experience, Acer sells pretty good hardware at low prices. When I was buying my laptop (Aspire 5732ZG), it was almost half the price of similar HP, Asus, Toshiba etc models. So where's the catch?

First - Acer puts crappy heat paste on processor, and you're bound to have problems with it unless you break your laptop first (possibly out of frustration). After only 6 months of use, my laptop started overheating, culminating after 9 months of use when average HDD temperature was around 60 degrees centigrade and CPU was going as high as 95 degrees centigrade after only several minutes of intensive usage. Of course, laptop turns off automatically.

Second - you try to find a solution on Acer website - there is none. You're prompted in the start to choose your country. I bought legally my laptop in Serbia, but it's not listed. So I tried several European countries and finally found my laptop on Croatian section. Still, there was absolutely no advice or solution anywhere to be found.

Third - you try contacting Acer - good luck with that. If there is a contact form on their site, which I doubt, it's very cleverly hidden.

Fourth - you finally decide to open your laptop on your own, because how hard could it be to clean it or replace heat paste if needed? Well it's hard as hell. You need to take the whole damn thing apart, including monitor (I see now that many brands share this idiotic construction YouTube - How to remove and install a laptop graphics card. (Part 1) ). Of course, you have big risk of damaging your machine

My theory is that they put crappy heat paste on purpose. They make a calculation that it can last, for example, 5000 hours of use. If you use your laptop 5 hours a day, around the time that your warranty is expiring, you should start having problems. You can't fix it for free anymore, the repair costs almost the same as (now obsolete) laptop, and it's almost impossible to fix it without professional help. So you just go and buy another laptop, although you don't need it, preferably Acer again. Well, 3 of us use my laptop, so it works 20 hours a day and heat paste was gone after 6 months...

Fifth - not connected to the other points - did anybody manage to install all components of Acer Aspire under any operating system? On their site you will find next to nothing, on the CD you get with laptop you'll get about the same. Be it Linux or Windows, I didn't manage to make this machine work as intended to the full extent. Oh yeah, it has blue-tooth sign all over it, but I found out some time later that it might not have blue-tooth after all.


The reason I'm hating so much here is because I couldn't contact Acer and they don't have any support forum. A simple "I'm sorry" from them would appease me, but they wouldn't hear me out

 

I had no trouble finding Serbian Acer website and your notebook on it in support section (to make it harder a did it blind- I don't speak Serbian)

Acer doesn't use any better or worse thermal paste than other manufacturers. None of them use Arctic Silver as default- you can pay some companies that customize notebooks to put better thermal paste on i.e. Asus notebooks but that's it. Default thermal compound is similar for all manufacturers (meaning cheap)
Sometimes it's not applied properly or the unit is defective. I had no such problems with any of my Acers, it's also not a known/common problem here in Acer section (apart from specific models that tend to overheat but that's related to inadequate cooling system)
Notebooks are not designed to be opened by users so you shouldn't be surprised it's hard to do. As you've mentioned it applies to most/all manufacturers. There are service manuals explaining how to do it that are available to support staff (but not to general public as users are not meant to fiddle with it)
Your conspiracy theory is rather funny but do you really believe people would buy Acer again and again after their previous computers died for no apparent reason?
I don't think selling low quality product is such a good marketing strategy.

I hope you'll be able to tweak it to your liking and use it for as long as you've hoped for. Acer is not known for their great support (although service got better in Europe in recent years) so if you run into any troubles feel free to post here. Maybe we'll be able to help.

 

OK, considering website, I gotta admit I made a mistake. When I last checked Serbia wasn't in the list (2-3 months ago) and I didn't recheck (cookies now always route me to Croatian page automatically)

I fixed the laptop, and it works perfectly for now.. Got all temperatures in the green with thermal paste I bought for 3$ (and there's enough of it to apply it 20 times at least).

It's not conspiracy theory. They put a thing in laptop that lasts 2 years at average (sometimes under 6 months), a thing that costs much less than 1% of overall price, and they don't provide you a fast way to change it. If there was door on the bottom of the laptop, everybody could do it. This way servicer has every right to charge you big amount of money, because it lasts so long to open laptop and close it after the procedure

Either they're really stupid, or they have an agenda

 

Even assuming you are right about their agenda it's still a good deal as long as you are a knowledgeable user.
You buy a notebook cheap, buy some good thermal paste and you end up with a bargain.

Anyway- good to hear you've been able to sort it out.

 

i dont see a problem, their business model seems to work....

 

Believe me, HP's and Dell's are no better. The HP dv6xxx, dv2xxx, and dv9xxx series had major thermal problems. Dell has been having build quality issues since 2008 and earlier. At least Acer's TimelineX seemed pretty sturdy...I accidentally sat on mine for a couple of seconds before I realized it and thankfully, nothing was broken. I wouldn't even think about trying that with my Dell Studio - it's falling apart just sitting on a desk.

 

The issue I think is the speed with which the parts are assembled in the Chineese factories. I routinely repaste my units. The last couple I have done have had less than 30% contact between the Core and the heat transfer surface. I have seen idle temps drop 5-6C after getting some IC Diamond.

I would doubt that somebody sits and plans to put crappy thermal surfaces together. If they could, I think they would. It's just that they are making their units with such tight margins that there is no way to do a decent job. But, the end result is something like the 3820TG selling for $735 instead of $1,000.

Bronsky

 

My Aspire 7720g doesn't feel as well made as my old dv9000 but it works and I can easily open it whereas the hp I couldn't get anywhere without feeling like I was going to break it... My acer and hp didn't overheat but I make sure they are always vented and I'm sorted. Mine only costed me around £300 with bluray...

 

I would gladly do the pasting myself and save 300 dollars Thank You very much.

 

And best part is that this is optional on the owners part..

The TimeLineX models 3820TG and 4820TG I bought in the past month or two both had 100% proper paste coverage from the factory, and changing it (since I already had it opened up), did nothing for temperatures. It was already good to go from the factory.

Point is, because some have done this, do not think that since you saved money by buying an Acer you need to do this. You probably do not need to do anything. Most are just fine as they are.

 

Yea but Acer saves money for people who know their computers inside out.
They actually show powerful computers do not need to be expensive but I should say their support really needs to be improve by a mile.
But again people who know their computers inside out usually do not need support except when the hardware fails.
I will gladly pick Acer over its polar opposite. Value for Money FTW!

 

I have not seen 100% coverage in any of the 3 models I've opened in the past year. Still, my initial 3820TG's temps were not terrible so, functionally, if the machine is not being pushed to its limits, even a bad paste job is not fatal.

You seem to be lucky with your purchases. Both of your units were made by happy, competent factory workers and they OC'd incredibly well. You should be playing the lottery regularly.

Bronsky

 

There is a saying: Lottery is tax for people who do not learn their math.
Yea I know you meant it as a joke

 

I had a similar experience with my acer aspire 5920g. The cooling design isn't exactly how its supposed to be, and the thermal pad for the cpu was awfull.

After reaplying the paste on my cpu (which was pretty hard cuz I had to remove the heatsink) temps dropped by 10-15 celcius if not more.

But i'm still more content than anyone could possibly be with a laptop. I bought this model 3 years ago for 1300€ (buying a sony would have costed me 500-1000€ more with way weaker hardware), and recently upgraded the 8600m gt with an ati hd 4670. I admit I had to downclock the card a bit to keep the temps at safe (below 90 celcius), but I can play all the newest games at very decent settings (AC2 at full high def resolution).

I don't think there's any other brand that could give me as much value for so little money.

 

My acer is kicking *^&$# and taking names.......... very happy with it,havent had any problems at all...................

 

You might want to mod & flash the 3D Clocks the VBIOS if setting clocks on every boot is troublesome.
Don't worry about unnaturalness since expensive brands SONY and Apple does it like nobody's business and everyone else is lapping up their machines.

 

if you think this is crappy wait untill you get the same crappy paste/job in a 3k gaming laptop

it was not my case but factory paste job is by definition crappy and several other user had the same kind of trouble how ever i agree that the build of acer laptop is made to give you headhache every tinme you crack one open i'm still trying to figure witch one i hate the most acer or toshiba in that mather

 

I've taken apart Acers to put better heatsink goop on... Never had to take out the monitor...

How many Acers have you owned?

One reason to buy acer - Best bang for the buck. Do your research and buy well rated machines.

Krista