acer travelmate 4102WLMi

i was considering that laptop with such specs :
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73GHz, 2MB Cache, 533MHz FSB)
Intel® 915PM Express chipset
15.4" WXGA colour LCD, supporting 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and dual display via Acer GridVista
ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X700 with 64MB of external DDR video RAM support DirectX 9.0
60GB HDD
512MB DDR2 RAM (upgradeable to 2GB)
Integrated 56Kbps modem & 10/100 Mbps LAN
Integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
Acer SignalUp wireless technology support
DVD-Dual double layer drive
Integrated Bluetooth
Li-Ion Battery Pack (3.5-hour battery life)
(Actual battery life may vary, depending on usage and configuration).
3xUSB, 1xIEEE 1394, 1xTV Output, 1xVGA port & 1xFIR Port
364 (W) x 279 (D) x 33.9 to 38.9 (H) mm
Weight 2.95kg (6.48 lbs.)
Pre-loaded Norton Anti-Virus (90 days Introduction Offer)
Acer eManager (ePresentation, eSetting, ePowerManagement, and eRecovery)
1-Year International Traveller Warranty
Free:- Exclusive Targus Designed Traveller Bag
RM 4,488(Malaysian Ringgit) roughly 1181 USD

I'm satisfied with the specs, but i receive a lot of bad reputation about acer, saying its unreliable. Can anyone who has been using an acer laptop give any suggestion or your experience with your acer laptops?

TQ

 

I have my Acer TravelMate 4150 for less than 2 weeks and its perfect. The only thing I would worry about is the build qualty, which is questionable. The keyboard, most of the case panels, etc tend to flex. Not very solid....but for the price, who cares lol...I know the USA support is excellent.

 

yes, i agree with u, xbcrguy182x that the toughness of the laptop is questionable, but no doubt the service is good in malaysia too. What i'm worried is that the system is unreliable, like what most of my peers and friends encounter, with problems with flickering screens and system crashing. Is there anyone out there who has been using their acer laptop for more than a year or two out there?

Thanks a lot for your help, and thanks xbcrguy182x

 

If you go to the support forums of any notebook manufacturer you will see many many problems. So much so, that it would see that there is not a single reliable manufacturer on the planet, and the chances of getting a fully functional laptop are equivelent to that of winning the lottery. The reality is there are thousands of notebook users who are satisfied with their product, and only a hand full with a problem. The irony of the situation is that you will only see people who are unsatisfied with their product in the forums. People who have a working product don't bother going onto the forums!

Chances are the same is with Acer

 

i agree with u too..but the matter is its to convince myself to get the acer laptop after so many bad comments. anyway, thanks a lot musika. People out there, can i have a verdict for a comparison of this acer tm4102 with a dell inspiron 6000? I know the specs for a dell inspiron has already lost to acer, but performance and stability wise,and most importantly durability, which is better or has a comparative advantage?

thanks

 

What video memory is used in your notebook for ATi Radeon x700 64M (TM4101 or TM4102): 128 bit or 64 bit ?
Does anybody can verify this?

 

I got a 4102. Theres a newer model out now with 80gig 4200rpm hd and glossy screen but i went for the model before this with 60gig hd simply because i prefered the matte screen. I'm upgrading to 100g 7200rpm hd later on anyway so the extra 20g id not a factor.

One thing to note is that 4102 doesnt come with bluetool although there is a blue tool button on the front panel and the factory stock ram is really 3200 ram as i tested it with Everest not the 4200 ddr 2 as advertised. Its hard ware design is pretty upgradable for the hd and ram, both ram slot are via the screw on lid at the bottom.

I have since upgraded the ram to DDR2 4200 modules.

 

ifie

Wondering if you've done that HDD upgrade yet?

I also have an Acer 4102WLMi and purchased a Seagate 5400rpm 100GB HDD for it but have had problems. I have cloned my HDD using both Acronis True Image Workstation and Paragon Drive Backup but with no success.

If I put the original HDD and the Seagate in my external USB HDD caddy and boot from USB they behave the same, i.e. Windows starts to load and brings up the first booting screen but Windows crashes after a few seconds. When I put the new HDD in the laptop it does not even appear to be attempting to boot yet the new HDD shows up correctly in the BIOS. Old HDD works just fine.

I'm out of ideas.

P.S. I have had no troubles at all with this laptop since purchasing it. The only annoying thing I have found is that the screen is glossy, not matte, and yes it doesn't feel the most sturdy.