Re: What to do with an Acer 5100 Laptop?


"Whomever" <alterego@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4627e6bb$0$9971$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Chris" <CJMARTIN04@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:OYAVh.4837$nU4.3730@xxxxxxxxxxx

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4626d8ef$0$4853$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Replacing the motherboard will probably cost about $600. In some cases, getting a motherboard replaced costs more than the entire computer cost.

Laptops usually don't have coin cells in sockets like desktop motherboards. In some cases, the batteries are rechargeable, in some cases they are "long life" (intended to be 5 to 10 years) but SOLDERED to the motherboard. Even when they are not difficult to replace, it usually requires opening up the laptop case and therefore they are not "user replaceable" (although motherboard replacement may not be required either).

Send it back to Acer. The one thing you don't want to do is let the warranty expire, because then you will never have any hope of getting it fixed. Be sure that there is a prominent note describing the problem.

By the way, the problem could be something other than a battery, although a battery is the 1st suspect.

Thanks Barry. This battery is indeed soldered to the motherboard, which is why the original tech support person I talked to said the MoBo had to be replaced. I reset the time to the proper time, hoping that perhaps whatever they did indeed fixed it and it wasn't a CMOS problem. There is an hour difference between Texas and my location in VA, so maybe the person repairing it was simply resetting it to Texas time. I'll wait a week to see what happens. I have a year long warranty from the factory and then the Circuit City warranty kicks in, and I have a 90 day warranty on the "work" they did this time.

Once I calm down I might send it back to them and have them attempt to fix it if it happens again this next week, as long as they get FedEx to come pick it up from me on a Saturday, because I'm definitely not taking off work for this. I may just sell this thing on EBay and start all over with another brand.

So your complaining in this newsgroup that they didn't fix your problem when in fact you don't know whether they did or not because of the 1 hour time difference.
No I am complaining because according to the letter they enclosed with the laptop, they didn't even check what I told them was the problem in the first place. They further gave me a bogus explanation there was nothing to fix because they couldn't "replicate" the problem. Even the customer support person I called at Acer yesterday laughed at that one. The machine when I sent it off was losing several minutes per day and was already somewhere around 30 minutes behind. There is no logical way this machine didn't continue to lose time on the way and when it got there. I've also talked to several people who are in the PC business and they've all been shocked when I told them the CMOS battery could not be replaced because it was soldered to the motherboard. I've replaced CMOS batteries before on laptops, and this is the first one I've owned that a user is unable to do that. Acer should also be ashamed at their telephone support in the first place. A user shouldn't have to Google a tech support phone number because it's not supplied in the manual. Every site I've seen that ranks PC telephone support has given them F's.

As of now, the PC between this morning and now is 1 minute behind where it was this morning. It was dropping 10-20 seconds even last night as I was using it.

.

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