A positive Acer experience ...yes...positive!

In January 2006 I bought an Acer Aspire 5002WLMi and since then I have had nothing but problems. BSOD's, DVD-RW drive failures, hinge cracks, heat issues, wireless problems. Since then that laptop has undergone several (hundred) repairs and component replacements.

A few weeks ago I had almost a complete system failure, 100C temperatures, constant shutdowns, BSOD's, keyboard and touchpad failure, DVD drive falling off and no longer working, etc. I think it was the worst thing that happened to my laptop. I called Acer to set up a repair and the CSR instead tried to set me up a replacement. A few hours later I got a call from Acer saying that my request for a replacement has been approved and they offered me the Acer TravelMate 5602WSMi. I tried to find reviews on it but unusually there were none. I also looked at its specs and after seeing that it was 17" and 7lbs I had to decline. I asked the CSR if it was possible to get a smaller one, 15.4" or less even if it meant a performance hit. She agreed and went to ask the higher-ups.

The next day I got a call back from Acer again, this time they offered me a different laptop, the Acer TravelMate 8103WLMi. Its interesting because the night before I was so sure I was going to be offered a TM8100 so I looked up the review of that unit. I saw the specs and its amazing, infinitely better than that crappy Aspire 5002WLMi. I accepted.

Now I am happily using my brand new (ok, reconditioned) Acer TravelMate 8103WLMi. Much faster compared to the Aspire 5002WLMi considering this Travelmate is 3 years old. I can play Warcraft 3 and Half-Life smoothly. Its going to take awhile to get used to dedicated graphics from integrated, its just amazing.

The only gripe I have about it is that when I try to flash the BIOS it says BIOS not flashable, and when I use my own copy of XP or Vista at bootup I get this weird fade to white effect on my screen and it proceeds to fade into different colours. Other than that, its perfect.

This just goes to show you, if you have tons of problems with your unit, push for a replacement. My first request for replacement was turned down last year, but now my second one was approved, and I am happy that it was.

 

Wow glad to hear they gave you a nice laptop after your old one ran into problems. And I heard that Travelmates have better build quality than the previous Aspires (not those Gemstone ones) so happy computing! Guess you'll need to change your sig.

Btw, i guess it's a good thing your laptop was under warranty.

 

I think so too, on my Aspire whenever I closed or opened the lid the upper case would move along with the lid, but with the TravelMate it doesn't do that.

I read on the forums that people prefer the glossy screens over the matte, this TM has a matte screen and honestly I cannot see any difference in colour. My AS had a glossy screen. To me, comparing both screens, there's no difference in colour/contrast/etc. Its identical. (with the exception of the visible coating which has no effect on the visuals)

Now I just have to deal with miscellaneous upgrades such as memory and the keyboard cover since both are different from my Aspire.

 

i have a very old travelmate 230 over 4years old and it still works tip top.looks well baterd and the batt went last year.but it never stops working.
an old 40gb hardrive is a problem with all the wife's junk on it.
i have a new aspire7110 which does me fine.

i find the matt screen gives better definition with colour depth the gloss screen just shows up all the finger prints