Posted on 06/18/2009 12:12:51 AM PDT by sushiman
The school I teach at in Japan just equipped the faculty room with ACER laptop computers ( each teacher gets his or her own to use at school ) . They seem to be well made and designed and the vice-principal , a computer geek , says they are very highly regarded in Japan . These laps came with XP Pro and are fast and sleek . I'm in the market for a new computer ( now using an 8 year old Fujitsu desktop with 256 memory which is obsolete , and the monitor just crapped out last week . Would appreciate any and all comments . The model we got goes for about 60,000 yen which is a nice price ( 200mhz ; 2 GB ) .
I bought an Acer PC in 2004, it’s been reformatted a half a dozen times since, still going strong. I bought an Acer laptop and a new Acer PC last year and have no real complaints except I occasionally get a mild electric shock when I plug things into the PC (anybody know how I can sort that out?) and I hate the Vista software.
Like a lot of firms they make a wide range of models typically separated by those targeted towards business and those aimed at consumers.
Gateway, eMachines and Packard Bell are all owned by Acer.
I've had good experience over the last 2-3 years with the current crop of Acer products and have two laptops, a basic one for the wife and an upper end system for me. Several of my customers have both desktops and laptops and have also gotten good service from them.
Of the current lineup in the US for desktops the M5640 and 41 look good, for high performance there is the Predator line. In laptops for portability there is the 4810 and for power there is the 5810 and for multimedia the 8930.
What are your “plugging into the PC”? This is a tower/desktop right? If you get the shock from touching the case then you are probably missing your ground connection.
Thanks you all for the very useful info ! Freepers rule !
I have had two Acer laptops over the last 10 years.
Excellent computers and easily upgraded.
My next laptop will be an Acer.
I provide network and computer support for small and medium size businesses and have been in the IT business since.....well since personal computers had two floppy drives and the OS was on one and you put your data on the second.
I’ve had Acer products from my home use for years and they’ve been fine. Acer has worked hard in the last several years on quality control.
I don’t recommend them for my business customers as they usually have a different support dynamic and need to buy from a manufacturer who can provide that support level. In our area that is not Acer.
I didn’t buy my son one for gaming either because I couldn’t find one with the components I knew he wanted and so built it his computer myself. One of the three personal computers in our house is an Acer and we’ve never had an issue with it. For routine personal use the Acer laptop should serve you well. They are not the hottest computers but more than adequate with sufficient memory and XP Pro. Vista is, however, a whole nuther issue.
I bought an ACER 17” laptop 2 years ago. Haven’t had any major problems with it.
ACER, IIRC, bought out Gateway Computers.
One thing I liked — the ACER didn’t come with allot of junk programs. It came with a few trial install programs, but I had the option to install them.
[I tried a Walmart HP desktop a few months early. It was loaded with Walmart advertising programs. I returned it.]
I work with a group of rocket scientist type engineers who help develop new technologies for insertion into combat zones. They spend alot of time in very undesirable places: Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Mojave Desert, etc. etc. and use their machines in very harsh operating conditions.
They are very hard on their equipment and exclusively use Acer. The reason is that all of the others, including Toughbooks, have bitten the dust when they need them the most. I can’t get my company to dump Dell, but I’m buying an Acer for a personal laptop.
Wow - thanks ! Quite a recommendation . Cheers ! S
I’ve owned several Acers. Best computers going, no problems with them ever (unlike some big names).
Thank you for your reply, it is indeed a “tower/desktop”, I get the shock if I plug in a flashdrive with metal parts or a cell phone into the USB but also when I plug in internet cables or indeed any cables into the back of the machine, it wouldn’t kill me but it’s damned unpleasant nonetheless.
I bought a rubber shower mat and put it under the machine as someone said something about earthing it but it really didn’t make any difference.
An additional piece of information is that I live in SE Asia so I don’t know if they have some sort of different electricity system here.
Forgive me if I sound like a bit of an imbecile but working out how to avoid being electrocuted was not part of my computer training, I’m not a geek but I’m not completely stupid and I would welcome any advice.
Let me guess - mostly word processing, some internet, and maybe some light spreadsheet use? Should be just fine.
Or, you could just head up to Akihabara and go nuts. :-)
That would be the exact opposite of what you should do. What you did was insulate the case from ground and any voltage potential was remain ungrounded.
It sounds like you don't have a ground at your power source. Do you have a three prong plug? Is your supply 220V?
You should have three wires coming to your case. One is hot and one neutral for 120V and the third would be ground.
For 220V you would have two hot wires and one ground.
If you have a three prong plug coming from your power source try a new one. If the third wire (ground) is not complete, or open, then the case is not grounded and that is where you are getting the potential to ground from.
If you try a new cord/wire assembly and you still get the shock then your receptacle is not grounded.
Is it your house or are you renting? If the receptacle is not grounded then you will either need to plug it into a grounded receptacle or have that one grounded. If none of that is possible perhaps you could tie the PC case to a ground such as a water pipe.
Is the PC a name brand such as Dell or is it homemade? Another slight possibility is that the power supply itself is not tied to the case with screws but that would only be possible if it's a homemade job.
Let me know what you find.
” Might want to check the spec - it’s probably 2.0 GHz. 2 GB of RAM is fine for most apps (yes, even under Vista, although what you want to run is whatever your students are running). Acer QA has improved of late, or so I hear.
Let me guess - mostly word processing, some internet, and maybe some light spreadsheet use? Should be just fine.
Or, you could just head up to Akihabara and go nuts. :-) “
The new lap I am now using at school is a 2.0GHZ / 2 GB of RAM machine with Windows XP . What the students are using ( NEC btw ) has no bearing on my choice . Unfortunately , I am a 90 minute jet flight from Tokyo , so hitting Akihabara is impossible .
Good thing. I could drop a paycheck in an hour in that place. ;-)
Yes, good. Like all computers you can get good or bad ones depending on the day you buy one. I know 5 people who own Acer laptops and all five work fine. One has owned his for 2 years the others for slightly less time. Personally I don’t use laptops and always build my own desktop, because I like doing it! My Grandson has a low end Acer and it is working fine, he took Vista off of it and put on XP home and it is functioning good, he uses it mainly to play WOW.
Thank you very much for your extremely helpful information, I will get working on it straight away. You are right the plugs are all two prong so it isn’t grounded (or “earthed”). The machine is an Acer so it shouldn’t be a production problem.
Thanks again.
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