The Acer Guy

It’s getting hard to keep up with these reviews, particularly as they’re all worth publishing.

The latest one to arrive in my inbox is this great review of the Acer TravelMate 6292 from CNET Australia.

The conclusion: “A well-built and — shock-horror — good-looking business notebook, the Acer TravelMate 6292 would be one of our first choices for life on the road.”

2 Comments »

Good news from Acer India.

The Acer Aspire Aspire AS-L310 has received a fantastic review by Zee Business, with an 8-minute review broadcasted on the “Gadgets & More Show”.

The review highlights the ultra compactness, superb design & the processing performance with extensive I/O Ports & features.

It also features Cyber Media Review Specialist - Binesh Kutty who rates the AS-L310 as an excellent concept product for offices and homes, and also compliments its solid performance in their own lab’s extensive tests.

You can see the complete review (in Hindi) below:

No Comments »

Received a mail this morning from Oni from TechCast Network.

He’s just completed his own detailed review of the Aspire 5920 and thought I’d like to take a look.

Apart from thanking Oni for the heads up, I really recommend you check this out. It’s clear, honest and the accompanying product pictures are 1st class. I’ve also put up a link to it up in the ‘Product Reviews‘ section.

Seen any reviews I’m missing? Mail me here.

No Comments »

I recently received a mail from a reader in the UK wanting to know when the Aspire 5920 was going to arrive in the shops. He also said that on the Amazon UK site these new Gemstone models were scheduled for availability “from late August”.

I spoke to the sales management about this back at Acer HQ and can confirm that the new models are being shipped to the UK distributors as I write and that they should be in the shops “within a couple of weeks”.

I know this is still a long way off for many of you but it’s better than “late August” surely!

If any of you have a question about Acer that you’d like me to answer and that isn’t part of an existing conversation send it in to me here and I’ll see if I can help.

164 Comments »

Hello Acer Guy readers,

Over the past two months, this blog has started to develop a life of it’s own. What I mean by that is that rather than going down the usual path of engaging readers by soliciting comments on my personal view on life, the universe and all-things Acer, it’s beginning to behave in exactly the same way a corporate blog does, turning the direction of the communication the other way around. Scoble and Israel have never been so right.

A quick look at the comments section should give you an idea of what I mean.

This is absolutely fine by me - I’ve learned more about Acer’s customers through this means than any other I have taken part in, but now the time has come to move the experience up a gear.

So, taking a leaf out of Acer’s next target’s illustrious book, I’m going to turn the tables on you, in the hope that you help me build an important reference onto the world of Acer, and give me a far better insight into what your looking for when I do what I’m paid to do: write Acer’s marketing stuff.

Point number one: I have seen a growing demand for support yet I am not a support guy. Having said that, there have been some pretty good suggestions from readers and Acer support so the basics are there. Would a support forum section be of any help and how would you like it structured? Please remember this is not and cannot replace an official support centre but I do recognize the need.

Point number two: How about the reviews section? I cannot do my own (they would be biased) but are links to “reputable” sites OK? I’ve seen a good few site exits from these pages so I guess you like them.

Point number three: Let’s take it a step further. What about some kind of video section? I’m toying with the idea of starting some Camtasia “how-to” videos. Would you like to see this idea take off? How about I set up a YouTube-style section where readers send in their own how-to videos? The number of times I’m been asked “how to turn GridVista off means there’s a definite demand for something like this.

Point number four: Finally, the one thing I’ve always wanted to do is something along the lines of Dell’s frankly brilliant IdeaStorm. I’m not sure how to set this up yet but where there’s a will there a way. That Swicki over there on the right is a wonderful indicator of what you’re really looking for (4000 OrbiCam searches in the past 30 days…) but I’d like to make the results more transparent for the benefit of everyone. One way to do this is to start some kind of direct, open feedback section. Again, this is my own initiative and not Acer’s so don’t expect them to start selling directly, pre-install Apple’s OSX or make their notebooks green or anything

Joking aside, the number of visitors to this site is growing at a wonderfully steady rate and, even more significantly, the number of comments you guys are leaving is turning this project into a real conversation.

All I’m asking is a little advice on how to make it better.

PS If any of you know of a web/blog design agency that could set this all up, give me their number.

No Comments »

UPDATE: I will shortly be closing the comments to this thread as 190 answers is more than enough and it’s hard for anyone to find what they’re looking for, even if it is written in the first twenty lines of this post. There is a 99% probability that you will find the answer to your OrbiCam problem in this post. Read through it carefully and follow all the instructions BEFORE downloading anything unnecessary. Try the “My Pictures” trick first and then if that doesn’t work, try the Device Manager procedure. If after that you’re still not getting anywhere, the only solution is to get in touch with Acer. If you have the details I show you how to get from Device Manager, Acer support staff can also e-mail you the correct drivers.

In a previous post I proudly declared to the world that Acer had released a fix for the OrbiCam issue that arises when users upgrade to Vista or with early pre-installed versions of the same software.

Since then hundreds of users have passed through this blog and have clicked on the “fix link”, only to be disappointed with the result. Many posted their frustrations here and I apologize to all of you who were misled.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with some amazingly-friendly Acer support staff who took me through the problem and explained the possible solutions.

The symptoms
The symptoms arise when a user double clicks on Acer Orbicam (Desktop icon), and Vista displays the following message: “Acer Orbicam application has stopped working” and needs to be shut down.

First of all, your webcam is still working, the device does not have problems. You can check this quite easily by opening Messenger -> Tools -> Webcam Settings.

Another way is to check the folder:
C:\windows\BisonCam\

There you will find the application “LiveCam.exe”. Run this to check that the webcam device is working fine.

If you don’t have the “BisonCam” folder, this means that your webcam is a different model; I don’t yet have a complete list of all the devices and their relative folders but all notebooks and webcams have some folder so if you look hard enough you’ll find yours.

The problem
There appear to be two factors that can create this problem:

1] The Orbicam application needs the correct orbicam driver to work correctly;
Windows Vista has its own internal driver to install the device, naming it “Acer Orbicam” (great Windows!!) but in this way the application cannot find the correct driver, so Vista returns the error message.

2] If some pictures are present inside “My Pictures” folders, the Orbicam application will fail to start. It seems to be a Vista issue and still needs to be fully clarified.

The problem seems to have been caused by the Vista Upgrade software, which causes the OrbiCam application on certain models to malfunction. However, as explained above, the OrbiCam camera works fine, the software just can’t control it correctly after the upgrade.

Another issue that has added to the confusion here is that there are “more than ten” different types of OrbiCams installed on Acer notebooks. Again as mentioned above Windows Vista has its own internal driver to install the device, and simply calls it “Acer Orbicam” which makes distinguishing the correct driver from wrong one an almost impossible task. If you replace your driver with the wrong one, the application cannot find the correct driver and you get the now famous error message.

Lastly, the problem is restricted to Vista-ready notebooks and NOT native Vista notebooks. By that I mean the problem does not exist with the new Gemstone and TravelMate ProFile models as these were designed specifically to run under Vista.

I know this is no consolation to users with this problem but I just wanted to reassure readers that this issue is not endemic to all Acer notebooks.

Solutions
Currently only 2 notebooks have complete solutions available online. This is because - so far - they are the only “problems” Acer support technicians in Taiwan have been able to fully replicate, analyse and repair.

These “fixes” are not general solutions and ARE NOT OK FOR ALL NOTEBOOKS. This explains why some readers have been getting error messages with the new drivers/applications. The new drivers and applications can be found at the following addresses:

Aspire 9300 at the following link:
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_9300.html

Aspire 5570 at the following link:
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5570.html

If your notebook is not one of the two above, read on:

For all notebooks with Acer Orbicam the repair procedure is the same:

1] identify the specific webcam device you have inside your notebook
2] get the hardware description (hardware id) of your notebook’s webcam
3] get the full serial number of your notebook (long alphanumeric code in the bottom side)
4] send this information to your local support centre who can then walk you through the procedure for your specific notebook.

All steps are important because only with the above information can Acer correctly identify the right driver and application for your notebook. Simply sending “Acer Orbicam” as the description, does not help because all the different webcams Acer installed are called “Acer Orbicam” (again, thanks Windows)…

So how do you identify the right one ?

How to get the webcam device information:
Go to “Control Panel”, switch to “Classic View” (the support team still find this way easier and better to work with than the default one) and double click on the “System” icon; to the right you will find Tasks list and below “Device Manager”, click on this.

Now you have the full list of devices of your notebook, look for “Imaging Devices” and double click on this. Here you will find the Acer Orbicam.

Double click on “Acer Orbicam” and the Acer Orbicam Properties window appears. There are three tabs : General, Driver, Details

Click on “Driver” tab, the important information listed here is:
“Driver Provider” and “Driver Version”

Copy this info onto a word / txt file or take a screenshot of this window. Just make sure you write down this information. Then click on “Details” tab

Under “Property” you have a scrolling list, click on it and open the drop down menu.

On the drop down menu look for “Hardware Ids”. Click on this.

In the Value box, you should find something similar to:
USB\VID_5986&PID_0102&REV_0100&MI_00
USB\VID_5986&PID_0102&MI_00

As before, copy these two lines or make a “screenshot” of the window

At the end of all this you will have:

Your Notebook’s Serial Number
The OrbiCam Driver Provider
The OrbiCam Driver Version
The OrbiCam Hardware IDs

Send all of this information to Acer with your support request/telephone call. This should cut down the time it takes them to get you back up and running.

286 Comments »

Image from The Inquirer

Before I really concentrate on getting the reviews section I have to bring you this latest one from today’s issue of The Inquirer directly from Computex 007

Of course it’s about the Aspire Gemstone and, what’s that? Positive again… Now come on… Really? How strange….

I’ll just quote a little of the article, and leave the rest up to you.

“Acer has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make it pretty. The overall effect is pretty nice, and the Acer folk were quite proud of it. You just can’t capture it in pictures.

Basically what you have is a line of high end laptops with a unique look. I like most of it, and think the rest would probably grow on me. If you are looking at laptops, take a peek at the new Acer Gemstone line, they are certainly better looking than most laptops.”

No Comments »

I’ve been thinking about the disparity, diversity and quality of the reviews I occasionally stumble upon.

I haven’t yet found a directory that lists some/all the Acer product reviews available online so I’m going to set one up for The Acer Guy readers.

Unless someone comes up with a better idea, I’ll simply put up new page with the various product categories (notebook/monitor etc.) that will then open up the model range for that category. On this second page I’ll list all the products available with links to good (and bad) reviews underneath each one. Does that sound OK or would you prefer a single page?

Give me enough time to figure out how to configure WordPress and I’ll put it up. You can see I’m having fun trying to configure the Flickr plugin to work so your patience (and encouragement ) is greatly appreciated!

Now I have good access to a lot of links but it’s probably nowhere near complete so if you come across a review (or you’ve done one yourself) and it’s not listed email me at “reviews at theacerguy dot com” and I’ll make sure it goes up.

Also let’s not limit this to English-only. OK?

No Comments »

This is a bit more like what I expect to see from serious journalists.

An objective notebook review that gets to the heart of its core function and/or market and gives an honest, straightforward comparison with its direct competitor(s).

Personal Computer World have just published a great review of the TravelMate 6292.

In depth, honest and unquestionably fair in its comparison with this new notebook’s direct competitor, the Lenovo Thinkpad X60, the review gives you everything you need to understand the plusses and the (very few) minuses of the TM 6292.

No Comments »

This is going to kick up a storm…

I honestly don’t know how they get away with this.

I can understand everyone’s right to freedom of speech. I myself am a staunch supporter of Chris Locke’s troubled view on the modern world, but there are times when professionalism just seems to turn right and hurl itself out the window, either that or it is thrown out by prejudice and mis-information.

A case in point is the way CNET UK has just torn the Aspire 5920 to shreds. Literally. You can read Rory Reid’s review here.

If you’re not happy with that, then have a look at the video.

I personally think Rory took one look at the Aspire 5920 and wrote the entire review around that first split-second judgement but hey, I’m biased.

If it’s quality journalism you’re after look no further than my long-time favourite, ShinyShiny who’s “toilet-needing excitement” comment wins it a lifetime membership to the shallow reporting hall of fame. I can hear William Strunk turning in his grave.

Not everyone thinks the new Mini is cool. Some people hate it simply because it is. I don’t have an issue with that. What I have an issue with is when quality information is cast aside in favour of a throwaway comment, particularly if this drop in standards comes from an authority site like CNet.

When was the last time you read a good (quality) car magazine that criticized a new car with such vehemence yet without any consideration of the long-term goals of the manufacturer, its heritage or current direction and without any insight into the reasons behind a particular design or feature?

Call me naive but I personally believe that there is a difference between intelligent, informed journalism and generalized trash. The former is an art. The latter nothing more than a cheap way of generating above-average click through rates.

1 Comment »