The Acer Guy

Over the past year and a half, I have been on the receiving end of literally thousands of technical questions.

Believe it or not, I am not a technical guy. No I’m not kidding. I LOVE technology, but it doesn’t take much for it to leave me literally clueless. But Simone is, fortunately, and that means we are running an almost 100% success rate with everything you throw at us. I’m lucky to have him on board.

One of the things I have always wanted to do was a “DO THIS FIRST” guide. A sort of quick start checklist designed to make sure you’re never left with a dead machine.

I mentioned it to Simone and he was pretty enthusiastic too.

The result of that 5-minute chat over coffee was this intelligent list of things to do the moment you get your Acer out of the box.

This is a community. We’re here to share our experiences so if there’s something missing, please mention it in the comments. With a bit of luck, and with your help this guide could save thousands of pounds/dollars/euros in unnecessary repair bills…

So, without further ado, let’s start the ball rolling with a couple of things you need to do right now in order to make your Acer experience as smooth as possible:

1. Burn the Acer Factory backup onto a blank CD/DVD.

2. Install and Run an Antivirus program before you do anything else! – If you don’t have one yet, check out Norton Internet Security 2008.

3. Run Windows / Microsoft updates for both Windows and Office (Microsoft Update automatically downloads and installs updates for all Microsoft products on your computer). If you don’t have Office 2007 or if you don’t want it, first remove it and install the Office Productivity application you prefer and update with hotfix if available

4. Get to know the Acer eRecovery suite.

Of all the hundreds and thousands of Acer notebooks sold worldwide, I reckon somewhere around 99% do not use this life-saving software feature, and it’s built right into the computer!

What eRecovery does is to manage your software configuration, drivers and applications so that should something go wrong you can return your computer or single driver or single application to its original state in a couple of steps WITHOUT having to deal with Acer support.

So how does it work?

eRecovery restores the original content of your C: partition to the original Acer preload system with applications. You then have the option of burning this “Personal Backup” onto DVDs and use this to recover your machine instead of the Factory backup (which stores only the original Acer content).

With a Personal Backup, the eRecovery engine saves the content of your C: partition (for example Vista + Programs + all other content in this partition) into “hidden” files on D:
The advantage of eRecovery is that you can re-do your Personal Backup as many times as you like with any configuration, so that as you install more software, you can keep your “restore software” updated as well.

WORD OF WARNING NUMBER 1
Every time you run this personal backup and save a new configuration, you overwrite the previous one. This means that the only way to store different backup versions is to burn them on DVDs each time you run eRecovery.

This way you can have different DVDs with different versions of Personal Backups and you can choose what to restore when you have to use it.

WORD OF WARNING NUMBER 2
Of course the basic engine NEEDS to be the same, so this works ONLY if you have your original Acer preload working fine. eRecovery does not work if you delete / format the machine first!

WORD OF WARNING NUMBER 3
eRecovery Personal Backup and eRecovery in general works only with content on the C: partition!

When Acer eRecovery restores the factory backup (default Acer preload) it re-writes ONLY the C: partition, all files on the D: partition are NOT touched in any way

When eRecovery runs the Personal backup it saves ONLY files on the C: partition, not on D: !!!
So if you have your Company backup file somewhere in D: this WILL BE NOT SAVED in the “Personal Backup”

WORD OF WARNING NUMBER 4
Nothing from the D: partition is saved with eRecovery but DO NOT SAVE EVERYTHING ONTO C: just to make sure that eRecovery Personal backup will save everything during the backup process. For personal files you should use another backup system.

Remember that the Acer Default Factory backup will generally require 1 or 2 DVDs, depending if Office 2007 is installed or not, so if you add more software you need more space to create the backup (on the D: partition) and more time to burn into many DVDs !!

It’s a vicious circle. The more you add on C: the more space you need on D: and the more DVDs you need to backup and the more time you need to restore everything…

The best way to do it is to separate your Operating System (Vista + programs) from your files. The Operating system and programs are on C: and are used to determine the back-up point with eRecovery. Your files can be stored on D: and backed up separately onto DVDs.

This way should you need to fully restore your computer you can use the eRecovery Personal Backup first (two DVDs = quick process), then restore all your files from another storage solution.

Got any more? Feel free to add your own and if they’re good enough, I’ll put them on the list.

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If anyone over in Acer Australia is reading this please click on this link and reach out to Alan.

We’re all in this game together and when he says “If the first people that I had spoken to had set my expectations correctly from the outset, I would not be as angry as I currently am.” I’m sorry to say I couldn’t agree with him more.

I work my butt off trying to build on this company’s good reputation (and I’m not the only one) and when it all comes undone because of some loose link in the chain it upsets me more than it does the customer (why do you think I set up this blog in the first place?).

C’mon guys. We’re doing some amazing things right now with plenty more to come (see post below). Don’t let the side down!

Oh and Alan, I’m not going to apologize - the guys at Acer seem to have worn out their goodwill tokens on you already. Hope you get things sorted soon.

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UPDATE 3: I have closed comments on this thread as the argument has moved on. The solution can be found by reading through the (long) thread below.

UPDATE 2: I have had an explanation of this problem from the tech support guys at Acer and the solution below is only OK for the Aspire 9300 and Aspire 5570 models for which the correct drivers and applications are available from the relative support page. Please have a look at this page for a correct fix BEFORE YOU POST HERE as the conversation has moved on.

UPDATE: This solution doesn’t work for everyone. Please read the comments to see why and what others are doing about it.

I have received an answer from Acer to the Orbicam problem.

There are two software entities involved – the camera Drivers and the OrbiCam application itself – and BOTH need replacing/updating to fix this problem.

The new driver and a new version of webcam application (below) seem to fix the issue.

The correct files to download are:

Acer Orbicam driver (Bison)
Acer Orbicam Bison utility 1.0.0.13

These can be found here under the MS Windows Vista drop down menu:

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_9300.html

In order to fix the problem, you must download and install them both to make the Orbicam work correctly.

FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW IN THE SAME ORDER:

1. remove the installed OrbiCam application and reboot if required;
2. install the new driver (preferably with the “driver update” wizard from Device Manager)
3. update the Orbicam application 1.0.0.13

After this, the webcam should function properly, even if the original Orbicam icon disappears.

To check everything is working OK run LiveCa07.exe or BisonM07.exe that are located in the c:\windows\bisonxxx\ folder or simply run Messenger.

And please, let me know if this works.

122 Comments »

Picked this story up today and thought I’d make some sense of it before someone else decides to blow it out of proportion.

Acer has taken the courageous decision to join other manufacturers in ordering a battery recall after previously saying that its batteries were not at risk.

Although no Acer notebooks have had any battery-related problems, the decision to join forces with other PC manufacturers in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is clear evidence that pre-emptive safety measures are a major priority for Acer, no matter how small the risk is, and no matter how good Acer’s safety record is.

The battery recall is currently only valid for the US, and Acer has set up a dedicated website with clear instructions on which notebooks are affected and how to proceed with the recall.

For reference, the affected notebooks sold in the US are:

TravelMate Series Beginning with:242x, 320x, 321x, 330x, 422x, 467x, 561x, C20x.
Aspire Series Beginning with:556x, 560x, 567x, 930x, 941x, 980x.

It is important to note that as different markets often have different components and/or models, this is not a global recall.

Having said that, on the local sites, under Service and Support, there is a section dedicated to the “Voluntary Battery Replacement Program” giving more detailed information about the particular country-specific initiatives.

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Well yesterday marked a few milestones.

First of all, the news that Acer had become the third-largest PC vendor in the world.

Then, The Acer Guy managed 100 site visits for the very first time. I know it’s not much but I’m proud of it.

Finally, the Swicki counter for “Orbicam Driver” hit the 1000-mark which is 7.5 times the amount of search requests for the second-most popular term (Acer support). If I get time later on today I’ll post an updated chart.

While I’m on the subject, Joel’s reply to my “Orbicam driver for Windows Vista” post made me scour the Acer sites looking for help.

What you need to click on is the “Service & Support” button at the bottom of your local site (UK, IT, FR, DE, US etc).

The European sites take you to a different page than the Americas and I personally prefer it but hey, if you get what you’re looking for, who cares right?

Alternatively, if you’re in a rush and don’t want to go through the support pages and just want the drivers, try these direct links to the official driver pages:

Americas driver downloads: click here
European driver downloads: click here

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More Vista worries here.

I have noticed a HUGE demand for “Acer OrbiCam driver” in my swicki. We’re talking a LOT of people: 759 searches (number 1 spot) compared to 130 for the second-placed “customer support” request.

I have found this link to DriverZone.com for the Acer OrbiCam driver. According to this page, the supported systems are:

Operating Systems: Win 98, Win 98SE, Win ME, Win 2K, Win XP, Win Server 2K3, Win Vista

Hope this helps if you’re in trouble.

UPDATE 1 (request): For all of you reading this article I need to know if the solution at DriverZone.com actually works. Can you leave a reply and let me know?

UPDATE 2 (request): Same thing applies to the Device Manager solution.

UPDATE 3: Scroll down for what might be a solution you didn’t know you had… (thanks Richard) or save yourself the time and click here.

UPDATE 4: I have closed comments to this post as the argument has moved on. Please read this post for a solution. Thanks.

57 Comments »

While TheAcerGuy isn’t exactly ranking well on whatever search engine you use, it does attract some visitors.

And those visitors seem to be using the Swicki that’s been sitting there on the right since November to find out more information on Acer.

I thought I’d post the results so far as they provide a curious insight into what’s hot (important) and what’s not.

Acer support - 36
Acer laptop - 29
Asus Lamborghini - 25
Acer notebook - 23
Acer Travelmate 270 - 18
Gianfranco Lanci - 15
Acer Ferrari - 14
Acer USA - 14
Empowering Technology… - 14
HP PDA - 14
Acer review - 13
Fingerprint recognition… - 13
Acer PDA - 12
Acer computer - 11
Acer deals - 11
Acer mobile solutions… - 9
acer n music matc - 9
Trusted Platform Module… - 9
Acer PC - 8
Acer notebook cpu upgrade… - 3
Acer USA warranty - 2
internet explorer 7 - 1
orbicam spec - 1
travelmate 8200 - 1
Acer - 0
acer c500 pocket pc trave…- 0

As expected, support is top of the agenda. Given the heat some other manufacturers have been taking over their customer support, this is not at all surprising.

Interesting to see the Asus Lamborghini up there above the Ferraris (who’d have thought?) along with HP’s PDAs that also feature for some reason which means that Acer’s are obviously well worth a look.

One curious one (for me at any rate) is the interest in Internet Explorer 7. I have a hunch this has to do with the ActiveX issue but who knows what you guys are looking for??

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It is not my intention to transform this blog into a political platform but I just wanted to share yesterday’s experience with you.

There are, as you probably know, some very influential bloggers out there with very large audiences. Sneezers I believe Seth Godin calls them as just a few well chosen words can spread an ideavirus faster than the speed of light.

Yesterday, one of them noticed a blog by someone called the Masked Blogger, who wrote about his company. Apple.

Now Apple has a strict no-blog policy and so MB’s comments stirred up quite a commotion. So much so that Dell’s PR machine jumped straight in and posted a beatifully-worded declaration of how it alone was changing the face of customer support.

Why am I posting this here? Because I wanted to share with you an article that quotes Mr Accolla, Acer EMEA’s Vice Chariman, and Acer’s changing attitude towards customer support.

This is Accolla’s part of the article:

Acer’s service levels have come under strong criticism from the channel over the past couple of years, however, at the global conference Acer revealed that it had made a significant investment in improving customer satisfaction.

Emanuele Accolla, Acer EMEA vice-president, admitted: “Our average repair time was very bad 18 months ago. We had a crisis and couldn’t provide the necessary support, but we have since put in a huge amount of investment to rectify this.”

Acer now has 15 direct repair centres in EMEA that can handle up to 5,000 repairs a day. It also has six direct call centres manned by 250 employees who can handle 18,000 calls a day; one spare parts hub with 150 employees and structured web site support that can handle 40,000 downloads a day.

“We care about customer satisfaction,” Accolla said. “We have in place a directly owned customer service structure to serve our customers. We interact directly with our customers on after-sale support for a better understanding of their needs.”

Acer has implemented a customer satisfaction rating system with a score of one being unsatisfactory and five being very satisfied.

“We were a score of three on average 18 months ago and now we are more than four,” Accolla claimed. “More than 900 completed customer satisfaction interviews a month are carried out to obtain these figures.”

Acer said its average repair turnaround time is now four days; its average call centre response is 80 per cent and the average response with no delay is 50 per cent.

“Our goal is that four out of five customers are given an answer to a problem within a couple of minutes,” Accolla said.

Basically the problem of customer support exists across the board. No manufacturer or vendor can escape the risk of product malfunction. They’re all trying to address the problem and Acer is no exception.

Even the most well-oiled system is going to squeek every now and then but don’t let that discourage you. Should you ever have a problem with an Acer product, give your local Acer customer support a ring and see for yourselves if Accolla was right.

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