Got a pretty sweet deal on it, too. In reading up on it, I saw somewhere that the support wasn’t hot. When I unpacked it, I realized what they meant. Whereas my Olympus camera had an owners manual in 3-4 languages (i.e. separately bound), this had a quick setup diagram and that was pretty much it.
This is puter #3 for me so I have some experience with setup, but it was problematic. Having used it for about 24 hours now, I like it but being a Vista Virgin and moving up to a widescreen monitor, I have questions. Like, is this as loud as the monitor’s speakers go and why can’t I drive the external speakers as well?
It would be nice to avoid reinventing the wheel each time. Any other Acer users out there?
As I actually have one of these, you might want to check for a bios update. Mine required such because the network card would continually go to sleep, it would take a reboot to “wake it back up” You will also have to note you will be running Vista 64 bit instead of 32 bit. There was a lot of hassle involved with this at the beginning, but it seems 64 bit drivers are catching up. If you are planning on it being a general internet box, medium gamer, write letters, you should be ok. It really isn’t good for really high power gaming. It will be hard to upgrade, I haven’t found any graphics cards that would fit the small openings to place one. no room for extra HDD or DVD bays. Mine seems to work better now, after a whole year, but it wasn’t fun trying to get things to work at first. First thing you should do though, is burn your recovery disks.
As for your speakers, make absolutely sure you are plugged into the correct jack in the back. You are looking at a surround sound setup. I believe it is the center most green jack for your monitor speakers, or for a desktop speaker setup. I don’t think my monitor even had speakers built in. You will need to make sure the speakers are turned up, the sound through the computer is turned up, and again, Windows Media player or Center both have a volume control as well.
OK, Vista and IE didn’t get along and I lost the response I was writing.
Thanks for the info!
I really thought that in this modern age I could research a computer and arrive at a choice, but there seems to be a lot of love-it reviews and hate-it reviews out there…and not just for this particular computer.
I could have sworn I saw (someplace) that someone had found a better graphics card for it. I’m not a gamer so I didn’t pay much attention at the time. If I stumble across it I’ll let you know.
Yeah, I checked all the levels (I think) that could apply to my speakers. I had already connected the monitor’s* via an HDMI cable. IIRC it went like this:
Try to plug in the speakers that came with the tower.**
Change the setup via the Realtek icon
No joy. Change the setup back.
What? Monitor speakers won’t start working again?
Close IE (or did I restart?)
They worked again.
As for the specific connection, I think I tried them all but will try again. I even tried the front panel’s “headphone” jack.
*I bought the monitor one place and the tower another. I went bigger than a standard package would give you. It’s this:
**Reading reviews, I understand these are pretty wimpy WRT volume. But these were putting out ZERO for sure. I have some from the last puter, which are powered and I may be able to use.
Looking at Windows Media Center now…not sure how to access a volume control. It just shows “50” and only minus works on that, so I guess that base is covered as well.
I figured the machine had had all its shots but I guess not. I installed SP2 and can now use the headphone jack. It’s still sticky if I want to change between the monitor speakers and headphone jack but it’s progress.
No, I hadn’t. For one thing, reading reviews on the net I’ve seen the complaints numerous times. 1) There’s little help setting it up (unless you can read the Chinese instructions that have no illustrations), and 2) little web support. Plus, when I did get it started there’s a “welcome” screen that (I thought) would have linked to it.
All that said, I looked and there is one and it’s longer than the “foldup” quick guide that was printed but it’s still really short :rolleyes: and totally generic to Acer, not this model :mad:.
I always wonder how I’m supposed to consult the manual on the hard drive to set it up —when it isn’t yet set up, you know? Or how they advise you to check resources on the internet to find out why your internet isn’t working. :smack:
Whoa…flashback…this was my experience with Acer in 1996…two computers, one to replace the other… before I bought a Packard Bell, which despite the reviews then, still works now…things haven’t changed it seems…I wish you luck in your endeavor to get yours working.
I say “surprised” because I’d think a mainstream store like that wouldn’t want customers bringing them back, irritated at not being able to get it set up etc. They do charge around $90 more than what I paid, however, so figure about $100 when you add in sales tax.
Actually, Best Buy is where I bought mine in 1996. Buy it and get a free 8 MB upgrade was the promotion. I think it was the main computer Best Buy was pushing at the time.
Must be the profit margin. I got mine shipped (free) from NY for $390 instead of $480. Maybe NY made 10% on it…if BB gets it for same, their markup must be 25% or so.
I didn’t notice the same level of disparity with other models (a Gateway, for instance) when I priced them.
and it’s longer than the “foldup” quick guide that was printed 
but it’s still really short :rolleyes: and totally generic to Acer, not this model :mad:.
—when it isn’t yet set up, you know? Or how they advise you to check resources on the internet to find out why your internet isn’t working. :smack: