Acer Aspire 8935G 904G50Bn

[evil c]

This is my first post so hope I am not breaking any rules! This will be of interest to UK owners of this laptop. In June I bought above laptop as it was on offer for £600. First of all I had to return it for replacement because the Blu-ray didn't work, and I found out it was a common problem. Then I had to return the 2nd laptop because there was a fault with the ATI Radeon HD4670, and I found from this forum that it was a common problem. I did try to fix the problem myself first. Now the retailer says that they will not be replacing it again as 'it's the best solution for the company'. Being an IT support person myself I got quite friendly with the senior engineer from the company and he told me that there were 'quite a few' laptops that were returned with the same ATI problem.

Also, I paid extra to have Windows 7 64-bit installed and I also bought an extended Acer 2 year warranty. However, the retailer made a mistake when I 'phoned once and put me through to Acer Tech Support. They were useless anyway because when I told them about the graphics problem (and I gave them all the details from the error and diagnostic logs), they told me it was a software problem and to re-install Windows 7! But I also found out that the extended warranty was useless. Apparently, because the laptop originally was pre-installed with Windows Vista and, even though Windows 7 was installed as part of the purchase, it's not covered. If any UK owners have paid extra for W7 32 or 64 bit and then taken out an extended warranty, beware, W7 is not covered on the warranty, only Vista.

So, I'm wondering if there are any other 8935G Quad Core owners out there who have had the same Blu-ray or ATI problem as me, and whether it is being sold at half price because Acer know the processor/graphics combination is faulty.

 

[Lemur]

I'm not a fan of Acer. Here is a recent poll of which vendors make the worst notebooks:

Poll: Which PC vendor makes the worst laptops? | Tech Sanity Check | TechRepublic.com

Acer was the worst, although it was not a representative poll. I'm sorry you've had these problems.

 

[evil c]

Thanks Lemur, I feel much better knowing that! I've got a friend who buys and services laptops and he told me that the Acer was a good buy (goodbye more like!). He reckons that Toshiba is the most reliable make and Fujitsu is the worst, but I guess these things are just subjective.

 

[mgiggsa11]

What is the faut with the ati mate? i've had my 8935g for about a month now and have found it a bit dodgey at times
but my circumstances with ill health mean i can't use it to test as a well person would and can't play games but i'm now owrried as today there have been problems with the display. glitches on screen which would suggest a gpu problem, so if you could let me know the details of the ati fault you had it would help me out a lot. thanks in advance.

 

[evil c]

Hi there, I'll have to get back to you with the diagnostic logs, but basically I was online and the screen just broke up and was unreadable. I went into Device Manager and uninstalled the card and when that didn't work I updated the drivers to V4 via Acer. I tried various methods as suggested in this forum but to no avail. I could only see the display via the integrated Intel graphics although strangely I was able to use the ATI when watching Blu-ray and I was able to view the ATI card management console. The Acer found the card in Device Manager as well. I have since been refunded for the Acer and have just ordered a refurbished HP DV8-1080ea to replace it.

 

[mgiggsa11]

well apart from the being able to watch Blu-rays (i never actually tried that) it's the exact same problem as mine. I've finally, after practically killng myself jumping through Acer's hoops (they tried to claim my warrenty was out of date even though i bought it direct from them on the 1st of September 2010) got them to take it in for "repair". It's being picked up soon. What did Acer say the problem was? just a fualty ATI gpu or.....? If i have the exact problem from you then it's really good info for me to have as they seam to be extremely awkward to deal with.

 

[evil c]

Hi, sorry forget diagnostic log (I'm using a friend's laptop next door). Even though I gave the log details and told them what I'd done Acer thought it was a software problem and told me to reinstall w7. They were a complete waste of time! That's why I haven't bought another Acer.
See also:http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-...sue-windows-7-ati-radeon-mobility-4670-a.html

and:http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/28289-ati-mobility-radeon-4670-intel-confliction.html

and:Graphic Cards - Windows 7 Forums

I'll try to remember the logs tomorrow, sorry!

 

[karlsnooks]

Laptops/netbook manufactuers with good ratings:
Toshiba, Asus, Lenova

To the ordinary user, I recommend Toshiba.

ASUS and Lenova also enjoy a very high rating in Europe.

 

[evil c]

OK got the logs and also the windows experience scores. Experience scores before ATI failure:

Processor 6.9
Memory 5.9
Graphics 6.7
Gaming 6.7
Primary HDD 5.7

With ATI error:

Processor 6.9
Memory 5.9
Graphics 4.1
Gaming 3.4
Primary HDD 5.7

acee event logs (in text form):

Information 23/07/2010 03:08:41 ACEEventLogSource 0 None "0000000027: 2010-07-23 03:08:41:351 FAILED:ADL_Display_SLSGrid_Cap and return value is: -1
Error Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsCaste_N::CreateOneGPUPossibleMappingTables processID:01688 threadID ) domainNameCCC.exe ) assemblyNameCLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3468.29152, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"
Information 23/07/2010 03:08:41 ACEEventLogSource 0 None "0000000026: 2010-07-23 03:08:41:304 Exception: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
Exception Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsAdapter_N::RefreshDisplaysManagerAdapter processID:01688 threadID ) domainNameCCC.exe ) assemblyNameCLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3468.29152, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
************************************************************************************************************************
Information 23/07/2010 03:08:41 ACEEventLogSource 0 None "0000000023: 2010-07-23 03:08:41:242 Unable to obtain Color Correction information, dem status: -2
Error Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Aspect.DeviceLCD.Graphics.Runtime.RT_DeviceLCD:arse processID:01688 threadID ) domainNameCCC.exe ) assemblyNameCLI.Aspect.DeviceLCD.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3468.29220, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
Information 23/07/2010 03:03:33 ACEEventLogSource 0 None "0000000020: 2010-07-23 03:03:33:780 FAILED:ADL_Display_SLSGrid_Cap and return value is: -1
Error Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsCaste_N::CreateOneGPUPossibleMappingTables processID:01688 threadID ) domainNameCCC.exe ) assemblyNameCLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3468.29152, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)

Applic logs:

Level Date and Time Source Event ID Task Category
Information 23/07/2010 03:08:33 Desktop Window Manager 9002 None The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start
Information 23/07/2010 03:03:37 Desktop Window Manager 9013 None The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start because composition was disabled by a running application
Information 23/07/2010 03:03:37 Desktop Window Manager 9010 None A request to disable the Desktop Window Manager was made by process (Windows System Assessment Tool)

ATI applic error log:

Level Date and Time Source Event ID Task Category
Error 23/07/2010 15:49:57 ATIeRecord 16399 (16) "The description for Event ID 16399 from source ATIeRecord cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

 

[milleniumaire]

Same problem!

I purchased the same 8935G quad processor notepad in July 2009.

It was great value for money and has an excellent specification, unfortunately, as I'm now realising you get what you pay for!

In May this year, just before the warranty expired one of the two hard drives started to fail so it was sent back to Acer and replaced under warranty. Unfortunately, when I received it back the corner of the casing was damaged as it had clearly been dropped by the courier. Thankfully Acer agreed to repair this under warranty so I ended up with a brand new looking notepad, not that the old casing didn't look new.

I have a powerful desktop that I built and maintain myself so I don't use the notepad too often, maybe a couple of hours a week on average.

Last month the screen started going blank when booting into the O/S. This happens on both the original Vista install and the Windows 7 install. I contacted Acer but it was 4 months out of warranty so they didn't want to know!

See the following link for my experience to date:

Acer Aspire 8935G screen problems « The Acer Guy Forum

 

[c15hrh]

I have one of these heaps of dung.

I managed to get an extra £100 off the already cheap deal because they miss sold it as a QX processor. The ATI card/Intel processor combination is not powerful enough to cope with playing blu-ray- without serious stutter. 4Gb of DDR3 is pointless on a 32-bit system. Vista on laptops has always been a joke.

I got nowhere with Acer even though I also took out the extended warranty - like most big companies in this day and age, customer service is run by a bunch of people who cannot get proper jobs.

So I stuck two fingers up at Acer - I am still waiting for them to pay my invoice!

I have the two drive version (not sure if all 8935's have an active spare drive bay, if you have the 500gb model) but it may be worth investigating. I shoved over all my important stuff onto drive 2, ripped drive 1 out and wiped all that ACER BLOAT off with a drive scrubber. Did a fresh install with Win7 Home Premium 32bit, downloaded all the drivers and loaded them in order of importance (like in the old days with 95 & 98). Then run driver genius which updated everything other than ATI graphics and Intel chipset (arser have blocked them from installing in BIOS). Most of the Win 7 drivers on the official acer site are well out of date.

I take it all back, it's just died again. Definitely an inherent fault with the Q9000 model.

 

[c15hrh]

Heap of dung

heap of dung

 

[c15hrh]

I hope it snows again soon... the 8935 would will make for an excellent sledge.