Question Year old laptop is dead, what are my options?

[boozie]

I bought an Acer Predator and right after my 1 year warranty ended, the motherboard fried and it won't boot up. Customer support told me i'm out of warranty not their problem, I brought it in somewhere and they told me something is fried since I get no power.

Reading up on the issue it seems fairly common for the laptop which is ridiculous for something that expensive. Am I basically looking at salvaging for parts as my best case scenario??? Really depressing as I wanted a nice laptop for traveling and convenience but I can't shell out that much money if it's just going to turn to dust.

 

[C1]

Just make sure that the power adapter/brick isnt the issue since if it goes bad then the battery could wear down & eventually the whole system becomes dead.

You also want to make sure that the power adapter isnt the culpret behind damaging a motherboard circuit due to over voltage.

Use a volt meter to do some voltage checks.

I would take the unit to a competent laptop repair facility. It may just be a fuse or diode on the MB that needs replacement. They will also be able to verify your power adapter which may have been the causal factor.

https://www.lifewire.com/fix-a-computer-that-shows-no-sign-of-power-2624442

 

[corkyg]

Agree with C1. You really don't know if the mobo is fried or what. The fact that it won't boot and load could be due to several things. A good technical diagnosis to determine the problem is in order.

 

[EXCellR8]

Ah, the 1 year manufacturer warranty... thanks for nothing Acer.

Would certainly have a closer look before tossing it though. Power connections, even on higher end notebooks, are relatively unreliable.

 

[boozie]

So I paid someone for a diagnostic already. He isn't a laptop specialist, but he has the volt meter and verified the brick isn't the issue as well as opened up the laptop. I don't know explicitly what was checked though but his conclusion was something broke in the motherboard (which I understand is a bit of a cop out).

No matter what you do, the laptop LEDs won't come on.

If that's not good enough, then I am going to need a link to where I should be taking it somewhere around zip 60174 and 60563.

As a consumer am I just getting the middle finger from Acer in this situation? I feel like lemon laws are applicable here but there's no way to get any traction with it. Incredibly depressing I splurged on something for myself and got screwed for it.

 

[UsandThem]

These kind of issues can (and do) happen with any of the various companies, but I've I've just never had any "luck" with Acer computers.

They were actually the first computer I ever bought in my life (1997). I bought at Best Buy for a hefty sum (along with the extended warranty). It totally died on me on day 15, and Best Buy only had an exchange period of 14 days. So it got shipped off, and I didn't see it again for 4 months.

Then I came across a laptop of theirs around 2010, and it was a great deal (price wise). I bought it and took it home, only to discover it was defective and would heat up to insane levels within being on for 2 minutes, and then it would shut down and refuse to turn back on.

As a consumer am I just getting the middle finger from Acer in this situation? I feel like lemon laws are applicable here but there's no way to get any traction with it. Incredibly depressing I splurged on something for myself and got screwed for it.

I'm not sure how a "lemon law" would apply in your case. The laptop had a written warranty period, and yours just happened to have problems after the warranty period, and that's why retailers sell extended warranties. It sucks, but you'll either have to pay for whatever it takes to get it repaired, or write it off as a loss. I'd think if you wanted to get it repaired, you'd likely have to pay Acer's service center to diagnose and repair it.

 

[boozie]

Lemon laws are for products that fail to meet standards of quality and performance. If this is a recurring issue across many users (some before warranty expires albeit) then the product shouldn't have been sold.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I have anything to actually bring to court against them, but if this is a design flaw that happens often it shouldn't have hit the shelves.

Back to my options, if anyone can suggest where to bring my laptop if what I did wasn't good enough I am open ears. Also if there's any chance of help from Acer in some way I'd love an avenue there. I'm assuming I'm looking at a BBB complaint and somehow sell the thing for parts and move on with my life without a gaming laptop.

[e] The Acer service center concept is laughable. They are independent companies. I called the one listed that is near me and they said unless I bought the laptop from them they won't touch it.

 

[UsandThem]

The Acer service center concept is laughable. They are independent companies. I called the one listed that is near me and they said unless I bought the laptop from them they won't touch it.

Since laptops are more of a specialized product, I don't think you can just take it anyplace to get it fixed.

None of the options Acer gives you for repair will accept a mailed in product? https://customerselfcare.acer.com/CS2/#/

Maybe try Best Buy Geek Squad? https://www.bestbuy.com/site/servic...es/pcmcat138100050019.c?id=pcmcat138100050019

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Not a great suggestion here but if portability isn’t required go with a desktop in the future they don’t break as often.

From the various work laptops I’ve had typical problems are:
Some kind of battery or charging failure
The cable that connects the base to the screen
Something really silly like the power button or switch has something stuck in it or even when plugged into the wall a battery needs to be present and that battery is connected loose or wrong

Wish I could offer better advice, good luck.

 

[JEDIYoda]

doesn`t the word Acer in Russian mean lemon????

 

[fire400]

Post exact model of computer?
So we can explore more options with you?

 

[ads295]

Extended warranty is always a good idea and Acer's happens to be extremely cheap in my country. Like I bought 2 years of extended warranty (total 3) with accidental damage protection for the 1st year for a princely sum of INR512. Bought another laptop for my mum next year and bought the same plan for her laptop at INR600 or so. (Not that I've had to use it on either of them, just saying.)

 

[rsutoratosu]

I would contact https://rossmanngroup.com They do mostly macs but they also have pc laptop experience.. you can see if they'll deal with acer

 

[DaaQ]

Lemon laws are for products that fail to meet standards of quality and performance. If this is a recurring issue across many users (some before warranty expires albeit) then the product shouldn't have been sold.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I have anything to actually bring to court against them, but if this is a design flaw that happens often it shouldn't have hit the shelves.

Back to my options, if anyone can suggest where to bring my laptop if what I did wasn't good enough I am open ears. Also if there's any chance of help from Acer in some way I'd love an avenue there. I'm assuming I'm looking at a BBB complaint and somehow sell the thing for parts and move on with my life without a gaming laptop.

[e] The Acer service center concept is laughable. They are independent companies. I called the one listed that is near me and they said unless I bought the laptop from them they won't touch it.

So Acer does not have an out of warranty repair option?

 

[corkyg]

I'm sure they do, but at your expense.

 

[mindless1]

Only Acer laptop I've owned was bought near 14 years ago. It still works today. Heh, a few years back I put an IDE to SATA adapter board in to run an SSD (had to de-case the SSD and use one with a half length PCB to shoehorn it in the bay) which made a world of difference for general office/email workflow and now it runs Win7.

Anyway what I would do is go find the most popular Acer owner's forum and see if the mainboard is prone to failure. Obviously "some" percentage will have failed but look at whether it's at an alarming rate. If it is, it's probably not worth repairing.

If it's not an alarming rate, I'd get a new mainboard for it if you can find one at a reasonable price, then DIY install it or have a friend do it if you don't feel comfortable, but it needs to be done right away after receiving it so you aren't stuck with something that could arrive DOA.

Personally, I consider laptops disposable. I don't need mobile gaming so I wouldn't buy anything expensive, but if I did, it would be one of the few things that I'd get an extended warranty on.

 

[daveybrat]

ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q is the best option over your laptop.

How does an Asus gaming monitor have anything to do with a dead laptop??