Comments

• By: Daniel Galan Jun 20, 2009 12:46 AM

  Have the DVD not working and the red line on screen. Overheating might be a problem but I am sure that one reason is misuse and abuse. All laptops I've had have done very similar things.

  Besides these two issues the laptop is great. Acer computers are a very good product, but you have to remember that if you pay $600 is for a reason. Any laptop fails in some way if it's misused. In fact, Macbooks are as problematic; they need their hard drives changed pretty often and logic boards need to be reflowed or even replaced. Any little problem and you are spending lots of money.

  In the same way, there are some exceptions. Some units result to be great ones and other are just a pain in the tail, but we have to look at the average.

  You can talk trash and try to manipulate the truth, but you can't lie to your laptop; if you don't take care of it, it will get damaged sooner or later regardless of brand and model.

• By: Lauri Apr 25, 2009 8:29 PM

  I have had my Aspire 5100 for at least 2 years. The CD/DVD drive used to slide in and out and yet I could still slide it in and it would work. After reading this site, apparently alot were missing some screw(s) that would kept them from falling out in the first place. I finally showed it to a repair tech who said he would have to take the whole thing apart, way, to give it a replacement Cd/DVD drive and it would cost, so forgetaboutit. initially the built in Vista made me nuts so I had XP installed on it at some Computer place. Whenever I turn it on, I always move the switch so it stops trying to go to the internet automatically. I have decided the rest of it works better without it going to the internet behind my back looking for mysterious downloads because when it is busy going to the internet behind your back it won't respond when you are trying to open documents and stuff. Sometimes when I use the menu to put it in standby I cannot get it out of standby and have to unplug it and disconnect the battery and restart it. I admit I have been rough on it, but I also notice my problems with it are similar to other peoples. The lower left mouse is sticky, some keys have fallen off. I had a computer guy move some keys I don't use around to cover missing alphabet keys, only 3.

• By: boy Mar 26, 2009 5:57 PM

  acer aspire 5102 i bought 3 .5 years ago.still not a single problem....it is dam good piece.

• By: solanum Mar 12, 2009 1:17 PM

  I have to concur with Discobulus.

  I've had my Aspire for a year and a half, and the only issue I had was due to the screen dying, and the older hardware gets the greater the likelihood is that compoe. Everything else runs perfectly.

  The majority of you people shouldn't be allowed anywhere near technology, as obviously none of you has any clue how to properly care for it.

• By: Bob Mar 01, 2009 8:27 AM

  The Acer 5100 is crap. It belongs to a customer of mine, and has a very odd issue. When the laptop unused (cold), it will not boot..it doesn't detect the hard drive. I'l try a few times to boot it up, then hit F2 and go into BIOS.. no HDD detected. I turn it off.. go back into the BIOS and the HDD is now detected.. Then it boots up ok. I replaced the HDD on it and have the same issue. The controller must be AFU, not worth replacing the MB for. Also, I did update the BIOS to the latest version.

• By: drew Feb 19, 2009 12:31 AM

  I had my Acer 5100 for a just over a year. it was working great until the DVD player stopped working. Then a red line appeared on my screen. That wasnt too bad but today my touchpad stopped working, I plugged a mouse into it and that does not work. My computer will not boot up. I don't know what to do can anyone help me. This thing is horrible, I am getting a MAC next

• By: interrorem Feb 10, 2009 2:53 PM

  I've had my Aspire 5100 (paid $600) for a couple of years now and has not given me any real problems. I have upgraded from Vista to XP and my only complaint would have to be the DVD-RW drive seems a bit shady at times.

• By: Ered Feb 10, 2009 12:10 AM

  A semi-quick fix for some of you with the great 0200 error,,,tear your 5100 apart, get a ~2-4 mm piece of high heat resistant rubber (one that wouldn't melt when near a car engine for example), and wedge it right on top of the large ATI chip that would be located right below the fn key on the keyboard. Put it all back together and it should work fine.

• By: Stephanie Feb 01, 2009 5:35 PM

  I've had my aspire 5100 for about 1.5 years now and the last 6 months it's been doing the same things. It freezes and either goes dark screen or get vertical lines running through it. It's overheating a lot, so I got a fan. It's been slightly better since then but not by much; I'm still having problems with it freezing and going blank. Also I've had the same problem with the video; it starts going frame by frame for everything after the first year. I'm wondering if my graphics card is going or if the motherboard is going. Neither of which really make the laptop salvageable.

• By: wanda mcdonald Jan 08, 2009 6:40 AM

  Ive had my acer 5100 for a year and 6mos and it has crashed on me twice now erased all my personal files. I am not happy with it at all. $1000.00 for what.? for shit

• By: Charles Jan 05, 2009 10:35 PM

  You people are all very optimistic.. This laptop is a good for its price. BUT I must say, it does generate ALOT of heat.. THAT being said, I think more than 50% of you all with having major problems ie (drivers going missing, blue screen of death, and cd/dvd drives not working correctly) are all related to OVERHEATING! Do yourself a favor, and if you do buy this laptop, then MAKE SURE IT CAN BREATHE UNDERNEATH!... I know SO many people that will keep it on there "laps" while using it for extended periods of time and guess what, its overheating and causing damage.. The best thing you can do for this system and any laptop for that matter is, "Make sure the vented part/cpu fan on the bottom of your laptop is able to suck air in to cool off everything properly, and even better! Go spend $30 and buy a laptop cooling tray which will help ALOT!

• By: Gravedigger06669 Jan 02, 2009 8:09 AM

  Well although my laptop has been working rather well after I had to wipe the hard drive because it couldn't properly update anything!!! And I mean anything!!!! Drivers went missing IE wouldn't work. It keeps freezing and I have to Firefox just to check my e-mail. Now I can't use my cd / dvd drive it has mysteriously disappeared. Oh it will come back and work from time to time but this time i think its gone for good. Also to top it off I had an incident where the laptop never got passed the first stage of the boot up. I had to redo the sysbios just to get it to run. Also my mom has the same kind of laptop. It's doing the same thing and it hasn't been used as much as mine. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?

• By: NoAcer Dec 19, 2008 11:34 PM

  One more. Less then 1 year... no usb, no touchpad no keyboard. Never boy anything from ACER

• By: BARBARA M. Nov 17, 2008 4:35 AM

  My aspire has workrd fine! NO PROBLEMS. I think some people either don't know when they've contracted a VIRUS or they don't know HOW to use it properly-meaning maintenance to keep it running at peak.

• By: Alfonso Nov 10, 2008 8:37 AM

  Is there any way to sue them!!!!!!....they deliver damage products from factory, only that the average failure time is arround 1 and 1.5 years.......(just after the 1 year warranty)....., and once it happens.........that's it............dont even attempt to repair it ............it will keep crushing over time.....................and you will end up with more than a thousand dollars lost............................and best of all........even if you want to pay them (acer ) for repair service...........they will tell you that they dont offer the repair service at least for the acer aspire 5100.

• By: tonebags Nov 07, 2008 4:56 AM

  do not buy.... blue screen of death, and dvd drive goes missing...

• By: Gloria H. Oct 31, 2008 3:45 AM

  I bought the Acer 5100 about a year and a half ago. I started to have problems with the left mouse button about two weeks ago. It started to stick and when I clicked the button it didn't work. I would have to click the mouse button several times. Now I am unable to use the mouse buttons at all. I had to buy an external keyboard and mouse. That is what I'm using right now. I googled my problem and found numerous web sites where people had the same problem. I am so angry right now. I have spent my hard earned money for a laptop that I thought I would have for at least 4 or 5 years. Now I have to buy another laptop. Please do not buy the acer 5100.

• By: bb Oct 29, 2008 3:01 AM

  i have only used my laptop for 1 yr and it has crashed on me many times indicating media fail, real-tek fail. but when i try to check for hardware problems after using my backup everything's coming out ok. my acer is definitely out for good now and am looking to replace the hard drive but i don't know if it is worth it. i have lost a lot of data already.

• By: lillydragon Oct 27, 2008 6:55 PM

  This was my first purchase of a laptop, seemed like an ok laptop to me. Mind you I only had it afew days before I returnd it to the distributor. Not because of its malfunctioning but because of Acer's so called support. The OS wasn't in a language I wanted, they told me I could put it to what i wanted by doing afew simple tasked yet that wasn't the case. Marketing doesn't mark on the box besides using coding what Language the OS's are... Distribator has no idea unless they take the time to look it up. Manufactor Pre-Installed Windows..... to sum it up spending 5days with Acers Help only to be told to go to Windows which resulted in a 2.5hrs session of finding out it was Acer's fault it couldn't be done to begin with..... Ending in a Return of Sales.... A new Purchase somewhere else of a non Acer product for 40$ more than original purchase yet 100 times better than the Acer product was to begin with.

• By: Amanda Oct 18, 2008 9:46 AM

  I must say I didn't even read half of these but i agree with all of you.... my laptop wasn't even online for the first few months I got it and its going on 2 years old Ive had it on dsl for about 6 months total but that wasn't the problem.... I was so excited when I got it and i guess it was a waste of money Im finding out now that the hard drive might me gone....my cd drive thats always been there but the kicker is the acctual piece falls out all the time and I have to put it back it my laptop is my BABY I loved this thing but its giving me problems I can't switch my wireless on or off anymore I have to do that manually and My orbicam thats a hit or miss thing to it works when it wants to ........Im soo pissed I should have extended my warrenty no wonder them fuckers only give out a years worth

• By: Matt Oct 16, 2008 8:34 AM

  Um for you people that havent had trouble with yours. You seem to point the finger at the people that are having trouble to not be able to take care of their stuff. Well if you READ you will see that all the people having trouble with their Acer 5100 is about the same problems. Mine is messing up too. I have never "mistreated" or "not taken care" of my laptop. I have treated it like gold but the fact of the matter is that a lot of these laptops are not good at all. Such as mine. For the people who dont have trouble with your. Consider yourself lucky. My DVD drive just totally disappeard. The sleep mode doesnt work. You cant use half the programs cause they start freezing up after about 10 minutes of use. I had to buy a laptop cooler because the bottom would get so hot you couldnt touch it and no I dont set it on the bed or anything like that. I have common sense. It has always got air flow. Bottom line is that if you were to buy one of these. It would be like playing in Vegas. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose and boy did I ever lose....about 700 dollars

• By: Tom Oct 08, 2008 6:10 AM

  I'm writing this on my 5100, that I've had for about a year now. Everything still works great and I've been very happy with it.

• By: john Sep 25, 2008 2:23 PM

  acer aspire 5100 are shit laptops, I'm using one but it is giving me many problems. in the first few months it had a problem with processor now the CD-DVD drive has disappeared for ever. I have been using it for only one and half year. Its a big headace mates.

• By: Chouchou Sep 23, 2008 4:26 PM

  Yep! I agree with you all! The ACER Aspire 5100 is a piece of crap!

  My left click button jams all the time, the battery lasts about 45 minutes, it freezes at least once every day, the scroll jams every now and then (I have to use a mouse), my DVD has fried, the power cord sometimes doesn't recharge because the connection doesn't always work, I can't move the computer while it's sleeping because it'll freeze again and finally it's really slow to operate and to open.

  I'm not the kind of person who is rough with my computers. I take great care of my laptop. I never dropped it. I think it's really frustrating we all have been experiencing the same problems. Mine started just a couple of weeks after I bought it and I've owned this laptop for only 1.5 year!

  I know I'll never buy an ACER again for sure!!

• By: Discobolus Sep 23, 2008 8:10 AM

  You are all a bunch of troglodites. What the hell do you do that you break things so easily....I've had my Acer 5100 for 2 years and the damn thing works solid. The split screen Acer Grid application is a sweet piece of software that I wish I found more often in all OSes. Those of you that break things so easily, I doubt you'll do better with any other laptop. Thanks for reading. Peace y'all.

• By: XcaL Sep 17, 2008 2:59 AM

  just a note think I mighta found a solution to fix the problem:

  under the Harddrive there is a small screw that helps hold everything together, I thightened it up & it bottomed out. So you know when U buy a new motherboard you get that small bag of screws & stuff... well i took one of those small red washers & put under the screw & tightened it up so it wouldnt bottom out again & it fired right up

  Now for those of you who dont build your own computer system, it is a extremely thing cardboard washer, no thicker than about 2-3 pieces of paper if that. so you might be able to take the cardboard top of a cereal box or something about that think & cut a small square with a hole in the center about the sice of the end on a ball point pen. This couple possibly work, redneck I know, but if it fixes the issue whats the problem?

• By: XcaL Sep 17, 2008 1:18 AM

  Nope, not worth the $ to fix it... I reckon I have a 10lb paper weight... or I could remove teh screen & sale it for salvage or wire it to work with a PS2...

• By: KWIKKY Sep 17, 2008 1:15 AM

  They want $280.00 for the motherboard and this laptop isn't even work a $20 "beejer" in a dark alley!!!! HA!!!

• By: XcaL Sep 17, 2008 1:11 AM

  I bought one of these laptops from Tigerdirect back in 2006. here is it Sept & im getting the wonderful 0200 Fixed Disk Failure 0 which is the HD.. nope not the harddrive bad, I tried the advise that was posted on Sept 4th (press on the palmrest during boot, & it fired right up. Well now I have a worthless laptop & a $80 harddrive to return :|

  Save yourself the aggrevation... shoot it, throw it over a bridge, something but get rid of it quick before the demon inside comes out & over takes all your electronic gadgets.

• By: Kwikky Sep 17, 2008 1:08 AM

  My buddy has one and says it's quite gay.

• By: Murray Sep 11, 2008 3:30 PM

  i had mine for roughly 2 years. i broke the left click button on it within 5 minutes

  the battery messed up within a year

  the sleep fucntioned stopped working

  the screen froze for no reason, and u had to turn it off and back on

  it had so many problems its untrue really lol.

• By: Dinger Sep 09, 2008 4:31 AM

  I have had my Aspire since 01Aapril 2007. It originally came with the 512mb ram. I upgraded to 1gig and got rid if Vista (it was to slow). I loaded XP Pro, and all of the assorted drivers. Do yourself the favor and do not load the Acer programs that came installed originally. With the manufacture’s programs installed you will have troubles with the DVDRW disappearing. The only physical problem I have had with the computer is that the left mouse button broke from its hinge/ holding device and now it wiggles around in its socket. The mouse button still works though. The screen hinge is a little loose for my tastes, but I attribute that to the constant opening and closing of the screen in dusty dirty conditions, (I am on board a naval vessel. Other than that, I am pleased with the computer ,and would buy another.

• By: Vulcan Sep 06, 2008 6:51 AM

  I had mine for a year then the optical drive disappeared. I talked to Acer and they said nothing like that has ever happened. Geek Squad told me to find another drive of ebay for cheap and see if it will work, if not it is probably a motherboard issue. I will never buy nor will I recommend getting an Acer.

• By: Acer Hater Sep 05, 2008 5:12 AM

  My piece of SH!T 5100 damn near burnt my house down due to a motherboard malfunction. Then acer tried to refuse to fix the palmrest that melted because "they don't repair cosmetic issues" though it was from the mother board damn near catching fire. So i lose it to them for 3 weeks get it back now here i am not a year later and out of warranty i have the wonderful now common issue of the 0200 error fixed disk 0 failure which isn't a hard drive issue as they would lead you to believe its shoddy craftsmanship on the motherboard most likely a cold solder joint on the board but good luck finding it. Only way to get it to boot is to push down in certain spots on the Palmrest and as sson as you let go the controller for the drives is screwed again and won't recognise. Biggest piece of trash i ever bought will never buy Acer again.

• By: Marko Sep 03, 2008 8:48 PM

  We have two Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi at home and both are the biggest crap we have ever owned. Slow, don't shutdown properly, you get black screens sometimes, things just don't work. Just today we have both experienced black screens, and one of those two machines is not even used very often. I will never ever buy any Acer computer again.

• By: Dave Sep 02, 2008 12:25 AM

  Would NEVER go with acer again. Bought my 5100 in February for $700. Looked great and like a good deal but boy, was I wrong. The motherboard already fried. Luckily under warranty. Our for three weeks and now back... but slower than ever. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM ACER! It's worth the few extra hundred for a legit company's computer!

• By: DD Aug 31, 2008 4:30 AM

  I've had mine for about 1.5 years now and it's functional at best. The USB's have problems recognizing anything that I plug into them, the webcam quit working about 6 mos ago, the mouse buttons are cheap, and it likes to crash. I'll never buy an Acer again.

• By: JESSE Aug 28, 2008 4:14 PM

  I'm finding I'm nodding my head to a lot of the common complaints. Even with all the tweaking I did the desktop is very slow to load: the computer is slow over all. I thought perhaps I was having Vista issues but turned off those "extras" popping up with the desktop loading and that didn't help, plus Vista works like a breeze on my PC. It loves to do the screen going blank thing, squiggly lines before it and all, or freezing with no way to shut it down other than cutting the power. Then it up and outright crashed just a few months after buying new. A friend got it going for me again and now I'm having problems connecting to both my wireless and ethernet no matter what I do (with 100% signal strength) and a search of the net turns up other people having those same issues. Simply trying to play a game - the window will minimize itself every two minutes like clockwork and I have to keep maximizing it, highly annoying. I wish I had never purchased this POS.

• By: dude Aug 25, 2008 11:08 AM

  Ive had my acer 5100 for 1 1/2 years and it works fine. No problems at all, the keyboard is a bit messed up because some keys are not what they are supposed to be, but besides that its not slow, the touchpad is fine, the CD/DVD port works perfectly, and recently i filled it up with a whole bunch of programs such as AutoCad, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc and it didnt get slower, lucky me, I GUESS SOMETIMES THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE COMPUTER, ITS THE USERS WHO DONT TAKE CARE OF THEIR LAPTOPS AS THEY SHOULD. And just so you know, not only Acer, but every other brand gets slower after a year of use.

• By: Vlad Aug 23, 2008 9:21 AM

  Same here, I'm never getting an Acer again, the DVD dissapeared after exactly one year, when playing youtube videos it just starts to go in frames and then shutsdown by itself (it is a hardware problem, have tried it in Vista, XP and Linux). I regret ever getting it

• By: JuneBug_1776 Aug 22, 2008 7:14 PM

  I've owned my Acer Aspire 5100 for about 1 1/2 years and had some really good times with it. Mine came with 512MB memory that I upgraded to 1GB (because of Vista). I (luckily) never had any problems with the screen or keyboard or anything. Until yesterday. It decided to take a sh*t on me and the whole dang motherboard is fried! I called Acer and they stated that they "had never received any other problem callers" like me. Bull-hockey-puck! I'm really surprised that they didn't issue a recall on this series motherboards. Because it was out of warranty, it would be about $430.00 for a new motherboard. That's half the cost of what I paid for the laptop itself! I have yet to figure out what I'm going to do....and with five days until school starts too! Acer has a lawsuit on their hands if you ask me.

• By: Maya Aug 22, 2008 2:12 PM

  yeah.. it's bad... I have it for 2 years... and I'm buying a new one! I really don't like acers from now one.. because of this computer... and yeah.. same errors as other described, screen goes blank or with colour stripes. It's not good for advanced users. can't wait for the new one (I'll probably buy toshiba). and even if you format the computer.. it'll still work slowly...

• By: dee Aug 20, 2008 2:19 PM

  same here had it for a year and then it stars screwing up. shutting down whenever it wants to. internet littered with people complaining about the same. latest related info i found at acer site is from around 2004. missing my old toshiba terribly....

• By: ananta sarkar Aug 16, 2008 11:15 PM

  This laptop is simply a "whale-shit".. i bought it a year back and have been regretting since then. it is slow to the word of it. and yes, i agree with all fellow "acer-sufferers"..this system fails horribly while playing youtube or any streaming source as such. i, in other words, would not even gift my biggest enemy this crap.

• By: Jimi Aug 14, 2008 5:35 AM

  I bought my Laptop Aspire 5100 at ByteTrack in Edmonon Alberta. I just love this great working unit ! I use a cordless mouse which is more usefull in my bussiness ! I paid under $500 for this great unit ! I just wish my key board was aluminated !

• By: Bee Aug 05, 2008 3:54 AM

  i got mine almost 2 years ago, the touch pad broke within 5 months of having it. when im on you tube usually, the screen will go black with white and yellow lines, or go blue with white scribbly lines then shuts down. just recently when i go to restart the comp, it shuts down completely so i unplug it, then plug it back in, press the power button and then it gets to the windows start up screen and dies again. then i have to wait like half an hour for the damn thing to get the power back itself and then it starts up normally. i hate this comp with a passion and regret getting it. i have had so many stressful nights, staying up doing a project the night before it's due (i like to procrastinate) then the comp just screws up and im up for the entire night trying to redo everything over again. without a doubt, im going to get a new laptop before school starts!

• By: joe Jul 30, 2008 11:53 PM

  i agree with the other reviews, this thing is junk, its slow, my touch pad broke and the lcd inverter broke when it was less than a year old

• By: KM Jul 30, 2008 3:02 AM

  I agree with "ME" that this laptop is slow and not reliable. I have had it for about a year and needed to replace the keyboard. Recently, the OS (Windows Vista Home Premium) has started to shut down without any notice. The screen goes blue with white scribly lines and then system shuts down. It is a problem if you have any unsaved work. Any comments, suggestions? KM

• By: illuzions Jul 27, 2008 4:48 AM

  It worked fine for a year, and then the CD-DVD drive went phut! It couldnt read any CDs nor could write DVDs. Then the touchpad!!!! I wonder what's next?

• By: me Jul 22, 2008 7:55 AM

  This computer is a piece of crap! I own one and acer driver support is terrible, the comp is slow, it was a waste of my money. Toshiba is the way to go!!