2013 Archives

[lynchps]

After several phone calls to the Best Buy Geek Squad, Acer technical support and Verizon Fios (my internet provider), no one could provide an answer to the issue I have been experiencing with my new Aspire R7. The Acer tech support finally decided that we should send the notebook in to have it checked out because they had no answer.

The problem I have been experiencing is an extremely weak WIFI signal on this notebook unless I am 3 to 5 feet away from the WIFI router.  I currently have 50/25 service which usually gives me around 25mbps to 30mbps downloads through WIFI on other devices. At 15 feet, with a straight line of site to the router I may get 2.5mbps. If I move to the location in our home where the notebook is used most, (approximately 25 feet from the router) the speed drops to .7mbps to 1.3mbps. Those speeds make streaming almost impossible. The interesting part that no one could explain is that we have approximately 9 different WIFI devices which include notebooks, netbooks, a Mac Pro, IPAD, IPODS and several smart phones that have no connection issues at all. By the way these are not all operated at the same time. We did use several of these devices to test WIFI strength throughout the house. All of the devices except for the Acer tested no less than 23mbps in even the furthest point in the house. Those devices even work outside of our home. The last couple of days I have also been experiencing WIFI randomly disconnecting with the Acer. I don’t have this issue either with any other device.

A couple of other points of interest. I replaced the router thinking that it may have some compatibility issue. That made no difference. Also the first time I attempted an internet connection through WIFI, my Acer would not connect with a WAP2 connection. It wouldn’t recognize the password. I had to change the settings on the router to WAP. That was with the first router, the second router accepted WAP2. I was also told early on by the Acer tech line that there was an updated driver. I was later told that this was not true.

[ScottyC]

Very simple problem. The wireless antenna has come loose from the Wifi adapter. It's literally just a wire that runs around the inside of a laptop and both ends connect to the adapter. It's not at all uncommon for any device (or any mark for that matter) to have this issue. If you don't want to send it in I would suggest removing the back cover plate from your unit and looking for a small chip with a black and a white wire coming off of it. Gently press the wire back onto the chip. Be very careful as it's easy to break the pins that connect them. If you're not comfortable with this or if you would like Acer to diagnose your unit I would highly recommend just sending it in to their repair center. This way Acer can make sure it doesn't happen again.

[lynchps]

Thanks for the info. I think the antenna thing came up once during one of my conversations with tech support but was quickly dropped. A loose antenna would make sence. I'm going to take it back to Best Buy this morning and have them take a look at it. The laptop is only 2 weeks new, plus I'm covered by The Geek Squad for the next 2 years.

[ScottyC]

Awesome, well hopefully they can fix of it for you. Best of luck and take care!

[LR78]

Hi,  I have had the same exact issues!  I did 3 calls to Acer support and the final assessment was to send it in for repair due to a defective wifi card.  Instead, I sent the first R7 back to best buy and they sent me a new one.  Now on my second R7 and it has the same issues.  We replaced our router which was 10 years old.  Not much improvement.  We bought a range extender.  Now it is useable, however when I'm working in my usual spot in the house (20-25 feet away from the wireless router and only 3 feet away from the extender) the download speed is aproximately 3-4 mbps whereas my old 5 year laptop has around 25-30 mbps.  I love the R7 design and it is perfect for what I need, but this wifi issue is a major downer.  Please tell me if you find a solution.  My trip to best buy's geek squad was a bust as they were completely unhelpful and basically told me to get a different computer, not wanting to take it apart to check the card.  I guess I could take it apart myself but I don't have the 6 point screw driver and had hoped for a better solution.

[lynchps]

OK, come on Acer! I was tired of the talk about sending my new Aspire R7 out for several weeks to find the issue of my extremely weak wifi speeds. I stopped at Best Buy and they gave me a new R7. I brought it home and it does exactly the same thing! Really! This suppose to be the flagship notebook. Don't they test these before they sell them. This thing truely runs 20 times slower than my cheapo $199 Wal-Mart netbook. Since I have tried everything I can think of more than once, I'm now thinking that there has to be an incorrect setting or bad driver for the wifi side of the network card. Hard wired I do get 55mbps, so I know that side of the card works properly. Who do we really need to contact for product support on this? Everytime I call I get someone from India reading off of scripts. They don't seem to be real troubleshooters. I guess I could try to find a corporate address to see if there is any support there. I work with several very large corporations daily and I know a lot of times they may be working on an issue but won't admit to the problem until they find a fix. Anyone else with this problem? So far it looks like only two of us reported this on the forum.

[Bossman77]

Its not just you guys I bought this computer today and it has a very weak wifi as well when more than 10 ft away from my router.  I really hope they fix this issue soon or its going to start making the Sony Duo 13 more promising.

[lynchps]

Hopefully you reported this to Acer. I'm thinking the more complaints they get, the faster they may start working on a solution. I even purchased a wifi extender today to see if that would make a difference. I gained about 2mbps making it now only 18 times slower than my little $199 Wal-Mart special netbook. Funny thing is I think my little Wal-mart emachine netbook is made by acer.

[Bossman77]

Yes I reported the problem with them via email so hopefully they come up with a fix for this soon besides the wifi issue this laptop is really amazing.  I hope other people make complaints as well I one of those people that will complain everyday if have to lol

[lynchps]

Just sent this e-mail to Acer. I just hope the right people see it.

I am now on my second Aspire R7 and am still having the same issues with extremely poor wifi reception. I was in disbelief that this flagship notebook could not give better wifi performance. I was wrong. The replacement notebook performed exactly the same. I spent the first week of ownership on the phone with numerous calls to the Acer tech line, Best Buy Geek Squad and my Verizon internet provider. I have tried everything possible from a fresh install of the hard drive to replacing my router and even installing a wifi extender. If this notebook is more than 10 feet away from the router and not in line of site, performance can be decreased as much as 90%. I have experimented with at least 4 other wifi devices and performance drop is barely noticeable. I can normally download with other devices at 25-30mbps. My R7 might download at 1.3mbps. I don't know if you monitor the Acer forum, but there have now been several reports of this issue. Since this product was recently released I would suspect more reports of this will be heard. I have worked with computers since the 80's am I am in no way considered an expert, nor am I a novice. I do realize though that there is a real issue here, be it hardware, device driver or possibly a minor settings change. Myself and several other consumers would like a solution to this as soon as possible. The product seems to do everything well except for this issue. An acknowledgment of the e-mail would be greatly appreciated.
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