Notebooks & Netbooks

[Smurk]

Got the same issue as others have reported .. a low wifi reception. All the USB ports are occupied but the port for SD card is not, so wanted to ask whether a certain SD WIFI Card would receive better?

Acer driver downloads suck .. had to try out other models´ driver for windows 7 to get USB3 and bluetooth working after installing windows 7. Are users supposed to be stuck with 8? It´s not even a real OS, it was just time to make some money and put tech to work with all the problems it has. After installing W7 the windows experience index went from 5.8/10 to 7.1/7.9

And Ezel sensor fails to work in W7.

Review: Best travelling PC for gaming (w. i7 and geforce) this year even with the troubled wifi and wireless mouse(could not get it to work) recommend this mouse instead.

Maybe another version without built-in bluetooth, touchpad or wifi but with a bluetooth/wifi sd-card instead. And Ezel sensor for W7 + some board games specially designed for the table possibility.

[Smurk]

Found out that if you´re already using all your USB ports you can buy an extra to that Acer Converter Port. The cable is called NC 23811.016, cost around 40-50E and you can mount an external USB WiFi adapter to it.

But since WiFi signal is just low it´s probably driver issue or interference. If you´re looking for answer try this: http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ for free! Because even if it doesn´t solve your WiFi signal, you´ll probably find it useful anyway for keeping.

It say that basically to avoid interference you have to divide between channel 1, 6 and 11 and default for most routers are 6 so...

Here at this hotel the mentioned tool say that they actually have 2 routers on seperate floors that overlap (interfere) and their setup sucks. So after hacking their nearest router and changing channel from Auto to 11, it alerted that the current security protocol only provided 54Mb speed, while another would do 300Mb for 802.11n. So why not? After setting the faster protocol and channel 11, WiFi worked again on this R7-571G

This inssider wifi tool can not detect internal interference. But still you get the idea of trying channel 1, 6 and 11.

[b9chris]

I used InSSIDer as well to map my apartment's wifi points. Basically the 802.11 Channels 1-14 were completely spammed by surrounding apartments, but the 5Ghz range was practically empty. Since the Aspire R7 supports the 5Ghz range, I set my router up to talk over both the faster standard range with one SSID, and the slower but clear 5Ghz range with another SSID, and connected to the 5Ghz one. I now have good wifi signal except when standing directly between the laptop and the router, because 5Ghz is basically a microwave oven's wavelength - your body really interferes with (absorbs) the signal.

That said I have been unimpressed with the laptop in crowded wifi environments like coffee shops - my Android phone has connected to the wifi more quickly and gotten pages to download faster than the laptop every time. In many cases the wifi is unusable on the laptop and barely usable on the Android. The laptop may in fact have a weak/poor wifi design.

[Frus8d · Accepted solution]

Just purchase the R7 today for my daughter to take to college in a week.  She spent an hour playing around with all the features and love the way it worked until she tried to download some items(youtube, netflix, etc) nothing would work because of low download speeds.  Just purchased this from Best Buy and while we were looking in the store I read a review about low wifi speeds being a problem and Acer had not addressed the problem and there weren't any new drivers and no fix.  I show the review to the salesperson and they pull up a speed test right in the store and said he was sure they had solved the problem.  My daughter really loved the concept of the screen flexibility.  Right now she is very disappointed in Acer and Best Buy for allowing this to happen. This is our first experience with Acer and we were unsure about going with a brand we have tried before.  Now it seems we should have paid attention to our doubts.  We will likely be returning this to Best Buy and go with a more reliable brand....... no matter how nice something are about a product in the end if it doesn't work right nothing else matters.  We are extremely disappointed.

[b9chris]

This is already being discussed extensively in another thread:

http://community.acer.com/t5/Notebooks-Netbooks/Poor-Wifi-on-new-Aspire-R7/m-p/112067#M22802

The answer is to contact Acer Support now that they've acknowledged there's a serious wifi issue. Generally people have either sent away their laptop for repair, or been sent a replacement laptop and sent in their current one, depending on their preferences. It isn't clear whether that has actually fixed the issue for anyone yet - you'll have to page through the thread.

[snoochieboochie]

Yes, Acer has acknowledged there is an issue, but that doesn't solve anything.  I recently sent my laptop off to be repaired for this issue and got it back today only to find I have the same issue.  I have isolated the problem AGAIN to be the weak wireless adapter as I have 3 other devices that test just fine at the same distances from the modem.  Aside from this issue, if you would like to create a hard-wired connection, you hav to purchase a specific adapter which is UNAVAILABLE THROUGH ACER.  I repeat, THE MANUFACTURER HAS NO IDEA WHEN THIS ADAPTER WILL BE AVAILABLE.  For a company that seems to have its stuff together, I am appalled at the lack of product support.  This is a $1000 laptop.  These issues should not be existent in the first place, let alone replicated AFTER the unit is sent back to the manufacturer and "repaired".  Beware of these laptops. Although they are fantastic and I love EVERYTHING about them, this wireless issue and the lack of a hardwired connnection is unacceptable. 

[b9chris]

Yeah, just pointing out there's already one megathread for it, so just starting a bunch of other threads about the same thing won't help any - if anything it'll make it harder for people to find answers. Not that anyone's going to read 60 pages in that thread either. But it at least gave me a clear place to unsubscribe from, since that's just filled with people saying the same thing over and over about their wifi, most of them without reading the rest of the thread.

But, I can unsubscribe to this one too.

[mazen]

Dear b9chris,

acer r7 has this issue and acer knows about it, it has been fixed with new r7s with SNID 330xxxxx and over

Check and see what SNID your system has! and if you still have time to return it and replace it with a newer SNID that will be good for if not you should call acer and insist that they have to replace it with a newer snid #.

Good luck.

[whatsup]

What is a SNID number and where can it be found?

[cwcjr]

Note on inSSIDer: 

 inSSIDer let me pick a base frequency for the 2.4 that the other computers are using that does not overlap the ten other houses that I can see.

Love that the R7 has both 2.4 and 5.  Maybe I have not had issue at home since I use the 5 and it is the only device using the 5.  (I have a Netgear dual band) 

inSSIDer is not just a good tool, it is excellent for a free tool.

Coe