Acer all-in-one hasnt worked right from day one. Sending back AGAIN..

I am so disappointed with this computer. Granted, it isn't the top of the line desktop but, one would think it would last longer than a few months. We had it 3 months and had to return it as it did not work. Got it back with a new hard drive. 5 months later, same issue. This time *I* have to pay to send it in. I'm not sure the computer is worth the price of shipping. I don't play games on the pc, I don't fill up the memory with music, videos and pictures, yet the memory lags, programs don't open and after a few hours of using it, it gives up completely. I tried the refresh option and it couldn't even complete that task. I've taken off 96% of the apps it came loaded with. Still, memory issues. Defrag, intensive virus scans, cookies and cache cleared, etc.. My phone currently has more computing power than my computer.

I feel that if the item is still under warranty, and it is, and it's a recurring problem, Acer should pay the freight for their incompetent product.

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philetus

Can you tell me the model? Is it one of the Switch models?

Savage1

Hi. It's an Acer AZC-606 all in one. comp specs.JPG

comp specs.JPG

philetus

It could be the HDD failing, but 2 new HHDs failing in 8 months? Unless the inside of that thing is a very unfriendly environment to HDDS, it sounds unlikely.

Will it still boot up?

What anti-virus are you using?

Download and run Free Malwarebytes and see if it finds anything.

Savage1

I've scanned with Malwarebytes, Trend-Micro and McAfee was always running. No viruses, no malware. It's a work computer that goes on average to 5 trusted sites per day. All but about 100 pictures are stored off site. No music and I've removed all the bloat ware and unnecessary apps to free up memory. Right now, I can have two windows open at a time if I don't try to navigate through them or click something. If I do that, I get the blue circle going around and around. 10 min, 30 min... Give up, try and close the windows, try to restart, another 30 min.. sometimes it reboots fine for an hour or so, sometimes I get the blue screen with options to refresh or completely wipe it out and start fresh. I can't do that tho because as far as I know, it did not come with a disk to do so.

I'm just biding my time to be able to buy a used laptop or something to use while this is hopefully being fixed. It's cost me too many work hours messing with it.

Thanks for trying to help. I'll take any suggestions.

philetus

Have you run checkdisk?

Open a command prompt as administrator

enter chkdsk

If you have more than one partition

Chkdsk C: /f

Also try the DISM tool

Run these one at a time

Scan the image to check for corruption. This operation will take several minutes. For example, at a command prompt, type the following command:
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Check the image to see whether any corruption has been detected. For example, at a command prompt, type:
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Use the /RestoreHealth argument to repair the image. For example, to repair an offline image using a mounted image as a repair source, at a command prompt, type the following command:
Dism /Image:C:\offline /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:c:\test\mount\windows

Savage1

I'll give it a go and let you know if I can get it to respond. I typed in chkdsk at administrator command prompt 45 min ago and the cursor just blinks and mocks me. I'll try disk management and see if anything pops up. Right now it's sitting at "loading disk configuration information ".

Savage1

Yeah, nothing is responding. Restarted with same (non)results.

No chkdsk, no disk management. I'm beginning to wonder if a hdd is even in there... (kidding. I'm kidding)

Any other suggestions?

Safe mode, perhaps? If it will let me get to safe mode. The last time I tried it, it didn't want to respond to it either.

Savage1

Ok, finally a response at chkdsk. It says "the type of the file system is NTFS".

philetus

You can run checkdisk from outside of windows. You will need to be able to boot from a USB drive though and to do that you have to access bios, which would be:

To access the Boot Menu:

Open the Charm Bar by pressing Windows Key-C
Click on Settings
Click on Change PC Settings
Click on Update and Recovery -> Recovery
Scroll to the bottom and click on Advanced Startup -> Restart Now
Click on Use A Device
Click on Boot Menu get command prompt, then

If you can do that and have another Win 8.1 computer, go to search and type Recovery drive, p
click it and put in at least a 16GB usb drive and follow the prompts.
Boot from it. When you get to the Windiws INSTALL page, click repair your computer. click command prompt and enter chkdsk C: /f

Savage1

It finally got to where it said it could do the chkdsk at restart so that's what I'm trying first. The circle has been spinning at restart for 2+ hours so will let it do its thing overnight. It has a habit of turning off by itself but hopefully tonight it will stay on.

*fingers crossed*

IronFly

i would also run a memory check (ram test)

press windows key logo + s

type

memory

choose

Diagnose your computer's memory problem

choose to reboot and let it check.

http://support.rm.com/TechnicalArticle.asp?cref=TEC3222505

Cory-Acer

Hi Savage1,

I think philetus and Ironfly have you going down the right path. Hopefully they can help you identify an issue that can be taken care of without having to ship it in. If not, I agree, we'll gladly pickup the shipping for you. I'll try to keep an eye on this thread, but feel free to send me a private message if we get to the point where it has to be shipped in and I'll get our team here to take care of you.

Cory

Savage1

Hi. Thanks to all for the help. I've been working with it all morning. I'll try to make my findings brief. (Impossible...lol)

It ran over 2 hrs doing chkdsk and had shut itself off overnight. Restarted, did chkdsk C: /f again and got "scanning and repairing" then "preparing unit to repair" - "diagnosing pc" - "your pc did not start correctly". I went to advanced options and chose to refresh. "There was a problem refreshing". Checked to make sure windows was updated. Got "problem checking for updates" error C8001FE. Windows update troubleshooter = "service registration missing or corrupt". "Fixed." "Windows update error 0x800700D" "fixed". "Problem installing recent updates" "fixed". "Windows update not available ".

Searching for memory or memory updates or diagnostic tool = "something went wrong, try again ". I searched mdsched.exe and it ran the memory tool (screen shots are on my computer. If I can get it to boot, I'll add them to a message) and restarted. "Ran into problem, need to restart. Collecting info. Will restart". Then, "preparing automatic C repair" and " diagnosing PC" = "PC didn't start correctly. Restart or advanced options "

This continued twice more. Tried refresh option again. Still couldn't do it. Restarted 3 hrs ago, circle still spinning at welcome page until it shut off. Restarted it and "scanning and repairing drive C".

Wash, rinse, repeat.

I will be happy to try anything else but, even more more than happy to send it in to you guys. Thanks again for everyone's time.

Savage1

On restart, it's "repairing disk errors"

Cory-Acer

Considering that you mentioned the small volume of personal data, it might be worth backing those photo's up and trying to do a restore. This will be the best way to quickly tell if you'll need to send it back to us. This will wipe everything and reset it back to it's original configuration. This should take around an hour to complete.

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26281

If you would, send me a private message with your Case Number and/or Serial Number and I'll ask that a label is created and sent out to you. This way we're not creating more delays.