Triton 500 Wifi issues

SyedW

4 months in and the wireless adapter has already malfunctioned. Acer wants the machine shipped to them which will take 7-10 days (considering they abide by their word, which seems dubious, consider their below pat customer service experience so far). For a college student who has finals next month, how is this providing any relief? The laptop is useless without a working wifi and living without a machine for a week or so is far worse! Why can't Acer have technicians come in or at least have a repair center in major cities?

For a 1700 machine, I'd expect better quality control and FAR better customer services experience! My advice: stick to better brand names like HP, Dell or Lenovo. Acer doesn't seem to give two hoots about their customers, seemingly.

JackE

Open DeviceManager. Click 'network adapters' folder. Right click the wifi adapter. Uninstall the wifi adapter. Exit DeviceManager without re-installing anything. Open ControlPanel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power buttons do' in left pane. Click 'change settings that currently are unavailable'. Scroll down and uncheck the box for fast startup if not already unchecked. Shutdown Windows. Turn machine back on. Jack E/NJ

SyedW

JackE said:

Open DeviceManager. Click 'network adapters' folder. Right click the wifi adapter. Uninstall the wifi adapter. Exit DeviceManager without re-installing anything. Open ControlPanel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power buttons do' in left pane. Click 'change settings that currently are unavailable'. Scroll down and uncheck the box for fast startup if not already unchecked. Shutdown Windows. Turn machine back on. Jack E/NJ

Didn't change anything. Still keeps disconnecting. 

JackE

Open DeviceManager again. Click 'network adapters' folder. Right click the wifi  or wlan adapter. Click properties. Click the advance tab. Click 'preferred band'. Change 'no preference' to '2.4GHz band'.  If still dropping, then try the '5GHz' band. Jack E/NJ

SyedW

All I see is a globe on the bottom right on my taskbar with no networks to connect to. I have tried reinstalling/uninstalling drivers, but, zilch.

xapim

SyedW probably a hardware issue sometimes it happens you should send it back for them to check if they asked to you but as last attempt you could try a factory stock recovery clean install (backup whatever you need first) ALT+F10 on boot and select delete everything option to rule out any software issues if the issue persists after this its definitely hardware also check you router if somehow its kicking you out due to overload or something else check the channel settings changing channel sometimes helps when there is too much devices around you on the same channel always setup a channel that no one is using  sometimes this might also happen depending on the router if its good or not i never had any issues with any of my fritzboxes

SyedW

xapim said:

SyedW probably a hardware issue sometimes it happens you should send it back for them to check if they asked to you but as last attempt you could try a factory stock recovery clean install (backup whatever you need first) ALT+F10 on boot and select delete everything option to rule out any software issues if the issue persists after this its definitely hardware also check you router if somehow its kicking you out due to overload or something else check the channel settings changing channel sometimes helps when there is too much devices around you on the same channel always setup a channel that no one is using  sometimes this might also happen depending on the router if its good or not i never had any issues with any of my fritzboxes

Did a fresh install but the issue persists. Tried multiple locations - home, school, starbucks but no luck. I have finals next month and its extremely stressful living without a laptop. Is there any way my issue could be expedited?

JackE

SyedW >>>Is there any way my issue could be expedited>>>

Sorry. You have posted to a ACER users group. We're not ACER employees or customer service reps. So we cannot directly expedite any ACER repair services. As  xapim suggested, you should send it back to the ACER service center employees to check if they asked you to. Jack E/NJ

xapim

SyedW unfortunately seems to be some hardware related issue you would have to contact acer support from your country directly to arrange a repair as @JackE stated above we are not acer employees/support neither this community is a direct acer support line we are just normal users like you that are only here to help to troubleshoot with our best knowledge any issues that may arise in the best way we can

SyedW

Well, now the problem seems to have 'evolved'.

It no longer disconnects every few mins but stay connected for hours at length. Still think it's a hardware issue?

JackE

Yes. Especially if laptop has recently been exposed to extreme temp  variations that could affect quality of socket & connector contacts. The m.2 wifi card might simply need to be re-seated a few times on the mainboard m.2 socket to help assure good contact.  Jack E/NJ

SyedW

JackE said:

Yes. Especially if laptop has recently been exposed to extreme temp  variations that could affect quality of socket & connector contacts. The m.2 wifi card might simply need to be re-seated a few times on the mainboard m.2 socket to help assure good contact.  Jack E/NJ

Can I do it myself without voiding warranty?

JackE

You should be OK if no screw or cover tamper seals/tapes are torn and nothing obvious is broken or cracked in doing so. 10 screws must be removed from the bottom cover and cover pried off. Then the battery pack is disconnected from the mainboard, two screws removed, then lifted out. Remove the antenna cables and one screw. Then re-seat the m.2 card a half dozen or so times to help clean up its contacts. Button it back up.  Don't worry too much about breaking a few invisible plastic catches on the upper and lower case when prying the cover off --- that's what the ten screws are there for.  Jack E/NJ

SyedW

Not sure if I can take out the screws without messing with the seal. I'll just send it I think.

JackE

Are there seals over screws or and/case seams? Jack E/NJ

charles_br

JackE said:

You should be OK if no screw or cover tamper seals/tapes are torn and nothing obvious is broken or cracked in doing so. 10 screws must be removed from the bottom cover and cover pried off. Then the battery pack is disconnected from the mainboard, two screws removed, then lifted out. Remove the antenna cables and one screw. Then re-seat the m.2 card a half dozen or so times to help clean up its contacts. Button it back up.  Don't worry too much about breaking a few invisible plastic catches on the upper and lower case when prying the cover off --- that's what the ten screws are there for.  Jack E/NJ

Hi. Where have you found those diagrams? I have the same issue related by the OP and I think I'm going to try to fix it by myself. I've bought my Triton 500 during a travel to Switzerland and I live in Brazil, so there's no way I could ship it back to Acer.