Second SSD dies after only 13 months

GeorgeJ
GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User
in 2014 Archives

Hi,

 

I was reading "Solid state drive death on Aspire S7" topic on this forum.

 

Having posted the following comments to that topic I thought I would do better starting a new one and share my progress with you.

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I read with interest the previous comments about early failure rates but what are the odds on getting a reliable drive before the warranty runs out ???

 

I had the SSD fail on my M5 after about 7 months. Acer replaced it under warranty but it has just failed again a month out of warranty. So 2 failed SSDs in 13 months. Tech support says there is nothing they can do but charge me to have a replacement fitted. That does not seem fair to me. Not at all happy.

 

I am now waiting for the UK_Escalations dept to get back to me.

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Sent complaint to UK_Escalations 29/9/13 23:17 UK

 

Received notification, 30/9/13 12.09 UK, complaint received by them and a case officer will be assigned to me shortly.

 

1/10/14 16:50 UK.  I'm still waiting to hear from case officer.

 

George

Best Answer

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User
    Answer ✓

    Hi All,

     

    Finally got things resolved.

     

    George

Answers

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    The story so far -

     

    Spoke to Tech support 27/9/13

    Sent complaint to UK_Escalations 29/9/13 23:17 UK

     

    Laptop collected 3/10/13

    Received by them 4/10/13

    Under repair from 4/10/13

    Weekend 5/10/13 - 6/10/13

    Under repair 7/10/13

    Under repair 8/10/13

    Still under repair 9/10/13

     

    George

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    11/10/13 Case Status - Still under repair. Not a word from Acer.

     

    The first time my SSD died Acer had to "order a replacement" ??? Guessing their "supplier" is out of stock this time.

     

    George 

  • eduardohers
    eduardohers Member Posts: 1 New User

    Well mine S7 392 Died after 2 months , this is not the first time I have a hard drive ( SSD) failure , but the first time I was not able to do anything. It just gave me a blue screen telling me something went wrong and the computer was rebooting , windows was fixing it and I will go to 10% , 30% 80% 100% then the computer rebooted. In a loop. No way to get out of it.

    Pressing F2 or any other combination wouldn't have any effect , incredible. No way to get to the Bios even.

    Had to send it in and Now is for repair in Texas. I hope they have the parts. And I will have to start from scratch. Have a backup but it is always a chore to install everything.

    Well if someone finds the blue screen and figures an way to at least boot to Bios , safe mode or anything , please let me know. I'm curious.

     

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    I'm self employed and my Acer is a very important part of my business. It would obvioulsy be soo much better if Acer could not only turn round repairs faster but also keep us informed as to when we might get our equipment back.

     

    When the first SSD failed I was told that a replacement drive was on order. I don't believe a manufacturer the size of Acer needs to order a replacement. Their service engineer might need to put a requisition through to their spares stores but that should not take days, weeks or months.

     

    If Acer's computer system went down how long would they be expecting to wait to get it up and running. A day, a week or how about a month ? I have no idea what the cause of the delay is or when I might see my laptop again. I bet Acer would want to know, to the minute, exactly when their system would be up and running.

     

    I appreciate the scale is a little different but its none the less very important to me to have a reliable system with satisfactory support.

     

    George

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    Latest SSD replacement has just failed. Thats 3 in just over 18 months. Not impressed. Waiting for Escalations to respond.

     

    George

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    Nearly 24 hours and not a word from Acer's Escalations.

     

    George

     

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    Had a response from Escalations at 10.50 this morning. They will inspect unit and based on engineers report possibly repair it foc.

     

    George

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    This is the reply i recieved from the Escalations Dept. today.

     

    [edited to comply with guidelines]

     

     

    It is in fact a SSD unit he is referring to.

     

    So if their engineers are correct I have simply been unlucky to have had 3 faulty SSD units. They are offering to replace it again with a 4th but I said no. I keep telling them there must be an intermittent fault somewhere else causing the problem. I would have said this was obvious but they are refusing to acknowledge anything other than 3 SSD could possibly be faulty. Clearly they don't consider the SSD components are very reliable.

     

    I have asked them to replace the laptop but they are refusing to do that and claiming the latest failure is out of warranty anyway so they are not obliged to do that. 

     

     

     

     

     

    George

  • jonstatt
    jonstatt Member Posts: 76 Troubleshooter

    The responsibility actually lies with PC World and not Acer. Have you approached PC world with the issues and asked them for a refund or replacement in view of your continued failures with the laptop?

     

    If they refuse, then I would go to trading standards for advice as the next step...

     

    I agree that the chances of an SSD failing 3 times is extremely low unless there was something like a voltage stability issue in the netbook itself.....or of course if you were mistreating the netbook in some way, such as blocking its vents, or using it in temperatures outside of its normal range.

     

     

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi jonstatt,

     

    Thanks for the reply,

     

    When the first SSD died I took it back to PCWorld who suggested I contact Acer to see if there was a way to recover anything off the SSD. So I do that and Acer said they wouldn't attempt to recover anything but offered to replace the SSD as it was only 6 months old. They also suggested, before I arrange to return it, trying a local PC repair shop to see if they could recover anything. That was fruitless. So I took up Acer's FOC offer and they replaced it. Then just 13 months old, and outside warranty, the 2nd died and was replaced by them again. Now that one has died and Acer's engineer says everything else is functioning correctly so they will only replace the SSD FOC.

     

    Acer are about to return it unrepaired. I will then take it to PCWorld and see what they say. As I've been dealing with Acer all this time I'm guessing PCWorld will simply say its out of warranty. Seems to me thats why Acer replaced the 2nd faulty SSD, a month outside warranty, as a means of avoiding replacing the laptop. Now they are generously offering to replace the 3rd and stating replacements only have 3 months warranty. Their gamble is it will last over 3 months and they can tell me where to go.

     

    As you can probably tell I'm really annoyed I didn't insist on a replacement laptop sooner. I don't like being fobbed off when they should accept the obivous. Clearly the laptop has an intermittent problem causing the SSD to fail. Admitting that would cost them financially as opposed to costing them adversely on their reputation. Its their choice and they have made it.

     

    George

     

    PS - Whats really annoying about all this is I like Acer products but they want me to spend my money elsewhere. I can see 2 Acer PC from where I'm sitting and have more in my shop & office. Sad they treat customers in such a bad way.

  • jonstatt
    jonstatt Member Posts: 76 Troubleshooter

    Well that's why I think you should talk with trading standards. There are consumer rights beyond the simply warranty. And in your case, a particular part in the netbook has displayed a prevelance for failure indicating the goods are "not fit for purpose".

     

    Please look at

    http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_protection_for_the_consumer_e/consumer_citizens_advice_consumer_service_e/if_you_need_more_help.htm

     

    And discuss your issue with them on the telephone. They should be able to help you construct a letter or give you the right messages to use in any discussion with PC World.

     

    As you pointed out yourself, you have chosen not to accept a further repair. This does weaken your position to some extent, but under the "not fit for purpose" argument you may still get somewhere. There might be a compromise position where PC World give you a generous trade-in price against something new....I don't know.

     

    SSDs should fundamentally be more reliable than hard discs. This is what is so frustrating about this. Mine is over a year old and still going, so it's not all of them (but rapidly touches wood just in case!!)

     

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

     



    Obviously we have contributions from Acer technical representatives on this Forum. Can I ask any one of you to please comment on the diagnosis of my laptop.

     

    To recap - the laptop is approaching 19 months old. It had a SSD replace after 6 months, that one failed a month out of warranty (13 months old) and was replaced FOC by Acer. Six months later (19 months old) the 3rd SSD failed and now, after an Acer engineers inspection, a 4th replacement has been offered FOC. I have refused that offer as I think it will not correct the intermittent problem affecting the drives.

     

    I am hoping someone from Acer, or anyone else for that matter, will explain the logic behind this offer.

     

    George

     

     

  • jonstatt
    jonstatt Member Posts: 76 Troubleshooter

    Don't worry George...I did see your response earlier.

     

    I do think your situation is quite unusual although SSD failures have occured with others...I don't recall seeing reports of so many failures from the same person! There are two situations that result in prevalent failures like this....heatflow, voltage. Assuming your fans are working correctly, then the most likely is an unstable power supply. That doesn't mean over-voltage...it can be under-voltage which causes the device to draw more current instead, which in turn generates more heat and that can result in failure. After 3 SSD failures, I would want the mainboard (which also hosts the power regulators) to be replaced.

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi Jon,

     

    Cheers.

     

    I agree its probably power related but...

     

    I use it without any signs of a problem. I close down, seemingly without an issue during the shut down process, although up to what point a problem would have an opportunity to reveal itself is difficult to judge.

     

    When I next power up I see the Bad Media message. I can get into BIOS screen so assume power is working correctly ???

     

    All 3 times it has been the same.

     

    I do not know for sure if the PSU was plugged in either at close down or at power up. I read somewhere, probably on here, about USB devices causing problems if un/plugged during boot up and close down so I have always been careful not to chance it.

     

    The motherboard was changed with first replacement SSD.

     

    George

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    Just read with interest that the annual failure rate of SSD is around 1.5% under warranty whilsr HDD are around 5%

     

    I think that 1.5 is down to me alone.

     

    Can anyone tell me what is the manufacturers warranty ?

     

    George

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi All,

     

    Please, please, please any Acer technical person respond to my questions. This is soo frustrating. I would like to continue buying Acer products but not if my present issue is not addressed.

     

    George 

  • Cory-Acer
    Cory-Acer Administrator Posts: 1,449 Community Administrator

    Hi George,

     

    I'm sorry it took us this long to reply to your thread, and I'm sorry for the frustration this M5 has caused you.

     

    I don't need to repeat what everyone here is already discussed, it's definately a strange issue considering the SSD's are failing so rythmically every 6 months or so. I hope Acer's willingness to continue to work with you beyond the warranty is noted but I understand the need for a resolution as well and I get that having the SSD replaced three times doesn't make a forth repair an attractive option.

     

    I understand that you've talked to the escalation team in the UK. I can't promise anything more than what they can do for you, but if you'll send me some information I'd be glad to ask the service team in the UK to review.

     

    Could you send me the following info in a private message?

    Name:

    Email:

    Phone:

    Serial Number:


    Thanks

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi Cory,

     

    Thank you very much for your reply.

     

    If I wasn't so keen to stay loyal to Acer I would have given up long ago.

     

    PM on its way shortly.

     

    George

     

     

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User

    Hi Cory,

     

    Have you managed to obtain any news for me ?

     

    George

  • GeorgeJ
    GeorgeJ Member Posts: 23 New User
    Answer ✓

    Hi All,

     

    Finally got things resolved.

     

    George

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