Poor Wifi on new Aspire R7-571

lynchps
lynchps Member Posts: 10

Tinkerer

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.

 

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Answers

  • ScottyC
    ScottyC Member Posts: 433 Practitioner WiFi Icon

    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
    lynchps Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    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
    ScottyC Member Posts: 433 Practitioner WiFi Icon

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

  • LR78
    LR78 Member Posts: 1 New User

    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
    lynchps Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    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
    Bossman77 Member Posts: 2 New User

    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
    lynchps Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    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
    Bossman77 Member Posts: 2 New User

    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
    lynchps Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    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.
    [edited for privacy]

  • cloya64
    cloya64 Member Posts: 1 New User

    I just bought TWO Aspire R7s and and VERY unhappy.  The wifi performance is so poor as to be functionally non-existent.  I've visited every setting to no avail and old Dell laptop, my Kindle, my roommate's HP laptop ALL connect and maintain a wifi connection in my house.  It' s only the Acer R7s that fail.

     

    Besides the CRITICAL wifi issue, I really like all the other aspects of the R7. However, wifi is absolutely critical and I can't do without it.  What are my options other than to return them both for a full refund and buy another product???  

  • ScottyC
    ScottyC Member Posts: 433 Practitioner WiFi Icon

    Apparently this is a known issue for the R7's. Acer is working on releasing an updated wireless driver for these systems that is compatible with Windows 8. Sorry if I misled you with the wireless antenna comment, it's just that the symptoms were so incredibly similar it seemed like a no brainer.

  • lynchps
    lynchps Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    I'm waiting for a response on my e-mail to Acer. I would be happy to just have them confirm that there is a problem and they are working on a solution. ScottyC, just curious how you know about a driver update. I could never talk to anyone who had a clue about a problem.
  • ScottyC
    ScottyC Member Posts: 433 Practitioner WiFi Icon

    Well after reading the many messages on this post I called Acer to double check. I was told that yes there is a problem with the driver caused by an incompatibility in Windows 8, altought it did take some intense questioning on my part. From what I've gathered everything was working fine, but there was an update that Microsoft released that is causing issues with some devices (not even just with Acer). So if I had to guess I would say that Acer/HP/whoever now have to work with Microsoft and the manufacturer of the wireless adapter itself to find a solution.

  • rblystone
    rblystone Member Posts: 2 New User

    I love my Acer Aspire R7, however, I too am experiencing an issue with the wifi. Twice now, on-site with clients, I have been without a connection where wifi was present. So, I made an appointment with Best Buy's Geek Squad for Thursday, today is Tuesday. I'll come back here and let everyone know how things went. Hopefully they'll have some answers for me. The loose cable post sounded promising, but the other posts have left me concerned that it isn't that simple of a fix. I have already lost quite a bit of time in having to setup and transfer data from my last workstation to this one... and I really don't want to have to do it again. Someone please tell me that Acer is listening to this thread and working to resolve it quickly?!

  • lynchps
    lynchps Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    Unfortunately the first thing the Geek Squad will tell you about this problem is that they can't even do anything in house and that they will have to sent the laptop out for repair. This can take 2-3 weeks. About Acer listening and responding, I sent an e-mail out well over a week ago. Acer says they answer e-mails within 2 days. I haven't received a response yet. So, are they listening?

  • rblystone
    rblystone Member Posts: 2 New User

    After I posted last week, I connected with Acer Support through this website and they had me do a couple of things: 1) Reset the Bios - Simply restart my machine, keep pressing F2 before the Acer logo comes up and that will bring up the bios where I can reset it - (i.e. choose default setup, save and exit - which by the way did nothing) and 2) try to update the wireless card (but that didn't help either because we already have the latest drivers. So, then the tech said that I need to send it in to Texas and it should take about 10 days. I said no thanks, I had already set an appointment with Geek Squad to take a look at it for Thursday. Well, I went into Geek Squad, they said they were behind and that it would take a couple of days so I'd like to exchange it for a new one. But this time, while I watched the scrub my old one, I setup the new one at the counter so I could test the wireless card. Everything went great and it had a good connection. Today is Friday, and already the connection is starting to fade. Sitting on my couch, about 30 feet away from my wireless router, my Samsung Note 2 is getting excellent speeds using speedtest.net, however, my Acer Aspire R7 can't even finish the test. This is my second R7 in a week and the wireless card stinks. Suffice it to say, I'm probably going to end up returning this one too and just getting a completely different laptop. Too bad ;-(

  • lynchps
    lynchps Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    Well here goes round 3,or is it 4. I decided to chat with Acer again tonight to see if they had any updates for the wifi problem. Keep in mind I have never spoken to anyone at Acer that has a clue about this problem. The chat started with, lets install the driver, lets reset the bios and so on. I explained everything that I have done with 2 R7's now and that nothing had worked. The chat then quickly went to, ok you must have a hardware problem and you need to send the computer to Texas for repairs. Here we go again. I explained everything again about what has been brought up in this Acer community and that there was suppose to be a fix in the works. I also explained that there was no way I was sending my R7 to Texas! I then asked for a phone number here in the US that I could speak to someone. He gave me a number to call which turned out to be the same number for the tech line that I had called in the past. Was really hoping to hear someone with a Texan accent pickup and ask if they could help me. I did end up speaking to a very polite young man who again unfortunately couldn't help me directly. He had never heard of any wifi problems. It seems as though there are different levels of technical assistance. To speak to a level 2 technician you have to call during normal business hours. I was told these guys would have the answers. I received another case number and will attempt again another day. By the way did anyone see there is a new Bios update for the R7. I was told to wait until I talk to a level 2 tech before installing.

  • kunalpp
    kunalpp Member Posts: 2 New User

    same problem mine is bad even more sitting in India not easy to  send send back to best buy waiting for some update to fix it.

    I read someone say its better if it is kept  in the line of wifi did that by moving the wifi a bit  and now it does not get disconnected as earlier but still is slow as wifi is about 20 feet away.whoever gets a solution do post here

    thanks

     

  • PBert
    PBert Member Posts: 2 New User

    I purchased the R7 three days ago. I love the design, look and feel. I have not had too much time to play with it yet but so far no issues ... except the one being discussed in this thread.

    Sitting in my kitchen day one I could not get the laptop to connect to my wifi during set up. (I have a fairly new NETGEAR dual band router and have had no issues connecting other laptops, tablets and smartphones.) I thought I had some kind of configuration issue so I went to the office and got a connection using the push-button feature on the router. Day two sitting in family room wanting to show off the new machine to friends it was embarassing because no apps could aquire data.  I finally caught on when I noticed that the only place I could make everything work well was in the same room as the router.  I hope Acer takes notice and comes up with a fix.  As awesome as I think the device is - in today's "connected" environment it is a pretty serious hinderance to have to sit beside your router.

    (I am going to purchase a router extender to see if I can boost the signal around the house enough but considering how easily everything else connects already I shouldn't have to do this.)

  • PBert
    PBert Member Posts: 2 New User

    Quick update - I picked up a Netgear Universal Dual Band Wifi Range Extender, put that at a "half way point" from my router to the couple of places I typically like to work around the house and that seems to be working.  As I mentioned in my earlier post I don't feel I should have had to do that since all other devices connected fine. Seems like I essentially added $70 plus tax to the price of my R7.  (Still loving the device itself.)  Got extender at Best Buy so if Acer can come up with a fix within 14 days I could get my money back ....

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