Warning: Useless warranty!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excellent computer, easy to use, very light.

Cons: Warranty is USELESS: NEVER flash BIOS it voids your warranty! External combo-drive heavy.

The Bottom Line: 
ACER makes GOODcomputers but warranty-is-unacceptable. The BIOS is flashable. Tech-bulletins recommend to flash with new one but warranty void if you dare do it! I bought a new Toshiba!

Author's Review
The 340T is a very nice and easy to use computer. I won't repeat what other reviewers have already said. However, I want to warn everyone about ACER useless warranty.

My 340T was working fine with its original BIOS. I found a new BIOS on ACER website and, as it had been posted for several months, I assumed it was safe to use it. Several ACER technical bulletins recommend to flash the BIOS with a new version.

I downloaded the BIOS and created the 3.5" disk to flash the BIOS as per instructions. I have flashed BIOS on computers many many times, so I was very comfortable doing this.

I flashed the BIOS as per ACER instructions and got a "successful Flash" message. I then re-booted and went into the BIOS settings (F2 key) to check the new version number. Everything looked fine. However, the hard disk refused to boot and I could not boot from the external drives either.

As my notebook was still under warranty, I phoned customer service and was told that because I had flashed the BIOS my warranty was void and I would have to pay US$449 + taxes to fix the problem created by this original ACER BIOS flash!

Despite writing several email to customer service, ACER would not budge from this policy. They said there was a disclaimer on the Website to that effect.

I then contacted TOSHIBA to check if they had a similar policy. They told me, in writing, that flashing the BIOS would NEVER void the warranty on a Toshiba notebook/laptop.

Based on this experience I bought a Toshiba instead of fixing the ACER and will never buy an ACER again. If you can live with this kind of useless warranty buy an ACER!

BTW: the hard disk is 6GB but there was no appropriate choice in the drop down menu, so it shows 13-20 instead. And, of course, the CD-ROM and 3.5" drive are in the external combo.